Paulite Link

The Paulite Link is the Official Alumni Magazine of St. Paul’s High School. It is a bi-annual magazine and is published in the months of June and December, every year.

The Alumni Magazine was the brainchild of Orlando Oliviera (Ollie) of the Bombay region, who wanted to have a way to interact with each other and keep in touch; to relive school memories and remember the old times. The efforts that went into kick starting this initiative have been enormous. Later, the Alumni who had started the magazine handed over its reigns to the school and it is being published from St. Paul’s since December 2012.

The Beginnings…

Sometime in the year 2000, the internet began to become widely available in India, especially in the metro cities. That was the Era where websites like Yahoo, Rediff, Hotmail and Gmail  were rapidly increasing services, and many were foraying into ways to connect people; that was in a way the beginning of modern Social Media. Around that time, Yahoo seemed ahead of the rest, with its “Yahoo Groups,” which had been launched in early 1998. Being one of the world’s largest collections of online discussion boards, the term “Group” referred to Internet communication which is a hybrid between an “Electronic mailing list” and a “Threaded Internet forum”. The Groups messages could be read and posted by e-mail or on the Group’s web-page like a web forum. These formed a way for people across the globe to interact with each other, and to be connected.

Around that time, in 2000, a Paulite of the 1956 Batch, Rene Barreto, based in UK, founded a yahoo E-Group to connect Alumni across the globe, under the name ExStudents_StPauls_Belgaum@yahoo.com. This access to the internet gave a great boost to Paulites, who began networking with those they knew in real earnest. The late Joe de Silva was largely instrumental in promoting the Indian network. Two guys in Mumbai who really began to work up steam for the forthcoming Jubilee Celebration in 2006 were Anthony Dennis (1956) and George Coelho (1954). Between the two, they rustled up many Paulites and had many meetings in their homes and elsewhere. George Coelho hosted many meetings with visiting Paulites, as did Anthony Dennis.

In fact, Anthony was fondly named the best “Contact Man” since he took great interest in locating, contacting and enthusing Paulites across the Globe. There was always a look of excitement in his face each time he made contact with a new Paulite. He was instrumental in making a huge part of the Alumni database, which was used subsequently down the years for the Paulite Link as well as the PBW (old OBA, the Alumni Association).

Around 2003, Anthony Dennis began to visit Orlando D Oliviera, off and on in connection with the 150-Year Jubilee of St.Paul’s. Between him and George Coelho, they began working up and waking up the Mumbai Paulites. Fortunately, the E-Group greatly facilitated the Paulites to begin to contact one another and the networking began slowly but surely. In April 2005, at the request of the Alumni of St. Joseph’s Convent, the E-Group officially became known by its new name, which later carried on for a few years,  ie ExStudents_StPauls_StJosephs_Belgaum@yahoo.com

George Coelho, Anthony Dennis and Collin Louzado, made several trips to Belgaum to liaise with our Alma Mater. Sadly, things seemed to die down up to 2004. But during the Jubilee celebrations in December 2006, the overall excitement of the boys was something palpable! Guys came from all over the world, beside India, some accompanied by their spouses. The joy of meeting some classmates even after decades was a huge delight to all the Paulites, especially the Seniors of the 1940’s and 50’s.

After the event, upon returning home to Mumbai, Orlando Oliviera (Ollie) began to feel a great urgency not to let that spirit fade away, but to do something to keep it alive and nurture it further. Having been an Asst. Editor of a national magazine “Charasindia,” the only thing he knew and could do was to put together a magazine for, of and by Paulites. From February 2007 onwards, he worked at producing a dummy with contents that would interest any Paulite, old or new, including reports of the Jubilee celebration from the E-Group and some historical notes. By end of September, he had finished, and a meeting of Paulites interested in writing was called.

This idea was readily accepted by Albert C de Souza (1946), George Coelho (1954) and Anthony Dennis (1956), being writers in their own right. Thus, an Editorial Board for the expected magazine was formed. They also talked of forming an Association of the Paulites in Mumbai and, to this end, added Philip Pereira (1949) and Cmdr. Medioma Bhada IN (Retd.) (1956) to form an Ad-hoc Committee. During their meetings, the idea of a magazine was readily approved. But costs were an issue holding them back. In order to overcome this, each one of them pooled in ₹. 1,000/- to begin with, and Philip Pereira generously agreed to bankroll the team for the balance costs by an interest-free loan.

The release was slated for the 3rd December (the feast of St. Francis Xavier, a Jesuit) which had previously been our school Sports Day. The first step then was to call a meeting of the Mumbai Paulites on 6th October 2007, at St. Stanislaus High School, Bandra. At that time, the idea of an association was mooted and approved by those attending and so was the plan to publish the magazine (the dummy of which was shown around). An appeal was also made for funds for this purpose and people began to contribute with generous donations slowly.

Soon wheels began to turn, aided greatly by a slowly-enlarging network, thanks to the E-Group. The first issue came out on 3rd December 2007. The next issue was published in June 2008. The third issue (December 2008) seemed to be a kind of a transition issue. Being released at the 14th December 2008 Reunion Luncheon at the Naval Sailing Club, the issue was well received by many old-timers but it did bring forth comments from younger Paulites that the contents were ancient. The same was taken into consideration, and the later issues had more content for the younger generations.

After Ollie re-located to Goa, almost by default, George Coelho took over the reins of the magazine. It was managed by the Bombay team for some more time, after which, it was transferred to the School. This is the bi-annual “Paulite Link” in its present form, which is an Ex-Paulite magazine, currently published by the school management with an editorial board consisting of Alumni from different batches.

The Paulite Link, its present form…

A bloodless coup happened on 8th September, 2012… The PL team represented by George Coelho, Cmde. Medioma Bhada and Dinky Tauro returned to the Alma mater to hand over the magazine to St. Paul’s High school. Like all 5 year old kids, the PL too, in its 5th year came to school.

The then Principal, Fr. Roland Coelho SJ, assisted in setting up an Editorial Team who would take charge of the magazine and continue to link Paulites across the globe. The December 2012 issue was the first that got published from the school. And the December 2023 issue is the twentieth issue published from St. Paul’s.

Every issue of “The Paulite Link,” is meticulously brought out after hours, days, weeks and months of hard work by a strong team. About working in a team, it is said, “Alone we do so little – Together we do so much.”  Without each member of the team, the Paulite Link would not have been anywhere close to where it is.

The Paulite Link Team

PUBLISHER
Principal, St. Paul’s High School
LEGACY
Founder Editor
Orlando D Oliveira (1953)
Former Editors
George J Coelho (1954)
Praveen K Kulkarni (1980)
Chief Editor
S. Bandukwalla (2005)
MANAGING BODY
Executive Team
Fr. Simon Fernandes SJ Rector, Jesuit House
Fr. Savio Abreu SJ Principal, SPHS
Fr. Sebastian Pereira SJ Vice Principal, SPHS
Fr. Steven Almeida SJ Director, SP PUC
Sch. Anthony Noronha SJ Director, SP Media
Publishing Team
Fr. Savio Abreu SJ Publisher, PL
S. Bandukwalla (2005) Advisor – Digital Strategies, PL
S. Bandukwalla (2005) Chief Editor, PL
Aslam Saith (1977) Advisor, PL
Praveen K Kulkarni (1980) Advisor, PL
Rajendra K Belgaumkar (1980) Advisor, PL
Operations Team
Deepak Pillay (1985) Operations Director, PL
Ms. Lidwina Mendonca Institution Director, SPHS
Ms. Bharati Mattikop Institution Liasion, SPHS
Ms. Gambetta DeMello Institution Voice, SPHS
Ms. Anita Finance Liaison, SPHS
Alumni Team
Imran Sanadi (1995) Alumni Liaison, PBW
Savio Dias (2011) Alumni Liaison, PBW

Connect with the Paulite Link

Click here to see the Activities and Events organized by the Paulite Link.