AN INDIAN language, Konkani, has found its way into the record books. Thanks to the Konkani Nirantari team and Mandd Sobhann, which successfully sang non-stop Konkani songs for 40 hours in the coastal city of Mangalore in the Indian state of Karnataka, the non-stop signing has found its way into the Guinness Book of World Records.The feat was finally accomplished on Sunday night at 10 pm. A total of 1,711 singers and 44 groups were involved in the feat. The groups sang 645 Konkani songs non-stop and broke the record held by Brazil. The participants were from the states of Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka and Goa.
The marathon exercise began at 6 am on January 26, 2008 and ended at 10 pm on January 27, 2008. The record for the "World’s Longest Singing Marathon by Multiple Singers” was previously held by a group from Ulbra, Brazil, called "Communidade Evangelica Luterana Sao Paulo". It sang for 36 hours during July 3-4, 2004. Keith Pullin, representative of the Guinness Book of World Records, officially handed over the Guinness World Record Certificate. He also handed over a leather-bound copy of The Guinness Book of World Records to the organisers.
This is the 974th record from India, which has found its way into the Guinness Book of World Records. "There have been approximately around 973 records from India or relating to India; which have found their way into the Guinness record", says Pullin.
"The Kalangan Amphitheatre, the venue of the record-breaking event, erupted in a triumphant chorus of whistles, loud applause and congratulations", says Roshan De Souza, a US-based Mangalorean and the moderator of the website, The website, www.mangalorean.com, provided regular updates during the entire 40-hour-long singing. Konkani as a language is spoken by people who live or have lived along the Konkan belt. The region is spread over four states, Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala.
"The recent world record should unite all Konkani-speaking people across India and the world. The language now has unified on the world stage", says Malwin De Souza, a Goan, based in Cayman Islands.
Konkani is the official language of Goa. But there have been differences over the script, the Roman and Devnagiri in Goa. The Goan government has accorded official recognition to the Devanagiri script, leaving the Roman script users to fend for themselves. The differences over the scripts are not restricted to Goa but spread across Kerala and Karnataka. People in Kerala write the language using the Malayalam script and people in Karnataka use the Kannada script for the purpose.
