Page 16 - Y Mind

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Carroll Miranda
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Carroll Miranda has been in Holy Family Church since 1975. She has a son
and 2 daughters and has been active in the parish since 2000. She has
been teaching at Vinayalaya since Feb 2011.
inayalaya for me is a house of prayer, ice English, the other 2, being engineers, were
Vhaving made a few retreats there. While sent to Holy Family School to learn Marathi.
there, I used to see the brothers practising They actually sat with the other children. It was
their reading and thought I could help them. quite an experience for them. What caused me
This however remained just a thought for sadness was when some of them left midway
some years. One Sunday, years later, I heard as they felt that this was not the life for them.
an appeal in church for someone willing to Things changed once again when the Juniors
come and help out with the English class be- were back in Vinayalaya. That year there were
ing conducted there. I felt that this was an 21 Juniors and 4 prenovices who sat together

opportunity for me to do what I had earli- for some English classes that I took for them.
er wanted. So I went to Vinayalaya the next After that year I could not continue as
day and met Fr. Francis D’Melo. I guess he I was looking after my mother and her condi-
was very happy that at least one person had tion got bad. I needed to be with her full time.
responded and so I was welcomed here. She passed away that year. The next academic
I was surprised to see young men and year too, I was not here as we were out. How-
women in the class. At that time the En- ever for the 2 years that I did not teach En-
glish Lab was open to outsiders too, so in glish, I was here for 3 classes each year to teach
addition to the prenovices who didn’t know a skill that I thought most men, especially fu-
English, there were also postulants from ture priests would need. It was a short stint
various convents and young people com- on mending their clothes. Most of them took

ing from as far away as Vasai and Uttan. to the needle and thread with appreciation.
Seeing me leave the church and go to This year I happened to meet Fr Au-
Vinayalaya after mass every day, roused the cu- brey at mass on the 18th March. He asked
riosity of another couple, Norman and Jennifer me if I would be willing to come back and
Rasquinha, who also volunteered to come and teach. Little did we know what was in store
teach. So now instead of just one extra teach- for all of us in the coming months. The pan-
er, we were now 3, to help in the class. This ar- demic and lockdown created a miserable
rangement worked perfectly for 2 ½ years, as situation. But when July arrived I was ready
we had children abroad and so someone was to take up the challenge once again. I was

always there when the others had to be out. happy to see 2 of my former students in the
Things changed after that year. The class class as Juniors. Listening to them pray and
was now only for the Prenovices. So instead of sing is like listening to a choir of angels.
a class full of students, there were just 4 that These years at Vinayalaya have given me
first year. It was just me taking the classes for an opportunity to give back a little of what I have
the next 4 years, with numbers ranging from received from the Jesuits. God bless them all.
3 to 10. For one year, while I taught 1 prenov-

15 Young Minds 2020