Attended by a huge number of attendees in Anjuna at the local Church first for the Holy Mass and then to the Cemetery where the rain was benevolent for a few minutes, the body of Bonaventure D’Pietro was finally laid to rest, in the presence of his family members namely his wife, sons, daughter and other relatives besides innumerable friends and well wishers. He died 3 days back on Saturday and interred on 08th of this month at 10.30 AM.
It was a fitting respect paid to him by his innumerable friends and well-wishers who came even from distant places to pay their last homage to this great Konkani writer and journalist who wrote 18 Books thru which he did not make money but only fulfilled his urge towards Konkani. His readers enjoyed his writings very much not only from his “Romansi” but also from the newspapers and Magazines.
Besides being a prolific writer in Konkani in Romi script, he was also a very good musician playing beautifully two instruments namely Violin and Saxaphone. His love for music is equally great as that for Konkani.
He was my good friend and about 12 years back we took him to Kuwait where we felicitated him during one of our Musicial Shows. This we did in honour and in appreciation of his enormous amount of work he put in for the cause of Konkani. During that time he was staying at my place in Kuwait City for one week and during this period a sea of humanity comprising his relatives, friends, readers and well wishers were flooding at my house just to wish him because in Kuwait he had a vast following.
He had great love for Goa and all the Goan causes Konkani being the most dear to his heart. As a man he was very calm and cool and enjoyed discussing with me at my place especially after the dinner, many topics of Goa’s concern. His main regret was that the current generation is not much interested in Goan causes. This disturbed him very much.
With his death one more gigantic figure of Konkani is become less.
May his soul rest in peace.
A.Veronica Fernandes.