59er Golden Reunion Directory

59er Golden Reunion Directory
59er Golden Reunion Directory

Wednesday, December 25, 2002

Newsy Notes 010 - Jake's Message


***
Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only
true friends will leave footprints in your heart.

Eleanor Roosevelt
***

Dear Findians, Cathedralites and Stephanians,
my many many friends and a few relatives,

Contents
1. My horoscope for Sunday 22nd December 2002
2. 2002 - Another year gone by
3. Annikki's next book "Edible Art"
4. New relationships
a. Ranya ElRamly
b. Hilary and Jane Simon
5. Bomb blast in Helsinki suburb
6. How are we still alive? (A bit of humour from Ranko)
7. Finnish Director Aki Kaurismäki takes a stand
8. St. Stephen's College, Delhi
Your alumni - locating your alma mater
9. Bishop Cottons Boys' School, Bangalore
New book about Cottonians
10. Cathedral School, Mumbai
a. Founders' Day 2002
b. News from Mumbai
c. Some newcomers to our list
d. Reunion plans
11. Sexy and I discuss castes
12. Season's Greetings

Date: Wednesday 25th December 2002

My Christmas Message

1. My horoscope for Sunday 22nd December 2002

***
"Right now, your leadership tendencies turn you into a
benevolent despot. The good news is that most people
welcome your dominance. After all, you're here to
generate fun, not cause misery."

***

Despite the fact that one man's finest aged Scotch is another
man's fatal dose of cyanide, I thought I would make an attempt
to reach all my world-wide audience through a single seasonal
post-Christmas message.

Dire shortage of time is the reason. Please criticise this effort.
Even a despot can learn from the negatives.

2. 2002 - Another year gone by

***
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. Theodore Roosevelt
***

2002 was difficult and extremely strenuous for Annikki and me.
The responsibilities meant that we had to manage without
either of us having a regular income source for most part of
the year. The three books I am presently involved in (including
Annikki's photo-essay of about 50 of her best cake and ginger
bread house designs - see next item) will materialise
into revenue only in the latter part of 2003 and early 2004.

We are not growing any younger. Unlike in India, where you
can get half a dozen helpers - nurses, cooks, drivers, and
gardeners, etc., to look after your ageing and / or sick relatives,
and the attendant work involved, in the west, the work has to
be done by you. The onus cannot be passed on for one
to be just a manager. Our workload in looking after Annikki's
aged dementia / Alzheimer's affected mother and our youngest,
29 year old, son was staggering.

By the grace of God, both our patients are doing well. This is
due to the care, love and affection that Annikki gives them. My
role is minor. I have to, literally, keep the home fires burning.
The house is heated by a central burner which has to be
physically fed with wood. This is a round-the-clock responsibility.
Otherwise there will be no hot water, no room heating and the
pipes could freeze. With temperatures now approaching -30 C
post Christmas, that would mean catastrophe.

It has meant trips to the forest to collect large logs, pulling them
to the nearest road in the snow covered forest, getting it back
home on a trailer, and chopping them ready to fit the main burner
and the wood heated sauna. The furnace has to be cleaned out
regularly to get the best efficiency out of the old system. The
ash has to be saved to put over the garden during the early
spring - a good source of potash. It is heavy and dirty work.

Very few houses in Finland are still heated by wood. Most Finns
have turned to oil or electricity for their central heating systems.
Annikki's late father, who died at the age of 84 at the beginning
of 2001, till his very last days, collected the wood from various
places, cut it to size and had the boiler going and the house warm.

As long as Annikki's mother is able to, Annikki, being the officially
appointed caretaker for her well-being, has a responsibility to keep
her comfortable and well in her own home. The rate of decline of
an Alzheimer's / dementia affected patient is slowest in her own
familiar surroundings. During the last year we have seen no
deterioration in her state. In fact, a great improvement is noticeable.
She recognises all her family members and was very happy to attend
the school-leaving party of one of her youngest grandsonjust a
couple of weeks ago. She also enjoyed herself at this year's
English Carol Service, althoughshe does not understand a
word of English.

Going back to the state of our being in 2002, to be honest, we have
asked nothing extra from God but good health. God has been very
very kind to us and provided us not only excellent health but also
whatever we needed at the time we needed it.

We do not cry over what we have not got. We are content with our life
which is substantially better than the many have-nots we see every
day on our television screen. We are amazed but not shocked at the
greed that we see in many seemingly rich relatives, not happy with
their own riches but working tirelessly to steal what belongs to
someone else.

***
If you want an accounting of your worth, count your friends. Merry Browne
***

To us the greatest riches that we have are our friends, the many tens
of thousands of you across the world that correspond with us.

What more can we ask except not to stop.

This would never have been possible without the internet,
and it is all done at the touch of a single "RETURN" key!!


3. Annikki's next book "Edible Art"

***
I have learnt that the sound of a child's laughter is
the most beautiful music in the world!

From Sheila
***

Annikki makes her cakes and ginger bread houses as she has
a great sense of achievement when little children appreciate her
work.

The first attachment is a picture of Annikki's award winning work
for this winter - her "Winter in a Finnish Garden" made entirely
of ginger bread baked by her and decorated out of only edible
items, also created by her. The roof and lotus flowers on the
pond are made out of cast sugar. The waterfall and frozen pond
(not so clearly visible in this shot) are made from melted
peppermint sweets!! The stones and boulders are made from
toffee and liquorice sweets. The flowerpots are also ginger
bread painted with edible colour paints, and filled with cake for mud.
The flowers are hand carved sweets fixed to the ginger
bread stems. The greenhouse is lit inside with battery
operated Christmas lights.

021123GBgreenhouse02

Kampitie Garden as a Edible Gingerbread
Construction, Annikki Matthan, 2002

This piece has exceeded her previous masterpieces by many a
mile. This is one of the pictures included to appear in her
next book "Edible Art" which will feature about 50 of her
most artistic cake and ginger bread house designs made
over the last 20 years.

I am now looking for an International Publisher to do
justice to releasing this book which will feature only one
of Annikki's many artistic talents.

4. New relationships

***
There is no such thing as a 'self-made' man. We are
made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a
kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us,
has entered into the make-up of our character and of our
thoughts, as well as our success.

George Matthew Adams
***

2002 brought us many new relationships. I want to share just a
couple of our stories with you . It shows valuable relationships
may arrive around the corner when you are least expecting it.

a. Ranya ElRamly

Annikki was watching a Finnish evening television programme
where Finnish authors and authoresses are interviewed.
After the programme she asked me whether I remembered the
name of an Egyptian married to a Finn whom we had known.
I admitted I did not recall it off-hand, but would if I spent some
time on deliberating on it or if I could find some of my old diaries.

Annikki then asked me whether it was anything like the name
ElRamly. This struck a chord in me immediately.

Ismail and Anu ElRamly had lived in Madras in the early seventies.
He was a hydrologist working as an UN expert surveying the
ground water resources in Tamilnadu. Anu had been expecting and
happened to go to the same gynecologist, Dr. S. Neela, that Annikki
had been to for the delivery of our youngest son, Mika. Dr. Neela had
been a stand-in for Annikki's regular one, Dr. Madhavan, who had taken
a vacation just about the time Annikki was due in late September 1973.

As fate would have it, the gynecologist, seeing a fellow Finn in
Madras, asked Anu to contact Annikki. A relationship was established.
In January 1974 Anu gave birth to her daughter at Lady
Willingdon Hospital, the same one where our two younger children,
Joanna and Mika, were born,.

A few months after the birth of their daughter, Ismail's work in
Madras was ending. We were asked to a farewell dinner. There were
about a half-a dozen guests. It appeared to be an informal
barbecue evening. Their little baby girl was sleeping. Instead of
waking her, typical of a protective Finnish mother, Anu gave Annikki
a snap of the little one. The baby shared the good looks of both her
handsome father and beautiful mother.

After a scrumptious barbecue, which lasted the best part of an hour
and a half, we thought it was time to say goodbye.

A shocked Ismail said it was time that we went in to dinner!!

Seated around a large square dining table we were regaled to
Egyptian hospitality which, to say it in the most polite terms, far
out-distances any Indian hospitality that you can dream about.
It was a six course meal, personally prepared by Ismail and served
in a fashion that no guests plate could be empty. Neither Annikki
and I can recall each course in detail, but we do remember that
one was roasted lamb, another was partridge in a rich sauce, and
another was chicken made in a very Egyptian way - all served with
accompaniments that were mouthwatering. It suffices to
say that each course was more tasty and more filling than the
one which preceded it.

And Ismail was a host impeccable, making sure that the plate of
every guest was full even before we finished a serving.

In short, by the time we came to the dessert, we were stuffed to
the gills.

Then Ismail gave us the Egyptian speciality, a glass of
tamarind juice to help our digestion.

When we left the house, both Annikki and I were sick of the very
mention of the word "food". We told ourselves that we would never
go unprepared again to a dinner at another Egyptian home!!

Anu was leaving back to Finland. Ismail was going to spend some
time in Salem and Coimbatore before returning for Egypt. He was
expecting to be working on some issues of the then controversial
Aswan Dam project. They offered us some of their furniture and also
a small Baby Belling Oven. They did not want to cart these back
to Egypt or Finland.

Anu was going to a cold Finland. She had no warm coat for her
daughter. Annikki found one of our eldest daughter's coats,
a warm furry looking white one, for Anu to use for her
daughter. Also Anu had no tights for herself. Annikki only had a
pair of broken ones, which she darned at the toes and gave to Anu,
advising her not to take off her shoes when wearing them.

And that was the last we saw or heard of the ElRamly family.

The furniture, which included a beautiful teak office table, and
the Baby Belling, served us till the day we left India in 1984.
And when we left, my mother appreciated having that Baby Belling
in her pantry as an extra oven. Many a time, while I sat at the table
late into the night doing my office work, I thought of Ismail and Anu,
but we heard nothing from them after they left India.

Here then was this interview, where a beautiful young lady was
discussing her very first book, a so-called work of fiction, but
so obviously rolled out of her first hand experiences of her
parents lives and their impact on her.

The reviewers were gushing over it. The style was original and far
superior to the work of Arundhati Roy and her "God of Small Things".
It had no sex and violence which normally sells books these days. It
was a collection of a series of flashbacks written in a simple style -
and it even featured an Indian.

The contents seemed to point to the fact that she was one of the
ElRamly family we had known. Annikki assumed that this girl was
the younger sister of the one which was born in India. She asked
me to locate her email address and send her a message.

As you all know, I am specialist in tracking down people on the
internet. Ranya ElRamly posed me no difficulty. I located the email
address and sent her a message.

A few days later, Annikki found the picture of that little baby girl
in one of our albums. I scanned it and sent another message to
Ranya, asking her whether it was her elder sister, Kaisa.

Promptly came the reply. The picture was not Kaisa, but she was
the elder sister who had been born in India and it was her, Ranya.

I set up a time for Annikki and Ranya to talk over the phone. They
talked for over an hour and established what had happened over
the intervening years. Anu had passed away and Ismail was
living in Egypt. Ranya sent Annikki a copy of her book and Annikki
sent Ranya copies of two of our books.

Ranya's book, known in Finnish as "Auringon Asema" (can be
translated as "The Position of the Sun" or "The Angle of the Sun")
is truly brilliant. It has had rave reviews from almost every critic in
Finland. Her television interviews have also been extraordinary.
Ranya has picked up several awards for the book and has been
short-listed for some other major Finnish awards.

Sadly, her book is still only in Finnish. I have told her that once it
is published in English she will qualify to be listed in my extremely
popular Findian web page about "Books by, about and on the
Women of India". Even though she does not know it, Ranya is a
Findian, having been born in India and having one Finnish parent.
She is one of our community of more than 80,000 across the world.

The style of Ranya's book has had a great influence on me. I have
started to entirely rewrite my book "Last Will and Testament" which
was ready to be released to the publishers already last October. I
hope the rewritten manuscript will be ready by next August. It will
appeal to a much wider audience than I had originally contemplated.
It will be a far more powerful book than I had originally intended.

I thank Ranya for bringing such a freshness into our lives through her
work.

By the way. Cathedralites, if you want a copy of the chapter in my book
about my unusual experience at Vasind, to which several of you are
witness, and which earned me the nickname of "Dead Chicken", one
which I greatly treasure, please email me. I will send you the same by
email as soon as the revised manuscript is ready. Do tell me whether
you were present on that fateful day in 1955 as I am unsure of all those
who were there in person.

b. Hilary and Jane Simon

Ranya was not the only artist to come into our fold this year. We noted
this entry in our Findians Briefings Guest Book on the web from a
lady in the South of England:

***
"I am so pleased to see the Cathedral School pages. My
sister, Jane, and I are both ex-Cathedralites. I have
such vivid memories of starting in the Kindergarten in
the old John Connon building and then of getting my
school uniform and starting in the "big" school. My
sister and I were both in Orange House. My sister
completed her education education at the Cathedral, but
we left for England when I was nearly 12 years old in
1957.

I'd be so delighted to hear from anyone in the Class of
57 if such a thing exists. Actually I did meet up with
two of my old classmates at Sussex University where
they joined me when I was in my second year.

Give my (our) love to the old school. We both have fond
and affectionate memories of it.

Hilary (née Simon) Minor"

***

As Hilary was 12 in 1957, she is not looking for the "Class of 1957",
but probably the "Class of 1961 or 1962".

I remember, Hilary, and her sister Jane. Hilary was in the same class
as Purnima Mazumdar, Suchita Assoumul and Surtaj Hai. Jane
must have been a "Class of 1956 or 57" product, of which we have
many online. My hero, Anthony Ramsinh (who was "Class of Every Year"
from his reminiscences), Bhupinder Singh Anand, Kashinath Dandekar,
Abe Hayeem, are only a few of you on-line who may remember Jane.
I am sure Pushpa Shiri will also remember both of these girls.

I suggest all of you take a look at Hilary's web page

http://www.mirrormosaic.com

where the artistic products of Hilary's unique design skills can
be seen.

I welcome Hilary and Jane to our international fold.

5. How are we still alive? (A bit of humour from Ranko !)

***
"I've always believed that you can think positive just
as well as you can think negative.

Sugar Ray Robinson
***

Having lived in India in my childhood, I received this input from Ranko
Ivancevic which made me smile:

***
I Can't Believe You Made It!

If you lived as a child in the 40's, 50's, 60's or 70's.
Looking back, it's hard to believe that we have lived
as long as we have...

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts
or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was
always a special treat.

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored
lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine
bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode  our
bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention hitchhiking
to town as a young kid!)

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a
bottle. Horrors.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of
scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we
forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few
times we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as
long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No
one was able to reach us all day. No cell phones.
Unthinkable.

We played dodgeball and sometimes the ball would really
hurt. We got cut and broke bones and broke teeth, and
there were no law suits from these accidents. They were
accidents. No one was to blame, but us. Remember
accidents?

We had fights and punched each other and got black and
blue and learned to get over it.

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda
but we were never overweight... we were always outside
playing. We shared one grape soda with four friends,
from one bottle and no one died from this.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes,
video games at all, 99 channels on cable, video tape
movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, Personal
Computers, Internet chat rooms ... we had friends. We
went outside and found them. We rode bikes or walked to
a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rung the
bell or just walked in and talked to them.

Imagine such a thing. Without asking a parent! By
ourselves! Out there in the cold cruel world! Without a
guardian. How did we do it?

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate
worms and although we were told it would happen, we did
not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live
inside us forever.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the
team. Those who didn't, had to learn to deal with
disappointment..... Some students weren't as smart as
others so they failed a grade and were held back to
repeat the same grade..... Horrors.

Tests were not adjusted for any reason.

Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.
No one to hide behind. The idea of a parent bailing us
out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually
sided with the law, imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best
risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever.
The past 50 years has been an explosion of innovation
and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and
responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

And you're one of them. Congratulations!

Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to
grow up as kids, before lawyers and government
regulated our lives, for our own good.

***

I especially remember those crushed ice sherbet dipped sticks we
used to suck on after a hard game of football at the Oval Maidan.
Cast your mind back to that man with the wooden trolley, dressed
in a terribly dirty lungi and with filthy hands with which he moulded
the scraped ice over the wooden splinter from God-knows-where.

If we survived licking that and drinking the hand-squeezed nimbupani
(lime juice), I am sure no germ warfare can ever get us!!

6. Bomb blast in Helsinki suburb

***
You can close your eyes to things you don't want to see,
but you can't close your heart to the things you don't
want to feel.

Author Unknown
***

Helsinki, or rather Vantaa, a suburb of Helsinki was in the news
recently when a young boy made a bomb with information from
the internet and exploded it in a shopping mall, killing himself
and several others.

I was deeply touched by not only by the email from Sadhana
(see later), but about 200 others, all of whom wrote to enquire
about our closeness to the incident.

We live 600 kilometres from the spot. Finland, however, despite
its size, is a very small country. Events such as this, which was
most unusual for this quiet and peaceful country, cause
reverberations in even the most distant spots.

We are thankful that it was not a terrorist event, as otherwise
xenophobic Finns would have come down hard on the very
small foreign population in this country.

We all feel deeply for those innocent people who lost their lives
by this bit of unnecessary violence.

11. Finnish Film Director Aki Kaurismäki takes a stand

***
One of the most tragic things I know about human nature
is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of
some magical rose garden over the horizon - instead of
enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.

Dale Carnegie
***

Aki Kaurismäki is one of Finland's very best film directors. He
took a stand recently on the xenophobic situation now prevailing
in the US.

When Shabir Ahmedbhoy, now living in Karachi, wrote to me
about considering whether he should move to the US, I told him
about the recent experience of two young friends of mine who
were studying in U.S. They are Finns, but with Muslim names.
Life became unbearable for them there. So they returned to
Finland.

Finland has a long history of xenophobia. We foreigners who are
settled here can understand the trauma being faced by many
innocent people in the US.

In this context the stand taken by Aki Kaurismäki, the leading film
director in Finland was heartening.

***
Festival Update

This is the full text of Aki Kaurismäki's Statement
regarding his decision to cancel his appearance at the
40th New York Film Festival, September 30, 2002.

Suomi/Finland

Not with anger (which has never brought anything good),
but with deep sorrow, I received the news that Abbas
Kiarostami, a friend of mine and one of the world's
most peace-loving persons, is prevented from
participating the New York Film Festival because, being
a citizen of Iran, he was refused a visa.

I had also been invited to the festival, which is one
of the best in the world. Under the circumstances I,
too, am forced to cancel my participation - for if the
present government of the United States of America does
not want an Iranian, they will hardly have any use for a
Finn, either. We do not even have the oil.

However, what concerns me more is that if Abbas
Kiarostami is being treated like this; what will happen
to nameless prisoners? I consider the Geneva Convention
as the last hope of mankind, and as a private citizen
on Finland, I accuse the Government of the United
States of violating it.

Meanwhile, I would like to invite the present U.S.
Secretary of Defense to a visit to Finland. We could
take a walk in the woods and pick mushrooms. That might
calm him down.

If international cultural exchange is prevented, what
is left? The exchange of arms?

Somewhere, someone said that every man is created equal.

Aki Kaurismäki

***

The words of Aki may sound as a bit of coarse humour. But they
are deadly serious, as we in the world are falling into a trap that
only violence can solve violence.

We wish Aki would take the same stand with the behaviour of
the Finnish authorities towards foreigners living in his country.

***
Freedom requires that we learn and ut into practice
the three R's - Respect, Responsibility, and Restraint.

Fr. Brian Cavanaugh, TOR
***


7. St. Stephen's College - Delhi

a. Your alumni - locating your alma mater

Here are a few words from Stephanians. It will also apply to
all those who want to establish contact with their own alma maters.

I had a letter from a present day Stephanian which read as follows:

***

Dear Mr. Matthan,

My name is Vaibhav Tawakley, and I am a second year
undergrad from College. I came across the online
version of the KT a few days back and wanted to get in
touch with you regarding something rather important.

This year the SUS has constituted a subsidiary organ
called the "Alumni Cell".

As the name makes it rather easy to guess, the Cell's
purpose is to get in touch with the numerous alumnus of
College, and help them get in touch with each other.
Also, we would like the to bring present junior members
of college in close contact with you, the Old
Stephanians (there are no ex-Stephanians, as the
principal recently told me!), and help them learn from
your experiences in and after College. We in turn would
like to help you in any way we can, at the very least we
want to bring back together generations of Stephanians,
as they were before they scattered all over the world.

However, before we are to move on to anything
substantial, we need to know who our alumni are and
where they are now.

One of the biggest problems faced by us, here in
College, is that since no one ever tried to maintain a
formal database of Stephanians passing out, we have
practically no data on our hands.

We will be placing ads in leading dailies in India,
however for old Stephanians, who do not have access to
these dailies, people who are abroad for example, we
have to rely on word of mouth, the grapevine so to say.

I would be grateful if you would send me any and all
contacts that you might have on this address.

Ideally, we would like the information to be in the
format,

Name
Perm. Address
telephone/fax
email id
current designation and employer
batch and course
college colours

There are numerous bits of news we would like to share
with you, but I guess that will have to wait till the
next time I mail you, looking forward to your response,

yours sincerely,

Vaibhav Tawakley

***

To those who do not know, his reference to KT is my successful
web site about my life in St. Stephen's College, Delhi, just as
SeventhHeaven is my web site about my experiences at Cathedral
School, Bombay, which had been referred to by Hilary.

I replied to Vaibhav, and the advice could apply to all of you
looking to establish links with your individual alumnis:

***
Hello Vaibhav,

Thanks for your note. I wish you luck with this
enormous endeavour that you are embarking on.

I do have well over a couple of thousand Stephanians on
my email list but there are problems in using that list.

1. A lot of the fellows have given me their email
addresses while they were studying in US & UK
educational institutions. When they have left or gone
on holiday they have not let me know. When I was
sending out my newsletter I used to get over 20%
returns. It was an enormous task for me to go through
to delete each returned email after checking the reason
for the return. Many of the returns also had the
original mail attached and with the size of the images
I was sending, my small web server was overloaded
beyond its capacity. So I discontinued the newsletter.

2. A lot of the guys have told me that their email
addresses are personal and I should not pass it on. As
a rigid rule I do not offer to give out the email
addresses of Stephanians as it has got me into trouble
a couple of times.

However, may I point you to the world alumni site where
you can find 1006 of Stephanians who are presently
registered. You can send out a general call from there.
It will be transmitted by word of email to many
thousands of us all around the globe. You can register
at the site and also become a member of the St.
Stephen's alumni page. Ithink you will find a link on
top of my last updated Kooler Talk page at

http://www.findians.com/koolertalk.html

where it asks you to join the college alumni!! Please
request all the Stephanians you know to visit my above
mentioned website and then register at the World Alumni.

Please also direct your young Stephanians to past
issues of Kooler Talk which starts at

http://www.findians.com/katy1.html

which was put on the web in April 1996. There are
several issues on the web and they make some good light
reading. Many of the links I have given are now obsolete
- such as the alumni list of Krishna Kumar from which I
started in 1996.

They may get a glimpse of the nostalgic past AS I SAW
IT!!

I wish I had the time to keep it going regularly as I
have tons of material from many generations of
Stephanians - but my present writing schedules keep me
from doing the necessary. Maybe a long vacation after I
complete the manuscripts of my next two books will drive
me to bring to the pages what needs to be done.

Do not forget to drop a line to Prof. Sreenath
Sreenivasan. If he has time (from his rather tough
schedules) he could get out the word to a few hundred
Stephanians across the US. After all, he is Prof. of
media communications!! (I am copying him on this email.)

Do give Dr. Wilson my regards and wish him a very Merry
Christmas and Happy New Year from my Arctic abode. And
may I also wish you the same.

Just watching on Internet the collapse of the Indians
at Hamilton!! Tendulkar was just out. 26 for 3.

Best regards

Jacob

***

lowercase sreeni, as is evident from his email, professor at columbia
university in new york, was quick to write to Vaibhav:

***
vaibhav:

you certainly went to the right person in jacob. he will be of
great help with this worthy project.

if you send me a short, self-explanatory note, I will forward
it to my SSC lists.

BTW, you might want to create an online form on the SSC site
that someone can fill in easily. you can use a site such as
formsite.com or am sure the school webmaster can create it
for you.

see an example of what we do at columbia - this is not for
exactly the same thing, but it gives you an idea:

http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/alumni/rsvp.asp

good luck!

sree at sree.net

***

The kind words that Sreeni had for me far exceeds my doings, but
they are graciously accepted as bringing all of you together has
been a labour of much pleasure for me.

Cathedralites can go to my page:

http://koti.netplaza.fi/~jmatthan/seventhheaven.html

You will find a link to register in the world alumni and find
some of your classmates.

Hilary and Jane, you will find a couple of interesting names you will
remember there, including our late and much loved Head Girl Pamela
Ballantyne and her brother Aubrey, who now lives in Canada. In the
1961 alumni page you will find listed their younger sister, Judith,
who must have been Hilary's classmate.

Other readers can use one of the above links and also find their own
alumnis - Bishop Cottonians, etc. This world alumni project has
been online since early 1996. I was one of the first to register and
popularise it among all members of my many alma maters. It has
proved a very valuable contact source for me over the years.

Do take a few minutes to register there as someone, somewhere,
may be looking for you. This is the most ideal source of establishing
a link with those whom you thought you would never hear from again.

If you do not want to go to my web pages, you can link up from this
URL link:

http://www.alumni.net/cgi-bin/affiliate.pl?email=findians%40findians.com

from where you can track your own alma mater anywhere in the world
and register. Nothing could be simpler.

How much pleasure I have gained from my online links with all of you!

b. Obituary - Associate Professor Dr. Rajive Khanna

Professor David Creed wrote to me about the demise of Dr. Rajive
Khanna Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of
Southern Mississippi [St. Stephen's 1971 - 1974, B. Sc (Chemistry
Hons)] at the young an age of just 47 on May 26th of this year.

The obituary is posted at this URL:

http://www-dept.usm.edu/~chembio/obituary.htm

Dr. Khanna was working in my own field of specialisation - Polymer
Science and Technology. His loss is a sad loss, not only for
Stephanians, but all those in the field of Polymers. I had conveyed
the condolences of Stephanians to Dr. Khanna's family through
Dr. Creed.

c. Change of email addresses (contact me for details)

Dr. Anthony Stone, who taught mathematics in college in the sixties
has informed of the change of his email address as well as his home
page which is now at

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stone-catend

I have also received information about changes of email address of
Davendra Pratap (1960 - 1965 - M. A. (Economics). Davendra is now
retired from active service but seems to be active in a sort of venture
capital business.

d. News from other Stephanians

Padma Rao is no longer in New York but have been the Chief of
Southasia Bureau, Der Spiegel (German news magazine) for the
past four years. Stay in touch and do keep me in touch with Stephania,
or else we might all lose it forever.

***
From: "Arindom Datta"
To: "Jacob Matthan "
Subject: Re: Kooler Talk (Web Version) Editor's Note
Status: U

Sir,

Its great to hear from you. I am Arindom Datta from the
1984-87 (Maths) batch and am doing an MBA from the IIM.
I am on study leave and have unfortunately found out that
at the ripe old age of 35, one should not take up higher studies.
Any way, do keep in touch

Arindom Datta

***


6. Bishop Cottons Boys' School, Bangalore
New book about Cottonians


***
It is enough that I am of value to somebody today.
Hugh Prather
***

I have just received this email from Aditya Sondhi in Bangalore.

***
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2002 10:03:41 +0530
From: Aditya Sondhi
Subject: Book on Cottonians

Gentlemen,

The book, in connection with which I had written to you earlier, is
under publication. I'm hopeful of a release well before St. Pete's
2003. Of course, updates are still welcome.

Those of you in Bangalore over the vacation, or otherwise, please
do get in touch.

Have a very happy Christmas and New Year!

Aditya
#24, Lavelle Road
102, SNS Villa
Bangalore 560 001
India
+91-80-221 2649(r)
98450 48999

***

Do get in touch with Aditya to get yourself a copy of this book which
is a truly historic compilation. I had the pleasure of contributing
part of the section on the "Matthan family" which has a long and
wonderful association with this school in Bangalore for over 80
years, both the Boys and Girls Schools.

All my children are Cottonians, although only our eldest actually
finished her education from that school, as we moved to Finland.
Besides Cathedral in Mumbai, Bishop Cottons, Bangalore is
also one of my alma maters.

7. Cathedral School

***
Be kind and merciful. Let no one ever come to
you without coming away better and happier.

Mother Theresa
***

a. Founders' Day 2002

Which brings me to my next topic - the 142nd Cathedral School
Founders' Day celebrations on 14th November 2002.

The report from Catcall was:
***
"The Alumni like in previous years, was far better represented by
the old girls than by the old boys. Alumni classes represented
ranged from the 1930s to 2001."

***

Former teachers, William and Pushpa Shiri, made the trip from
Canada to India to attend these celebrations. From all the reports
I got, they were well remembered. Past students were overjoyed
to see the two of them at the occasion. Here was one message
I received about the occasion:

***
From: "HARISH PAT"
Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 12:38:33 +0530

Today is Thursday 14th November, 2002 which is
Founder's Day.

A beautiful Church Service was held beginning at 9 am
at the St. Thomas Cathedral.

The topic for today's sermon was VIOLENCE.

Every page in any newspaper is filled with some details
of violence which has occurred all over the world.

At the end of the service all ex-students mingled with
the old staff members and current staff of the school.

The annual cricket match between the Alumni XI & the
School XI started off at the Bombay Gymkhana, and is
currently in progress.

AT THE Church Service met Mr. Shiri who taught Physics
and his wife Pushpa who taught second standard kids in
Cathedral before they both migrated abroad. They have
both come to India to join their classmates for a 50
year Reunion.

Mrs Irene Saldanha former Headmistress of the junior
School is going for a by pass surgery shortly. An
appeal is being sent out for 6 bottles of B Negative
Blood required for her surgery. Any one who can help
may please contact any Alumni Committee Member.

Our last appeal for funds is for Raman Pawar who has
worked in the School for over 40 years. Raman is
suffering from stomach cancer and his medicines cost an
average of Fifteen thousand rupees every year which he
can ill afford. Any donation will help him ease his
pain. Raman worked in the school library before his
illness.

Lastly the Gala Dinner is being held tonight at the
Liquid Lounge. Chiraj Doshi and his sister Kanika
Doshi, both Alumni, have laid a generous spread of
their famous cuisine with a well known DJ who will play
music through the generations for all to enjoy. There
some great gifts from SILKWORKS and our new dynamic
Committee headed by Rajeev Ruia will spell out its
plans and program for 2002 -2003.

Harish

***

b. News from Mumbai

Here were a couple of messages from one of my most regular
Mumbai correspondent:

***
From: "Prakash A. Thadani"
To: "Jacob Matthan"
Subject: CAT NEWS
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 15:06:26 +0530

NOVEMBER, 2002, mumbai's jazz month

First the Alumni Dinner at the Liquid Lounge. Well
attended by ex-students from all years.

Excellent food, great music, great prizes and some
superb Australian wine.

Funds were raised for Raman Parmar who worked in the
school library for over 40 years and is now suffering
from stomach cancer.

Appeals were made for O negative blood for Mrs. Irene
Saldanha, Ex headmistress, Junior School, who is
undergoing a by-pass shortly

Alumni caps sold for Rs.100 each.

Many are seen using them for their day at the golf
course.

Funds were also pledged by many for the Alumni corpus.

Hopefully this will help in running the organisation
for the years to come.

Prakash Thadani had his second singing night at the Not
Just jazz By the Bay, breaking records of crowds turning
up for the event on Saturday 16th November, 2002. The
night featured Anushka Jagtiani , Ritika Mirchandani,
Shahina Pohumull, all Cathedralites and Haresh
Jagtiani, Dr. Adi Dastur, Laveen Lekhraj, Nitu Pohumull
& Meenu Pohumull who sang encouraged by a packed house
till the wee hours of the morning.

On 21st November, the 16th International Jazz Yatra
2002 began at Rang Bhavan. 10 groups from all over the
world including one from india , 4 from Norway, Japan,
USA, Germany, Holland. There were 5 vocalists that
wowed the Mumbai music lovers. To add to the great
music the ambience was surrealistic with the waning
moon , stars at the open air Rang Bhavan

28th November, Dana Gillispie and Her Blues Band
perform at the Rang Bhavan. This dynamic blues singer
with a seductive husky voice will enthrall any music
lover with renditions of her own compositions along
with other well known blues.

Frainy & Percy Mistri celebrate their Pearl Wedding on
the 27th of November, 2002. Their son Zubin was married
to Karishma on 21st November, 2002.

Mrs. Usha Sukhthankar, mother of Ranjan Mitchell & Rupa
was brutally murdered at her apartment on Cooperage Road
on 20th November, 2002. The police are still conducting
investigations.

Manula Nanavati and a few friends, have got together
and started a Retro Dance Club which meets every
Wednesday at the Starters N More, Eros Cinema Building.
Its a great way to jive off those extra kilos. Starters
N More is presently managed by Prema Jagtiani ( née
Advani ) a member of our Alumni.

Jehangir Art Gallery celebrated its 50 year of
existence with an evening of Jazz and Art featuring the
Jazz Junkeys on 18th October, 2002. The well attended
evening was much appreciated by music and art lovers
who felt that the acoustics at the Art Gallery were the
best they had ever encountered.

More news next month

Prakash A Thadani

***

The murder on Cooperage Road (remember the sermon on
VIOLENCE at the Founders' Day event), sent the shivers up my
spine. I had lived all of my life in Mumbai on that road in the very
heart of the city. I had even caught a cat-burglar in my bedroom
in 1960 in the dead of night!!

And here was a later message from Prakash.

***
From: "Prakash A. Thadani"
To: "Jacob Matthan"
Subject: News
Date: Tue, 10 Dec. 2002 12:21:25 +0530

December brings with it respiratory ailments and a
viral flu that affects each and every family.

Its also the wedding season and there are some
beautifully done up wedding mandaps all around Marine
Drive at the numerous gymkhanas.

Mumbai is always full of activity and there's so much
do and see one has to find the time.

There is an exhibition of Photographers at the Jehangir
Art Gallery with some remarkable photographs. It's worth
a visit if you want to see how new technology is applied
to photographs. Sohrab Davar has 4 of his photographs
displayed.

Czaee Shah (nee Daftary) has opened NOSH a vegetarian
eatery next to Regal Cinema. Can't comment on the food
as I haven't yet been there. But it clearly shows that
Mumbai has place for good eating places especially for
the Vegetarians.

The Taj Mahal Hotel opened its new Restaurant Sanukh.
Great food but pricey with the excessive high taxes.

On the 29th of November, Rashme Uday Singh released her
book "The Good Food Guide" again, but this time at the
Taj Lands End Hotel (formerly the Regent) Heinz
sponsored the entire evening which featured 12
restaurants serving their best dishes. The open air
venue with a live band performing brought in the
festive mood of the month.

The IBIZA famous DJ Paul Van Dyke was featured at the
Famous Studios Mahalakshmi with his speciality of
disco/club music.

The Navy week is in progress so one can just walk to
Gateway and see the ships all lit up this week in the
evenings.

There are tours to go into our Indian Navy warships and
shows through the Lion Gate.

Compliments of the Season & Wishing you all
Happiness with lots of  Good Health and Joy in the
coming New Year.

Prakash A Thadani

***

I had teased Percy about celebrating his "Pearl" wedding
anniversary. These days we do not celebrate "Pearl" wedding
anniversaries. The ladies have renamed the Pearl as the
"Diamond Wedding Anniversary".' I have had several of them
but I get away cheap as my wife wears no jewelry.Most women
expect to receive such gifts as the token of our appreciation
for their having stayed with us for that number of years, and,
knowing me, I do not blame them.

Percy replied:

***
"Suffice to say I did not get away cheap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
***

Percy's message also went onto say:

***
"Don't know if I have told you that I have taken up a
new Hobby of learning the Trumpet and have in turn
joined a group of amateur musicians called The JAZZ
JUNKEYS and am playing wherever they play, which is
wherever the professional band called Jazzy Joe plays,
Jazzy Joe being my teacher.--So Jazzy Joe and the
Junkeys were invited to the wedding and low and behold
they including, yours truly, started playing there. It
was such a hit that it was reported in the papers
-photograph and all of the host and guests entertaining
the other guests as Lagan-noo Bhonu came to a halt!!!!!!

About 1300 people including most of the Class of' 59
who were in Bombay, attended the wedding at Colaba
Agiary (you remember that place?) and snacks and food
was good too--You know how temperamental even the best
of Parsee caterers can get.

The Junkeys and  I played at the Pearl Anniversary too
and though it was not reported in the papers everyone
said that it went off very very well. Here I must say
Gallops, at the Turf Club (do you know the place?) the
restaurant where we held the function, put up an
excellent show with the food and the snacks.

We attended the Founders Day party on Nov.14th. and
were very pleasantly surprised to meet Willy Shiri. He
is here in India though not in Bombay for sometime and
I have promised him a get together of the class of '59
when he returns to Bombay."

***

It appears we have a few great musicians amongst our midst
with Prakash and Percy leading the way as The Saints Go
Marching In...

Dizzy Gillespie - make way for Percy Mistri

c. Some newcomers to our list

There have been several who have been added to our
circulation list, such as Jal Tata, who was introduced by
Rumy Kapadia via this email:

***
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2002 15:48:06 -0800 (PST)
From: rumy kapadia
Subject: Please add his name to your list
To: Jacob Matthan

Dear Jacob

Jal Tata was one of my classmates, right from the
beginning to the end of my school years, ending in
December 1954.

He has been passing through London, where he now has a
married daughter, and has been a frequent visitor to
Phoenix, Arizona, where he has a married son.

We met this afternoon for lunch, and he has expressed a
wish to be added to your ever-increasing list of
ex-Cathedralites, so that he can receive your
Newsletter.

Regards

Rumy

***

Also added in the process were Meherwan Nadirshaw and
Suhas Phadke.


d. Reunion plans

***
A memory is a photograph taken by the heart
to make a special moment last forever.

Anonymous
***

Many friends have been asking about the reunions. A few of the
Classes of 53-54-55-56 years want to hold their reunion in
England. But the bulk of those years feel it would be more
appropriate to have the reunions in Mumbai.

Do let me have your opinions.

Ask those who are not yet on my mailing list to write to me.
I will try to co-ordinate the several groups who want to meet up.

I feel greatly honoured that so many from many years have
asked me to be part of their reunions, with Anthony even
asking me to be the MC for their year. I will try my best to be
present. As you will all realise, it is quite difficult for me to leave
Finland to attend these events because of my local day-to-day
responsibilities

Sadhana was quiet for a long time, so it was nice to hear from her:

***
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 07:47:54 -0700 (PDT)
From: Sadhana Madhusudan
Subject: Re: Newsy Notes: 0018 - Emotional Posting?
To: Jacob Matthan

Dear Jacob,

Yes, I have been very late in replying and apologise for
it. We shifted residence temporarily to Chennai since May
last week. Then, all the catastrophe of finding,
setting up and getting household help, bank a/c,
telephone etc, etc., followed. By the time it was all
neatly executed I was too exhausted. All old friends in
Madras whom we had not met up with in ages were eager
to meet us. Socialising was fun but the chaotic traffic
and to beat it all the murderous HEAT! ! ! has drained
me thoroughly. So, pls excuse me for this delay.

Heard of the awful blast in Helsinki and immediately
you and your family came to mind. Hope all's well with
u? What a dastardly and mindless act of cowardice to
hurt and kill innocent people. This world is becoming a
tinderbox with humans being used as fuel? And, what is
the issue? Religion. Anyone who does this for a so
called God is really very misled into believing that
there is only he God He/she knows. Animals do not act
in cold blood but we are overtaking animals now. Let's
pray for some heavenly intervention that good sense
will prevail and this mindless violence will end. Btw,
you were not in very good health last time u mailed re
some cholestrol? Hope that's under control too.

My classmate '54er Ratan (Ramchandani) Now Chawla had a
bereavement in Aug '02, She lost her husband Vijay. He
was a very fine person, always smiling and gracious.

Ratan has a son and daughter plus one grand
daughter. May God i.e. the family to pull thru this time
of grief. Well, our reunion seems to become more
difficult than ever. Now that I am in the far south, I
can't even go to the Founder's Day svce this year.

Have u heard from my other classmates Zarine Lam, Maya
Advani who r both in London? Also Dante Mody and Prem
Prakash? Do reply,

All the best,

Sadhana Madhusudan

***

For those, like Sadhana, who were interested in my health -
it is perfect. I walk about 20 km per day on a cross-trainer.
I lift weights sufficient to keep my back, legs and upper
body in trim. My weight is down and my muscle power is
greatly increased. I am in perfect health, my cholestrol
is down, my blood sugar is down, my BP is up. I am exercising
in the 95% heart rate zone without getting tired even after 2
hours of intensive workout in the gym. I work out now as much
as 6 times a week. Takes me back almost to the days when I
was 25.

My personal trainers are a great guy and gal. With their help I
have reached my peak - except for that pot belly which seems to
be hanging on despite all my efforts. But I intend to lick that into
shape soon.

Where there is a will - there is a way.

10. Sexy and I discuss castes

***
Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only
be attained through understanding.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
***

Narayan Acharya (more commonly known to us Cathedralites as
Sexy derived from his earlier school name of Seshachar), and I
have been having a discussion about his granddad who was
one of the leading engineers in India in the thirties. This has
led us to a discussion about the Iyengar (Ayanger) and the
Aiyar communities. It also raised a question about what
religion I belonged to - Christian, Jew, Hindu, Muslim or
anything else.

Be it known publicly that I belong to all religions that believe in
non-violence. I am not a Gandhian. But living my second life on
this place we call earth, I have realised that physical violence
does no one any good. There are far better ways of getting justice
and I have depended on them, quite successfully.

I despise those who live by violence. I know from personal
experience that violence only breeds more violence. It is a never
ending spiral. Kashmir, Gujarat, Palestine, Israel, Iraq, - are all
examples of this spiral.

With war against Iraq now inevitable, my second attachment is a
cartoon by our local newspaper cartoonist, Jari. He is truly brilliant.
The ineffectiveness of violence was aptly depicted in this cartoon.


12. Season's Greetings

***
Dream big dreams! Only big dreams have the power
to move your mind and spirit.

Brian Tracy
***

I have a big dream that there will be world peace, a just peace.

Let us at this time of the year, when we pray for peace and giving,
rather than getting, pray for the innocent citizens of India,
Finland, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Israel, Palestine, Iraq, Iran; USA,
Bali, and all other places around the world who are victims of the
people who play with violence for their own personal agenda and
are playing with the innocent lives of women and children.

From Annikki and me in this northern tip of our planet we wish you
all the very best for the year ahead.

Yours sincerely

Findians Annikki & Jacob Matthan (Cottonian, Cathedralite and
Stephanian)
Oulu, Finland
December 25th 2002

***
Anything worth doing is worth doing well.
Author Unknown
***

Sunday, July 14, 2002

Newsy Notes 009 - Talk to me


i folks,

The saying for this issue:

"A smile :-) is the shortest distance between two people."
Borge Víctor

It was April 23rd when I last sent out Newsy Notes.

Today I had a message from Percy Mistri which read:

"Long time no hear. Hope you and the family are well
Vinay and Purnima are in Bombay but you must be knowing
that. Talk to me. - Percy"


The very next email was a horoscope which read:

"Sit down and take it easy. You're either working too
hard or having too much fun. Do a little laundry, pay
a few bills or groom your pet. The little things in
life need their share of attention."


Putting two and two together got me to Newsy Notes 009!

April 23rd was not just the day I sent out the last Newsy Notes.
It was also the day I had a meeting with my doctor and did some
tests - and the shock I got!

Sitting at the computer, eating chocolates and crisps had sent
my cholestrol through the roof as well as my blood sugar. And
my weight had hit 120 kg prompting my dear wife made a sly
comment that I looked as when she was 8 months pregnant.

My problem is that I do not ever look at a full length mirror
- so I had not noticed all these great features as my pot belly. :-)

Finns have a trait which is known as "sisu" - which is about running
like a mad bull to do what they think they have to achieve. Living
with a Finn for 35+ years and living in Finland for the last 18 -
some of that sisu seems to have rubbed off onto me.

I started by walking 3 hours a day. I cut back on all sweets
and fats. I increased my fibre intake. My weight started to drop.

I felt walking was not enough.

Going back to our school days and just after, when
Viney Sethi, Noel Ezekiel, Arvind Thadani and I used to go to a
gym on Waudbhy Road early morning, I started visiting a local gym,
not once, but twice a day. The guy who runs the gym is a former
Mr. Finland (and his wife is a former Miss Finland - bodybuilding)

After 4 weeks I checked my blood sugar and cholestrol and found
they were better than my dear wife's who is blessed with a strong
solid constitution. She complains like mad but I have not seen anyone
who is fitter than her for her almost 60 years. (She is going to hate
me for revealing her age this as most people accused me of cradle
snatching when I married her!! She just loved that.)

My weight had dropped to 111 kg - 9 kg in the month. Not bad,
I thought.

But my triglycerides were still high, so I have been mecrilessly
keeping up the exercise programme. (I have been trying to the
Ayurvedic Guggul tablets which are just great to bring down the
triglycerides but they are not available in Finland.)

I do not know whether any of you remember me when I was in school
in the seventh standard - thin and skinny. My mom promised me my
first pair of long trousers when I crossed 100 lbs in weight
as I was hovering around 90.

Now my target is to cross the 100 kg limit on the back slide and
I have reached 104.1 kg and I am losing 100 gm per day. Not far to go,
and I feel at the top of the world.

Maybe I can then wear a pair of short shorts - Viney? :-)

So the horoscope was right and Percy's message was the trigger to
stop for the moment and do something I really enjoy - communicating
with all of you. So, here I am talking to you now - Percy!!

Yesterday, I sat enthralled at my computer watching India chase
the target of 325 to beat England in the Natwest One Day Cricket
final. It is sad that there is no live audio commentary as there was
from the West Indies during the Indian tour there. Of course, being
in Finland, we are not blessed with TV coverage. So watching the
scorecard move and the tense last over when the overthrows resulted
in the winnning runs for India was a great feeling as I watched the
Commentary at the CricInfo live scorecard site. But it was also great
to watch our very own Madrasi (Chennai) star Nassar Hussain reach his
maiden century and also show some great captaincy with his handling
of the bowling. Reminded me of some of our Vijay Nayar's and Ernie
Haskell's brilliant captaoincies in 1958 and 1959. Anyone have
Ernie and our very own 59er Jack Haskell's email addresses?

Let us welcome Ajit Mehra to our group. Ajit was a year junior to
us (60er). He was in London the same time I was there. He had a very
busy flat on Abbey Road (not far from where I lived). His pad was
the other centre for many Cathedraalites to congregrate.

Ajit, Askok Kapur (were you with us?), Noel Ezekiel, Viney Sethi and self
(plus a non-Cathedralite, Navin Bhel), had a great holiday in St. Tropez
in the South of France in 1964 (before Bridget Bardot discovered
that sunspot as a tonic for her success). We drove through France
in a Bedford van, camped on the beach in St. Tropez, Viney donned
his Sea Captain's uniform as he struted around the busy pier, we
spent a few hours in Monaco, visited a Casino and lost most of
our money, drove through Switzerland, seeing the Luzzane Exhibition
on the way, and the guys dropped me off for my summer job at Bayer
in Leverkusen (near Koöln) after driving up the Rhine Valley and spending
the night at Lorelie. It was a great trip - must tell you the sordid
details in another issue!!

While I was at Bayer, I was looked after by Mohamed Noorani, who has
become a lifelong friend and who later married Cathedralite Surtaj Hai.
I introduced Viney to Mohamed in Bombay many years later and they too
have become great friends. Mohamed is the most perfect gentleman that
I have the pleasure to knw. (One of his many brother's is the writer
A. G. Noorani.) Surtaj's brother is Zaffar of great Indian film making
history and he was with me (one year my senior) in St. Stephen's.

Thank you Farhana, for sending me St. Theressa's Prayer:

May today there be peace within
May you trust your highest power that you
are exactly where you are meant to be....
May you not forget the infinite possibilities
that are born of faith
May you use those gifts that you have
received, and pass on the love that has been
given to you....
May you be content knowing you are a child of God....
Let this presence settle into our bones,
and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance,
It is there for each and every one of you....


I do not make a wish for anything for myself as I have everything
that I need. All I can wish for is World Peace and harmony between
all people of all religions.

Farhana sent me some info about Bobby Choonawalla and Yuku Hameed:

Dear Jacob,

Hi! I am in Dubai visiting my daughter again.

What year was Bobby Choonawalla? Yes, he is still in
Singapore. He married Janu (Jehanara Rahimtoola) who
was I think 2-3 yrs our junior. Do u remember Shamim
Rahimtoola, one year senior to us who was that 'tomboy'
with Jean Hilel, Maki Bikaji etc I forget the other names.
Janu is Shamim's cousin. Bobby nd Janu hv two daughters
who are settled in the US, nd one has recently married.
Bobby has done extremely well for himself.

Yuku Hameed of Cipla, I think he is the one who married
film director Kardar's daughter. Kardar had six beautiful
daughters nd Fareeda married Yuku. Fareeda's elder sister
was Ruksana. She still is as gorgeous as ever.

Yes, we Cathedralites are all over.

Until next time.

Warm regards

Farhana


Guju-Mallu Sadhana Madhusadan sent me this message:

Thanks Jake for the info!

Hope you and yours are enjoying the springtime in Finland.
Here it is the April heat dust and general feeling of despair over
the happenings in Gujarat- once the land of milk, honey and PEACE!
But, then, we shall ovrcome as usual in due course and become
wiser because of it! Btw, as far as our '54 class reunion is considered,
I was of the opinin that it should and would take place in 2004 here in
India when we would meet on ye olde school, go to ye olde Cathedral
for the services and have a bash with ye olde schoolchums. Meeting up
in London was not my idea. However, if any of my other classmates
plan on it and do succeed, well, I'll be happy for them.

It was great really great to know that finally my old friend Armaity
Mody's id has been traced. She was in Palmer (Orange House) and
I have played against her in several Netball matches. I was always
appointed "Attack" and due to my dimunitive persona, was very
aggressive and would deftly retrieve the ball from between legs of
taller, towering players. Much to Armaity's chagrin. I still remember
her smile If you are readng this, Armaity, pls do mail me direct. Arnavaz
Guzder now Wadia , and I were remembering old times here in
Pune. Tell us more about you and Naval. We must meet someday
and plan on our "54ers reunion. I have also been in correspondence
with another athlete from '54- Nalini Nair (Savage House). She is
headmistress of a school in Trichur, Kerala Will be meeting her soon
when I visit Kerala. Well, time to go now, Bye and stay cool.

Sadhana.


Here was a message from Naval Patel, Armaity's husband
- so Sadhana will have to wait another 3 months to meet up with
her friend:

Dear Jacob,

Yezad and I had a phone conversation just yesterday,
during which he remarked what good service he was
getting from Mantraonline!   Rati and he were away to
New Zealand for a holiday last month, could you have
had the trouble then?  I got messages through to him
successfully in end Apr.

Right now the Kapadias are visiting their younger daughter
in Bangalore, then to Mysore and Ooty.  Nevertheless I will
let him know of your problem.

Did I tell you that we are off on 6 May to stay with our son and
family in Chicago, hopefully for 6 months.  Tatanova assure me
that messages sent to this address will reliably be redirected to
Minoo's system and the mailbox will not be allowed to get stuffed
full, as happened last year.  If correct, we shall have no difficulty
in mutual exchanges.  However if you find messages being
returned, then send them to Chicago.

Our walks are only at Hanging Gardens, and these have
recently petered out.  The temperature and humidity have
detered us entirely;  if we shed some mass through a walk,
we reacquire it immediately on return home by soaking up
a beer!   Hopefully we shall trot frequently beside the Lake
in Chicago, though the speed of progression might be
determined by the grandson in tow.  :-)

Armaity does not recall the names you mentioned as being
in her class, and certainly they were not in mine and, to my
best recollection, not in either of the following two years' classes.

When hunting for some old papers yesterday, I came across a
trove of School Prize Dat programmes, from 1948 to 1955
(with some gaps).  Any interest for your archives?
 

(Jacob says: YES, please.)

However I shall be able to access them again only after
my return home.

Also, there is a long article in today's Times of India on Dr
Ardeshir Khambatta (who as Eddie was in the class of 1950).  
He is a Harley Street ENT Consultant, with several opera divas
and tenors among his patients.  I shall take the clipping with me,
and mail it to you if you are interested.  Or can you pick it off the
Net through TOI's web site?

Best regards

Naval Patel


Please note, Yezad, your mantraonline address is still bouncing
mail so I am sending this to both your email addresses.

Another who joined the Grandpa's club is Rumy with
a TAXI-born grandson. Is this a crazy world
or is it that crazy things like this only happen
to us Cathedralites? :

Hi Jacob

Seeing that the Club now features in your newsletter,
I felt it my bounden duty to let you know that I
became a member of it on 29 December last year.

Emile's parents (he is my son's son) made elaborate
plans to have a water birth at home; in the event, he
was born in a taxi, my son helped to deliver him in
the back of a black cab (driven by a Pakki) and his
Birth Certificate shows the place of birth as a
roundabout in Sheffield!

He will be 4 months old soon (one need not have taken
Add. Maths. at school to have worked that out) and
will soon start solids, but not in the grand fashion
of the Royal Princess of Japan, who was fed her first
solids traditionally by chopsticks!

RUMY KAPADIA


Had this newsy email meant for his batch mates from 69er Prakash
Thadani (edited version below):

"Hi there

Its been raining here but not that much. Yesterday was a sunny day.

Mumbai has seen a lot of activity in form of new restuarants
Hav'nt met any of our batch during the past 2 months except for Rohet
who I met at a party at 3 flights up.( The bar cum night club behind
the Regal Cinema on Battery Street)

A new Italian restaurant in Cumballa Hill where the old Nish Resturant
used to be has opened up and it sounds like good Italian food. Will let
you know when I go next week for a sampling courtesy Meher Moos.

By the way many of us our turning 50 soon. Any views that can be shared.
please email I'm sure all would like to know what happening and what we
plan for the 50th year of our lives?

I have a lot of say but first lets hear it from someone else.

Ranjan Mark Mirchell Nee Sukhthankar sent me her new email id.
Shekhar Shah called up sometime back to chat after he read about
my winning the MEN CAN COOK CONTEST.

Took my boys for an eye check up to Anand Shroff's Clinic at
Gobind Mahal. A state of the art Clinic. No one would imagine
that such a clinic does exsist in Mumbai. Anand specialises
in Glaucoma cases.

Remember Rustom Joshi the guy in white. Well he continues to wear
white shirts and trousers - even to this day.

Can amble on but first I'd like some responses from some of you.
So just spend a few minutes and send me an email.

Its never too late

Cheers and have a great weekend

Prakash"


Here is a messge from Doreen Heimlich (nee Feibusch):

Dear Jacob,
 
    I've been slack about writing to you lately.  Fact is,
I am most impressed with your careful planning and the hard work
you're putting into a reunion in Finland.  Cannot say quite yet
if I'll make it, but I'm very tempted.
 
    Tomorrow (Thursday), my husband and I are flying from Charlotte,
N. Carolina, to London, where we'll arrive on Friday morning.  The
exciting thing is that on Saturday, the 27th, I'll be seeing two of
my very old Cathedralite friends [Joan Densham (nee Myers) and Jane
Bigg (nee Simon)], who I haven't seen since the very early 1050's,
so that would make an absence of about half a century!  We'll be
returning to Clemson on May 11th. So that gives us two weeks in
England, which makes me very happy, since I feel more "connected"
to my friends over there, and I also have some family to see in
London and near Bristol. In London, we'll be staying with an old
Bombay friend of mine, Gay Millen (nee Helms), who lives in
Pinner. Her father was an Optometrist in Bombay.  His shop,
Helms Optics, was near Flora Fountain. Gay went to the Loretto
Convent in Darjeeling, and she has some nice get-togethers in
London with her "Loretto girls," which makes me positively envious.
 
    It's 10:30 p.m. now, and I must get on with the business of
what to pack.  It wouldn't be such a chore if it weren't for all
the gifts that have to be taken, and having to go prepared
(clotheswise) for the unpredictable British weather. I like to
travel light, and it drives me crazy to take even a pair of extra shoes! 
 
    So, I'll get in touch again after I get back.
 
    In the meantime, please forgive my slackness --
I have enjoyed your last two Newsy Notes.
 
Best regards,

Doreen


Thanks to Doreen and Prakash for their inputs and for Prakash for
including me on your email list. Congrats on winning the Cookery Contest!!
I got a cookbook once but I could never do anything with it. Every one of
the recipes began the same way - 'Take a clean dish'. So, for obvious reasons,
my wife barred me from the kitchen after we got married!

And now some comments:

Noel, your former email address is sending out virus emails -
I have received two from that address.

Willie Shiri was worried he was sending out viruses, but I
did not receive any from him.

What or which was the first computer virus?

The germ of the idea can be traced to John von Neumann, the father of the
computer program. In the late 40s, he came up with the notion of a program
that could reproduce itself.

In the 60s, when time-sharing on large computers was still common, two
programmers at the Bell Labs invented a routine that could steal time on
the machine from other programmers. By the early 80s, several harmless
programs that we would recognize as computer viruses had been
demonstrated on Apple computers.

(That, in my humble opinion, is why Apple computers are now immune
to almost all of the 90000 viruses you have on the PC, and especially
Windows platform, and I do not have sleepless nights of my hard disk
being wiped out!)

With self-replication and the potential ability to cause mischief in place,
the stage was set for real digital deviance. In 1985, the EGABTR virus,
disguised as a graphics program, was spread via email. It wiped out
everything on a hard disk, leaving only the message,

ìArf, arf, Gotcha!î Oh, you dog.

Source: www.digitalcraft.org

My other Cathedralite friend (Prof. Ajeet Mathur) in Finland is away
in India so we have not had any reunions here lately. Waiting for his
speedy return, as he is missing an absolutely great summer - with
temperatures of over +35 C (in the shade). But midsummer is over and
the days are slowly getting shorter - although it is still bright
right through the night. Last night I was painting the new garden
fence till aroung 3 am!! Burnt some 3500 calories in the process.

Kashinath Dandekar has been updating me on the stories that
appear in The Times of India about our school - sadly, I do not
find the Archive Page at the Times Site to pass on the links to you.

And keep your emails coming as I love to hear from all of you.
And I do love some juicy gossip.

Regards

Jacob Matthan
Savage House captain 1959
Oulu, Finland

Tuesday, April 23, 2002

Newsy Notes 008 - Emotional Posting




Hi folks,

1. Fabulous Web Pages of School Renovation
2. Welcome back Noel Ezekiel
3. Sadhana Madhusadan (nee Shah) is also back
4. Cathedralite listedamong Top Asians in TIME magazine
5. Grandparents Club grows
6. 59er Reunion in 2004
7. email received from 54er
8. Photograph of Physics Teacher William (Willie) Shiri
9. Register at alumni.net
10. Petition signing online

I was intending to send out this issue over last weekend - but the
cricket commentary on the 2nd cricket test match between West Indies
and India coming in live audio over the internet from Port of Spain
kept me on my seats edge. I just did not get around to compiling and
sending this issue. (Of course, you can pay and watch the live
internet TV transmission over the internet also - but I hardly have
time to sit glued to a video transmission. By listening to the audio,
especially the very expressive commentary of Harsha Bhogle, I can
continue to do my work with the radio commenatary in the background.
Harsha just described a weak throw from the outfield by Harbhajan
Singh as putting one tea bag into 4 cups of water. Just beautiful. :-)

1. Fabulous Web Pages of School Renovation

I am rarely emotional. However, the mail I received from 64er
Brinda Somaya (nee Chinnappa) pointing me to her companies web pages

http://www.snkindia.com (click on the Projects button)

had me, as a Cathedralite, in raptures. You can see the excellent work
she has done in renovating the Junior, Middle and Senior schools .

I sent my comments to Brinda. She had her internet team make a few
modifications (what I thought were important) and then, voila (I hope
that is right as Mr. Ribi screwed my ears to make me learn this word),
the pages are now sheer magic.

When you visit the site, click on the images and the enlargements will
open up making you feel as if you are where you were 45 years ago and
yet give you the feeling of the wonderful restoration work that has
been done. The flowing colour images are just great and the impression
created made me want to visit school again as soon as possible!!

Well done Brinda.

As I may have mentioned earlier, Brinda is a childhood family friend.
The picture of her shows that she has retained her youth, beauty and
vitalism which is reflected in the marvellous work she and her team
have done for our school.

2. Welcome back Noel Ezekiel

As I was looking at the pictures of the Junior School, I remembered
trudging to the top, as my good friend, Noel, used to stay there with
his mother, whom many of you will remember.

As I mentioned several issues ago, Noel’s email was bouncing. So when
I received a re-direction of my last Newsy Notes, by Viney Sethi to
Noel, I hope I have got Noel back on our circulation list.

Hope he stays there as he has a habit off hitch-hiking all over the
world. I remember him landing up at my house in Shawbury, England,
35 years ago when he had hitched rides on Royal Air Force planes all
the way from Singapore to England!!

3. Sadhana Madhusadan (nee Shah) is also back

Due to an error on my part I was posting Newsy Notes to 54er Sadhana
at an incorrect address resulting in the mail bouncing. When Dara
Dastur wrote to me asking about details of the 54ers reunion, I
forwarded it to Antony and he told me to get in touch with Sadhana
Madhusadan (nee Shah). Instead of using my master list I used another
address book which had the correct address - and so Sadhana is back. I
am awaiting input from her about the 54er reunion, possibly in London
later this year.

4. Cathedralite listed among Top Asians in TIME magazine

As you all will know Sachin Tendulkar made it on the cover of the
recent TIME magazine when he equalled Dob Bradman’s number of test
centuries. But did any of you notice that Cathedralite Yusuf K.
Hamied, Chairman of CIPLA, was in list of top Asians.

In this context of Yusuf hamied I recall an email received sometime
last year from 49er Naval Patel.

Dear Jacob,                               

As introduction, I too was in the Class of 1949, a classmate of Yezad
Kapadia, Benjie Hayeem etc.  I was at Bombay University until 1954,
then read Chemical Engineering at Loughborough College in
Leicestershire UK.  From 1958 to 1990 I was with the ICI Group in
India, then with Tata Consulting Engineers until 1998.  Now my wife
and I have leisure to visit our children at length - our son is with
United Airlines in Chicago - and watch as much cricket on TV as I can
keep awake for.

Regarding cricket, I too was in the School 1st XI in 1949, then played
for the Cathedral Old Boys as long as I was in Bombay.  We entered the
Kanga League for the first time in 1954, in the 'D' Division which was
then the lowest one.  We batted first in our opening match, and I had
the honour to face t he first ball of the Association's competition
participation.  My opening partner was Yukub Hamied, who as I recall
was familiarly called Yuku.  He batted right handed and bowled left,
moderately quick by our experience in those days.  Yuku would have
passed out of School in '52.   Yusuf, I think, was his younger
brother.

We won our first two matches outright i.e. a two-innings r esult within
the six hour playing time.  The second of these matches actually
started only around 1 PM due to a wet ground, yet we won by an innings
after an enterprising declaration by our captain Mehli Lalkaka,
followed by brilliant bowling by him and Bobby Choonavala which
devastated the opponents, all out for 14 in mere 40 minutes!

I do not have details of further matches because I sailed for UK {yes,
actually by sea in those days, 17 days voyage!} immediately
thereafter.  I do know that we topped our Division easily and were
promoted to 'C' Division.  I think we did fairly well there too, in
1955, but perhaps were just short of further promotion.  Thereafter I
lost touch, but I believe migration of the principal players for
studies or jobs depleted the team severely, and they no longer
participated in the Kanga League after being demoted to the lowest
Division.

Incidentally my wife too is a Cathedralite, she was Armaity Mody at
School, a very successful athlete and netball player.

All regards

Naval Patel


I am still a bit confused. Was the 52er Yukub, the elder brother, and
Yusuf, the younger brother, the 56er.

Bobby A. F. Choonavala was in Singapore where he used to head the
Asia Pacific Region for Digital Computers. I think he was Chairman o f
Digital Equipment (India) Ltd. in Mumbai before it became Digital
GlobalSoft Ltd after the merger of Digital with Compaq. Any idea
where Bobby is these days as he must have retired by now.

5. Grandparents Club grows

I was very delighted to hear the 59er Ooky and Rivca have joined the
Grandparents Club. Their Cathedralie son, Akiva and his wife, Leena,
having produced a healthy baby boy. I have conveyed congratulations
to the happy grandparents and on to the parents.

6. 59er Reunion in 2004

Glad to say several have indicated their serious intent to make the
trip. So I have started working on the details and will keep you
informed as we progress. So start saving and let me know when you want
to make the remittances. I will ask Prof. Ajeet Mathur to make the
necessary bank arrangements in due course.

7. email received from 54er

From: dara dastur
Date: Fri Apr 12, 2002 08:46:30 Europe/Helsinki
To: Jacob Matthan
bject: Old Cathedralite

Hi Jacob,

I was at Cathedral & left in 1954. You had sent an e-mail to my
brother Kavsy in U.S.A, saying that there was going to be a '54 class
reunion this summer in London. I would love to attend, could you send
me details please? I'm retired now & live in the north near Durham.

Thanks

Dara


8. Photograph of Physics Teacher William (Willie) Shiri

Thanks to Chinny Chin Chin (nee Hasnain Chinwalla), as I would say to
my grandson Samu when reading the story of the Wolf and the three
little pigs, Hasnain from Canada sent me a great photograph of our
Physics wizard and master of the 50’s, Willie Shiri. This is now in my
archives.

Here was Willie's most recent input:

Hi Jacob,

Sorry I have been out of touch.....it is just this Age Factor, I
guess.   I haven't really been doing much else either.... except
filling in  Tax Returns for the Canada Customs and Revenue !    Don't
even sing in any choirs, having recently got out of the last one after
a month... their demands on my  time for fund-raising were unending!   

I still  sing... lustily.... in the bath-room  !!  Thought you'd
like to know.. after all, we did once sing in the same choir !!

Pushpa and  I are  interested in  your plans for a 59er Reunion in Finland
in 2004  since it is open to the old staff.    In spite of the
scarry dimentions of those local mosquitoes, Pushpa is inclined to put
aside her inborn mosquito-phobia, and is all eager  to join in !   This
is a spot we have never considered before for a visit.   This will 
give us a chance, apart from seeing some old familiar faces and  some
new ones, --a chance to see the midnight sun !  

We will, however, not rush in with our commitments . Considering the
frailties and  uncertainties that go with our ages, we should wait as
long as we are allowed, to be sure we are still fit enough to venture.   

We may be with  the last few to reserve our places !     

Pl. keep us informed of future developments.

Do you know if there is any special Reunion on the next Founders Day,
Nov.  '02 ?  Say, of the Class of '52  or  '62 for instance ?   Pushpa
and I  hope to be in Bombay between Nov 10 and 20, dates arranged
mainly to attend the Founders Day Service.  With our contact with you and
the Seventh Heaven  and reacquaintance with Nusly Pocha and some past
students via the Internet,  we decided  a year ago that Nov. 14 would be
the day to meet some.  Mr. Mohan Rao, we are hoping, will also be there. 

I expect the date  to be still  Nov. 14.  (?)  and that it is still a popular 
event.  

Well, Jacob, how about asking via your Seventh Heaven, each
of those  who attend school reunions, whenever it happens, to carry  a
period photo of himself ?   We both mean to do it.  I was looking at
some photographs of the Class of ' 60  taken when they got together in
2000.  They look so changed !   A few look amazingly unchanged,  while
a few others look almost my generation !! We hope we get a chance to
meet in Madras either Ranjit or Elezebeth (your siblings ) or both ! 
We will be there later in Nov. 02  I do have their email addresses.
Hope all is well with you in your new home. 

Keep well.  Regards to Annikki. 

Thanks again for all you are doing for all of us !

Willie


9. Register at alumni.net

Many of us are registered at Alumni.net which is one of the oldest and
most widely used alumni net pages. You can either cut and paste this
complete URL given below into your web browser and then register in
our School alumni. (Remove any line breaks when you paste this URL as they
would have been introduced because of the line lengths of this email. There
should be NO breaks.)

http://www.alumni.net/cgi-bin/affiliate.pl?email=findians%40findians.com
&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.alumni.net%2FAsia%2FIndia%2FMaharashtra%2FMumbai_%28
Bombay%29%2FCathedral_and_John_Connon_School%2F

10. Petition signing online

I was forwarded a link by Bhupinder Singh which I think should be
signed if you feel strongly about what is happening in Gujarat. You can find
the online petition hosted on the web by a free online petition service, at:

"Protest Gujarat Government's Behavior During Communal Riots"

See you soon and keep the emails flowing in . I really love to hear from you.

Regards

Jacob Matthan
Savage House Captain 1959
Oulu, Finland

Wednesday, March 27, 2002

Newsy Notes 007 - Going to get married


Cathedralites,

Mumbai Cathedralite 59ers are having a reunion at
Percy and Frainy Mistri’s place on the 28th.

I promised Percy I would be there via my Newsy Notes
- so here I am.

I hope Percy has his beautiful new flat screen iMac
by then in the living room.

I am sure that's the only place Frainy would keep such
a beautiful computer. Then you all can read this on this
fabulously designed computer. As you may have guessed -
I am a Mac addict. :-)

Ratan Batliwalla seriously ill

Percy gave me the news that 59er Renuka Dhanrajgir's
husband, Ratan Batliwalla, also a Cathedralite of 57
era, was seriously ill and at Breach Candy Hospital.
I do hope he recovers quickly. I am praying for his
speedy recovery.

About finding a spouse

I get a fair share of mail from Cathedralites and
Stephanians from around the world. Life is worth
living reading their email inputs.

Within the last three months I did get a number of
unusual requests from Cathedralites (and Stephanians).
Probably it was a result of my recent call to be a
Cathedralite / Stephanian in one's way of life?

The requests have been from older Cathedralites and
Stephanians of my generation who are anxious to find g
ood spouses for their children.

Yes, I am saying this - I have been asked to run a
matrimonial service for Cathedralites and Stephanians.

Besides my well known nickname as Dead Chicken, for some
reason, probably because I was going twice a week to
church for choir practice,attending two Sunday church
services, morning and evening, and all the weddings,
christenings, and other events the choir was asked to
sing at, Californian Viney (Sethi) had also given me
the second nickname as "Padre"!

This Padre, however, is not empowered to legalise a
marriage.

I can assure you that I have some excellent eligible young
gentlemen and ladies on my list - all data given to me in
strictest confidence by their parents with the full consent
of the eligible son or daughter. Includes a few
millionaires of the dot.com boom who have not yet gone bust.

I was deeply touched when one parent wrote to me to remove
the word "Hindu" from the biodata sent to me. He wrote:

"I have removed the word Hindu between the 5ft 8ins and
well rounded personality. After all a good person is
more important than being a Hindu."

Another asked me to remove the word "Malayalee" which had
been included in the original write-up. A third asked me
to remove the restriction of the bride-to-be being a “Muslim”.

As you all know, it will be difficult for ME to run a
marriage bureau as I was probably one of the first to
break tradition and to find my own wife, running the ire
of many of my family in India. That was nigh 35 years ago.
That bitterness still lingers on in the mind of some of
my relatives.

But I have been the happiest man on this earth as I was
blessed with a "good" non-Indian, non-Malayalee person
as my life's partner. We have been through many
hardships, many successes and many many failures. We
stuck together through all of them with our feet
firmly on the ground and we feel greatly rewarded
by our life together over this period.

How can one so inexperienced as this run a matrimonial
bureau?

My intention is I hope I can put "good" people together
to know each other, even if it does not result in a
marriage. You may not find a soul mate through me, but
what harm is there in finding a good friend?

If you have someone near and dear to you who is looking
for this form of introduction, then send me the data.
I will do a match and let you have a corresponding
person's data in-confidence. Then it is up to the
people concerned to see whether they hit it off together.

My present list consists of people who are only
Cathedralites or Stephanians or children of
Cathedralites and Stephanians and are from many
communities - Americans, Europeans, Indians,
Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Gujus,
Kannadigas, Maharashtrians, Mallus, Punjabis,
Sindhis, etc.. They live all over the world.

All, both gentlemen and ladies, without exception,
are well employed and are of independent means.
So a change in employment location, may result
if the process of matrimony begins. One must be
prepared for that eventuality. It is difficult t
o see me matching two people exactly in Boston or
Los Angeles, etc.

The ages of people on my list so far are gentlemen
and ladies from 25 to 34, all single to date.

What about my fees for the service?

Receiving a wedding invitation card would be more
than sufficient, although you can rest assured I w
ill not be able to attend!! My schedules are already
too crowded. But I love getting beautiful wedding
invitation cards, like the one 59er Ashok (and Madhu)
Kapur sent out for their daughter's wedding. Something
to be preserved in my collection of cards - I have
several thousands as I am a postcard and general
card collector!! I specialise in cross-written
postcards more than 100 years old.

Email received

I had this input from Yezad Kapadia, a 49er.

From: Yezad Sam Kapadia
To: Jacob Matthan
Sent: Sunday, March 03, 2002 7:49 AM
Subject: Newsletter

Hi Jacob,
 
It was great receiving your latest newsletter. Have
a few comments to make.
 
It was good to know that Vasind continued to be the favorite
camping place for the Scouts even in your time. I remember
the time we were caught in the rains and Oliver had to
make a bivouak to keep himself from getting soaked. He
did a great job of it. Most of us had tents.
 
If Pop Pharaoh was still around in your time and Karkaria
was the maths teacher, what subject was Pop teaching?
In our time Pop was the maths teacher.


(Ed: Pop taught us Maths till the 10th and Karkaria took
over only for the 11th.)
 
Cannot remember Doreen Feinbusch but if she has the
documents from the Prize Giving functions of the years
1949 and 1950 I would be interested in seeing them.
I was the Head Boy in 1949. If my memory serves me
right, these functions were held right in the beginning
of the year. One of my first assignments was to go to t
he topmost gallery of the C J Hall and lead the school
to a hearty Three Cheers for the Chief Guest and  his
wife. I only know how I shivered before getting the
words out of my mouth - " SCHOOL, Three Cheers for...."
In 1950, on that occasion, I got the Macdonald Medal
for Leadership. In my final certificate, which I still ha
ve, the departing Principal, L. M. S. Bruce, was to write
that I got the Medal more nearly unanimously than he
had ever known before. I was and am still proud of this.


(Ed: Yesh features greatly in all the documents that
Doreen kindly sent me. I will scan and put up on the
web in due course.)
 
Your tribute to your English teacher was moving. We
never knew him. In our time Oliver taught us English.
I never got beyond a 4/10 in our weekly essays and
just about scraped through the finals!. Aroo Moolgaker
got a distinction in English Language, which was
quite an achievement.
 
Glad to know that you are getting out of your winter
slumber.
 
Warm regards.
 
Yesh.


Next major reunion of 59ers

59ers, how about our next major reunion?

Have you considered my offer for the venue in 2004
to be Finland? If so I must get cracking on booking
the absolutely beautiful place on the side of a lake
in summertime when we have 24 hours glorious sunshine.
The place I have in mind can house around 60 couples
- more if we accept dorm style living.

It would be a reunion of a type never before experienced
by any Cathedralite. I shall try to keep the costs to
within about US $ 250 per person for food (breakfast,
lunch and dinner) and accommodation for 5 days (US $ 50 per day),
and including all the amenities at the location - sauna,
barbecue, water and land sports, etc. And I could organise
the services of a great Rock Band - live, so plenty of
dancing possible.

You will have to come well prepared with mosquito repellent
as the size of a mosquito in north Finland during summertime
are about that of a bee or wasp!! :-)

I am sure Viney and Purnima (Mazumdar) Sethi as they have
close relations nearby in Stockholm, and Ajeet (Prof.
Ajeet Mathur) from Tampere (although not a 59er from our
Finland Alma Mater club) will be able to help me out at
the final run-up to the event.

The dates would be ideally about a 5-day period in July
2004 - Thursday or Friday to Monday or Tuesday either pre-
or post- Wimbledon / Test Match as it would be no point
getting stuck in front of a TV when there is glory all around.

We could welcome staff and non-59ers also if they wish
to take the opportunity.

You would have to find the fare to reach from your
location to Oulu (near the Arctic Circle). SAS has
direct international flights to Oulu daily through
Stockholm.

If organised properly I can ask SAS to offer a special
fare from Stockholm to Oulu and back as there will
certainly be more than one flight load as they run only s
mall planes to this destination. And maybe Purnima (with
her previous Air India contacts and good contacts in
Stockholm where she was Air India chief for several years)
can help us get a good fare from Mumbai and some point in
US and UK to Stockholm?

If this is acceptable I will set up a separate bank account
where you can deposit the fee at convenient times in
convenient amounts, so the burden is not all at once.
I will ask Ajeet to maintain the accounts.

Give it a thought and get back to me as I have to work
with my contacts at the University to ensure that this
absolutely delightful lakeside place is reserved for us.

Summertime in Finland is so glorious that we really have
to book this 2 years in advance to be sure we get it.

Winter nearly over

Snow is all over the ground still, although temperatures
are slowly heading above the zero mark. Driving is quite
dangerous as under a light snowfall there may be very
slippery patches. I had a nasty fall in my garden just
day before yesterday resulting in a badly bruised shin.

I was also in a car slide the night before. I was turning
a gentle corner when the car just slid with the wheels
locked in the turning position. It jammed into the snow
and was impossible to get out single-handed as the wheels
were turned about 45 degrees, even though I dug out most
of the snow with my bare hands. I called my son-in-law,
Tony, to come with a shovel to dig me out. But a good
young Samaritan with a tow rope in the boot passed by
in a few minutes and pulled me out before Tony could
even leave home!!

Believe it or not - in my 18 years in Finland -
this was my first car snow slide!!

Yahoo Users Beware and be Forewarned

I have it from the grapevine that Yahoo intends to start
charging users to use their, till now, FREE email service.
Try to find another quickly - preferably not hotmail. I
f desperate - contact me and I shall try to get you a
free service from the many I know.

You have been warned.

Best wishes from where spring is just around the corner
- hopefully!!

Jacob Matthan
Savage House Captain 1959
Oulu, Finland