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DECEMBER 2009
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ALOYSIUS
G. REGO
An Educationist with a Vision

Gp Capt Achchyut Kumar

If you are an ardent reader of THE TEENAGER who like a true bookworm gnaws through each page of the magazine then the name Aloysius G. Rego should not sound unfamiliar. After all, it appears in each issue of THE TEENAGER as one of the founders of this youth magazine. However, for a generation of students of St Joseph's College Allahabad, the name is more than just a name appearing in any magazine. The name Fr Rego could send a shiver down their spines when they were students but today, it is a name held with ultimate veneration.

The greatness of Fr Rego
lay not only in his vision
and to see its implementation
but his total involvement
in whatever he did
My encounter with Fr Aloysius George Rego started all over my name and it was the start of an undying relation despite an interactive period of just five and a half years. I had gained entry into St Joseph's Collegiate (SJC), Allahabad, in the fourth standard in 1964. The school had a lot of activities and two among them were the Essay and the Short Story Competitions. My prize winning efforts in both of them were to find a place in the school magazine and the school wanted to carry my name as 'Achchyut Kumar De'. There was a brief period of exchange of letters between Fr Rego and my mother and though the consequence of who won the argument would be obvious, it brought me under the close watch of the Headmaster to be, Fr A.G. Rego.

1966 was the year when I came across THE TEENAGER for the first time mainly due to the insistence of Fr Rego that we ought to subscribe to the magazine since it was aimed at putting the youth on the right path of development. 'Anecdotes of the Great' was my favourite column since it reflected the character of some of the greatest personalities like Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill and their likes.

In 1967 Fr Rego became the Headmaster of the school and it marked the 'reformation' period of SJC. The sway of the short-statured bearded Fr Rego was feared equally by the students as well as the teachers. It was a different age when parents and teachers were concerned equally about the disciplinary aspects of the students and caning at school for indiscipline or carelessness, perhaps, only meant more punishment at home, if the parents came to know about it.
The phantom of Fr Rego was all pervading; he could appear anywhere. Our batch passed out of school in 1971 with 44 students in the High School batch and another 52 in the Senior Cambridge batch. It will amaze all and sundry that today, even after 38 years, more than eighty of us are aware of each other's whereabouts and share each other's moments of joy and sorrow regularly. We owe that camaraderie and many more things to just one man - Fr Aloysius George Rego.

One of the major changes brought in by the new Headmaster was the shuffling of the students of each section into different sections of the next higher class as they progressed in school. This ensured that we made more friends among our batch mates and that is why I give the credit for the expanse of our camaraderie to Fr Rego.


That a generation of students
whom he trained and nurtured
remember him even today with
a sense of gratitude and awe
is the greatest reward that
any educationist can ever reap
The year 1970 also saw the beginning of a Parliament in school with a Prime Minister and Cabinet of Ministers, an Opposition party with its leader and even some independent members. The passage that each speaker spoke at the elocution or debate competitions was censored or changed by Fr Rego personally, as were speeches of the ministers and other members of the school parliament. Succinctly, the education in SJC was all round and complete.

The greatness of Fr Rego lay not only in his vision and to see its implementation but his total involvement in whatever he did. His Aids to English Composition series published by Better Yourself Books, Mumbai, even today, under the name English Composition has no parallel in guiding students in learning English.

Twenty-eight years of my career in the defence forces has made me fervently believe that discipline is the starting point of all success and achievement. Discipline not only demands obedience but it calls for immaculate planning and organising ability which in turn demands the backing of a vast expanse of knowledge and decision-making ability. Having been ground under Fr Rego's discipline, life in the Air Force had always been a cakewalk for according to the Aids to English Composition Part III, "What is bred in the bone, will not come out in the flesh.” Three of us were at Kawar this 4th of September to embroil ourselves once again with this great man; it was the least we could have done to express our gratitude towards a Headmaster we all know we owe so much. The occasion was the 25th death anniversary of Fr Rego. The occasion revealed more of what I had known about Fr Rego.

The stories about Fr Rego's greatness can be never-ending. That a generation of students whom he trained and nurtured remember him even today with a sense of gratitude and awe is the greatest reward that any educationist can ever reap. The achievements of Fr Rego were never recognised by any award of any kind but for those whose lives he touched upon, Fr Rego was definitely the greatest among the great educationists of all times.

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