After the eventful closing function of the year-long Golden Jubilee Celebration of the Murgaon Education Society (MES), now it’s the turn of MES College to open the golden celebration year. It is a sweet coincidence that this grand opening will be launched at the hands of a distinguished alumnus of MES, Rajendra Arlekar, Governor of Himachal Pradesh, on July 28.
The MES College of Arts & Commerce, Zuarinagar established in 1972 by the Murgaon Education Society, is undoubtedly the educational pride of Murgaon Taluka, and celebrating its history-making milestone.The Murgaon Education Society was founded in 1972 to provide an opportunity for high-quality and affordable general education through its MES College in the port city. The socially oriented gentle soul and prominent entrepreneur, Vasant (Anna) Subrai Joshi led this great vision along with his noted and erudite friends like Narayan (Nanabab) and Bandekar, CA Ramkrishna Naik, Adv Mukund Shinkre, Narayan Kamat, Casimiro Luis, Prabhakar Angle, Anant Sarmalkar, Vasantram G Mehta, Shrinivas Mahale, Bhaskar Parkot, Vishwanath Ajgaonkar and Pandurang S Varde.
Fifty years later, students still prefer travelling to the sprawling green and eco-friendly campus at Zuarinagar, the scenic green cliff overlooking the confluence of river Zuari and the Arabian sea. The College broke ground on this barren plateau where not even a blade of grass grew some 37-odd years before. MES has turned around the entire Zuarinagar-Dabolim corridor into a hub of education, a first-class residential area, and a busy commercial ground.
While the efforts for the independent campus were underway, to begin with, MES College temporarily operated for 13 long years from the precincts of three of the five-floored Joshi-building, meant to house their commercial establishments. This was the spirit of rare sacrifice and great contribution to society by the noble Joshi family, and a selfless example of ‘charity begins at home'. For Anna, philanthropy was in his blood and part of his divine character.
The first few classes of the young MES college as its founding Principal for 28 formidable years, Prof MS Kamat Sir recalls, comprised of a handful of students who were already working, but yearned to pursue their dreams of becoming graduates. Not every student having such a dream had the luxury to pursue their graduation in Goa then. Anna through his MES College created history to be the first Commerce College in the district of South Goa, preparing students to shine in the emerging commercial landscape of the State.
The 50th-anniversary celebration will be a splendid opportunity for MES College to share with the citizenry of the port town, the distinguished alumni spread around the borders of the world, and the impressive progress of the college and its students. Throughout the year MES plans to reach out to all its stakeholders from across the world and help them reconnect around the scented nostalgia of the Joshi building and the Zuarinagar campus to rekindle their old ties, smiles, and friendships.
This celebration year is an opportunity for the College family to deeply thank all the visionary founders, contributors, and distinguished members of the first managing Committee of the MES college for laying the stable foundation of MES. Deep credits are due to the Chairman of MES Society for the past 9 years, till date Prof MS Kamat Sir and his able team comprising of Vice-Presidents, Paresh Joshi, and Prof Bhaskar Nayak, Prof Lalita Joshi, Prashant Joshi, and all Trustees for ably steering the College to new heights.
Thanking thousands of alumni, their parents, associated industry partners, students, former and present faculty and staff for commemorating this golden milestone, let the eyes now be set over on the qualitative improvements in every walk of things ahead in the next 50 years.
