SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO JOHN - BY CLAUDE FERNANDES

John as I knew him  – All for the fun of it.

John the Truant – Would cycle to work at 10:00am, would be “done” for the day by 10:30am. During the rest of business hours, he either visited friends at other offices location around town or was found in siesta mode on the quiet and shady lawn behind Court enjoying the sea breeze and watching the waves hit the rocks.      

John the Rascal - Mr. John Britto, was a supervisor at the Electricity Board in Zanzibar. Mr. Britto faithfully played “Bahati Nasibu” (National Lottery) every week.  One day John De Silva, in the absence of Mr. Britto quietly sneaked into one of Mr. Britto’s office drawers, found the numbers players for the next draw to be held that evening in Dar es Salaam, jotted them down on a scrap piece of paper and shut the drawer quietly.  Next morning to everybody’s surprise John arrived early to work and later during the day, announced loudly the winning lotto numbers of the draw held the previous night, making sure to do so in the presence of Mr. Britto and other co-workers, As John read out the numbers slowly one by one from his scrap piece of paper, Mr. Britto got agitated, could not believe that all his numbers appeared as announced, while at the same time John kept a serious face.  Mr. Britto filled with excitement became very happy, jubilant and jumpy, with the happiest face on earth, got extra kind to all the workers around him.  They all congratulated Mr. Britto.  When John saw how well Mr. Britto became the centre of attention, contented that his tricked worked well, quietly disappeared from office.  Next morning when John got to work, late as usual, got an unending earful from Mr. Britto.  John could not stop laughing and became Mr. Britto’s enemy number one.

On another occasion John was to produce reconciliation for certain Corporate accounts.  He kept on postponing delivering them to his boss for months.  One day, as he looked up above the old wooden cupboard he noticed something that caught his attention which gave him an idea.  He climbed a chair collected what he saw and put them in his office drawers among his papers.  He then called his boss and explained why he could not produce the reconciliations, opened his office drawer by now full of active white ants among destroyed records crawling all over the place.  John not only got away with it, but the boss had to get fumigators to deal with the ants.
        

John the Actor – In a Nativity Play produced by Luis Pereira, at St. Joseph’s School, in December of 1971.  The role of St. Joseph was played by Ambrose Luis who had to stand silently all the time by the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Nobody knew that it was John who played the part of Mother Mary.  Not even Ambrose for John was dressed up in the Garage behind the Stage.  The others all dressed up at the allotted place behind the stage. During the play, John took full advantage of teasing Ambrose and muttered abuses at him.  While John giggled once in a while, Ambrose was fuming because he could do nothing for being called with names like “Kuslo Aambo.” (Rotten Mango).  
     

John the Producer – In partnership with Luis Pereira, produced the popular the Konkani Song “Aum Saiba Poltori Weta” (Sir, I’m going by the beach) on TV in Zanzibar, the era when Mr. Pop Mendes was Director of TV Zanzibar.  1973.  Main actors in the show were Bosco Moniz and Rosy Almeida.  Seaside sceneries therein and the warm sunset scenes “Wowed” everyone’s attention.  For entertainment - the video was shown frequently on TV.  To the many Africans I worked with at the Police Headquarters,, they were in disbelief that it was produced locally.  In fact it was. About a month later it disappointed everyone when we learnt that a technician at TVZ overwrote the tape without Mr. Mendes’ knowledge.

John the Painter – Headed restoration of St. Joseph’s Cathedral, Zanzibar from 1969-1971.  John got all the Goan and a few African boys to volunteer plastering and painting the whole Church.  In the evenings, at break time, Bosco Moniz and Bulu Martins, served us “Halwa” or dates and either fresh fruit Juice or “kahawa.”  Upon completion of painting the whole Church His Excellency Cardinal Rugambwa from the Archdioceses of Dares Salaam along with many Bishops from throughout Tanzania were invited to Zanzibar and blessed our newly painted Church.
  

John as the Designer - The first International Color TV Symposium in Africa was held in Zanzibar, in 1973.  TVZ - under the Directorship of Mr. Pop Mendes, John and I were assigned to do decors in the Conference Hall for the Symposium.  Representatives from Germany, England, The Netherlands, South Africa, and U.S.A, were in attendance.  On many of the evenings the Government shut off supplying electricity to the homes so as to light the streets with coloured lamps along Main Road and around the town for the Mapinduzi Celebrations (Revolution Anniversary festival).  The series of lights ran in a zigzag pattern hooked from wall to wall.  Apparently one bulb happened to be within an arm’s reach from John’s window.  We needed light to do the decorations for the symposium so John got an extension wire, removed the bulb from the street light series and there we had a brightly lit house.  After a while, one of John’s Arab neighbours from upstairs shouted asking how come they don’t have electricity after flicking on all of their light switches? 
    

John the Artist – Covered extensively by others on the SJCZ website.   I am fortunate to have a few John’s paintings.  Each one autographed by him.

John the Prankster – One day John asked a friendly young Goan Girl to come by his home and take the parcel he carried for her from her cousin in Dar es Salaam.   She came up to his home, could not believe his story.  So John ripped open the side of the box just to see that it contained a Large size Blue Band Margarine tin.  She being convinced, carried and hurriedly walked home with the unusual heavy box.  After having climbed the couple of sets of steep stairs at home - this is the same house where Bruno, Meg and Grignion Pereira once lived.  The older sister asked this girl what was it that she brought?  Her response of course was, that it was a parcel from their cousin in Dar.  With puzzled looks on each other’s face, they admitted to their mother, that they were not expecting to receive a parcel.  Upon opening the box – just to find it was filled with stones.  Later that evening John cycled to have a good laugh and hear the abuses from Bess (nee Rosario) who was the victim.  
   

John the Historian- Extensively covered by ZIFF and many others on the SJCZ website John loved snorkelling – Well covered by Mervyn in an earlier tribute. 

However, at one time John and I went fishing for “Karambisis.” (Absolutely tasty seasonal fish).  He showed me how to pinpoint a fishing spot by taking the boat and aligning it with the Church towers positioned at a certain level and height, while at the same time the Beit-el-Ajab building was also to be aligned at a certain height with surrounding buildings.  This was from way past the Prison Island – far out into the deep sea.  Dropping the baited fishing line without having to swing it far was sufficient to catch large size fish at every throw. (Average size of the fish was a foot long).  

        

John the Scout Master (Seniors) – was a very good leader.  I belonged to the Junior Scouts at that time.  A year before the revolution took place, on a weekend, all scouts met at the Coopers grounds and held a “mini jamboree”. (Someone correct me of any misstatement here).   The highlight of this festival was John got his troops –“the 11^th R.C. Scout Patrol” to build a look-out post on top of a tall tree hidden in the corner among a group of other trees.  One had to climb unstable rope-ladder to get to the top.  The Chief Scout of Zanzibar – an elderly English person, had the honor of having afternoon tea and biscuits up there; with amazement he enjoyed the wonderful view of the sea in front of him and everything surrounding the area to an extent as far as his eyes would allow.   The other thrill was John trained his troops to assemble a tent in two minutes.  It was amazing to see how the boys all worked as a team, while troops from other scouts were still struggling to unpack their tents.  A couple of our boys in the Seniors earned the Queen’s badge – the highest honour.  I remember Jerome DeSouza being one of them.   I’m sure many of boys still have great lasting memories of being in the Scouts.  Though few, because the revolution took place shortly after, they were the best days of my youth.  
           

John the Photographer – Below is a message I just received and found it to be self-explanatory.

Hi Claude
Thanks for the video! So beautiful to see John.
In fact when I heard about his passing away, my thoughts went to you, as I know how close you were to him.
I saw some snapshots of him chatting with Prince Phillip on his visit to Zanzibar not long ago. It is a wonderful memorial. John, simple yet so artistic and powerful!

I had the honor of working with him a few times on the East African Goan Convention a decade ago. Though he wasn't keeping too well, he came to the convention, led his team and gave some wonderful insights of Zanzibar. I recall the Zanzibar convention too. It was the first evening, and John was scheduled to give a talk and presentation on Zanzibar. The projector they had just didn't work. They called me in. I tried fiddling around the projector but all it gave was just flashes. John was devastated. I had just arrived from Mombasa that evening, and luckily I was carrying a projector with me. I rushed back to our room and got it, set it up and there it was.  You should have seen the delight and relief on John's face. He then proceeded with his presentation and what a presentation it was! 

And I do realise that what I and everyone else that evening saw was just a glimpse of what he has in his attic!  I do hope somebody will put it down all together. He had a wealth of information. It's a treasure! Yet he was so simple, and many took him for granted. What a wonderful character, and I can see the reason why from your childhood you picked him to be your mentor, and dare I say, he's done a great job on you too!

May the Almighty rest John's soul in eternal peace, Amen,

 Joe(Divina) Pereira – Melbourne, Australia.

Lastly:

Gospel of John - 14:2
“My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?

I pray that God in his mercy and compassion hasten to welcome John’s Soul to occupy the room specially prepared for him. 

May all the good memories of John be a source of consolation and comfort the all family members of John, Late Rudolf, Abel, Santana, Cajetan, to all his friends and associates. 

To John, Adios my precious friend and mentor. I cherished every bit of your company.  

Claude.