Victor (Inthru) Lobo: Who dedicated six out of his ten children to the service of God

By Dr. Eugene DSouza, Moodubelle
Bellevision Media Network

Moodubelle, 12 December 2010: He shifted his residence nearer to the church as he wanted his family to attend daily mass. He started dealing with religious articles and making them available at cheaper rate to the people through his small shop. As the devotion and piety  ran down in the family, six out of ten of his children joined religious orders to serve the church. One of his sons who remained back to look after the family has been known for his innovative occupations being the first one in Belle to start a news paper agency. This is the story of Victor, popularly known as Inthru Lobo and his family, especially Augustine Lobo  which is quite inspirational.

 

Victor Lobo popularly known as Inthru Lobo was the third among the six children-four sons and two daughters of Sebastian and Rita Lobo.  Originally residing at Naidhod, Shirva, Sebastian migrated with his family and settled in Kattingeri village and carried on agriculture as that was the unavoidable occupation at that time.

 

 

After marriage with Rosemary Britto from Kanajar, Inthru Lobo went to Mumbai for work. After working for around ten years came back to Belle. In order to continue earning the livelihood, Inthru Lobo started the ration shop opposite the present Church Higher Primary School. He ran the ration shop for about three years.  Later he started a shop dealing with religious articles such as rosary, scapular, holy pictures, books, etc. at the place where the present paper shop of his son Augustine Lobo is situated.  While running the ration shop and later the religious articles shop, Inthru Lobo used to stay with his brothers at Kattingeri.

 

As Inthru Lobo was a devout person and wanted his children also attend daily mass in the church, he brought his family to Belle and extended the shop so as to make sufficient space for the family to reside.  While obtaining statues and pictures and other items from annual parish feasts at different churches, Inthru Lobo and Augustine used to prepare rosaries by themselves with the beads and wires supplied by a Muslim named Gulam Mohammed Saheb from Kaup. Frames and glasses for the holy pictures used to be brought from Udupi and both father and son used to cut them into size and fix them in the shop itself.

 

During the annual parish feasts the father and son used to take their religious articles to the fairs of the parish feasts such as  Shirva, Mudarangadi, Kanajar, Karkala, Udupi, Katapadi, Udyavara, Shankerapura, Perampalli, Kolalgiri, Belman, Pernal, Kallianpur, Kemmannu, Thottam, etc.

 

 

Meanwhile, Augustine started repairing cycles and umbrellas and in around 1950 he started the news paper agency. According to Augustine, Thimmappa Shetty, a teacher in Edmeru School suggested the name of Augustine to Dayananda Shenoy, the newspaper distributor from Udupi to start the paper agency in Belle. Initially, Kannada newspaper named ‘Navabharata’ published from Mangalore was distributed by Augustine. He was also distributing the weekly journal ‘Prajamata’ and monthly ‘Kasturi’. He started his paper agency with just 15 copies of ‘Navabharata’ which went on increasing. After five years he started distributing English dailies ‘Indian Express’ and ‘Deccan Herald’. At that time Willie Master and Sadananda Master were the regular subscribers for the English papers. Augustine Lobo also used to supply Illustrated Weekly of India to Sadananda Rao, Willie Master and Belle Panchayat office. According to Augustine both Willie Master and Sadananda Master encouraged him to continue the paper agency.

 

In order to increase the family business, Augustine Lobo diversified his activities into selling soft drinks. Augustine credits Mukunda Kamath as the person through whose influence he got the soft drink agency from Mohandas Pai of Udupi and Govinda Shetty from Kaup.

 

 

Inthru Lobo married Rosemary and had ten children-five sons: Daniel, Augustine, Lawrence, Paul and Stany, five daughters: Veronica, Margaret, Precilla, Philomena, Clara. Out of these ten children, except Augustine, nine children acquired good education and became graduates and post graduates.  Six of the ten children have dedicated themselves to the service of the church and have been serving in different regions of India. Fr. Daniel Lobo S.J. is in Mumbai, Fr. Lawrence Lobo S.J. in Baroda, Sr. Veronica Lobo (AC) in Orissa, Sr. Shalini (Margaret) (AC) in Mangalore, Sr. Pricilla (AC) in Gujarat and Sr. Sylvia (Philomena) (AC) in Mangalore. Among the remaining children, Paul Lobo worked in Syndicate Bank. He passed away in September 2010; Stany Lobo presently works in Pepsi Company, Augustine Lobo is continuing his paper and soft drinks agencies; and Clara is married to Arnold D’Silva of Katapadi.

 

Fr. Daniel, Fr. Lawrence, Sr. Veronica, Sr. Shaline, Sr. Pricilla and Sr. Sylvian

 

Even after the passing away of Inthru Lobo around 20 years ago, Augustine continued the multiple businesses of religious articles dealership, repairing of cycles and newspaper and soft drinks agencies.  However, since around ten years the sale of religious articles has not been pursued by Augustine as before as he could not take these articles to the fairs of various annual parish feasts.  However, Augustine says that he has not closed down the business in religious articles. Still he has few of such articles which he sells on demand.

 

However, the newspapers and magazines as well as soft drinks agencies are still maintained by Augustine which he runs from the shop which was built separately in front of his new house constructed around eight years back. At present he supplies dailies such as Udayavani,   Prajavani, Kannada Prabha, Viajaya Karnataka and magazines such as Sudha, Taranga, Mayura, Tushara, etc. Among the English dailies. Augustine has subscribers for Times of India, Indian Express and Deccan Herald.  Among the soft drinks agencies he manages only that of supplied by Diana.

 

 

Pious, polite and soft spoken, Augustine regularly attends daily masses and has been a constant member of the church choir. He has been providing background music through his violin since younger days.

 

Augustine married Mary Fernandez from Shirva in 1962. They have five children-one son, Dolfy and four daughters-Annie, Ivy, Asumpta and Deepika. Dolfy is working in Singapore and three daughters have been married and well settled.

 

In his younger days, Augustine had been in the Altar Servers’ Sodality. He has been the member of the , Vincent de Paul Society,  Gurkar of Holy Family ward for more than ten years, member of the Franciscan Third Order, Vice President of Parish Pastoral Council for two terms.

 

 

Though Augustine Lobo has crossed 75 years of age, he still continues his news paper and soft drinks agencies and still rides a bicycle and delivers newspapers and magazines to his regular customers. When asked how long he would like to work, with a smile, he said that if God willing another five years more. He feels that sitting in the shop and doing some work helps in passing the time. Though the income from these two agencies is quite meager, he thinks that these activities keep him busy and gives an opportunity to interact with people which he had been doing right from his younger days.