Class of 56 Reunion - November 2006

Everyone of the 60s will remember Ubi (H. S. Uberoi). His family is now three generation Cathedralites, with grandchildren now in the school.

Can any of you identify Ubi in this picture.

1958 School Hockey 1st Eleven

Ubi is the one sitting second from left. I am the goalkeeper sitting on the ground.

I had a long and detailed email from him the other day. He and Meena Bhatt (née Lele) are planning the 50 year reunion of 56ers to be held in November 2006.

11 months away, but let me assure you, time just flies away and unless you start this early, you will never have a reunion worth its weight in gold.

According to Ubi, the 56er girls (ladies) are well organised, but the boys (gentlemen?) are not so closely knit. Ubi has sent me a list of class fellows that he remembers off-hand (apologising profusely for any ommissions), and would like any of you who knows any of these to ask them to get in touch with Ubi, or me, so that you can be included in the mailings about the programme.

So if any of these listed below happen to be your friend, brother, cousin, in-law, neighbour - please ask them to send me an email via this blog using the comments section.

1. Iqbal Chaiwalla
2. Zareer Adajania
3. Waseem Brelvi
4. Muku Hamied
5. Badhniwalla
6. Ravi Dandekar
7. Sohrab Kapadia
8. Isaac Hyam
9. Sudhir Grover
10.Banatwalla
11.Amin Jaffer.
12.Mustan Currimjee
13.Zulfi Currimjee
14.Daryanani
15.Jimmy Tata
16.Shyam Chainani
17.Ernest Haskell
18.Ranjit Matthan
19.Michael Tahseen
20.Timmy Khattau
21.H.S.Uberoi
22.Pradeep Anand
23.Ramesh Gupta

I have been assured by Ubi that someone will represent Kirti Dongersee, who tragically passed away the day the Senior Cambridge results were announced in 1957, when his scooter skidded at Nariman Point. All of us in the school were put in a state of shock as Kirti had been such a wonderful and lovable character, our school Cricket Captain and a great off-spin bowler.

I have also been assured that someone will represent the School Captain of 1956, another character extraordinary, the late Tara Malkani, who went to the Olympics to run in the 100 metres for India.

Staff members of that era are more than welcome to join in the fun and frolic.

Better halves will be well entertained watching this motley crew celebrate!

The proposed programme - subject to review, comment and changes, as thought appropriate, is:

1.The girls are all going to Pune for 4 days early November 2006.
2.Cocktails on 10th or 11th November 2006.
3.12th or 13th November 2006 - an outing to Alibag.
4.14th November 2006 morning church service at the St. Thomas' Cathedral, followed by tea
at school and a class photograph.
5.Dinner at a venue to be selected on evening of 14th November 2006.

I hope you will help Ubi and his crew organise a great reunion.

I unearth another of my CatCall articles

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had written 3 articles for CatCall.

I just discovered the second.

When I was searching for postal addresses of some 59ers, I stumbled on the second of my articles entitled Diversity. Maybe I will also discover the third one that I wrote!

Many people have asked me what has been the greatest benefit to me of my having studied in Cathedral. I am sure that this is a common question to all those who have had the opportunity to study in good schools. There are indeed many possible answers. Going back to my school days itself, one would be overwhelmed and say that it was the excellent teaching staff, such as John Billington, William (Willie) Shiri and 0. A. Gregory, or the late Glyne-Howell, Arthur Morecroft (who saved my life), Stan [Pop Pharaoh, Rider Salmon, Denzel Timmins, W. H. (Hugh) Thompson, and / or the excellent opportunity not only for a format classroom education but also the availability of good sports education including athletics, badminton, boxing, cricket, football, hockey, lemon drop cricket, physical training, quad football, swimming, table tennis, tennis etc. This, despite the fact that the school was located in the centre of a massive city with not an inch of sports field in our complex. And maybe I should also add the great traditional sports like marbles and spinning tops, and other seasonal games that we played during the breaks.

more....

The findians.com domain name is now dead so you will find me at

http://jmatthan.blogspot.com

as well as this Seventh Heaven site.

Adil sends me a great picture

I have so much great input these days that I have a sort of waiting list to put stuff on the blog.

I jumped this up the queuse as it covers three separate class years - 1962 to 1964, a group of old Cathedralites of the early and mid sixties.

The picture below was taken at the races in Mahalaxmi about 4 years ago !!

From right to left is: Feroze Vakil (1963/64); Reuben Solomon (1963/64);
David Nissim (1964/65) and Adil Gandhy (1962/63).

Feroze lives & works in Bombay/Pune and his spouse is Shernaz (née Neterwalla). He has 2 children, a boy and a girl, both of whom are studying in the USA at present.

Reuben Solomon lives & works in Manchester (U.K) and visits India quite often. He has a few race horses in Bombay/Pune and hence this photograph taken at Mahalaxmi Race Course, Bombay. Reuben's spouse is Linda. He has two sons. The elder who works in London and the younger in L.A.

David Nissim. Who lives in Israel and works for El -Al since the past over 30 years. He flies into Bombay quite often and always loves to go upto his favourite hill station Matheran. David has an elder brother, the ever popular prankster Ivan Nissim, who is a school teacher and lives in Tel Aviv, Israel. I forget David's wife's name, but he also has a boy and a girl, who both live & work in Israel.

And 62-63er Adil. He sent me this profound piece of wisdom, so I leave you to figure out who he is!

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar.

He shook the jar lightly.

The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an infamous "yes."

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.

The golf balls are the important things: your family, your children, your faith, your health, your friends, and your favourite passions; things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter: your job, your house, and your car.

The sand is everything else: the small stuff. "If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.

The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."

Mine is a long black espresso.

And that's for you.

With such pearls of wisdom from Adil, I am sure several of you will identify him!

Thanks for sharing this with us, Adil.

An entry in three of my blogs

Prof. Ajeet Mathur, a good friend, a Mumbai Cathedralite and also a Delhi Stephanian, has just sent me an electronic copy of an article which has just appeared in a publication celebrating the history of Tampere, the major industrial city in South Finland, his present domicile.

I thought it appropriate to provide a link to it on all my three blogs, my personal blog, the Cathedralite Seventh Heaven Blog and the Stephanian Kooler Talk Web Version Blog.

Having read it during its composition stage, I can say that it is hot, hot, hot.

I had dicussed this with him just last weekend and wondered whether he thought some of his more caustic comments would get through the "Editors" (Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko and Antti Kasvio (eds.) eCity: Analysing the efforts to generate local dynamism in the City of Tampere to Meet the Challenge of Changing Global Economy, Tampere University Press, 2005).

He was on his seat's edge.

The book appeared publicly today, and he immediately wrote to me thus:

The Tampere book is published and officially released with my article intact!

With "Communities at Risk" (2003) and this, I have the satisfaction of having given sufficient warning of the shape of things as a dutiful resident as part of my respect for the flag I live under.

I shall post you a published copy tomorrow.

Here is the electronic version. Please feel free to circulate it to those who care or blog it as you wish.

Someday, when I have a personal homepage, I would be happy to provide a link to it for all interested persons to know. But that may not be before March 2006 because I am a technical ignoramous and have other things on my mind now.

Best Regards to you and Annikki,

Ajeet

If Ajeet is an technical ignoramous, I wonder what I am!!

"Communities at Risk" is also another great piece of work by him.

His Discussion Paper "Finland - India - Economic Relations A Twinning Study of Trade and Investment Potential" published in 1998 was a ground-breaking publication.

I had the honour of co-authoring the paper "To Serve or To Rule? Paradoxes of Shared Authority and Appropriated Power in E-governance". It was read by Ajeet at the e-Governance Conference in New Delhi in Decwember 2003 as I could not attend.

Here is an example of the hard-hitting writing of Ajeet in this article:

There are a variety of myths circulating in Tampere designed to foster confidence among residents and prospective partners and investors in Tampere that do not stand up to a reality check. In popular perception, the two universities, particularly the Tampere University of Technology spawns innovations; these innovations are incubated in a virtual science park; and, incubated innovations create new dynamic enterprises attracting large amounts of venture capital thereby creating a multiplier effect for new jobs and enhanced flows of incomes and asset creation. In reality, public money in the guise of projects has been used to fund jobs with soft targets and when a project ends, a 'next big project' is needed to repeat the cycle, since little of lasting value remains. Names of agencies change, agencies merge with each other to acquire fresh identities, new organisations get mandated and organizational forms undergo such metamorphosis that old wine in new bottles is easily mistaken for a new engine of innovation on which hope is pinned for a while until it is dashed again. Hermia was an ingenius institution that enabled students of the Tampere Technical university to be drafted into labouring for companies needing cheap student labour while the flowback from the beneficiaries to the University remains unknown. The total amount donated by Tampere region companies (including Nokia) to Tampere Technical University is about Euro 250,000 according to the list coordinated by the Tampere Chamber of Commerce. With few exceptions, hardly any inventions of the University developed commercially as a return on public subsidies and investments and most of the firms counted in powerpoint presentations evangelising the Tampere model pre-date Hermia or have nothing to do with the Technical University. In making an actual count together with Hermia senior executives, I could locate only 13 enterprises in all under the umbrella of e-accelerator (the number on Hermia's powerpoint slide was 300), of which just two had something to do with the Tampere Technical University. The first pillar of Tampere's business development strategy, Hermia, was entirely focused on technology and real estate brokering, and never organised to provide any international business development expertise to existing firms or to new ventures. Hermia officials candidly admit they have no idea where the medium and large enterprises in the Tampere region obtain international business know-how.

In 1999, a second pillar, Professia Oy was established from public funds (and mandated to develop knowledge intensive business services in 2002). After five lacklustre years of existence, this agency launched a 'Tampere International Business Office' in mid-2004. This old-wine-in-new-bottle initiative never compiled even a starting kit for investors in the region. Most of its budget was spent on staff salaries for its seven employees and travelling to exhibitions and making contacts overseas to entice investors to Tampere. From € 1 million injected into it, an income of € 28,000 was reported which works out to 2.8 percent return on net assets, well below long term market interest rates. On 17.8.2005, Professia Oy merged with Oy Media Tampere which employed seventeen persons with a 2.2 percent return on net assets which is even lower than Professia Oy (according to the press release of the merger announced on 17.8.2005). The fused entity in announcing the merger hints at new horizons and a stronger organisation but its business plan remains unclear. The use of public funds in Tampere is not associated with transparency or disclosure and residents are expected to believe that this old-wine-in-new-bottle that didn't deliver much in five years of functioning will now function as the beacon of new hope. 'Project thinking' with soft targets is a hallmark of the Tampere region. The big breakthrough is always optimistically depicted to be in the future. During Spring 2005, hope was pinned that Tampere would host the ASEM summit in 2006 during the Finnish Presidency of the EU and the wave of traffic that would arise through Euro-Asia business contacts. Meanwhile, Hermia leading the ICT sector big projects was being hived and restructured to give way to the biotechnology and health sector spearheaded by Finn Medi under the ambitious catch-all expression of the next big project BIONEXT.

Ajeet pulls no punches. He tells it as it is.

You can download a pdf copy of the article from this link The Future of International Business in the Tampere Region1 by Prof. Ajeet Mathur, University of Tampere

Hope you enjoy it. I am sure Ajeet would love to have feedback from you on this paper.

It is my homour to share two alma maters with him!

Just discovered my article in CatCall

Thanks to 59er Hasnain Chinwalla for this great picture of our school:

Cathedral & John Connon School, Mumbai,
Copyright Hasnain Chinwalla

Many moons ago I was asked to write a series of articles for CatCall, our School Old Students magazine. I submitted three articles.

I heard one had been published and that the copies of the magazine were winging their way to me, but sadly, it has not arrived to date!

While browsing the Internet this morning, I found my first submission Seventh Heaven (Syndicated to findians.com, Oulu, Finland), online!

When I received a call from '57er Kashinath Dandekar asking whether the name "Seventh Heaven" was appropriate for my web page about my class, as it sort of raised the impression of a Bangkok massage parlour, I realised that much water had flowed under the bridge since my childhood days.

The year was 1955. Our class was situated on the ground floor just next to the chemistry laboratory. The class teacher was Mr [W. H.) Thompson (Hugh). Many of this group of boys - later became the outstanding class of '59 - one of the finest sets of students to graduate from our school.

During one English class, a suggestion was put forward that we should start a magazine. A competition was held to choose an appropriate name. Out of 30 excellent suggestions emerged "Seventh Heaven". This was a clear winner..... more

Remember that the URL given in the article is no more. All links must now point to this blog where I have archived all my previous issues of the Seventh Heaven Web Version.

You can read the whole article at the School Alumni site. Thanks for publishing it.

I have also heard that Catcall has been put on hold as they have not got any Editors to ensure that it is a regular publication.

Are you not glad that we have "Seventh Heaven"? :-)

Surfeit of 59ers Birthdays

In December we are blessed with many birthdays of 59ers.

Vikram Kamdar was on the 10th, Viney Sethi was (probably - bad memory) on the 11th, Noel Ezekiel and Peter Miovic are on the 13th and Anil Ruia is on the 17th.

Happy birthday all you guys.

Jacob does not forget any of you.

Hope you all have a great day on your respective birthdays and hope you all become a year younger.

Lets have some new photos for my album.

63ers Party in 61 / 62

Many thanks to Adil Gandhy for this great picture.

I recognise Kishore Shivdasani lounging in his inimitable style in front of the group.

(Click image to see larger image.)



Just think of the plea which accompanied the image submission.

With so many 63ers reading this blog, I do not think we will have much problem fulfilling his request.

Hello Jacob,

I am herewith forwarding an old photograph taken, I think, in 1961/62 of a class party of the batch of 1963/64 at Soosan Wadia's home at New Marine Lines (near Churchgate Station).

I do recognise quite a few but not all in the picture. I was not in this class but a year earlier.

I trust some 1963 batch person will recognise all and list the same on your site if you publish the same?

Cheers,

Adil Gandhy

Come on 63ers - stop our misery and help us out.

The first coomplete submission identifying the 25 participants (which will be verified with the team of 63er experts - Mithoo Malani, Ranko Ivancevic, Kishore Shivdasani (and a few others) will receive a miniature Alvar Aalto designed product. Alvar Aalto was the top Finnish architect and product designer.

Great news about 54er Nalini

I must thank 54er Sadhana Madhusadan (née Shah) from Pune who sent me this great news.

Mrs. Nalini Chandran (née Nair) is at the Hari Sri Vidya Nidhi School, Shree Rama Krishna, Ashramam Lane Punkunnam in Trichur, Kerala.



Mrs. Rita Wilson, Deputy Secretary, Holding additional charge of the Chief Executive and Secretary of the CISCE informed 54er Nalini that she was to be conferred the Derozio Award in recognition of her outstanding contribution in the field of Education and Human Enrichment by the Jury of the Driozio Award 2004.

The Award ceremony will be held at 9.30 am on 7th January 2006 at Brishop Cotton Boys' School. St. Mark's Road, Bangalore 560001 (one of my alma maters) at the venue of the Annual Conference of the Association of Heads of Anglo-Indian Schools in India.

I hope as many of you in Bangalore will turn out to congratulate Nalini on this historic occasion.

I am sure all of you join me in congratulating Nalini and share her happiness in receiving this award.

Get your FREE 2006 Desktop Calendar

As a prelude to the release of Annikki's book "Edible Art" in 2006, we are pleased to inform you that the 2006 Desktop Calendar, featuring 13 of her beautiful cake designs, will be sent, ABSOLUTELY FREE OF COST, to the first 500 readers (relatives who are in touch with us regularly need not check in) who send us their snail mail (posting) address.

FREE 2006 Desktop Calendar featuring
13 of Annikki's beautiful and artistic cake designs

As the calendar is being printed and dispatched from our printer in China, please act quickly, as I will be transferring the final database to the printer for posting purposes within the next few days.

You can email your snail mail address to:

Free Calendar Request

Sharp increase!

My campaign to identify those who had been in Cathedral well as St. Stephen's College in Delhi (Stephanians) got a sharp kick a few days ago when I received an email from a consultant in the Phillipines, Ravi Nangia, who finished from school in 1968 and then graduated in Economics from Stephen's in 1972.

Ravi reported to me two others in his year: Kapil Mathur and Sudhanshu Ranade were from Cathedral and went on to St. Stephen's College.

In a later post Ravi said that Kapil was in Bombay and that he probably saw an article with a by-line by Sudhanshu in The Hindu (the newspaper from Chennai).

Kapil Mathur (68er Savage, Treasurer and Executive Committee Member of the Cathedral Alumni Association 2003 - 2004) seems to be very active in the School Alumni set-up. Here is a picture from the Alumni web site where he is at the cricket match between the Old Boys and the School. Kapil is the one in the blue shirt. Photo by Rajiv Bhatia (Barham'81)



I will try to g4et some comments from kapil in due course.

I was able to track references to Sudhanshu as he has hundreds of references to his work when you search for him in Google.

There is a commernt about him in this online article A fine blend of religion and culture by V. Sundaram

According to Sudhanshu Ranade (author of the articles in The Hindu `The great betrayal' (February 7, `99) ``Religion and Politics'' (August 1, '99) and ``Religion and Politics'' (August 15, '99) the linkage between religion and politics during the Vedic Phase of the Hindu religion ended in a total disaster 2500-3000 years ago. Eminent men including Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Keshab Chandra Sen, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda, Sister Nivedita, Anne Besant, Aurobindo and Mahatma Gandhi (whose academic and other credentials can be considered equal to that of Mr. Sudhanshu Ranade) have all passionately underlined the man-making soul-elevating and nation-building impact of Hinduism through the ages on the people of India. Mahatma Gandhi had professional intellectuals like Sudhanshu Ranade in mind when he observed: ``Rationalists are admirable beings; rationalism is a hideous monster when it claims for itself omnipotence. Attribution of Omnipotence to reason is as bad a piece of idolatry as is the worship of stones believing them to be God. I do not plead for the suppression of reason but for the recognition of `that' in us which sanctifies reason.''

Starting initially with his quasi-religious pieces, as indicated from the quote above, Sudhanshu appears to have gone up the ladder to be a leading correspondent on a variety of subjects in the newspaper.

Sudhanshu appears to have been at The Hindu for some time, doing book reviews. His recent pieces include many of general interest to me: China's rapid economic growth hits Asian nations differently, Garment exporters: Know your customer, The logic of tax on fringe benefits, savings

I am sure many others may now come forward who have this double heritage!

Thanks Ravi for the leads.

School Quad evokes many comments

After my nostalgic reminiscences of the quad and traditions in the school, I have been innundated with many comments, all of them expressing that they too thought that traditions should be passed on.

This subject became poignant, especially as it was Founders' Day, and we were immortalising the traditions of our peers, the very founding of our school 145 years ago.

The one person, whom I had singled out, H. S. Uberoi (Ubi), came back with this very interesting response:

Dear Jacob,

My query regarding the quad was genuine.

No, you did not touch a raw nerve.

But your subsequent blog entry did jog my memory back to those delightful days.

In fact, I could write a whole epistle just on the diverse activities that were conducted in the quad and how they were an integral part of our daily lives.

You are quite right in what you have written. Sadly those activities, to the best of my knowledge, cease to exist.

Actually they disappeared a long, long time ago.

Even my son, who passed out 20 years ago, does not recall any of the activities that you have recounted.

I think only the boxing finals take place there, the last I heard.

Remember the Free Booters' League conducted by C.J.Olliver?

I think post co-education in the school, a great deal changed.

There are, no doubt, great improvements, but a great deal of tradition gave way to a new way of life.

But that I suppose is life!!

I do feel the same way as you do, but after two children who have passed out of school and with a grand child in school now, perhaps my eyes are more tolerant now than they were earlier.

My warmest regards on this the 145th anniversary of the Founders' Day of the Cathedral and John Connon School!

Ubi

Thanks Ubi - especially for updating us about the situation as may have prevailed for a long time. As I said, I had little or no direct contact with the school after I left, but my memories have lived on and kept me alive and active. When I started the reunite campaign for 59ersd, I had no idea it would lead to such abroad readership that i enjoy today. As Willie Shiri, our Physics teacher resident in from Canada wrote a few weeks ago: "PS: Never miss your Blog !" Can I get a better compliment than that from a person who "educated" me?

I loved the days when we were cheering on our house colleagues who were battling in the boxing ring in the quad. I remember yelling my guts out for Ubi! We used to stand on the balcony just outside the then Standard VI, directly overlooking the ring and just above where the Boxers came out to go into the ring.

Many a bloodied face have I seen going back after the fights! But the next day all the contestants were the greatest of friends. The battles that took place in the ring never took a step out of it.

I was never a strong enough a boxer to enter the finals. Little 59er Neelam Lakhani consistently knocked me out before the finals - one savage consumed another - as they say!

And the Free Booter's League was the quad football tournament that I had referred to in my earlier post - but the name had skipped my memory. Thanks for jogging it, Ubi.

Do the Operas or School Plays still get performed these days? Is there still a school choir?

It would be wonderful if someone would let me know as to what are the traditions of today that maybe will be passed on to the next 50 years - a computer games club?

Writing this blog, which is read by Cathedralites from the 49ers to 05ers of today, is part of my desire to drive the nostalgic juices in my alma mater colleagues.

If we are lucky, we may add "Big Benjy", the second born of the eldest of the Hayeem family, Solomon Hayeem, and elder brother of Josey Hayeem, both of whom live in Canada, to our readership.

That may extend our readership to the someone from the mid 1940s!!!

And in passing, I would love to know which Hayeem instituted the Hayeem Prize for English Literature. Don't scream the answer, please. I admit that I am the ignoramus.

Take care.

I am scandalized on Founders' Day!

Today is Founder's Day of our School.

I wish all those in Mumbai celebrating this occasion, the very best.

I hope you will spare a thought for many of us who would like to be there with you to celebrate this auspicious occasion.

54er Gracie Hayeem (BentLerno) emailed me yesterday labelling me with the nickname "Detective Jacob"!

I felt scandalized by the term. :-)

What happened was that I received an email from someone in Canada who had visited this blog and seen mention of various Hayeems. The person wrote to me for further information.

I have a strict policy not to reveal the email addresses of our Cathedrlaites to anyone without their permission.

All I did was forward this email to all the many Hayeem's who are in touch with me.

57er/59er Abe Hayeem from London was quick to respond identifying this as a genuine enquiry of a niece.

So I sent them an email organising an online reunion.

This has snow-balled. Now they have discovered an enormous genealogy site where many of the famous Hayeem families of Mumbai are listed, much of the information incomplete.

Now it will be possible for the site to get one solid portion of this genealogy completed if someone has the patience to fill it up. Many Cathedralite Hayeems will feature in it.

In the genealogy site the name is not Hayeem, as we all know them, but a Jewish form, Haim.

Here is one of the many emails that were exchanged between Chloe, Abe, Gracie and another who came later on in the day - karen:

Hi Jacob,

Thank you for your reply. My dad is Joe (Joey) Hayeems and he attended the Cathedral school from 1942-1949 before he moved to Israel. He is from the family of 15 children, which are listed on that site as "Haim"....but their last name was always "Hayeem" - so there appears to be an error there. He will check and then let me know. And I see that the source of all the information on that site related to this family is Kay Mennaseh (thanks for letting me know who she is Gracie), so I would be interested in getting in touch with her.

During our trip to India this past January we visited the Cathedral, and the "headmaster" allowed us to walk around. It was very emotional for my dad and he got a kick out of looking over into the courtyard (there was a gym class taking place) and sitting in one of the classrooms!

And hello to my cousins that I have not yet met whom are listed on this email!

Karen

Dear Gracie, all I did was put you in touch! Seriously, I am not the detective!!

Only thing there seem to be a lot of web detectives getting in touch with me!

Have a great time discovering each other. It was fun for me to read some of the stories on the genealogy site dating back a couple of hundred years.

And hope all of you have a great 145th FOUNDERs' DAY.

Our School Quad

I seem to have a bit of a raw nerve here about the school yard!

56er Ube led the charge in that he said that he did not see anything different about the yard. An unidentified blogger by the name of αδιβ, who has a nice site about Formula 1 racing, another great interest of mine, as in Finland we are crazy about Kimi Raikkonen, wanted to know what was wrong with the yard picture.



Mr. αδιβ is quite young, just 17. If he is a Cathedralite, he may hardly know what I was refering to.

But the query of Ube, one of our greatest sportsman and also a great great leader, of our decade?

The yard in our day was the centre of activity, from morning till evening. We had Lemondrop cricket matches, in some cases, even before school started in the morning. If, not, we had challenge matches. The matches went through lunch hour.

If it was not the cricket, we were all involved with quad football, and every class had two or three teams, so everyone got a chance. The only time I was injured in school was when I fractured my wrist when i fell saving a goal in a quad football match. But that was a part of growing up in our school.

Look at the this picture of the 59 Rackets team.



What about the Tin and Bottle Badminton Tournament, which was great fun, even if we were whipped by such great players as the Ruias, Ashok, Anil and even that little brother of Ashok, Bharat! Remember the very unassuming Ralph David, who was really a great badminton player.

To me the quad was the character of the school.

When I looked at the picture of this yard, as it is in 2003, some of the basic elements that tickle my memory nerves, were missing.

No crease and stumps for the Lemondrop cricket tournament, no goalposts for the Quad football tournament, and no court lines for the Tin and Bottle Tournament.

Have these sports vanished from our school agenda?

I see the basketball net.

During the 50's, basketball was not yet a sport in our school.

It was only in 1959 that the Harlem Globetrotters arrived for a demo tour to Bombay. Many of us from the school witnessed the marvel of the teams and the performance of their coach, a tiny little man. No doubt, that would have introduced the sport in our school after my time.

Great, but did we or did we have to lose our other quad games?

Maybe I am wrong. I would love to hear that our deeply loved traditions are still intact!

Does this picture trouble you?

No, no, no, Not the picture of Mithoo and Nancy!

But the following one of the photograph of the school yard, which I have posted below, was sent to me recently by a 63er, Mithoo Malani, who lives in Florida. The first picture is Mitho with a gorgeous dish, fellow 63er Nancy (née Dastur), who is the sister of 59er Piloo.



The sisters share one thing in common. They certainly can turn a lot of admiring heads!

I studied the picture of the yard very carefully. I was greatly troubled by what I read into it.



Not having had much to do with the school on the physical front after my time there, which ended officially in 1959 December and more generally when I travelled on for my studies in Delhi in 1960, I still hold on to certain traditions that were great during the 50's.

I wonder how many of you know what I am talking about. Of course, I have no right to hold these opinions.

If you are also troubled by this photograph of the state of the school yard, maybe you would like to voice your concerns to me to see whether I have the right to feel the way I do, or whether I am just being a sentimentalist.

Another two located

Recently I had written about some of us who are both Cathedralites as well as Stephanians.

Some of you may have noted a Comment recently which introduced me to two 90er Cathedralites and 93er Stephanians. Welcome to my alma mater blogs, Gop.

My email address for Ranjeev was when he was in the U.K. He has moved on. Can anyone give me his most recent email address?

Gopkiran Rao, Bombay Scottish 88er, Cathedralite 90er, Delhi Stephanian (Eco Hons) 93er

Ranjeev Bhatia, Bombay Scottish 88er, Cathedralite 90er, Delhi Stephanian (History Hons) 93er

Gop has a very nice set of web pages filled with a huge selection of classic pictures.

I chose one which makes my memory cells go back a few years.

Katherine and Gopkiran, LA, 2002

They certainly are a beautiful couple.

Hope both of you as wonderful a marriage as I have had for the last 38+ years.

Happy Diwali Cathedralites

Today is the 1st of November 2005.

It is the 37th birthday of Jaakko, our eldest son, who lives in Birmingham, England. Our elder daughter, Susanna, and her family, husband, Chris, and daughter, Asha (8), will be with Jaakko to celebrate the day with him.

To brighten his birthday and also show you the grand festival of lights, I have chosen to use one of his most famous sunset photographs which uses "light", one of Jaakko's most favourite themes.

Happy Diwali to all of you

School viewed from outer space

About 3 weeks ago, 54er Suhas Phadke sent me this fascinating image of our school buildingsas viewed from Outer Space. He forgot to mark the Kindergarten which can also be seen on the image (I do hope that it is still there!)

Click on the Image to see an enlarged version.



The Indian President, DR. A. P. J. ABDUL KALAM, does not seem very happy with this new image service from Google. (Interesting to note how Google's competitor, Yahoo, phrases the URL - india_google_terror.)

In Finland, we can virtually see into gardens via the space photographs. One of these days I will post an image of the famous Kampitie Garden as viewed from space, probably when Annikki has created her artifical Northern Lights show!

Thanks Suhas.

Happy birthday Pushpa

Just under 5 years ago when I was searching the alumni website I came across the name of William Shiri, my Physics teacher. I dropped him an email through the alumini website, when it was possible without having to go through the rigmarole that it has become today.

That was on November 17th 2000.

I received this email in reply:

From: "William & Pushpa Shiri"
To: "Jacob Matthan"
Subject: Re: Wonderful surprise

Dear Jacob,

Lovely surprise hearing from you. What a lot of information about old Cathedralites!

Thank you.

It is great to re-establish contacts with my students from the distant past! I will write a long letter one of these days but wanted to send a quick note to acknowledge receipt of your letter.

We are often on the phone with one of your classmates - Hasnain Chinwalla - who lives in Toronto and has just retired. I have forwarded your letter to him.

Glad to hear that so many of you have had illustrious careers in all corners of the earth. When I registered on the Alumni Page my wife, Pushpa (you may remember seeing her at the church or at the school), suggested that I might hear from you. She is interested in knowing where your sister, Elizabeth, is.

We were both very sorry to hear about your parents. We did meet them once at a church in Bangalore on one of our trips back to India.

Do keep in touch . I hope to hear from Ranjit one of these days.

With regards to both you and your wife (your children also if they are still in Finland),

Willie Shiri

Ever since then, Willie and Pushpa have been in touch with me. We have shared many many snippets of information and helped each other put people in touch.

They are the titular head of "MY" Cathedralite" family.

There should be a generation gap, but Willie and Pushpa are still the same as I knew them in India, Pushpa I knew from Church and not from school, as she was a Kindergarten teacher way back in the fifties.I did not go to the Cathedral Kindergarten, and even if I did, she would have been too young to be teaching me then!



Today is Pushpa's 72 birthday and I hope all of you will join me in wishing her a very very happy birthday and many many wonderful ones. (I have a feeing that 59er Hasnian Chinwalla was the photographer, but maybe Willie can help me out on that.)

Budni checks in from Pune

I was truly delighted this afternoon when I received this email.

Dear Matthan,

My name is Dr. Behram T. Badhniwalla (Wilson House Batch 57). In school I was 'Budni' !

I used to walk on crutches during our green years. Of course, I left my disability behind in 1959-60 (Praise be to the Good Lord).

Today, my wife, Carmie, and I have retired and live in Pune.

From all the Cathedralites of our generation, and many have met u, the common factor is we both are holding on to our flocks!

We have regular get-together of the Pune Cathedralites and shall revert later with more information!

Cheers for Now

Budni

By the way, Budni, I remember you called me Matthan in school (one of the very few who did), but my name today for Cathedralites of all age groups is either Jacob, Jake, or Dead Chicken!

57er Budni was very popular as, despite his crutches, he was always interested to be in the thick of things. I am so glad that he overcame that disability and took up the noble medical profession. I am sure, like Budni, each one of us have many things to thank the Good Lord for!

I am grateful for the picture that I received in his email of a party at Budni's pad for fellow 57rs.



In the picture, at the far right are Kamal and husband, 57er Sunil Sahni, who visited us here in Oulu two summers ago. Carmie is standing in the centre with that ferocious looking tiger skin dress, but obviously purring like a tame cat to guard her black camera case (brilliant deduction as she would not have been carrying a handbag in her own pad). Budni stands behind her to the right. He certainly has very broad shoulders as can be seen from his arms being draped around the shoulders of two huge fellows! Sort of indicates that Budni may have been an orthopaedic surgeon. (Am I sounding something like Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes?)

If I am not mistaken, Londoner architect and musician and singer, 57er Abe Hayeem, is standing between Budni and Sunil. This picture must have been taken when Abe and his group of fabulous musicians toured India earlier this year. Abe (voice, tambourine) sent me a beautiful album of the music of his group called "Treasures of the Rivers of Babylon". It is something I listen to often. The group, besides Abe, consists of Sara Manasseh (leader, voice, dumbuk), David Burman (keyboard), Solomon Elias (mandolin), Saeed Nathan (Druze & Indian flutes, sba'ten), Barry Solomon (voice, oboe, cor anglais), Edward Solomon (voice), Pamela Solomon (voice), Solly Solomon (voice), Ruth Tarzi (voice), Narges Torshizi (tombak), Susan Verney (violin). I believe they have other Cathedralites in this group. You can see and hear of this visit at at their website.

Abe and his sisters and brother (Vilma, Sophie, Gracie and Ellis) have been my very regular correspondents. As many will remember we lost their brother, 49er Benjy, a short while ago.

Others in the photograph certainly look very very familiar, but as dementia has set in, I am sure someone will help me out!

Thank you Budni for checking in.

Yusuf does it again

56er Dr. Yusuf K. Hamied, chairman of Cipla of Bombay, is at the centre of a huge storm on drugs to save people's lives, yet again. Yusuf was at the centre of the storm in providing a cheaper vaccine for AIDS.

Indian Company to Make Generic Version of Flu Drug Tamiflu, by DONALD G. McNEIL Jr., Published: October 14, 2005

"Right or wrong, we're going to commercialize and make oseltamivir," said Dr. Yusuf K. Hamied, chairman of Cipla of Bombay, using the drug's generic name and acknowledging that he might face a fight in the Indian courts with Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant that holds the patent.

Dr. Hamied dismissed that claim, saying that he initially thought it would be too hard but that his scientists had finished reverse-engineering the drug in his laboratories two weeks ago. He said he could have small commercial quantities available as early as January.

Let us stand by Yusuf and encourage him to get that flu vaccine out on the market for the poor people in developing countries.

As I drove along our E4 highway today, I saw one pigeon and one crow which had fallen DEAD by the roadside. (Sorry, no pictures, as the traffic was too fast moving for me to stop and get some shots of these dead birds.)

Avian Flu is certainly on the march!

How does it feel to go through an earthquake?

This entry is posted Posted on my main personal blog

Other Reunion Reports now ONLINE

After I put up the Reunion Report of 54ers, I was pressed by many who asked me to put up other Reunion Reports that I may have. It provides interesting and nostalgic reading, especially for those who were unable to attend.

As a result, I have already put up 2 Reunion Reports - the 50 year Reunion Reports of the 1949 Students who met in 1999 and the 50 year Reunion report of the 1953 Students who met in 2003.

Many thanks to 49er Yezad Kapadia and 53er Aislynn Moses (née Hyam) who had sent me the reports.

I am now preparing Web Pages of other Reunion Reports that have reached me. Stay tuned as I have several to put online and your classes may be one of them.

If you have a Reunion Report that you would like me to put up as a web page in this Section, please send me a text file (preferably not a Microsoft document but an rtf file would do just fine) of the report.

I will create the web page.

So as to make the report really meaningful, please send me any photographs that you may have taken at the reunion OR photographs of your years in school. I will use as many as possible. A photograph of the authors would also be very much appreciated.

I hope you enjoy this new feature of the Seventh Heaven Blog.

Please do not forget to view Ranko's blog, another Cathedralite from Belgrade, who is making a valiant effort to set up a nice, readable blog. the link is in sidebar of this blog.

If you have a blog meant for Cathedralites that you want listed, please send me the blog address.

Remember - what Jacob does TODAY, the others SHALL DO TOMORROW!

Mr. Rider Salmon, English Teacher d. Jan. 2002

Our great English teacher pictured above, who is sadly no more, Mr. Rider Salmon, would have shuddered at my last sentence.

This is what his wife, Pauline, wrote to me at the time of his passing:

"He was a fine humorous and loving husband for over 52 years, so it will be quite hard without him. He loved remembering his teaching years in Bombay and his pupils there."

And, I was one of his very "lucky" pupils.

Reunion Report - 54ers 50th Reunion

As per popular demand, I will putting up web pages of Reunion Reports which are submitted to me. (A 70er was keen to read the "humourous" reunion report of the 54ers!)

Here is the Reunion Report of the 50 years Reunion of the 54ers which was held in Mumbai in November 2004.

54ers who attended the Reunion

The main report was prepared by 54er Anthony Ramsinh. Photographs came from several sources, especially Anthony and Suhas Phadke, who, with Sadhana Madhusadan and Gracie Hayeem, were responsible for organising the entire event. Included a picture from the inside of the Cathedral which was sent to me by 64er Brinda Chinappa (now Somaya) a brilliant architect who has been doing work remodelling the school and the church.

I was really happy when Gracie sent me an email a few days ago which said:

"Thanks for all these connections Jacob, we are now so much more United."

Can you imagine how chuffed I feel when I get a line like that! It makes all this effort worthwhile.

The 54ers were kind enough to give me a little credit for helping them, especially on the CD which was prepared of the event. I will try to find some way of putting an edited version of the CD online.

Thanks guys and gals.

Reunions THIS year, 2005

I am sure that the passing away of Michael Colaco has got many of you thinking.

Yes, it is important that you attend your class reunion and renew your friendships with those who you shared many years with as close friends, locked up for several years in the same classrooms.

To me, those years in school were not about just studying English (sorry John), Physics (sorry Willie) or Chemistry (sorry OAG). It was about education - learning to live and respect others in all circumstances. Mr. Joe De Souza was instrumental in teaching us how to debate.

Mr. Joe De Souza, our history teacher
who also introduced us to debating

It was part of being part of a team.

That has stood me in good stead all these years - which is the success you share with others on this blog - not my blog, but yours.

Two groups will hold their reunions this year in Mumbai around Founder's Day in November.

The 1955 Group is busy organising its reunion. They have not sought any assistance from me and I am sure those mature gentleman and ladies will find their old schoolmates.

Ther 1970 Group is also holding its 35 year reunion. A list of students that have not yet been traced has been sent to me. I will start my search in a few days.

If you have a class photograph, please, please send me a scan at a reasonably high resolution.

However, if you are a 70er, you could save me some trouble by checking in with me so that I can put you in touch with the organisers.

They have a lively programme organised. I am sure none of you would want to miss it. If you live outside of India, even more important that you get in touch with me quick so that I can give you any relevant information so that yu can organise your ticketing.

Even if you are not a 70er, but know of any, either let the person know, or send me details so I can contact them.

Update on 59ers

Many thanks to 59er Shivi (Rtd. Commander Vijay Shivdasani) for this update about several 59ers:

Naubir and Aarti Mohinder------They have just returned from Canada and NY where their beautiful daughter works and where Aarti has a sister. I think he visited all the old haunts from his college days, rumour has it he found a few Mohinder look-alike in the vicinity. He did not quite make it to New Orleans that is why he is back and suffering only jetlag.


Naubir

Piloo Dastur------Last heard from Piloo yesterday – she is jetsetting or cruising in Maui, Hawaii having a ball. She is not wearing the Hula-Hula skirt!

Ramesh Mirchandani------Johnny saxon is Jetsetting also, somewhere.


Piloo, Ramesh at a class reunion in Mumbai

Percy and Frainy Mistry----------he is still mysterious and inscrutable. Taken to the Trumpet in a big way and blows it loud and clear! along with his mates in the Jazz Junkies he is blowing to club galleries all over Mumbai and Pune! He has had a lil altercation with his grandfather (clock) recently and retired hurt.


Percy & Frainy

Ashok and Madhu Kapur------they have recently announced that their son Tunnu has said YES to a young lady from Delhi and plans are afoot for the mother-of-all-weddings in November. It seems Tunnu is a chip of the ole block cause Ashok has taken to saying YES to a very successful bank!


Ashok & Madhu

Ooky & Rifka Elias------they are delighted grandparents twice over and are going great guns with their containers, oops! actually they call them consoles or cabinets or modules, for the telecom industries. Alongwith the Sensex their shares have jumped over the moon.


Ooky & Rifka with me

Arvind and Gita Thadani------last seen in the property souks of Dubai and Mumbai buying up valuable apartments like I buy ‘chana’ me thinks his next destination Manhattan. Think Gita is hereabouts in SE Asian recently on a jaunt while Arvind is doing the Indian rope trick in his 10000 sq foot mansion in Washington. Please do not mention the shanties of maharashtra to him (see below)

Viney and Purnima Sethi-------just had a long chat with Viney who is settled in Alibaug across the harbour from Mumbai in a beautifull bungalow which reminds us of the one he had at Woodland Hills in LA, swimming pool et al. He is now busy shooing away the pigeons who crap all over the place. I did advise him pigeon soup is good for the winter months to come! And to invest in an airgun which the Indian Ordnance has announced that they will dispose of shortly. Not sure he is into crap shooting though.


Arvind, Viney and me

Ratan and Niloufer Singara------had dinner with them this week. Their son Fali is into film making and recently made a film about the last Pope and was invited to the Vatican. Handsome Fali has his father’s creative genius and mother’s dash.


Ratan

Adi Cooper & Phiroz------he is visiting Dubai alone every week recently. Is it called Consulting these days?

Aroon Sethi------drinking the evening away at the Bombay Gym Bar, says he has just made a million in Yemen or Syria or Iraq -forget which!

Apart from all this rumour mongering, I must mention that I did attend a Reunion in Pune recently which was superbly organised by Fleur Ezekiel of Miss India 1959 fame,


Fleur and Manu

on behalf of Salil Fazalboy I think he was a few years senior to us but now looks a few years junior! Cause (our wives may please note) he has remained a bachelor. The Reunion was for all Puniete Cathedralites—I think I qualify on both accounts as I have a shanty in Pune—pls note BTW shanties are IN, cause the Maharashtra Govt eventually gives all shanty owners a palace and our shanty is just behind Aga Khan’s palace.

It was a wonderful evening about 45 Cathedralites there and yes the Class of ‘59 was in full force—besides myself, Vikram Kamdar with his beautiful Miss India Nandini, Khoshru Balsara and his ‘ Efficient Secretary of the Decade’ wife, Inderjit Shah with his wife, Shirisha (Wink - Vijay). He has become quite a poet and was heard reciting Urdu shairies and couplets all evening much to the bemusement of those present cause being Cathedralites naturally they could not understand Urdu. I had not seen Inderjit in 45 years!

We were among some Cathedralites of the Class of the Roaring 40’s and 50’s----- some of them still mewing! The rich’n famous were also there, Rahul Bajaj (Ed: who is a Cathedralite and Stephanian, like me, jacob not Shivi) to drop one name at least in case you actually read this email.

It was an evening of fine wine & dine at the decorated banquet hall of the Poona Club, very generously hosted by Fazalboy.

Gotta go friend I think I have filled you up sufficient--just look at the price of gas! You may like to include this in your global circulation as there maybe more takers for shanties at least!

As ever,

Vijay (Shivi) Shivdasani
Class of ‘59, Wilson House Captain 1959,
Represented School in Tennis, Cricket, Football
Swimming & Tennis Blue from NDA Khadakvasla
At age of 37, Commanded a Nanuchka Class Missile Corvette,
At age 39, Commander of the Indian Aircraft Carrier Vikrant (which is why she is ending up in the Museum.)
A Hongkong diamantaire par excellence.
Tired and Retired now but still able, with a golf handicap yesterday of 18.

The photographs have been added from my archives - some very very old ones - the one of Arvind, Viney and me was taken in Mousouri in 1960 Maybe some of you can update my archives and add a few missing persons to it. Thanks (in anticipation, but I am not holding my breath).

Tributes pour in

Nova Scotia, Ontario, Florida, California, Mumbai, London - these are some centres from which tributes came (from 54ers to 67es) in to Michael Colaco who left us to rest till his Lord calls him up on the Day of Resurrection.

Everyone had kind things to say about Michael, but all were singing the same note as to his talent, his ability to transcend age groups, and also his natural flair as a leader.

He was looked upon by all his fellow choir mates, including me, as our leader as he sang beautifully and from his heart.

As our late choir master's son Romesh (Sunil Velu, London) wrote:

When I was just a treble at St Thomas', there was a game of Robbers and Cops before a Friday practice, and I'll never forget Michael the sprinter thundering from the back of the Cathedral to rescue some fellow robbers at the twisted tree in the grassy area that doubled as a jail. He was my hero from then on. It makes the weak heart at 63 seem even more unfair.

I saw a little more of him over the last couple of years, and he was unfailingly good-humoured and generous in spite of changing circumstances. He was a nice guy.

Michael was more than jut a nice guy to many of us. He was our "voice" leader - something that he did most admirably.

Thank you David

David was quick to send me a very recent picture of brother, Michael, to share with all of you.

It was taken on his 63rd birthday on Wednesday, 28th September 2005, at Cecil Bernard Colaco's residence, one day before his untimely demise.

Cecil is the youngest of the Colaco brothers (late Michael d. 29.9.2005, David, late Alex d. 7.6.2000, Basil and Cecil).

Outstanding singer and actor from Cathedral School,
Bombay, 59er Michael Colaco, birthday 28.9.2005,
(picture taken by brother David)

David helped Michael change his car tyre in the morning of 29th. He died the same evening at 16:00 hours.

His children, Emma (22), Stephanie (18) and Tim (15) are devasted.

As David said "God rest his soul."

David says that Michael's family will be included in all their family gatherings. They are coming for lunch on Sunday to David's home so that they can receive support and comfort each other.

I hope they will be told that there are so many of us all around the world who loved Michael as he gave so many of us great joy with his beautiful singing and outstanding acting, that we can never forget him.

I, personally, am proud to have known Michael and sung at his side, both in the St. Thomas Cathedral Church Choir as also in our school plays.

Michael passes away

I have the onerous task of bringing you sad news this morning.

Michael Colaco, eldest of the Colaco brothers, an extraordinary Cathedralite who dominated the schools performace in arts with his singing and acting in the latter half of the fifties, passed away in London on Thursday afternoon.

Brother, 59er David, saw him earlier the same day and Michael was fine.

Willie Shiri, from Canada, who reported this to me, suspects that he must have had a heart attack. Michael lived alone in London and was known to suffer from heart problems.

Michael leaves behind three chidren, in their late teens or early twenties. Michael was separated from his wife of many years.

Michael sang in our school operas. His melodic soprano voice which later changed to alto, was the lead voice at the St. Thomas Cathedral Choir.

Michael was always well groomed and he was a leader. Here he is in a picture I treasure very much as he was Wilson House Captain in 1959. (Click on image to see enlarged version.)

Prefects in 1959
Michael is seated on the extreme left

I am sure all of you will join me in sending our deepest condolences to all Michael's family and hope that they bear this loss with strength.

For all of us, the same age as Michael, it is reminder that our Maker may call us at any moment. So be in touch with all your friends and relatives whom you love as time on this earth is certainly limited and we should enjoy each other to the fullest when we have the chance.

Several Cathedralites check in

I am so blessed that so many of you check in regularly to give me the news.

This last week I had long and newsy emails from 56erUbi (Harminder Uberoi), 57er Tony (Ashok Jaitly), 62er Monty (Wilson), 60er Cynthia (née Abbot and Monty's wife) and of course, one of my most important correspondents, our very own Willie (Wiliam Shiri).

Willie gave me news of someone I have thought a lot about in the last 46 years , 57er Badni (Behram Badniwalla).

Dear Jacob,

If you haven't heard from me in a while it is because nothing worth mentioning has happened.here.

Just today I had an e-mail with a couple of old photos from Behram Budniwalla ( ' 57 ) who got my e-address from Gracie Hayeem. He looks about the same he did 40 + yrs. ago, and so do those thick glasses.

You would definitely remember him as the only kid in school then, on crutches.

I must ask him to get in touch with you and the Seventh Heaven. He has retired, (was a medical doctor) and now lives in Pune.

He wrote a beautiful letter recounting all he did in the intervening years.

I was able to recall many faces, and with some effort, a few names in the 1955 picture Behram sent..( It is the second attached). You might remember and may even spot a few like: Andy Gordon, Clive Ciel, Herbert Vaney among the "females" in front, and at the back, Abey Hayeem (heroine of the musical), Jangu(?) Kaka, next to him yours sincerely (whom Pushpa couldn't make out because of too much spirit gum on the twirling mustache ! ), next Tom Holter (?), (late) Mr. McKenzie (his younger brother joined the staff just after he died whom you'd remember better), Michael Colaco (mother of the heroine) and others whose names have faded from my memory. In fact I was amazed I could recall these many names !

Didn't know any one had colour-pictures those days. This one has promptly gone into my collection !

Vijay Nayar e-mailed me some weeks ago to say he was passing through Toronto. He was to land here in the morning and the connecting flight was about 10 hrs later. It was arranged that I pick him up from the airport and he was to have lunch with us. We live 15 min. from the Airport. Hasnain was going to join us for lunch but was called unfortunately away the last moment.

I was awaiting Vijay's confirmation of the plan, but there was no word from him --- -- and none since !. !

I was glad I didn't try to make Hasnain change his plans.

By the way, Jacob, if you have inf. on the whereabouts of David Eagan who was on the CBS staff in the late 50ies, I would like to know.

We've had a flood of visitors and overnight guests and have had not much time for my new love, the clarinet ! ...or for emailing.

Fond regards.

Willie

Besides Willie, we have to thank Badni and Tom for these pictures.


School heart throb of the 50's, Miss India,
Fleur Ezekiel with the luck guy who caught her, Manu Mandani


Class photo in someone's home of 57ers in 1956

Will someone please give me info about as many as possible in this photo.


The caption tells all

What wonderful news that Badni became a doctor. He was such a great guy in school and took part in everything. He was a friend of everyone. I remember him so so well. I do hope he gets in touch.

And finally, the magic moment of the Curtain Call


Curtain Call - A-Lad In & Out

And after all the identification made by Willie, there is just one more I can add. The dishy doll in the pink dress and veil sitting in the far left corner is NONE OTHER THAN ME!

News from the others who wrote in with lots and lots of news will follow in my subsequent blog entries.

Pleasantly delighted!

I was very pleasantly delighted to receive an email today from a Cathedralite I greatly admire and respect.

Here is a picture which has the correspondent. Can anyone identify him, and also "yours truly", who also happens to be in the same photograph? (Click to see larger image. Sorry no prizes for this contest!)

1958 Cathedral Senior Hockey Team

Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 12:06:02 +0530
From: HS Uberoi
Subject: Great To Renew Contact
To: Jacob

Dear Jacob,

I am amazed to have been forwarded a copy of Jacob's Blog. So far I have just had a very cursory look at the mountain of delightful detail that you have so painstakingly put together.

It really must be the only meeting point of Cathedral old students in the world. Well done indeed!

I was in the same class as your brother, Ranjit. Also Savage.

My two sisters are ex-Cathedral, and so are my two children, as also is my daughter-in-law,
Anahita. I now have one granddaughter in infant school with the hope to have the second one also in Cathedral at the end of the year.

Sisters - Harmohina and Dimple
Children - Samir and Yasna; Daughter-in-law Anahita
Grand daughters - Anisa and Aliya
My wife Bubbles, although not an ex Cathedralite, was closely connected with the school as an active PTA member especially when the school celebrated its 125th anniversary.

Harmohina was Head Girl in her time. Dimple and my daughter, Yasna, were House Captains in their respective years. Samir and Anahita were classmates in school and Head Boy and Head Girl respectively. I was Head Boy in my last year.

Just a few line to re-establish old links and I do look forward to exchanging a great deal of information with you in the future.

My warmest regards,

Ubi (H.S.Uberoi)

56er /58er Ubi was an extraordinary character as he was "friendly" with everyone. We all felt we knew him personally, and he loved all of us as much as we loved him.

Sister, 59er Harmhina, was not only Head Girl, but also Green House Captain, so we danced the opening dances at all the school socials that year. Also we used to have great parties at Ubi's place - they were fun. Nobody ever wanted to go home from those parties and we literally had to be thrown out of their 'A' or 'B' Road flat in Churchgate.

There are three Cathedralites who stand out during the pre-1959 era - Ubi, Nalin Dharia and Earnest Haskell.

It is wonderful that Ubi is now able to see this Seventh Heaven Blog, and hopefully update us about a lot that has happened during the last 47 years.

(Why do I say pre-1959? 1959 was the most extraordinary year as we had almost everyone of that year classes have been supermen, in sports, in studies and in their performance after school - no kidding! I'll do a story on that one day- promise.)

Ubi has been in Air India. I quietly followed his career to the top as long as he was there. However, like me, he has probably now retired, so is now off my radar.

Welcome to my blog, UBI and family.

60 Today - Monty

Wishing Monty Wilson a very very happy 60th birthday, today.

Here is a lovely family photograph at the Kentucky Derby (2002).

(Click to see enlarged images)

Eldest son Shane and his wife Sandy, Monty's wife Cynthia,
younger son Dale and Monty

Here are a very handsome formal looking Monty with his beautiful better half, Cynthia.


Monty with his wife Cynthia

And here is a picture of Monty relaxing at the Niagara falls.


Monty at the Niagara Falls

There is a rainbow in this picture. Let us wish that on this 60th birthday, Monty is reinvigorated onwards, like that beautiful colourful rainbow, to a new, healthy and happy long long productive life.

A very sincere happy 60th birthday, Monty!

Birthday greetings to my better half

Close to 15 years ago, when we were visiting Susanna in the UK when she was studying at Exeter University, as we walked down the High Street, Annikki felt like having a cup of coffee. We walked into a rather nice coffee parlour which also sold fresh ground coffee.

She smelt a delicious aroma and ordered a cup of coffee, which, to me, seemed to be priced at an astronomical figure.

One sip and Annikki was in heaven. She exclaimed loudly that this was the finest coffee she had ever tasted. I could not know as I had given up coffee drinking about 8 years earlier.

So I asked her to buy a kilo or two to take back to Finland.

Annikki asked the price and I was dumbstruck by the figure quoted. It was priced almost as much as a pot of GOLD!!

It was a coffee called as the "Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee".

The shopkeeper explained that they managed to get only a few kgs in a year as the Japanese usually buy up the entire crop.

A couple of days ago, when I had a friend from India visiting us, I took him to the main market and found a shop which sold tea and fresh ground coffee. I asked whether they had Blue Mountain Coffee . They had - just 150 gms and at THE price.

I went out early this morning to buy Annikki all that was available in Oulu as her birthday present!

Our grandchildren left for England yesterday, but they dropped by to say goodbye to their grandmother and me. Here are a couple of shots of Annikki with Daniel and Samuel in the Kampitie garden yesterday.

Annikki with Daniel and Samuel


Annikki with Daniel

Happy birthday to my love of the last 42 years.

Red Letter Day?

A feed from 54er Suhas Phadke. Thanks

Red Letter Day? 27er Mrs. Lam & 54er Gracie Hayeem & Suhas Phadke

I thought this may interest you.

Barham house captains a generation apart and meeting two generations later.

At the lunch at CCI during our reunion in Nov. 2004, are the red house captains
Mrs Lam (1927), Gracie and Pratap (1954).

54er Zarrin has just sent me this picture and I thought you all would like to see it again.

Cheers,

Suhas Phadke

100% Attendance at Reunion again!

Professor Ajeet Mathur who lives in South Finland in the largest Industrial town, Tampere, was here for a brief visit. He arrived by the early morning train at 07:30 and left by the train at 16:00 hours the same day.

Ajeet and me

In the meantime we managed to have two alma mater reunions.

Like me, he is a Mumbai Cathedralite. But also like me he is a Delhi Stephanian.

And we are the only two Cathedralites and Stephanians in Finland.

So, whenever we meet, it is a Reunion with 100% attendance.

There are few who share this unique combination:

• Cathedralite 54er, Stephanian 58er Rahul Bajaj,


• Cathedralite 56er, Stephanian 60er Ranjit Matthan,


• Cathedralite 57er, Stephanian 61er Ashok Jaitly (Tony),


• Cathedralite 58er, Stephanian 62er Dr. Peter Philip (Tubby),


• Cathedralite 59er, Stephanian 63er Jacob Matthan (Dead Chicken),


• Cathedralite 59er, Stephanian 60er The late Jacob Eapen (for a very short time a Stephanian),


• Cathedralite 59er, Stephanian 63er Sujit Bhattacharya,


• Cathedralite 70er, Stephanian 75er Professor Ajeet Mathur

If you know of anyone else who has this combination - please do let me know.

A new picture...

By incessant demand may I introduce a new picture of....

Wander over today's entry in my Jacob's Blog

(Please note: My main server is being serviced and hence pictures from there will not display on any of my blogs till the morning of 20th July 2005)

Mexican Cathedralite

Just had this, hot on the wire, from Willie in Canada:

Dinshaw Vimadalal belonged to the 1960 CBS bunch, was a Prefect, outstanding athlete and astounding on the parallel bars ! He has been in N. America since 1967, first in Western Canada, then in California and after an early retirement at age 47 has settled in Mexico. He flew in like the whirlwind ( literally so, in his own aircraft ! ) and dropped in on us with his wife (Feroza) who is also Bombay born......

Mexican Cathedralite, 60er Vimadalal and his lovely wife, Feroza

Of course I remember 60er Dinshaw. Doesn't he look just great and fit as when he was at school?! Those muscles are still bristling.

Dinshaw was quite a gymnast, something I never was. I remember 58er Ratan Batliwalla, our late 59er Vasant Ghatge, 59er Peter Miovic, and 60er Dinshaw among the best gymnasts of our final years in school. Of course there were others who were good, as 59er Viney Sethi. But people like Viney had so many interests and were good at all of them, that gymnastics was just a way to be good in the other sports. I cannot, however, generalise, as someone like 59er Peter was also outstanding at swimming!!

Just to refresh you, here is the 1959 Gymnastics Team:


Front row: 59er Viney Sethi , 59er late Vasant Ghatge,
60er Dinshaw Vimadala, (I forget this 60ers name), and 60er ? Solomon
Back row: 60er Name forgotten and 60er Ajit Mehra

I just had it in from 59er Vijay (Nayar) that he should be visiting Toronto next month. Hope you can have a get together, as there seem to be so many of you in that metropolis. Remember me when you do!!

Am I going "flower" bonkers?

Those of you who also read my Jacob's Blog may think I have gone "flower bonkers" when you view this page. But look a little more closely!!

Thanks to 59er Hasnain Chinwalla (Chin) who fed me this set of pictures.

You all know that the day that Willie celerated his 80th birthday, he also lost his brother-in-law, Pushpa's only brother. I had requested Chin to give Willie a card and bunch of roses, especially from us 59ers. Chin, correctly, did not think it appropriate as the sorrow was over-powering in the Shiri household on that joyous day.

Last week, Chin decided that he had to really honour our dearest Physics teacher on behalf of all of us in the way we all would be proud of - and he did it in style. Just, a moment ago, he transferred this set of images to me.

Here are the images received - and I must say Chin has a great digital camera as the quality of the photographs is just great. (Click on the images to see them larger - especially the card to read some hilarious text!!)

Flowers for Willie from 59ers


Card (outside) for Willie from 59ers


Card (inside greeting) for Willie from 59ers


Willie, Pushpa and Chin


Willie and Pushpa


Willie and Chin


Willie - a great 80 years


Willie - a great 80 years

From all 59ers, THANK YOU Hasnain (Chin).