This photo was shot with an ASAHI-PENTAX S1a Manual 35mm camera using B&W Kodak negative film 100 ASA. Lens used was Sigma 135mm telephoto. Picture taken in Guirim (near Figueira Vaddo) on the road midway from Bastora to Parra.

HALCYON DAYS AT MONTE.

During the Portuguese regime there used to be what was called “Mocidade Portuguesa”. It was the regime’s youth organization. Enrolled cadets were dressed in full khaki uniform and all other smart gear that went along with it. The attire included badges, socks, shoes, belts and caps. Mocidade drill was held every month in front of grotto on the hill. At the time when this gathering of students was held, the school looked like a battalion, and especially so when Inspectors from Panjim visited and met the “Commandantes de Castelo” of our school.

Our school also had the honour and distinction of having some students chosen to participate in the Mocidade Convention in Portugal in 1955. A contingent from this unit was also chosen to maintain an orderly queue of devotees lining up to pay their respects during the exposition of the body of St. Francis Xavier at Old Goa.

Pre-liberation days also had one of the Fathers at Monte compiling his very own Chemistry Book especially for our School which was found to be exact and precise in meeting the standards prescribed by the S.S.C.E. Board, Poona.

We stood to attention and sang the Portuguese national anthem. And then at a transient time in the political history of Goa we learnt and sang the Indian national anthem from January 1962 onwards. 'Mocidade Portuguesa' was transformed into National Cadet Corps that followed after liberation. Basically it was an youth development movement adopted as a tool with enormous potential and incentive for nation building, with a sense for all-round development for duty, dedication, discipline and moral values for students so that they could aspire to become useful citizens and future leaders if they so wished with no liability or commitment for active military service.

Equally exciting and exuberant were the days when movies were screened at Monte. The school had a 35 mm sound projector that used an arc lamp as its light source on which cinemascope movies could be run. This projector had a separate cinemascope lens. It is also called a spreader lens. It is used to screen wide-screen format films. Adjustment requires special technique. We looked at it with awe and wonder. “Ten Commandments” was among the great epic films shown at Monte. Other great epics on celluloid shown were 'Ben Hur', 'The Robe' and the 'Longest Day'. The projector was maintained and safely stored in the Projector Room. The movies were shown by Bro. Salvador assisted by a young technical wizard called Camilo, who was a naturally gifted master of everything - from typewriter repairs, printing (cyclo-styling exam papers), binding, electrical work and various other things. He was a genius born before his time. He taught some students how to make Holy Rosaries using beads and wires. This was the time when devotion to Our Lady of Fatima was in full swing in Goa in the mid-1950's. The glow-in-the-dark bead rosaries were popular and much sought after.

Among the school’s other prized possessions were a full-fledged Science Laboratory for Physics and Chemistry, a microscope, a telescope and a real skeleton in one of the cupboards for Physiology students hidden behind a cloth drape. When Felicio was a young student there, he was afraid to go near that cupboard! One of the other creepy moments at the school was when as a young lad Felicio refused to turn his head towards the cremation grounds on the southern side of the football grounds on his way home after games at dusk.

Cheers to the halcyon days of a happy, joyful and carefree youth.

Adeus! Till we meet again!

Tony (Felicio) Fernandes - Class of 1964