Three Days at Home with Sir, Mr. Lobo

Mr. Lobo in 1962 with Class VIII and Now
Standing Back Row: L to R; R.S. Sharma, S Dasgupta, K T Liu, J K Ghosh, Wangdi, Ramdhari Agarwal, Sheane Brady, S P Chatterjee, Gurmeet Singh, Darryl Michael, N Venkataraman
Standing Middle: L to R: Glenn Miller, S K Shroff, David Ludwig,??, C P Singh, Tom Ma, K K Rai, I N Shrestha, Manos Choudhury,
Sitting L to R: V Janardhanan, P K Gupta, A K Roy, Bruce Wallace, Ashok Oberoi, Mr. Matthew Lobo, M J Patel, M Behrana, Roger Brady, M Ghoshal, P P Gupta
Not a bad memory after 46 years. I don’t remember one name. Some initials I may have got wrong.
The italicized names are those with whom we have lost contact. I would want to renew contacts with them.
Help! Help! Help!




The last three days have been unforgettable.
In school we had done a play called “Christopher Columbus”
There was a song in the play “He comes, he comes, it’s very thoughtful of him”
Well on Saturday, 12th January, 2008,
He came, He came. It was very thoughtful of him. Who?
My favourite teacher in school. Mr. Lobo.
Three memorable days with him. Just imagine?
He came by the metro to Dum Dum.
From there we paid a visit to St. Mary’s orphanage, which is near by and met
Bro. Anil who had been sending us the health reports of Bro Martin
Bro Martin was with us in our school days and was a very good sportsman.
He also came to the centenary celebrations and
even participated in the walking race for our years.
He is presently in B M Birla Hospital with heart problem.
A complete report on his illness will be posted separately.
We reached home in about 15 minutes.
The best thing about Sir (I’ll call him sir, for
I cannot get myself to call him Matt as he was my teacher
and my saying Mr. Lobo every time seems very formal)
is that he adjusts himself very well in all environments.
My wife and daughter in law are not very adept in speaking English.
It was good to see him try to speak in Hindi and
my family members trying to speak in English.
He slipped into Nepali while speaking in Hindi.
Sir had wanted to take a bit of rest for two or three days after all the hectic schedule he had been through since coming to India.
I obeyed his command and did not inform anyone during his stay here.
We went for walks in the morning, listened to devotional music and
he even did Puja with us and recited the “Hari Om” with my wife.
After dinner and lunch we went for a short walk
and sir brought pan for the whole family.
He watched Ramdeoji perform Yoga on TV and I even taught him Yoga.
I had opened a Google E mail account for him.
I helped him understand how to work with it.
This became a situation where the teacher became the pupil.
Sir also remarked, you are no more my student. You are now my brother.
I however, prefer to remain the student.
Sir, enjoyed the Marwari, pure vegetarian food we made for him.
He was surprised that dishes could be made
without onions and garlic and still taste so good.
He especially liked three items made at home. Lime and Orange Juice,
Pickled Chilies and Coriander leaf Chutney and
even took down the recipes from my wife.
He also told my wife you are not my daughter but my sister.
On Monday evening, as it always happens, all good things come to an end.
With a heavy heart, he had to leave and I again saw him off at Dum Dum metro.
He assured us that he would again visit us whenever he came to India.
We all pray for a long life for sir and his family.

Radheshyam & Manju,
Ajay & Shalini