Programme for the month Saturday - 7th Blue & White Ball with Goa s top band A 26-8.00 p.m. onwards TM Thursday - 12th ibrowse Book Club Meet - 6:00 p.m. onwards Friday - 13th Tribute to the legendary U2-8:00 p.m. onwards Saturday - 14th Wild Orchids performing - 8:00 p.m. onwards Sunday - 15th Onam Sadhya (Lunch) - 12:00 noon onwards Monthly Bumper Housie - 7:15 p.m. onwards Friday - 20th What s the Good Word (Game show) - 7:00 p.m. onwards Saturday - 21st 21 Card Rummy Bumper K O Tournament - 3:00 p.m. onwards Four Strokes performing - 8:00 p.m. onwards Sunday - 22nd Wild Wild West Theme (Teen program) - 11:00 a.m. onwards Saturday - 28th Mango Showers with DJ Vinay - 8:00 p.m. onwards Friday Bar Nites All Fridays - 8:00 p.m. (except the 13th) Saturday Housie All Saturdays - 7:15 p.m. (except the 7th & the 28th) Sunday Housie - All Sundays - 7:15 p.m. Whist Drive - All Mondays - 6:30 p.m. Duplicate Bridge - All Tuesdays - 6:00 p.m. Rummy Knockout Tournament All Sundays - 3:15 p.m. CATHOLIC CLUB 22, Museum Road, Bangalore - 560 025. Tel: 080-49023333, 080-41128230 Email: info@catholiclub.com www.catholiclub.com Edited by: Brian Albuquerque Published by: Catholic Club, 22, Museum Road, Bangalore - 560 025 Printed at: National Printing Press, Bangalore - 560 095 For Private Circulation Only September 2013 Regd News Paper I Regd No. KA/BG-GPO-2535/06-09 I RNI No. Kareng03340/2008 I Permitted to post at Bangalore GPO I Posting Date: 29 and 30 I 12 Pages The old order changeth yielding place to the new Alfred Lord Tennyson. Yes, my dear members, there has been a perceptible change as our New Committee has come out firing on all cylinders. This Change was most perceptible in the four functions I attended this month. The first was the SERRA CLUB OF BANGALORE Quiz Competition which was presided over by our Patron His Grace, the Most Rev. Dr. Bernard Moras, the Archbishop of Bangalore. The enthusiasm and zest shown by His Grace in interacting with the children who took part in the quiz competition and with the priests / nuns / teachers had to be seen to be believed. His Grace also took time out to watch the actual competition before leaving for his other engagements. Our grateful thanks to him for gracing the occasion. We were looking forward to His Grace celebrating Holy Mass and hoisting the National Flag on the Family Day when all of you, my dear members, could have had the privilege of meeting him. But due to some sudden ill health His Grace was unable to attend both. The Most Rev. Msgr. Jayanathan our Spiritual Advisor and Advisory Member in the Committee, however, deputized for His Grace, celebrating Holy Mass and hoisting the National Flag. His words of wisdom both from the pulpit and from the dais lent special meaning to our Family Day. The Most Rev. Fr. A. Sagayanathan our Parish Priest also graced our Family Day and had a word of advice for our members. Needless to say we are grateful to both of them for taking active part in our Family Day. I am sure all of you dear members who attended the Family Day had a blast, especially our youth. YEAH, YEAH, YEAH. YEAH!! The other two functions that I attended were the Independence Day Rummy Bumper Knockout Tournament and the Monthly Bumper Housie. Both very enjoyable though I didn t win a thing at either! No skill at the first and no luck at the second. But it was fun All the Same! I am sure the respective Member-in-Charge will regale you with the highlights of both these programmes. So as you can see, we the New Committee, have collectively put our best foot forward. We would like you, dear members, to be with us all the way through. Any suggestions, new ideas on how to improve things are most welcome. Give us your FEED BACK. The best will be published in the Feed Back section. All the very best! Brian Albuquerque President President s Message `1
ENTERTAINMENT We kick started the entertainment in August with a Tribute to Jim Reevs with Carlton & Sheridan which had a fantastic response. Family Day celebrations on the 15th of August had a record turnout of 1250 + people of all ages with games, housie, music, beer & biryani. In the month of September get your dancing shoes out as we start off with the Blue & White Ball on Saturday, the 7th of Sept with Goa s top band A-26. On Friday, the 13th we have a Tribute to the legendary U2 by the UK band Elevation. On Sunday, the 15th noon we are celebrating Onam Sadhya (Lunch) at the club with a wide spread of traditional vegetarian delicacies from Kerala. Make sure you are there as we have plantain leaves to serve only 400 members and 100 guests. We end the month with Mango Showers on Saturday, the 28th of Sept with our in house DJ Vinay to rock the night away. It s going to be an action packed month and make sure that you don t miss out on all the fun. Naveen Mendonza SWIMMING POOL The weather continues to be cloudy and the water remains cold for the average swimmer. Hopefully this will all be a thing of the past with our efforts to heat the pool on in full swing. We are at the moment examining all the vendors who have shown interest. This will take a bit of time as we have to be sure we award the work to the right party. Rest assured that things are progressing well. Speedo, the swimming apparels company will hopefully have their kiosk up and running by the 1st of September and this would enable members to buy goggles, caps, trunks, costumes and the like. The camps are running as usual with batches from 7.15-8.15am, 3.30-5.30 pm and 8.00-9.00 pm during the week. On weekends we have the week end batch from 9.30-10.30 am. The remaining times are free for the members. Prakash Alvares children It was a fun-filled evening for the children of our club. The evening began with all the children showing off their creativity on a paper bag which was designed in their own special way. The little ones made cute little wands with Reshma`s help. Then, came the fun part where they got into groups and played games, took part in a club-quiz, unscrambled words, some tried car racing, ringing the pole and aiming the ball. Aaron provided good music. The kids enjoyed every moment of the evening, relishing gone-mad-wafers, yummy snacks and juice. The magic show kept the children enthralled till the end. Each child was given a take-away in the designer bag created by them. Thank you parents for sending your children and making it a very enjoyable event. A big thank you to Fiona, Gloria, Reshma, Jewel, Annie, Lukose, Brian Northwood and all those who helped and made this day a big success. Joey Santiago cards Independence 13-Card Rummy Bumper Knock Out Tournament, held on August 18, 2013 was a great success. The Joint winners of the tournament were Mr. Shankar Hegde and Mr. Patrick D Costa. Congratulations!! A big thank you to all the sub-committee members for all the support in organizing this tournament and also to all you dear members who attended in large numbers. Thanks to our President, Mr. Brian Albuquerque who kindly made it convenient to inaugurate the tournament and give out prizes and also participated. Our thanks to Mr. D. Williams and Ms. Akshita of USL for the sponsorship of the fellowship and also, the caterers, SDC who gave our members a sumptuous buffet. The 21-Card Rummy Bumper Knock Out Tournament will be held on Saturday, September 21, 2013 from 3 p.m. onwards which is open to Members only. The contribution from the club for this tournament is Rs. 15,000/-. Entry fee (which is inclusive of fellowship & dinner) is as follows: Member: Rs.500/-. There will be one Re-entry and there will be a discount for Senior Citizens over 65 years. Please do complete your registration with the card room banker by September 19, 2013. Looking forward to an eventful year and continued support and active participation from you dear members. Ricky Patel 2 3
The first tournament of the year, the 3 in 1, was well received and saw over 30 entrants. It was a hard fought tournament and at the end of the day the team of Karl Alphonso, Kevin Rego and Kunal emerged the winners beating Aaron Santiago, Kevin Martin and Rohan Mascarenhas in the finals. The tournament also saw a large turnout of youth and we had a special prize of Most Promising Player which went to Aaron Stevens and Keenan Gawde. Congrats to the winners and thanks to all the members who supported the event. We will kick off the month of September with a youth pool tournament on the 8th, which will be followed with the Doubles warm up tournament commencing on the 9th and then the Louis Mathias tournament which is an interclub doubles tournament. All members interested in playing, kindly give your names to the markers. Rohan Mascarenhas Billiards If you have any suggestions for improvements in the Sportico or Health Club kindly contact the Member in Charge or Sub Committee members. Lukose Abraham housie sportico The Catholic Club Table Tennis ladder tournament has been delayed due to some changes being planned in the TT room. The tournament is now scheduled to start on the 11th of September, 2013. Kindly give your names to the marker to take part. We would like to make a special mention of Ms. Rachael Joseph, an active squash player on the Catholic Club Squash ladder, becoming runner up in the Womens category in the KBA Open Squash Tournament. Congratulations! Catholic Club Squash ladder Rank Men Women Under 18 1. Johnson TJ Lally Vincent Joseph P Lukose 2. John Smith Rachael Joseph Aditya Padival 3. Ammar Fareed Karen Santiago Abran Fareed Catholic Club Badminton ladder Rank Men Women Under 18 1. Tony Cyriac Lally Vincent Aditya Padival 2. Rahul D Souza Rachael Joseph - 3. Arun D Souza Alisha Nina Sima - All I can say is WOW! and that is because we have had an AMAZING MONTH. The Family Day function saw a huge number of members come to the club and have a fabulous time. We also had three amazing rounds of housie. I am extremely happy to see the response we have received for Bumper Housie! And that means one thing this month too; Bumper Housie will have guaranteed prize money of THIRTY THOUSAND RUPEES for the evening. Bumper Housie will be held on the 15th. So please do block your calendars and I hope to see an even bigger response from all our lovely members. Michael de Rebello 4 5
Library & teens Come and check out the new and latest books that have been added to the library. Your feedback and suggestions have been most helpful. Please keep them coming. Book requests can be submitted in the register available with the librarian. A few old books are being phased out; you may browse through the list available at the library and place your bids for the same. The game show What s the Good Word is being organized on the 20th of September at 7 p.m. We invite teams of two, comprising of at least a teen or a youth member, to register your names with the librarian at the earliest. There are exciting prizes to be won, so don t miss out. Looking forward to your enthusiastic participation! Inviting all our teens for a get-together on the 22nd of September, 11:00 a.m. onwards. Giddy-up all you cowboys and girls to a hoedown in the Wild Wild West. Get all gussied up in your cowfolk clothes for a hayday of a time. The party starts before noon and ends when the first duel breaks out. There ll be grub and contests of strength and wit. Exciting prizes to be won for the best costume and many more. Come join the fun! Tickets: Member (Teen): Rs.150 Guest (Teen): Rs.300 Neil D Souza FAITH ACTIVITIES On Saturday, 3rd August, 2013 Catholic Club hosted the Tenth Edition of the Serra Scripture Quiz competition. This is an annual event that is jointly organised by the Serra Club, Bangalore and the Catholic Club. Though the registration time was 10 am many enthusiastic participants and their teachers started reaching the club from 8.30 am onwards for last minute team preparations. We had a total of close to 20 schools that participated. Many schools had sent multiple teams and there were an equal number of supporters from the participating schools. The Archbishop of Bangalore, the Most Rev. Dr. Bernard Moras arrived on time to witness the Semi Finals and graciously stayed on for almost the entire duration of the Finals. His Grace gave away mementoes to all the participating schools. His Grace also spent some time speaking to the children on the importance of recognizing the call of God in their lives. The children also heard Fr. Antic Santhosh CSsR and Sr. Mary Rosa on how they had taken the decision to give their life to God. Fr. Eric Rodrigues CSsR - Spiritual Director of Serra Club, Bangalore gave away the trophies to the winners. The Quiz session was ably compered by Mr. Bobin John. The finals results were: Winner - Sophia School (Team 1), Bangalore First Runner Up - Sophia School (Team 2), Bangalore Second Runner Up - Cluny High School, Malleshwaram, Bangalore Lukose Abraham 6 7
ibrowse September devoted to mystery and murder! If you were not in our bursting- at-the-seams audience on the 9th of August, then you missed a wonderful evening. Only seventeen, our guest author Suzanne Sangi kept the audience enthralled with sharing large excerpts of her book Facebook Phantom. A story about the paranormal which youngsters seem to be obsessed with today. The discussion and questions revolved around the popular phenomenon of Facebook, which most of us indulge in on a daily basis. My book is not about vampires skyping with human beings, or any such wild fantasy, but since this is the Facebook era the phantom getting to someone human, was a unique angle, said Suzanne. It is important to have a good support system as an author and I read out my first draft to my parents and siblings, when I was barely 15. Many questions were posed by the audience on whether Suzanne ever faced any writers blocks and she very honestly revealed that she had. It s ok to feel inadequate, eventually the story will flow. We are all not born writers, she said encouragingly. Duckbill Publishers, like all the publishing houses that come to the Catholic Club and ibrowse, sold the book at just Rs.150, normally sold at Rs.200. Everyone went home with a personally autographed copy by the young author. Then the members got down to discussing the book for the month - Cloud Atlas written by David Mitchell. There were extravagant accolades by some readers and yet quite a few were unhappy and found the book a difficult read. Short-listed for the 2004 Booker Prize, the book did challenge the reader with its unusual plot and 550 odd pages. The book selected for our September read is The Cuckoo s Call which is a 2013 crime fiction novel by J.K. Rowling, published under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith. A copy will be available in the library once the September 12th ibrowse meet is done. Our guest author for September the 12th is Jane De Suza with her hilarious murder mystery The Spy Who Lost Her Head. Come and get hooked to the wonderful world of words and books and enjoy the simple camaraderie of our ibrowse Book Club. Marianne de Nazareth Sub Committee Member youth Hey guys, Independence day was a huge success and went off without any problems, the favourite amongst the game stalls being Spongebob and Jail. A big thank you to all the volunteers that made the day possible, all credit goes to you guys and also thanks to the DJ s Dhruv and Shourav who kept everyone on their feet and the party going on and on. Just a heads up, the cricket and football will be back soon so get ready for that. We are planning on having a special meeting wherein youth can voice their opinions about what exactly you want from the club with respect to events, games etc, on Wednesday the 11th of September at 7 p.m. Please make use of the opportunity and let s make the best of it. Brandon Daly Youth Representative obituaries Mr. H. Hussain (Membership No. 472) expired on 24th July 2013 Mrs. Thelma Maria Rebello (Membership No. 937) expired on 06th August 2013. The Managing Committee condoles with the bereaved family members. ccot The Catholic Club Orphan s Trust started thirty seven years ago when a few like-minded generous members of the Catholic Club in keeping with the spirit of Christmas organised Orphans day in the month of December for a few children from orphanages around the club for a fun filled day with breakfast, lunch, games and entertainment. What started off as a one day a year affair has today grown into round the year activity with CCOT now working with more than 15 orphanages in Bangalore. Drawing on knowledge gained from years of experience working with orphanages, our phased approach enables us to identify and evaluate orphanages that share our philosophy and are striving to care for the children they support, but are unable to meet these standards due to insufficient resources. Our mission is to empower all orphans and orphanages to reach their full potential. Some of the activities carried out by CCOT are:- Regular medical camps for more than 500 children, with medicines and medical assistance provided to the children. Tutors fee for the 9th and 10th standard children. Providing personal hygiene items for girls. Payment towards trainers for carpentry training at St. Mary s Orphanage. Installation of solar water heaters. Skill development programs. Career guidance program. Organising outings to malls, exhibitions, safari parks. Orphan s Day Christmas Party. The CCOT is currently managed by funds & support which come by way of generous contributions from Club members and well-wishers. As we have done in the past, we take this opportunity to seek our dear members support in any way possible to take up the various initiatives and activities for these underprivileged children. Raphael Johnson Chairman Get Club SMS only stay in touch! Do you know that you can continue your DND registration (so you don t get those unwanted messages) and yet opt for receiving only Catholic Club SMSes? All you have to do is <TYPE> START <send it to> 7760962767 8 9
Dear Mr. President, Wow!! That was something!!! 520 members at a Catholic Club A G M. Never in the history of the Club, has there been a demonstration of such enthusiasm. Prompting Fr. Jayanathan, to invoke the idea of hiring a stadium at some point in the future for this event! God help us, the Election team!! Seriously though, we had our work cut out. With attendance exceeding all expectations, crowd management took on a new urgency, and despite four times the usual capacity being made available, our members still had to draw on their reserves of patience to resolutely exercise their franchise. Prompting many to suggest, we at CC need to consider electronic voting for the future. Yes. We will work on electronic voting, at least on a voluntary basis. Thus came the curtain down on one of the most hotly contested elections in the history of the Club. 28 candidates vying for 14 posts My thanks go out to all the members who so patiently bore up with the deficiencies of the day, the Secretary and staff of CC who tried to make this a system that worked, and of course our volunteer force of election officials, who labored till 2 in the morning to get the results out in time Folks, you re the best. May your tribe increase. Greg D Sa Election Officer. Feed back Dear Mr. President, I would like to congratulate you and your team for a splendid First Month! It began with the first Bar Nite with Mike Kerr. What an evening it was, with really superb music in the Bar! Kudos to you all for having a real professional singer. This was followed by Carlton and Sheridan regaling us in the Tribute to Jim Reeves. An unprecedented crowd had a truly entertaining evening, and that too, without enhanced Bar rates! (Thank God) Family Day... what can I say? It began with Holy Mass at 9.45a.m. and went on till 11.00p.m.! That too, with something for everyone. The table quiz had everybody engrossed, with most adults Googling for answers, and, the kids and youth running around for others. Housie was the usual draw, especially with the good prizes given on the day. The games that followed were great fun and saw real team work. A live band, a DJ and game stalls where I did not get jailed for the first time! What more could we Members ask for? We got that too with believe it or not, subsidised beer! I left for home fully satisfied. (HIC, HIC, HIC. HURRAY!) At around 8.00 p.m. I returned expecting everything to be quiet after such a full day. However I Was most pleasantly surprised to find the Youth in full swing with a DJ and an impromptu Bar Nite!!! Singing and dancing the night away. SO WASN T, THAAT A BLAST!! The Bumper Rummy Tournament saw a record turnout after a long time. The food was superb and the prize money...too bad for those who lost!!!!! BEST OF LUCK NEXT TIME!! The monthly Bumper Housie, with its promise of a guarantee of Rs. 30000/- had players overflowing onto the dance floor. And the prize money was much more than what was promised! Even the Library has several new books on offer apart from the ibrowse event, which again had a record crowd this time. Kudos to them! st.thomas building Before finalising the report on the utilization of the St. Thomas building, it is felt that the opinion of YOU, our dear Members, should be of paramount importance. With this in mind, a survey is being conducted of what YOU would like to see the building utilized for. On your next visit to the Club, please fill in the questionairre, which will be available at the Reception and drop it in the alloted boxes. This survey will be conducted till the 15th of September after which our report will be finalized. Your suggestions and opinions are invaluble to us and therefore your participation in this survey is of utmost importance. Please do participate. Noel De Nazareth Do you have any old photographs of the Club? If so, we could try to have them enlarged for being put up in the niches in the reception and elsewhere in the Club. And if we can get hold of a sufficiently large number, maybe bring out a commemorative booklet. It would be great if you could hand them over to the Secretary who will acknowledge receipt and return them after scanning. Your contribution will be greatly appreciated and acknowledged. What a month it has been!!! Share your old Club photographs What can I say to The Team, except Come September!!!!!!!! We are all sure that it will be even better! Better! Better!!! All the Very best! Gavin Cordeiro (Membership No.166) 10 11