Shillong, Oct 16: With tears in their eyes and a sense of nostalgia, a large number of former students of St. Edmund’s School, Shillong, gathered on Wednesday to bid a final farewell to their beloved teacher – Brother Eric D’Souza, affectionately known as “Dasu”, before he was laid to rest at the Laitumkhrah Catholic Cemetery in Shillong.

Brother D’Souza, who had been bedridden with Progressive supranuclear palsy, passed away on Sunday at 1:20 p.m. at Shanti Niwas, located inside the Regina Mundi Church complex in Vasco, Goa. He was 74 years old.

The mortal remains of the educator were brought to Shillong on Tuesday and kept at the St. Edmund’s School Chapel, where the solemn funeral Mass was performed by the Archbishop of Shillong, Most Reverend Victor Lyngdoh, in the presence of other bishops, priests and both past and present students of St. Edmund’s School, where Brother D’Souza had taught for many years.

Among those attending the service was Meghalaya Chief Minister, Conrad K. Sangma, who was a former student of Brother D’Souza, along with his St. Edmund’s School batchmates.

Brother D’Souza, a member of the Christian Brothers congregation, was known for his dedication to education and for founding Providence School – a school for underprivileged children, during his years of teaching at St. Edmund’s.

While inaugurating the Providence School in 2000, Brother D’Souza said, “We believe we have seen and heard the needs of our children who live below the poverty line and have committed ourselves to responding to their needs.”

His goal was to empower underprivileged children with skills that would make them self-sufficient and independent.

He was also the first among Indians to write a book on computers called “chipping in” at 1988.

These were the qualities that made Brother D’Souza deeply loved by many.

One of his student, Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, credited Brother D’Souza for shaping the person he is today. Brother D’Souza taught Khan during his formative years at St. Columba’s School in Delhi.

The world-renowned actor recalled Brother D’Souza’s influence on his life during the first episode of the 2000s chat show ‘Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai’, hosted by the late actor Farooq Shaikh. Khan described Brother D’Souza as “the guiding light” of his life and “the only man” he looked up to.

“If there is one man in this whole wide world… I don’t have any idols or anyone I look up to, but he is the only man in the world that I truly look up to. He taught us how to play football and hockey. I had a lot of energy, and so did all of us, and he channelled it so we didn’t become ‘taporis’ or ‘gundas’ or ‘badmash’… because it’s very easy to get waylaid and misled during youth. He made sure that he gave us enough work—and with great fun. He used to play the guitar for us, sing songs for us—he genuinely is the guiding light of my life,” Khan said.

He added, “… if there is anybody else on this earth whom I think of after my parents and look up to, it’s Brother D’Souza.”

Brother D’Souza’s legacy extends beyond a Chief Minister and a world-famous actor. Doctors, engineers, veterinarians, surgeons, professors, lawyers, journalists, and countless others were touched and molded by him as students.

He was a seminal figure in the lives of many students at St. Columba’s School in Delhi, St. Edmund’s School in Shillong, and other schools under the Christian Brothers congregation in Assam, Mangalore, and West Bengal.

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