Date:08/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/08/stories/2009010858290200.htm

Kerala - Kochi

Cultural society to offer Portuguese language course

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: The Indo-Portuguese Cultural Society of Kerala, which recently celebrated its first anniversary, is planning to provide Portuguese and French language lessons, as part of the cultural activity to revive the interaction with the European country.

The founder director of the society, Manuel Oliver, said that the Vasco Library at Fort Kochi was an achievement during the year. The Gulbnkian Foundation of Lisbon, with which the society has established ties, has donated valuable volumes related to culture and history. About 500 books of journalist and historian Francis Assisi have also been donated to the Vasco Library.

At a function held to mark the anniversary, chief guest Jose Paul, former chairman of Margoa Port Trust, said the epoch-making voyage that Vasco da Gama undertook five centuries ago is yet to be analysed objectively. Corporation councillor K. J. Sohan said the country’s biggest asset is the openness towards various cultures and from time immemorial, the country has been absorbing whatever is good from other cultures too.