Thank you Deepak

During the last year I have made many new friends from our alumni. One such has been 64er Deepak Deshpande who I realised is a great organiser. He was introduced to me by 49er Yezad Kapadia, who has been in communication with Deepak for organising Delhi Reunions.

Deepak is a wonderful person as he just picks up the phone and calls you, just to say "Hello". He is my kind of man!

Last Friday, he called me and we spoke for a few minutes. But an another incoming call on my mobile made me cut short our conversation. However, I called back a few minutes later and had a great conversation with him including news of the latest reunion of Delhi Cathedralites which was well attended including one of our 59ers, Vijay Nayar.

During our conversation, Deepak mentioned that he had spoken with Mr. Jagdish Pande, and that he was at a Cathedralites office in Mumbai till 1 pm almost every working day. Deepak passed on the phone number.

I have been in close touch with Willie Shiri and his wife, Pushpa, and also Chris Hammill. Mr. O. A. Gregory is on my mailing list, but unfortunately he is not much of an email communicator. I am also in touch with Mr. John Billington. Thanks to the 54ers, William Patel has also been added to my list of staff members.

As we discussed our former teachers, Deepak was all praise for them. But I had a little more to add. It was thanks to the preparedness of our teachers, Mr. W. H. Thompson and Mr. Arthur Morecroft that I am this computer writing this blog entry! I have much more than most to owe to our Cathedralite Staff, as what more can one say when one owes one's life to them.

I was overjoyed at getting Mr. Pande's phone contact that soon after my talk with Deepak, I rang the phone number given. Within a few seconds I was on the line with Mr. Pande himself.

I do not think he recalled who this insignificant person from the 50's was. However, he was happy to receive my call.

I told him the story of how I was his very worst pupil as far as Marathi was concerned. My good friend, 59er Viney Dabholkar offered to help. On Saturday mornings I would go to his palatial apartment at Horniman Circle to study Marathi. But our Marathi lessons soon turned into Billiard sessions. So I still got ZERO in Marathi!

When I recounted this to Mr. Pande this, he was greatly amused. Billiards in Marathi!



Mr. Pande did recall many other 59ers as Ashok Kapur, Vijay Nayar, Viney Sethi, as we had all been under Mr. Pande in our 1959 Hockey XI (picture above).

Mr. Jagdish Pande will be 79 years this October. I hope that I can reach India early enough in 2009, when we have our 59ers 50th year Reunion, to celebrate the 80th birthday of a great Cathedralite teacher.

Unusual address change notification

Today I had an email from Captain (Retired) Vijay Shivdasani (a 59er like me) which I thought was very unusual.



Usually one will get a note saying that the address is next to where so and so superstar lives, or some other important landmark!

However, Shivi chose to describe his new address in these terms:

Hi Friends,

Suchita and I would like to inform you that we are shifting to ..............

It will take a few months still -- we should be there by Founders Day 14th Nov.

You will be most welcome to break bread with us thereafter.

For those who may not know this is the same building where our friends Rivca and Ooky Elias live.

It is also opposite where UBI (Uberoi) stays and behind where Trevor Newnes used to stay!

Take care and with all good wishes

Shivi

Doesn't that say it all? Do I need to give the actual address?

The historic landmarks of Mumbai!

Stay tuned as the next blog entry is going to be super-duper!

Disgusting....

I received this email yesterday:

Dear friend,

We are a large trading company from china, an agent of all
the well-known digital product factories, and facing to both
wholesalers, retailsalers,and personal customer all over the
world. We export all kinds of digital products and offer most
competitive and reasonable price and high quality goods for our
client, so you can make a big profit. Please feel free to
contact us if you have any questions or you find the articles
you like. We will offer you best service.

About us:

Our Web address:http://ygftc2008.com/

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I also received this email yesterday:

hi:

My friend told me an electronics online shopping mall.
He bought some Iphones, game consoles and laptops. They
could offer original stuff with very good price. More
details, Please Browse the following website.

http://www.truethgood.com
E-maial:www.truethgood@yahoo.com

Skydrive - Get 5GB online space for FREE!. Store and share music, photos and documents online with ease. Try it now!

The sender: Behram Badhniwalla badhniwalla@hotmail.com

I found it absolutely disgusting to be bombarded by spam email from a dear friend who is no more.

Both emails were sent from hotmail.com.

Need I say more!

Never heard of the NOROVIRUS before Wednesday!

(Cross-posted on all my major blogs.)

I have been missing on the Blogosphere and in my Google Groups for a few weeks. It has been because of the sheer workload and also as I have found the Facebook experience quite fascinating. I found many relatives, even quite distant ones, many many friends, Cathedralites, Stephanians, CHAFF and many other groups, including my School House Group, SAVAGE, on Facebook, that I have been familarising myself to all what could be done by me on Facebook.

Although I am achieving quite a lot in creating my corner in Facebook, it is no match for the direct Blog or a Google group - and that is why I am back at blogging!

In my 24+ years in Finland I had never missed a days work or events because of any form of serious illness. I have been ill (including a bout of painful herpes inside the mouth), but it was always possible to get to work and work without having to take time off.

But this last week was different.



While at the funeral of a dear friend, Willie, Michelle's husband, I felt claustrophobic in the Small Chapel, which meant I had to go outside for some fresh air. Annikki and I went back inside to place the wreath from the whole MATTHAN Family on the coffin, but I continued to feel very weak.

Michelle (with Willie) owns the best Chinese / Indian Restaurant in town - the Royal Garden.

Michelle is from Calcutta and is a close friend of our daughter, Joanna, and consequently, a close family friend of ours. Any visitor to Oulu usually gets a treat at one of her restaurants. So Michelle is known by our family and friends around the world. (Cousins Chacko and Ammu, niece Nirupa, niece Preminda with husband Chris and Malayika, Cathedralites Sunil (and Kamal) Sahni, Sadhana Madhusadan (née Shah) Viney Sethi, Stephanians Ajay Verma, Prof. Ajeet Mathur, are just a few who have enjoyed the hospitality of Michelle and Willie.)

I suggested to Annikki that we go home and rest before attending the farewell reception for Willie at the Royal Garden Restaurant.

After getting home and resting for about half an hour I was violently ill and unable to lift my head. I did not know what had hit me. Annikki treated me all the best remedies that she has up her sleeve, Silica to line the stomach, magnesium tablets, and one pain-killer. I managed to retain a bit of everything to help me sleep off the next four to six hours, but the vomiting and diarrhoea did not abate. It was absolutely miserable.

Next morning Annikki read in the local newspaper about something known as the NOROVIRUS and the symptoms were exactly what I had been through.

A quick Google Search yielded all the important data and I was sure that absolute fasting with only liquids was the right answer.

By evening I was able to consume some of Annikki's great Fish Soup and it stayed in.

By the next morning the main symptoms had vanished, but at 5 am the Norovirus hit Annikki.



Despite her agony she took quick action to ensure that her mother, Hilja, who was supposed to be brought home that afternoon, was looked after while Annikki recovered from this virus. According to Jonana, who sent us a text message from Newcastle, it can be fatal for the elderly.

I had a good friend from Tampere, a town 500 km south of Oulu, coming to visit me on Friday evening / Saturday morning.



I did not want to disappoint Nadir or miss meeting him as his visits to Oulu are only once every two years. Rather than ask him to cancel, I booked Nadir in at a hotel across from the Railway Station, as the Norovirus is extremely contagious. I was clean but the house would have been disturbingly filled the virus.

We spent a few wonderful hours together and he was on his way on Saturday afternoon.

I would like to know which of my efforts you appreciate more - my blogs, my Facebook entries, my direct posts to you - or maybe I should just SHUT UP....

(OK Ubi, I know what you will say, but believe me you are not too old for Facebook. However, although it seems easy, it is quite complicated to work out all the ins and outs and it is not intuitive as it should be.)