Brother Eric D’Souza, educator who Shah Rukh Khan called his ‘guiding light’, dies in Goa

A brother from his congregation who knew D’Souza for over three decades, said requesting anonymity: “Brother D’Souza died at 1.20 pm on Sunday at Shanti Niwas in Regina Mundi, Goa. He had been battling Parkinson’s disease and his health had been deteriorating due to some other complications too in the recent months. His body is currently at a morgue in Goa Medical College and Hospital.”

D’Souza, affectionately called Dasu, taught Shah Rukh Khan at St Columba’s School in Delhi during the actor’s formative years. He also spent many years at St Edmund’s School in Shillong and schools run by the Christian Brothers’ congregation in West Bengal, Delhi, Mangaluru, Assam and Meghalaya.

“He was a very creative and intelligent person. He used to create his own plays with the whole song and dance routines, write the stories…he also wrote a book on computers called ‘Chip In’ which was one of the earliest texts on the subject. He was a great educator,” said the brother.

Khan recalled D’Souza’s influence on his life in the first episode of the 2000s chat show ‘Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai’, hosted by the late actor Farooq Shaikh. In it, the actor called his former teacher “the guiding light” of his life and as “the only man whom” he looked up to.

“If there is one man in this whole wide world…I don’t have any idols or anyone I look up to, but he is the only man in the world that I really look up to. He taught us how to play football and hockey. I had a lot of energy…all of us, and he channelised it, so we didn’t become ‘taporis’ or ‘gundas’ or ‘badmash’… because it’s very easy to get waylaid and misled during youth. And he made sure that he gave us enough work…and with great fun. He used to play the guitar for us, sing songs for us, he genuinely is the guiding light of my life,” Khan said.

He added: “I speak for all of us in the C-gang and everyone who’s educated at St Columba’s or elsewhere where he is teaching…if there is anybody else on this earth if I think [of] after my parents and look up to, it’s Brother D’Souza”.

Expressing his condolences, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, who studied at St Columba’s School in Delhi, remembered D’Souza as an “exceptional educator renowned for his dedication to education and compassion”.

In a post on X, Sangma said, “As an esteemed member of the Christian Brothers congregation, Brother D’Souza spent many years serving at St. Edmund’s School in Shillong, leaving an indelible legacy. As a devoted Christian Brother, his pioneering spirit founded Providence School, a beacon of hope for underprivileged children. May Brother D’Souza’s inspiring legacy bring comfort to his family, the Christian Brothers congregation, and the countless lives he transformed through education and compassion. May his soul rest in eternal peace.”