We the girls from Carmel….

Carmel College, Nuvem completes fifty years and this brings to mind those wonderful years we spent there as a bunch of teenagers.

I would love to dedicate my reminiscences to my beautiful companions, scattered all over the world. 

Here is to us.

Antonieta Teles e Noronha

Belinda Rodrigues

Elizabeth Kovoor

Kirona Furtado

Glynis D'Silva Vashi

Ruffy Rose D’Costa

Blandina Dias

Laura Reis

Shelley D’Costa

Teresa

Viena Rodrigues

Prabha Naik Raikar Dhume

Frieda Rodrigues
Annabel Aguiar
Geeta Iyer Mahadevan
Sonia do Rosario Gomes

Our parents sent us to Carmel College for Women with confidence, a sense of well being and unadulterated glee.

Confidence and the sense of well being were based on the fact that Carmel College provided quality education in a select atmosphere and the glee came from the certitude that there were no boys who could and would cast polluting glances on their darling daughters. Never mind that boys could be met anywhere, we knew boys, our neighbors, but they were not considered dangerous, you see we knew their parents too. The boys they were afraid of were those at neighboring colleges. Those were the boys we longed to meet. But sadly our opinions were not sought nor were they ever taken into consideration.

                Oh yes, Carmel College was a homely place, accommodated in the Holy Rosary Convent at Nuvem, here we were masses of women of all shapes and sizes.

There were the nuns of course, housed in their own wing. We were extremely curious, what did they do? How did they live? Forgetting that they were women just like us. At sixteen those finer distinctions escape you.

 The Holy Rosary Convent was a fully operational School, a much older Institution than the College, the school had its own boarding. The College had its own Hostel.

How was all this arranged? It does seem amazing that nothing overlapped; everything did run so very smoothly.

Psst do not forget even for a moment they have God on their side…

We were a very small group of girls who entered the First Year Science, a First Class or even a High Second Class convinced our parents that we were intelligent indeed. Of course we too were pretty sure we were and surreptitiously looked down on those lesser beings, those who studied Arts. 

At the beginning of each day, we stood in rows in the Biology Lab and belted out the Carmel Hymn.

‘O Carmel fair whose peaks arise

O'er Esdraelon's thrice fruited trees;

Bathe in the blue light of the skies,

And laved forever by the seas,

I love the greenness of thy woods,

The fragrance of thy spiced air,

Thy wine inspired solitudes

 Carmel dear ! O Carmel Fair!

How good it felt to sing at the top of our voices, a little childish perhaps but oh so therapeutic. We trooped to our classes after the Bell for the day had been clanged.

The Nuns taught us practically all the subjects. I for one felt terrible when they changed their White habit with a Black veil and that lovely wooden rosary at their waists to an ordinary sari. They swished in and out of the classrooms so elegantly in those habits; it gave them a sort of classy distinction.

As in all aspects of life they varied in their teaching, there were those who strongly believed in the maxim, ‘Spare the rod, and spoil the Child’. And then there were those, who believed that we were adults, old enough to study and lead our own lives.

Sister Josephita belonged to the first lot; she the terror of Mathematics is a beautiful lady, those flashing black as coal eyes struck such fear in our hearts. She worked hard; she wanted us to master the subject. Of course there were some who just loved every equation she taught, but sadly Antonieta and I wanted other things in life. 

Antonieta loved debates, acting in plays, speeches, I on the other hand was a quiet little mouse, but we shared a passion. Reading, and more reading, just about anything that came our way. We plundered the Library, for books. We begged and borrowed books. All that reading did not leave much time for Mathematics to the despair of Sister Josephita or for that matter Physics, which was the domain of another Tartar, Sister Linda. Mention her and I shake like a jelly. They wanted us to do beautifully, they wanted us to absorb as much as they gave us; Unfortunately we never realized it then.

The calm and poised gang of Chemistry, Sisters, Odille, Florence Mary and Margaret Angela had decided long back that they would teach us, but they would also give us a choice; learn if you want to, the choice was ours. A wiser decision with much less stress for us, as well as for them.

Most of us came from the surrounding villages or Margão, our clothes were those stitched by our tailor, he came once a year to our homes, we combed catalogues, we discussed patterns, length of the hems, buttons, rick-rack, we dressed up neatly, nothing exotic, although the Panjim crowd did have a more fashionable wardrobe. But one term, all of a sudden, a bunch of girls from Africa descended on Carmel College. Talk of sophistication, they spoke excellent English, they wore the most fantastic clothes, they studied well, they were good at sports, they were something to behold. To us the gauche village girls they were exotic. On the one occasion where we could display our clothes and our dancing skills, The Carmel Ball, they were the stars.

We of course had some sort of revenge on our parents, as the Science section had so very few girls we went to Chowgule College for all our exams, which included the Practical Exams. One of our Africa returned colleague, Shelley D’Costa had a WV Beetle, we piled into that and went for exams.

You can imagine the grand entrance we made, nothing short of a red carpet.

For the duration of that week we were the toast of Chowgule College.

  Antonieta Teles e Noronha and Sonia do Rosario Gomes