A Blast From The Past

Grenville DCosta <grenville_d@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon Jul 11, 2005 1:44pm
Subject: Re: [SMHS] The Abu chaap...
 

Hi Val,

 

Yeah, your e-mail brought back those Musical memories of Abu with Leslie strumming out songs in the dorms; I remember one particular "concert" in the dorm had some imaginative guys putting off lights and putting Lezz in the "spotlight" of a torch. He even flickered the torch for special effects! The sides of our cupboards and empty milk tins were soon converted to cool percussion instruments. Yes SMS opened up a whole neew world of music. At our time it was Dire Straits and Eric Clapton. "Sultans of swing" and "Once upon a time in the West" were the all time greats. We somehow managed a "Mono" tape recorder and plugged it/connected it into any available electric outlet and spent our time listening to our collection of tapes.....

 

The Abu Chaap is very evident with me too and I'm proud of that Chaap!

 

Best wishes,

Grenville DCosta (1982)

 

 

From: john manappallil <jonsbin@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:38pm
Subject: Re: [SMHS] The Abu chaap...

 

Hi Greny and Val,
I was introduced to a world of music thru Abu. Well like Greny mentioned - it was mainly dire straits - he forgot to mention - Greny forgot to mention Water of Love - I heard it first in school. Well we had a lovely percussionist - Noel Goveas - who first learnt tthe trade - playing half filled glasses in the refectory. And not to forget the multi talented guitarist cum mouth organist cum everything - Varyl Kannan (popper) - who learn to guitar in 2 weeks and within a month was playing inthe chapel - that guy is amazing.
John
 

 

From: michael.andrade@hdfcbank.com 
Date: Wed Jul 6, 2005  9:56 am
Subject: Re: [SMHS] End of ferm - going home

Hi Ricardo - i grew up in Abu Road, from the stories of the ole timers ( many a Angloindian Shikari ) and the Parish Priest, (Fr Fransis who was Fr Bonaventures colleague from world war 2). The tar road has been around from the time the Railway School existed. Fr Fransis used to cycle up to meet Fr Bonnie, and vice versa, he even fought of a Panther once

The other road down Tiger path was the historic route followed for centuries, sorrounded by many a story of Rajput legends, it went all the way to Firewatch tower and beyond it came down to the plains near a temple on the banks of stream which is dry most of the year round, the path then met the old road at the 'Big Bridge' ( the long narrow stone bridge near abu road) As a kid before i joined we used to picnic at a spot close to the temple.

In our time in Abu this route was being revived as, the government was planning a Dam between Plummy and Spongy, which meant the existing road would get submerged, The path was clearly marked out and once when we were in class X , Br Ward took us for a walk down that ' long and winging road', it took us around 3 hours to walk down, we came up back to school by bus,

Fr Francis passed away in 1977, my first year at school, he was a great person.

take care all

mike
( '77 - 83 )
 

From: "Bob Amore" <bobamore@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue Jul 5, 2005  1:12 am
Subject: End of ferm - going home

Hello old boys,
 
I read the problems that were experienced by a lot of the boys and their families when trying to return home a couple of days back. Also noted that guys were sick on the way down the winding road.
 
In our time, back in 1957, and for several years before and after, there was just one long term at school which lasted for 9 months.  We travelled to school 1st week of March, returned home 1st week of December.  Anyway,  the travel sickness suffered by several of the lads seemed to be the case even in our day.  I spent 6 years in SMHS and never suffered from travel sickness but several did on the way to and from.  I was one of the Bombay contingent and we had the largest group of some 3 or 4 buses  I remember that in my 2nd or 3rd year, on the way down, one of the senior boys had a paper bag full of some black and grey looking powder.  He asked anyone who was beginning to feel sick to have a good sniff of the powder.  What a miracle, we were the only bus not to have had any sickness. 
 
When we got the the station I plucked up the courage to ask the senior what was in the magic powder.  The guy just laughed and said it was some of the ash from our last night's bonfire which he was taking home as a souvenir!  Is that a miracle cure or is it all psychosomatic! 
 
Bob

From: Ryan Rahul Prasad <invent_2000_2000@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon May 30, 2005  6:30 pm
Subject: Re: [SMHS] RE: Stoy telling - Inter School tournaments (1996), when sms became abu champions


Just a little more info abt Inter School Sports 1996

If you'll remember the tournaments were launched in 1995.That year we soundly thrashed all the other schools and if i remember correctly a major contributor to the points tally was a dance(the theme
was holi) in which i think nearly a 100 boys took part!! Just picture a 100 of them in white tossin colour into the air and dancin!! The crowd simply went wild and we won that event hands down!! (Br.Steve was the dance co-ordinator by the way)oh yeah we didnt win the football cup that yr.And we hosted the event.

The next yr the Bros played a lovely April Fool's prank on the 8ths,9ths and 10ths.Yup, it involved a Football coach.Will tell story later.

Neway Inter School sports 96. if u'll remember we didnt take part in the dance that year though we won pretty much most of the events.Eventually, it was down to us and the eventual "winners".

I remember sittin near the judges tables and no surprises for guessin the hosts were the judges.AND the winners. I clearly remember one staff member tellin another in Hindi "Agree to it! We still win by 5 points!" yup that was the margin. I also know that we got only 5 points for winning ALL our football matches.

Joel wasnt officially the first runner up.He was third.However a pic taken by Br.William D'souza clearly showed Joel's foot on the white line while the dude who was declared second had yet to appear in that frame.

I also remember 1 school returned all its cups and medals amidst chants of "______ cheaters" .

Did i mention that the Sophites were also cheerin for us!!!!! especially when mark won the 100m??I dont know how it happened but in the stands the sophites and we were seated side by side.They picked up our cheerin and even modified their usual chants to rhyme with SMS!!!

Aahhh memories!!

Ryan Prasad(ICSE 97)
 

From: Grenville DCosta <grenville_d@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue May 24, 2005  4:51 pm
Subject: Story telling anyone??


Hi Uly,

 

How are you doing? Good job man, our Group’s doin’ fine and nice to see that the members are growing. The site is really serving its main purpose of getting our lost friends and school mates together. Some of you were fortunate to meet during the Jubilee celebrations and get together to shoot the breeze. Well, I for one had to drop out at the last moment due to my Dad’s ill health. Would have just loved to sit down with a few beers and meet all you guys and recount some great stories of our school days.

 

I thought that let’s get everybody across the board, over the years, young and old involved in some story telling. You could recount any incident to the group; it could be funny, serious or adventurous. Or it could be downright silly. We would love to hear something from everyone. Thought I’d start the ball rolling with a tale of my own. 

 

It all began one misty evening in 1980-81 when we went for one of our usual evening walks. This time the destination was Toddy Fields (that’s what it was called if I remember) below the school. If I recall correctly, Karl (Auby) and Gene Lee accompanied us that time. Mark Dennis, Mark DaSilva and I think Clinton Moniz were along with me deep in the underbrush looking for nests (and eggs). This was on a hillock overlooking the Toddy Fields.

 

We then split up in different directions on our hands and knees as we thought it was obviously better to go off separately. More eyes in more places = More nests, right? Wrong! We didn’t want to end up fighting over one nest and ruining our chances!

 

Anyway I was on my own, deep under a huge “Karvanda’ bush with a tree in the centre. And right there in the hollow of the tree was a squirrel nest. I was overjoyed. How we all loved to keep squirrels as pets at the time. I still do.

 

So I crawled deeper towards the tree until it was not possible to go any further; I would need help with this. So I managed to sit upright there under that Karvanda bush to catch my breath. I leaned back on my hands in the dry leaves and felt a piece of fabric. It looked like a sock of some kind. My curiosity got the better of me and I began to pull the sock up from the leaves only to feel something soft inside. More leaves were scraped away from the area and a horrifying scene began to unfold before my very eyes.

 

Squirrel nest forgotten, here was a leg and a pair of jeans attached to a sock! I was so stunned that I could not even call out to my buddies. I just sat there removing leaves and saw an entire body come into sight. Only thing it had no HEAD! And I was sitting on his CHEST all this time!!

 

I think by now Mark Dennis, who was nearby, saw the shocked expression on my face and joined me. We uncovered the entire body but could not find the head. The man wore a pair of FU’S jeans (Very popular that time), Dawood shoes and an orange T-shirt. (By the way, the squirrel made good use of his T-shirt for its nest) A little further away lay his suitcase and wallet (empty of course).  

 

The entire class, Auby and Gene Lee were by now informed and on their way up. Due to accessibility problems not many boys could get to the spot. We were then advised to leave the scene and return to school immediately to inform the Police. The Police, like in all movies, land up late at 9.00pm. And they told the three of us (Witnesses) to accompany them to the spot in the dead of night. We were already spooked and I was Super Spooked thinking that I was sitting on the corpse's chest for a good 2-3 minutes. The cops then cordoned off the place and placed a guard there overnight as they didn’t have bright lights to do a night search.

 

We then returned to school at night to sleep. I just couldn’t sleep for nights after that. I think I spent some time in Hospy too.

 

 Meanwhile the cops were there next morning combing the area thoroughly until they found the poor man’s skull some distance away. His head was severed from the rest of his body and thrown away! Many theories surfaced of the actual identity of the man. And then they reached a dead end. Knowing our cops and especially Mt. Abu cops, we really did not expect anything much.

 

Real exciting times those. I remember that I even wrote an essay in The Abu Oriole that year called “The Corpse in The Copse”.

 

Anyone else has some exciting stories to share with us please do and let us live your experiences.

 

Best wishes

Grenville DCosta (1982)

From: "arnold78c" <acnev@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri Jan 21, 2005  9:49 pm
Subject: Intro - Arnold Castellino - Class of 1978

Just joined this group and happy to see so many active folks:

Background: I started at SMS in 1972 - class 4 - at a time when Br. Judge was the principal. I graduaded in 1978. The brothers in 1978 were: Br Foran, Br. Deasy (class teacher 10th) Br Keane (principal), Br. Morrow and Br. Vieyra. Father Bonnie and Sister Victoria were active as was Mr. Kurrekat and Mr Goyal (Hindi Pop).

I am currently working for a large consulting firm and live in Littleton, Colorado (a suburb of Denver). I travel a lot within the US (work) and around the world on vacation. Sad to say that the last time I visited Abu was in 1986. Looking at the pictures on the various websites it is interesting to see the changes as well as the things that have stayed the same.

Other connections: My two brothers, Ashley and Alwyn also passed through SMS - both graduated in 1976 (1st ICSE batch) as did my cousin, Romello Borges (not sure of his graduating class).

My favourite haunts in Abu were around Mosqito Valley (birding and egg collecting) though this often got me into trouble as we would be 'out of bounds' without permission. Also, shallow bay where we would twist Br Foran's arm to take us every holiday or swimming in the dam with the snakes where the old A field used to be. I still remember the playing fields we had in 1972 before the dam was built
and covered it up.

I am currently doing some work in the Silicon Valley area so if there are any SMS folks either in the Denver or San Jose area that want to meet up email me.
 

Teachers' Day Tribute

1st Sep 2003

'Teachers' Day Tribute'

Teachers - The strength behind the Kids for Tigers growing Green Force

September 5, 2003 is Teachers' Day. A day dedicated to the least appreciated but the most powerful potential force for nature conservation in India. Credit for the success of Kids for Tigers, the Sanctuary Asia Tiger Programme goes largely to the teachers of India. From the word go, our idea of creating a ‘vanar sena’ to save the tiger was supported by teachers. In fact a teacher -- Noel de Sa, ex-Principal of St. Mary’s Mount Abu -- helped launch the programme and he is the National Coordinator for Kids for Tigers!

Within three months of launching Kids for Tigers in the year 2001, 1,500 teachers from 750 schools began to pour energy and heart into this unique programme.

On Teachers' Day 2003 I wish to acknowledge a debt of gratitude that Kids for Tigers owes to thousands of hard working, unassuming and integrity-filled educationists. These dedicated individuals inspire us all. And as we remember them today, we also promise to respect and honour them for all time to come.

Bittu Sahgal,
Editor, Sanctuary Magazine
bittu@sanctuaryasia.com