Behind the News: Voices from Goas Press | Page 9

told Umaji about me. I had gone to
visit Joshi in Vasco when I came to Goa.
During my next visit to Goa, I was happy to know that one of my
colleagues at Free Press Journal, Padiyar, was editor of The Navhind
Times with another former colleague, M.M. Mudaliar, as his associate.
In fact, Mudaliar was passed over by the management after Bikram
Vohra left to go to Khaleej Times in Dubai. Mudaliar and me had lunch
one day in a Panaji restaurant and he seemed quite distraught. Padiyar,
who joined The Navhind Times from The Times of India where he had
moved from Free Press Journal, had a brief stint as editor as he passed
away following a heart attack.
I knew the publisher of The Navhind Times, Vilas Sardesai, well
because of his involvement with soccer. Once when I was in Goa, he,
D'Cunha and I travelled in a car he borrowed from Vohra, as his own
car was unavailable, all the way from Panaji to Margao to watch a
soccer match. I never asked Sardesai for a favour to get me a job at The
Navhind Times. I was content working in Mumbai where journalism
flourished those days and continues to do so till today.
Grown since
When I check websites of Goan papers or when some friends and
family bring Goan papers to Canada from their visits, I notice that

Goan journalism has grown since I saw it first-hand. It behooves well
for this field that Goa now enjoys many dailies and has correspondents
of many leading Indian papers.
The quality of reporting and editing is still not very impressive. What is,
however, impressive is that the new breed of journalists shows lot of
guts and vitality. I once discussed the teaching of journalism with Fr.
Planton Faria, who used to run the Diocesan Communication Centre at
the Archbishop's House at Altinho in Panaji.
He showed me the student paper and I saw some good writing. I am not
aware if the centre is still operating. Fr. Faria was editing a Konkani
paper while also running the centre.
It has been my ambition to have a journalism college in Goa named
after Frank Moraes, one of the finest editors in Indian journalism. There
may be many who would dispute my suggestion on the basis that
Moraes didn't do anything for Goan journalism per se, and I totally
agree. No matter he did play a direct role in Goan journalism, but he
was a Goan journalist of repute.
One may argue that during the Portuguese days there were many Goan
journalists who played crucial roles in promoting Goan journalism.
Some of these journalists, who were also leaders, were in the forefront
of Goa's liberation struggle. Maybe so, Moraes too played a vital
background role in Goa's liberation, largely because of his close
friendship with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Whatever the case, a college of journalism, affiliated to the Goa
University, is a dream that I cherish and hope it would be realized in
my lifetime. Goa has a privileged status in the history of the written
word in India with the publication of the first-ever book in the country.
Journalism is part of the written word and, hence, a college that fosters
the growth of journalism would be ideal in the serene surrounding of
Goa's educational landscape. That's my thought to ponder for those in
the decision-making positions.

Chapter 3
: West Coast Times : A dream ruined
Valmiki Faleiro One of Goa's own, home-grown profilic writers
between the mid-seventies and mid-eighties, Faleiro worked his way

through other professions too, before coming back to commit himself
in writing once again, only to reveal a style that remains as readable as
ever. Luckily for Goa, Faleiro doesn't rule out the possibility of taking
to the pen -- or should one say, the computer keyboard -- sometime in
the near future.
Summer, 1978. Whether Goa's only English daily hit newsstands in
Margao at 9 or at 11 in the morning, mattered little. I was preparing for
my final B.Com. exams due in a few weeks and had, in any case, tired
myself of asking The Navhind Times' management to make it a
newspaper (for us in South Goa) that went with breakfast, not brunch.
My association with The Navhind Times (NT) had begun precisely on
February 23, 1975. NT carried an article penned jointly by D.M.
Silveira and me. (Silveira was one of my two English lecturers at
Margao's Damodar College and, with the other, B.G.Koshy, later
turned to journalism: Silveira was Editor, ONLOOKER, of Mumbai's
FPJ group and Koshy the Associate Ed. of The Current Weekly.)
Then on, the NT Editor, Dr. K.S.K. Menon, encouraged me to write.
Off and on, he would also commission me to do