Fr. Berkie D'Souza SJ
1944 - 2008

Berkie and I joined the Society on the 20th of June, 1965, along with 23 other young eager Jesuit aspirants (19 for Bombay that year and 7 from Goa-Poona). We gave our first musical item together at the high tea on the Feast of St. Aloysius Gonzaga when we felicitated the Seniors who took their First Vows that morning to become Juniors. From that evening, and that first musical item (he was a gifted guitarist, and with yours truly on the flute), we never looked back since then, and spent many beautiful evenings keeping companions and friends entertained. As I look back at the 43 years we have spent together, I realize how truly talented he was, and through this piece, I would like to pay tribute to a fellow Jesuit whom I was happy to call brother and friend in the Lord.

After our Novitiate in 1967, I lost touch with him for some time because he left Vinayalaya to go to Language School, and I would stay on for three more years to do Juniorate and Language studies. The next time our paths would cross was in 1970 when we were both assigned to study at the Pontifical Athenaeum (Theology for him, Philosophy for me), while resident in DNC. This is where our music really brought us closer together because frequently in the evenings after tea, while others went out to play games, Berkie would invite me over with my flute to the Theologate, and we would jam up with Gilbert D'Souza on an improvised box base, and Ozzie Gonsalves on the maraccas and vocals, it was not surprising to invariably find a small number of appreciative listeners outside the door anxious to join in the fun. Admittedly those were some of my most pleasurable experiences during my stay in DNC, thanks to Berkie.

Berkie was ordained in 1973, I in 1975, and we found ourselves separated again with him, I think going for Tertianship and I to study in XLRI, Jamshedpur. Our next association together was when he was appointed to St. Xavier's High School, and I was in XIM, he invited me to spend a couple of days with him in Goa (early eighties). His late brother Joe had just bought a beautiful old bungalow in Duler, 10 minutes away from Mapusa, and Berkie was transferring an old upright piano there. Living in close quarters with him over a period of 8 or 10 days revealed a plethora of talents which absolutely amazed me. First of all, being used to manualia, we sandpapered and painted all the doors, windows and grills. Next came the whitewashing of the rooms, then came the wiring, and the electrical work, and during all this, not to leave out his culinary skills in the kitchen in the evenings. It was a holiday quite different from what I expected when I agreed to accompany him, but Berkie always had a very infectious enthusiasm and way of getting people to do what he wanted.

Then in 1987, I went to Scranton to do an MS in Human Resource Management, and he followed a year later to Boston College to do an MA in Counselling Psychology. The next time we would be together was when I was reappointed to the college to work in XIC, and Berkie shifted his Institute for Counselling Psychology from St. Xavier's Boys Academy to St. Xavier's High School. And this is where I discovered Berkie's growth and maturity as a Psychologist and Teacher of Human Behavior. He had not only a comprehensive grasp of all the current theories of personality, but an amazingly intuitive ability to read through the assignments of his students and perceptively get to the heart of a problem. Being in the human resource development field myself over many years, there were many little insights he would share with me which enabled me to appreciate what a good teacher he must have been to his students, keeping in mind he was dealing with students who were all postgraduates and doctors with a medical degree.

On July 13th each year, when members of his family, friends and community members would gather to wish him for his birthday, it was amazing to see how he could transform a quiet evening with friendly conversations going on placidly around dining tables in small groups into a table thumping, foot stomping, cutlery tinkling, lusty belting out of one party song after another all within a space of a few minutes. He was an excellent animator and hence was often invited to liven up a party or social gathering.

Undoubtedly a lot of our Province get-togethers will never be the same without his delightful and always lively guitar or keyboard or piano accordion accompaniment, and we truly thank God for the gift that was Berkie to his family, and to us Jesuits in the Bombay Province. May he now enjoy his reward in the heavenly court in the company of all those whom he loved, taught, and brought so much of joy and happiness to during his life on earth.

- Fr. Gordon Daniells, SJ