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.
3 comments:
Jacob, you are indeed too kind and extremely lavish in your praise ! Will send you photographs after our mini CAT64ERS reunion in Mumbai on 31/05. Jagdish Pande & J C Mehta (Gujarato Teacher) will also be joining us.
I was a student of both Mr Pande and Mr JC Metha. I still remember being in his 7th grade Gujarati class like it was yesterday reciting a poem "Amay Rumukda." I also remember Mr Pande's dramatic Hindi questions at show and tell in his regal voice. He said: yuha kya hai? as he was pointing to a picture of a rat. I proudly answered Yuha UUDER hai! Of course that is the Parsi Gujarati term for rat. Mr Pande, gave his dramatic, over the top shock and amazement voice as he exclaimed "UUDER?" I laugh out loud to this day when I tell the story.
I hope I could communicate with JC Mehta as I lost touch with him shortly after 1972. He had written to me about a movie called Bawarchi that he liked. I guess that is why I looked him up--I just saw the movie for the first time today:)
I still remember the good teachers: Mehta, Pande, Morecraft, Kurki, Elija, Rahimtula, Sharma, Nagir, and Karat.
Thank you for sharing the blog with us. Once a Cathedralite, well you know how that goes. Namaste.
I still think back fondly and with reverence for some of my esteemed teachers who helped me be the teacher I am today. JC Mehta was my absolute favorite as were Rahimtula, Pande, Ranji, Morecraft,Karat. Kurki, Nagiar, DeSouza, Sharma, Samuels and Kamthey. I lost touch with JC Mehta but I remember he had written to me about a movie back in 72 that he likes called Bawarchi. I saw it today for the first time--some 44 years later. If anyone knows how I can get in touch with JC Mehta please let me know. Thanks and Namaste!
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