The School Magazine, ‘THE PAULITE’ has been one of the long standing traditions of St. Paul’s. All alumni remember it, but few know that it has gone through a lot of changes, over the years. Starting as the “St.Paul’s Annual,” it later changed to the “Sevak,” and then finally, “The Paulite.”
The St. Paul’s Annual
The first magazine was the brainchild of Fr.Claude Saldanha SJ, who taught the matriculation class for a number of years. It was published in 1941 in connection with the Golden Jubilee of the Portuguese Jesuits coming to India and Belgaum, and was named ‘ST. PAUL’S ANNUAL’. It contained articles about the history of the school and the Portuguese Fathers in India. There were articles by Old Boys. The magazine was their link with the school. It was also the occasion to kick start the first Old Boys Association (OBA) and contains Rules and Regulations of the Association together with a list of the earliest office bearers.
The next issues were published in 1942, 1944 and 1946. The 1942 issue has on the cover the first Crest of the school and its explanation. The 1946 issue was an effort of the boys and by the boys. They were aided by Fr. Aloysius George Rego SJ It was professionally laid out and printed at Catholic Press Ranchi.
The next issue was in 1951-52 when Fr. Rego SJ came back to St. Paul’s for a year as Vice-Principal and then was appointed Principal in 1952. From then on he was ably assisted by Mr. K. B. Kulkarni, the art master, who made the magazine attractive by his sketches and portraits. Boys who featured in the magazine wanted a copy of the magazine. This issue he called ‘Young Authors’.
The Sevak
In February 1954, Fr. Rego SJ, who again returned to the school, published a four page monthly bulletin for a Social-service minded group of students and like-minded ladies who were called the ‘Ladies Auxiliary Committee’. This bulletin was called ‘SEVAK’. Through 1954 and 1955, it grew in size with articles by boys and staff. Fr. George also used the magazine to establish a link with Old Boys, who were now called ‘Old Paulites’. Fr. George was later ably assisted by Fr. Robert Jacob K. SJ who edited the magazine meticulously.
When Fr.Rego was transferred in 1957 the SEVAK was discontinued by its editor Fr. Robert Jacob SJ.
The Paulite
At the end of 1955 Fr. Robert Jacob published a lengthy, well edited and neatly printed diary of all school events for 1954-55. The name “St. Paul’s Annual” was dropped for ever. He called the new magazine ‘THE PAULITE’. It repeated much of what he published throughout the year in the ‘SEVAK’.
THE PAULITE became the school magazine published thrice a year. Miss Mabel Menezes, who taught English in the higher classes contributed and helped in editing and publishing it.
Fr. Robert took great care to select articles from the various compositions and essays written by the boys. Being an English teacher in the higher classes and with the help of Miss Mabel Menezes he selected the best essays and compositions during the year for publication in the magazine. This was the secret of the good quality of articles and essays found in the magazines. It came from the 70 to 80 compositions faithfully and meticulously corrected by each English teacher each week. This is also what encouraged the boys to write and improve their style, language and imagination — the great joy of having one’s composition published in the school magazine. When Fr. Robert SJ was transferred Fr. Carlito D’Souza SJ was put in charge for a short time in 1960. About this time the Educational Inspector came up with the idea that the school magazine should be given free to all the boys and to make this possible the magazine should not be printed but rather cyclostyled. Unhappily no one was happy with this because cyclostyling was not neat in those days and any how a nominal sum was being paid by the boys because the magazine was subsidized by the advertisement costs paid by the parents. None of these cyclostyled copies have been kept.
Fr. Clement SJ, the new Principal in 1962, decided that ‘The Paulite’ would once more be an annual printed magazine for the school, to encourage creative writing among students. Fr. Simon Furtado SJ was put in charge. Besides being ably assisted by Ms. Mabel Menezes, they had the assistance of Mr. Akbar Khan a student of Fr. Robert who also joined the staff to teach English. In fact on the staff he was jokingly called Akbar of ‘The Queen’s English’. But these three brought up the magazine to the old standard that had been maintained by Fr. George and Fr. Robert. They also encouraged the boys to write in Hindi with the help of Mr. Vyas and soon were helped by other masters in the other languages as well. We have no copy of the magazines published between 1962 and 1965.
In 1965 Fr. Walter de Souza SJ published ‘The Paulite’. In 1966 Fr. Pat de Lima SJ took over the publication of ‘The Paulite’. For some years he was assisted by Fr. T. Ambrose SJ and Fr. Toscano SJ However it was mainly Fr. Pat who made it a school boys’ magazine. He not only encouraged boys to write but took trouble to train them in writing creative prose and poetry at their own level. Articles by the boys and staff in Hindi and Kannada were regularly added in every issue. With the help of a band of dedicated teachers and generous parents he generated the funds to publish the magazine and keep the costs within the reach of whatever the boys had in their pockets.
Fr. Pat published the school magazine regularly until he retired from the staff in 1991. The magazine was not published for a number of years from 1991 to 2004.
The Paulite (Present School Annual)
In the year 2005-2006, the 150th Jubilee year, Fr. Agnelo Pinto SJ made a successful attempt to revive the school annual, along with Fr. Roland Coelho SJ. It was called “The Paulite”. This magazine now continues every year and the staff and students go great lengths throughout each year, to collect articles and matter, to publish the annual. The content pertains to all the happenings in the school for the particular year, forming a memoir. As compared to the previous iterations of the magazine, greater discretion is given to the young boys, to allow them to develop their literary skills.