Mrs Celine D'Sa - teacher and friend for life

Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, calibre, and future of an individual. If the people remember me as a good teacher, that will be the biggest honour for me ~ A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Preface

Mrs Celine D'Sa was not just my maths teacher in grade VIII, but a life long mentor and friend who lovingly wrote letters well into her 90s with a steady hand and unwavering love. So permit me leave to celebrate the story of a human being who continues to cast a long shadow even after the sun has gone down.

A lot of what I am recounting here comes from her autobiographical letter she sent, titled 'Of Teachers, Teaching and Tables'.

Teaching is the best profession in the world. You need teachers who want to work for students and students who want to learn and improve. St Vincent’s shaped me and the students with it’s one big quality - caring for others. Father Schoch cared a lot for others. One must always think for others and the students are living it till today. They believe in doing things for others which shows their selfless spirit. ~ Mrs Celine D'Sa [1]

Early life

Her father Raymond Dias, was orphaned early in life and at a mere age of ten years was forced to drop out of school in order to work at British Pharmaceutical to support his younger brother. From an early age he valved education and would diligently read even if it just the newspaper used as a wrapper. This lifelong habit of reading was passed on his daughter.

Her mother Ethel Amor-Taylor was the eldest of seen siblings. She too lost her father Captain Joseph Amor a surgeon with the British Army, causing her to give up her dream of being a teacher to become a clerk with the military in order to earn a better income.

Education

Celine and her sisters studied at the Convent of Jesus and Mary in Poona, opposite St. Vincent's High School (now called St Anne's). At that time it was affiliated to the Cambridge Board UK and our teachers were mainly from St Bede's Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School, Madras that was started in 1907 to provide Catholic education for children of European and Anglo-Indian descent.  

She looks back with nostalgia on her school days. Attributing it to the nurturing attitudes of her teachers starting with the Principal Mother Blandine. Once when she was in Std V (equivalent to today's Std VII) she fell seriously ill and Mother Blandine encouraged all her classmates during morning assembly to visit her at home, no doubt helping her recover more quickly.

Here is how she remembers her school subjects

• English: Really enjoyed reading, including how to rapid read, a great deal of Shakespeare and other English Poets
• French: taught to us by a stern French national who was very particular about pronunciation and grammar despite it being our second language
• Catechism: Rev Fr Max Mayer S.J. taught us about the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles - this helped me in my later life
• History: We learned about the expansion of the British Empire. I had to wait to teach at St Vincent's in the 60s to read about Indian History.
• Science, Hygiene and Philosophy: I had one of the best teachers who taught us the curriculum including various human systems like circulatory, digestive etc but being sensitive to the minds of young girls also gave us a talk on sex education.
• Geography: Our textbooks were written by Sir (Laurence) Dudley Stamp, the best known British geographers of the 20th Century. My students at St Vincent's now have to learn much more.
• Maths: This was a real headache for me. While we used Indian currency (rupees, annas and pice) in our daily lives, our Math problems involved British currency (pounds, shillings, pence). Same for weights and measures. And to think that St Vincent's students complained about the Maths they had to learn ...
• Arts and Drawing: We had five distinct sections: Objects, Nature, Memory, Design and Geometrical. My Arts teacher was a patient old artist who taught us quite a few tricks to improve our work. Years later when my daughter was at St Anne's she'd struggle with her art homework. After hearing her beg and cajole me, I'd do the needful and I really enjoyed it. As a result she was shortlisted to appear for the government drawing exam. She fessed up to her Art teacher and was allowed to skip the exam.
• Music: We learned to read music notations, and trained in Vocals and choir singing following world renowned methods of the Trinity College, Ireland.
• Physical training: We had regular classes including athletics.
• Sport: Each morning at 7am a bus would take us to the Military grounds where we played netball, badminton, tennis and hockey (my favorite). On the drive back at 9am we were served a hot gootli with a generous dollop of butter. We were served hot chai at school. Some of my classmates went on to represent various Bombay teams in prestigious tournaments.

She has a charming story to tell of her Cambridge finals at Bishop's School. That year due to the Second World War, all answers were written with carbon copies with one set sent to the UK for evaluation and the other kept as a backup in India in case of catastrophe. Not surprisingly Mrs Celine D'Sa did well in her Cambridge exams walking away with many prizes - which to her delight were books.

Teaching career

St Anne's School

After completing her college at XXX? in 1955, she completed her BEd studies and was welcomed as a teacher at her alma mater St Anne's where she taught English and Maths in Std IX. Mani Doctor, Maureen D'Souza nee Saldana and other students of hers went on to become famous teachers.

After her marriage to Joe D'sa in 19??, she had to move to Bombay which paled in comparison to salubrious Poona. She would return to her beloved Poona in 1957 with her three children and resume her teaching career.

St Vincent's High School

In 1959 she received an urgent call from family friend Rev. Fr. Rudolf Schoch S.J. asking her to join St Vincent's as he could not find anyone suitable for a vacant post. Celine agreed but on the one condition, even though fully qualified to teach in the senior section she wished to to be assigned to the Primary section which would allow her more relaxed schedule permitting her more time with her young children. Fr Schoch agreed and being a true gentleman that he was paid her a higher salary, more than fifteen times the recommended amount, based on her qualifications. Thus started a stellar career of nurturing and love that would span 22 years till her retirement in 1982.

Mrs Celine D'Sa is fondly remembered by her students as evidenced by many ex-students keeping in touch with her right to the end. Although a strict martinet, she always had the best interests of her students at heart, sparing no effort to make sure they were proficient in her subjects, especially Maths. 

She recalls the following interaction with Fr Oesch in these words. "I had started Maths classes for some of my Std. VIII students who were not performing as well as I wanted. After a quick lunch I told them to assemble at an appointed classroom. A few good students approached me and requested that they too be allowed to join the extra classes. I agreed on condition that each good student take a needful one under his wing. They had to work together, review and mark the work then show it to me. Well it turned out to be a real success. Fr Oesch came to know I was holding these classes and wanted to know the 'how and why'. I explained it all to him and then he wanted to know if I was charging a fee. When I told him there was no fee involved, he said, 'If you do anything for nothing, they will not realise the value so much charge even a small sum'. I did as he advised and we had a feast at the end of the year with the money we collected."

Unfortunately in retirement the paperwork for her pension was messed up denying her from receiving her pension from Zilla Parishad for nigh four whole years. Sadly the school administration was not responsive to solving her case and it took another ex-teacher fluent in Marathi to appeal her case with the Education Officer resulting in the money finally being paid with back payments. Quite heart-breaking how life can be unfair but it never soured her mood toward the school, her colleagues or her ex-students. 

Unbeknownst to most, the Government pension policy did not cover Primary teachers. Some retired primary school ex-teacher had fallen on hard times, prompting Mrs D'Sa to use her good offices with ex-students to see if they could help. She was able to work with VOBA to help raise finances as and when needed. In addition a substantial amount was raised and distributed on Teacher's Day on 5th September 2015.

Ex-students always made sure to include her in any 25 years class reunion. One batch of ex-students gave each teacher a list of doctors who could be approached in case hype was needed - showing their love and concern. 

Click here to see her leading a group of ex-students paying tribute to the 25 year reunion at the Class of '79.

St Clare's

After retiring from St. Vincent's she went on to become the principal of St Clare's where once again her ample administrative skills came in handy over the three years she served with distinction.

Tireless to the end

Mrs Celine D'Sa kept in touch with many students, and was socially active even in retirement. One could see her walking briskly on the busy streets of Poona Cantonment doing her errands but always having time to stop and speak with her well-wishers. In her later years, she moved to ?? and used a faithful rickshaw driver to take her on her rounds.

Mrs Celine D'Sa, you always loved to quote Jack Canfield who said that, 'a teacher as a person is more important than a teacher as a technician. What s/he is has more effect than anything s/he does'. You're the very embodiment of this virtue. Long may your memory live in the hearts of your students.

Tributes

St Vincent's High School was a top sports school in Pune and it used to be very difficult for many of us to find a place in the school hockey, football, basketball and athletics teams. This included me and like so many others, I was deeply disappointed for not being able to wear the school’s famous, gold-brown colours. Mrs D’Sa was the editor of our school magazine, “The Vincentian” and was a champion at goading students, teachers and ex-students to write for the monthly publication. 

One day, she took me aside and said, “Rahul, why don’t you report on the matches that the school team plays instead. This way, you will still stay connected with your favourite sports.” 

In order to encourage me, she even gave me a very flattering by-line:  ‘Our sports reporter Rahul’ and all this when I was only in class VIII.

Needless to say,  I became a regular contributor to the school magazine and had senior athletes from our school teams approaching me all the time, asking for their names to be published in my monthly sports round ups. It was a heady feeling. 

Thanks to Mrs D’Sa’s constant encouragement, I even ended up writing regular features for the Sunday supplement of the Poona Herald newspaper when only in class X.  Several decades later, I became the editor of the same, Poona Herald, which morphed first into Maharashtra Herald and finally into Sakal Times, which I edited between 2012-15 in Pune. 

There was nobody happier than Mrs D’Sa when I gave her the news of my appointment as editor of her favourite local newspaper ~ Rahul Chandawarkar (Class of '79)

Cited works

[1] ‘St Vincent’s shaped me and the students with its one big quality - caring for others’

Hindustan Times, Pune By Nadeem Inamdar dated Dec 13, 2017

https://www.hindustantimes.com/pune-news/st-vincent-s-shaped-me-and-the-students-with-its-one-big-quality-caring-for-others/story-LmJTYpRPbA5EeRo9NoMXaJ.html

[2] Celine D'Sa, retired St Vincent's High School teacher

Swati Shinde | TNN | Oct 7, 2014, 16:43 IST 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/44611684.cms