Tag Archives: Jerry [Gerald] Godinho

Canada OCs and James Bond 📽

James Bond Event Saturday October 23th Movie and Dinner

Dear OC’s

From Canada With Love, since You Only Live Once, you are invited to Live and Let Die and For Your Eyes Only see James Bond kick The Living Daylights of the bad guys in This World Which is Not Enough.

Wear your suave look and chic clothes and you are invited to the 25th James Bond film No Time to Die.

Venue
Cineplex
Fairview Mall, 1800 Sheppard Ave E, Toronto Ont M2J 5A7
Evening Show

Dinner and cocktails at Sanjay Chadha’s hacienda (Address in Toronto Whatsapp group).

Any questions contact Director of Communications Jasraj Singh  at ocacanada@gmail.com or Sumit Arora Director of OC engagement.

Jerry Godinho

Canada OCs get-together Sept 2021

Greetings to the OC community in New Delhi, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, New York and Australia. I hope this email finds you in the best of health and wealth.

14 OC’s along with our spouses got together for drinks, food and lots of laughter.

Jeevan and Bogie came decked full with their Spartan ties. The Greed is Good 80’s graduates with success showing in their fast cars and shaven heads were there. And then there were the young guns.

Sumant got married in 2003 and Cottonians are known for taking a long honeymoon. He decided to return to the fold after 14 yrs.

Next month we head to the movie and dinner by seeing the latest James Bond movie. Next year BBQ and a trip to the Shaw Festival on Niagara on the Lake.

In 1998 there were just four of us in the Greater Toronto Area. We are more than 50 strong here and if we are to include Montreal and Vancouver at least 75.

Stay strong, stay safe, fight the good fight and overcome evil with good.

Jerry Godinho
Lefroy

[click for larger view]

Please find below names of all the OCs who attended :

OCs who attended the dinner on Sept-11-2021

Left to Right
1. Ishan Soni
2. Jasraj Singh
3. Aman Sood
4. Jerry Godinho
5. Sumit Arora
6. Vishal Rana
7. Rishi Sood
8. Jeevan Goyal
9. Saranjit Ghakal
10. Sumant
11. Gautam Salwan
12. Gurpreet Bhogal
13. Prashant Sehgal
14. Sanjay Chadha

Thanks and have a great day ahead,
Jasraj SIngh
Ibbetson 2009

George Floyd and what is happening around – by Jerry Godinho

I have received countless calls, emails, texts, and messages on all social media channels as to my response to the death of George Floyd. I do apologize for my delayed response. I am helping my wife battle cancer. At the beginning of this week, I got a text that a dear friend from my youth group committed suicide.

This post is real and vulnerable.

I am going to share my experience in all humility, respect, kindness, and brokenness.

I was born in a Canadian Missionary hospital. Dr. Robert McClure, the world’s famous missionary and the doctor had to try his level best to save me. I was very sick for the first two years. There is a big hole under my left arm through which I was fed.

Father Schlappa the German missionary brought a few lepers every Sunday after service. I had asked him if I could become a priest. He said Jerry if it was not for the grace you would be like them. That message has always been with me.

I was at St. Joseph’s from kindergarten to grade 7. I studied with Aftab Sheikh (Muslim), Girish Gupta (Hindu), Davina Brown (Anglo Indian), Nayan Purohit, and many others who were different than me. I am still close to them today.

At St. Andrews, I met Ishh Chadha (Bangalore), Naresh Sahni (NY), and Deepak (SF). That friendship in a boarding school is as strong as it is today. They have no religious background or affiliations. They are my closest buddies and have loved me, fed me, and taken care of me.

Bishop Cotton was this 150-year-old school and until today I never figured out what a Catholic boy was doing in a school with 300 students and only 5 Christians. But I needed to learn discipline, hard work, respect, and loyalty. Jatinder Singh TanejaAsh Virk and Anup Bhalaik were and are still close friends today. They are different but we share a bond.

At Elphinstone, I was exposed to the Parsis and it was here that I met Farzana Patel and we are still close today.

I got my first passport as a 11-year-old. I asked my dad as to why it was not valid for a whole bunch of countries. The reason was they practiced segregation.

As a teenager, I headed to Les Roches. I was scared. However, I see my closest friends were Honny Khatwani (Sindhi), Fazlul Kabir (Muslim), Yal Yalon Steiner (Jewish), Tonjoost Ton-Joost EversSimon Tan L. O. (Buddhist) and Alan Loi. All these friendships are as strong as ever.

From a young age, I have never seen color, caste, creed, or anything else.

As I look at my wedding party, the person who sang at my wedding was an African Canadian, his daughter was the flower girl, the flower boy was Filipino, and I had two Chinese, an Indonesian, an Armenian and a German in my wedding party.
I am in a mixed marriage and embrace diversity.

As a few friends started coming out, I learned more about the LGTBQ community and some of my close friends are from that. My website was designed by someone from an alternative lifestyle and my logo was designed by a lesbian. I do not judge what you do in your bedroom.

As a brown person, I have had my share of racism. I refuse to go to that level. Throw a brick at me, I will build a home.

Last year my roommate from my first-year university who is an Indonesian came with his French wife. Janak Bhawnaniand Edmund Leung was also there. Racial harmony at its best.

At the Toronto Bloggers Collective, I am so grateful for meeting Casey Palmer, another African Canadian in a mixed marriage. The group is amazing about different creators from various backgrounds with one goal in mind. To love and give everyone a voice.

Women have made such a difference in my lives. Thanks to Jackie Davis my friend from Barbados, Mayette MagpileHelen Da SIlva Jane Chant Marlaina Loveys

I am guilty that there have been times I have not spoken up. I try through my blog to lift people from all backgrounds and tell their stories.

I will continue to practice and preach patience, kindness, gentleness, compassion, forgiveness, hope, and unconditional love.

However, it is time for a checkup from the top to the bottom. From the political sphere to the boardroom, from the cultural landscape to our own hearts we need to have a conversation. We need to understand, have empathy, and mourn with our brothers and sisters who have been killed systematically.

We have to love unconditionally. Our neighbors could be different. We have to reach out and make a difference. We have to understand our neighbor, practice empathy, mourn with them, lament, and hope.

We cannot look at people as a stat. We take their dignity away.

We have to take a personal inventory and our own cultural bias.

There are many times I tell my daughter to clean her room. As I post this, I am going to go and clean my room, I am going to look deep in my heart, I am going to see what I can do to make this world a better place for every human irrespective of your caste, creed, color, background or credentials.

Jerry Godinho

OCA India report 2017-2019

OCA INDIA REPORT : 2017-19  (as on 31st March, 2019)

When the OCA India Committee, under the able guidance of its President Justice R.S.Sodhi (Retd.), took over charge of the Association w.e.f. 1st of April 2017, we all were very enthusiastic of lifting the OCA to a new heights by implementing some new ideas and projects to meet the objectives of our association. Some of the highlights of our team’s working in last two years are as follows :-

  1. In the initial phase, around May 2017, we were able to initiate the commissioning of an OCA Application for iphones and androids for the OCs to be on a common social platform with other Old students. The App was solely funded by the Batch of 1983 and was run on trial basis for some months to ensure its smooth operation and to get rid of unwanted glitches, if any. By beginning February 2018 we had successfully tested and launched the said App. on both platforms of Mobile phones. Which is being constantly upgraded with the help of a designated technical team.
  2. OCA India provided its full support to OC Capt. Sandeep Mansukhani who became the first Old Cottonian to scale the Mount Everest in his Second Attempt on 21st May 2018. Our heartiest congratulations to him and his family! I humbly take this opportunity to also state that OCA India had donated Rs.1,00,000/- in his first attempt in 2015 and Rs.50,000/- in 2018, for this noble cause.
  3. Meanwhile, our President had a vision of dedicating a ‘Wall of Honour’ in the War memorial at BCS to honour those Cottonians who had sacrificed ‘their today for our tomorrow’ while defending the nation. Justice Sodhi went out of his way to convince the Board of Governors and School management to implement the said Project. He also provided the necessary funds from his personal account to have the associated job-works done which were timely completed before the OC week began. On 27th September 2018 during OC week, the said ‘Brass Plaque’ (3X2 ft.) as donated by Justice R.S.Sodhi (retd.), was commemorated by the mother of One martyred OC ‘Capt. Sanjay Dogra’ of 1st Maratha Light Infantry, in Presence of the Headmaster, students, & entire staff whilst the School Band played harmoniously. A contingent comprising of an Officer and two Soldiers from Pune of 1st Maratha Light Infantry had been especially deputed by the Unit CO to present a Brass Plaque in the name and in honour of Capt. Sanjay Dogra’s sacrifice. Both the Plaques were duly installed on the Front wall (Left Side) of the War memorial.
  4. On the administrative front most of our general affairs were quite well managed by the entire team but our Association was served a Show-cause notice dated 08.07.2017 by FCRA deptt. in lieu of not filing the concerned account returns since the Sesqui-centennial celebration year 2009 ended. It was during this year such a Foreign Contribution account A/c No. 00131100913359 was opened in Punjab & Sind Bank, H Block, Connaught Place, New Delhi by OCA India. Nevertheless, an effective reply to such notice was duly submitted on 12.09.2017 together with FC3, FC4, C.A.’s certificates and all audited financial statements from 2009 onwards till date. All the requirements to the said notice were complied for and sent to the  department. The said Bank account was then closed by OCA as it was not purposefully used since so many years and the balance money was then transferred to OCA India Account, Delhi Chapter.
  1. Early this year Our president had also envisaged that the Canada Chapter be formed, as the country always had a lot of representation of OCs. Therefore, a due process was initiated in the month of April 2018 by the OCA Secretary who approached a dynamic OC Gerald Godinho (1983 batch +2) based in Toronto to get the OCs together and after his lot of persuasion and efforts an ‘OCA Canada Chapter” was formed successfully over a Lunch meeting on June 3rd 2018 with following as its members. Jerry (Gerald Godinho) deserves a special mention here who has been organising such Lunch/ Dinner events since last 20 years;

Gerald Godinho (Lefroy 1982) – President,

Gautam Salwan (1989) – Vice-President

Jasraj Dhanjal (Ibbetson 2009) – Secretary

Sanjay Chadha – Treasurer

Sameer Sodhi – Astt. Treasurer

Tanvir Sodhi – Class Representative & Member

  1. Buoyed up by the success of Canada chapter the president also requested the Secretary to initiate the process of forming an Australian Chapter, if possible. Currently the said project is still at a nascent stage under talks with an enthusiastic OC named Puneet Sachdeva based at Sydney.
  2. Under the OCA India banner the OCA HP chapter was duly able to form their Committee after many years upon conducting a due Process in September 2018 and after their General body duly approving the extension of existing President’s (HP Chapter) tenure by another 2 years. Now it comprises of the Following OC members ;

Narinder Chauhan – President

Preetinder Singh – Vice President

Vinayak Jishtu – Secretary

Ankur Chauhan – Jt. Secretary

Ashish Chauhan – Treasurer   

  1. The OCA Mumbai Chapter Lunch was successfully conducted on the 20th January 2019 at the ‘Gymkhana Club’, Mumbai and had a good participation of 25 OCs and 10 OC Wives. Simultaneously on that day, under the guidance its Hony. Secretary (Mumbai Chapter) Suneel Bandhu who deserves kudos here for the hardwork he has put in last 5 years of his tenure, the said process of Committee formation was duly conducted in Presence of Secretary & Vice President of OCA India. The members present duly approved the appointment of a New Committee comprising of the Following office bearers ;

Shiv Kapur – President

Yadvendra Sharma – Secretary

Sanjesh Bhatia – Jt. Secretary

Mohnish Sharma – Treasurer   

  1. Another project we had undertaken was the compilation and editing of a centralized data of all Old Cottonians worldwide. A senior OC Himmat Singh (Rivaz 1962) was entrusted to carry out a detailed compilation which he is still carrying out selflessly. Currently our records are scattered all over the chapters and with individuals but the same have not been compiled together at all. Therefore, it is the need of the hour to computerise all that into a verified list excel format in order to know more about our fraternity worldwide and also it has become necessary for our Association to have an effective means of networking amongst ourselves for both on professional and personal grounds which is also a must to keep the OC spirit alive.
  2. Last but not the least OCA India had been working since a long time in finding a solution to some suitable education programme for BCS students which could help them in choosing a career according to his aptitude and learning capabilities. Thereby after a long research about the same, an Onsite-online Career Education Programme, which connects their learning to work, an Independent agency providing such software was introduced to the Headmaster. If implemented by the school then the takeaways for students will be :

Discover and identify Interest, Strengths and abilities;

Explore and select Career Options;

Choose Majors/ Courses and Colleges;

Create Meaningful connections with peers.

The software also has dashboards for parents, a School Facilitator and the Headmaster to provide them info on students journey. Thereafter, it is left to  the Headmaster and Board of Governors whether to implement the said software programme or not.

Apart from the above, with the help of entire OCA team we successfully hosted the OCA India Annual reunion Lunches of 2018 & 19 at New Delhi, both of which had large attendance of 200+ people at each event. Also, the OC weeks of September 2018 & 19 at BCS were celebrated with much enthusiasm and vigour during our tenure. I would hereby like to thank the entire staff of BCS and especially the HM Mr. R.C.Robinson for extending his full support and co-operation to OCA India to conduct such events in School timely & effectively.

I take this opportunity to thank our President Justice R.S.Sodhi without whose fantastic organisational skills & guidance it would not have possible to achieve whatever little we could in the last 2 yrs. I am extremely grateful to our treasurer Mr. N.K.Mehra for extending his valuable services & advice towards managing OCA finances. I would especially extend my heartiest gratitude to our very able Webmaster Mr. Anil Advani who has been successfully handling the OCA Website from the time of its inception and till date selflessly & tirelessly. Lastly our entire Committee deserves Kudos for being always present on time whenever called upon by our President..

Wishing Mr. D.S.Jaaj – Hony. President & his new team (w.e.f. 01.04.19) all the very best for their future endeavours and I am sure OCA India would touch greater heights under its new torch bearers who shall keep the OC spirit alive amongst all of us.

Au-revoir …..!

Ash. Virk

Secretary – OCA India

9810194724


Spotlight on OC RAHUL GODRA

Rahul Godra

Jerry Godinho interviewed Rahul Godra [Old Cottonian] and has blogged about Rahul’s spiritualism and what led Rahul to startup “Resplendent Soul“:

I realized that a lot of people were looking for the depths of Indian thought, but could scratch only the surface of it. I felt like I could facilitate their outer and inner journeys within India, and then the idea of Resplendent Soul popped up [….] 

 

The entire interview is available via this link to the Four Columns of a Balanced Life website