Mangaluru to host Vishwa Konkani Samaroh from May 17

Mangaluru: World Konkani Centre at Shaktinagar will host the two-day Vishwa Konkani Samaroh 2026 on May 17 and 18, bringing together writers, scholars, artists and language enthusiasts from Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Kerala.

World Konkani Center president CA Nandagopal Shenoy said on Friday that the event, organised in association with the Kendra Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, will feature literary discussions, folk presentations, memorial events and cultural performances.

The inaugural ceremony will be held on May 17. Goa-based patron of arts and culture and education expert Sulakshana Sawant will inaugurate the festival. The programme will open with Kudubi folk dance and instrumental music. Melvyn Rodrigues, coordinator of the Konkani Advisory Board of the Kendra Sahitya Akademi, will preside, while Dr Kiran Budkule, vice-president of the centre, will deliver the keynote address.

Literary sessions on the first day will open with a discussion on balanced development among Konkani literary genres, chaired by writer Gokuldas Prabhu. Prof Prakash Vajrakar and B Devadas Pai will speak on literary genres requiring special attention. From noon, a session on key aspects of literary analysis will be chaired by Kendra Sahitya Akademi awardee HM Pernal, with presentations by Hanumant C Chopdekar.

In the afternoon, Kavita Trust will organise a birth centenary memorial programme for poet PG Kamath. The programme will include a keynote address by HM Pernal and poetry recitations by Smitha Shenoy, MR Kamath, Dr Venkatesh Nayak and Ninisha Monteiro.

On May 18, the festival will begin with folk sessions chaired by philanthropist and founder of Michael D’Souza Vision Konkani (MDVK) Michael D’Souza and inaugurated by Prakash S Parienkar, vice-dean (research), Goa University. The day’s schedule includes nano-story presentations, a discussion on Yakshagana and the Konkani community, and folk-song reading and singing sessions representing several communities.

The closing ceremony will feature high court additional solicitor general K Aravind Kamath as chief guest, followed by a talk by senior advocate K Jagadish Kamath on constitutional opportunities for linguistic minorities.