It was in the beginning of this year, on Sunday, the 20th January, 2013, precisely that we had the Re-Uniuon Day of our school - St.Sebastian Goan High School ( Bostion University, as it was referred to by many) .
Here are some moments captured on the lens:
[" LIFE, LIKE MONEY, IS MEANT FOR SPENDING. YOU SIMPLY CAN NOT HOARD IT. BUT THE AMOUNT OF TIME YOU SPEND IN EDUCATION IS LIKE MONEY YOU PUT IN A BANK. AND WHEN YOU HAVE INVESTED IN INSTITUTION LIKE OURS - ST.SEBASTIAN GOAN HIGH SCHOOL - THE DIVIDEND IS VERY VERY HIGH! WHEN THE MOST OF YOU, WHO HAVE GATHERED HERE FOR THE EX - STUDENTS REUNION, MUST HAVE BEEN IN THIS INSTITUTION FOR TEN OR ELEVEN YEARS. AM I RIGHT? BUT WITH ME IT IS DIFFERENT - I HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF SPENDING 21 YEARS, 11 YEARS ( It was XI Std. SSC then) AS THE STUDENT AND ANOTHER 10 YEARS AS THE PARENT - MY SON ALSO PASSED OUT FROM THIS VERY SCHOOL----" ] thus I spoke.
I was pleasantly surprised to meet one of my teachers - AND IT TOOK ME DOWN THE MEMORY LANE:
[Mrs.
Kusum Desai & Mrs. Sushma Kashalkar, ( both were 'Hindi - Marathi'
teacher,but one was my teacher while the other was my son's teacher),
being welcomed by the current Principal of the School.]
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.
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
moulding 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.
Here are some moments captured on the lens:
[" LIFE, LIKE MONEY, IS MEANT FOR SPENDING. YOU SIMPLY CAN NOT HOARD IT. BUT THE AMOUNT OF TIME YOU SPEND IN EDUCATION IS LIKE MONEY YOU PUT IN A BANK. AND WHEN YOU HAVE INVESTED IN INSTITUTION LIKE OURS - ST.SEBASTIAN GOAN HIGH SCHOOL - THE DIVIDEND IS VERY VERY HIGH! WHEN THE MOST OF YOU, WHO HAVE GATHERED HERE FOR THE EX - STUDENTS REUNION, MUST HAVE BEEN IN THIS INSTITUTION FOR TEN OR ELEVEN YEARS. AM I RIGHT? BUT WITH ME IT IS DIFFERENT - I HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF SPENDING 21 YEARS, 11 YEARS ( It was XI Std. SSC then) AS THE STUDENT AND ANOTHER 10 YEARS AS THE PARENT - MY SON ALSO PASSED OUT FROM THIS VERY SCHOOL----" ] thus I spoke.
I was pleasantly surprised to meet one of my teachers - AND IT TOOK ME DOWN THE MEMORY LANE:
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 yesterday my mind raced some 50 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 20th January,2013. The ‘prastavna’ by your grand – daughter is very good. Thank you so much.
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 yesterday my mind raced some 50 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 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 some what 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 Phy. & Chem. 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 and that to much earlier.
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’ any where 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 every thing 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.
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 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 (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 her residence 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
moulding 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 rember the symbol of these elements and thus their names; the following chart will make sense to you:
Last Centaur Presently Needs Prime Small European Gods
To be Dyed wHolely Early
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
11 12
La
Ce Pr Nd Pm Sm Eu Gd Tb Dy
Ho Er
Tomorrow. whY be
Ludicrous?
13 14 15
Tm Yb Lu
Lanthanum
57
Cerium
58
Praseodymium
59
Neodymium
60
Promethium
61
Samarium
62
Europium
63
Gadolinium
64
Terbium
65
Dysprosium
66
Holmium
67
Erbium
68
Thulium
69
Ytterbium
70
Lutetium
71
.
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':
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching
in its majesty:
This City now doth
like a garment wear
The beauty of the
morning: silent, bare,
Ships, towers,
domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the
fields, and to the sky,
All bright Earth
has not anything to show more fair:
and glittering in
the smokeless air.
Never did sun more
beautifully steep
In his first
splendour valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never
felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth
at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very
houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty
heart is lying still!
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, Davidis 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 19th 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?”
Mr.
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 30th ) 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 sons, towards our parents in this manner, “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..
____________________________________________________
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 rember the symbol of these elements and thus their names; the following chart will make sense to you:
Last Centaur Presently Needs Prime Small European Gods
To be Dyed wHolely Early
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
11 12
La
Ce Pr Nd Pm Sm Eu Gd Tb Dy
Ho Er
Tomorrow. whY be
Ludicrous?
13 14 15
Tm Yb Lu
Lanthanum
57
|
Cerium
58
|
Praseodymium
59
|
Neodymium
60
|
Promethium
61
|
Samarium
62
|
Europium
63
|
Gadolinium
64
|
Terbium
65
|
Dysprosium
66
|
Holmium
67
|
Erbium
68
|
Thulium
69
|
Ytterbium
70
|
Lutetium
71
|
.
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':
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning: silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky,
All bright Earth has not anything to show more fair:
and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning: silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky,
All bright Earth has not anything to show more fair:
and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!
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, Davidis 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 19th 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?”
Mr.
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 30th ) 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 sons, towards our parents in this manner, “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..
— with MR.CARL DANTAS at 20th January, 2013.]
Maneesh Adavade and Vivek Kumar Mahto like this.
ReplyDeleteManeesh Adavade Teachers.....so powerful. They contribute big time...don't they.
Yesterday at 2:49pm · Like
Maneesh Adavade and Vivek Kumar Mahto like this.
ReplyDeleteManeesh Adavade Teachers.....so powerful. They contribute big time...don't they?
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Vinay Trilokekar Thanks Mr. Talreja. I am from 1965 batch.
November 28 at 6:41pm · Like
Dinshaw Dastur I remember Mr Godbole. Only once I won a competition and he selected my drawing for some Govt place. No further award I received, but only one drawing in my 9 yrs received his recognition---though I am just nothing as an artist. I still remember---he loved my colour combination of a plant.
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ReplyDeleteJohn Godinho Thank u vinay trilokekar for this post...It really brought back memories of my school life in St .Sebastian. ..though I have faint recollections of my school, your brilliant jottings of the era of the school happens to be more or less the period when I studied.The names of some of the teachers and also a particular student (ramesh telang) was in my class...He always topped the class..I passed out in 1960...I had heard he became a
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Manish Doshi Sir what a memory......your post brought tears in my eyes remembering all that my teachers did for me selflessly.....
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John Godinho doctor which was confirmed by u now.yes I remember Mr keni. .burde. .fr. fernandes who was my Latin teacher..We were just 4 boys who took Latin. ..Evans Dsouza. .roque abreo. .me..and one more can't get his name..For your information it was in 1960 that our school won the tata shield for athletics for the last time.mainly because of two boys James Lewis in the senior section and John Godinho in the intermediate.
Thanks once again for that wonderful write up on our school and for bringing back and reviving long lost happenings. .
A Sebastian boy (1949-1960)
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Vinay Trilokekar Mr. John Godinho, Dr.Ramesh Telang was my classmate, Sheekant's brother. I am from 1965 batch. Shreekant passed away year before last. Do you have any contact details of Ramesh? The Telangs had lot of doctors in the family. However, Shreekant was a law post graduate (LLM), profeesor Govt. Law College and has many books to his credit. He was a music director and had once told me that he who introduced Suresh Wadkar.
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John Godinho Vinay I'm still confused.pl tell me whether shreekant or ramesh was your classmate
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Vinay Trilokekar Shreekant. Ramesh was his elder brother. Their father was a doctor and their uncle was renowned 'Eye surgeon'.
Like · Reply · 29 mins
anybody from jeetendras classs here...ravi kapoor
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