Gerry D’Mello

Daijiworld Media Network - Toronto

Toronto, Dec 17: The much-awaited Konkani music album ‘Vothga Dharam’ was released on the YouTube channel by Konkani’s music powerhouse ‘Do Re Mi Fa Creations’ on Wednesday December 21. The concept, direction, and melodious music wrapped with Konkani traditional flavor created by Konkani music maestro Ashish Glen Pinto and his talented wife Babita Pinto. This unique music album was produced by Ronald Fernandes, a Canadian of Kudupu-Mangaluru origin.

This traditional song was composed in the mid-70s by the renowned Konkani writer the late Gratian Pius D’Silva known by his penname Herolpius, who was the recipient of the prestigious 'Daiji Dubai Literary Puroskar' for the year 2012. Herolpius was born on August 14, 1954, at Cordel in Mangaluru. Born to the late John D’Silva and the late Marceline Fernandes, he was the third of seven children in his family. His first story was published in 1970 in Jhelo Monthly. That was the foundation for a string of literary successes. He had written about 170 short stories, 10 novels, 272 articles, over 200 poems, 1200-plus jokes, numerous stage plays, and skits. His novel ‘Don Thembe Dukam’ bagged the Goa Konkani Basha Mandal award in 1972. His popular novels such as ‘Ragat Ani Udak’, ‘Ek Adurem Pintur’, ‘Moja Sapnachi Raani’, ‘Sister Shobha’, ‘Mog Ani Thyag’, ‘Tum Mojens-bha’, ‘Lagnachim Paili Raat’, ‘Pusun Ghallo Polo’ and ‘Shimti Pale Vankdi, have received a lot of appreciation from the by readers. He worked in the Government of India’s central department in various positions and retired as the Immigration Director of Mangaluru International Airport. His four decades of assiduous and constant work make him the ‘hidden giant’ of Konkani literature. He is one among the rare breed of Konkani writers whose work has been found worthwhile for translation into Kannada and Hindi languages. He passed away on Feb 22, 2021, at the age of 67.

Herolpius

Ashith & Babita

Ronald Fernandes

Hats off to Ronald Fernandes, the producer of this music album who happened to be one of the close relative of Herolpius, for taking the initiative to preserve his cousin’s unique creation. Ronald is an electrical engineer by profession employed as a Senior Executive in one of the International Companies based in Toronto. He is a great supporter of Konkani music, art and culture. Speaking to Daijiworld Media Network he said, “In my childhood days ‘Vothga Dharam’ song was very popular and sung during Roce functions in Kudupu and surrounding areas during the 70s & 80s. When I expressed my desire to Ashith to preserve Pius’ creation he showed great interest. I’m highly grateful to him for creating a piece of amazing music for this song and to Babita for her great support and directing this video. My special thanks to Pius’ wife Gracy for providing me with the lyrics and permission to create a video. I am sure the Konkani diaspora going to love this song.”

Renowned music celebrity couple Ashith and Babita Pinto are the brain & brawn behind this unique project. They were instrumental to organize and present, one of its kind marathon and successful singing competition, ‘Mhozo Thallo Gaithalo’ involving a multitude of Konkani singers from the Coastal Karnataka region and then, also to the Gulf countries. Ashith had developed the concept of DoReMiFa on TV Daijiworld 24x7 and planned the full show presentation. ‘Vothga Dharam’ is a thrilling Music composition to give a mesmerizing Konkani musical experience which is crafted by Ashith. Editing and Mastering of the audio is also carried out by himself.

The well-known Konkani singers based in Canada have rendered their beautiful voices to this magical song and they are: Ronald Fernandes, Paul Mathias, Claud Fernandes and Vinod Saldanha.

The video has been presented by highly talented and renowned Konkani cine-actor Alphons D’Souza, Canara to Canada fame Santosh D’Souza, Lawrence D’Souza, Ronald D’Souza, Lara Rebello, Andera Fernandes and Suneetha Saldanha. The audio recording has been done at Studio Ten04, Toronto. Aman Chandak, Toronto has done very creative Cinematography for this video album.

‘Vothga Dharam’ released to the public under the banner of Do Re Mi Fa Creations. During the past year, due to the outstanding patronage of Konkani supporters, they served and enriched the Konkani work of their mother tongue Konkani in Canada. Their valuable support made their three Konkani video presentations and a live ‘Sambram’ programme a grand success, which created an endless and continuous flow of emotions with success trumpet blown in our entire community. They are seeking similar support from the Konkani Diaspora across the globe for this new venture too.

TV Daijiworld 24x7, Daijiworld.com, Radio Daijiworld, and Veez Weekly are the official media partners for Vothga Dharam.

As organizers announced, this trendsetting song will be a joyful Christmas gift for the Mangalureans around the globe.

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