Wedding Anniversary

Dearest Monthy and Richa, (Dubai)

Today You Both Deserve All The Compliments That Are Coming Your Way.15 Years Together And 3 Beautiful Children Is Something To Be Proud Of.So Have A Wonderful Day. Enjoy All Your Favourite Memories And Look Forward To The Happy Times Still Ahead For You. Congratulations.

Here's Wishing you both health,wealth and happiness always. A Very Happy Anniversary To You.

Lots Of Love And Good Wishes

Rydell, Melvin And Edith, Dubai, 25/01/2005

Silver Jubilee...

Shri B. Shantharam Shetty and Shrimathi Suchithra Shetty
20/01/2005

Wishing you a very very happy wedding anniversary and many many more happy returns of the day.

B. Hrishikesh Bayiri, Vedashri, Barkur 
Devudas Ghadiyar, Barkur
K.K. Naik, Gurikar Residence, Koodli
Shankar Shetty, Nadumane, Barkur
Chandrashekar Shetty, Nadumane, Barkur
Staney Pais, Barkur
Edward Pinto, Pandeshwar, Sasthan
Jayaram Shetty, Champadi, Barkur
Nagayya Shetty, Nagar Mutt, Barkur
Umesh Raj, Moodlukatte, Kundapur
B. M. Krishna, Maskibail, Barkur
Sadashiva Poojari, Moodjithlu, Barkur
S. Prakash Pai, Barkur
Shrinivasa Shettigar, Ranganakere, Barkur
Bharathi Ramachandra Kamath, President, Panchayath, Barkur
Tharanath Kamath and Brothers, Barkur
G. Seetharama Shetty, Kooradi, Barkur
Ravi Hemmadi, Devdas Hoskere, Barkur
K.Balakrishna Rao, Barkur
B. Krishnamoorthi Rao, Barkur
Shankar Prabhu, Barkur
Krishna Mesthri, Barkur
Sathish kotian, Barkur
Shantharam Shetty, Handadi
B. Shrinivasa Bayiri, Santhegudde, Barkur ,20/01/2005

THE GREAT WAVES

On the 26th of December, an earthquake occurred,
Sending tremors across the Indian Ocean.
Great waves emerged, hitting countries
With this appeared a lot of commotion.

People wake up to find themselves surrounded in water,
Their precious belongings all floating away,
Hundreds gone missing, where could they be?
Who would have known waves could leave people astray.

Thousands have left this earth already,
Many are homeless and don’t have a clue.
They are sad and don’t even want to live anymore,
Now we know how much damage, nature really can do.

Deeya D'Souza, UK, 15/01/2005

My Recent Trip to Barkur. 

Hello Barkurians! Wish you all a very happy new year!!

As many of you are aware, since our Sr. Concilia is not well I decided to pay her a visit during the first week of December to explore her condition.  I took her from Hyderabad convent to Bombay for further consultations.  I was lucky to know a few oncology experts in Bombay and they helped us with free advice and arranged a Pet Scan.  She went back to Hyderabad, and  had her further surgery again last week and it appears she may be under remission.  Your prayers will help her to recover fast. 

In the meantime I decided to go from Bombay along with my younger brother Vincy to Barkur.  Saw broken bridge.  I reached on Tuesday and the next day was our Parish feast, and we attended the mass. There were 15 neighboring priests assisting to celebrate the mass. I met briefly our Parish Priest to say Hi !!. It was a festive mood, for me because it was after 51 years!! After the Mass I went via Kudru river ride to my brother's place for lunch. It was great to taste authentic our village home made food etc.

The next day I went to visit our Barkur First grade college, which is named now as SMT RUKMINI SHEDTHI MEMORIAL NATIONAL GOVERNMENT FIRST GRADE COLLEGE, BARKUR. The reason I went there was to meet primarily my scholarship recipient students, this year they are nearly 25 of them. I addressed each class for 10 minutes, met separately teaching and management staff including Retired Mr. Seetharam Shetty and Mr. V.L.Roche who are still very active and were with me for nearly 3 hours!!

Let me tell you what I learnt. You were all recently reminded by a few very interesting articles how our National High School was started by a few great pioneers who were narrated by James and Archie last year. Thanks to Kishoo for publishing the same on this forum.  I am sure same thing will be repeated  many years later how our present Barkur college was started as well. I believe when Barkurians approached the Govt., a few years ago to start a new college, they were reminded that Govt was closing several colleges in Karnataka state due to lack of funds and also because many private colleges were coming up. However because of our strong Shetty connections, friends in Govt. indicated that if Barkurians come up with their own land as well as necessary buildings, then only they are ready to give permission to start a new college. Our National College donated the land, and then the Govt. agreed to pay only salary to lecturers, and no other support.

At this time our Barkurian Shetty families particularly Sudhakar Shetty and his brothers decided to fund initially to start the college since it was also required to deposit several lacks of rupees.  They decided to honor their beloved mother Smt. Rukmini Shedthi, hence the name is Rukmini College. Mr. Sudhaker Shetty whom I met in his office in Bombay told me this story and asked me to inform fellow Barkurians that they can change the name if they want and give a new name provided they returned his 20 lacks of Rupees!!  The reason I am writing this small note is to inform you this brief story mainly because the College has just started recently constructing new class rooms. They need badly 12 more large class rooms, each costing 75000 Rupees, if any one of you gives that amount one can have that classroom named after each donor.  I believe most of the rooms are taken up except for a few, however they need a donor for their main lecture hall that costs Rs 6 Lacks.  It will be named after the donor as well. Please do consider to donate funds for which you will be remembered for the rest of your life and for generations to come!!  When I visited this college, I found there are nearly 400 students but 75% are young girls who are doing their BA or B Com. Most of the boys are attending neighboring colleges to do B.Sc or engineering, or Medical sciences, etc.  The present principal Shri Hebbar, a young and very energetic young man, hard working and pleasant told me he is trying to establish  both B.Sc and computer degree courses soon to attract local students and needs encouragement and support. Fellow Barkurians, especially young graduates from National PUC, please try to help this college. I graduated high school here in '53 and still my heart goes to help this place.  I think we can extend financial help to this place and try to build this place as one of our fast growing finest colleges just like original National High school!!

I met Mr.S.P.Furtado of St. Peter’s Association in Bombay and requested him to try to take up this cause since I felt the need is real and they are considering to fund class rooms as well. However, since I saw this new progress in Barkur, as you know this is still a small town and local support is limited, I thought it is better I bring this to our local and overseas readers kind attention. I realize with recent Tsunami calamity, we are torn between to provide help, but please do consider as a long term investment in our own birth place to give a helping hand to our own people. Of my own, as a small part, helping a few deserving students to obtain college education is working out quite well. However, I thought, I should inform you all what I recently learnt during my recent quick trip to our beloved Barkur!!

Gabriel Fernandes, January, 2005 (To read more please click here)

Congratulations!

Antony Prakash D'Souza and Cynthia Furtado
21/11/2004

Be good to each other
And you will both be blessed.
Standby one another
Whatever the test.
Take care of each other
Give each day your best.
And love,   precious love
Will take care of the rest!

Have a blissful married life.

Mrs. Agnes and Mr. Xavier D’Souza and Family, Moodahadu
Mrs.Juliana and Mr. William Furtado and Family, Moodahadu
Shanthi D’Silva and Family, Pandeshwar
Preethi D’Silva and Family, Koteshwar

Tsunami: Faith and Fate

God said to Noah, "I have decided to put an end to all people. I will destroy them completely" [Genesis 6:13]. Why did God ever thought of destroying all people? Honestly, there seems to be no satisfactory answer. We might find people quoting one passage or another from the scriptures to prove that all this happens due to God’s wrath, while others might simply comfort themselves like Job saying “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away” (Job 1:21), or console themselves saying, “The Lord crushes but He also binds up; though He may hurt us, but He is also our Healer” (Job 5:18). In any case, this tragedy is a wake-up call. We are alive for no merit of our own. What has happened  to them can happen to any of us at any time. In moments of darkness like this we can still walk in the bright light of the Lord in whom “we live, move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

Albert Einstein, a German-born American physicist, rightly said “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” He insisted “My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.” However, making use of many God-given talents, we can rationally argue that we humans are yet to make full use of our talents. God would not have blessed us with intelligence if not for the good of humanity. God wants us to explore the potentialities of our intelligence. After all, the deepest truths are seldom ‘black and white’.

We live in a digital age. Science and technology invite us to stretch the limits of the possibilities and potentialities in our search and research. We saw how science and technology was able to predict and measure the direction and damage the hurricanes that hit Florida would bring. We can probably say that availability of such technology would have saved much suffering and loss of human lives and property even in South-East and South-Asia. In this sense, we can conclude that science and technology are at the service of humanity which can save and enhance the quality of human living.

However, from a faith perspective, we are all partners in suffering and healing. Looking at the death and destruction in South Asia, we are tempted to ask the question "why God permitted this to happen?" While we don't have answers to many of our "WHYs," we do know that we are able to reach out to the suffering brothers and sisters with the help of   modern technology and resources. As St. Teresa of Avila said, God has no hands and feet except ours.

At this time around what comes to our mind is the narration of floods at the time of Noah (Genesis 6, 7, 8). On the one hand we can't understand the potentially dangerous power of nature, nor have we used all our abilities at the service of all humanity. However, we have seen for ourselves how people of good will are eager and generous to reach out to  the less privileged and suffering bothers and sisters who do not belong to our nation, religion, culture or language. In this sense we can say that our worst times are our best opportunities to express our solidarity with one another. This is what Christianity is all about. We may join one another in doing what we can while continuing to pray with the Psalmist “You have shaken the land and split it open. Heal its fissures, for it shudders” (Ps. 60:2). At this troubled juncture we sincerely can learn to be truly wise. “Teach us the shortness of our life so that we may truly be wise” (Ps 90:12), is a powerful spiritual capsule that can influence and shape our outlook toward life and reality.

Fr Robert Crasta, Spiritual Animator
‘amkcps’.

Hi Naveen:

What is happening to 'Hello Jindagi'?  Jindagi seems to have come to a halt.  The Tsunami waves did not reach Hawaii.  There are people on this planet, who live in floating boats or in flying castles, while others have to slog in the mud.

Yes, Naveen, nothing happens without support, appreciation, or a kind word. So many viewers, yet no one has time to put three sentences on this forum, for their own glory or of others. Your contribution was voluntary, hence, I have no room to complain at all. Technical problems can be resolved, if tried.

Similarly, Archie; Where are you sir? We miss your informative, constructive, productive, to the point articles. You can certainly elaborate and inform us the vast achievements of EX-ICYM under your leadership, unless you want to keep low key.

Hi Kishoo:  Is your next Konkanni book ready?

We all know, that we all have to live, and life has to go on, irrespective anyone else's likes or dislikes!

-James Fernandes,   USA, 05/01/2005

Happy Birthday

Dearest Shana,

We wish you a very happy Birthday as you celebrate your 3rd Birthday on 3^rd  Jan 05.  Our prayerful wishes are always with you.  May God bless you with good health and bless all your activities.

Your Loving Parents

Rony & Shallu ,Barkur/Kuwait, 03/01/2005

Happy Anniversary

Dear Dad & Mom ( Gratian & Sheela),

On your 12^th  wedding anniversary ( 03/01/05), we wish you a very HAPPY ANNIVERSARY  and pray God's choicest blessings on you. '' Have a nice  day''.

From your loving children:

Glenish & Glenston, Barkur/ UK. 03/01/2005