User:Maxpk/Ligoury Bernard Pereira

Ligoury Bernard Pereira (1906-1980)

Born: March 10, 1906..... a Mangalorean Catholic, he was baptised Ligoury Bernard Eulogious Pereira Married: May 03, 1933 to Stella Elenora (nee) D'Souza at Kodiyalbail Church, Mangalore. Died: April 07, 1980 - at Bangalore (interred at the Hosur Road Cemetary, Bangalore).

Educator, pioneer, philantropist and humanist par excellence; from humble beginnings in Bajpe, educated at Mangalore's St. Aloysius' College. Started working career as a tutor in the junior division of the same St. Aloysius, graduated to a teacher, to a Professor, and then to be the Head of the Oriental Languages Department – the Kannada language being his forte. Along the way, he was the first in the Mangalorean Christian community to acquire an MA in Kannada. In a rare combination of academics and outdoors, he was also the College Physical Director, cricket coaching being closest to his heart among other sporty interests. His reputation as a great orator, got the British to borrow his services for their War effort propaganda from which he reverted back to teaching after the II World War. From being an educattionist he then diversified, pioneering into fields of insurance, textiles, pharmaceuticals, coffee export, finally to become a coffee grower of repute. The sparkle in his eyes, the song on his lips and his ready sense of humour made a much loved person. Generations of his students all over the world look back in nostalgia at this great teacher who was responsible in no small measure for their success in life and for making them what they are today.

History
Kuntala Kambla village of Bajpe in the then South Kanara District of the Madras Presidency (now Dakshina Kannada of Karnataka) - India, was home to this great educator, philantropist and humanist; and to his ancestors too in the illustrious Pereira-Kamath family. The area being entirely a stronghold of the Pereiras, most of the Mangalore airport land if not all was said to be acquired from this family by the government when an airport for Mangalore was first contemplated. Apart from being holders of great tracts of land, the Pereiras were famed for their vocal chords and customarily entrusted with the task of using them to glorify the Lord by organizing the choir at Pezar church to which parish they then belonged. In this tradition Ligoury grew up with his siblings, all of nine, to his parents Joseph and Florina. Joseph being the son of Paschalia and Balthazar, who was son to Anthony and grandson to Ignatius Pereira - the oldest knowm ancestor in the lineage.

From Bajpe, his quest for knowledge and education brought Ligoury to Mangalore, and to its St Aloysius’ College - an institution, at which two uncles – his father’s brothers Martin and Bernard, had earlier made a mark. Martin the great athlete was a cricketer too, playing for the erstwhile Mysore Maharaja's team and won the Queen Victoria gold medal. (This medal, the family chronicles discose, were melted for buttons to adorn the sibling’s ‘kutaon’ at the latter's wedding).

It is at St Aloysius that Ligoury studied and it is here that he graduated from a student to a tutor, to a teacher to a Professor, and then to be the Head of the Oriental Languages Department – the Kannada language being his forte. Along the way, he was the first in the Christian community to acquire an MA in Kannada. Many of his students now scattered across India and some in different parts of the globe, fail not to remember how melodiously vibrant his classes were – a dull and drab language discourse made interesting through his Sanskrit slokas and musical renditions!

His love of the outdoors made him excel in sports and games as well, which ultimately crowned him with the rare distinction of wearing two divergent caps – to also be the Physical Director to the College, while heading its Languages Department in the academic arena. His love of cricket particularly led him to coach many an aspirant, some even to don the cap for the State, and at least one who made it to the Nation’s Test Cricket team. That this one returned to pavilion with a duck – bowled out on the very first ball he faced in the one and only Test match he was considered for, was always a sore unmentionable taboo for us as children, and a matter of mirth in moments of merriment for a good guffaw in later life.

Ligoury had a fantastic sense of humour, which made him a compulsive humorist. And he was a great singer, ever the life of a party or social get-together. His high academic qualifications and reputation for being a silver-tongued orator both in English and Kannada soon caught the eye of the powers-that-be in government. His services were drafted by the colonial rulers during the Second World War for their National War Front propaganda – a bit controversial then in the face of Mahatma Gandhi’s own call to fellow Indians to boycott the British war effort, not withstanding the legacy we now have of countless cemeteries and war memorials littered across Europe, North Africa, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, South and South-East Asia commemorating the numerous lives laid down by Indian soldiers as part of the British troops. It was during those hectic touring days that yours truly was born in Salem. The rulers would not spare Ligoury even after the victory of the Allied Forces in the War, and retained his services to over see their post-war Re-construction Schemes.

But Ligoury’s first love was teaching – to which and to St Aloysius he soon returned in the mid late 40s. Even so, if ever there was a chequered career it was here and in this man to see: For a man who began life as an educationist, who was dragged into working for the government, return to academics apparently proved placid. And all those accumulated connections and networking his travels and governmental experiences had afforded him, now threw up opportunities: Opportunities enough, for him to deviate and venture into the then nascent fields of Insurance, Textiles, Pharmaceuticals, and finally – Coffee! His pioneering and dynamic spirit not only reaped him rich dividends, they also opened up new vistas of opportunities to countless other members of the community to venture forth similarly.

As the father of six children he was conscious of his moral duties to his family and was the embodiment of strength to them. In this he had the whole-hearted support of his life partner Stella – a devoted wife with phenomenal courage, tenacity and fortitude. The sparkle in Ligoury’s eyes, the song on his lips, and his ready wit and sense of humour made him a much-loved friend, an ideal husband, a model parent and a perfect teacher. Very many all over the world look back with nostalgia at this great teacher who was responsible in no small measure for their own success in life and for making them what they are today. Knowledge and discipline he instilled in all who came in contact with him – be it a student, a colleague or a friend, an employee, or his own offsprings.

A man of imagination and lover of the classics, he fed his children’s insatiable thirst for stories and legend even before they stepped into school. By saturating them with everything from Bible tales to the fables from Aesop, the Panchatantra and the Jatakas from the Brihad-katha. From the Phoenician and Greek Mythology, to Ramayana and the Mahabharata to tales from Jason and his Argonauts, Homer’s Iliad, the travels and travails of Ulysses, the adventures of Hercules, and of Sindbad the Sailor. To Camelot’s King Arthur and the Knights of his Round Table. To the works of Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Walter Scott and Victor Hugo. His offsprings look back in awesome wonder at the wealth of knowledge imparted to them his children by Ligoury, just by means of the ritualistic “story time” each evening.

A lover of nature and of the outdoors, his passion for shikar was legendary - in those halcyon days when game was still aplenty. His sons, invariably the accompanying beneficiaries of many of his hunting expeditions, adventures and escapades – be it to adorn the family’s scrumptious table with bird, deer or boar meat, be it to get gunnysack-fulls of screeching bats for blood to massage the sickly last of his children with, be it for sport in the days when combing the jungle for big game with the beat of drum was not uncommon.

An ardent lover of Konkani, the love for the mother tongue that he instilled in his children through the delicacy of his spoken word, and the ancient ballads that he sang, withstood the test of time. To be remembered even in later life at parties with guitars and by the piano; with most Goans invariably wondering in amazement at the treasury of authentic words for long forgotten Konkani ballads – all thanks to Ligoury and the songs that he put on his offsprings' lips!

In March 2006 was the centenary of Ligoury's birth. The Mangalorean Magazine dedicated its March 2006 issue to his memory in a centennial tribute of his birth centenary.

References In Memorium: Ligoury Bernard Pereira: April issue: The Konkan In Delhi "Mangalore"- organ of the Catholic Association of South Kanara: March-2006 issue: Vol LXXX No.3