While studying in school, we often make promises to be with our friends forever. However, as one grows up, life throws challenges which make it difficult to stay in touch and being together is just out of the question. One small incident recently experienced by noted artist, Albano Fernandes in UK, made him think about his school friends. “Goa’s nightingale, Lorna was performing at the Goan Cultural Fest 2022 in UK and I was the stage manager for the show an my job was to see that no one came to meet her or take photos backstage as it would get chaotic. However, there was one elderly woman who came backstage and there was a certain glow on Lorna’s face as she recognised this woman from her school in Mumbai. It was a very emotional moment as she met her childhood school friend after so many years. At that moment, I remembered my classmates from school and it gave me a vision for this event, a reunion of schoolmates in UK,” says Albano, alumni of St Britto High School and St Xavier’s College, Mapusa.
Joining him in this vision was Terry Fernandes, alumni of St Anthony High School, Duler. They planned a reunion of Bardez schools over the weekend and wanted a very intimate event with just 50 people. However, when the poster was out for the same, people didn’t want to miss out on the chance to relive their old memories once again. The Ex Students Reunion of Goa was held in Wembley, London and was organised by Albano and Terry in collaboration with Cross Restaurant, Goan Indian Food Wembley, London owned by Trinda Fernandes, an alumni of St Francis Xavier High School, Mapusa and Raju Labale.
“This was the first time such an event was held outside India and in Europe. We were constantly getting calls for booking sets but we had to decline as the venue could not accommodate so many people. We didn’t expect such a huge response especially from the Goan Diaspora. Besides schools from Bardez, we had people who were from 22 different schools from Goa, Mumbai and even some Goans who studied in East Africa. I hosted the event as I knew how to get everyone involved. There were great interactions and all students from different schools were introduced to each other like how we had school assembly before the class. The highest attendance was from St Anthony’s High School, Duler, Mapusa whose students wore school ties especially brought from Goa by Luciano Oscar Pereira,” says Albano, who works as a control room supervisor for big events and concerts in the UK.
Though the event was in London, it was attended by people coming in from Swindon, Bristol, Devon, Kent, Woking, etc and from different professions too. “Calvin Barretto and Cleta Rebelo are the organisers of Goan Cultural Fest, London 2022, and Chef Don Vinod Naik, who has his own YouTube channel, Konkani TV, featuring different restaurants and Goan programmes in UK, was the chief guest for the reunion. We also had former footballers, Edmundo Fernandes (Sesa Goa), Victor Andrade (Churchill Brothers) and sports personalities, Meeta Chodankar, Menino Dias, Salvador Dominique Soares and Luciano Oscar Pereira,” he says.
Celebrity Chef Canon Vaz, emcee Simon Varella, caricaturist Beverley Ann Franco, Violet de Mendonça, Jason D’Souza from the hospitality industry and musicians Nacimento Miranda, Sammy and Polly de Curtorim added more zest to the event. He explains “It was going back to school after 35 years as we heard different school stories and reminisced about our school life. We grew up in an era where we didn’t have phones so love letters were the norm and how a St Britto’s boy fell in love with a St Mary’s girl is also happy memories as they shared their story,” says Albano, who has been receiving calls from countries like Canada and Australia where they want to celebrate such an event. This reunion was promoted online by Robin D’Souza of the channel Robinhood TV.
A noted emcee in UK for Goan events, Simon Varella, organised the Housie for the event and got a chance to meet many of his old classmates too. “The event revived our old school memories as I met many of my friends after so many years. I think our generation was a different one as we looked forward to meeting our old buddies. You may not find this with the present younger lot. All those who attended this event want to have it on a bigger scale next time as we got a lot of suggestions. I am sure Albano and Terry will plan something bigger next year and we will extend our support to them. The organizers could not take in more people this time due to space constraints. It was a unique concept rather than the usual events. All the attendees were given certificates as well,” says Simon, originally from St Estevam.
