BRITTO'S THROUGH THE EYES OF A GUIRIM BOY

Cross in front of the Chapel of
St. Francis of Assisi.
Facing the Arabian Sea,
View from Monte de Guirim,
Bardez, Goa, India.

ST. BRITTO'S REMINISCED (THROUGH THE EYES OF A GUIRIM BOY)

It had been a beautiful day. It was now evening and the sun seemed to be in a hurry to dive into the horizon. Felicio had to get home somehow before sunset. His mother would be worried as it was the first time his mother had let him out on his own to walk such a long distance. It had been a long trek from Guirim. He was barely 12 years old. He was a student of St. Anthony’s High School, Monte de Guirim. Naturally, he travelled all the way to support and cheer up the big boys of his school’s mighty football team, who were to play against the team of St. Britto’s High School at the Duler football grounds. 

It had been a good football match; he thought to himself, his team had triumphed. He trudged towards home up the slope of Duler hill along with the other Guirim boys who had also travelled all the way from the village. The Guirim boarders were also marching along. 

Felicio was a day scholar at Guirim, so he had to hasten his steps as his mother would be very worried if he arrived after dark. He was keen to make it home before sun-down. It was quite a relief as he reached the Tribunal Building at Mapusa hill-top. Some respite, he thought, as he would now find it easy to hasten home downwards on the Mapusa side of the winding road. He was sweating from the climb. He reached deep into his hip pocket to see if the money that his mother had given was still there. Very shortly, around the bend of Camara Municipal de Bardez, and straight past the junction at Café Zuzarte, he would keep walking along the Jardinha and would soon come across his favourite cold-drink house Aram Soda.

Felicio made it to Aram Soda at last, what a great relief. At first he thought of asking the man at the booth for a soda. The soda man stood high in his wooden cabin leaning over the wooden counter top, but on realizing that he had ample amount of loose change in his pocket Felicio changed his mind after finding out that he could easily afford a limbu-soda. Spurred on with extra energy and extra change, he gulped the soda hastily and proceeded on his way home past the other cold drink shops on the road towards Guirim. 

Felicio had grown up in Guirim. He was very young during the time when St. Britto’s High School was located in Duler, Mapsa. He walked a little distance towards home and looked back. Looming high at the hilltop was a massive building coming up. It was St. Britto’s High School. As the boy briskly hastened his footsteps, he was almost home. On reaching the outskirts of his small vaddo, Felicio looked back towards the town again just after sun-set. It was getting dark. Felicio increased the tread of his stride and overtook the bullock cart on its way home. He could hear the nearby chapel bell calling for the Angelus prayers. The powerful construction floodlights of St. Britto’s site had come on and lit up the skyline and almost the entire southern part of the town. Concrete was about to be poured by a strong labour force through the night. At last he reached home. His mother was waiting for him in the balcao to pray the Angelus together. 

One could see the new school progressively taking shape. Like St. Anthony’s High School on the Guirim hill-top, St. Britto’s High School on the Mapusa hill, was gradually making its appearance, and would soon make its mark as an important centre of learning among other stalwarts of the time like St. Joseph’s High School, Arpora, Sacred Heart High School, Canca, St. Thomas, Aldona and Don Bosco, Panjim. As a student of St. Anthony’s High School, and having a mindset of a competitive student, Felicio viewed it as a strong competitor as he grew up, both in education and sports among the other reigning champion schools of Goa at the time.

As a student of the sixties, Felicio admired the new Britto’s school building when it was ready, towering atop the hill range of Mapusa. It looked very strong in structure and in general layout and planning.

Felicio in his senior days continued to join the other boys from his village forming the long bee-line of Monte de Guirim boarders trekking all the way to Duler over the hill to support and cheer up the Monte football and hockey teams. The competitive spirit of the students never diminished, was strictly academic and maintained a very high level of discipline. Inter-school tournaments were a great treat and enjoyable. 

It was not uncommon those days to come across one of the Jesuit priests thundering down the streets of Mapusa town on a shaft-driven BMW motorcycle known for its distinct and easily recognizable low thud. Felicio could not keep from turning his head as the priest sped by every time he was in town. This motor-bike was a legend in its time in Goa of the early sixties. 

At one time there were 12 students from Felicio's ward in Guirim who were dayscholars and walked single-file through other wards and fields all the way to school up the slope to St. Anthony’s every morning. They gathered at the cross-paths in the centre of the village opposite the chapel. The big boys led the way starting at 7.30 am sharp and Felicio was the second-last in line.

Time passed on and soon bigger boys turned into young men and Matric boys. The young boys took their place to become into big boys in turn. Some bigger boys found jobs as teachers in the School at Monte, some found jobs in nearby towns, some went to Bombay to pursue further education and others went abroad to work. 

Now it was Felicio’s turn to be a big boy. He was soon to lead the rest of the smaller boys in the village. He missed the big boys of the fifties that led the way through the monsoon season, carrying him over their shoulders while crossing the flooded streams, keeping him close to them when strong gusts of wind threatened to take away their umbrellas, and lending their helping hand up the steep slopes of Monte. He tried to help and impart the same leadership of his predecessors through the years up to his SSCE.

However, there were a few boys in his village who were students of St.Britto’s. They travelled to Britto’s on bicycles. Whenever both their schools played at Inter-School tournaments they would of course cheer and support their respective schools, but the rivalry ended on the playground, when the referee blew the final whistle. At other times, mostly during holidays, they would play as one team for their ward in inter-village football tournaments. 

Prior to 1961 Matric exams were held in centres at Poona and Karwar among others. But Felicio was extremely lucky in 1964. He did not have to travel to Poona. The new building of St. Britto’s High School at Mapusa was chosen as one of the Examination Centres in the district of Bardez by the Education Board.

It had been during the afternoon recess that Felicio had stood atop Monte de Guirim and looking northwards had watched the school gradually coming up long before he had reached his teens. 

The imposing new building superstructure has been a prominent and integral part of learning and of the Mapusa scenery as a whole, reigning supreme for the last 5 decades. 

Perhaps it was destiny that a landmark of the landscape that Felicio grew up with during his school life should be the centre of the final test of his learning, which he passed. As he answered his SSCE exams, sitting at a desk overlooking the southern part of the picturesque town of Mapuca, Felicio saw his Alma Mater in the distance from a classroom of Britto’s. He considers this as a rare event in his life.

Like all major institutions of a by-gone era and present education centres in the district of Bardez, Felicio has always been proud not only of his own school, but all other institutions in Goa, who have excelled in their contribution towards education.

This is as I saw it, and I know this story is true, because I was that boy Felicio, a.k.a. Tony Felix Fernandes - a Monte boy. Thanks for reading.

Tony Felix (Felicio) Fernandes 

Student 

St. Anthony’s High School, 

Monte de Guirim 

Bardez, Goa.