Pushpa Shiri celebrates her 75th birthday

Happy 75th Birthday, dear Pushpa.

Many of you will remember Pushpa Shiri, wife of our much beloved Physics Teacher, William Shiri. Pushpa was also a teacher in the Girls School.



Today is Pushpa's 75th birthday. I have conveyed greetings on behalf of all 59ers to her.

Those of you who would like to directly send greetings to Pushpa, please do so to "Pushpa Shiri" (Replace at with @ symbol and leave no spaces before or after the symbol and the letters.)

Willie and Pushpa live in Toronto, Canada and have played host to many Cathedralites who have visited that city.

67ers plan their 40th year reunion

I had an email from a fellow 67er, Hira, who had seen a mention of 67er Shobha Jhunjunwalla (née Agarwal) on one of my web pages and asked to be connected to her.

I did connect them.

In return, Shobha sent me an email telling me that she was busy planning the 40th year reunion of their class on the 14th of November.

Some of the 67er bevy of beauties
at their 37th year reunion.

The last time the 67ers had a reunion, Shoba and Anita Watamull sent me some wonderful photographs, some of which I was able to put up in the 37th year Reunion page.

As we reflect on reunions, this last week my mind was drawn to one person who, with humour and dedication, brought together Cathedralites from all corners of the globe - my dear friend, the late 57er Behram Badhniwalla (aka Budhni).

Monday October 8th would have been his 66th birthday.

As the 57ers plan the final touches of their 50th Reunion programme, I am sure that all of them must be reflecting on the life and work of this wonderful human being that they must celebrate for getting them together the way are today.



My heart goes out to his wife, Carmelita. Budhni worshipped the ground she walked on.

May the spirit of Budhni reunite all Cathedralites in the common cause of dedicated service to their fellow men and women with a joyous smile on our faces.

Finland best for living?

Posted on my Jacob's Blog, the Cathedral School Seventh Heaven Blog and the St. Stephen's College Kooler Talk Blog.

In a Readers Digest report just released titled Study says Finland best for living and which was covered by Reuters, caused Annikki and me to think about our combined life in India, Finland, Sweden, Germany and England over the last 60+ years.



This evening, we went to the Nallikari beach for Annikki to collect stones. (I just walk around doing some photography with my lousy camera) and help her carry the collection to the car!




The yellow, gold and red autumn leaves were strewn all around, truly beautiful.




The autumn sunset was glorious. It felt as if we were lifting off into space!

Looking at these photographs of today and the peacefulness that surrounded us on this beautiful autumn evening, maybe you and we can agree with what has been claimed in the report!

HELSINKI (Reuters) - The Nordic countries are the world's greenest and, despite the cold winters, Finland is the best country to live in, according to a Reader's Digest study released on Friday.

Finland was followed by Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Austria.

"Finland wins high marks for air and water quality, a low incidence of infant disease and how well it protects citizens from water pollution and natural disasters," the study said.

My having lived here for the last 23+ years (of course, Annikki was born here and lived the first 18 years of her life here) makes it difficult for us to either agree or disagree with even this specific conclusion.

Annikki said that when we came to Finland there were several reports saying how unhealthy the tap water was in Finland as it was over-chlorinated. In her opinion, things have not improved since then.

She queries the validity of this report as the source of the data is not known to us. If it came from Government sources, then both of us agree that it is a load of bull!

Finns are great at creating a golden image like a beautiful polished apple, but remove the skin and we will find many worms gnawing away inside.

Many environmental activists also may not agree with this study done by U.S. environmental economist Matthew Kahn, who looked at issues such as quality of drinking water and greenhouse gas emissions as well as factors such as education (totally stereotyped) and income (low after high taxes without corresponding benefits).

When we look at education in Finland, there is nothing even coming close to the level of "education" provided by my alma maters, Bishop Cotton School (Bangalore), which had 7 playing fields for its student in its town centre campus, Cathedral and John Connon School (Mumbai) and St. Stephen's College (Delhi).

Incomes are certainly not high. Retained income is low. Savings are virtually non-existent.

But people feel they are rich because of the easy accessibility to long term low interest loans that enable them to enjoy their "own" homes and new cars and other material benefits!

But that is certainly not a reflection of the income standard in Finland.

Certainly, I do not drink anything but tap water. Annikki and many others tend to buy bottled water. Many go to bore well taps located around the city to collect their drinking water as they do not think the tap water is healthy.

My philosophy has always been that tap water contains all the germs and bacteria that our bodies require to build resistance to the local environment. Avoiding that diminishes our natural resistance.

It used to be said that India had the greatest advantage with regard to germ warfare as all the Indian Government had to do was export water from Calcutta!

My health over the last 23 years compared to most others I know in Finland proves my point of view. I have had no major or even minor illness during that time and never lost a day of work during my working life.

Mathew Kahn obviously did not meet the many thousands of Finns who suffer terrible allergies to dust, pollen, cat fur, dogs and many edible items as nuts, milk, etc. etc. Our grandson, Samuel, is a typical example - allergic to tens of things!

This is a direct consequence of a bad environment and living practices, so this would contradict his conclusions.



Finland is a great place to live if you follow the rules we have laid out in the book "Handbook For Survival in Finland" written by Annikki and me which was published in 1994.

But for others - life can be very very difficult on all fronts.

Our new Findians Google Group, which should go online in a few weeks, will tell you many of the pros and cons of working and living in Finland and the changes that have occurred during the last two decades.

So stay tuned!

Johnny in the news

I had this query from 49er Naval Patel in Mysore:

Ivo Tennant's account on Cricinfo of the Darrell Hair prosecution now in progress in London refers to "former England batsman" John Jameson "who was called for his expertise on the Laws of Cricket."

Would that be "our" John Jameson, and have you seen any mention of his official position which qualifies him as having expertise on the Laws of Cricket?

Jacob, have you got John on your roster?

Regards Naval

You can find aspects about this case mentioning John in this report cited by Naval at Darrell Hair tribunal, 3rd day: Reverse swinging in the court: Ivo Tennant in London: October 4, 2007

Here is a Profile of Johnny from CricInfo:

Full name John Alexander Jameson


Picture, courtesy John.

Born June 30, 1941, Byculla, Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra, India
Current age 66 years 96 days
Major teams England, Warwickshire
Batting style Right-hand bat
Fielding position Wicketkeeper
Other Umpire, Coach

John Jameson was a solidly-built opening batsman with a propensity to attack rather than defend, and who on his day was one of the cleanest hitters in English cricket. Add into that his brisk medium-pace bowling, a good slip fielder and, on occasion, a reliable stand-in wicketkeeper, and it was clear to see why he was so highly regarded at Warwickshire. His international opportunities were limited and were undone by his habit of being run-out - three of his first four innings ended that way, including the first instance of it happening to an England batsman twice in the same match. In the Caribbean in 1973-74 he top-edged the first ball he faced out there for six over the slips. In 1974 he featured in a world-record second-wicket stand of 465 with Rohan Kanhai, and the following summer was included in England's World Cup squad. He retired prematurely in 1976 to coach at Taunton School (his alma mater) before becoming a first-class umpire (1984-87) , Sussex's coach (1988) and then MCC's assistant secretary in 1989. As late as 1994 he was still playing for Warwickshire's Over-50 side, despite bad knees which left him with an increasingly rolling gait.
Martin Williamson

John is very qualified to comment as he served as an umpire between 1984 and 1988 in English first class cricket and was also the Assistant Secretary of the MCC. He is much respected in all cricketing circles.

John is a Savageite and was one of the outstanding sportsperson while at school. He would have been an international in any sport he chose.

I had a chance to play hockey, football and cricket alongside John. I especially remember one football game at the Oval where, between the three of us, my brother, Ranjit, John and myself, we turned certain defeat in a House Match into a victory due to John leading us from the front. He greatly encouraged my slow right arm leg spin bowling and gave me a sufficient time to get among the wickets. Even as a schoolboy his field placings are something I remember vividly. We won games because of how he handled us.

We Savageites missed him sorely when he left school to move to England?

Yes, John is on my roster.



I have this great picture of John submitted to me by one of his childhood friends, 57er Aubrey Ballantine, brother of the late 54er Pamela Ballantine (Pamela was awarded the MBE for services to race equality, London Borough of Redbridge in October 2000 just a few months before her sad demise).

And if you search through earlier entries of this blog you will find an appreciation of John's dad by 56er Ubi (HS Uberoi). John's father was a great friend of our school in more ways than one.