Reminisences of an old timer

Recently, I had an email from a Cathedralite old timer who had his computer hard disk messed up and wanted my assistance in locating email addresses of some of his relatives and friends.

I was able to not only give him the email addresses of all he asked for, but also a few more whom I thought he would like to have.

David Sopher had been classified as a 48er in my data base. I was wrong as is evident from this interesting email.

Very many thanks Jacob.

Actually I am a 44er....very old timer. From Cathedral, after the Cambridge School Leaving Certificate I went to St Georges College in Mussourie for The Inter-science pre-medical exam. Then to Grant Medical College in Byculla (J J Hospital).

With me in 44 were Isaac Mansoor, also at Medical School and also in the Indian Waterpolo team in Helsinki in 1952 (passed away in 2007), Eddie Ani, the famous Zufkurali (? spelling) Bhutto, who never, in any of his published educational background, mentioned India although his entire schooling was at the Cathedral, one of the Tata boys, Bomi Kapadia, Phiroze Engineer,..... my senile mind fails me with regard to names of so many others, so many others that I have lost trace of and would dearly love to have news of.

We always referred to Abe (Hayeem) as Abie. Benjy was a brilliant boy and we were all very fond of him. A little younger than me but we met whenever he was in Europe and I kept in touch.

Diana Jardine was also a few years younger than me but I did know her. The girls' school was a few hundred yards away from the boys' school and we would meet on sports occasions or in the school bus.

With kindest regards and many thanks once again.

David

To put you in context, it was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who was the Cathedralite and one which Pop Pharoah told us was quite useless at maths!

This is the Wikipedia entry for Bhutto:

Early life

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was born to Khursheed Begum née Lakhi Bai and Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto of a prominent Shia Muslim family. According to the famous spiritual Sindhi leader Pir of Pagara Sharif and some other relevant and authentic sources Bhuttos are Arain, predominantly Punjabi agriculturist Muslim caste, though there are counter claims as well. Zulfikar was born in his parent's residence near Larkana in what later became the province of Sindh. He was their third child — their first one, Sikandar, died from pneumonia at age seven in 1914 and the second child, Imdad Ali, died of cirrhosis at the age of 39 in 1953.[6] His father was a wealthy landlord, a zamindar, and a prominent politician in Sindh, who enjoyed an influential relationship with the officials of the British Raj. As a young boy, Bhutto moved to Worli Seaface in Mumbai (then Bombay) to study at the Cathedral and John Connon School. During this period, he also became a student activist in the League's Pakistan Movement. Upon completing high school, Bhutto attended Premier College Nazamabad. In 1943, his marriage was arranged with Shireen Amir Begum (died January 19, 2003 in Karachi). He later left her, however, in order to remarry. In 1947, Bhutto was admitted to the University of Southern California. more....

As you will note, the Wikipedia entry acknowledges his time at our school.

It is wonderful getting such emails from old timers who carry so much history within themselves. If any of you out there are aware of any 43ers to 48ers that David could connect with, I am sure he would be thrilled.

David has been a regular reader of this Blog, along with many other Sophers. He presently resides in Central London.