Seventh Heaven

Boxing Finals

2012-02-11T23:41:00.001+02:00

I never reached the finals of any school boxing competition, the best being the semi finals, where my six foot frame was given a hiding by a five foot dynamo called Neelam Lakhaney (also Savage House).

It is very strange, but a few years ago Neelam surfaced on my internet radar but then vanished. Had I been dreaming?

When planning our 50th year reunion, I searched all my mailboxes to find the correspondence that had transpired between us, but I did not trace it.

On the other hand, another Neelam Lakhaney took great offence to how I had addressed our Neelam in one of my blogs and was ready to fly at me over the internet.

But I digress, as I was intending to talk about the Boxing Final's evening.

Those of us who had not made it, got to school early so as to get the best place on the first floor overlooking the boxing ring. The boxing ring was always professionally made up and looked resplendent. I wonder who supervised that. Mr Morecroft?

The air was filled with excitement as we watched our House representatives who had made it to the finals, fight FOR US! It was as if we were in the ring with them, trading blow for blow with the opponent!

The air was always charged with excitement as we watched each fight, shouting for OUR Fighters.

If our guy lost, we were ready to blame the judges. The atmosphere was absolutely electric, right through the evening for a few hours well into the dark. We shouted our throats hoarse.

It was the late night that we enjoyed and it is these evenings that are deeply ingrained in my school days memory!

And now there are two again

2012-02-10T11:10:00.001+02:00

For many years, from the mid 90s, there were two Cathedralites in Finland, Prof. Ajeet Mathur and myself. Ajeet lived in Tampere, and me in Oulu (from 1984).

We used to hold reunions at my home whenever Ajeet had felt the need for some company or needed Annikki or my advice on something. (We authored a paper on E-Governance together and I read most of his papers before publication as a critique.)

Ajeet left a few years ago and is now a Professor at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad.

That left me as the sole Cathedralite on Finland.

After my retirement, I have been running a small service apartment business with apartments in Oulu, Tampere, Espoo and Helsinki.

Oulu is where I live and is a high tech city. Tampere is the industrial hub of Finland in Central South Finland. Helsinki, in South Finland, is the capital city and adjacent to the county of Espoo, which is also famed for higher engineering as it is the home of Otaniemi, the Technical University of Espoo.

The service apartment business is a sort of social service cum hobby. The main clientele are young engineers from various Indian MNCs as Wipro, TCS, Aricent, NSN Bangalore, Hughes Systique and many others.

Recently, I had a request from two engineers from a company I did not recognise. I was able to place them in separate shared apartments in Edpoo.

On my visit to Edpoo, after a hectic schedule, I found my way to the apartment block where I had placed thes guys. It must have been past 10 pm when I reached there.

I found both of them in one of the apartments as they had been dining together. Introductions over, as is customary for me, I pry! Both of them were from Mumbai. "Which school?" I asked, and Ashwin promptly came back with the answer - Carhedral!

I could not believe my ears. Another Cathedralite in Finland. Our Alumni Association was back in buiness.

For the next couple of hours we shared many a topic and I was able to show Ashwin and friends what Cathedral School had meant to me, my association with the school, our fabulous 59er Mother of all Reunions, and much more.

Ashwin has only passed out in 2003, so he probably could not quite fathom how we had kept our spirit so alive. I think he will learn as the yesrs go on.

I have visited Espoo a couple of times siince and made it a point to visit him. He has now moved to his own apartment. I will try to meet up with him on future visits to ensure that our Finnish Alumni Section is kept active.

Great to have you in Finland - Ashwin.

How to get elected

2012-02-09T10:28:00.001+02:00

When I got elected as the President of all Residents in St. Stephen's College in 1961-1962, I was the first 2nd year student to ever hold that post.

I do not know whether anyone else has achieved that in the last 50 years. (I got elected because of a wonderful band of 1st year students - Rajen Mammen Mathew (now Padma Shri); Ramu Katakam; Azar Siddiqui; Suresh Mehra; a great set of guys from my second year; and the support of a few well respected seniors.

That was my winning strategy with the Seniors giving me the respect factor; my year group standing firmly behind me: and the freshers working their guts out at all levels.

What more could I ask?

The reason for bringing this up here is that I learnt a lot from that experience. I have helped many people get elected since.

I share this with you now, as a very dear friend, a classmate, is standing for elections for the Mumbai Muncipal Corporation, and I would like all of you to work to get him elected.

Captain Vijay Shivdasani is 69, retired from the Indian Navy after captaining the aircraft carrier, ran his own business in Hong Kong, and has been doing literally hundreds of things in Mumbai since returning.

He walks tall, still plays a great game of tennis, and is honest and dedicated to the core.

You may be 1000s of miles away, like me,and feel you can do nothing.

But you can create a viral pitch by activating just 7 friends, who in turn can activate 49 more. Within just 1 week we could have an honest man doing things in Mumbai.

The vital step is NAME RECOGNITION. This is very critical. Almost 70% of people going to vote have no clue whom they will vote for 24 hours before voting day.

Just a phone call to a friend telling them about Retd. Captain Vijay Shivdasani and asking your 7 friends to spread the word to 7 more each, has a viral effect when it comes so close to election day.

Reaching the correct voter bank.

I did not know how to reach the bulk voter bank in South Colaba, but one of our contacts, former Cat Alumni President Rajiv Bhatia, was one step shead of me. He had been helping a fisher girl from that area. He has put her to work to reach as many of that group as possible. The effort will be renewed now that he knows that someone 7000 km away is also pushing for Vijay.

Just like the fisher folk, the small shops of South Mumbai are thronged with shoppers. There must be a pitch to get Vijay's flyers in each of those shops.

I would like all of you or your relatives or friends, to take this up with your favorite shop in South Mumbai. The effect will be seen in the result.

Then there are large apartment main doors. A flyer pasted on each main entrance has a remarkable effect as every resident bonds with a person who is visible every time they come home.

Then there are the Community Centres. A flyer in each helps each community trust a person who shows appreciation for their community.

Grass roots exposure in schools, colleges, cinema halls, religous establishments, hotels, restaurants, clubs, buses, in the local area are all important places to place flyers as they get the highly mobile population informed about Vijay.

(Remember that flyers could be in English, Marathi, Gujarathi, Hindi, Konkani, Malayalam and Tamil.)

So let us get started and get Vijay elected! D-day is 16th February 1 week from today.

Let it RIP, let it THUNDER!

Your contact is vital

2012-02-09T00:29:00.000+02:00

I have a very important task to reach all Cathedralites world-wide to ask them to rouse their friends to vote for a Cathedralite in the coming election on 16th January.

It is not often I ask for any assistance. Now I do, for my friend.

If you know someone in South Mumbai, please ask them to vote for retd. Captain Vijay Shivdasani, my childhood friend, my school classmate, a good friend till today (like you), totally a man of integrity, a man of decision, and, like me, a man with enormous energy to accomplish things. At 69, he still plays a mean game of tennis, walks tall, and has a schedule which puts me to shame!

I do not ask this lightly. If each of you can rouse 7 voters, just 7, then we will have a viral success that you will be part of with pride in your accomplishment.

Remember that I am 7000 km away but care enough for our CITY to stand up and support one honest candidate.

Please forward to all your friends.

Call Shivi if you want. Just tell him that I asked you too. He will listen and act on whatever your request.

He is the hand we need up guide our city - Mumbai.

Please note: the Bombay Municipal elections are to be held on 16th February.

Thanks.

A submission by Vijay and I stand by every word he says:

CAPTAIN VIJAY SHIVDASANI

captainvijayshivdasani@gmail.com; 9833622312

A NOTE BEFORE YOU VOTE

The main reason people do not vote and that there is so much cynicism is because many parties are tainted by rampant corruption, numerous scams and poor performance in governance. You and numerous other thinking voters like you do not find a credible educated candidate of calibre because such people shun politics. For these reasons I have decided to offer myself as an Independent Citizen Candidate – to do the best for Mumbai where I live, for South Colaba where I was born and for Navy Nagar where I spent many years in uniform.

I am a family man, groomed at one of the best schools – Cathedral School, Mumbai, and am alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Khadakvasla. I successfully completed an advanced navy post graduate study at the Royal Military College of Science, UK.

As a serviceman, dedication to my country and men is paramount. The motto, Service Before Self, was deeply ingrained at an early age. It has been uppermost in peace and war. I have had the responsibility to sail and command numerous warships, been the Commander of an operational aircraft carrier, the Operations officer in the 1971 war and Head of the Alma Mater – the Navy’s Signals Establishment, Kochi, where thousands of personnel are trained each year.

Working recently in Mumbai, as head of an NGO, Founder of a Charitable Trust, an active member of the Nariman Point Association and A Ward Federation, I sincerely believe I have the experience, knowledge and educational background to improve the standard of living and lower your taxes by better governance decisions and without corruption.

After retiring from the navy I lived and worked in Hong Kong. It is a modern efficient island city where despite limitations of space, every civic system works – ferries, roads, mass transportation and traffic, drainage, hygiene and healthcare services, municipal education, sanitation and water supply, the rule of law and police, clean green open spaces with low levels of pollution – all these are of a world class standard. This is what I would strive for in Mumbai. This is my Mission.

I am often asked what an independent citizen candidate can achieve. As the saying goes – never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world – indeed it is the only thing that ever has!

So do cast your valuable vote for Corporator for

Vijay Shivdasani - a Captain and Gentleman

Reason for being a top school

2010-10-16T07:39:00.000+02:00

I was informed by one of my best and learned readers that his comment about why our school is at the top of the charts was missing. I do not know how that happened.

From Cathedral School, Mumbai

>

However, I reproduce here what 49er Yezad Kapadia wrote:

Quite some time ago. I had clicked on comments and sent the comments.
Although there are various factors at play, I believe a lot of credit should go to the Founding Fathers for their vision and the sense of purpose with which the School was founded. The value system endowed at that time prevails even now. I guess the same reasoning applies to the the Public Schools in England too.
I have worked for the House of Tatas. Fortune magazine has estimated that the average life span of a corporate entity is 17 years. There are at least three corporates/entities in the Tata stable (Tata Steel, the Taj Mahal Hotel and the Indian Institute of Science) which, after being around for more than 100 years, are world class! I can only attribute this to the vision and the sense of values of the Founder. We all know what a great man he was. Very few know how great!!

This comment is specially interesting as most of our family companies are also of thatbreed of over or near 100 years. The Malayala manorama is now 123 years old, MRF is over 70 years old and most of the plantation companies as Badra, Devon, Balanoor are in their 80s.

To last just 17 years for a corporate seems a bit astonishing!

What makes it happen?

2010-09-05T09:44:00.000+02:00

I was thrilled to read that our alma mater was rated as the best school in India for this year.

Last year, I was a little disapointed when saw that we were not in the top postion, which was held by a Delhi school.

Our School - by 59er Hasnain Chinwala

I thought to myself - WHY are we No. 1?

Is it the Management, is it the staff, is it the students, or is it the alumni?

If I look back on my life at the school and my times in other schools, we did not have playgrounds, we were cramped in the City Centre, and yet our lives were full of everything.

Our staff, from around the world, those days, were simply of a class well above others.

But then, now comes the rub!

Which has been the best Class EVER in the 150 history of our school.

Having written about this school for the last 15 years, in my mind, there is no doubt.

It is the 59ers, as is embodied in the song written by a 59er Ratan Singara, called "THE CLASS ACT". (Click on the image to see an enlarged version of the song.)

If you look at the 50th Year Golden Reunion organised by our class last year, it is going to be a very hard one to beat.

This picture taken outside the St. Thomas Cathedral on November 14th 2009, shows most of our 50th Year Golden Reunion Group assembled from around the world.

This reflects on how wonderful a class we were and are!

Reflecting on the past, I would say that what made our school exceptional was the combination of the staff and the students. That made our school No. 1, 51 years ago.

Maybe someone could enlighten me as to why our school is still No. 1!

A wonderful evening in Helsinki

2010-08-21T00:00:00.000+02:00

Annikki and I went to Helsinki to meet a cousin and her husband who came for a holiday in Finland. That is reported on my Jacob's Blog.

During that visit we were invited to the house of Ruki and Devinder Kishore. Devinder is a Direector in Nokia and his wife, Ruki, is the daughter of 49er Yezad Sam Kapadia (known to me in Finland as Yesh).

As Annikki's sister, Anneli, lives near Helsinki, I sort of asked Ruki whether I could bring her along as Annikki was anxious to spend as much time as possible with her sister. She graciously accepted my request.

What an incredible evening it was!

Besides Ruki and Devinder, Yesh and his radiant wife, Rati, were there, as well as Jeroo, their other daughter who lives in New Zealand. Also present were Arjun and Varun, the two sons of Ruki and Devinder. They are so incredible loving kids.

The hosts, Devinder and Ruki, in their gorgeous Helsinki home, dished out a meal which showed of Ruki in the glory as the yrained chef she is. Every dish was made to perfection. And it was topped off with a delicious home made kulfi!

The atmosphere was totally Cathedralite in that a 49er and 59er meeting in a strange land showed how close our Cathedralite families are, even if a decade spans our life style.

Yesh is so remarkably fit and well that he puts me to shame, and I rather pride myself on my physical condition.

Thank you Rati and Yesh - as you showed me what a beautiful family you have around you.

Readers

2010-07-28T15:43:00.000+02:00

I am getting requests from many to get registered to read this blog. I had no idea that many of them existed.

The reason I am following this for the well-being, safety and security of my grandchildren.

Today I receive a request from a 62er, Sandra.

I do remember her as a pretty little girl about 3 years my junior.

Her brother, Maurice used to play hockey alongside me. He was a really good sportsman. Maurice was not a 59er and I think he was a 60er. I think he also was in the Cathedral Church Choir, although I cannot vouch for that.

I know that Sandra and Maurice were cousins of the Colaco family, David being my classmate!

Wonder where Maurice has got too?

No doubt, as Sandra is reading this blog, I may soon find out! :-)

Do keep registering. I will soon introduce a much better and simpler system when the limit of registered readers is approached.

Yezad in Finland

2010-07-23T08:17:00.000+02:00

About a week ago, on hectic day in Oulu, I was all over the place. My phone was on silent or discreet because of meeting after meeting. (Please do remember that my phone number has changed. The new number is + 358 41 720 2850.)

We had some visitors, but as neither Annikki nor I were at home, so we did not know that they had been. They left a note in our mailbox which, because I was tied up till midnight, I missed.

The next day, I left for Helsinki at 3:30 am.

I decided to give 49er Yezad Kapadia's daughter, Ruki, a call to find out news of the arrival of her mom and dad to Finland.

Ruki answered my call, but she was not in Helsinki, but up north, about 200 km from Oulu near the eastern frontier. She was with her two kids as well as her parents!

She explained how they had been to Oulu the day before and missed us.

I was heartbroken as I was waiting to show all of them my home town of the last 26 years.

That evening I drove back to Oulu and reached about 3 am.

But I was up at the crack of dawn, finished my office work, and took off to Vuokatti, a small holiday resort near Sotkamo and Kajaani, quite a beautiful part of Finland. (Actually, these days we do not have dawn here as it has been our season of the nightless nights!)

It was really wonderful to connect with Yezad. We had lunch together, and then spent quite a few hours chin-wagging, till I finally had to take leave around 5 pm to reach Oulu at 7 in the evening.

I was really sorry that they could not visit and stay with us at Oulu, which had been the original plan.

Annikki and I will go Helsinki on the 9th of August and meet up with them at Ruki's place for dinner on the 11th night.

Yes, it will be Cathedralite Reunion! A 49er and a 59er! Any 69ers likely to join us? Barbara, game?

We talked a lot about our alma mater. The fact that Yezad is 10 years my senior just did not matter as we have so much in common to talk about.

I do wish more of you will make it to this lovely country!

New speakers

2010-07-22T12:47:00.000+02:00

I just attached two new speakers to my Mac Mini.

This morning , when I reached worked, I opened my iTunes and clicked on the piece "Nostalgia in Times Square"

It was amazing how quickly I reacted to strains as played by our own 59er Jack Haskell.

Jack has sent me many compositions he has been playing with his friends. There no better way to start a morning at work than listenng to his playing.

It brought back many nostalgia thoughts of when we used to stand outside St. James Court corner on the Marine Drive and Jack would be drumming away on the first floor!

Or the times we went to a restaurant opposite Eros theatre to listen to the Jazz bands playing there.

Or the time when 59er Ooky introduced me to the Voice of America broadcast Jazz Hour, or was it Jazz USA, and the deep voice of the host. I cannot remember his name, but he was around for several years.

That was 50+ years ago, but is seems just like yesterday, thanks to the wonderful music of our Jack!

I felt young again.

November Programme....

2010-07-20T16:02:00.000+02:00

For those of you not in the loop, here is the 150 year celebrations and Founders' day programme for this October / November 2010:

22 Oct. 2010: Art Auction by Saffronart followed by dinner at Taj Hotel. A fund-raiser for school expansion.

9/10 Nov. 2010: School play at Tata Theatre

12 Nov 2010: T20 cricket match between Alumni and School

13 Nov 2010: Golf Tournament at Willingdon Club

13 Nov 2010: Celebratory Dinner at Turf Club. Note. A Commemorative stamp will be unveiled as also a coffee-table book launched

14 Nov 2010: Church Service and High Tea followed by Bus Tour of school buildings which will all be illuminated.

It is interesting that a "Coffee Table Book" is going to be launched.

Well, I guess we 59ers have set the standard and raised it so high, they are going to have a job keeping it up there, and at what cost!!

An important request to ALL our readers

2010-07-10T13:36:00.002+02:00

Dear Readers of all our blogs,

It is with great sadness that we have to announce that we will now have to make all our major blogs accessible only to those who register with us.

The subjects we have covered over the years include the wrestler Dara Singh (probably the most popular and controversial blog entries, ever), St. Stephen's College, Delhi, Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai, Bishop Cotton School, Bangalore, the UN, talk Shows in the USA, politics, the Kandathil and Maliyakal families, Kampitie, Vesaisentie, Annikki's creative art, achievements of our children and grandchildren, CHAFF (Chamber for Assistance of Finns and Foreigners), Findians, our numerous friends, relatives, our travels, recipes, and life in general. Above all, t they contained the nostalgia the people love.

Due to circumstances far beyond our control, which affect the lives of many of our loved ones, we have to create the SETTINGS of our blogs so that only those whom we invite can read them. This is very sad as our blogs have reunited many friends across the continents.

With over 120000 readers around the world, some reading more than one of our blogs, for a decrepit old blogger and his wife sitting near the North Pole, this will prove to be a Herculean task, but one which has to be done for the safety, security and well being of many of our loved ones.

Please take the time and effort to send us an email telling us which of our blogs you want to be added to so that you can access them freely.

Our sincere apologies to each and every one of you lovely readers who have kept us going for almost a decade and a half by your readership, your inputs and your outputs!

Yours in great sadness as technology besides being a positive aspect of life can also be a very negative one.

Annikki and Jacob Matthan

Oulu, Finland

This is for 41ers to 69ers and a few others

2010-07-06T09:21:00.000+02:00

I have sent out this email today:

Dear 59ers and Cathedralites,

Today Annikki and I mourn the loss, not of a 59er, and not even of a Cathedralite, but the spouse of a great lady without whom we would never have achieved our dream of organising our Golden Reunion last November. She comes from from one of the greatest families our school has ever known.

I received this email from her this morning:

"Dear Friends and Family,

We lost the Great Dane, Bent Lerno on the morning of the 4th of July, 2010. He died peacefully after fighting for so long with his heart condition. He was surrounded by family and friends. He will be greatly missed as he was a true Viking, soldier, philanthropist, and above all a great husband, loving father and grandfather.

He came to America in the 1950's and immediately embraced his new home, but never forgot his Danish roots and was involved in many Danish charitable organizations. A Holocaust survivor, he felt it was necessary to make sure that the past was never forgotten and spoke eloquently at many local schools and through the Shoah Foundation as well.

Bent was always the life of the party and it's only fitting that he left us on the 4th of July as it was one of his favorite holidays which he heartily celebrated here and in Denmark at Rebild.

With love, Gracie Lerno and Family"

Dearest Gracie, Sophie Vilma, Abe and Ellis - we shed tears for Gracie's husband, Bent, who left us on the 4th of July.

Although we never met or corresponded with Bent, we knew him intimately through our dearest Gracie, who kept us informed of all the happenings.

It was through Gracie that we were able to track dowwn so many of you, starting with her two brothers - Abe (the School Vice Captain in 1959) and our own dearest Ellis. Other 59ers whom we were able to locate included Jack Haskell, Noel Ezekiel, Mark Sopher, Matilda Moses, Pamela Shelim, Anne Sopher, Jeanette Ezra, and many more, as well as many many Cathedralites of all years. As soon as we had a problem finding someone, the very first person we turned to was Gracie.

Bent was a rock at the side of Gracie. Gracie often shared her thoughts of her husband and her family with us, so they all have become part of our family, especialy our Cathedralite family which extends over all the continents.

And the Hayeem family, as a whole, is ingrained in all of us in a thousand ways. All of you would have known at least one of these - late Benjy, Sophie, Vilma, Gracie, Abe and Ellis, whose time at our school spanned almost two decades in the 40s and 50s.

I have sent our deepest condolences to Gracie.

May Gracie, and the Hayeem family, stand firm knowing that all of us are with them in and with our prayers at this grave hour of their lives.

And may Bent's soul rest in peace.

Love

Annikki and Jacob

Condolences have been pouring in as all of us have some close affinity with the Hayeem family.

Founders' Day 2010 - A messge from Piloo

2010-06-26T08:26:00.005+02:00

A message received by Jacob and me from our wonderful friiend - 59er Piloo Tata (née Dastur):

Through you, and your wonderful worldwide network of communications, I would like to bring to the attention of all 59'ers, as well as all Cathedralites, that our School is having a big function to celebrate the 150th Year on the 13th of November, 2010, at the Royal Western India Turf Club in Mumbai. It is going to be like a fun fair, and a dinner dance. If any Cathedralites, especially the ones living abroad, want to make advance plans for being in Mumbai during these celebrations, they can start thinking about it and planning from now. Ofcourse, I hope the ones in India will come in large numbers.

On 14th November, 2010, on Founder's Day, there will be a church service in the evening at St. Thomas' Cathedral, followed by high tea, something like there was last year during our 59'ers reunion celebrations.

From Hasnain 59ers 2009

59ers before the Founders' Day Church Service in November 2009.
Jacob and I were very disappointed with the organisation by the Alumni for Founders' Day 2009. We left within a hour or so as it was chaotic, hot, and totally impersonal.

There must be structure to an event of this magnitude, not just the money collection and statistics of the numbers attending!

I did not even get to the food table. The number of seats allocated for the 59ers was not even enough to seat the better halves who accompanied their alumni partners.

I do hope the organisers would have learnt from last year's fiasco and organise the 2010 one with some thought as to bringing the alumni together.

Now that the Bharat Darshan is over

2010-06-09T21:20:00.000+02:00

Many of you are speculating that now that the 50th Reunion of the 59ers is over, and i did manage to attend the College Founders Day in Delhi, that I have lost interest in the school and college and their activities.

Nothing can be further from the truth.

All assume that as I am retired, I have infinite time.

True, I do have infinite time, but each hour of that infinite time is booked solid. Blogging used to get about an hour in that schedule, before. Now it is down to a few minutes. If my brain stays inactive during those few minutes, then that day's blogging is lost.

But I still am getting emails from all of you and they are being preserved.

Will I make it to the Reunion and Founders Day this year?

That is a really huge question and it still remains unanswerd. But, it will not be a Bharat Darshan like last year. Just Mumbai and Delhi and Bangalore, and Chennai, and Hyderabad, and Kottayam, and... Well, if I do get there, it will have to be a Bharat Darshan, I guess! :-)

Card, Cake, Champagne, and a glorious surprise

2010-05-15T08:47:00.000+02:00

Chinnie has done us 59ers proud.

He visited Bill on his 85th birthday with a card, cake and champagne on behalf of all us 59ers:

From Bill Shiri's 85th Birthday

And guess what, a glorious basket of fruit arrived at the doorstep courtesy our own 59er Ellis Hayeem from New York.

And in my last report I had mentioned that Peter Vaney was a 49er. I was quickly pulled up by my ultra sharp 49er on the web, Naval Patel from Mysore. Peter must be a 50er or 51er. I am at my work computer and these records are on my home computer. Sorry Peter for this slip.

Speaking with Bill

2010-05-14T07:55:00.003+02:00

Yesterday evening I rang to Toronto, Canada, to wish my Physics teacher of 50 years ago a very happy 85th birthday. I also spoke to Pushpa, his wife, who had also been a teacher in our Mumbai school. My classmate, 59er Hasnain Chinwala (Chinnie), who also lives in Toronto was with Bill (prearranged) when I called as we, 59ers, paid our respects to a man who firmly shaped our lives.

That Bill and Pushpa attended our 50th year reunion in Mumbai last year was itself such a joy for all us 59ers. They lent their solidarity with a class of boys who have traversed the world and sought success based on the fundamentals of life that were instilled in us by our teachers. Not just our classroom performance, but our moral values were instilled in us by these wonderful Gurus!

(Photo thanks to the 64er Rajiv Ved when we took time off for a fee minutes to attend their reunion in Mumbai.)

In the olden days, as per the Indian Civilisation, the Guru was a man to be revered. All of us 59ers have revered all our teachers during the ensuing years. But Bill and John (who was our class teacher and our English teacher in 1959) are very special as they took the time to travel a long distance at great expense, many thousands of kilometres, to be with us as we reveled in our past last November.

In our conversation we talked about many things - including the greetings from other 59ers (which Hasnain had forwarded to Bill,) the loss of another wonderful teacher, Alberto Zavala from peru, our geography teacher, the exploits of Greg, our Chemistry teacher, and the whereabouts of many past Canadian Cathedralites, as Torontian 59er Narsys, but not just our classmates, as 63er Monty Wilson and 49er Peter and 51er Sheila (née Contractor) Vaney, and Peter's brother, 57er Herbert.

Now that Pushpa and Bill live right in the centre of Toronto, a stone's throw from Lake Ontario, I will make it a point to visit them soon as my grandson, Samu, an Ice Hockey fan, wants to visit that great city, with his Grandpa, to see one of his favourite teams play.

Happy birthday Bill - we love you!

Coffee Table Book arrives

2010-04-10T19:39:00.000+02:00

After a long and very nerve racking wait of almost 4 months, the final version of the 59ers Directory, the Coffee Table Book put together by Annikki and me, finally arrived in our post box.

From Coffee Table Book

The new cover had been laminated as the old cover was being damaged by handling in high humidity conditions as Mumbai. A lot of the beautiful photographic lustre has been lost in the new cover.

From Coffee Table Book

The size of the final version is smaller than the first version. It is shorter in length and breadth, as well as thickness, as the printers have used a lighter paper than in the original. This has helped to reduce the weight for posting.

The posting cost to Finland worked out at Rs. 665 (€ 11), so that shipment cost (including packing materials) is about Rs. 750 (€ 13) for the overseas copies. I will ask the dispatchers in Bangalore to use a better envelope. I think they used the best that was available in India, along with the bubble packing material, so that no damage occurred except for a slight warping. Placing the book under a weight for a day has corrected this warp and a serration effect.

Parvin's signature on the contents page, which is a photocopy of what was signed by all those who attended, was cut in half! Sorry!

As reported by Anjula, she had been mistakenly promoted. Luckily no-one had been demoted, as Gita was also shown as the Orange House Vice Captain!

There were several small errors. But almost all the gross design errors that Gita had so painstakingly pointed out, such as the alignments and colours, were all near to what was intended.

Of course, these corrections, and any others which will be no doubt be reported by my classmates, will be done in my master copy on my computer. Those who want to add matter or photographs are welcome to do so, so that the next edition can be better than the first!

Are we happy or sad with the final version?

Annikki is mildly ecstatic because she has got the final product in her hands.

I feel a little let down as I expected much more.

All the errors are of my making, so I take full blame.

Alberto Zavala - Orbituary

2010-04-08T08:07:00.000+02:00

Yesterday, I received a communication from my Class Teacher and English Teacher of 1959, John Billington, conveying to me the very sad news of the passing of Alberto Zavala, my Geography teacher in 1955 (8th Standard).

The late Mr. Glynne Howell taught me Geography from the 9th to the 11th, Thanks to these two wonderful teachers, who raised my interest in world geography, I got a distinction in the Senior Cambridge in this subject.

He was around 80 years old. He died on 8th March at his home in Masschusetts, USA. He passed away peacefully in his sleep, while resting from working in the garden. It was quite unexpected as he had not been unwell.

Alberto was the Junior Housemaster of Barham. As John added, others will recall his help in Table Tennis and Football. and of course as a teacher of Geography. When he was teaching at the school, he had an M.A. from Nashville, Tenessee, USA. Because of his presence, I learnt where South America was on the map of the world, and he taught us about the ancient Indian heritage of the South Americans, and introduced us to the Incas of that great land.

Zavala was a Peruvian and brought a great deal of colour to our school in the 50s. He looked stern, but he had a heart of pure gold and a broad and fascinating smile. He was a wonderful and intense sportsman. I remember him from his antics on the hockey field when he was in the forward line and making rushes at me. He played ferociously and was always ready to strike the ball hard and high into the net. If he beat me, he would console me with a wry smile!

Alberto was the one who taught me that fitness was all important when taking part in any sport. 59er Percy Mistri has recalled how Alberto helped him with his table tennis.

I tried my level best, through both William Shiri and John, to persuade Alberto to attend our 59ers reunion in Novermber 2009, but unfortunately, I failed. Our loss!

I have asked John Billington to convey our deepest and heartfelt condolences to the family of Alberto. May his soul rest in peace.

Secularity in Educational Institutions

2010-03-31T01:10:00.000+02:00

(Posted on all my main blogs as this is one of my more serious postings meant to get the broadest reach.)

I learnt from the Times of India of 25th March 2010, Bishop Cotton school principals to resign, that my second alma maters, the Bishop Cotton's Schools in Bangalore, both the Boys and Girls schools, are going through a huge upheaval. The alleged interference of the Church in their running and the seemingly marginalisation of the Principals (also known as Wardens) into puppets, possibly all in the greed for the rich pickings associated with running a well-known educational institution, appear to have taken these two schools from reality into a fantasy world. Accusations are flying left, right and centre.

Sitting 7000 km away from that base, I do not know who is right or wrong. The literally hundreds of "Comments" in the newspaper make it difficult to understand the correct situation.

But it is such a shame to see the schools where my late father (he was also the Old Boy's Association Chairman for many years) and all his siblings, and a greater part of my generation of Matthan's, including my four children, being destroyed by these bickerings and the unfortunate media stories being put out.

A similar situation of the differences between the Church and the Principal is causing the rot of the fourth of my alma maters, St. Stephen's College in Delhi. The Alumni in different part of the world are taking actions, but that may not stop the rot.

However, my Mumbai alma mater, The Cathedral and John Connon School, seems to have overcome this problem, or is it that it has not yet come to the forefront.

Trying to remember my days in each school and college, I knew I was in a Christian Institution in all these three cases (and also my first, The Good Shepherd Convent School in Mysore).

In Bishop Cotton's Boys' School we had to go, being a Christian by birth, to the Chapel for morning service before the start of school, every single day.

In Mumbai, we had School Assembly every morning with the reading of the Bible by one of the Prefects and singing of hymns.

My 59er class consisted of Atheists, Christians (a handful), Hindus, Jains, Jews, Muslims, Parsis, Sikhs, Sindhis, and probably various other sects and sub-sects. Not once did it cross my mind that my classmates were from different religions.

The only time I was aware of a difference was we took our shirts off for PT. I noticed a few of my classmates wore quite different vests - the Parsis, as they had a sleeveless type muslin (?) vest quite different from the rest of the class. Other than mentally noting this difference, and I never even bothered to find out or understand the reason for this, we were all equal in every other respect during our hours in school.

The only differences were those imposed by the time table, as the Christians had to do Scripture as a subject while the non-Christians were exempt from this.

These secular values, and the continuation of the same which I imbibed in St. Stephen's College of the early 60s, has stood me in good stead through my life. I learnt to respect people for what they do and achieve and not because of their religion, caste or creed.

I wish this would be the universal philosophy across the world, as the wars that plague us today are based on these stupid artificial values, called as faith - be it by any religion anywhere in the world where the religious hierarchy fights for power and prestige, misguiding the masses along the way.

History of the School

2010-03-26T14:48:00.000+02:00

I understand that for this year's Founders' Day, 2010, our Alumni Association is planning to release a definitive history of our school. They would do well take advice from an Alumni member, 57er Ashok (Tony) Jaitly, who produced a masterpiece for our college, St. Stephen's College, Delhi, when it celebrated its 125th year.

Three outstanding Jaitlys have passed through the portals of our school, 54er Ravi, 57er Tony and 60er Jotysna. All three were brilliant all round students.

From Jacob's Blog

All three, including Ravi's wife, Krishna, and Jotysna's husband, Siddarth Singh (who was my Stephanian yearmate at St. Stephen's College, Delhi), were present in the Delhi Cathedralite Reunion organised by 64er Deepak Deshpande (accompanied by his daughter Pallavi) when Annikki and I passed through Delhi on our Bharat Darshan at the end of last year. Others who attended were 49ers Jamshed Desai, Raj Bhandari and Yezad Kapadia (with wife Rati), 54er Rahul Bajaj, Savage House Captain and also a Stephanian, 55er Anil (Bobby) Bhalla, 56er Pradeep Anand, 57er Annelita (née Uttamsingh) Thadani and her husband, Ravinder K Thadani (Baby), 58er Maiti Sayal, 59ers Harmo Rani Malik (née Uberoi) accompanied by her daughter, 82er Priya, and Vijay Nayar, (and myself), and 60er Dellinder Kohli. Dellinder left early so is missing from the photograph.

Like a few others, Tony and I went through the second alma mater. Our years overlapped by just one.. His subsequent brilliant career in the IAS is well known.

I am publishing here the review I did of it a few days ago for my Stephanian Blog, just to show what would be ideal in publication of a history. Any Stephanian would be proud to be associated with such a publication, which should be the target of our school history. Those who are well known are already well known, so why focus on them? Focus on those who are not so well known but have contributed much to society in their own quiet way.

(From my Kooler Talk, St. Stephen's Collge, Delhi Blog
I have written about the book authored by 61er Ashok (Tony) Jaitly for the 125th Anniversary of our College. Tony, like me, was a 57er Mumbai Cathedralite and then a Stephanian. The character of both these great institutions he graced do come through in this book.

Tony joined the college for exactly the same reasons as me - to save a year! Little did either he or I know at that time that we were joining to the most prestigous educational institution in India!

Yesterday, I completed reading his treatise for the third time. Although quite a slim book, it is crammed with the most interesting facts about our alma mater, that I have not been able to absorb it all in just one or two readings.

Almost everything that we need to know about the history and character of our college is included. The author has not blown his own trumpet in the book. He is an outstanding personality and was, during his time in college, on several fronts - on the sports field, in the theatre, in studies, and also as a Stephanian in Rez.

He has also not blown my trumpet ;-) , as although I get a mention as the 1961 JCR President and also the publisher of this outstanding blog (!!), he failed to mention that I was the only 2nd year student ever to be elected to the JCR Presidency, the organiser of the first JCR evening made up wholly of our internal talent in acting, music, comedy, and also the organiser of the first JCR indoor tournaments - chess, carrom, bridge, draughts, table tennis.

In fact, other than mentioning my JCR Presidency, Tony, covered almost every other institution in the college, but forgot that the JCR existed as the main centre for the residents in college, the main meeting point for all residents in the evenings and also for day scholars who had to pass the time of day between lectures. The JCR President was the Head of all residents and served on various Committees including the all important Mess Committee! I did a lot of campaigning to change the quality of our food in 1961-62, but it fell back to old standards in 1962-63!

I was lucky to have Shanky (R. I Shankland) and Sircar (S. C. Sircar) supporting all my efforts and 62er Sarwear Lateef on the JCR Committee, who used his diplomatic skills to get many things done. We installed the first gramaphone in the JCR during that year. We installed colourful curtains. We allowed students to stay after 10 pm so that they could listen to Test Match Commentaries from places such as West Indies.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, the present JCR is quite a morbid place compared to absolutely electric atmosphere we enjoyed there in 1961 - 62. When 63er Norval Prakash (Sherwood College, Nanital), my classmate, succeeded me at JCR President in 1962 - 63, he did not have the same hectic agenda as he was busy with his final year studies!

Coming back to Tony's book, it is superb on all fronts except where it was outside his control - the publishing. The sequence of pages in my copy is as follows:

102; 109, 110; 107, 108; 105, 106; 103, 104; 117, 118; 115, 116; 113, 114; 111, 112, 119. 120: ...

Whether it is a simple binding error in my copy or one which has been carried in all other copies, certainly is a spoiler in an otherwise brilliantly written book.

The book is also lacking an all important Index and Bibliography, which are most important for any book purporting to be "A History". That again is not the author's responsibility, but the publishers! In this age of computerised editing, these should have been a couple of the easiest tasks to accomplish!

The amount of research Tony has done, not only from written matter, but meeting and talking to Stephanians of all ages, has been a heroic effort. His comments, like a true diplomat are guarded, but the importance of our college as a secular institution from Day 1 comes through.

I would advise the present Principal, Valson Thambu, to read this book to understand something about the college, as almost everything he has been doing for the last 5 years is diametrically in contrast with the hopes and wishes of our founding fathers and all the Prncipals that have preceded him.

Valson Thambu would do well to remember that the first four students of our college were 'Hindoos' (Sansar Chand, Har Gopal, Kirpa Narain, Ram Lal) and the fifth a 'Mohammedan' (Sajjid Mirza).

I was certainly not aware of the involvement of many of our past staff and students with all the drama that India went through during the last century.

I was certainly not aware that the massacre of Jallianwala Bagh was condemned by, in writing in the Stephanian 1920, by the editor C. B. Young!

As a public institution it is our duty to avoid taking sides on strictly political issues... (but) we are in emphatic agreement with the condemnation bestowed on the action of General Dyer... as Christian missionaries we cannot avoid the duty of forming and expressing a judgement on such a deed of horror as the slaughter in Jallianwalla Bagh.

All the characters that I knew are portrayed with great accuracy throughout the book and it is a credit that Tony was able to write it without causing offence!

I was not aware of the close connection of our college to Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and many more historic personalities of the world stage.

I will be using this book now to put many of my blog posts in context, in future. It is something which has been at my bedside for the last 3 months, but has now been moved to my office table so as to be of service to the rest of you.

I recommend that you get yourself a copy, also! Certainly worth every rupee I paid for it - just Rs. 365 (€ 6!) in New Delhi. They had to order it from the Publisher and I was able to pick it up just hours before I left the city.

Tony went to the right archives, met the right persons and corresponded with all those who could contribute. He did not focus on his years, although those were probably some of the most exciting times of the College. He went to the meat of the matter, such as the association of the College with great leaders as Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore, as well as those Stephanians and staff who held by the values they associated with the College.

The Cathedralite Alumni Association would do well to get in touch with established historians when contemplating such an important document.

I think we 59ers lifted the bar as to the quality of publications with both our CD and the Coffee Table Book which we brought out during and after our reunion. Those that follow will have to really make superhuman efforts to do even half what we 59ers achieved. I am sure that some years will greatly surpass what we did, and I can probably predict now which years they will be.

But let us wait and see!

Pande unwell in Mumbai

2010-03-25T12:02:00.000+02:00

In 2008, thanks to Deepak Deshpande, I was able to ring and speak to Mr. Jagdish Pande, who was a teacher in our school from the mid-50s. Not only was he my Marathi teacher, but he was also an outstanding sportsman and was in charge of our school hockey team.

When I spoke to him, he sort of remembered me as I was an absolutely useless student in Marathi. The reason was quite simple. In school I had to study English, French, Latin, Hindi, Marathi and German - besides having had to keep up with Kannada (which I had started while being brought up in Bangalore and Mysore, and Malayalam, our home language).

That was just too much. I had to consciously shut off some languages. Kannada, Hindi and Marathi were the first to get a chop. We were the last batch in school which did not have to Hindi as a compulsory subject for our Senior Cambridge examinations.

I later dropped Latin, as it was also too much for me. Mr. Glynne Howell, who taught us Latin, was a bit disappointed that I decided to drop it!

I stayed with French, despite being taught by the masochist, Mr. Ribi, but later mastered reading German text, enough for my technical studies in England.

Rajiv Bhatia, former Alumni President, informed me that Mr. Pande had been admitted for observation to hospital. He later visited him and said he was progressing.

Let us hope for a speedy and full recovery. We all love Mr. Pande, who though tough, is wonderful personality.

Tips to catching a cat burglar

2010-03-22T19:41:00.002+02:00

First advice to everyone reading this is "Don't try it!"

However, in 1960, the year after I left school, I had six months to spare before joining college. Along with a few friends, we used to go to the open gymnasium near the Bombay Gymkhanna and do an hour of really tough excercises. I did not do weights as my intention was to keep fit and remain speedy for hockey.

Those who went regularly were my 59er Cathedralite classmates, Arvind Thadani, Noel Ezekiel, Viney Sethi, late Ashok Kapur and myself.

However, as a few of them went back to school to do the HSc, only three of us were left.

I used to pick up Arvind and drive to the gym. Then we would go back to his house, listen to records, have something light to eat, and then I would go home. Noel used to come home with me often and we would play some childish games to pass the time away!

In short, both Arvind and I were physically very fit, both six footers, and we were quite a terrible fearsome sight!

I lived on the second floor of Meher Mansions. It was a beautiful apartment, large, with three bedrooms, and a fourth bedroom, which was a dressing room converted into a bedroom.

I lived in the back bedroom. When I went to sleep, I had my black labrador in the room. I used to bolt the door at night so that no one disturbed me in the morning, even though it was usually me that got up first!

One night, I had been reading quite late, and I swtiched off the bedlight around midnight. I was in a very light sleep, actually, half awake. As I lay in this stupor, I heard a faint sound from the attached bathroom.

I lay still and looked at the bathroom door, which was slightly ajar.

In the streetlight, which was coming through the window, I saw a small figure emerge from the bathroom. I held my breath.

The figure tried to gently open the Godrej steel cupboard. He found it locked. He turned to the large wooden clothes horse where I had hung my clothes. He started to go through the pockets of my trousers.

The initial shock of seeing the burglar in my room had passed. I was breathing very easily and in a flash of courage, I shouted at the top of my voice "Chor" which means "Thief".

The burglar reacted like lightning and jumped feet first to escape through the second floor window next to the Godrej cupboard. I did not think, but jumped, Flash Gordon style, feet first, and got my legs dead centre around his waist so that he came crashing down to the floor just a few inches away from the window.

My hands went round his throat and I got up very quickly, lifting him up along with me. I could feel his greasy body writhing against my sweaty chest, trying to get away from my firm elbow grip around his neck.

The burglar was really short, so that when I stood up, his feet were off the ground. As a result he had no propulsion place to use his energy and power.

People had woken up around the neighbourhood at hearing my cry of "Thief". My parents had come running down the corridor, wondering whether the commotion was coming from within our house.

My mom was almost in panic when I told her through the closed door that I had caught a thief! She was worried that the fellow had a knife or some other instrument to harm me.

I reassured her that I was safe and I would come out in a second. I called my "guard dog, Blitz, who had gone under the bed the minute she had heard me yell! :-)

I walked to the door and pulled down the latch which was at the top. The legs still dangling, I walked with this guy to the living room. The thief was begging for mercy to let him go.

In the light I saw I had seen this guy before. He belonged to the Churchgate street gangster Chotu's gang. I did not say anything to him but told my dad to call the Police. He rang the Police and then asked whether he should go the the garage, about 200 metres away to bring the car.

I assured him that I could manage this guy till the Police arrived.

By this time, many neighbours had come in to see the burglar. The burglar was acting most cunningly. In a desperate attempt to get out of my grip he told all of us that he wanted to go to toilet.

I knew that the minute I let him go, he would be off like a bullet. No one would be able to catch him.

So I told him to do his business on the spot.

Of course, he was bluffing!

It was a good 20 minutes before the Police arrived. Once they saw the guy, they told us that he had already robbed two houses not far from our house and he had got away.

It was third time unlucky.

They beat him on the head with a rubber truncheon asking where he had stashed the loot from the other houses. He was not ready to speak!

They asked me to come to the Police Station to register the complaint. My dad and I drove down to the Colaba Causeway Police Station and I gave my complaint.

The guy was sentenced to 6 nmonths for his attempted robbery.

I joined St. Stephen's College in Delhi in July 1960. When I came home for the autumn holidays in September, as I walked to Marine Drive to meet my friends, at the corner near Eros Theatre, I was accosted by this guy.

He smiled and greeted me. He told me that it was the first time he had been caught by a victim! He congratulated me, shook my hand and said no one would ever try to rob our house again!

Word was around that there was someone who was a professional cat burglar nabber. ME!

Orbituary of Mr. Nagia

2010-03-19T08:06:00.000+02:00

Former President of our alumni, Rajiv Bhatia, informed me that Mr. Nagia, who was once the physics teacher in our school, had passed away.

Mr. Nagia was obviously well after my time in school.

I have conveyed the condolences of Seventh Heaven readers to Rajiv to pass on to the bereaved family of Mr. Nagia.

If someone could tell me about this worthy gentleman, I would be pleased to publish his bio on the blog.

I have great respect for both Physics and Chemistry teachers, especially from our school, as it is they who gave me my lifetime profession by their enthusiasm and drive in teaching me these subjects.

Illustrious Cathedralite?

2010-03-10T19:07:00.000+02:00

Sub: Cathedral alumni who have made a difference

Dear Alumnus,

You may be aware that an encyclopaedic history of Cathedral School, is, currently a work in progress - scheduled for release before November 2010.

We would like to include the names of alumni who have made a significant contribution in any way to Society, in any field.

We would love to have your inputs as to who in your decade you feel should be included in an illustrious list which covers JRD Tata, Salman Rushdie, Zulfikar Bhutto, Yusuf Hamied, Rahul Bajaj, Fareed Zakaria, Ratan Tata, Geeta Anand, Sharda Mukherjee, Mirai Chatterjee etc.

Please do write to us with names and a small profile on their achievement at cathedralhistory@gmail.com Your contribution will be invaluable in the creation of this book.

Your inputs will be very valuable to make the book as interesting as possible

Look forward to hearing from you,
Sincerely yours,

Mridula Maluste ('73) & Viral Doshi('75)
Co-Authors

Your very first day at school

2010-03-09T09:08:00.001+02:00

Some join a school in the KG, some join somewhere along the way.

How many of you remember your very first day at school? Cathedral School!

I remember that I joined school in the 6th Standard in 1954. I had shifted from Bishop Cotton Boys' School in Bangalore, which had a different system. I had been promoted from the 4th to the 5th Standard, which was equivalent to the 7th Standard in Bombay.

Mr, Bernard Gunnery was the Principal. I went for an interview. My cousin, Peter, was in the 7th Standard, being a few months younger to me. Also Peter's brother, Sen, had been the Best Academic Student in 1953. So it was Peter's father, Mr. K. M. Philip (now 97, attending office daily, and still playing bridge daily at the Willingdon and also occasionally playing a hole or two of Golf ), who accompanied me and my dad, to see Mr. Gunnery.

For some reason, which Mr. Gunnery explained, there was absolutely no room in Standard 7, so I would have to drop a year and be in Standard 6.

My parents were not very happy, but I was quite oblivious to the implications of dropping a year, except that I was a bit disappointed that I would not be with my cousin, Peter, who was a great friend.

So, I joined in Standard 6 in the first week of February 1954.

It could not have turned out better, as I probably walked into the best ever class our school has produced - the 59ers!

But that is another story.

When I arrived at school on my first day with my dad, I was welcomed by Mr. Timmins, the Class Teacher, who later became a dear family friend. My dad did not stay more than a couple of minutes as he saw I was quite happy and he knew I was an extrovert and would make friends quickly. The class was next door to the Physics Laboratory. (The hidden Chapel was not discovered at that time!)

Mr. Timmins was a wonderful person. He sat down and talked to me explaining to me that dropping a year was not going to be a problem as I would probably find all the stuff very easy and I would be able to fit into the class quickly.

He got me a seat right in the centre of the room. I cannot remember who was my neighbour, but within 5 minutes, I was part and parcel of the class in all respects. After the attendance register, we were off to Assembly and I was fully part of the school and my class!

Mr. Timmins took special interest in getting me adjusted. He fired arithmetic questions at me which he knew were simple, as I had already studied them the previous year in Bangalore. This was a real ice breaker, as the other kids did not know that I had dropped a year.

The biggest disappointment was to learn that the school had no playing fields. In Bangalore we had almost 10 pitches - one for each XI!

But I was told by Mr. Timmins that sports was compulsory and that we would be playing sports at different pitches.

On the very first day we were taken to the CCI, where we were told to practice for the School Athletic meet. I was good at High Jump and soon showed my talents, crossing the bar at 4', more than any other classmate! But I was over-shadowed by my elder brother, who was a good high jumper and long jumper. He jumped 4' 3" and later set te record. Although I had been All Round Sports Champion in Bangalore, and had won a few medals and cups, I was not a good runner. But that did not stop me from attempting everything, as my mom's philosophy was to teach us to try everything and do our best!

But being at the CCI with many of my classmates quickly broke the ice as I was immediately part of the sports group as well.

I do remember that when I had sat down with Mr. Timmins that morning, he told me that I had been placed in Savage House, for which he was the House Master. I was glad, as in Bangalore I was in Pettigrew House, whose colours were Green and Black. So I had retained the Green in Savage.

From Cathedral School, Mumbai

So started a wonderful 6 years in Cathedral School where everyone of our class became dear friends. I was not a brilliant student, but a very average one, just enough to get First Class in the Senior Cambridge Exams. (Ashok Kapur and I both got 15 points to get First Classes!)

Life in school was full and varied. I played all the sports for my House, even attempting the impossible tennis. I was in the Church Choir, I took part in the School Operas a couple of years, was School Hockey Goalkeeper for two years running, And in 1959 I became Savage House Captain, crowning my wonderful years there. (I am second from the right in te photograpgh above.)

But yet, that first day in Cathedral School where I made so many friendships which have lasted for the last 56 years, are still is fresh in my memory! Thank you School! Thank you Mr. Timmins!

Most unusual Cock House picture!

2010-03-08T02:42:00.002+02:00

Recently, when I asked for data about Cock Houses from my readers, I had an interesting email and some photographs from 68er Ravi Nangia (Singapore).

Like me, Ravi belonged to Savage House [Apology: Ravi corrected me - he was in Palmer, not Savage; or was it that he changed his colours? :-)].

After finishing at Cathedral, like me, he also went to St. Stephen's College. (Ravi - just to tell you the Stephanians in Singapore are getting together - contact Ashok!)

So we have much in common. Ravi is a regular reader of my blogs and also a regular correspondent.

Among the photographs he sent me was this one.

I have quickly tried to improve the quality of this picture using my photo enhancement tools. But much more can and will be done.

From Seventh Heaven

Can anyone out there, excluding, of course, Ravi, tell me what is unusual about this picture?

And, for those who notice the unusual character, has this ever happened, in their memory, before or after this year?

Welcome this new day, Holi 2010

2010-02-28T10:21:00.000+02:00

When Annikki and I left for India in mid-October, we drove the 600 kms from Oulu to Helsinki. We had snow storms for much of the day, heralding the early, very early, advent of winter.

We do not know much about the time we were away in India, but when we got back we were right in what seemed to be mid-winter. (I lost my old SIM card in the snow in Helsinki airport! But I have got the uld mobile phone number back last week, so you can call me on that number again!)

But winter in Oulu has just continued and continued. We have had the longest spell ever where the temperature has remained well below zero. Some days have been exceptionally cold because of the strong winds. The snowfall right through winter has been heavy.

The Vesaisentie and Kampitie gardens are totally and completely snow covered, with only one small foot track, each, to the garages.

From 2010 Photos February

Our reindeer stands deeply immersed in thought and snow. Just like Annikki, who has been wondering when it will be "snowman snow" as I think she is contemplating another unusual creation, like her mobile snowman, before the grandkids arrrive by March end!

From 2010 Photos February

The snow formations on the ladders and fretwork are reallly beautiful. The aluminium door and frame are a grewat view from the kitchen window.

Today and tomorrow are celebrated as the festival of Holi. Holi is celebrated, in many countries around the world where we have a Hindu population, and also in Bangladesh, at the end of the winter season on the last full moon day of the lunar month Phalguna (February/March), (Phalgun Purnima), which usually falls in the later part of February or March.

We certainly hope that this long hard winter in Finland, and which seems to be an unusual phenomena around the northern hemisphere this year, will draw to a close and the milder, warmer spring weather will be on us. (Friends in Dallas, Texas, reported snowstorms even at that latitude!)

Annikki and I would like to wish you a colourful and happy year ahead on this auspicious day.

(All these above photographs are by Annikki.)

10% response!

2010-02-27T21:50:00.005+02:00

When I put up a request on my blog or ask for info my very very occasional "Newsy Notes", the response that I usually get is about 2 to 3 % of the circulation.

I was amazed when I got a huge response to the last blog posting - nearly 10 %, as about 300+ of you fed me with your latest data.

If you spread the word, maybe we can get another 10% to feed me with their data.

The reason why this is important is that several of you are searching for information about your friends and loved ones.

I recently had a request from the amazing 56er Joan Austin, who is one of my dearest sweetest correspondents, cheery despite all the major health blips in her life. She had asked me for information about some of our alumni for a friend! (Please say a prayer for her as she goes in for yet "one" more major surgery very shortly!

When I put out the request, privately, through email, I was able to dig up information about a couple of the 50 - 52 ers, but still there was much missing info.

The network is so good that we can find usually data about friends from 1945 right up to the present day.

One important feedback that is now requested is the list of Cock Houses.

My outstanding photographer classmate, 59er Hasnain Chinwala (Chinnie), a few years ago, had fed me the photograph of the of Head Boys from 1955 to 1972, and McDonald Medal winners from 1943 to 1960. There was an error on the board for the year 1960, as 59er Vijay Nayar's name was missing!

From Seventh Heaven

Because of our intervention, prodding and teasing of Vijay (!), this has been corrected! (See photo of new Board, below.)

On Hasnain's recent visit to India, he sent me photographs of the latest Boards of Best Student (Academic) Medal Winners from 1918, Head Boys from 1937 and Head Girls from 1943.

From Cathedral School, Mumbai

I was under the impression that I had a picture of Boards which listed the Cock Houses. But I am not able to locate it in my files.

If someone can send me the picture of this Board(s), or even if you can send me the names of Cock House of YOUR YEARS in School, which you are sure is accurate, I would be grateful.

I know for sure that Wilson was the Cock House in 1956 and Palmer in 1959. as I have photographs of these years. I do have other Cock House Photographs but am not able to pinpoint the exact years. Maybe with the info that you now provide I can now code these old photographs.

Do not hesitate to send me scans of the photographs in your possession. They are always welcome.

We now reach 3500

2010-02-24T05:45:00.003+02:00

Cathedralites, CATS; I am pleased to anounce that our list of regular readers has just touched 3500.

Sadly, I do not have the email addresses (updated) of all of you, and I certainly do not have any data about most of you. But from the spread I see that you come from all continents (yes, including a few from South America!)

Please send me an email of whatever data you want included in my database, which is completely private and not shared with ANYONE.

However, the information contained in my database is used to be able to provide YOU news about your classmates, etc.

I know that there are several people operate their own class groups and email circuits, but they are not doing it on a day to day basis but rather on an event by event basis.

The database also allows me to check facts as several of you are my information base.

Without this base, the Seventh Heaven Blog is quite meaningless and would be the equivalent of a tabloid rag.

Now that we have moved into our 14th year online, longer than any other online school publication, if you want me to continue this effort, please do participate more in its creation by providing me with the content.

At the moment I have about 50 regular contributors, while the rest of you are silent observers.

Although I like silent observers, I much prefer active participants.

I can be nostalgic about the years that I have been personally at school, but only you can be nostalgic about your years at school.

The 56ers (led by Meena and Ubi) are doing a great job as are the 64ers (led by Deepak, Rajiv and Rustom). We 59ers are more atuned to our own Parallel Seventh Heaven Google Group.

Although our alumni association tend to use their own channel of communication, previous Presidents always kept me in the loop as they found they could reach a wider readership through my network. Also they could get valuable feedback as I tend to push and prod!

Present co-Presidents certainly value this Seventh Heaven Blog but they are not sending me the news on a regular basis.

Also, the School could be more forthcoming in its communication with this vast readership of many senior alumni members, who always have the best interest of our alma mater in their hearts.

Hopefully this co-operation picture will change as this year progresses.

I used to wonder

2010-02-21T20:42:00.002+02:00

When I was in college, we had a small cinema theatre at Delhi Gate, just about 20 minutes walk from college across the Ridge.

When the movie "Love in Simla" (I think) hit the theatre, with Joy Mukerji and Saira Banu in the key roles, it was as a huge wave had hit Stephaniand and the college.

I went to see the movie, which was in super duper colour and with a lot of song and dance. I cannot for the life of me remember anything about the movie itself, except the two young stars sang everywhere.

However, I noted several of my friends went to that movie, some every day, some five times a week, and some two times a week.

I did not understand how anybody could go and see the same stuff so many times.

I have been watching the DVD of our Class Golden Reiunion for breakfast and dinner, every day since I received it.

It is so emotional to see it that as soon as it is over, I want to press replay, but Annikki's watchful eye sort of says, "Next meal, please!"

Why I cried yesterday

2010-02-18T10:13:00.003+02:00

Yesterday, I sent a text message, mid-morning, to Gopa (daughter of Cathedralite 54er Sadhana (née Shah) in Keravaa, that Annikki and I were looking forward to receiving the CD / DVD sent from India.

She replied me in a flash that she had sent it the previous day.

When I was leaving home for the office, after lunch, I looked in the post box. There was an envelope, prominently marked that the CD and DVD were inside.

As I tore the cover open, two wonderful group photos, of our class and another with our spouses, at the Cathedral Church before the Founders' Day Service, fell out. I could hardly contain myself.

I had my portable LG DVD player at the office. I set it up and ran the DVD.

From the very first shot to the end, I was an emotional wreck. The DVD had recaptured almost all of the wonderful moments that we had experienced at the 50th Reunion of our Class of 59 in November 2009.

Viki giving me the T-Shirt and Cap as a token of appreciation.

I was deeply touched by the few words spoken by Viki Savara just before he handed me a cap and T-Shirt with our class logo printed on it. I wear it proudly and take it off when Annikki tears it off my back!

And even more moving was when Jangoo proposed the period of silence to honour those who were no longer with us.

Yes, I have been nagging, I was persistent, I was shockingly forthright, in getting as many of our class to be at this historic reunion.

My failure was that I could not get so many of them to attend, as personal issues had denied us the chance to meet many of our classmates. The loss is ours!

Besides those who have moved on to a better life above, we especially missed these 59ers, amongst others, Bobby, Biju, Deepak, Delbar, Geeta, Jeanette, John, Mario, Mark, Matilda, Narayanan, Narsys, Nergish, Pravin, Sigrun, Sujit, Trevor, Vikram, Wabhi, and and the many spouses who could not make it.

Some of my tenants joined me to watch this as I played it through a couple of times, before I loaded the CD into my computer and watched the 350+ pictures so painstakingly put together by Hasnain (Chinnie).

A classic shot by Hasnain of Annikki and me.

After finishing a few chores I rushed home. Annikki was pleasantly surprised when she sat down and watched the DVD. As I watched it for the umpteenth time, I openly wept. (I got up twice at night and watched it again!)

I knew then what tears of joy really mean. The heart was filled with a great outpouring of love for all my wonderful friends who had made it to our reunion, as well as those who could not.

There has never been a Golden Reunion like this in the history of our school. It will be a long time before there will be another Golden Reunion to match that of the Class of 59!

Thank you Shivi, Piloo, Viney, Ooky, Vijay, Geeta, Madhu (w/o our late Ashok), Ashok, Anil, Armeane, Adi, Ratan, Anjali, Arun, Arvind, Asha, Atul, Bulsara, David, Farhana, Harmo, Inderjit, Jangoo, Ketty, Naubir, Noel, Parvin, Percy, Peter, Ramesh, Renuka, Robert, Saroj, Seeta, Sheryn, Venkat, Viki, Vikram, Vinay, Ellis, Zarin, Zenobia, and all the wonderful spouses, those staff members who made it a point to attend - John Billington, Bill and Pushpa Shiri, Jo D'Souza, Mehta, plus, above all, Chinnie, who, together, made this such a memorable event happen and helped preserve it in our hearts and minds for posterity.

I am looking forward to sharing the DVD and the photographs with our children and grandchildren as they too will treasure the moments captured here.

And now only one more step needs to be completed - the mailing of the 59ers Golden Directory!

Dilemma! What do I do?

2010-01-21T06:10:00.001+02:00

I was in this dilemma when I stated blogging in December 2004. I had one blog for all my different audiences. At that time I also had web pages devoted to different sectors of readers.

There was a clamour amongst my readers of the blog that I was out of tune with them as they were reading many items that they were not interested in as they pertained to my alma maters or something specific to Oulu, etc.

It was then I started breaking up my blogs - besides my primary Blog (Jacob's Blog), I started one on Politics, another related to my association with Cathedral School (Mumbai), another about St. Stephen's College (Delhi), another about finding goods and services in Oulu, etc.

Everybody was happy!

All went well till my recent trip to India, where I stopped all my auxiliary blogs and kept only my main blog going, with just a few very specific entries to my other blogs.

My readership shot up as it appeared that many were interested in all aspects of my trip around India - which I had termed as "Incredible India".

The readership more than doubled at one point. People were referring others to my blog and it just snow-balled into a massive readerfest. Old and young, relatives and friends, school and college mates, Findians, O-Indians, my professional colleagues, past and present, were all tuned in. And many strangers from around the world were liking my style!

Wherever I went I found I needed no introduction as people had been following my blog. As I recorded, at one stage it became highly embarrassing, as people would come up to me and ask whether I knew them!

On returning to Finland, I went back to my old system.

Now I am having a spate of complaints. Many say that I should only blog at one point.

That would be great for me but not fair on my diverse audience. For instance the Cathedral School Alumni Association have especially complimented me on my sustained effort to keep the school spirit at its height by my blogging.

That is definitely not possible as my Seventh Heaven and Kooler Talk Blogs have very specific readerships. And not everyone likes my Politics. To burden all my regular readers with MY political views would be unfair. And my Oulu Best (Worst) Buy Blog is very specific to my Oulu Readers. Who in India or USA wants to read about the price of eggs in Oulu?

Is there any single solution, which is outside my very limited knowledge, which will help keep all my readers happy?

One way is that you could become a "Follower" of a specific blog. Whenever the one you are interested is updated, you will get a message from Google. No infringement of your privacy. You can always stop the "Follower" program whenever you want.

That way, it would stop my having to post important blog entries on my multiple blogs. (Possibly - as I have not yet looked into the ramifications of this alternative.)

If you have any suggestions, please email me or leave me a COMMENT. (Although my blogs are not exactly "Comment" blogs, I do read all the comments and reply them appropriately - also knocking off the spam that does come in.

This entry is being posted on all my major blogs, as it concerns all my readers in all categories.

A tribute to each and every one of you

2010-01-19T21:15:00.004+02:00

I do receive many emails from all over the world every day.

Today was a special day as I received an email from the current President of our alumni, Viral Doshi. In a way it is special, no, not to me, but to each of you who have contributed to the enormous success of this web page / blog over the last 14 years.

Yes, it is just under 14 years since I started the Seventh Heaven Web page, thanks to a then very young Cathedralite alumni, Vikram Somaya, son of another adorable 64er Brinda Somaya (née Chinappa). At that time I did not know that Vikram was the son of Brinda, whose family have been friends of our family for many generations, from our Bangalore days together. And Brinda and her husband made a trip to Finland just last year. Annikki and I drove down 600 km from Oulu to spend a couple of hours with them.

Over these last 14 years, this web page / blog has had many ups and downs. At one point we even hit rock bottom because Annikki and I were forthright in our views about happenings in this world.

That down had nothing to do with our school, but it came to a point where I thought I would have to say goodbye to keeping any of our web pages of alive.

However, we survived that because of the perseverance that was imbibed in me by my alma mater. The real fruits of our efforts were seen in the 2009 50th Year Reunion of the Class of 59, which was a tremendous success.

I can see the 64ers, headed by Rajiv Ved, Rustom Dadabhoy and Deepak Deshpande, driving their class team in almost the same direction. They are galloping along to overtake the Mother of All Reunions. Let us see what they come up with!

I do wish them all success as they have started their efforts 6 years ahead of D-Day! As they say "Rome was not built in a day!"

Our School by 59er Hasnain Chinwala

Let us get us back to this email I received:

Dear Jacob:

We are happily, reaching the Gunnery years in the Cathedral Book Project, and there is of course, no better person than you to assist us at this stage.

You have contributed immensely to the sense of community, identity and history of the Cathedral School through 7th heaven and your blog.

It was indeed a pleasure meeting you at your reunion, which I must say was very spirited and informative. Events like this are an impetus to do more and more for the school we are so privileged to be part of.

Jacob, we wonder if you might help us in two ways:

1. We request your kind permission, to use your website and blog as source material for the book. We will of course give a hefty acknowledgement in 'Acknowledgements'.

2. Also, we would like to write about the FACT OF THIS SUSTAINED EFFORT TO MAINTAIN A WEBSITE, which knits together a community of "Cathedral believers" and students. So we would like to chat with you about that. We were possibly the first Indian school to have an unofficial alumni website, ( a tribute to you) long before the official one, or indeed the school website was launched.

3. We would like to speak to you about your reminiscences. How do you suggest we go about this? a)Phone? b)email questionnaire? c) would you like to just write out your recollections in a "stream of consciousness" style that we could draw on? For the last we could send you some nudging questions. And also if you would have any priceless photographs of the 40s or 50s that you would feel will add value to the book...teachers, school building, boxing in action, school social etc. it would be marvellous.

Look forward to hearing from you, Jacob, and for your collaboration on this project

Warm regards

Mridula & Viral

I hope my reply was appropriate.

Dear Mridula & Viral,

Do you really have to ask this?

For me, it is taken for granted!

What I have done is for my dear friends. What I have done is for a school which allowed me to enjoy a second life.

Is there anything more I can do, within my very limited capabilities, for the school. That is what I ask myself, daily!

And what a reunion we 59ers had!!!

Annikki and I have launched a new project which should result in a Coffee Table Book by the time of the 150th Year reunion. I have just announced it today on my blog and things are rolling in faster than I thought. There are prizes to be won!!!

I suffer from mild form of dementia, so a telephonic contact would result in chaos. Email is the best and that way I can link several information sources from around the world who are the many many real people quietly behind the Seventh Heaven Blog. 49ers Yezad Kapadia and Naval and Armaity Patel, William Shiri, 54ers Gracie Hayeem & Sadhana Shah, 56er H. S. Uberoi, 57er Tony Jaitly, 59er Hasnain Chinwala, 64ers Deepak Deshpande, Rajiv Ved and Rustom Dadabhoy, and many more.

I have to also thank many wonderful friends as Vikram Somaya, Rohit Tolani, (most of whom I have never met) and one computer whizz kid whose name I cannot even remember, when Rohit was planning the original alumni web site.

I was prepared to hand over Seventh Heaven then, but sadly or maybe for the best, it did not happen!

I will send you the final version of the 59ers Coffee Table Book when it is off the press shortly. The one I gave you was the prepublication version.

Regards

Jacob

Remember, your submission of your "Most Poignant Moment" associated with Cathedral School will reach every Cathedralite who takes part in celebrating the 150 years history of Our School. Get cracking to send those notes to Annikki or me - and win some fabulous prizes. (Annikki is already on the hunt for some really great stuff.)

And thank you Mridula & Viral for that very lovely email.

Cathedralite Poignant Moment Contest

2010-01-19T08:20:00.006+02:00

The Cathedralite Seventh Heaven Blog is the foremost Blog for our school. It is meant for Cathedralites living all around the Universe.

What we do today, others copy tomorrow.

So here is another first for our Blog.

Cathedral Detention Centre for Delinquents. Photograph and caption by 59er Hasnain Chinwala, Toronto, Canada, 2006.

We have started a "Cathedralite Poignant Moment Content".

The submissions that we casually asked for of your most Cathedralite Poignant Moment have started to come in. Some of the submissions are really great.

As a result of this response, Annikki and I have instituted a set of three prizes for the three best poignant moments of your relationship with our school submitted to the Seventh Heaven Blog by March 31st 2010.

You can submit as many entries as you like. Try to keep the submissions to less than 3000 words, if possible.

The Judges will be chosen from our Cathedralite Seventh Heaven Blog Readers and will cover 7 decades of Cathedralites. We are not announcing the names of the Judges so that everyone has the right to take part. The Judges will be chosen from our panel of really "great" Cathedralites who are regular readers of this blog.

There will be three prizes.

We are now working out what they will be. We promise you that they will all be wonderful as Annikki hunts around for some things which are truly truly unique.

No entry fee.

Submissions should be sent to either

jmatthan at gmail.com

or

jmatthana at gmail.com

where

" at " should be replaced by @. (In Finnish we refer to this sign as "MUIKKU MAUKKU")

We are writing our email address like this so that those robots which harvest email addresses on the internet and which then either attack the email address or put the email address onto a spam generating CDs does not take these addresses.

If you prefer, you can also send your entries by snail mail to

Annikki & Jacob Matthan
Vesaisentie 11 A
FIN-90160 Oulu
FINLAND

Our intention is to prepare a lovely Coffee Table Book, like the one we produced for the 59ers 50th Year Reunion with the collection of the best of the great inputs.

This will be in time for the 150th Year Founders' Day celebration in November 2010.

So get to work on recording your favourite memories of our school!

And to make this universal - Please spread the word amongst all your Cathedralite friends.

Most poignant moment of memories of School

2010-01-17T10:50:00.002+02:00

Annikki and I started a programme amongst our own Seventh Heaven Google Group for 59er Cathedralites to ask them to record the most poignant moment of their historic 50th Year Reunion.

We have several non-59ers who are observers on that Google Group.

I have received requests from quite a few of them whether I could put up a request on this blog, which is read by Cathedralites from 1945 up to 2010, for submission of the most poignant moment of their individual year reunions, or even more possibly, the most poignant moment of their life in relationship to our school.

For instance, it could be the depth of feeling you had being appointed as school captain, or getting an unexpected first class in the final exam, or winning a coveted medal, or award from or on behalf of the school, or your grandchild taking part in an event of the school!

I know it will be hard work for Annikki and me to sift through such submissions that come, as we will not personally know many of you who make them. So it may appear out of context for us. However, we decided to entertain such submissions, which will then be published on this our Seventh Heaven Blog. You can email it to either Annikki or me. (jmatthan at gmail.com or jmatthana at email.com)

Probably all of you will think that the moment I opened my eyes after being resuscitated by Mr. Arthur Morecroft on the sandy beach on the banks of Vasind river was my most poignant moment of my entire life. Good guess...

But, let me assure you, there are competing moments, such as the most embarrassing moment of my life at the school opera, or even the most poignant very personal moment of our experience at our 50th Year Reunion, which is yet to be recorded.

Do let us have your submissions. I think it will be fun to read them. I think it will provide an important link between Cathedralites of all ages.

Mother of All Reunions

2010-01-13T09:49:00.005+02:00

This is a highly controversial subject, as every class believes that its reunion was the best.

However, having been a helper for many reunions, the one organised by the 59ers in November 2009 took the cake.

Largest turnout ever for the Founders' Day Service
by a 50th Year Reunion Group.

For that we can thank many people, those who hosted the events, those who turned up in great numbers, the spouses of the participants who took part as if they were also part of the crowd and not just there because they needed to be, the variety of the events, the absolutely breathtaking backdrops to many of the events, the depth of feeling for those who were not there, the mementos and publications that were developed for the reunion, etc.,.

Girls from 1959 who took part in their 50th Year Reunion.

Boys from 1959 (most) who took part in their 50th Year Reunion.

On all fronts, the 59ers have set standards which any other year will have a hard time to reach.

This is not a competition, but it is the atmosphere that is created and achieved which is what is important.

The 59ers spent almost 5 years discussing and planning what their reunion should be like. They held mini-reunions and discussions online on their own Google Group set up to reach every 59er. People saved up for two years to be able to take part in the event. Teachers flew in from Toronto and London to take part.

Imagine your Class Teacher of 50 years ago flying in to take part in this event!

The atmosphere build up was electric, and there was no let down at the event, as it was all it was billed as.

For this one had to have a strong leader who held the group together.

We were faced with Cyclone warnings which ground Mumbai to a standstill. Government offices and schools closed. But, the 59ers carried on regardless. There were dire warnings of choppy seas when we were to be bound for Alibaug by ferry, but the 59ers went on regardless.

The Mumbai organisers certainly deverve a tremendous amount of credit for making sure everything was perfect. Annikki and I dropped in from Finland, and thanks to the tremendous back up advice and support by all the localites, the event that we hosted was just wonderful.

In all this there is one person who stood out as "Our Captain".

Vijay and his first mate, Suchita.

That is Vijay Shivdasani, who, like the ships he has sailed on, held us altogether and drove us to a most amazing reunion which has touched the hearts of all us 59ers and many more. the taste still lingers on today, 7000 km away and 2 months after the event.

I draw special emphasis today on his sterling leadership because he celebrates his birthday. I can think of no more an appropriate forum than this Seventh Heaven Blog for publicly wishing him on his birthday and thanking him for all that he has done for us 59ers.

Hip Hip Hurrah - and have a great birthday, Vijay (Shivi to many of us).

Integration Council members

2010-01-09T23:04:00.006+02:00

I read today in the Indian Telegraph about the new "Minority boost to integration council".

Here are the names of people that may be on that council:

The Telegraph has learnt that the proposed names include those of Justice A.M. Ahmadi, Omar Abdullah, Salman Khurshid, Syed Shahabuddin, Asaduddin Owaisi, Shahid Lateef, Shabnam Hashmi, John Dayal, Ramdas M. Pai (president and chancellor, Manipal University), Valsan Thampu (St Stephen’s College principal), Roman Catholic Archbishop Vincent M.C. Concessao, Ratan Tata, Rahul Bajaj, N.R. Narayana Murthy and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw.

Recognise some names in that list?

Shahid Lateef is the wife of 62er Stephanian Sarwar Lateef. John Dayal is a Stephanian, as also present Principal of the College, Rev. Valsan Thampu. Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament, Rahul Bajaj, is both a 58er Stephanian and also a 54er Cathedralite. Ratan Tata was a Cathedralite for a part of his education. I have not had the good fortune to meet him personally, although his younger brother, Jimmy, was a close friend and my hockey mate.

During my recent visit to Delhi I did meet John, Valsan and Rahul.

John broke protocol and came to see me the day I was leaving. He had just got back from Orissa and he came over that morning just to spend a few minutes over breakfast. And I did say a short prayer, holding hands with him, for his devoted work for the people of India. Maybe this is where I show him the meaning for that prayer.

I met Thambu at the St. Stephen's Founder's Day celebration on Monday 7th December, where I took part in the Holy Communion Service in the College Chapel, and then at the proceedings in the College Assembly Hall where former Indian President Abdul Kalam was the Chief Guest.

Sadly I do not see Valsan as a man with much vision at this moment of time. Hopefully God will lead him in the right direction if he gives up his ways of playing politics for power!

And Rahul paid me the greatest tribute by staying on a extra day in Delhi to be present at an event organised by Delhi Cathedrtalite to meet with Annikki and me. Having led an industry to the zenith, he now has a wondeful opportunity to show his fellow men that he has the vision to lead minorities to the centre of Indian society as equals.

Sadly, I did not learn till later that Sarwar and Shahid were in Delhi, as otherwise I would certainly have met up with this very dear couple. Shahid has always been at the forefront of the women's movement as well as a powerful spokesperson for uplifting of Muslim women.

I do hope this Council will stop beating about the bush and get a move on, not on the antiquated model of reservation of seats for the minorities in schools, colleges and jobs, but by uplifting the hearts and minds of these people labelled as minorities, into them thinking that they can compete on equal terms with the best of the world. They are not second class citizens of the world, so let us stop treating them as such.

You treat people as weak and they will be weak. You treat them as human beings and they can outstrip the very best.

Look at the fantastic performance of the black community in sports in the USA and UK (and also Kenya, Ethiopia, Jamaica, Canada, France, etc., etc.). They do not need to be treated as weak and powerless minorities. Given the right role models, they will bring in performances that are better than the best of their more fortunate brothers and sisters.

That itself is the tonic for success, not reservations, which is the sure tonic for failure!

I remember the words of my friend, former Ambassador Niranjan Desai, while we were having lunch together at the International Centre just a few weeks ago. He said that by treating the minorities as we do presently, we will not achieve any improvement in their standards.

I fully agree with his reasoning. This Integration Council should start looking at other ways to uplift the ethnic minorities in India than stupid and unrealistic reservation policies!

Recognise inherent cultural and ethnic talents. Build on successes. Do not force people into streams where they are doomed to fail.

In short, I hope this council will bring forward a new vision to the way we handle the integration of minorities into mainstream society!

A special person

2010-01-08T06:31:00.003+02:00

I have made lots and lots of friends of all years from our school.

Of the 59ers, Arvind, Noel, Naubir, Ooky, Ramesh, Shivi, Vijay, Viney, and our late Ashok, have been especially close over the last 55 years. More recently, thanks to the internet, Anil, Armeane, Ellis, Jack, Hasnain, Narayan, Percy, Peter, Ratan and Trevor have become very dear friends.

And at our 50th Year Reunion I felt a deep bond develop with all my other classmates.

But even more than these my classmates, there is one person from our school who is absolutely special.

A couple of years ago he called me up from New Delhi and spoke to me at length. We discussed many things. From the very first words, it was as if we had known each other for years.

From then on he has been a constant source of joy, because, not only is he easy going but also delightful company, over the phone and in person.

I really enjoyed my quality time with him when I visited his office while I was in Delhi. He is one of the very few people that I actually took time to visit.

The 64er Reunion in November 2009 / © Rajiv Ved)

A 64er, he has driven that year to become a lively group like our 59ers. He does feel sometimes that all of his classmates are not yet on the same wicket all of the time. But he does have some wonderful classmates, to that I can vouch.

Today is his birthday.

It is just before 10:00 am in New Delhi. In a short while I will ring him to wish him.

He has made my world a delight. We have so many cross connections, that is as if I have known him all my life.

For fear of embarrassing him, I do not intend to name him here, as he knows who he is. All I say with all the deepest sentiment in my heart, is "Happy Birthday, dear friend".

Commonality in Reunions

2010-01-07T03:13:00.004+02:00

During my recent trip to India to attend the 50th Year Reunion of our Class of 59, I joined several year groups with whom I have built up a bond of friendship over the years. The 49ers, the 54ers, the 55ers, the 56ers, the 57ers, the 58ers, the 60er, the 64ers, the 67ers, the 69ers, to name just a few of the years who went out of their way to greet me and comment on this blog which they have found to be "interesting".

All the time I thought to myself: "Do I have anything in common with all these people who have become my friends?"

So many of them sent us gifts!! The Alumni Association gave me the new alumni tie! Hasnain gave me something Annikki and I love - an art glass piece representing Canadian Indian culture, Sadhana gave me an engraved keychain and Annikki a gift voucher, Prakash sent us a variety of things, the Delhi Cathedralites gave us a beautiful collection of books (photograph featuered in another blog entry).

Some were so thoughtful and considerate enough to give gifts that we would consume and enjoy while in India and not have to cart them back to Finland. Several of them got names for easy identification by Annikki, as the humourous "Head scratcher", a collection of dry fruits and nuts by "Nutty"! :-)

There are literally thousands of others who correspond with me regularly and irregularly. I do not know their faces. I know nothing about their individual lives. Some have inspired me. Others have caused a variety of feelings deep inside me by their brutal honesty. Some do not like my politics, others love it.

But in the main, I learnt that all of them hold this blog in great respect mainly because I have not gone on a rampage against anyone. If I dislike something, I say so, but try to do it in a way that is a sort of constructive criticism.

I may have failed on several occasions, but I have been forgiven.

But let us come to my classmates and teachers - the 59ers. Only very few of them read this blog as they are used to seeing me in my Google Group which I have set up for them. But meeting them all in person, many of them after 50 years sent a thrilling feeling down my spine.

It was a warm glow. It was a feeling that I used to experience when I drank my first glass of rum on a lonely evening sitting in a village about 80 km from Bangalore, faraway from my family. (Considering I do not now drink alcohol and have not touched it for 27 years, it is strange that I still remember that feeling!)

(Photo courtesy 64er Rajiv Ved.)

Seeing Bill Shiri (my physics teacher), Joe D'Souza (my history teacher), John Billington (my class teacher in XIA and English teacher), Armeane, David, Hasnain, Indarjeet, Jangoo, Khurshed, Peter, Robert, Venkat, Vikram, after a space of 50 years, was a feeling that caused me to think - "Do I have anything in common with this crowd?" Especially meeting so many of the girls from our class I had not known while I was in school, was yet another surprising feeling!

It so happens, we all had so much in common. We were genuinely interested in each other. Even those who were indifferent at the start of our reunion became endeared by me by the end.

Did I get to talk about their families and their lives in the intervening years? Actually - NO! There was so much about the present to discuss that even a week together did not get us past the last decade!

many of them asked me to cvisit them. unfortunately that was not possible, simply because the number of invitations far far exceeded the days available!

We all spent a great deal of time and money taking part in this reunion. I sort of thought "Was it well spent?"

The answer was simple - YES!

If you are planning a reunion, not just your 50th Year Reunion, but any reunion, focus on just the present, and the past will look after itself!

Seventh Heaven Google Group takes a dramatic turn

2010-01-06T00:32:00.005+02:00

Just a few days ago, on this Blog, I mused that we should maybe use the Seventh Heaven Google Group for Cathedralite 59ers for something else since the 50th Year Reunion is over.

I did not speak out of context or too soon, as suddenly we have a wonderful set of posts on a variety of subjects - Indians as philanthropists, Secularism in the Indian Army, Dalai Lama, Buddhism, and what the English may have taught us.

Brilliant minds have started to use this as a discussion forum on subjects of interest to us over 65ers, as many of us have time to chew the cud on these topics.

Many thanks to Chinnie, Piloo, Shivi, Indrajit, John, Ubi, Peter - for your wonderful start up contributions, which has raised our Google Group to a level that others can now aspire for in their groups. I hope other will jump in on these conversations. Sarcasm and wit are encouraged, but remember, try to keep civility, even in disagreement.

As usual, the 59ers are again at the forefront.

Keep up the good work, which Annikki and me, as Moderators are really enjoying.

If you are not a 59er but want to take part in this Group, either as a passive participant or an active one, do email me with your private email address, and I will let you in!

Has it been that long?

2010-01-04T22:00:00.003+02:00

It seemed just yesterday I blogged the story about my friend being hacked. His hotmail account is still spewing out virus emails.

But what I realised is that when I am blogging at several places, it sometimes is that some blogs get overlooked if there is not some hot news to report.

I was busy blogging my views about the incompetent Finnish Police force after that incident at the shopping centre in Espoo. I was also busy blogging about the incompetent bank called ICICI.

So it was natural with such hot stories, one forgets that I have a world of readers on my other blogs.

Today, for instance, I blogged (Jacob's Politics) what is probably a minority of 1 opinion that the Yemen / Somali push by US and UK is to gain a military foothold in the narrowest entry point into the Arabian Sea - strategically very important, if you want to be the world's policeman!

So obviously, my Cathedralite Seventh Heaven Blog was sort of forgotten, but not any of you my dear friends.

I exchanged a couple of wonderful emails from Joan, who is an inspiration to everyone that comes in contact with her.

I had Christmas and New Year greetings from every corner of the world from Cathedralites.

I cannot forget for a moment that I am a Cathedralite and that I am in touch with over a couple of thousand of you located around the world. My Inbox speaks it daily!

I am putting up one picture from our 59er 50th Year Reunion which was taken outside the St. Thomas Cathedral just before our Founders'Day Service.

Hasnain Chinwala, Vijay Shividasani, Jacob Matthan, William Shiri (Physics teacher), Ramesh Mirchandani, Viney Sethi (at back), Noel Ezekiel (front), Ooky Elijah Elias, David Colaco. The Ladies: Gita Simoes, Anjula Mansukhani, Asha Agarwal, Harmo Malik, Sheryn Mulla, Parvin Surti, Seeta Nayyar, Saroj Malkani. The Men behind the ladies: Anil Ruia, Vikram Savara, Naubir Mohindar, Peter Miovic, Adi Cooper, Arvind Thadhani, Atul Kapadia, Venkat Kurma, Ratan Singara, Khurshed Balsara, Vinay Dabholkar, Robert Tyabji, Arun Sethi and Jangoo Moos.

A few who attended various parts of our reuion and are missing from this photograph are John Billington (Class Teacher XI A and English Teacher), Joe D'Souza (History teacher), Armeane Choksi, Ashok Ruia, Bashir Currimjee, Ellis Hayeem, Farhana Poonawala, Indrajit Shah, Ketty Kapadia, Percy Mistri, Piloo Tata, Renuka Batliwala, Vijay Nayar, Vikram Kamdar, Zarine Taraporewala, Zenobia Mehta. (Anyone forgotten?)

There is another development going on. The Cathedralite Google Group for 59ers is taking a new twist and turn, now that the Reunion is over. There are some articles being posted and some very interesting comments and discussions.

The present discussion centres around philanthrophy and our industrial corporations. I was amazed to read that 60+% 0f Tata's profits finds its way into charitable work in one form or another. Do any of our IT companies reach anywhere near that value!

Will that Group become a more serious forum for 59ers?

Let us hope so.

In the meantime, do prod me if you find I am neglecting this blog! I am not facing writer's block, as previously. My trip to India has sharpened my senses and many more nostalgic memories have flooded through my brain, waiting to be released onto this unsuspecting readership. :-)

Being hacked

2009-12-31T06:53:00.002+02:00

No, not my computer, as I use a hack proof Apple Mac!

Just yesterday, I received a message from a very dear friend of mine in a language that I did not understand. I used Google translate and found it was in Portuguese.

The message had as the Subject Fotos. 15/12 and was

Cuidado com essas pessoas falsas.
Salvei essas fotos pra você ver
Olha só o que aconteçeu...

anexo.

219,5Kb Baixar

This translates as

Beware of these fake people.
I saved these pictures for you to see
Look what happened ...

Annex.

Download 219.5 Kb

.

If one clicked on the attachment, the hacker could get into a computer running Windows. On a Mac, as this is an .exe file, I got a warning about it and was able to stop the download. Although, even if I had saved it, the .exe file would not have been able to run on my Mac.

I immediately emailed my friend asking for an explanation.

He replied that the email had not been sent by him.

Exactly as he was sending me that message, I got another email from him with a repeat of the earlier message, which meant the hacker or his software was at that precise moment operating inside his account.

Also, the hacker managed to send 3 messages to our Seventh Heaven Google Group.

The minute I marked those messages as spam, my friend's email ID would have been banned from the Google Group.

I got his alternate email ID, subscribed him and then marked the messages as spam. Within seconds Google had banned the old email ID.

In the Google Gmail, at the bottom of the page you can see a note

Last account activity: 8 hours ago on this computer. Details

When you click on the word "Details" it gives the last 5 log ins along with the IP address from where you have logged in. If it is not from your computer, you know you have a hacker and from where.

I do not know whether other email providers have this facility.

As I use a Mac and have used one for the last 25 years, I do not even have to have virus protection software installed on my computer. It has saved me much hassle, time and money!!!

Now my friend has to change all his sensitive information as the hacker had access to all his emails, passwords, and probably credit card numbers, expiry dates, etc.

Kai Lam's letter to the Chief Justice

2009-12-30T21:23:00.004+02:00

60er Kai Lam is representing Sabahuddin Ahmed, one of the accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case.

He has made a representation to the Chief Justice which is contained in a report in the Indian Express.

Interesting?

School Song - West Side Story Version

2009-12-29T10:02:00.005+02:00

A couple of Cathedralites have sent me links to this You Tube version of the School Song, made to resemble something out of West Side Story.

Difficult to say whether I approve or disapprove, but the "Let it Rip, Let it Thunder" was a bit feeble! Glad to see initiative by present-day Cathedralites using the New Media.

Page from the Coffee Table Book - Directory of 59er Cathedralites
published in November 2009 as part of our 50th Year Reunion Celebration.
Authored and published by my wife, Annikki, and myself, a 59er.

Given below is the blurb associated with the release of the You Tube Version of the School Song.

A Little about the History of the School Song

These are the words of our school song, originally written for the Cathedral Boys High School, in late 19th century British occupied India. At this time, our school was open only to boys, hence the words of the song emphasise on ‘boys’. This song means a lot to every Cathedralite today, and is sung with great gusto on every major occasion, reiterating the fierce school spirit that we are so well known for. It speaks of everything that this school imbibes in us, that every Cathedralite takes with him or her wherever he or she goes; loyalty, pride, a sense of duty and of course, selflessness above all.

Making of the Video

We've shot a video presenting the school song sung by our Choir. It has candid shots of the choir, Cathedralites beginning marching practice, playing basketball, generally having fun and saying hi to our friends at EUMIND.

Watch it on this link below:

Cathedral and John Connon School Song

The DVD of our 59er 50th Year Reunion may contain the rendition of the School Song in the Cathedral at this year's Founders' Day Service.

The roof of the church lifted at the Rip and Thunder! :-)

Having played cricket, football and hockey with Johnny...

2009-12-28T17:49:00.004+02:00

I was so pleased when Naval sent me a link to CricInfo mentioning that there was an article about John Jameson. I did not immediately find the article, but then I entered his name into their search engine. It turned up two Jamesons, one from South Africa and the other JA Jameson from England.

There was a nice short profile about his career and statistical details about his cricketing career in the UK.

Profile

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
Copyright CricInfo

At the end of the article there was a link to a more recent article From Byculla to The Oval, and back by Nagraj Gollapudi datelined December 3, 2009.

Not much new in the article except it did mention that he had studied at our school.

I remember John very well. He was just two years senior to me and also in Savage House. I remember him playing hockey, football and cricket with me in the House Competitions. He was an absolutely natural sportsman, very much like another Savageite, Roger Cloy, several years younger to us.

I wonder whatever has happened to Roger?

I had just arrived from Bangalore. Both my brother and I were good sportsmen and very fit as we had had the opportunity of the daily compulsory games at Bishop Cottons school, a school blessed with almost a dozen pitches in the school compound!

In one football match at the Oval, we Savageites were being given a bit of a rough time against another House, when Johnny called my brother and me at half time and worked out a new strategy. It meant playing the game, holding the ball more to ourselves rather than just kicking it wildly around.

I seem to remember that whatever he suggested worked and we managed to draw that game.

Johnny had complimented my leg spin bowling during the cricket season. As my brother was Captain of the House team, John had persuaded him to give me rather a lengthy spell in one House match where I did manage to get some important wickets without giving away too many runs.

However, my first love had always been hockey. I do not remember actually playing with Johnny in any match, as I think he had left school to go somewhere else (Sherwood College, Nanital?) during my first serious hockey season in Cathedral.

My links to Johnny were rekindled when the 57ers planned their 50th year reunion. Thanks to the late Budhni, Johnny sent me a couple of pictures of himself and his family. These are available in some earlier blog entry.

I am sure if Johnny had decided to play any sport for India he would have done marvellously as the surroundings always suited him, just like they had suited his dad in that country.

56er Ubi remembers much about Johnny and his family. I do not know whether he has had the opportunity to renew contact with his family friend after all these years!

Founders' Day Church Service

2009-11-14T16:27:00.005+02:00

Even with the traffic rush, we managed to reach the Cathedral Church by 16:45.

Our Class photograph session was in progress. This year it was different from previous years where the sessions have been conducted in the school premises with chairs, banners, etc.

I do not know what photographs were taken, but no doubt they will reach me soon. I posed for many.

Then it was inside the church, where there were several rows reserved for us 59ers and we there in full force.

I have never attended a Founders' Day Service ever since I left school but have had many moving descriptions of it. It lived up to my expectations.

Principal Mrs. Merea Isaacs, in her welcome address did mention that previous staff had come from various parts of India, but no one had told her that William Shiri and his wife, Pushpa, had come all the way from Canada and Richard Smith (corrected after Comment) from England. John Billington could not stay for the service, but had attended several of our 59er functions, and he too had come from England. Joe D'Souza in his frail condition, had come from Goa!

We 59ers did get a special mention in her speech as we were celebrating our Golden Reunion.

The Church Service was wonderful. It ended with the rip roaring shout that we as a school are famous for.

The exit from the church was slow and the blistering breathless heat was taking a toll on many. As I headed to the snacks section, Annikki decided that she could not stand the heat. So we left directly.

I will blog the next episode after the Alumni dinner dance at the Blue Sea on Worli Sea Face which starts in about half an hour. Knowing Mumbai time, will it be an hour or two away?

Some pictures from Hasnain

2009-11-14T08:26:00.004+02:00

Hasnain has been filling me with some photographs of various reunion events. I am sharing a few with you. 64er Rajiv Ved also submitted a nice picture of me with a couple of dear 64er friends at the "Evening with the Findians".

Ooky, Ratan, Vijay, Frainy (Percy's wife), Armeane, Vikram (Kamdar),
Percy, Naubir and Hasnain kneeling.

Asha, Harmo (Rani), Piloo, Renuka, Parvin, Frahana, Gita and Seeta

Sheryn and Anjula are standing at the back.

John, Armeane, Naubir, Ramesh

Presley brothers - 59ers Shivi and Vicky

Me, and two 64ers, captured by another 64er - Rajiv Ved.

Great pictures - Hasnian and Rajiv. Thanks

What is the mathematical chance of this?

2009-11-14T08:08:00.002+02:00

Mumbai is an ENORMOUS City with thousands and thousands of taxis.

I have not been here for 10 years. I found Mumbai taxis to be cheap and efficient.

What are the chances that a taxi driver will pull up on the road, with passengers in the back seat, get out and greet you?

That happened this morning? I felt deeply touched by his actions.

Incredible India, but I have taken note of Ubi's warning - go only where you intend to go in a taxi, never take anything edible from a taxi driver .

Our REUNION Day

2009-11-14T03:54:00.003+02:00

Yesterday, for Annikki and me, was a historic one. It was a day that we had worked for for 13 years, ever since I had heard of the passing away of my dear friend and classmate, the late Bala Parasuraman.

The day was one I took easily. 59er Geeta Simoes saw me sitting on the lawn in front of her home and shouted out for me to come in. I declined, so she sent out for water for me on a sweltering day. I was waiting for the decorators to arrive, but it was also time for me to silently contemplate what lay ahead. For over an hour I sat and thought about what I have been striving for, and that it was just a few hours away. The positives and the many negatives streamed through my thoughts. (Thank you Gita for giving us such a beautiful location to host our evening.)

The wonderful support and help of Malathi, over the many months of planning, were foremost in my mind. Even with her busy schedule at work, she was there to help me through these last hours. How can Annikki and I repay this wonderful lady, who through her own work (the way she cared for a young man with no arms and legs in Finland) and that of her husband, Ashok Khembhavi, "the Doctor of Dharavi" make me feel so inadequate?

I went and did some shopping soon after the decorators arrived. I then went home and took Annikki out shopping, just to get the event out of my mind. On our way back we stopped at the roof garden.

I was humbled at the ingenuity of Abhijit and his crew. The ground was too soft to take the load of the chairs. When you sat on one, it sank backwards into the ground and you would topple off. They had the brilliant idea of taking two short pieces of bamboo and tying them under the back legs, distributing the load and preventing the sinking and toppling.

Such genius can only be found in India - this Incredible India!

The florists and the electricians were busy at work. The place was taking a different shape. It was already 15:30 and I was nervous whether they would finish in time. The caterers had arrived and they too were busy.

We returned home. After a shower, I decided that I would not wear the traditional Kerala gear but the more North Indian one. I dressed and was at the site by 17:00 hours. I noted that a huge traffic snarl up was possibly going to occur.

The next couple of hours were hectic as I had to get my Mini Mac working and at the same time I had to answer hundreds of calls from people wanting to know a a multitude things. Abhijit's team were simply wonderful as they did not panic through each major hurdle, showing the experience and competence on every front of organizing an event of this magnitude.

By 18:30, the time I had chosen for us to begin, we were ready to receive the guests except for some things on which I depended on others. But they called and reassured me that they were on their way.

The three ladies who were our hostesses arrived. I took the first sip of our welcome drink - the Coconut Juice served in the Coconut Shell. It was a brilliant thought as it not only set the trend for the evening ahead but it also saved the caterer the job of cutting up all those coconuts and pouring out the juice into glasses! Thank you, Abhijit, for this stupendous idea.

The guests started arriving, slowly, all recounting that the traffic chaos in Mumbai and around was in a stalemate position. But I knew even the latecomers would be in time for the dinner!

Malathi brought me the mundu (dhoti) and I rushed into Geeta's apartment and changed. I looked somewhat like a Malayalee, but I am sure most Malayalees would have thought I was an insult - and I held up my mundu WITHOUT a belt!!

It is hard to say what was the best part of this event, as I enjoyed every minute of it. When I released the book, the Coffee Table publication that Annikki and I had strived to be a fore-runner for other reunions, I was tongue tied for several minutes. My usually nonchalant extempore approach failed me. Several times I had to resort to looking at my notes.

The music of Sibelius and the video clips from Finland through all the seasons, showing the wonderful country that Annikki and I have lived in for 25 years played in the background. I did not let it superimpose itself on the event, as that was not the reason that these people were here. They were here to meet and talk to others.

Slowly the tables were filled and the noise of the chatter was like happy music to me.

The food was served and the very mention of freshly cooked appams had everyone on their feet. Even the late arrivals did not spend much time at the bar - the food was of a quality that matched that of our maestro from Kottayam, the 75 year old wizard, Vasu.

The outstanding preparation was the Pineapple Pachadi, a creation of Abhijit, but it was not the only dish that drew comments from the gathering. They simply loved the food and every single person who attended came up to both Annikki and me and thanked us for opening up the splendour of the Kerala cuisine. (When I had gone to the tasting session where Abhijit had preparaed a spread of over 30 items, the mouthwatering Prawn Starter and the Pineapple Pachidi stood out by a mile, both original creations of Abhijit - and they proved to be the hits of the evening. My intuition and Abhijit did not fail me!)

My heart and soul thanked Malathi and Abhijit and their staff for what was a culinary delight in a surroundings of fairy and Chinese lights, a memory that Annikki and I will treasure all our lives.

I am sorry I cannot post any pictures, as being the host I did not have time to be behind my camera lens. But it has been recorded for posterity on the Class DVD and I did note that my eyes to the world, Hasnain, was busy behind his lens! Chinnie, what would I do without you?

Slowly, as planned, we drew the event to a close by 23:00 hours.

I missed all my classmates who had not been able to attend. I missed all my friends who had not been able to come. I missed my relatives who also had not been able to come. That was my failure.

As Malathi, Annikki and I sat down after the event when all our friends had left, we agreed that 90% of our objectives had been achieved - and both of them were happy. I was sad. Above all, I missed my dearest of friends, Ashok Kapur, and my greatest mentor, 56er Harminder Uberoi (Ubi) who had fallen ill and could not attend.

Friendships have been cemented. Long lost friends found, and new friendships made. Names on the internet have become faces to remember. They are now live persons with whom I can now relate as human beings and not as persons@anywhere.com!

Above all, I would like to thank my three cousin brothers, Rajen, Thambi and Chacko, who have made this trip to India a reality beyond all our dreams. Without them behind me, their tremendous love and care for Annikki and me, all this would have remained just a dream. They way they have taken all their publications to be brand leaders in their categories - the Malayala Manorama, The WEEK, Vanitha, Balrama, the Manorama Year Book, just shows the power of positive thinking and the power of love and affection. Annikki and I owe them an immense gratitude for whatever they have done for us.

But above all, thank you, everyone who attended, for a wonderful evening.

Now the stage is set for the Founders’ Day Church Service and the Alumni dinner. (I still have to buy a tie. Ubi has warned me not to go where taxi drivers take me - my foolishness.!!!)

Reunions started

2009-11-12T09:39:00.002+02:00

Those of you who are visiting this blog regularly should go to my main blog, Jacob's Blog, for my daily updates till the 15th of December.

This week our Golden Reunion is in progress and the news will be mainly Cathedralite oriented.

Thanks for being here.

Next two months

2009-10-20T19:42:00.002+02:00

All our blog postings for the next two months will only be on our main blog - Jacob's Blog

Enjoy your trip to India with us.

You live and learn!!

2009-09-20T20:33:00.002+02:00

What a wonderful set of blog readers we have.

56er Ubi gave me this background:

Dear Jacob,

David Colaco is dead right! He has described it as it was!

I thought you were looking for the origins of the game.

I can remember fellows like Stefano Episcopo, Ralph Mukherjee, "Tum Tum" Aresh, Eruch Shroff, Zulfi Currimjee, Dewjee, amongst a host of other worthy heavyweights.

Tara Malkani was exceptionally good at this game, despite his not so heavy frame!!

It was not only the weight that counted but also the WAY one landed on the backs of those bending down that broke their backs!

BUT, it was incumbent on the team landing on the backs of the bending team to stay on!

As was the case often, because people landed badly and awkwardly, they slipped off!

If that happened, they were disqualified and the team on the receiving end then got their turn to jump on the backs of the others!

It was not a PT game. It was a "Quad" activity, just like Quad cricket and football-except that C. J. Olliver had "institutionalised" Quad Soccer with the "Free Booter's League", for which he had made that legendry trophy that was so fiercely fought for!

Regards,

Ubi.

We were all harping on the words "kitty kitty" because of our Anglo-Scottish schooling heritage.

Along comes a wise 49er Naval Patel from Mysore, and tells me that it is "kiti kiti" which means "How many?" in Marathi!!

Now we have it all - the origins itself - a Maharashtrian children's game enjoyed by all of us in our Cathedralite environment! Much better than the computer games of today with all the violence we wanted! :-)

Thank you 69er Dileep Hurry, thank you 59er David Colaco, thank you 56er H. S. Uberoi, and thank you 49er Naval Patel! A 20 year cross-scection 60 years down the road.

What would this blog be without you guys.

Kitty Kitty

2009-09-20T06:54:00.003+02:00

Recently I had a request from a 69er through a 67er as to a game called "kitty kitty" that we used to play in school.

I had vague memories about it, so I circulated the question to my 59er colleagues through our Google Group.

In a flash came the reply from David Colaco who lives in England.

Here is how he described kitty kitty:

One team bent down in the form of a long horse against a wall or similar non moveable object. The other team ran one at a time and jumped on the line of boys bent down in the form a long horse. They tried to jump and land heavily trying hard to collapse the horse.

Once all the boys had jumped on the horse, they, (led by captain of the team on top) shouted kitty kitty kitty and the captain put a number of fingers up.

The team heavily laden had to guess the number. Only after they had guessed it correctly they had a chance to reverse roles.

I believe 3 guesses were only given or else the team on top had another go at running and collapsing the horse!

I did remember most of the game except the bit about the number guessing.

Thank you David for explaining the game - and I do remember it was great fun.

The second question is whether it was a free time game or was it one we played during PT! I sort of remember it being a PT game!

ICE - In Case of Emergency

2009-09-01T05:37:00.000+02:00

I received this very important email from a dear friend, which I felt should have the widest publicity, so I am putting it on all my major blogs:

We all carry our mobile phones with names & numbers stored in its memory but nobody, other than ourselves, knows which of these numbers belong to our closest family or friends.

If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but wouldn't know who to call. Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency? Hence this "ICE" (In Case of Emergency) Campaign

The concept of "ICE" is catching on quickly. It is a method of contact during emergency situations. As cell phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name "ICE" ( In Case Of Emergency).

The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents, there were always mobile phones with patients, but they didn't know which number to call. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose. In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and Hospital Staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialing the number you have stored as "ICE."

For more than one contact name simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3 etc. A great idea that will make a difference!

Let's spread the concept of ICE by storing an ICE number in our Mobile phones today!

Please forward this. It won't take too many "forwards" before everybody will know about this It really could save your life, or put a loved one's mind at rest .

Remember:- ICE will speak for you when you are not able to.

Thank you Naval for this wonderful input.

Inheritance Nightmare / PERINTÖPAINAJAINEN

2009-08-25T13:34:00.000+02:00

My next book, which is being published simultaneously in English and Finnish (translation by Annikki), is going to be a blockbuster.

In 1994, I exposed the serious problems within the University of Oulu. That book, "Seven Years Hard Labour in a Finnish Holiday Camp - A Finnish Unversity" was the most pirate copied book in Finland that year.

The book jointly authored by Annikki and me in 1994, "Handbook for Survival in Finland", which was also only in English, was sold out within days of publication.

Both Annikki and I have been researching and writing on several subjects, but this book was always at the back of our minds from 1992 onwards.

Now is the opportune time. We decided to leap frog many other manuscripts to publish this one. It gives a deep insight into how corrupt the Finnish System has been and is, despite whatever Transparency International has been writing.

I give below the Synopsis and Contents in both Finnish and English.

Also the pre-ordering information is given at the end so you can save some money if your order is received before the books hit the shelves. The book is written, printed, published and sold directly by us so we can give you value for money instead of lining the pockets of publishers and booksellers. Authors get a measly 10% after several years!

We do hope you will enjoy this book. The sequel "Last Will and Testament" by me will follow soon thereafter. That is a momumental work. It will not be published in Finnish.

INHERITANCE NIGHTMARE
by
Jacob Matthan
Author of the 1994 brilliant exposé
“Seven Years Hard Labour
in a Finnish Holiday Camp
- A Finnish University”

Synopsis

Like all the author’s books so far, this book is NOT fiction. It is the recording of the modern day repetition of Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables” in Finland in the 2000s!

The author comes from a country which is the home of corruption. According to Transparency International, Finland is supposedly one of the least corrupt countries in this world.

This intricate narration of this true story, covering almost 10 years, shows the extent of malaise in the Finnish System - the judiciary, the police, the bureaucrat, the media, the banks, and above all the lawyers, who are supposedly there to uphold the rights of the innocent. It is a brotherhood network!

Kari Kantakoski is supposedly “a leading lawyer” in Oulu. The intrigue that he has been involved in to get the lion’s share of the inheritance of the family of a carpenter and his wife is still an on-going saga.

The level of audacity increased with each passing day as this lawyer flaunted the law using his “friends” in high places.

Justice Delayed is Justice Denied!

The Lawyer’s Association, supposedly to root out people like Kari Kantakoski, appears to be just a big joke! Kantakoski laughs at this organisation as he knows they would not lift a finger to indict him! The Association has been “investigating” this matter for 9 months while Kari Kantakoski carries on his plundering!

In Finland, the only recourse to justice is publicity, the internet, in particular. Certainly not via the Finnish media, as it is also part of the corrupt establishment.

This book, which will be on the internet and the shelves (in English and Finnish) in a few weeks, highlights in the greatest detail (with every supporting document) each step of the process of having to fight a corrupt system in which the height of corruption is the legal profession in this country.

Lawyers may be the butt of many jokes. That is not without sound reason.

The author leaves it to the reader to draw one’s own conclusions as to what is right or wrong, what is corruption and what is not, what is legal and what is illegal.

It is a sad sad tale.

If Transparency International were to look at this and many thousands of similar cases, Finland would lie 180th in the 180 countries that are reported on by them!

Contents

PREFACE
Chapter 1: Background to the Nightmare
Chapter 2: Matti's Death Estate Inventory Meeting
Chapter 3: Hilja's Dementia
Chapter 4: Renovation of Kampitie
Chapter 5: Public Guardian for Hilja
Chapter 6: Administrator and Executor for Matti's Death Estate
Chapter 7: Financial Misuse of Hilja's Bank Account
Chapter 8: Settlement of Renovation Cost
Chapter 9: Appointment as Care Giver for Hilja
Chapter 10: Eviction of Hilja and Court Decision
Chapter 11: Corruption in Oulu Magistrate Guardianship Section Functioning
Chapter 12: Attempt to Remove the Public Guardian
Chapter 13: February 2004
Chapter 14: Dire Warnings Ignored - Wall Deterioration
Chapter 15: Lawyers Fees
Chapter 16: Minutes of Meetings
Chapter 17: Secret Deals
Chapter 18: Hilja Passes On
Chapter 19: Matti's Death Estate Administrator / Executor Greed Uncovered
Chapter 20: Accounts Examined
Chapter 21: Forced Sale of Kampitie
Chapter 21: Hilja's Death Estate Inventory
Chapter 22: Fraud and Cover Up in Osuuspankki
Chapter 23: Keskinäinen Vakuutusyhtiö Turva Mopo Scandal
Chapter 24: Control of Kampitie
Chapter 25: Huoneistokeskus: Money Rules the Day
Chapter 26: Complaint to the Lawyer's Association
Chapter 27: Complaints to the Oulu Police
Chapter 28: Complaints to the Finnish Courts
Chapter 29: Transparency International
Chapter 30: Who Gets What?

PERINTÖPAINAJAINEN
Jacob Matthan
“Seitsemän vuotta kovaa työtä suomalaisella loma leirillä
- Suomalainen Yliopisto”
loistavan palastuskirjan kirjoittaja 1994

Tiivistelmä

Kuten kaikki kirjailijan kirjat tähän mennessä, tämä kirja ei ole Fiktio. Se on Viktor Hugon kirjan “KURJAT!” kaltaisten tapahtumien toisto Suomessa 2000 luvulla!

Kirjailija tulee maasta, joka on korruption kotimaa. Transparency International’in mukaan Suomen oletetaan olevan yksi maailman vähiten korruptoituneita maita.

Tämä mutkikas tosi kertomus, kestoltaan melkein kymmenen vuotta osoittaa suomalaisen systeemin pahoinvoinnin laajuutta - oikeuslaitos, poliisi, byrokraatti, media, pankit ja ennen kaikkea asianajajat, joiden pitäisi olla viattomien oikeuksien puolustajia. Se on veljeskuntaverkosto!

Kari Kantakosken oletetaan olevaan “huomattava asainajaja” Oulussa. Sotku, jossa hän on mukana saadakseen leijonan osuuden kirvesmiehen ja hänen vaimonsa perheen perinnöstä on yhä meneillään oleva tapahtumaketju.

Röyhkeyden taso nousee päivä päivältä, kun tämä asianajaja lailla pöyhkeillen käyttää “ystävään” korkeilla paikoilla.

Viivytys oikeudessa kieltää oikeuden

Asianajajien Liitto, jonka oletetaan kitkevän juurineen Kari Kantakosken kaltaisia henkilöitä, näyttää olevan iso vitsi. Kantakoski nauraa tälle järjestölle tietäen etteivät he nostaisi sormeakaan syyttäkseen häntä mistään. Liitto on tutkinut tätä asiaa 9 kuukautta. Sillä välin Kari Kantakoski jatkaa ryöstelyä!

Suomessa ainoa oikeuden turva on julkisuus, internetti erityisesti, eikä varmasti suomalaisen median kautta, koska se on myös osa korruptia valtajärjestelmää.

Tämä kirja, joka tulee internettiin ja hyllyille (englanniksi ja suomeksi) muutamassa viikossa, korostaa mitä suurimmassa määrin (kaikkea tukevilla dokumenteilla) joka askelta prosessissa, jonka joutuu taistelemaan korruptiossa systeemissä, minkä korruption huippu on laillinen ammattikunta tässä maassa. Asianajajat voivat olla monen pilan kohde. Eikä syyttä.

Kirjoittaja jättää lukijalle tehdä omat johtopäätöksensä siitä mikä on oikein ja väärin, mikä on korruptiota mikä ei, mikä on laillista ja mikä on laitonta. Se on surullinen kertomus. Jos Transparency International näkisi tämän ja tuhansia muita samanlaisia tapauksia, joista he raportoivat, Suomi olisi sijalla 180 mukana olevista maista joita on 180!

SISÄLTÖ

Esipuhe
Kappale 1: Painajaisen tausta
Kappale 2: Matin kuolinpesäkokous
Kappale 3: Hiljan dementia
Kappale 4: Kampitie remontti
Kappale 5: Yleinen edunvalvoja
Kappale 6: Matin kuolinpesän pesänselvittäjä- ja jakaja
Kappale 7: Hiljan pankkitilin väärinkäyttö
Kappale 8: Remontti kulujen sopimus
Kappale 9: Hiljan omaishoitajan nimitys
Kappale 10: Hiljan häätö ja oikeuden päätös
Kappale 11: Korruptio Oulun Maistraatin yleisen edunvalvonnan osastolla
Kappale 12: Yritys erottaa edunvalvoja virasta
Kappale 13: Helmiku 2004
Kappale 14: Välinpitämättömyys vakavista varoituksista - ulkoseinän rapistuminen
Kappale 15: Asianajan palkat
Kappale 16: Kokousten päiväkirjat
Kappale 17: Salaisia sopimuksia
Kappale 18: Hiljan kuolema
Kappale 19: Matin kuolinpesän pesänselvittäjä/jakajan ahneus paljastuu
Kappale 20: Tilinpidon tarkastus
Kappale 21: Kampitie pakkomyynti
Kappale 22: Hiljan perukokous
Kappale 23: Petos ja peittely Osuuspankissa
Kappale 24: Keskinäinen vakuutusyhtiö Turva Moposkandaali
Kappale 25: Kampitien hallinta
Kappale 26: Valitus asianajajaliittoon
Kappale 27: Valituksia Oulun poliisille
Kappale 28: Valituksia suomalaisissa oikeuslaitoksissa
Kappale 29: Transpanency International
Kappale 30: Kuka saa mitä?

ORDERING INFORMATION:

PROJECTED SHELF PRICE: € 59 per hard copy

Orders received and paid for before Publication: € 49 ONLY (including postage)

Payment to: Jacob Matthan's Nordea Bank Account Nro.: 249818-69968

Write in Message Box: International Nightmare

INTERNATIONAL ORDERS
SWIFT CODE: NDEAFIHHX
Account No: FI91 2498 1800 069968
Account Holder: Jacob Matthan

An important chore completed this morning

2009-08-23T05:06:00.003+02:00

Yes, I have been absent from all my blogs for quite some time. We have been through a few traumatic weeks, which I will blog about in the not so distant future.

But today is a different day!

Yesterday, Annikki and I visited Kuopio in central eastern Finland. The area is truly magnificent with lakes and forests everywhere. We are starting our new operations there as we expand the reach of Raantel Oy, the furnished housing company which is sky rocketing as a national enterprise. We have the Slovenian team of electrical engineers moving there shortly to erect the new Post Office Sorting Centre, a huge sophisticated high tech complex which will sort letters and packets for the whole of central Finland.

It was quite a successful visit. We covered about 700 km yesterday (up and down) and reached back around 21:30.

I am writing (with Annikki) a new book called "Inheritance Nightmare" a true story concerning the high level of corruption in Finland, quite contra to what Transparency international, the Swiss Organisation, have been reporting. I finished a couple of chapters, and after a bath, got to bed around midnight. The book will be published in a very short time in both languages - Finnish (by Annikki) and English (by me).

I was up before sunrise, which is now around 5 am (It has been changing by about 3 minutes every day since midsummer! Sunset changes by about 4 minutes a day reducing our daylight hours by about 7 minutes every day till we reach our "total darkness phase!)

There are a few of my alma mater friends, many whom I have never met in person, who have become dear to me over the years. 49ers Yezad Kapadia and Naval Patel, are two which spring to mind. They were the brilliant duo of 1949. If one did not get the prize, the other did!

After my morning ablutions i had to make a very important phone call - to speak to Mysore to wish Naval Patel a very happy 75th birthday. He picked up the phone on the first ring, so I was afraid I may have woken him up early on his birthday.

I have never "spoken" to Naval before, but he has spoken to me for many years with his wonderful emails and comments. He told me that the 75th birthday is not such an important milestone (unlike in Finland) and as the Parsi New Year had been celebrated on Wednesday, he had done his celebrations on that day.

We chit chatted for a few minutes. I hope to drop in on Armaity and him in end October on our Bharat Darshan. Mysore drives pleasant memories through my bones as I had a wonderful childhood there.

Happy birthday, Naval and may you have many many more. I do hope you will try to make it to Finland sometime soon.

Being missed by some

2009-08-02T13:50:00.001+02:00

(Posted on all my major blogs.)

Approaching sunset in Oulu, Finland at 10 pm on a lovely summer's day.

After I crushed my knuckle and went through the trauma of an operation, Finnish style, which I will blog after I get out of the hands of the doctors, I have tried to keep up with my schedules, but not with much success. Typing, driving and doing just simple tasks as taking of my jacket or putting on my shirt, with one hand is painfully slow.

The travel schedule has not reduced. My daily routines have increased substantially since Nisha, Sunil and Hannah are holidaying in India and also Ganesh has taken his annual holiday. Number of group arrivals in Helsinki has mounted substantially and juggling the apartments to keep everyone happy has been a Herculean task. But Sunil has been a great help, even though he is working through a dial-up internet connection from a Kerala village!

Last week I drove up to Rovaniemi, on the Arctic Circle, and back twice. Each a 450 km round trip. Then on Friday I did a round trip to Tampere, about 900 km. Levi, our Zambian friend from Helsinki, was there and, with my one hand, I helped him empty one flat, load and unload the trailer and finally dropped him at the station.

(Just as I reached the office at 21:30, I had a call from Levi that he had got back to Helsinki and he was driving to deliver a lecture when he smashed his car into another, fractured his shoulder and ruined his car!)

I must say I am living a charmed existence and walking a tight rope trying to keep all my schedules in order.

The next week will be equally hectic, but with Sunil and Nisha back, maybe I can ease up a bit. (One can always hope, but knowing my intent to work myself to the bone, it is just idle mental chatter.)

When people remind me my last blog update was so many weeks ago, I feel a terrible moral guilt as I love all my readers more than they love my ramblings.

The gentle reminders a tremendous boost for the ego.

I have been going through a nightmare trying to get a suitable location for the Mumbai Findians Evening on Friday 13th November 2009. Now I understand why they say that Friday the 13th is unlucky. Help me prove that is wrong!

Annikki and my 59ers Directory Project of 2009 is progressing nicely. Just arrived is a video from our 1999 40th Year Reunion. I am waiting to get my hand on that and extract some good stills for inclusion into the Directory.

The registrations for our 50th Year Reunion are coming along nicely. If you are a 59er and have not yet registered, please do it as soon as possible.

Many of you are not being careful. I have sent several of you information that your Facebook, email address, etc. have been hijacked and your address books are public property. These guys add your name to CDs that they sell and then you are receiving thousands of spam mail while thousands are being spammed in your name! Please be careful where you sign up.

I am busy planning our Indian trip for October through to December, 2009. If any of you want Finnish know how or want to start a business or exports to / from India, please let me know and I will try to fit you into our schedule - Kottayam, Cochin, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad (possibly), Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Delhi!

One interesting news item from India - some of the better known colleges, like our alma mater, St. Stephen's College, may soon be giving their own degrees! Wonder how that will work out as I am already sceptical of people get 90+ average in school leaving to get into the college of their choice!

I have also been helping to organise our Indian Independence Day celebrations. About 70 people will attend and it is going to be a blast.

Founders' Day 2009

2009-07-06T05:33:00.002+02:00

Word has just reached me that the original plan to hold the Founders' Day Church ervice and programme on Thursday, 12th November, 2009 has been scrapped and it will now be held on Saturday, November 14th, 2009.

The Church Service at the St. Thomas Cathedral is scheduled for 17:30 on the Saturday evening.

Watch this space for more info as it reaches me.

Claustrophobia - A new definition?

2009-07-04T05:35:00.000+02:00

(Posted on all my major blogs.)

Ever since the age of 12 or 13, when an uncle of mine taught me the art of relaxation using artificial stress inducement, I have never had a problem of going to sleep. Before my head is settled in the pillow, I am fast asleep. I do not wake up at night and toss and turn. I nod off as soon as the reason for waking up is attended to. I hardly ever dream. Sit in a car with a safe driver, and I can drop off into neverland within a couple of minutes.

I usually wake up fully relaxed, even if the sleep lasted only a few minutes.

I came back from the hospital on Thursday afternoon with my left hand in plaster from the forearm till the tips of my finger. The operation to repair the knuckle of my fourth finger in my left hand had been successful, but it meant that my arm would be in this plaster-cast for 5 weeks. Plenty of painkillers and a course of antibiotic for 5 days, so no real problem of pain.

When I went to bed on Thursday evening, I thought I was going to sleep in my usual fashion. However, when my head hit the pillow, and as recommended, I put my plastered arm in a suitable and comfortable position on a couple of raised pillows, I felt a tremendous and overpowering feeling of restlessness. Sleep was just not coming in the next few minutes. Each passing second was raising an anxiety within me. I was feeling claustrophobic, even though, bodily, I was not in any confined situation.

Then it dawned on me that my mind was reacting to the fact that my left hand had lost its freedom. It was caged, and the stress relaxation technique, which I have used for over 50 years to drop into my slumber, was blocked by an overpowering feeling of fear. My fingers and wrist had lost their freedom. They were confined and this feeling of confinement was causing my mind to say that I was totally confined. And the realisation that I would have to endure this confinement for 5 more weeks was mentally unbearable.

I jumped out of bed, feeling as if I could not stay put down. I walked into the kitchen and expressed my claustrophobic thoughts to Annikki.

She was cool and calm and told me that I should take each day as it came, and the 5 weeks would be over even before I knew it.

I went to the living room and plonked down in front of the tv, but my heart and soul were not into watching any of the programmes. I let tiredness possess me so much so that I allowed my body to react to a mentally created feeling of a body becoming tired. Then when I went to bed, it was not my relaxation that put me to sleep, but a feeling of great tiredness - quite different to my normal situation.

As soon as Annikki came to bed, I put my plastered arm around her, and that claustrophobic feeling suddenly lifted and I dropped quickly into my normal deep slumber.

When I woke up in the morning, although relaxed, I still had that feeling at the back of my mind that I was a caged person. My n degrees of freedom had been severely curtailed. I now understood how anyone who loses any degree of freedom, mental or physical, could suddenly feel claustrophobic.

In all my life I had never experienced this. It was indeed a major revelation to me about the sufferings of my fellow travellers on this earth who had lost their freedom, any part of it.

I will be glad when this hand is uncaged. I will value all the degrees of freedom that I enjoy much much more than I ever have! And I will appreciate the feelings of other men and women, and any animal, who are caged in any form.

Golden Directory Project now in full swing

2009-06-22T14:30:00.003+02:00

As of today, Monday 22nd June, the professionals have moved in to get the 59ers Directory Project onto a time based schedule.

I have a young Ethiopian student who will work in my office translating all our dreams into a reality. He will work by my side on all the mundane stuff. Annikki will chip in with her artistic inputs and comments. I will do the stuff that can only be done on my Mac mini. (The student is using a Windows computer!)

If you have not sent Annikki your write up, the way you want it to appear, and photographs, please do that as soon as possible.

Besides the usual stuff we have unearthed stuff which will make your heart pump at an accelerated pace when this Coffee Table Book is in your grasp.

Please continue to send us material as we want to ensure we have all useful and interesting material in the book. (I am still looking for a Prefect's tie as that had the gold emblem on a blue fabric, if I remember correctly.

Did I once refer to this as the Mother of All Golden Reunions?

We are well on the way to that, even though many would doubt that we could achieve that status!

1959 Issue of The Borderer

2009-06-18T03:06:00.008+02:00

Today I received the 1959 Issue of The Borderer from 59er Trevor Newnes in Australia. (I also got the 1960 and 1961 issues from Trevor, but I already had the last one sent to me by Mr. Billington a few years ago, which I must return to him!)

It is fascinating as much as it is a memorabilia which is worth a small fortune. That is like all things from our school in 1959! :-)

If anyone else has a copy or knows of any, please ask them to contact me immediately. I want to establish how many copies of this issue are available out there. Considering the Prefects´ Notes by School Captain 57er Bhupinder Singh Anand in The Borderer, maybe not many!

It looks like the 59ers Coffee Table Directory is going to be a publication which is going to be worth a million, considering I am only going to publish just a 100 copies of it. Free to all our Class Members attending the reunion and those who assist our reunion efforts (seen and unseen) and on sale to others. (Also free to staff members attending the reunion.)

I already have the 1959 Cock House photograph (Palmer), School Prefects photograph, School Hockey Team photograph, School Cricket Team photograph, School Football Team photograph, Sports Day brochure, many other items, and some absolutely wonderful pictures of many of our year. I do have photographs of almost all the staff members.

I am still looking for input from the 59er girls. I do have a class photograph of them. Wish I had one of the boys, but I do not think we had class photographs for us boys in that time! Maybe I can be proved wrong!!!

But there are a few surprises in store for you in this publication.

Anyone having an undamaged copy of the picture of the class visit to the Sathe Biscuit Factory in 1954 should scan it and send it to me. The one that 59er Percy Mistri sent may may be too difficult to restore - but my photo experts are trying hard to restore it. Was the Sathe Biscuit Factory owned by our late Sudan Sathe's family? Is it still functioning and can anyone get me a photograph of it if it is still out there.

Anyone with snaps from our 1955 visit to Vasind should also let me have a scanned copy of it. Remember the Dead Chicken was reborn there!

More about Cooliris

2009-06-14T09:26:00.002+02:00

I was stunned to read one of the comments on my blog about the exciting Cooliris.

It appears that a Cathedralite - Mayank Mehta - is one of the people behind Cooliris. I located a Mayank Mehta who is a 99er.

Anyone with more info about this person - please let me have it.

Reason for excitement

2009-05-31T15:25:00.002+02:00

(Also posted on all my major blogs.)

Many of you have emailed me to ask why I was so excited with the software "Cooliris".

There are many many reasons, but I will highlight the two major ones:

1. There is an old Chinese proverb which says: "A picture is worth a thousand words."
2. You can browse thousands of pictures in a couple of minutes, unlike text.

This is now the era of the photo-journalist. If he / she can succeed in capturing the truly great image that depicts an event and add a single one line caption to it, the number of hits one can get to that image or video, and subsequently the caption and then the text, even if the Google Search result was likely to be on the 50th page, is going to be amazing.

Just search for "Jacob, Oulu" on Google Search and you get 95,800 links. It will take months to through those links.

Search for it on "Cooliris" and see how much more you get and you can get to even the 5000th result in a jiffy!

Don't believe me - take any random name of a friend and see what you get!

Truly amazing results. And, you can go through all those tens and tens of results in a flash.

Beware of one problem with "Cooliris".

You can get motion sickness as you race through the thousands of images.

I tried various search combinations yesterday and was thrilled with the results.

But, when I got up from my office table, I was tottering as my eyes had been working overtime going through this huge bonanza of results.

Yes, there is a reason to be excited, but also a warning that this could seriously affect your brain!

Rarely am I so excited

2009-05-30T14:42:00.001+02:00

Also posted on the Seventh Heaven Blog, Kooler Talk Blog, CHAFF Blog and the Oulu Best Buy Blog.)

Rarely am I excited about new computer software. Today I came across one which sent shivers down my spine in what it can do.

I downloaded separate versions for SAFARI, the Mac only browser and for FIREFOX, probably the best browser online presently till Google comes up with its Chrome Browser for the mac.

The software is called "COOLIRIS" and it allows you to see many thousands of images and videos from your computer or the web in the blink of an eye.

My time is so limited that I hardly have time to go through all my pictures on the computer. But here I could see all of them in a 3-D type motion and I could see all the top story pictures before you could say "COOLIRIS"

I suggest you enter "Cooliris" in your Google Search facility and then download the version suitable for your browser.

I found a great video called "Slam Dunk Kitty" amongst the literally thousands that came up as I flew through the selection that came before me.

And you can use this software with Facebook, Google, UTube and also your computer images and videos!

What's the bet that Google will acquire this software - which is absolutely FREE, before the lamb shakes its tail!

Oulu Cricket Club (OCC) formed

2009-05-17T08:40:00.000+02:00

(Also posted on Jacob's Blog.)

Finally it has happened.

Three enterprising cricket enthusiasts in Oulu, one Finn (Joose Kankare) with Australian enthusiasm, and two Indians (Prabhu Sundar and Prasadh Ramachandran), got together and quietly formed the OCC (Oulu Cricket Club) as a Registered Association.

They called the first meeting for yesterday afternoon to announce their hopes and plans starting with a summer season of training, practice and matches.

There was indeed a healthy turnout of people for the meeting - mainly Indians, but there was a Pakistani also present.

After the tea and introductions, there was a very lively discussion, showing that there are several who are keen to play cricket in Oulu.

The membership fee for a summer season is just Euro 30 (June till August).

I asked that they make a life membership category so that I do not have to pay year in and year out and the Club can drive some benefit by getting a lump sum when it needs it most.

I also drew attention to the importance of having player insurance if the Club is to avoid serious financial problems due to injuries incurred while training or in play. I suggested a similar approach followed by the Finnish Football Union, where no player is allowed to take part, irrespective of age, unless he / she holds a valid insurance from the union.

I also suggested that besides being under the wing of the Finnish Cricket Association, they should become a member of PoPLi (Pohjois-Pohjanmaa Sports Association), which is the umbrella organisation which looks after interests of all sports organisations in this northern region.

Since I did work for them (as well as the Oulu Sports Department), a good ten years ago, I did know that they would get substantial benefit in being a member.

I also suggested that they become a member of Liikkuka ry, a multicultural sports federation which is run by my friend, Christian Thibault, Executive Director, which could help them with closer relationship with the Finnish Sports Federation.

From Seventh Heaven

The Cathedral and John Connon Boy's High School (Bombay) Cricket Team, 1958-59. I am the one sitting on the ground with the score book.

Although I cannot play any more, as my bones have dry rot, and I cannot be an umpire or scorer (I have difficulty in seeing my nose, as my eyesight has failed), I still have great interest in the sport and will certainly go out of my way to see that this club in my home town of the last 25 years, the northern-most cricket club in the world, sets off on the right track.

It would be great if any of you out there from the great cricketing nations as Australia, Bangladesh, England, Kenya, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Zimbabwe, who would like to sponsor this northern-most Cricket Club in the world. It does more than just introduce the sport in this area as it also give expats from these countries to interact with the lcal population and cause the exchange of culture.

I am, in my old doddering age, with you all the way. Good luck guys.

I was certainly wrong

2009-05-16T11:49:00.000+02:00

(Also posted on Jacob's Blog, Jacob's Politics and the Kooler Talk Blogs.)

I now realise how divorced I am from Indian Politics and especially the mentality of the Indian people.

This was just in:

Only a few results have been confirmed so far - they included a win for former UN diplomat Shashi Tharoor for Congress in Kerala's capital, Trivandrum.

In the old days, an outsider would never have got in this easily as Shashi did. I remember how K. T. Chandy, who had been Chairman of Hindustan Lever, tried and failed to get into Kerala Politics in the Seventies. He was called a "foreigner" by the Keralites!!

I do hope this change also ushers in a new form of Government, especially in Kerala, where the school final failed party members have dominated the Government.

Also the antiques who have dominated Kerala Politics for a couple of decades should now call it a day.

The experience of our lifetime

2009-05-15T08:51:00.004+02:00

(Also posted on Jacob's Blog and the Kooler Talk Blog.)

I just loved this email I received from 49er Dawn Brown. It sums up our experience, vis-á-vis the kids of today.

My daughter explained that times are different.

True, but do the kids wish it were the same as our time or not?

To us'ns who are considered to be "over the hill" by the young uns': Huh!!!! Not only are we surviving - we are thriving and loving life. I have to admit though that my children are not in this group - the first three mentioned above!!

Blessings,

Dawn

AIN'T IT THE TRUTH?

AND WE ARE ALL STILL SURVIVING...................

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE
1920's, 30's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks some of us took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a Ute on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Subway or Red Rooster.

Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open on the weekends, somehow we didn't starve to death!

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Fruit Tingles and some fire crackers to blow up frogs and lizards with.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and cubby houses and played in creek beds with matchbox cars.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape or DVD movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no Lawsuits from these accidents.

Only girls had pierced ears!

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross buns at Easter time.......no really!

We were given BB guns and sling shots for our 10th birthdays.

We drank milk laced with Strontium 90 from cows that had eaten grass covered in nuclear fallout from the atomic testing at Maralinga in 1956.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Mum didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends meet!

Footy had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

Our teachers used to belt us with big sticks and leather straps and bully's always ruled the playground at school.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.
They actually sided with the law!

Our parents got married before they had children and didn't invent stupid names for their kids like 'Kiora' and 'Blade'.....

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 70 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned

HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

And YOU are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

PS - The big type is because your eyes are shot at your age.

Driving 1100 km on the same day

2009-05-06T07:39:00.000+02:00

(Also on the Jacob's Blog and the Kooler Talk Blog.)

After a hectic weekend, when I went to Tampere with Sunil, in a van taking materials to set up four apartments and which included a side trip to Helsinki to check on how Raantel apartments were doing there, we left Tampere late on Saturday evening to return to Oulu so that I could speak at the Free Speech Day in Oulu Otto Karhi Park.

We arrived back at Oulu about 6 am on Sunday morning. I had a nap and went with Annikki to the public park, equipped with my speaking stand.

The opening procedure was just taking place and the Chief Editor of Kaleva Newspaper, a new person, was making the welcome remarks.

He ended by saying that each speaker would be given 5 minutes at the mike.

My talk, which this year was about "Justice Delayed is Justice Denied" would have taken the good part of 1 and half hours.

Ii approached the gentleman and asked that I set up my own stand as in previous years and be allowed to speak. He rejected the idea saying he had no powers to allow that. After much persuasion, he pointed me to a lady. She said that I could do that away from the main central area.

But it was clear that they did not want to move away from their prepared script. Annikki and I decided against making a speech this year under these conditions.

In short - this was no copy of Hyde Park Corner as this was a very controlled exercise to make Finns believe that they have Freedom of Speech - which they don't.

I had promised to meet Ajeet on Monday in South Finland. He and Sari are on a flying trip here to take part in a couple of conferences. So our Alumni meets were scheduled for Monday at 10:30 am, and this time in Toijala, wher he was staying.

I left Oulu by car at 3:50 am and because of the GPS Navigator (the cheap one), I did the trip to Tampere in just 5 hours (477 km). After attending to some Raantel work there, I drove on to Toijala to be greeted by Ajeet and his wife, Sari.

Our joyous Cathedralite and Stephanian Finland Chapter Alumni Reunion was a working one. 100 % attendance as usual!

I exploited the combined legal expertese of Ajeet and Sari.

Ajeet confirmed he would be in Bombay for the November 12th Cathedral Founders Day event. After my 50th year Golden Reunion Celebrations are complete, Annikki and I will go to Ahmedabad where I will give a talk at the Indian Institute of Management about the new developments in technology taking place and their implications on world society.

Then we would all spend a few days at Mount Abu, where Annikki and I have never been.

I left at 14:30, stopped at Tampere to attend to some more Raantel Oy work, left Tampere at 16:30 and arrived back in Oulu at 22:30.

A 20 hour round trip of 1100 km - and because of the hectic weekend of travel and work, this one partially knocked me out.

I got a good scolding from Annikki who thought I was on a leisurely train trip to Tampere!!

What Cathedral taught me!

2009-05-01T04:09:00.002+02:00

Every year, for the past two years, Oulu has been holding a Free Speech Day in the City Central Park (Otto Karhi Puisto). A sort of copying Hyde Park Corner for one day a year.

The Finns all cluster around a mike provided by the local newspaper and the radio station, and take turns in speaking.

Not so this young man!

I have my own rostrum and speak on a variety of subjects, answering any hecklers or challengers with the skill I learnt when in Cathedral.

From Jacob's Blog

2007 - My rickety platform.

The first year I had a rickety platform with Annikki yelling from the window telling me not to stand on it. I survived!

Last year, I got myself a higher and sturdier platform and covered 35 subjects in the space of an hour and a bit.

This year, I have an even longer list of subjects and maybe will have a slightly larger audience as I bash the system!

GPS Navigator - Good or bad Development?

2009-04-29T06:40:00.003+02:00

As my main Jacob's Blog entry for today, I have considered the Global Positioning System (GPS) Navigator, which I used for the first time yesterday, and whether it is a boon or a curse to mankind.

Do check it out and let me have your views.

What is talent?

2009-04-26T22:48:00.001+02:00

(Also posted on Jacob's Blog and the Kooler Talk Blog.)

I usually do not have much time for TV except to throw off my shoes, put my feet up, watch a comedy or detective play and sleep through half of it!

One programme, however, that I have come to like is GPS hosted by Fareed Zakaria on CNN International, late on a Sunday evening.

Zakaria has some fascinating guests. He runs his interviews which do not show his personal bias.

Today was a show in which he had a discussion with an author, Malcolm Gladwell.

Gladwell has written a book called "Outliers". Although I have not read the book and will probably never will, I was fascinated by the discussion and interview.

The main thrust of the view of Gladwell was that "Talent is the Desire to Practice".

I immediately sent this message to several young friends of mine. I wonder how many of them will see this message in all its significance and glory.

The key word is "Desire".

To succeed in anything one must have that "Desire".
To reach that "Desire" one must "Work Hard".
The Hard Work is what we call "Practice"
And Practice leads to "Talent".

Gladwell gave the example of the Beatles, who in 1959 worked 8 hour nights in a strip club in Hamburg playing music. This is enormously hard work. It was this hard work which resulted in the moulding of the most famous Pop Group in the world.

Gladwell made very significant points about the influence of culture on failure or success and also about the development of reading aboilities at a young age which results in the possibility of success.

This statement took me back to the days when Annikki was writing her thesis about the Montessori System of Education. What I heard today was the restatement of what Maria Montessori said 7 decades ago when she noted that a small child will continue to repeat a task till he / she masters it. The outcome is talent, in small steps.

I go back to my school days where I used to watch a dear friend, Elijah Elias, more commonly known to all of us as Ooky, come to school at some unearthly hour and keep on bowling at the nets to achieve pace and direction. That was the talent of Ooky in cricket! But it is this Talent born out of Desire and Hard Work achieved by Practice which has made him succeed in his career in later life.

I take the example of our grandson, Samuel, who at the age of 12 simply loves reading - a book a day.

If his reading is focused correctly, Samuel could be outstanding in his career.

I only hope that in his school in England they realise this. I hope at least one of his teachers has read the book, "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell or knows the principles of the Maria Montessori Education System!

Thank you Mr. Fareed Zakaria.

My iMac died, Viva la Mac Mini!

2009-04-25T14:35:00.000+02:00

(Also posted on my Jacob's Blog and Kooler Talk Blog.)

My 10 year old iMac finally died. I tried to revive it. Failed.

I went back to my older macs, the Performa 6400 and tried to use that, but it was tooooo slooow.

I decided to splurge and get a new Mac.

I have a perfectly good Samsung SyncMaster 900 SL Monitor. I have many USB Keyboards and Mice, all in good condition. I have USB headphones, a dlink wireless USB adaptor, a La Cie Firewire / USB DVD / CD station, so I decided to buy the Mac Mini.

A difficult decision whether to buy the basic version mac Mini costing Euro 599 with a 120 GB Hard Disk or a 320 GB Hard Disk with 2 GB of memory.

As most of my work will be network computing, the extra hard disk was not important. Also I have many hard disks lying around, from 1 GB up to 60 GB.

I checked the memory prices and found that a 1 GB memory costs just Euro 30 while a 3 GB costs just Euro 60. I will have to determine whether it is user installable and then upgrade. So I spent just Euro 599.

Considering I got the new Leopard system, which costs Euro 128 and also the latest iLife software, which costs Euro 78, Thew Mac Mini actually cost me just Euro 400. Foor a 2 GHZ Core 2 Duo, with a 8 x Superdrive station which is a DVD±R, DL DVD±RW / CD RW, and with a NVDIDIA GeForce 9400M video card with 128 main memory with a DDR3 SDRAM, etc., etc., this must be one of the best buys that I have made in a decade.

On my way to the office I picked up Annikki from home to drop her at church. She was amazed to see the size of my new computer - 16.5 cm by 16.5 cm by 5 cm.

The whole computer set up was done in less than an hour, upgraded to the latest system and it is working just fine. The speaker system is a bit tinny, but as I usually used head phones, this is not a drawback for me. The Mac Mini recognised all the hardware I connected and went to the internet without any problem through the dlink adaptor!

Sunil, who has been commenting on my attachment, sentimental, to my iMac and eMac boxes which occupy almost all the space under my office table, may be quite pleased with the size the new Mac Mini box!! :-)

Felled tree

2009-04-24T20:42:00.001+02:00

(Also posted on my Jacob's Blog.)

Have you ever thought how it must feel if one falls to the ground just like a felled tree?

Even during my boxing days, when Neelam Lakhaney (also a Cathedralite 59er Savageite), half my size, was whipping me in the Heavy Weight category, I never fell to the ground.

Today, I was on my morning rounds on my scooter. I got home around noon. I got off the scooter, and as is my common practice, I turn around, take of my glasses, then remove my helmet, put on my glasses, hang the helmet over one of the rear view mirrors and then trot up the stairs, home.

Today was a bit different.

As I got off the bike and was wheeling around, it was as if my feet were stuck in a place while my body tipped over and crashed to the ground. My helmeted head thumped onto the cemented section, just a few centimetres away from a huge cement block.

I tried to figure out what had happened. As I twisted around, I saw that the bottom of my track suit had hooked into the metal stand on which the scooter is put to rest.

As I had tried to move away, one feet was pulled away from me and I crashed to the ground, straight as an axed tree.

As my head smashed into the ground, I was ever so grateful for the glass-fibre reinforced helmet which surrounded my head. I was badly bruised on one knee, while the other was just grazed. The palms of my hand were bruised, as was one elbow.

But my head was intact. Was I grateful for the plastic helmet!!

Felt good to have been a plastics technologist which subject and material have no doubt saved many lives in different environments!

Cricket Lovers: An article from The Hindu of today

2009-04-21T22:06:00.003+02:00

from: Naval Patel
date:: 21 April 2009 16:20
subject: Above the eye line

I am attaching a scan of an article in The HINDU newspaper this morning.

The part I found fascinating was how Clarrie Grimmett, the masterly old Australian leg spinner, demonstrated the variations of speed perceptions.

I had long read that these are deceptive when the ball goes above batsmen's eye level, and I guess as a (very) slow bowler I had successfully benefited from these through my playing days, but this is the first mention I have seen of such proof being experimentally provided.

The other mention about the initial movement and position of the batsman's leading shoulder is a new insight to me.

How I wish such knowledge had come to us in our playing days!

Regards Naval

Thank you Naval for sending me this article. I did not use your scan but went to The HINDU and took the whole article, which I have reproduced below. (Copyright acknowledged.)

(I think I know the wife of the writer - a very lovely lady whom I met in 1999 and who is also a journalist in The Hindu covering environmental issues.)

Spinners have delivered the goods so far

S. Dinakar

Warne, Kumble, Vettori and Ojha have been impressive

Chennai: Spin has worked well in the Indian Premier League so far. Shane Warne’s mix of flight, deception and spin was captivating. Anil Kumble scalped five in his match. And, left-arm spinners Daniel Vettori and Pragyan Ojha have also been impressive.

Warne’s bowling took us to the heart of spin bowling. He made the batsman pick the ball from ‘above the eye level.’

Famous coach Vasu Paranjpe recounted a delightful tale about how Australian leg-spin legend Clarrie Grimmett taught former off-spinner Ashley Mallett, a budding bowler then, an important cricketing lesson.

“Grimmett took Mallet to a little hill and then asked him to judge the speed of the cars zipping through in a bridge below. Mallett’s reply was approximately right. Then, Grimmett told Mallett to look at cars moving on a road at an elevated level and the off-spinner found it very hard to assess the speed of the cars,” said Paranjpe.

When Warne flights the ball, he forces the batsman to pick it from above the eye level. To make things harder for the batsman, the rip and the revolution on the ball causes it to dip in the air.

“Since the batsman, on most occasions, has to gauge the flight from above the level of his eyes, he finds it extremely hard to judge the pace, and consequently, the length of the ball,” added Paranjpe.

Warne has the variety — including the quicker delivery such as the flipper, the top-spinner and the wrong ’un — to sow more seeds of doubt in the minds of the batsman.

Aggressive by instinct, he can dissect a batsman’s technique and zero in on the chinks.

Splendid dismissals

Warne’s dismissal of Virat Kohli of Bangalore Royal Challengers is a case in point. Kohli has a rather stiff front shoulder and such batsmen can have a blind spot on or just outside the leg-stump.

The Rajasthan Royals captain flighted one on the leg-stump, Kohli, stepping down for the leg-side whip, missed and the ball spun to hit middle.

Then, B. Akhil found a delivery pitching on the leg-stump, spinning past the bat and hitting middle and off. These deliveries were flighted and spun hard. “If the batsman makes a brief preparatory movement as the bowler is about to deliver, his elbow goes back, so does the shoulder. The batsman is better placed to stroke freely on the leg-side. But if his left shoulder is stiff and locked, he could have a blind spot on the leg-side,” said Paranjpe.

Warne’s skills have not waned with age. He still controls the extent of spin — high on the scale of difficulty — with the ease of a maestro.

Kumble’s wares

Kumble’s bowling is much about subtle variations in length and trajectory, relentless accuracy and an ability to surprise batsmen with bounce.

Attempting to slog Kumble can be counter-productive as Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja discovered the hard way. Kumble complements his control with clever use of the crease. If the batsman misses, he invariably hits.

The conditions favoured seam and swing bowling at Newlands but the ball gripped for the spinners.

Vettori’s knack of getting the ball to straighten at the right hander from a touch wide of the crease works to his advantage in the shortest form of the game; he denies the batsman width. Ojha’s drift posed searching questions to the men facing him.

Despite powerful willows and shorter boundaries, spinners continue to turn matches in Twenty20 cricket; the batsman is denied pace and the work on the ball compounds his problems.

“It is much about when you bring your spinners on. If you have a quality spinner, you should introduce him as early as possible, give him a greater chance,” observed Paranjpe.

Indeed, wickets win you matches…in any format.

Our reunion plans

2009-04-19T04:37:00.003+02:00

59ers have put together what I think will be the Mother of all Golden Reunions. We are busy getting the attendance figures organised.

I had a great disappointment today morning when I received an email from one of our classmates who lives in Pakistan. He is one of our very active and much-loved 59ers. He informed me that he may not be able to make it to the reunion!

Why?

His mother passed away at the beginning of the year. He travelled to Mumbai to perform the last rites.

It seems that if one gets one visa in the year, then Pakistanis cannot get a second visa the same year.

I wonder if Pakistan also follows this protocol?

If so, it only shows the stupidity of the politicians and the bureaucrats in both countries.

What logical reason could there be in stopping genuine travel between two countries? It is not as if the governments are doing anyone a favour. They charge money to issue visas.

I hope some of our friends will draw the attention to people in high places to stop this stop of ridiculous bureaucracy!

A public tribute to a personal friend of many

2009-04-15T22:33:00.009+02:00

(Ed.: It is my privilege to be part of this document prepared by other 59er classmates on behalf of many, and sent to me for editing, correction, modification, so that it represents a true appreciation of the person about whom it is written.

From right: Ashok, his boxer and me in 1993
Not an artificial sunset.

I could add little as the writers did a marvellous job in the first place.

I share this document with you on the birthday of one of our finest classmates, a wonderful friend to each and everyone of us, and a person with whom we would have trusted our lives and limbs. Photographs are from various sources and copyright is acknowledged. Jacob)

November 2008
One of the last photos of Ashok taken at the JOSS Function.

April 16th would have been Ashok Kapur'ss 66th birthday. It is perhaps appropriate to spend a few moments reflecting on a few of our cherished memories about the friend that we knew... an extra special person in many, many ways. This tribute has been composed on behalf of all his friends, but especially on behalf of those who had the privilege of knowing him closely from his school days as well as through all the subsequent years as we journeyed across life from children to youth and onto adulthood and beyond. Some among us were fortunate to have known Ashok over a span of 6 decades - and our lives have been enriched by the experience.

Abbas and Ashok
November 2008.

There was an email from 59er Peter Miovic received at the time of his death which bears repetition. Peter was a Yugoslav who joined us in the 9th standard and knew Ashok for just for a few years. Peter wrote: "Ashok was someone who engaged one at a very personal level. I can still remember his engaging, mischievous smile and the way he would conduct a conversation that could lead anywhere. And he did not make a distinction whether one was from India or Mars. I was sensitive about being accepted by Indians. With Ashok I need not have worried."

Those words from Peter more or less defined the Ashok that we knew in school. He simply got on well with everyone of his own classmates, the ones who were a year or two senior to us, the ones who were junior to us, the teachers, the office peons, the coaches - everyone. And, in turn, it was impossible not to like him. In those years, we were certainly closer than brothers. When you are 10, 12 and 16 years old, the 2 or 3 years that separate siblings is like a generation gap. But there was no such problem between us. We grew up together, we played all the sports possible together, we discovered rock and roll and girls together, and we shared adventures, lots of them. Ashok was the type that all the others in the gang rallied around, a natural born leader, a school prefect by the 10th standard itself, a solid batsmen and wicket-keeper, and Captain of several sports teams.

Ashok was a good student too and managed to rank near the top of the class quite effortlessly. He was particularly good with numbers and we all expected him to go in for engineering, as was the preference in those days. But Ashok had other ideas. In fact, Ashok was always ahead of us in calculating angles that no one else saw, working out the odds. Today it is called “thinking out of the box." In a word he was 'wily' in a smart way. And it showed on the hockey field, where he was a scheming forward, on the badminton court, where he would wrong-foot his opponent, and in the latter years, at the bridge table.

Homi and Ashok
November 2008

If a poll had been taken back then in our graduating class as to whom amongst us was most likely to succeed in our future careers, Ashok would most certainly have won hands down. All of us would have voted for Ashok, and all of us would have been proved right.

Ashok with Ramesh and Piloo in 2003.

So it was that Ashok had worked out all the options and chose not to join college after school, but instead to start his career at the very bottom at Grindlays Bank way back in 1962. By the time the rest of us had acquired our precious degrees, and were just getting started in our own careers, Ashok was well on his way in the banking world. With Grindlays Ashok spent 20 odd years and was a Senior Manager handling a number of business functions when he left them. Then, 5 years with ABN Amro, part of it in Singapore managing their APAC operations . He left ABN to start Rabo India Finance. And after that institution was solidly launched, he decided to start his very own bank, "YES Bank", a very successful venture that is now being hailed as the fastest growing bank in the country, as well as being the best run, most innovative, etc, etc.

Ashok holds forth (undated).
From left: - 59ers Vinay Dabhlolkar, Percy Mistri, Ashok and Ashok Ruia.

In the 46 years that Ashok spent in the banking Industry, he acquired an unimpeachable reputation for his integrity and his honesty. Many times Ashok put his career on the line rather than compromise on his principles. It was no surprise then that Ashok enjoyed such universal admiration in banking circles. Not just for his sheer capabilities and achievements as a visionary banker, but also for his class and his qualities as a human being. Ashok was always calmness personified and had time for everybody. All persons were the same to him, irrespective of whether they were the foreign ex-pats or the boy who operated the photocopier. And it would be hard to find a Manager who could manage his time better.

His friend, 59er Elias (Ooky), had an experience which was probably typical for Ashok, but was a series of shocks for Elias. The first shock was when he called Rabobank to ask Ashok for an appointment to discuss a vague software service - Ashok answered the phone himself! The 2nd shock was when Ashok readily agreed to the date and time requested. The third was to be ushered in immediately into Ashok's office and find that Ashok's desk was totally innocent of any paper or files. The fourth shock was when Ashok gave his undivided attention for the next hour and a half, and the only interruption during all that time was his secretary calling on the intercom to ask if she should serve tea! A truly unique experience for Elias, but normal for Ashok, and one that defined Ashok - the consummate Manager.

(Ed:: Ashok and I were never profeessionally involved, although he knew what I was doing and I knew what he was doing. We kept our professional lives totally separate, so I did not have the experience of Elias as included in this piece. However, I had the same experience when I visited him, as a friend, at his offices in New Delhi, Calcutta and Bombay, I am not surprised how he treated a friend who came on a business visit.)

These same skills in human relations were tested severely during his 3-year stint as President of the Bombay Gymkhana. It was a period of turmoil when several controversies had to be resolved, including the landmark gender conflict. Ashok handled all of them with his usual calmness and quiet diplomacy. At the end of his tenure there was almost universal regret that the 3-year term could not be extended indefinitely.

Ashok liked challenges, especially challenges that kept him mentally alive. When we met him during his time with ABN Amro at Singapore, we were taken aback to hear him say that he was bored with his assignment because it had become routine and there was no challenge left. He had already turned down a posting to Australia and had decided to return to India simply because that's where he reckoned the excitement was. It was hard to believe that he was willing to give up his great life-style in Singapore to return to Bombay. But, as usual, Ashok had worked it all out and knew exactly where he was going professionally. The successful stint with Rabo followed and just when we thought that Ashok was surely at the zenith of his career, he once again surprised us by mentioning casually, over a beer on a Sunday morning, that he was going to start his own bank. He must have seen the look of incredulity on our faces. So he worked out the numbers on a napkin to show us how the venture could not fail and how it would be profitable in its very first year of operation. And thet's exactly how it turned out to be.

Surely the spectacular success of Yes Bank has been the crowning glory of Ashok's career - the one that has defined it.

Three 59er Palmerites, Ashok, Trevor Newnes and Viney Sethi
at the last 59er Mini Reunion (2007) which was graciously hosted by Madhu and Ashok.

Sadly Ashok's golden years were cruelly cut short by a senseless act of violence. The terrorists bullets have robbed Ashok of the chance of watching his grandchildren growing up, playing with them, touring the world with Madhu, playing bridge in the evenings, and his usual high standard of badminton with the same set of friends with whom he has been playing for the last 30-odd years.

Ashok may have been cruelly robbed of his golden years but nothing can ever take away his legacy. Ashok, in his heavenly abode, can be happy in the knowledge that his family is well provided for, the institutions that he has served with and helped grow are all healthy and thriving, and all his affairs are in good order .

Dear Ashok, you touched many, many lives during your lifetime, and you left all of them enriched. Thorough gentleman and dearest friend, may you rest in peace always.

April 16th in Mumbai

2009-04-05T06:47:00.003+02:00

I have been informed that there will be a get together of Cathedralites in Mumbai on April 16th 2009.

This is the message I received from the Alymni Association.

Cathedral Webmaster
4 April 2009 22:17

On Thursday April 16th, between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., we hope to have a really fun evening and a great turnout at 'Magic', opposite Nehru Centre, (Next to Vitesse) Worli, Mumbai.

Food and drink at a 30 percent discount, but more importantly the old school camraderie for free. Be there and bring your alumni friends.

Shyla Boga Patel & Viral Doshi
Co-Presidents
Cathedral & John Connon Alumni Association

I hope as many of you will attend. Send me the pictures from the event and also information about this Night Club. Comments on prices, decor, food and snacks variety and quality, sound system and music, privacy, etc. would also be most welcome.

Have a great time folks and thinks of us out here who are not able to attend!

Where am I going? What am I doing?

2009-03-31T21:53:00.001+02:00

(Also posted on all my major blogs.)

Ubi does not believe that I have writer's block. Naval is meticulously letting me of intrusions into my own cyberspace. People are calling me and telling me they are my fans!

And what am I doing?

With the explosion of networking sites - LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Orkut, Plaxo Pulse, My World in Flock, all my blogs, Google Groups, a plethora of calendars, I am getting terribly lost in Cyberspace.

Where should I do first thing in the morning? Which place should I update first to reach the widest spread of my audience. 80000 people worldwide is quite a reach!

What should I write about? Politics, the economy, nostalgic thoughts about school and college, life in Finland?

There certainly is an inexhaustible list of topics.

It is this explosion which is numbing my mind. Everything I want to do seems to be the wrong step - or is it the right step?

I am searching for someone out there with experience to guide me - but it appears that when you are the trend setter . no one wants to proffer their advice!

So I will have to work this out by myself.

All of you out there will continue to get angry with me as no one is satisfied going to a site which just refuses to be updated!

Maybe tomorrow morning the answer will hit me - but maybe not!!!

Unwanted intrusions

2009-03-20T06:41:00.002+02:00

My blogs are quite popular. During a simple Google Search, the references crop up at high levels, not only on Google, but also on the various search engines. Although this is something to be proud of, it does cause some problems.

If someone from our school or college features in a media report, I get many thousands of hits as people turn up at one of my blogs where these people may or may not be mentioned. Then they email me asking for details.

In many cases, where it is friends wanting to meet after several years, or tracing of long lost relatives, I usually mail a copy of the request directly to the person concerned, IF I have the contact. This has put many people together and my blogs are valued very much for this service.

But there is another face to this game. I get requests from investigative or probing reporters asking for contact details of many rich and famous people that feature on my blogs.

In this case I usually have one simple answer - "Sorry, I cannot reveal any details about the persons involved."

These reporters use many tricks to get me to reveal details. I have become past master at identifying their games.

I value the personal life of all my friends. I try not ever reveal what is intimate and personal. I have never had a complaint so far. I hope I never will.

The reason is that you have to think like a reporter to determine what they are after. Having been on the fringes of the journalistic business ever since I was 7 years old, I have learnt the tricks of the trade.

There are many who compliment me on having such a wide reach. That is because of my journalistic experience and perseverance. But I try never to violate the code of conduct of journalists and violate the principles of respecting persons and their personal lives.

Passing away of Mr. John Lewis

2009-03-17T17:20:00.003+02:00

The information of the passing away of Mr. John Lewis has just reached me.

A Church Service will be held in his memory on Thursday, March 19th 2009 at St. Thomas' Cathedral at 8.45 a.m.

The late Mr. John Lewis was former Vice-Principal, Wilson House Master and Head of the Maths Dept.

All those who wish to pay their last respects to Mr. John Lewis are requested to kindly grace the Service.

May his soul rest in peace.

Disgusting advertising technique

2009-03-12T23:23:00.004+02:00

ANNIKKI and I DO NOT ENDORSE L. K. ADVANI, the BJP political party or the RSS Fundamentalist Group.

It has been brought to my attention by one of my most faithful readers, 49er Naval Patel, that when he comes to visit this Seventh Heaven page, at the top is a picture of L. K. Advani.

That picture seems to appear when the person visiting the page is from India. Hence, being in Finland, I am not seeing this advertisement of L. K. Advani when I visit the page.

Annikki and I detest all fundamentalist parties. We are in no way advocates of the policies or principles of the BJP party or the RSS fundamentalist group, both of which are intertwined with hatred at the hip.

I am asking Google for an explanation as to how this advertisement for a most despicable party is appearing at the top of my blog pages.

I would also like those of you have any feelings on the subject to let others know that Annikki and Jacob Matthan, who are a most liberal couple, who cannot stand any form of religious fundamentalism which breeds on hatred of those of other faiths, have nothing whatsoever to do with L. K. Advani or the party he stands for.

Thank you, Naval, for bringing this to my attention.

54ers mourn two friends

2009-02-25T07:37:00.004+02:00

I received the very sad news that, probably the oldest Cathedralite, 97 year old mother of 54er Zarrin Aga (née Lam) passed away. Our deepest condolences to Zarrin and her family.

We lost a 54er, Vasant Khandke on February 18 in England. Our condolences to his wife, Valerie, who is devasted to be parted from her beloved partner of the past 38 years. Vasant lived with Valerie in Harpenden, Herts., in England.

Contrary to rumours floating about - the Seventh Heaven Blog has not been shut down.

As I have been very busy, I have not had time to update it with all the news that has been reaching me.

There is, however, one problem I do want to mention now.

Several of you, who have registered to be updated whenever I update my blog, have been getting notices that the blog has been updated. However, when you come to see the blog, there are no visible updates.

This can be for two reasons.

The first is happening quite frequently in that when someone out there reads an old entry and then posts a comment, the blog updater sends out this info, but fails to mention where the update has taken place.

This is very frustrating, especially for me, as I would like to acknowledge the comment, and reply if necessary.

I have brought it to the notice of the Google Blog Administrators.

The second reason is a glitch in the Updater software as it is recording a change in the ownership of the blog, which is untrue, and it is also updating me about this.

I have informed the Google Administrators also about this glitch.

As it is so annoying, I would like to suggest you unsubscribe from this service till such time as it is fixed - which I will inform you via the blog!

However, do chxck in once a week till I get this Blog working again on a regular basis.

I should start getting my life back in order soon and then I will start my regular blog updates. But till then you are all in my thoughts and prayers.

News of the 59ers GOLDEN REUNION is November 2009 is now in the pipeline. So stay tuned on the Blog as well as the 59ers Google Group as I put together this info.

The Mumbai Organisers have done an outstanding job.

We 59ers will be having the Mother of all Reunions between the 11th and 18th of November this year. Wow, what a programme lies ahead.

59ers meet as a tribute to our classsmate

2008-12-09T18:23:00.006+02:00

In Mumbai, our Class of 59 met at the Bombay Gymkhana to remember our dear felled friend, Ashok. The group pictures of those who attended (mostly 59ers and their spouses) have just reached me. But a few close friends from other years did join, keeping 59er Armeane Choksi's message of "be inclusive" alive. (Shivi has mistakenly ascribed that phrase "be inclusive, not exclusive" to me!)

(My apologies for the small text underthe photographs, so I have given the text again as part of the blog.)

57er Ratan Batliwalla, 59er Elijah Elias (Ooky), 59er Ashok Ruia, 59er Trevor Newnes, Rivca Elias (w/o Ooky), 59er Ramesh Mirchandani, 60er Rashida Anees (née Kajiji), 60er Meher (nèe Tata), 53er M. Anees, 59er Renuka Batliwalla (née Dhanrajgir), 59er Venkat Kurma, 59er Piloo Tata (née Dastur), 59er Vikram Singh, 65er Nina Shivdasani, 59er Ratan Singara, 60er Suchita Shivdasani (née Assomull; w/o Shivi), 59er Vijay Shivdasani (Shivi), Anu Kurma (w./o Venkat), 59er Jangoo Moos, 60er Poornima Sethi (née Mazumdar; w/o Viney Sethi), 59er Vikram Kamdar, 57er Lata Bakhle (s/o late 59er Pradeep Bahkle) (Inset: 59er Hasnain Chinwala). Photograph by Hasnain Chinwala

60er Poornima Sethi (née Mazumdar; w/o Viney Sethi), 57er Ratan Batliwalla, 59er Ashok Ruia, 59er Viney Sethi, 59er Vijay Nayar, 59er Elijah Elias (Ooky), Rivca Elias (w/o Ooky), 59er Trevor Newnes, 59er Ramesh Mirchandani, 60er Rashida Anees (née Kajiji), 53er M. Anees, 59er Renuka Batliwalla (née Dhanrajgir), 59er Piloo Tata (née Dastur), 59er Venkat Kurma, 65er Nina Shivdasani, 60er Suchita Shivdasani (née Assomull; w/o Shivi), 57er Lata Bakhle (s/o late 59er Pradeep Bakhle), 59er Vijay Shivdasani (Shivi), 59er Ratan Singara, 59er Vikram Kamdar (Inset: 59er Hasnain Chinwala). Photograph by Hasnain Chinwala

In Oulu, some of the senior Indian Residents - of course, I am the seniormost, held a short meeting where we maintained a two minute silence period in memory of those who had fallen in Mumbai. A few talked about the tragedy. One had been through the bombing in matunga. I spoke but it was through tears when I told about our dear Ashok. But the very act of expressing the grief gave me strength, a strength that I pray will be with those near and dear to Ashok - like all those 59ers and some of other years in school who were close with him.

Remember that today evening is the memorial for all our Cathedralites who went through this tragedy. Be there.

Two important messages from Mumbai

2008-12-08T17:08:00.004+02:00

53er Pushpa Bhatia (née Dongersee) sent me this Notice:

The second is an email from our Alumni Webmaster:

The Cathedral & John Connon Alumni Association

Mumbai
December 8, 2008

Dear Friend,

We mourn with Mumbai and the country as we struggle to come to grips with the tragic loss of lives in the city on November 26, 2008. No segment of society was left unscathed in the most brutal and heart-rending attacks on Victoria Terminus, Nariman House, the Leopold Cafe and the Taj and Oberoi/Trident hotels.

The Alumni Association is deeply saddened to announce the passing of our very own Ashok Kapur (Palmer '59; brother of 53er Satish, 56er Pramila and 64er Anil aka Billy), Sanjay Agarwal (Wilson '77; son of 49er Vijay Ram) and Sunil Parekh (Savage '81).

The tragic loss for the Cathedral family extends to the unthinkable - one of our young students, Udayveer Kang lost his life in the attacks as did his little brother, Samar Singh who was about to enter the Cathedral fold. Bereaved students and alumni, Karan and Nakul Agarwal, Anandita and Arundati Parekh, Vaibhav Garg, Armaan Harjani, Sanjana and Sarjan Shah, Nairika and Arshan Maloo and Radhika Bhatt, have lost either one or both their parents. Our students have also said their final goodbye to an outstanding former teacher, Mrs. Rupinder Randhawa, who taught biology and environmental science in the school for several years.

For them and their families words will be of little comfort but they do have our deepest sympathy in this, their darkest hour.

At this exceedingly difficult time, emotions have been running high in Mumbai, and citizens are surging forward to help create a more secure future for India. Among these efforts are those by Cathedral alumni to provide counselling services for affected children, provide supplies to lower income hospitals, to lobby for political accountability, mobilise public opinion and much more.

The Alumni Association has created a platform for you at www.catalumni.com/voices.asp where you can garner support for your initiative and help channelise this emotion and energy, browse listings to see how you can help, read through ideas and opinions, or simply reconnect with a long-lost school friend at this painful time in our history.

Let us alumni be there for every stratum of society in a positive and sensitive manner, in the age-old tradition of the true Cathedralite.

The Executive Committee

Memorial Service on 10th December for the lost lives on 26/11

The School will be holding a Memorial Service for those children, parents and alumni who lost their lives in the tragic events of November 26th.

Date: Wednesday 10th, December 2008.
Time: 5.30 p.m.
Venue: The Cathedral Senior School Quadrangle.

Please try and be there.

May I also request every single one of you who can get there to be PLEASE there.

Unwanted tragedy and our Open Obituary

2008-11-29T04:52:00.006+02:00

Ashok Kapur
Born 19th April 1943, Died November 2008
The funeral will be held at Bainganga at the end of Walkeshwar Rd towards the Govs residence, Mumbai today 29 Nov at 4 pm.

Dearest Madhu,

As the world wakes up this morning, Annikki and I cry with you, dearest Madhu.

For the past 48 hours or more, ever since 59er Shivi (Retired Captain Vijay Shivdasani) wrote to me that a “friend” was missing in the Mumbai episode, and a few hours later, 59er Ooky (Elijah Elias) told me that the “friend” was our most dearest and precious 59er Ashok, Annikki and I have been in constant prayer for him, you and your entire family.

Ashok was the first of my “friends” that Annikki met in 1964 in London. Since then Ashok was never just a “friend” to Annikki, as she knew that bond that existed between us 59ers was not just a friendship but something much deeper and closer than even a brotherhood.

When I started the Seventh Heaven Web page, a few months later, our very dearest 59er Bala (Bala Parasuraman) died in a kidney transplant operation, Annikki and I dedicated our web effort to bring together a group of people around the world who had more in common than just being the Class of 59.

What I write here today is, not just of the thoughts of Annikki and me, but people across the world who are feeling the deep sense of grief that we know you and your family are going through at this instant, as we are, with you, part of that FAMILY.

I did not start our Seventh Heaven Blog or Google Group to send out sad news such as this. But with the passing of Ashok, I have to use this medium to communicate across the globe and shout into the vast Universe - please God let this senseless killing stop.

Madhu, Annikki and I are socio-political animals as we fight, peacefully with the power of the pen, for justice.

On March 31st 2003, when the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said the U.S.-led war on Iraq would produce "one hundred new bin Ladens", driving more Muslims to anti-Western militancy, he did not tell us that it would result in the death and destruction of innocent lives of many non-Westerners around this globe. He did not tell us that it was OUR innocent brothers and sisters that would be destroyed by a gangs of people, organised armies and unorganised armies, both terrorists, who hide behind a facade of political viewpoints of their choosing, and ethnicity, religion, colour, caste and creed, to cause the pain and suffering to you and us.

As Annikki and I drove out of a supermarket about 12 hours ago, 59er Ooky called me and informed Annikki and me that one of our dearest brothers had lost his life in the Mumbai terrorist attack. His voice was shaking with the deep emotion and pain that he was going through as he asked me to relay this news around this globe. I cried and Annikki cried as we sat in our parked car and understood the pain that you and your family and all of us would go through as we faced this horrible reality.

Ashok Kapur, born 19th April 1943, was a leading member of the 59ers. He and I were appointed Prefects in Cathedral School already in the 10th Standard. Cricket wicket-keeper for the school as well as playing as inside left in our school hockey team, Ashok was also a good badminton player. As a friend of his who was playing badminton with him recently said, Ashok was still a good player!

Ashok was a wizard with numbers and with people, which was why he went into banking. Although coming from different parents, we were twins in many ways, not just because we are both Arians!

Ashok’s entire family was like my family just as much as he was part of ours. The Marine Drive house was more than home to me as both Ashok’s parents would greet me, and all of us his classmates, with broad smiles and open arms, a glass of juice, and something sweet, whenever we even dropped in casually. Sister Pramila’s home was open house to me when I was studying in Delhi.

Ashok was the contact for me with my 95 year old uncle, Mr. K. M. Philip, (father of 53er Sen Philip and 58er Peter Philip), your next door neighbour in Petit Hall on Napean Sea Road. Every year, on Mr. Philip's birthday, Ashok would do me the favour of dropping in to wish my uncle and report back to me on his health. This personal relationship was deeply valued by every member of my extended family as they saw Ashok and you, not just as neighbours to Mr. and Mrs. Philip, but as our eyes and ears in the life of our uncle.

Madhu, you had a miraculous escape and we thanked God for that even as we prayed and prayed constantly for the safe return of Ashok. But with each passing hour we knew in our hearts, and as many of us kept a prayer vigil across this globe, that we had lost one of our most beloved brothers.

It is difficult to write the Obituary of such a dear friend as every word brings back memories and the tears gush from the eyes. I have started this several times but stopped as each word has a depth of emotion in my heart that makes it impossible for me to convey the grief that is there.

Who would have thought that our Ashok will not be there at our 50th Reunion next year? His passing has redoubled my intention to bring together every 59er and his / her family so that we be together for a short while and know each other as Ashok and I knew each other.

But he was present at this year’s Founders Day Cathedral Church Service representing our 59ers. He was there at an event that evening and as 57er Bhupinder Singh Anand and School Captain of us 59ers in 1959, put it to me when he asked me to convey his grief to you and your family, he told me how Ashok had modestly said to him that he was “the founder of YES Bank.”

Dear Jacob,

I am distressed to just learn from a flash message on TV that Ashok Kapur, Chairman of Yes Bank, was slain in the terrorist attack on the Taj.

Please convey my condolences to his family, friends and colleagues through your network, who have been anxiously seeking news of his whereabouts and welfare through the police helplines over the last 24 hours.

I embraced him warmly - alas too briefly - at the Class of 1958 dinner at the Joss a couple of weeks back, with a feeling of pride at his self-made achievements in life, as he modestly informed me that he was the founder Chairman of Yes bank.

Bhupinder Singh Anand

Ashok started his career in banking at the very bottom, attending the National Grindlays Banking School in London. He used to live in the Bank Student Quarters in Blackheath in deep south London. I would visit him there regularly. He would also often travel up to north London to meet up with me, just to gup shup about “things”.

Even after leaving school we stayed in close touch, visiting each other and staying with each other whenever we visited the city where the other lived. On one of my rare visits to Calcutta, I remember him as the Branch Manager in a Grindlays bank when he took me there to show me the unopened computers the Union had not permitted to be used.

When he was in Delhi, I had many choices as to where to stay - Ashok being one who would always insist that I stay with him. As he said in a recent email, when he was late in acknowledging my birthday greetings as he had been away in Dubai, we were both Arians. Whenever I visited Delhi we would meet for lunch in Connaught Place when he was the Branch manaager there. In Bombay i would visit him in the Flora Fountain Branch when he was going through his most troubling time in his bank career as he stood on HIS principles and suffered the consequences, happily! Probably only you, Madhu, and I know those details as it spurred him to even greater heights and greater success in his fabulous banking career!

Although I have conveyed our deep feeling of personal bereavement to you and children through Ooky, this open letter to you comes not only from Annikki and me but every member of the Class of 59. I know that I do not need to ask their permission to include them in my signature!

Annikki and I have been numbed by the impact of this news as we grieve one of our dearest friends. I am sure that every person who knew Ashok will also claim that he was their dearest friend - as that was the very emotion that Ashok evoked in everyone. That was why he was the successful banker!

One not need look further than the last mini-reunion which was held in Mumbai to reunite our class with Trevor Newnes - which was hosted graciously by you and Ashok at your residence. Ashok wrote to me to tell me that he had missed Annikki and me there and thanked me for bringing us 59ers together.

Madhu, I could write a volume of our personal relationship but this may not be the time and place. As we go through this sleepless night I will put together my photographic record of Ashok which spans the 54 years of our relationship when he sat next to me in Mr. Timmin’s 6th Standard on the first floor and welcomed me to the happiest days of my life in our Cathedral School.

The Class of 59 will remember all our departed friends this coming November.

I am sure that Ashok will be there amongst us in spirit and we will all honour him together.

Madhu, Ashok was not alone in passing as we also ask all our friends to remember another greatly loved Cathedralite teacher, Mrs. Roopinder Randhawa, who lost her life at the Taj Hotel. Along with tributes to Ashok which have poured into my email Inbox, I have had many remembering this wonderful teacher, whom I did not know, but now know was in many respects like Ashok - dedicated to those around them.

Madhu, the tears have not stopped flowing in this Arctic wintry location. It is just past 4 am, 12 hours since Ooky informed me. In those 12 hours there has not been a second where I have not had Ashok and all of you in my mind.

Dearest Madhu, Annikki and I pray that his soul will rest in peace.

Your friends in deep shock,

Annikki and Jacob
Along with every single member of the class of 59

Recipe for disaster?

2008-11-06T22:54:00.002+02:00

I had this interesting email from our Alumni Association:

Notice for EOGM on 12th November 2008

NOTICE is hereby given that an Extra Ordinary General Meeting of the Association will be held at 6.30 p.m. on Wednesday, 12th November 2008 at Cathedral Middle School to consider the following business:

SPECIAL BUSINESS

1. To consider and if thought fit to pass with or without modifications the following resolution as a special resolution:

" RESOLVED THAT pursuant to the provisions of the regulations contained in the Rules and Regulations of the Association be amended to incorporate the appointment of co-presidents, co-vice presidents, co- treasurers and co-secretaries be and are hereby approved and adopted as the Rules and Regulations of the Association in substitution for and to the exclusion of all the previous articles hereof.

RESOLVED FURTHER THAT Viral Doshi and Rohita Doshi, be and are hereby jointly and severally authorized by the Association to undertake such acts, deeds and matters, including but not limited to making requisite filings, that may be required to give effect to the amendment of the Rules and Regulations of the Association in accordance with this resolution."

For CATHEDRAL AND JOHN CONNON ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Pragni Kapadia
Hon. Secretary
Place : Mumbai
Date : 5.11.2008

NOTES:

An explanatory statement as required is enclosed herewith.

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

The following explanatory statement sets out the material facts referred to in the notice convening the Extraordinary General Meeting of the Company.

ITEM NO. 1

In light of the upcoming 150 year celebrations of the Cathedral and John Connon School, the work load on the members of the Executive Committee may be largely increased. In light of the same, we may require co-presidents, co-vice presidents, co-treasurers and co-secretaries from time to time.

In order to make it possible to appoint co-presidents, co-vice presidents, co-treasurers and co-secretaries from time to time, the Rules of the Cathedral and John Connon School Alumni Association would have to be amended.

Members approval is required under Rule 55 for the alteration of the Rules and Regulations of the Association.

The Executive Committee commends passing of the resolution set out in the Notice convening the meeting.

By order of the Executive Committee
For CATHEDRAL AND JOHN CONNON ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Pragni Kapadia
Hon. Secretary
Place : Mumbai
Date : 5.11.2008

November, 6 2008

Co-presidents, co-vice presidents, co-treasurers and co-secretaries will lead to one of two possible scenarios - no one taking responsibility for everything (and taking credit for everything), or a very equitable sharing of responsibilities and honour.

Which do you think is the most likely outcome of such a move? I think where human nature will take us.

In my humble opinion, every post can have who we, in Finland, call a "SPARE" which in India would be referred to as an "ALTERNATE".

If there is a clear plan, then a series of sub-committees could be established with a Chair for each sub-committee, but answerable to THE PRESIDENT! Each sub-committee would be responsible for its budget and the main Committee would be responsible for ensuring the budget amounts are realised.

I do not think I should lecture to top-notch management experts on this - but in my life as a manager - I think I know where things will lead to if one follows a path which can have disastrous routes associated with them!

Think well my friends before accepting the suggestion being put forward at this Extra Ordinary General Meeting!

148th Founders' Day Programme

2008-11-03T16:03:00.004+02:00

I received this from the Honorary Webmaster of the our Alumni website:

Programme for 148th Founders' Day, Friday November 14th, 2008

Church Service : St. Thomas' Cathedral at 9 a.m.
Cricket Match : School versus Alumni at Hindu Gymkhana, Marine Drive, at 10.30 a.m. Contact : Sanjay Shah (Barham '08) at 9821015871 for details
Throwball Match : School versus Alumni at 10.30 a.m. in the Middle School. For details contact Nina Sugati SR on 98212 90818; E-mail: ninasugatisr@hotmail.com
Tour of the Schools : The school prefects will take interested alumni around the schools at 11 a.m., from the Middle School. Many alumni have not visited the schools since they have been renovated, and have evinced an interest in doing so.
BRUNCH : Alumni are cordially invited to a brunch in the Middle School from 11.30 to 2.30. Lots of good food, live music and camaraderie promised.

With regards

Viral Doshi
Hon. Webmaster

Looks like the dinner dance has been dispensed with!

A serious issue to be resolved quickly

2008-10-08T10:28:00.001+02:00

When I received the copy of an email from 56er Ubi to the current but retiring Preseident of our alumni, I wrote to Ubi that I would like some background before I put anything on this blog abpout the subject.

The President of our Alumni, 81er Rajiv Bhatia, has chosen the Cat Alumni Blog (that he had set up in 2007), and also my blog to respond publicly to the issues.

It is a long post. I reproduce it in full. Many of you out there, especially many old timers, who have held my blog in great respect, to communicate your mature views to our alumni, expect nothing less.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Protest against cancellation of 14-Nov-08 Annual Dinner at the Blue Sea
My dear fellow members and ex-Cathedralites

As President and Chairman of the Association I have tried to keep the workings and happenings as transparent as possible. As you have been made aware, I will be concluding my two year tenure as President & Chairman on 15-Oct-08 at the AGM at the Middle School which will commence at 6pm. I will not be continuing as ex-officio on the Executive Committee.

I have received an email from the respected Mr. H.S. "Ubi" Uberoi (1956'er) past president 1985 which I have reproduced below. He has, most rightly, asked for transparency, and I will respond with details

"On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 12:12 PM, HS Uberoi wrote:

Dear Mr.President,

I have learned from sources other than the Association that plans are afoot to cancel this year's Alumni Association Dinner Dance.

Why may I ask?And why is it being done in such a clandestine manner?Does the managing committee not believe that it owes it to the membership that elected it,to tell them about it?

I for one,am very disappointed to learn of the cancellation,if the news is correct.I had made a large group for the occasion.I also believe that a large number of members are planning to do the same.

But if what I have heard is true,that you as the President are being threatened at gunpoint that either you agree to the cancellation or the so called "effective"clique of your managing committee will boycott it,then I must say that the more the things in the Cathedral And John Connon Alumni Association change,the more they remain the same!The professions and protestations that the Asociation management is for the membership is all nonsense-it actually is a vehicle for the self interest of a few,who by hook or crook come back to the managing committee year after year!

For God's sake let some new members and young blood take charge and rejuvinate the Association!And for God's sake go ahead with the Dinner Dance!

Yours truly,
H.S.Uberoi
(Past President-1985"

I have also been questioned as to `why' by other Classes, junior and senior and therefore find it necessary to reproduce the extract of the draft minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on 17-Sep-08.

"The preparations for Founders Week November 2008 were discussed. As Rajiv was not going to be a part of the continuing Executive Committee after the 24th AGM scheduled on 15-Oct-08, he had not attended an earlier informal meeting held between Chitra, Shyla, Rohita, Amit & Viral on September 1st, 2008 where the Founders Week November 2008 preparations were discussed. Shyla informed Rajiv that those who met had decided to cancel the Annual Association dinner scheduled on 14-Nov-08 at the Blue Sea for the following reasons:
1. Many of the older members felt that they could not attend an evening function and some felt quite left out as the crowd was 1980's and later. Some old teachers also said they found it difficult to come at night.
2. Past experience has shown that after every two or three big successes we have not been able to sell the required amount of tickets to break even.
3. There will be a big dinner in 2009 to herald the 150th year and we should keep this in mind.
4. Reuniting classes of 1958, 1964 and 1966 had indicated an indifference to the Annual dinner.
The other events were confirmed and preparations underway and it was proposed that the Middle School Brunch be elevated to a more sumptuous event. Rajiv, disagreed with the reasons cited, found them as inadequate grounds to cancel the event, re-capped that most preparations were already streamlined & expressed his disappointment that the now largest annual event & much favored by the members, particularly the youngsters, being the Annual Dinner, was taken off the schedule this year but recognized that it was the privilege of the continuing Executive Committee to decide."

The last post below on this blog on 18-Sep, explains the situation as well. This should fully clear the cloud and dispell rumours regarding the cancellation.

Mr. Uberoi's mail may be further responded to with details about the workings of the Association.

The strategy paper introduced by me in Nov-06 http://catalumni.org/docs/bhatiaadd.pdf describes what it will take to make the Association sustainably successful. Essentially it is a function of
(a) its relationship with the school in terms of recognition as an Association as a whole and not the sum of the parts of individual member relationships with the School
(b) its relationship with the larger membership
(c) its financial strength.

In terms of what is stated above,

(a) placing a helpdesk in school will not only be of operational benefit but also symbolic of the recognition extended by School. More in points 5, 6 & 7 further below.
(b) in terms of b above, transparency and democratic methods have been deployed in the past two years which has considerably engaged the Association with the larger membership as never before.

This is what the membership sees and feels and is so appreciative of. To sustain this you need database accuracy and maintenance and quality communication. We need to spend more on our database, website, magazine (already of a better quality) and personnel. In terms of (c) above we may have well modeled funding, which has been considered in the strategy paper of Nov-06 but as all entrepreneurs know, to get a financial model to develop further and succeed you need seed capital or angel funding to first start-up. In the case of the Association it would mean contributions by the membership to the corpus.

Here, when we have been promised a large sum from overseas, we need the support of our CA who as of last year, and probably for the first time, is an ex-Cathedralite. The papers need to be processed by him and aided by help from influential and knowledgeable membership. More money towards the corpus needs to come in.

Whether or not future Executive Committees will continue the upward trend will depend on

(i) the continued progress in mindsets and
(ii) adherence to processes.

Based on the strategy set where do things stand today:

1) Membership - has continued to expand and are connected mainly online through the official web site, various regional-class-special interest groups, blogs such as cathedraliteheaven by Jacob Matthan (1959'er), this the one you are reading - the Presidents blog, very actively on Face Book and so on. The official web site database and role leaves much to be desired. Furthermore it was hacked earlier in Jun-Jul 2008 - fortunately no data pilfered, from what I am told, only injected with links to spam-ware locations. The site and these issues remain to be addressed between the web host and the Alumni representative web master, we hope they will soon. (Ed.: My blog is called Seventh Heaven.)

2) Corpus - in Dec-06 this was around 6 lacs today its around 18lacs. 1957'ers promise of Rs. 15 lacs hasn't gone through so far as the Association Chartered Accountant is yet to prepare the application under the Home Dept linked to at www.csirwebistad.org/pdf/fc1a.pdf This is pending since Dec-07

3) Alumni Ex-Staff benevolence - with Mr. Mazumdars case example (see http://catalumni.blogspot.com/2008/04/status-report-on-mr-mazumdar-and-role.html below) this has now been formalized as a fund and available to needy Alumni & Ex-staffers. This initiative has been led by Pranay Shah a 1971er. Mr. Harry Mirchandani of USA a 1975'er has donated Rs. 1 lac, through an Indian bank (not an FC remittance) towards this in the memory of his parents.

4) The magazine - The Nov-2007 issue looked good and well produced by the magazine team. Sunaina & Priya both 1992'er kick-started the initiative. Many members such as Meena Bhat a 1956'er contributed. It was well guided and completed by our own Shyla and Rohita. This years issue Nov-08 promises to be even better and our dear Miel is playing a lead role.

5) Alumni contributions to the School - Dr. Annirudha Malpani run discussion sessions on the `birds & the bees' which parents and kids actively participate in, Vikram Uttamsigh of KPMG organises office orientation placements for senior children and many others too which will be reported as I have requested. Much has happened over the years behind the scenes but has gone unreported, most unfortunately. The School has expansion plans in South Mumbai and more information will be made available pursuant to the Office Bearers meeting with the Principal on 09-Sep-08, so that the Association and its members can play a role.

6) The help desk - we are informed that at present there is no space but will be made available as soon as possible. I cannot overstate the importance of this; our Alumni Officer Reeta will have no desk post 15-Oct-2008, as things stand.

7) Formal relationships with the School - The office bearers and I met with the Principal on 09-Sep-08 which has been followed up by correspondence and the Principal and the Board are looking into providing a confirmation letter to accept the Alumni Association to be the only Alumni Association of the School, no-objection to the usage of the name `Cathedral & John Connon Alumni Association' as ours is a registered society for charitable purposes and therefore the activities are well regulated posing no threat, the School to be represented by the Principal on the Executive Committee of the Association, the Association not to interfere with the management of the School. All this being essential as the School is not a signatory to the formation memorandum of the Association. I hope to make a positive announcement at the 24th AGM on 15-Oct-08 at 6pm at the Middle School. `Insha'Allah!'

8) 150th year - a 150th year Committee has been set up at the instance of the School. This comprises of select PTA members and select ex-Cathedralites. There was no formal interaction between the School & the Association when this was set up. I was most ceratinly not consulted. However the Office Bearers meeting with the Principal held on 09-Sep-08 had yielded positively and I reproduce the content:

"Mrs. Isaacs said that a 150th year Celebrations Committee was convened under the stewardship of Rangita Bhatnagar. The Committee had been meeting and discussing various plans which would be announced as they firmed up around Jan-09. She further said that most of the celebrations would surround Founders Day 2010. She also said that various ex-Cathedralites outside of the 150th year Committee had been meeting her to discuss their suggestions and participation. It would be appropriate for Rangita who was not only the Chair of the 150th year Committee & a PTA member but also a member of the Executive Committee of the Association, to list the ex-Cathedralite contributors/ participants and keep the Executive Committee of the Association informed of the list and the plans as they firmed up. Whatever information was available should be provided to the General Body of the Association by Rangita at the 24th AGM. This task is specifically assigned to Rangita."

9) Class leadership - This is a big gap. We need active class leadership to help keep the Alumni database uptodate and to communicate effectively. Classes have repeatedly been requested to send in Excel spreadsheet with updates but very little has come in. The Association has brief lists of the classes year wise, as obtained from the School, but these contain names only. This too is a help.

10) The working and efficiency of the Executive Committee - abysmal! Some individually play a very effective role and much gratitude to them for having kept alive the Association. But its time for youngsters from the 80's, 90's, 2000's to come in and start relieving the seniors who ought to act as mentors and not be saddled with continuing responsibility. I suspect this will not happen in the obvious way. There are no new nominations so far and the time line is later today October 8th at 3:30pm. What I suggest is an independent `Youth Wing' be formed to run parallel activities, in a small way, demonstrate their abilities and commitment to the seniors on the EC and thereafter get inducted to the work groups of the EC & EC itself. Retired seniors with the time and talent required to administer should come on too.

11) Why the reluctance to be President of the Cathedral Alumni?

The role of the President as envisaged by the constitution and as being practiced is quite different. The constitution envisages a large Executive Committee ( a President, 2 Vice Presidents, 2 Secretaries, 2 Treasurers) with office bearers defined to play specific roles. However in practice and under the misplaced garb of the phrase `the buck stops at the President’, he/she is expected to perform every duty and task and any performed by the others is to be appreciated as a favor to the `President’. WOW! We certainly need to rethink this and add more dignity to the office of the President so that the finest among the huge and illustrious membership may be attracted to the post, rather than shun it, for the unreasonable responsibility of task execution it entails.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/the-buck-stops-here.html this page explains what Harry Truman did and meant. Responsibility is not passed on beyond this point. U.S. president Harry S. Truman had a sign with this inscription on his desk. This was meant to indicate that he didn't 'pass the buck' to anyone else but accepted personal responsibility for the way the country was governed.

This was a responsibility he took upon him self. Responsibility for the way the Country was Governed. He did not perform every duty and task that officers of the Country performed in Governing the country.

So as in the case of the Association. The constitution (memorandum) of the Association provides for a large committee and numerous office bearers, envisaging a large volume of work to be done and be shared in execution. No where in the constitution does it state that the President of the Association will carry out all tasks necessary for the running of the Association.

I love my School and my Association & its members and have tried my best to go about the running of the Association as Professionally as possible and resources and man-hours input constraints have permitted. The Mid-Day reminder notice / advertisement released for the 24th AGM has also been funded by me so as the running costs over the past couple of years. If I have failed anyone in anyway then all I request is your forgiveness. But this is not about me. Its about the School, the Association and its members -

School First, House Next, Self Last.

I do hope that my suggestions are taken in a positive light for a sustainable growth of the Association. I look forward to constructive dialogue at the forthcoming 24th AGM.

regards

Rajiv

Always proud to be a Cathedralite and a member of the Alumni Association
@ your service

Thank you Rajiv for your good work over the last couple of years and of taking the trouble to keep my blog in the loop.

I am sure that many members who read this blog await your views so that we can see how to ensure that our Alumni Association continues to work for the good of the members and spreads its reach over the entire spectrum of members.

Joan is recovering - a prayer for her, PLEASE

2008-09-28T21:32:00.004+02:00

I received the email below from 56er Joan (née Rees) Austin's son, Richard, who has taken the trouble to inform about his mother's condition.

To reach the wider audience who know Joan, I am putting his touching email about his mother on the blog for all her friends to see.

Richard probably does not know that, as much as Joan loves us, we also love her very much. We wait for her emails.

We all will pray for her to come through this difficult time and hope she follows doctor's orders.

We also pray for her wonderful family (described by herself as "My very own United Nations gifts from heaven") that she is so proud of, husband Ron, Chhem, Richard and Tara.

GET WELL JOAN, FOR US!

And at this moment, even as she fights for her life, we remember Joan's Motto - "LIFE IS GOOD!"

Hi Everyone,

This is a first for me!

I am Richard, writing this on behalf of Mum (Joan Austin), to inform you that last Thursday, first thing in the morning after an extremely difficult night, Mum's Doctor rushed her off to A & E by ambulance with heart problems.

They kept her in A & E all day and because of her medical history, they conducted every manner of tests imaginable! The end result proved irregular heart beats. She does have an enlarged heart and a leaky valve, and has been rushed to hospital before a couple of times with heart failure, but thankfully, after a rest in hospital she is back home, with instructions to rest.

They have made her promise should the above occur again, she will not hesitate to 'phone for an ambulance and get to the hospital immediately.

Knowing Mum, I doubt if any of you really know or realize, what she has been through the past eight or so years.

She has a habit of making light of everything. She turns everything into a joke, despite how ill she may be feeling. She really has tremendous strength of character and an iron will. Everyone at the hospital love and admire her strength and courage.

(I don't know if you have any idea how she keeps one and all in stitches there - she doesn't care what she says or to whom!!) Even this time when she was taken to the X-ray department, we bumped into a Doctor that knew Mum from her Oncology days. He came up to have a chat and when she was being taken in for X-rays, he said, 'look after Joan, she is very special to us.'

Both Dad and I couldn't help getting a lump in our throats.

I know I am biased, but that about sums my Mum up. She truly is a very SPECIAL person. I only wish you knew her and all she is, like we and all she comes into contact with, know her.

A shame all the above took place so soon after Mum and Dad's holiday in Wales. They had a very enjoyable time and covered miles sightseeing, which they both love doing. All Mum came back with was fluid retention, which she suffers badly with anyway, but made worse because the naughty girl refrained from taking her fluid tablets!

Understandable really, as she would not have been able to get out and about until much later in the day - and she was not having any of that!!

Upon her return from holiday, Mum did get on the computer and was working her way through all the e-mails, and she did say all of you were next in line, but look what happened!

I sincerely hope I have remembered all her school friends in this email. It was extremely difficult sorting out between Mum's school friends from her other friends all over the world. She has a mountainous contact list! In the end, I had to make a list and Mum deleted or added accordingly - thank goodness!!

Tara usually does the necessary, but she is in Singapore to watch the Grand Prix and then on to Malaysia for a holiday. Mum would not let us inform Tara about her 'hiccup,' as she calls it! No doubt it would worry her no end and ruin her holiday, but Mum will catch it upon her return!!

Dad and I, also Chhem, Sue and little Nathan, join Mum in sending our love and best wishes to you.

Mum also says she will soon be back on-line.

My kind regards to all,

Richard

Thank you, Richard, for being in touch with us.

Urgent request from 58ers

2008-09-21T19:30:00.001+02:00

I received this email from Homi to pass on to all to help locate their 58ers who they have not yet been able to contact. If anyone has info about these missing classmates, please do contact me.

Dear All,

1. We believe that the Alumni Association is not having a Dinner Dance on the evening of Founder's Day, i.e., 14th November, but has instead organised a function for us all in the Middle School Hall, (old Girl's School) after the Church Service where they will serve a Buffet Lunch (and have some music as well). In the circumstances, it does not seem worthwhile to have any other arrangements at the Bombay Gym that day for lunch. Please therefore do not include any amount for that function when sending in your responses and cheques.

2. A request. We have now been able to contact around 36 Old Boys and Old Girls, but we don't know the whereabouts of many. Here are some names we have been able to put together. In case anyone knows any please write in or put them in touch with us.

Boys:

01. Karl Andree
02. Ronald Brisson
03. Roy Currian
04. Joe Edelstein
05. Mohammed Hanif (Qureshi?)
06. Simon Goldsmith
07. John Temple
08. Rodney Pratt
09. David Wallace
10. Abbas Currimjee
11. Tarun Kochar
12. Surrinder Jeet Singh
13. Vinod Chhabra
14. Dinshaw Byramji

Girls:

01. Farida Manal
02. Joyce Shellim
03. Nirmala Krishnamurti
04. Nargis Karim
05. Oenone Babbington
06. Suzanne Michell
07. Victoria Gerstenberg
08. Vivian Smith

Looking forward to an early response,

Best regards,

Darshana & Homi

I hope you will extend your hand to help the 58ers..

Reason for no updates

2008-09-07T12:58:00.002+02:00

Annikki and I are immersed with the details of organising the funeral of her mother, Hilja, who passed away last Sunday.

Hilja's Orbituary announcement - Kaleva 07.09.2008.

The funeral will take place on at the Intiö Iso saali (Chapel in the cemetery) at 15:00 hours.

We have had two tragic losses of loved ones during the last 45 days.

Our dear cat, and friend for over 17 years, Iitu, passed away with cancer which affected her kidneys. She was part of our day to day life from morning to night and through the night. Neither Annikki nor myself have yet recovered from that loss.

Iitu as a kitten in 1991.

Iitu's first and last set of kittens in 1993.

The perfect mother.

Iitu wants a share of my birthday cake.

A daily routine as Iitu stops me reading the newspaper by lying on it!

Iitu enjoys her TV - Annikki's table top aquarium.

Iitu's coffin.

Iitu at her final resting place in Vesaisentie
- the home of Tony, Joanna and grandchildren Samuel, Daniel and Maria.

Hilja, whom Annikki has cared for the last 24 years and, intensively, for the last 7 years, since her father passed away, (and whom I helped care for during the last few years) was very much part of our daily life.

She was in excellent health when she left home at the beginning of August. She contracted the deadly Hospital Bacteria while she was in the Kielokoti Old People's Home. She was rushed to hospital and then moved to the ODL Hospital.

There, in her weakened state, she was hit by pneumonia.

The old lady fought valiantly for her life. Finally left for her personal paradise at 17:49 on Sunday 31st August 2008 holding Annikki's hand on one side and mine on the other.

But she had told us many many times over the last year that she was ready to go to her "Heavenly Father":

The beautiful Hilja at her wedding in 1942.

Hilja carries Jaakko, with Aino and Annikki
with Susanna in the foreground - Oulu 1969.

Matias, Hilja, Annikki and Tuomas -
Out for a walk in the summer of 2003.

Hilja enjoying her meal.

Hilja with her latest greatgrandchild, Maria, in 2008.

Hilja with daughter, Annikki, granddaughter, Joanna, and greatgranddaughter, Maria - 2008.

Annikki takes her mother out for the last time - August 1st 2008.

RIP Hilja - 31st August 2008 at ODL.

Her passing has left a huge void in our life as we will miss her wit and humour.

Even till the very last she would mimic my poor Finnish language pronunciation.

She was in her senses till the very last . She recognised my voice the day before she passed away. When I greeted her, while she lay in some pain in her hospital bed, she replied in her normal way to me - "Thank you, Nothing special to tell you!"

Annikki used to pray and sing with her after putting her to bed every night. I will miss those quiet peaceful hours they had together before she went to sleep.

It will take us awhile to settle into the new situation where two of the most important family members of our daily life of the last 17 years have moved on.