Most know Walter the sportsman - gold medalist hockey Olympian, stalwart of the famed Lusitanians, the man who captained Bombay in 10 hockey nationals and 5 soccer nationals . But I was but a little lad then and known little about that aspect of him.
I am more familiar with Walter, my Dad.

Dad made a great dad. He was a great guy to have around - had seen a lot of life and so was full of anecdotes and incidents, had a great sense of humour, a good repertoire of joke - some a little naughty that did not meet with Mom's approval. But best of all he was always smiling

To him we were always his little kids - helpless, naive and the perfect victims for every kidnapper and murderer in Bombay.  I remember when I started my career in advertising he could not come to terms with me working after sunset. In those early years in my career in Ogilvy I was often at work till past midnight and in those days before the advent of mobile phones it was difficult keeping in-touch with home. It drove him crazy. For me it was a no-win situation - if I did not call to say I was working late it would drive him crazy with worry and if I called to say I would be working late it would still drive him crazy with worry.
On one occasion I was in a meeting at a clients office till 2 am and forgot to call home. Dad was pacing the house all set to scour the city's morgues in search of me. Then at about midnight he couldn't contain himself and so after locating my MD's telephone number was all set to call him and give him a piece of his mind for sleeping while his little son had to work past midnight. Fortunately Mom was able to prevent that disaster

Dad belonged to the old school and believed in punctuality. He took invitations very seriously. The de Sousas were always the first at wedding receptions - the bridal couple and other guests invariably arrived an hour after the time indicated on the invitation. There would we be sitting in an empty hall watching the caterers arrange the the chairs and lay the tables. And there would be Dad grumbling about how it had become fashionable to arrive late for one's own wedding reception

Other than his family and sport he was passionately fond of Goa and if it was not for our education and careers would have settled down in Goa ages ago. Dad knew Goa better than anybody I know. Our vacations in Goa were one big jaunt - we were always travelling. I guess it was his way of making us see and experience Goa.

Dad loved the de Sousa clan and always kept in-touch with them. A considerable amount of our stays in Goa was spent visiting old uncles and aunts and Dad's cousins seven-times-removed. We'd do it year after year and they'd talk and laugh about the same things year after year. Fortunately most people in those days had pigs and chicken so while Dad talked family I spent my time chasing the hosts piggies and chickens in the backyard

Walter The Rock of Gibraltar, nightmare of hockey forwards, butcher in the deep defense was a funk when it came to illness. He was possibly the worst patient there ever was and Mom deserves an award for enduring him through his illnesses which mind you were no more than mere coughs, colds and flu.
Every time Dad got fever or a cold he would gravely (no pun intended) summon me and ask me to get the "brown file". Then he would go through our grave papers, the grave number, the undertakers phone number, etc. He'd tell me not to put the file inside but to keep it handy near his bedside. The next morning when his flu had gone he'd put the file back in the cupboard himself.It's ironic that when the end came in 1989 he had no inkling. A few weeks after being diagnosed with leukemia he passed into the shadow. He was so ill that he could not go through the ritual of getting out his 'brown file'

Dad was born in M'bale, Uganda where our grandfather worked for the British government but could trace his roots back to the 1700s to Quituila in Aldona situated in Bardez, Goa and to Porvorim on his mothers side. Our grandfather was initially in Kenya from April 1910 and then moved to Uganda in April 1913 where he was till at least 1930. However my grandmother along with her three kids returned to India in the 1920s and settled down in Bangalore

Dad along with his younger brother Patrick attended Saint Josephs European High School an institution run by the Jesuits which other than fellow Olympian Pat Jansen has schooled several sportspersons among others cricketers Rahul Dravid and Robin Uttappa. I must add that his brother Patrick as an excellent batsman and played for Madras in the Ranji Trophy during his medical college days. However medicine toook precedence over cricket and uncle Pat's cricket career came to an end After completing his Senior Cambridge Dad joined the Bangalore All Blues. This marked the beginning of his hockey career With Dad in the team the All Blues reached the finals and semi-finals of several tournaments including the Madras Gold Cup and the Madras Cricket Club Hockey tournament. As a left-half he drew admiring comments from every sports critic in Madras. Wrote one paper "for competent work, obtrusively done, Walter de Sousa deserves full marks". That was in 1941.

Then 1942 he moved to the big league in Bombay where he played for The Times of India. He brought glory to the Times of India by scoring a match winning field goal in the Jepson Cup although he was a right back.He also played soccer for the Times of India and his goal in the finals of the League Championship dethroned veterans Tata Sports Club

1943 was a turning point in Dad's career. He joined the famed Lusitanians as left-back. That year the Lusitanians won the League Championship and the Lewis Cup and were runners-up in the Aga Khan and the Provincial Cup. One critic wrote of Walter "left-back Walter played a conspicuous part .."
The following year (1944) they won the coveted Aga Khan and the League championship and were runners-up in the Lewis Cup

But 1945 was a great year Especially superb was his tackling of Pillay, the country's most wilf forward. Wrote a critic "Walter de Sousa'a rare anticipation and quick tackling were directly responsible for breaking up numerous moves engineered by the clever Kirkee forward Pillay".

In the early 1980 he builty and coached the Mahindra & Mahindra team and it was under him that they won the Gold Cup and Aga Khan tournaments

He was the selector of the 1976 Indian Hockey team that won the World Cup

To Be Completed