Vinay Trilokekar: A Tribute to my teachers

A Tribute to my teachers

Happy Gurupornima' to all the teachers of St. Sebastians. We, my son, Siddhartha and me, both of us, have studied here. My son is almost settled abroad and sends greeting to all of you. I do meet his teachers, Mr. Simon, Ms. Leena D'sousa, Ms. Leena Martras, quite often and some others during school functions. During the celebrations of St. Sebastian Day in the year 2013, I was pleasantly surprised to meet one of my teachers ( Perhaps she is the only teacher of mine, who is still alive at something 90+) - AND IT TOOK ME DOWN THE MEMORY LANE and this is but a small tribute to my teacher and all the teachers of my son, who also studied in this great school on this DAY:

Mrs. Kusum Shridhar Desai – She came, we saw (her) and she conquered (us)!
Yes teacher, that’s exactly what you did! Your 90 years have not changed you. You are still the same. You are the epitome of enthusiasm just as you were back then. When I saw you the other day my mind raced some 50 - 60 years back, when you must have been in your 40’s. I visualised myself sitting in the last row (I always enjoyed being a back bencher, which has given me better prospective of what unfolded before me) in the class V A and the whole class listening to you in rapt attention ( whether it was a Hindi poem or a lesson in Marathi), just the way you did it on this very day of our re-union. Nothing has changed. ‘Hats off’ to you, my dear teacher! Your book ‘Sukhshanti’, a collection of your poems, is the most precious gift that I have received from you on this very day of 20th January, 2013. The ‘prastavna’ by your grand – daughter is very good. Thank you so much.

I know that your husband, late Mr. Shridhar as well his brother were good Marathi poets, but I was not aware you too penned such beautiful poems. This reminds of other modest personalities, who worked in our school, who had achieved a lot (including fame) much before joining St.Sebastian and yet they never ever spoke about it, not a word and most of us, as students were not aware about their greatness.

Mr. Godbole was our 'Drawing Master' - from VIII to X and he even coached us for the 'Elementary' and the 'Intermediate' Govt. Examinations. The school conducted special classes for these Govt. exams, charging us nominal fees for the course. There was this boy, Francis Fernandes, who was very good in drawing. Mr.Godbole was surprised to know that he had not joined the special class and when he came to learn from us the reason - being an orphan, could not pay the class fees, Mr Godbole not only paid for entire fees (class as well as Govt. exam fees) but also took care of all the other costs - pains, brushes, pencils, sketch books, etc. Thanks to him Francis secured 'A' grades at both the exams. I distinctly remember. It was some years after I had passed out of the school that I read an article in 'TOI' which was somewhat like this:

Mr. Godbole, the famous artist passes away---He was the pioneer in Indian Water colours.His research work in water colour at the J J School of Arts, enabled the use of Indian made water colours for the first time.-------- During his last days he was working as a drawing teacher in St,Sebastian Goan High School.

The article on him accompanying his photograph, covered almost a quarter page. But it was the last line that captured my heart. How fortunate we all had been to have been taught by him! He never bragged or mentioned about this even once to us. Such a modest man

Mr. Tiwari was a science teacher in our school – St.Sebastians. We had ‘General Science’ (‘Kichidi’ or mixure of all the sciences put together) for all the students and the students could opt for either ‘Physics & Chemistry’ or ‘Physiology & Hygiene’. Mr. Tiwari took care of General Science and Chemistry for those of us who had opted for Physics & Chemistry. He had introduced us to the ‘Open Book’ concept way back in 60’s. We were studying in our S.S.C. Class then, in standard XI, to be precise. Perhaps students of earlier batches of our school had also been introduced to this concept.

He would set test papers on weekly basis on open book pattern; but he had termed these papers as ‘Objective Weekly Test ‘papers, when we were allowed to refer our text books (there weren’t any ‘Guides’ then). Those of us, who read the books thoroughly, found the papers easy, while the others did not. But in our Terminal and Preliminary Examinations such pattern was not followed. It is needless to say that the S.S.C. Board papers have never had this pattern. I do remember it distinctly, as though has happened just yesterday. He had put in a question in our Chemistry paper – ‘What is the principle behind – making hard water soft?’ There were no guides or work books then. So we had to read each and every line from our prescribed text books. But there was no mention of this particular ‘principle’ anywhere in our text book. Science and Mathematics were my favourite subjects and would read science text books of my cousin, who was in ‘ICSC’ School. Luckily for me it had the answer to that question. I was the only student who had that question correctly and he told the whole class that I would become scientist one day. When I confessed that I had read about it and also about the source of information. He was immensely impressed by my frankness and honesty. He said, “The whole idea of this exercise is to make the students read, understand the topic, remember everything that they have read and use the same when needed, and not just for the examination but during the whole life”. I still remember the incidence so clearly.

I also remember the other incidence about him. In a chapter on Vegetative Propagation of Plants in Biology in our General Science book, there was description of ‘Budding’. He told us the description was for ‘Bud Grafting’ and not ‘Budding’ (which takes in Yeast), which were two different methods. He had also written letters to that effect to the publishers.

Immediately on our passing out of from the school, the very next year he had left our school. It was said that he had some differences with the new Principal of the school.

Rev. Father H. O. Mascarenhas was my first Principal. Yes, the same one, about whom, you can easily get the following information.

Hubert Olympus Mascarenhas, who was born in Porvorim, Goa, in 1905, died at Mumbai, on 9 February 1973, and who was a Catholic priest belonging to the Archdiocese of Bombay, ideologist of repute, and nationalist. He did his early ecclesiastical studies at the Pontifical Seminary in Kandy, Sri Lanka. In Rome, at the University of the Propaganda Fide, he took a licentiate in Canon Law as well as PhD. He was ordained in Rome in 1934, at the age of 29. Returning to Mumbai, he obtained an M.A. in English, an M.A. in Sanskrit, and a PhD in History at the University of Bombay. He was a scholar.He was appointed post-graduate teacher of Ancient Indian History and Culture at the University of Bombay, and Professor of Indian Philosophy for M.A. students at the St Xavier's College, Mumbai. His The Quintessence of Hinduism: The Key to Indian Culture and Philosophy was widely acclaimed. He is one of Richard De Smet predecessors in a 'realist' interpretation of Sankara.

For almost 12 years (late 1940s and early 1950s) he also served as Principal of St Sebastian Goan High School, Dabul.He proposed a theory of pre-Portuguese Christianity in Goa Jose Cosme Costa reports that Mascarenhas even proposed that there were Christian temples dedicated to the persons of the Trinity: Abanath / Bhutnath (Father Lord), Ravalnath (from Rabboni - Rabulna - Rabulnath) / Bhai rav (Brother Lord), and Atman / Bhavka Devta, Santeri, Ajadevi (Spirit).A recent archaeological discovery of a "Thomas Cross" hidden in a smallish monument, surmounted by a Latin Cross, near the old Goa harbour lends support to this thesis. The Cross bears an inscription in Pahlavi, which, Costa reports, was the liturgical language of the church associated with the Metropolitan of Fars.He also participated in the Konkani movement in Mumbai, and did work for the Konkani Bhasha Mandal.He was nationalist to the core. As an indologist and a linguist ( He was expert, both spoken as well as written, in many foreign languages- Portuguese, German , French , Spanish, English and many Indian languages- Marathi, Konkani, Hindi, Bengali, Sanskrit.) he attracted the attention of nationalist leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Kaka Kalelkar and S.S. Mulgaonkar. His patriotism and espousal of Indian nationalism brought him into conflict with the ecclesiastical authorities

It was my father's last wish that I should be enrolled in an English medium school. But my mother found it extremely hard to do so owing to financial constrains - supporting four daughters and a son- all not even in their teens. So I was put in a vernacular ( Marathi medium) school. For two years I struggled there - I could not master the Marathi or Devnagri script - my teacher- she was called 'Tai bai' would often shout at me and throw my note book (or was it slate), saying, " What is this? Chicken legs? Your अ,आ, इ,ई are nothing but dancing insects." Mr. Vagal, - (father of Lalita, a friend of my eldest sister) knew Rev. Fasther Mascarenhas and it was through him that I got admission in St. Sebastian. Right from the day one, the Principal sort of took me under his wings. There were a few other weak students like me coming from poor families, who were benefited in this manner. Learning the English alphabets wasn't easy either. He assigned Miss Narohna, the class teacher of II standard to teach me after / before the regular school class hours. He too monitored my progress as well as of the others on regular basis. He would give the feed back to our parents / guardian in the the language they could understand. He would speak to my classmate Ashok Pal's mother in fluent Bengali and to my mother in Marathi. I do not whether it was a tittle given to him, but the the sign board on his office door read : Sacchidanand (meaning Always Truthful & Happy) Rev. Father Hubert Olympus Mascarenhas. He was so kind, loving and caring. He was very kind to a fault perhaps. A story goes that he would readily accept drop outs and discarded students from other schools. And for this gesture Jokim, who was dismissed from St.Theresa, would always indebted to him - so he would often tell me.

Miss Narohna: Just like Rev. Father Mascrenhas, Miss Narohna was also very kind and loving teacher. As I have mentioned, she used to teach me even before she became my class teacher in Std.II. She would often call me at herresidence and would teach me at her residence along with some other children (free tuition). She had taught me how to study on my own, this helped in teaching my own children and conducting my own 'pvt. coaching work' and thus helping my students as well. I was often invited, practically each and every year by her to celebrate Christmas with her family. She coached me thus up to the IV class. But I continued to visit her house even afterwards, to seek her blessings and guidance, until she left for England after her marriage.

When I was in the V class Rev. Father Mascrenhas was transferred to other school and Rev. Father F.X. Fernandes became our new Principal.

Rev.Father F.X. Fernandes: Father Fernandes was our Principal from V Class to the beginning of Class X. He was very strict and disciplinarian. During his tenure our school took giant strides. Our students excelled in sports (winning Tata Shields in Athletics, various Inter-school Hockey and Football titles) as well as in academic fields. In the S.S.C. Examination of March 1965 my classmate Ajit Gaikwad came in the merit list, stood 30th. It was indeed Golden Era of school.

Most of our teachers were very good, but not all, mind you. There was this teacher (I won’t name him. I have named only those of whom I have considered to be instrumental in shaping and mould my life. ) Not infrequently I was scornfully panned by this very teacher, who seemed to enjoy watching me wince under his satirical jabs. A question, having been bungled or muffed by forty or fifty, would be tossed at me in some such fashion as, “And of course you, you wouldn’t know, would you. Vinay?” He was our Social Studies (History, Geography & Civics) Teacher in Std. VIII and IX. During Geography periods he would often pin up World Map on the black board and would ask the class to point out where ‘ Rangoon’ or ‘Malabar’ were, irrespective whether that particular lesson had anything to do Burma, Karnataka and Kerala or not. Once he had asked me to tell me the characteristics of people from Malabar. “They are dark complexioned people, who are not so kind to kids like me,” out came my prompt reply. “Are you looking at me and talking about me?” he had asked. Needless to say, I got the thrashing of my life. It seems he came from Burma and had settled in the coastal region of Malabar. Our History books were translations from ‘Marathi’ books. Once he called some Maratha leader ‘Mavali’, and explaining that meant that he was a rogue, hooligan, hoodlum, ruffian because in our History book it was clearly written that ‘such and such king was ‘mavali’. While I was studying, the said lesson my sister corrected me that he was a ‘मावळी’ i.e. belonging to one of the royal clans of the Marathas; and not ‘मवाली’ (which means what the teacher had told us) both being spelt as ‘mavali’; hence the confusion. When I had tried to explain this to him, he said that I was ‘acting smart’. During the initial days of Std.VIII he would teach us English too. But soon Mr. S.V. Burde, who was our Mathematics Teacher, took over from him and began to teach us English. I thank God for it! Otherwise I would have remained weak in English as well just the way I was in Social Studies.

Mr. S.V. Burde v/s Mr. Keni: Mr. Burde taught us Maths from VIII to X and English from VIII to XI (S.S.C.) He was our Class teacher in XI. In XI Mr. Keni taught us Mathematics as well as Physics and Chemistry. Both had different style of teaching Maths.

Mr. Keni had a knack to make even a dud understand all the concepts of the subject, he made it very interesting and easy, but always insisted that a sum had to be solved in one particular way – his way, and no other way, plain ‘mechanical’ way involving ‘no thinking’. Even when he taught us chemistry he would tell us easy ways to remember difficult chemical names of ‘elements’ and ‘compounds’. In Chemistry, we had a chapter on ‘The Periodic Classification of Elements’ and he had told us to learn a sentence which would enable us to remember the fifteen elements in the ‘LANTHANIDE’ series (Rare Earths). I still remember that absurd sentence which he made us learn and thus all those lanthanides:

Last Centaur Presently Needs Prime Small European Gods To be Dyed wHolly Early Tomorrow, whY be Ludicrous? Although it sounds absurd (ludicrous), it made us remember the symbol of these elements

. Mr. Keni was simple man he would go about his work very smoothly without talking about any other person or thing – enter the class, teach the subjects that he taught and leave the class, that’s that. Another thing that he did was that he always carried (a green coloured) SSC Board Syllabus and always referred to it while teaching us.

Whereas Mr.Burde was different; would always encourage innovation from us, though both were very good. Neither of them saw eye to eye with each other. Mr. Burde, who was epitome of sarcasm, would often say, “I do not carry any green book with me as others do (and we would all laugh knowing who he was referring to) and I am not preparing you for your SSC Examination. I want all of you to excel in life and so I am teaching the subject, all the essence and nuances of the language.” He was intelligent and very knowledgeable. The sound of his voice still reverberates in my ears. He was reciting Willium Wordsworth’s ‘Upon Westminister Bridge':

Westminster Bridge, as we all know, is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, linking Westminster on the north side and Lambeth on the south side. One fine morning as he was passing over the bridge the poet moved by the splendour that lay before his eyes – everything that morning was different – there was no smoke in the air, no hustle- bustle, he was explaining to us, and so moved was the poet that he penned this poem.

Mr. Burde‘s explanations of prose lessons as well as of poems was excellent. He would often tell us about the background of authors and poets, telling us in detail the circumstances behind writing of a particular poem. He would bring out all the characters in the lesson alive and we could actually visualize all of them – there were hardly any illustrations, yet we could easily imagine visually ‘Jim, Captain Billy Bones, Long John Silver or Black Dog’ from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, or Mr.Murdstone, David, David’s mother and the housekeeper-Miss Peggotty from Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. But the best was reserved for Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudices’. We had just a passage from the novel but he had narrated the entire story and thus kindled a desire to read the book. He had explained to us how the story set at the turn of the 19^th century, it holds true in modern times and still retains a fascination for readers of this century as well. The very opening is so fascinating:

‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of someone or other of their daughters.’

Mr. Burde made us understand Mr. Bennet’s ironic, cynical sense of humour, reserve, caprice, and lively sarcasm by referring to such quotes ( and even analyzing them for us)

[ Mrs Bennet: Do not you want to know who has taken it?] Mr. Bennet: “You want to tell me, and I have no objection hearing it.”

[Mrs. Bennet: What a fine thing for our girls.] Mr. Bennet:”How so? How can it affect them?

[Mrs. Bennet: You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.] Mr. Bennet: ”Is that his design in settling here?”

. Joshi: Mr. Joshi was our Marathi and Sanskrit teacher from VIII to the beginning of our X academic year, until he died in the month of August of that year. He was good, strict disciplinarian and that is why some of us considered him cruel, but it was his kind cruelty that ultimately many of us were prevented from going astray. He insisted that we studied regularly and he would take our lessons on regular basis. I knew all the students individually. Ajit Gaikwad was very clever ( he came in the SSC Merit List, stood 30^th ) and he too couldn’t escape from Mr. Joshi. “Ajit, you are just study, study and study. Go out and play. It will certainly be good for your health and personality.” “Shreekant, you don’t study. Do you want to become your brother’s compounder?” (Dr. Ramesh Telang, his brother, was our ex student) Had it not been for Mr. Joshi’s disciplining him Shreekant would not have achieved so much in life. (LMM, Writer of many Law books, Lecturer in Law College and Music Director.) To Dilip Burde (Mr. Burde’s son) he would quite often tell, “Dilip, yes you did answer. But you haven’t studied it at home. I am sure you must have studied it just a few moments back. You are depending on your memory. Wait till I tell your father.” “Kiran, you say that you have studied it home. Then get a chit from your mother confirming it. And Vinay, you too get it.” “But sir, how will my mother give such a note? I have not studied that lesson,” I would say. “You, shameless boy!” One day he started telling us about our duties , as son, towards our parents,in this manner, ii
, “As a son, to light funeral pyre and perform the last rites of your parents are your only duties towards them? You are their hope and aspiration, Always be a good person in life. Have good habits and discard the bad ones, for your own good.” He had asked many of us, individually and separately, whether we smoked, telling us how smoking had ruined his health and how he couldn’t give up that bad habit despite stern warning from his doctor. When I had told him I hadn’t ever, he made me promise him that I would never smoke in my life. Next day he was no more, he had died. And I have kept my promise.