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Designed , developed & Hosted By Kishoo, Barkur |
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A
FORUM CALLED –
ADARSH
YOUTH ASSOCIATION – NAGERMUTT INTRODUCTION
In these days’ words - micro,
small is beautiful, compact, development at grass root level, etc are the terms frequently heard or in more
usage than before. Even the Church, in these days popularising, Small
Christian Communities comprising 4-5 families.
In other words, the focus is on ‘each
and every member’ of the community. Another positive development especially in our Barkur, is the ICYM
unit of our parish chosen, by the ICYM Diocesan Central Council, as
model, to evaluate the feasibility of federal
mode of functioning i.e. ward level units will be formed to have
100% participation / involvement of youth and four representatives
chosen from each ward, in turn comprise of parish ICYM executive
council, and these selected group members used to elect the Office
bearers for the unit of the parish. In other words all grown –up
children and youth of the church are encouraged to be involved and to a
certain extent it is mandatory. There were people visualised the same pattern of 100% participation
of youth way back in 1980, resulted in the formation of Adarsh Youth Association of Nagermutt
- Pandeshwar, and it took two long decades to give it an authentic
application / acceptability of this concept to the parish in the year,
2001, (and near future in whole of Mangalore Diocese, as per its Central
Director Rev.Fr.Elias D’Souza). As the saying says ‘it’s
better to be late, than never’, - the sea change brought by this
revolutionary step, now started yielding rich dividends in our Barkur
Parish!! For
quite some time, few friends were reminding, rather provoking me to
write in this Corner about this small organisation AYA, - incidentally,
as it is being my beginning of social career - felt it should not be
self-patting exercise, hence leave it to the readers to comment! THE
BACKGROUND AND FACTORS LEAD TO FORM A PLATFORM
For years, the place called Nagermutt, inhabitation of almost 40
once economically poor families, fairly distant ward from the vicinity
of Church was / is specially blessed by Almighty - to be the favourite
of almost all Priests who come here to serve!!. It was fortunate to have, in the inception time, trio comprising, Mr
Baptist D’Souza, as its popular Gurkar, youthful P&T staff Jerome
J.Fernandes, Teacher Lany Cornelio, presence of talented breed of school
going children in good number and most importantly the feeling of
one-ness, co-operation and concern for each other, in the neighbourhood
within couple of dozen families residing in this beautiful area, in the
midst of coconut gardens, paddy fields - on the either side of the
tributary Sita and sizable component recently settled near the Govt.
School area and so on, may be few among many reasons for its special
status! As known to all, in the year 1976, Rev.Fr Henry D’Souza, formed
ICYM of Barkur, for the youth of our parish and there were members
hailing from this place but very few! At the same time recognition of one’s talents subjected to limited
opportunities!! Situated more than a mile away from Church, was the
major hindrance for girls to participate in Church social activities
.With this background, we few like minded youngsters, when approached to
the then Asst. Parish Priest and the Director of CYM Rev. Fr. Patrick
Rodrigues, he not only convinced with our offer to start a forum, but
agreed to inaugurate this unit during a small but meaningful ceremony on
26th January, 1980, and stood by his words of whole hearted
support and encouragement. Among others who attended the programme, I would like to call back
Sr.Pauline, who in her speech told –‘well
started is like half done….… I am strongly convinced that this small
unit born today will bring out the best within the members and the
support of these elders of this ward present here will be the guiding
stars…!’ WHAT
IT ACHIEVED DURING THE LAST TWO DECADES
Of course, the unit has nothing to show, as it built structures,
laid roads, organised functions or done this or that social work. No,
nothing like it, but it proudly and rightly boast of contributing in a
very special way to formulate
hundreds of Personalities over the years!! I can’t understand from whom / where to start, as there are
achievers in every walks of life like; there are maximum religious
vocations, talented priests and nuns, plenty of professionals –
Engineers, Doctors, Professors and Teachers, people serving with
devotion in Health Care, (maximum
number of Staff Nurses hail from this ward serving all over the world)
good numbers of Graduates / Post-graduates, computer experts, accepted
and raised to various high positions, now spread over every nook and
corner of this world, surely not forgotten this organisation. On the other hand, we
ourselves surprised to see - artists, playwright, quality singers /
fiction writers / orators / actors-actresses of substance, social
workers / Sportsmen of repute who earned a name for themselves and
brought glory to their first ever social platform, to be its members are
claiming to be indebted to this unit, for stimulating them to come out
first. AYA has given birth to quality leaders, of high stature to lift the
flag of Barkur in the Parish, ICYM, Vicariate, Diocese and outside and
abroad. It sometimes astonishes me to be bound by this special bond even
this day, after twenty long years, and whenever, we interact with few
contemporaries, as the passions go high and there are occasions to see
few drops of tears to express one’s gratitude to AYA, while
re-collecting those sweet memories. For the outside world and to similar associations, at times, its
activities or popularity, made them to see a ‘competitor’ in AYA,
but to the best of my knowledge, it never cultivated this school of
thought, but always remained ‘complimentary’ in character. Friends, we will not call out any one’s names over here, as ‘each member’s record is superb’ by itself, but state categorically, at about, 200+ children and youngsters, once associated with this AYA, though many found their dwelling elsewhere now, and ladies married and settled outside our parish limits, carried with them these sweet experiences to share. CONCLUSIONIt is said every human being born in this world is gifted with rich
talents, but it needs encouragements from parents, teachers and the
surrounding, to stimulate to bring them to light, improve and excel.
This forum of AYA exactly done that, to the best of its capacity! On going through this, we are sure few of you, might have realised,
what you missed during your School / College days…? We are sure, scores of people will read this and especially our
friends of Barkur and the neighbourhood – this is a real fact friends,
may look like fairy tale to imagine!! Personally we are grateful to the Host of this web site, Mr.Kishore
Gonsalves, a one time active and popular AYA member / office bearer, for
allowing me to utilise this precious space to pen these few lines. On behalf of Amchen Barkur web-site & ICYM Ex-Member’s
Committee, For a series of a very high quality articles covering many subjects, by Mr. Archibald Furtado , go through the archives. Click on the respective subject |
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Barkur, located in Udupi Taluk, Karnataka, India. 576 210 |
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Copyright Kishoo, Barkur 2002. |
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