The Beginnings, The Old Boys Association (OBA)
Mid 1940’s to Early 2000’s…
The Old Boys Association began in early 1940 and had a lot of transition over the years. It was initially started on 15th September 1940, in preparation for the Golden Jubilee of the Portuguese Jesuits in Belgaum and the 400th Universal Jubilee of the founding of the Society of Jesus by St. Ignatius of Loyola. It comprised of a few working Old Boys together with the college students. The moving spirits behind the association were Fr. Claude Saldanha SJ from the Jesuit Fathers, Mr. P.G. Lobo from the staff and others. Boys worked with a motto to give back to society, not only in Belgaum, but across India, and those abroad even started Chapters of the OBA in other Countries.
Enthusiasm was very great in the early stages; cricket and hockey matches were held regularly between the Old Boys and the senior students of St. Paul’s. Get-togethers were held annually, and the Old Boys participated in the Annual Sports of the school.
The Association prospered for a time, but regrettably, began to wane over the years, especially in Belgaum, since most of the boys left the city immediately after they completed their school education.
Even though the Association did not grow in Belgaum, in other places Old Boys made an effort to form Associations, where a large number of Old Boys were around. Many iterations of the OBA were formed in Goa over the years, as a large number of boys studied in St. Paul’s and went back home to Goa after their schooling. Another significant chapter of the OBA was seen in East Africa (i.e. in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Zanzibar) were functioning vigorously until the attainment of African independence, when the Old Boys along with the majority of the Asian community, began leaving East Africa and dispersed to the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and India.
The Old Boys’ Association in East Africa kept in contact, and remained loyal and grateful to their Alma Mater throughout their stay in East Africa. A case in point is the Old Boys’ Association (Tanzania) which donated the ‘Silver Rolling Shield’ which is now presented every year to the Boy of the Year, at the Passing-out Parade of St. Paul’s. In addition, the Old Boys of East Africa contributed handsomely towards the “School Building Fund,” when Fr. Irineu Lobo, and later when Fr. C. C. Coutinho SJ of the Jesuit Community in St. Paul’s visited East Africa in 1956.
The Rebirth of the Old Boys Association (OBA)
Early 2000’s to Mid 2011…
Sometime in 2000-2001, 8-10 Ex-Paulites came together, only as a bunch of fired up ex-classmates, who had the urge to do something good for the school in particular, and to the society in general. Their aim was to try and repay their Alma Mater, in whatever way they could.
Gradually, they began enrolling more members to join this new Association with a totally different name. In keeping up with the school motto, “Let us put on the armour of light,” they conducted a Ghazal Night, performed by renowned artist “Pankaj Udhas.” The fund raiser was organized with the help and backing of the school students, staff and parents, but the money was kept to be utilized for various community service projects.
The Old Boys began conducting ‘Get-Togethers’ and reunions of their batches with varied success. Some had a large number attending, yet was an effort to some extent limited, only to a few batches and mostly the boys in Belgaum.
To sum up, one might say that positively these Associations and reunions, whether formal or just informal, built a spirit de corps among Alumni. A closeness and bond was built up between the members no matter when they had passed out of St. Paul’s. This in turn led to the 2006 Jubilee Celebrations. The hundred and fiftieth year Jubilee Celebrations were a huge success, with lot of effort put in by a number of Ex-Paulites. They worked day and night, alongside the then Principal Fr. Agnelo Pinto SJ, and assisted the school management with the happenings. A committee was formed for the Jubilee Celebrations which included some Ex-Paulites, who generously assisted the Teachers and Jesuits with the events. Although the celebrations were conducted and organized by the school in full, and were not part of the Alumni Clubs, several Alumni contributed a huge amount of time toward its success.
The 2006 Celebrations also in a way, sowed the seed for the birth of the PBW “Paulites of Belgaum Worldwide,” as well as the PL “Paulite Link.”
The Birth of the Paulites of Belgaum Worldwide (PBW)
Beginning 2011 onwards…
In December 2010, several alumni of St. Paul’s High School got together to organize a reunion from the 1947 batch onward to the 2010 batch. A gathering of around 1350 alumni and staff for the two-day event on December 4th and 5th, 2010 was accomplished. With the families of the alumni present for the grand function, the gathering had a crowd of over 1800 people.
The magnitude with which this reunion was organized was a big achievement, and it in turn brought about the start of the mega alumni association, which later came to be referred to as the “Paulites of Belgaum Worldwide.” Another significant achievement of this team, was when the Limca Book of Records acknowledged the event to be a “National Record for the largest reunion conducted.”
A larger meeting of Paulites was invited in the School Hall, on 17th September 2011. The seniors, Anthony Dennis, George Coelho, Medioma Bhada and others attended. A call was made to Paulites to volunteer to form the Ad Hoc committee, which would put in place, a proper, authentic, St. Paul’s Old Boys Association. Around 60 Paulites attained basic membership, paying ₹.500/- each.
The OBA was officially registered on 27th of June 2012, under the name “Paulites of Belgaum World Wide” (St. Paul’s High School) vide Regn. No. DRL/SN/SOR/BGM/328/2012-13 with the Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Bgm.
August 2015 – January 2023…
In the end of August 2015, a new 5 member team was elected to the PBW. The team conducted assisted by 140+ Alumni from various batches.
| Paulites of Belgaum Worldwide | ||
| Present Team | ||
| Name | Batch | Position |
| Manoj Michael | 1990 | President |
| Yogendrasingh Bhati | 1990 | Vice-President |
| Mahaveer Miraji | 1990 | Secretary |
| Sampat Kittur | 1990 | Joint Secretary |
| Siddharth Jagtap | 1990 | Treasurer |
A major undertaking by this team was to include 3-5 representatives from each batch, who would in-turn act as a bridge between the committee and the individual batches, thus being able to have a wider reach. The respective batches were met one after the other, and volunteers were chosen to represent their batches; the first meeting was with the 1988 batch, in October 2015, and then gradually the other batches were roped in. The process continued up-to early June 2016, by which time about 44 batches had their representatives set in place, right from the batch of 1971 to the recent most batch of 2016.
The representatives, along with the team, have played an instrumental role in organizing a number of activities from the beginning of their term, up to December 2016, where the school has attempted and successfully achieved an International Guinness Record for the World’s largest Reunion.
January 2023 – Present…
The baton of the PBW was handed over to its newly elected team, led by Dr. Madhav Prabhu, and under the guidance of the Jesuit Management. This team too has been very active and has organised a number of wonderful events.
| PATRONS | |
| Fr. Savio Abreu SJ | |
| Fr. Sebastian Pereira SJ | |
| Manoj Michael | |
| Aslam Saith (1977) | |
| Praveen K Kulkarni (1980) | |
| Ramangouda T | |
| CORE TEAM | |
| Dr. Madhav Prabhu | President |
| Paresh Murkute | Vice President |
| Aniket Kshatriya | Secretary |
| Jasminder Singh Khurana | Joint Secretary |
| Imran Sanadi | Joint Secretary |
| Tanveer Ashtewale | Treasurer |
| Tanveer Munshi | Joint Treasurer |
| COMMITTEES | |
| Almuni Magazine | |
| S. Bandukwalla (2005) | Convenor |
| Deepak Pilay (1985) | Co-Convernor |
| Catering and Hospitality | |
| Bhushan Gawde | Convenor |
| Amit Killekar | Co-Convernor |
| Adil Dharwadkar | Team Member |
| Danish Saith | Team Member |
| Fahad Beerwala | Team Member |
| Events and Entertainment | |
| Sushim Gotadki | Convenor |
| Rajan Gulbani | Co-Convernor |
| Brian Dsouza | Team Member |
| Sailesh Mangle | Team Member |
| Yuvraj Killekar | Team Member |
| Medical Projects | |
| Dr. Anil Patil | Convenor |
| Kishor Kerkar | Co-Convernor |
| Bharat Kallimani | Team Member |
| Durgesh Haritay | Team Member |
| Gulabchand Chougle | Team Member |
| Dr. Radhakrishna Herwadekar | Team Member |
| Dr. Sameer Kutre | Team Member |
| Press and Media Team | |
| Savio Dias | Convenor |
| Uday Kinjewadekar | Co-Convernor |
| Digvijay Sidnal | Team Member |
| Kalim Madiwale | Team Member |
| Siddharthraje Sawant | Team Member |
| Vinayak Dhamanekar | Team Member |
| Service Projects | |
| Kiran Nippanikar | Convenor |
| Vishal Amble | Co-Convernor |
| Abhimanyu Daga | Team Member |
| Anant Nadgouda | Team Member |
| Santosh Gawade | Team Member |
| Vinod Gotadki | Team Member |
| Sports | |
| Amit P Patil | Convenor |
| Urjeet Swamy | Co-Convernor |
| Anush Porwal | Team Member |
| Mohammed Tahir Saraffe | Team Member |
Connect with the PBW
- The PBW Official Website
http://www.paulitesofbelgaum.com/ - The PBW Official Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/paulitesbgmww
Click here to see the Activities and Events organized by the PBW.