Outstanding Alumni: Padma Bhushan 54er Rahul Bajaj

My second choice for my Outstanding Alumni Series, Padma Bhushan 54er/58er Rahul Bajaj, is another person who shared two alumni with me - Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai and St. Stephen's College in Delhi University.

Rahul was appointed as a Prefect in Standard 10 in school, an honour whim ch two 59ers, late Ashok Kapur and me, share with him. Like me, Rahul was also House Captain - of Savage House! 

Unlike me, he was also brilliant in studies. I was certianly deeply interested in sports but I was a very average student. I was fortunate to do well in my studies. I was no where near becoming 9th rank in the whole of Bombay State, as did Rahul! This is well evident in that Rahul has used his academic brilliance to build his industrial empire and received the Padma Bhushan in  2001 and in 2016 stood 722 in the Forbes List with a wealth of around $2.4 billion!

This is a revealing quote from Rahul which appeared in 2008:

"1946, we shifted for business purposes from Wardha to Mumbai. From then, till I passed out my senior Cambridge, I was in Cathedral School.

I did very well at school and passed out in 1954 with a distinction securing 9th rank in the whole of the then Bombay state. I learnt a great deal at Cathedral. The teaching methods were very good and there was a lot of personal touch.

I became a Prefect in Standard 10 and a Prefect and House Captain in Standard 11 and my classmates always wondered how I could be so good at studying and yet fulfill all these responsibilities. I was also the School Captain in table tennis and boxing. I also debated." (India  Today April 4th 2008.)

When I  arrived in Cathedral School from Bangalore in January 1954, I observed many of my seniors. Being my House Captain, Rahul was an immediate hero in my life. 54ers Antony Ramsinh, Ravi Jaitly and School Captain Sonawala were three others that made a deep impression on this new Cathedralite!

When I joined St.Stephen's College in 1960, when I told the staff, including the then Principal Sircar and Dean Rajpal, that I was from Cathedral School, Bombay, they all told me that I had big footsteps, those of Rahul, to fit into!

Rahul's accomplishments are recorded on the Wikipedia page about him.

I was greatly honoured when I visited Delhi with Annikki in 2009, 64er Deeepak Deshpande organised a get together of Delhi Cathedralites as a token of his respect for me. It was well attended, but what was the greatest tribute was that Rahul, then a Rajya Sabha member, who normally returned to Pune for the weekend, stayed on to attend this evening event. Rahul took the time to ask me a few pertinent questions about my life in Finland and also what India could learn from this small country which was then considered to be the most Innovative in the world!

Budget Battleground

This post is made in three of my blogs as it of interest to all my readers of Jacob's Blog, and more specifically the readers of my Mumbai Cathedral and John Connon School Blog, Seventh Heaven, and readers of the Stephanian Blog, Kooler Talk (Web Version).

I apologize for this multi-blog posting, as many of you are readers of all the three blogs!

Budget Battleground was  event that took place against the backdrop of my alma mater, St. Stephen's College, beautifully lit in the background, had a selected audience of young economists from Delhi School of Economics, Shri Ram College and St. Stephen's College, three of the many premier colleges in Delhi.

The anchorman was NDTV Managing Director, Dr. Prannoy Roy, who was connected with another good friend, great economist with tremendous wit, the person who turned around Doordarshan in the late eighties and early nineties and then went on to head Rupert Murdoch's Star TV and then his own channel, Broadcast Worldwide Ltd.,  and also a Stephanian, 61er/63er Rathikant Basu.

This is from the Wikipedia entry for NDTV Managing Director, Prannoy Roy:

Controversy

On 20 January 1998 Central Bureau of Investigation filed cases against New Delhi Television (NDTV) managing director Prannoy Roy, former Director General of Doordarshan R Basu and five other top officials of Doordarshan under Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for criminal conspiracy and under the Prevention of Corruption Act. According to the CBI charge-sheet, Doordarshan suffered a loss of over Rs 3.52 crore due to the “undue favours” shown to NDTV as its programme The World This Week (TWTW) was put in `A’ category instead of `special A’ category

The two in the hot seats were 63er Montek Singh Alhuwalia, who was very much present in St. Stephen's College during my three years there, and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen (difficult to say whether he is an Indian or Bangladeshi as both countries have laid claim to him).

One can never forget 63er Montek, not for his knowledge, but for the unique way he wore his turban and certain mannerisms (the nervous laugh when he knows what he is saying is not what he believes), which have not changed, even as of today. The way he argued a point was always from a point that he could not be wrong, although many times, he was and is!

I give below three extract from the autobiography of Amartya Sen (Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1998). In these extracts you will see the mention of a name - Mumbai Cathedral School 59er Sudhir Anand, my classmate who is Professor of Economics at both Oxford and Harvard, a brilliant economist and undoubtedly a brain who influenced Amartya Sen considerably more than a three time  mention in his autobiography.

59er Sudhir was from our Mumbai Cathedral and John Connon School. Although unable to make it top our 50th year reunion in 2009, he was very much there in spirit.

"I was also fortunate to have colleagues who were working on serious social choice problems, including Peter Hammond, Charles Blackorby, Kotaro Suzumura, Geoffrey Heal, Gracieda Chichilnisky, Ken Binmore, Wulf Gaertner, Eric Maskin, John Muellbauer, Kevin Roberts, Susan Hurley, at LSE or Oxford, or neighbouring British universities. (I also learned greatly from conversations with economists who were in other fields, but whose works were of great interest to me, including Sudhir Anand, Tony Atkinson, Christopher Bliss, Meghnad Desai, Terence Gorman, Frank Hahn, David Hendry, Richard Layard, James Mirrlees, John Muellbauer, Steve Nickel, among others.) I also had the opportunity of collaboration with social choice theorists elsewhere, such as Claude d'Aspremont and Louis Gevers in Belgium, Koichi Hamada and Ken-ichi Inada in Japan (joined later by Suzumura when he returned there), and many others in America, Canada, Israel, Australia, Russia, and elsewhere). There were many new formal results and informal understandings that emerged in these works, and the gloom of "impossibility results" ceased to be the only prominent theme in the field. The 1970s were probably the golden years of social choice theory across the world. Personally, I had the sense of having a ball.

From social choice to inequality and poverty

The constructive possibilities that the new literature on social choice produced directed us immediately to making use of available statistics for a variety of economic and social appraisals: measuring economic inequality, judging poverty, evaluating projects, analyzing unemployment, investigating the principles and implications of liberty and rights, assessing gender inequality, and so on. My work on inequality was much inspired and stimulated by that of Tony Atkinson. I also worked for a while with Partha Dasgupta and David Starrett on measuring inequality (after having worked with Dasgupta and Stephen Marglin on project evaluation), and later, more extensively, with Sudhir Anand and James Foster."

 

Later he says in his autobiography:

"During my Harvard years up to about 1991, I was much involved in analyzing the overall implications of this perspective on welfare economics and political philosophy (this is reported in my book, Inequality Reexamined, published in 1992). But it was also very nice to get involved in some new problems, including the characterization of rationality, the demands of objectivity, and the relation between facts and values. I used the old technique of offering courses on them (sometimes jointly with Robert Nozick) and through that learning as much as I taught. I started taking an interest also in health equity (and in public health in particular, in close collaboration with Sudhir Anand), a challenging field of application for concepts of equity and justice. Harvard's ample strength in an immense variety of subjects gives one scope for much freedom in the choice of work and of colleagues to talk to, and the high quality of the students was a total delight as well. My work on inequality in terms of variables other than incomes was also helped by the collaboration of Angus Deaton and James Foster.

Readers of Seventh Heaven will remember how I have written about Sudhir and the Nobel Prize awarded to Amartya Sen!

The discussion was lack lustre. Montek took the view that he could not discuss the Budget (the whole point of the programme) and gave no real answer for the blazing question how the poor of India had not improved their lot during the time he has been at the head of the Planning Commission. (At one point he says "We have said, the Government has said,…." )

Montek minced  words as only a political chamcha can do!

Roy was not hard-hitting in his position as Anchorman. He was being pleasant to his guests!!

Amartya Sen was his own self and wanted to be nice to everyone.

Not a receipe for a successful  discussion, but for me, being in the setting of our beautiful college was good enough to sit through the 45 minute discussion!

Anyway, it was good to be away from the depressing media coverage of our hallowed institution which has been plaguing us for almost half a decade!

Another Outstanding 59er Cathedralite

The class of 59ers was unique in that all the members of the class have been achievers.
I have pleasure in posting the record of an unique Cathedralite, a 59er David Colaco.

An outstanding boxer and athlete, it will be difficult to find someone with such an impressive record.

I am pleased to be able to post the picture of his Western India Boxing medal.

Besides being a great sportsman, David and his elder brother, the late 58er Michael Colaco, had fantastic soprano voices and sang in the St. Thomas Cathedral Church Choir. (I also squawked in that choir alongside them!)

David's Boxing Record:
First: Junior Flyweight 22nd Apr 1954
First: Junior Flyweight 19th Apr 1955
First: Junior Bantamweight 3rd Apr 1956
First: Junior Bantamweight 29th March 1957
Most Scientific Boxer Prize 29th March 1957
First: Junior Featherweight 18th March 1958
First: Senior Flyweight 24th March 61
Western Indian Box Champion CJ Hall (medal picture)

David's Record in Cross Country and Athletics:
First: Junior Cross Country Jogeswari 19th Jan 1957
Second: Junior 800 metres Brabourne Stadium 23rd Feb 1957
First: Junior Cross Country Jogeswari 19thJan 1958
Second: Junior 800 metres Brabourne Stadium 27th Feb 1958
Sixth: Junior Gymnastics 7th Nov 1957

I hope to post similar info about the other 59ers who have done extremely well in their lives!

And now there are two again

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.

Your contact is vital

Two Elivises in our class, Vijay and Percy

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

Cathedralite Poignant Moment Contest

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.

Integration Council members

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!

Felled tree

(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!

The ever youthful Rahul is 70

Young and dynamic Rahul Bajaj in 1986
Copyright The Hindu

At the top in 2006, Rahul Bajaj
Copyright The Frontline

“Do whatever you think best, but be best at whatever you do.”
– Member of Rajya Sabha Padma Bhushan Rahul Bajaj

Like a handful of people of the 1950’s as 57er Ashok (Tony) Jaitley, 58er Dr. Peter Philip, 59ers Sujit Bhattacharaya, and myself, 54er Rahul Bajaj was a Mumbai Cathedralite and a Delhi Stephanian. (There is an earlier blog entry on both blogs listing several more who share this common heritage.)

Ashok Jaitley, Tony to most of us, wrote a book about St. Stephen’s College. Rahul released the book where Mani Shankar Aiyar, another Stephanian of our era spoke. Here is a quote from Tony’s book:

"The same spirit of striving for the best was infused in all other activities despite the cultivated air of nonchalance that Stephanians have always sought to project about themselves. But this has not deterred the real achievers from being clear about their own perspective. Rahul Bajaj, one of the most innovative and successful captains of Indian industry, recalls his days in College as the second most powerful influence after his school in Bombay: 'It was the first whiff of freedom...and as the Cat Stevens number goes, "the first cut is the deepest." The notion of a performing elite was imprinted in my mind at College. We are all here to make a difference and we should be very good at something, is the essence of Stephania."

Also like Peter and me, Rahul was a Savageite and also House Captain. There, however, the similarity ends, as Rahul is one of the topmost industrialists in India and also ranks extremely high in the world.

It is reputed that Rahul was a sportsman. He was an outstanding boxer and won his weight most years. He is remembered as being part of the School Table Tennis Team. I also remember him as an long distance athlete. As I was just a newcomer to school in 1954, the year Rahul graduated, I am not fully and personally conversant with all his accomplishments at school.

The Bajaj Enterprise started as a sugar manufacturing factory in 1931. It has now grown to become one of the country’s largest business houses.

Rahul took over the running of the Bajaj Auto company in 1965. Activities encompass the manufacture of a whole range of products.

In 2001 the Bajaj Group had a sales turnover in excess of US$ 1,300 million. The Net Assets were worth US$ 1,333 million and the Net Profit was US$ 58 million. It was ranked as the 5th largest business family in India by the Centre for Monitoring Indian economy (CMIE).

It has under its umbrella over 25 companies and a strength of over 25000 employees.

It’s core strength, however, is the unshakeable foundation based on its tradition of trust.

Rahul's most recent interview with Chris Morris from the BBC was about the small car of Bajaj Auto, in relation to the Tata Nano. It can be found at this link.

The interesting similarity between Ratan Tata and Rahul Bajaj is that when Ratan was Chairman of Air India, Rahul was Chairman of Indian Airlines. (I do not remember Ratan as a Cathedralite but younger brother, Jimmy, was a 57er and played hockey and cricket with us.)

Rahul received the Padma Bhushan in 2001.

Cathedralite 54er and Stephanian 57er, Independent Rajya Sabha member, Chairman of Bajaj Group, Rahul Bajaj will turn 70 this Tuesday.

I hope as many of you that can will wish this outstanding Cathedralite / Stephanian and wish him many many more years of service to our nation.

(Many thanks to Cathedralite 56er HS Uberoi and Cathedralite / Stephanian 57er Ashok Jaitley (and his brother Ravi, Rahul’s classmate) for their valuable contributions when writing this tribute.)

Urgent Warning to ALL Cathedralites

When going through my spam folder which consisted of many thousands of emails, I came across this one.

prasad vijay hide details 20 Feb
to jmatthan@gmail.com
date 20 Feb 2008 10:41
subject MESSAGE OF INVESTMENT IN FINLAND TO MR JACOB MATTHAN. URGENT
signed-by yahoo.com
mailed-by yahoo.com
Dear jacob matthan,

Greetings to you this day.

I am writing you urgently for your cooperation in an issue I need you to handle with me. My name is Mr. Rajiv Vijay, I am a disabled Indian Guyanese presently based in London and a cathedralite. I was actually helping a friend Mr. Neenus Y. Khoshaba, an Australia businessman. He wants to transfer some of his Money from Iraq. Islamic people unjustly destroyed his properties without any form of pity or compensation. Mr.Neenus Y. Khoshaba, was an unfortunate victim of this attack, he was Kidnapped and Murdered .

Before his death,I assisted him to deposit the sum of $12.2 million dollars in a finance vaulting firm. These were proceeds he made secretly from various oil deals in iraq. I had the opportunity of knowing this because I was his banker. He also appealed to me to ensure that the funds were safely kept and if anything should happen to him I should make his fiance his next of kin.

I have made frantic effort to contact any relatives of Mr. Neenus Y. Khoshaba for the past two months without any success, his fiance died of shock after hearing of his death. At this point I am contacting you to act as the next of kin/original beneficiary to Mr. Neenus Y. Khoshabas fund in the bank because the bank is planning to hold the funds as "uncleared funds" and thus make it banks money since no one has come forward to claim it.

I need you to stand as the next of kin so that the funds can be processed in your name and also transferred to your account. I cannot do this alone neither can I make claims to it myself that is why I need your assistance.

If you agree to take up this responsibility, then I will facilitate the process in making you the official beneficiary to the funds and you will be required to contact the bank to instruct a transfer of the funds to your account. I want to really appeal to you that as soon as these funds are transferred to you, you will be trustworthy enough to keep it safely and also to keep it confidential.

As soon as this funds is transfered to your account I shall come over to your country for sharing of the funds accordingly. i was told that you are in finland which is where i intend to relocate to invest part of this fund and become a member of your organisation.

If you agree to assist me in this matter, you will definitely be entitled to 20% of the total for your participation and we shall use some of the money to charity and help the poor and disabled .send mail to me if you are interested in this deal. I await your reply.

Best Regards,

MR Rajiv Vijay

See how this rascal has used our alma mater connection plus the sympathy card, my current location, to get my attention.

I was one of the first to expose the Nigerian Scam which you can read on my Findians site Greed - Missile of Black Gold.

I wrote that article in 1995 and it has saved many lives and much money for many people around the world.

So please be warned, as GREED is something that lives in everyone's heart! And this scam is not just in Africa as you can get such post from Indians, Chinese, English, etc!!

Oldest Cathedralite?

Is this the Oldest Cathedralite?

Dearest Annikki & Jacob,

Thank u for ure NY greetings. The same to you.

When I'm in India I'm not on email, only on mob.

My mother is 96 & not so well physically; she is probably the oldest, existing, Cathedralite.


Gool Lam (née Framji) when she was 94 years old
at the 54ers 50th Year Reunion.

When we had 54'ers 50th do, Gracie Hayeem, Pratap Dundh & Gool Lam (née Framji) had a pic taken at CCI for Barham House Captains & I believe it was on the blog.

God Bless,
love,
54er Zarrin (née Lam) & Minoo Aga

I hope all of you will join Annikki and me in saying a special prayer for Gool to wish her all the best.

Please take a few minutes to wish Zarrin a very very happy birthday - 31st January ande wish her mother well.

Her email address is:

(Replace " at " with the @ symbol.)

SH-Issue 010202 - 010228

Dear 59ers and Other Cathedralites,

What a hectic month.

Sadly, Annikki's father passed away on 9th February, so we were busy making all the arrangements for the funeral and memorial service. I lost a substitute father who was a wonderful man. You can read about this unusual individual in our main ezine.

I had a letter from Staff Member Willie Shri who complained that he could not see the face behind the beard in our photograph which went up with the last issue. So I am putting up what may be one of the last photographs taken of me without a beard.

Portrait of me by Annikki (beardless)

Jacob without a beard!!
(Ed: I was accused of cradle snatching when we got married! Got way with a great sentence of life imprisonment to the baby.)

Annikki and Jacob 1967, Shrewsbury, England

Willie has also sent me a nice picture of himself with his lovely wife, Pushpa and equally lovely his daughter, taken by a 59er, Hasnain Chinwalla.

Willie, Pushpa and one of their daughters (Kiron?, Nina?)

Here is the content of Willie's latest letter which corrects me about our Geography teacher's name. Now it flashes back - Zavala!! How could I forget that name. Only a Zavala with Peruvian Indian fury could charge me full pelt waving his hockey stick in the air in the staff vs school hockey matches?

From: "William & Pushpa Shiri"
Subject: varied
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 23:21:55 -0500

Dear Jacob,

I feel guilty that I haven't responded to you after all the messages we have been receiving. I really don't know how you manage keeping in touch with so many all the time ! What a magnificent job you do, holding all of us together!

When I read all the familiar names of my past students, I have a great urge to get in touch with them, I try spotting them in a couple of old photographs I have. I perhaps could, if it is o k with you, send a message to all in your Seventh Heaven. (Ed: The feeling is one which should be curbed. With a motley collection of photographs of some goblydook guys and gals haunting your house - you will be having nightmares every morning.)

Incidentally, here are some names that will fill in the blanks re Staff photo:

The Peruvian geography teacher: Alberto Zavala
Some first names: Rider Salmon, John Billington, Arthur Morecroft.

Pushpa was a Class 2 teacher in the Junior School 1955-62. Became a peripatetic music teacher in England, visiting three different schools. Remained so in Montreal for a few years, then switched to class-room teaching.

I was curious to know what you looked like. In that picture of two days ago, behind that thick white beard and moustache, I can faintly recognize the old familiar face. Have you grown a pigtail of sorts? (Ed: I called a line at pigtails - I am not quite Charlesian but more Darwinian.) Annikki (did I spell it right?) is nice looking, like I had imagined (Ed: There cannot be a more beautiful person in this universe).

I met Nusly Pocha (' 60) when he visited me here last year. Do you know, it was only when I spotted him in an old Wilson House picture just the other day that I really remembered him! Nusly sent me a ' 60 reunion photo taken last year and the only one I could spot was a Hirjikaka (who, strangely, hadn't changed a bit). and some faintly, after checking their names. Most I did not.

Fond regards to you both.

Willie

It has been such a hectic month. I established contact with two more 59ers.

From: Peter Miovic
Subject: Re: Fw: Wish to contact Peter
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 08:57:34 -0500

Hi Jacob,

I am alive even if my dellnet.com address is dead. I enjoyed looking at your web-site and am impressed by the energy you are putting into the "search for cathedralites" effort. I hope to get around soon to updating you on what I've been up to this past (almost) half century.

I don't think I ever knew John Beddow, although I had heard of him. Maybe he was gone by late 1958, early 1959 which is roughly when I began to feel comfortable enough in English to reach out and meet people. I knew Bobby and Billy Anderson (mainly through Patty), but they too had gone off to boarding schools by 1958/59, so I only met them a couple of times when they were back in Bombay for vacations. I believe that Bill, who was several years older than we were, attended Miami University of Ohio, so you might get hold of him through their Alumni network. I have no idea what Bob ended up doing.

More later and thanks for your persistence. I appreciated "being found". I guess I now know that I exist.

Best,

Peter

and

From: John Beddow
Subject: RE: 59ers: Is it really you?
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 16:37:09 +1100

Namaste baboo jee! you have indeed found John Beddow in Australia. Great to hear some of those old names from the distant passed. Visited Bombay (Mumbai) two years ago and the old parts of the city have not changed. Met some of the old pani wallas from breach candy and had a great time. John Vasica has Patty Andersons web number but we have not heard from either Billy or Bobby Anderson. I will send you a brief 100 pages on my life in due course,, meantime...chai biddy chai!!

John

Thanks to a Cathedralite a few years junior to us, Ranko Ivancevic, also from Yugoslavia, like Peter. He got the information from Peter's sister, and although the first mail bounced, with his perseverance, I finally got through.

Thanks to Vinay Dabholkar I got the email addresses of Bashir Currimjee and Wabhir Zayani.

From: "Vinay Dabholkar"
Subject: E mail addresses
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2001 08:04:07 +0000 (GMT)

Dear Jacob,

Re your message about missing e mail addresses of some of the class of 59. We are sending two that we have which are on your missing list. Hope they'll be in the fold soon.

We love reading your mails. Just great to be connected.

Sorry to hear about Annikki's father. Hope the temperatures get warmer soon. (Ed: The day before the funeral was the coldest -35 C with a strong wind taking the temperature down to around -45 C. Now it is a mere -20 C.)

Don't think we can even imagine cold like that from here in Mumbai, which is really pleasant this year.

All the best to all of you !

Vinay and Sulabha Dabholkar

I thought I was lucky and I had managed to trace Bobby Anderson. But the lead I was so thrilled about was not so hot. I had a nice reply from the Pat Anderson - but it was not sister Patty. I still have the lead given me by John, so I am not giving up. Anyone know how to contact John Vasica?

Just this afternoon I had a very touching letter from 54er Sadhana Madhusadan. So you can see that I am giving you stuff hot of my iMac black ivories.

I wonder whether Sadhana knew she was writing to a Mallu. That is what we call ourselves in the wild euronorth!

For all you 54ers - I have a lovely relaxed picture of Aubrey and Pam sent to me by Aubrey.

This weeks picture of Cathedral School boxers has been provided by Aubrey to rack what remains of your brain cells.


Cathedral School Boxers 1953

No winners for our last picture identification competition. The prize of the Art Glass piece designed by the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto is being carried forward to anyone who can identify all the boxers shown below and also date the year of the picture. Only Aubrey is not permitted to enter.

From: "Sadhana Madhusudan"
To:
Subject: Setting the record straight?
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 19:36:29 +0530

Dear Jacob,

Hi, after a long gap. There were a series of losses in our compound in Pune and in our family in B'lore so I was unable to keep in touch.

Pam's sudden appearance through your page and then equally unexpected exit from our midst was very unsettling. How fleeting this life is and yet we do not really feel the urgency to do things that this slight stay on earth warrants.

At least you aren't included in this bizarre laid back world of mine. You seem to be going great guns. (Ed: My work ethic is to reply my emails within 48 hours as with 300 emails a day I would be in a total mess within a week.) Maybe the land of Aurora Borealis has touched you with magic....I am truly a great procrastinator and lazy too..

I am married to a Malayali from Trivandrum Kerala. This was a very great news for my class mate Nalini Nair (Savage house, great hurdles expert) class '54. I would always refer to her casually as a 'Madraasi" (Ed: Does this ring a bell with one 59er, Mr. Viney Sethi?) Much to her chagrin. When she said she would be going to Cochin for her hols, to me it was always to "Madras". So, imagine her glee when she saw me married to a Malayali, with my "thaali" around my neck....

It's funny how things catch up

I am a Gujuyali now....(Ed: I was thinking of reserving the domain name Finnyali - but opted for Findians instead!!)

I want to add that my brother Indrajit Shah (Palmer House) was in your class. In fact he still remembers the picnic-at-Vasind incident where you almost drowned. (Ed: Not almost - I drowned!! Hi 59ers - one more to the fold. Lanky and thin Indrajit. A slightly higher pitched voice if my memory serves me right. Very friendly boy.)

And, he rues it to this day that everyone including him panicked and instead of holding on to you, swam away as you pulled at them...(Ed: I don't. I would have pulled anyone else down with me. And, I may have also been denied the most wonderful experience of my life which taught me that approaching death can be a beautiful experience if one gives oneself to his Lord and Master!)

I just read your account of what had happened.

I must inform him to log on to your page and see it for himself.

We lost my dearest Papa in 1955 and he was packed off to Ahmedabad with a younger brother Jagdeep Shah (also Palmer) So, he lost touch. There he joined St Xavier's. Later on graduated from Elphinstone College, carrying away the English Literature prize. Worked with Dunlop's India and retd (Ed: Retired at 58? Prime of ones life.) from Hyderabad a few years ago, Lives in Pune now, does some writing. Has submitted a letter to the school rag.

My other brother Randhir Shah (Ed: My elder brother's classmate. I remember Randhir very well - although did not realise he was Indrajit's brother.) graduated with best All Rounder student prize in 56. He was in Fulmala Maniar and Reema Savara's (Ed: Vickram Savara is a 59er now in USA and younger brother of Reema) class. He scored highest marks in Cambridge, went on to becoming an Engineer with Greaves Crompton. Passed away suddenly in Pune in 1989.

Some names in your student list have been mis-spelt. Gracie, will bear with me. It is Armaity Mody, Zarin Lam, Georgina Fannagan, Tutu Lahiri, Nilina Pillai... (Ed: Thanks for the corrections - I got some of the names from Catcall!!)

Incidentally, Mr Kuruvilla Jacob (Ed: My landlord of a veritable mansion) in Madras was the Headmaster of my husband's school in Madras-Christian College School.

My hubby joined the TS Dufferin as a cadet and qualified as Master Mariner with a British certificate...we used to bump into those guys at the Golwalla swimming pool at Backbay. And, we would run pell mell shouting "The Dufferin boys are here, hurry up put on your uniforms". (Ed: Wasn't it the Dufferin guys who were supposed to be wearing those uniforms. Naughty, naughty. :-)) You remember, those lockers had no doors. (Ed: Why did no one share this secret wiith me before? )

Those were the days...

All for now, stay well, love to Annikki.


Sadhana'54

ps could you send me Pam's message asking for my e-mail? Sounds senti but I,d like to see it? Thanx. (Ed: With pleasure - will be forwarded forthwith.)

What a warm letter - which makes the putting up of this rag such a worthwhile pleasure.

I was equally thrilled to get this feedback from Armeane:

From: "Armeane M. Choksi"
Subject: RE: 59ers: Is it really you?
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 13:24:19 -0500

Dear Jacob

At long last I managed to find some time to explore the 7th heaven web page. What a fantastic job you have done. It's terrific!! All of us owe you a debt of tremendous gratitude for hooking us up to each other. While I have seen some of our friends on the distribution list in the past couple of years, I am using this simple facility that you have set up to say hullo (I'm still around!!) to those whom I have not. I live in Washington, DC.

If any of you is passing through please send me an email or call me and let me know. I would love to see you in person. Hopefully we would be able to recognize each other after so many decades!!

Again thanks Jacob for the wonderful service you have provided. What's with the beard??

Best Wishes

Armeane

And I do also have a message from a 49er.

49, 54, 59, ... - Does some pattern seem to be emerging? Before, I thought before it was the 7-year itch - hence Seventh Heaven.

From: "Yezad Sam Kapadia"
To: "Jacob Matthan"
Subject: Thanks
Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2001 07:48:41 +0530

Dear Jacob,

Thanks for your Special Edition of Seventh Heaven. It is good to know that you are still keen on tracking down old class mates.

The class of 49 is attempting yet another Reunion around Founder's Day this year. We are targeting those who could not make it in 1999. We are making a concerted effort.


Take care.

Yesh

Many of those of you who enjoyed my occasional Seventh Heaven Newsy Notes have asked me to make it a regular feature. I am resisting that call because of the bounced mail from those who do not update their email addresses to me.

Please register at the International Alumni. This is in addition to the Catcall alumni. This international one is the one which is usually found by the search engines. You can keep your privacy without a problem. It hardly takes a few minutes. DO IT NOW!!

Keep those emails and photographs coming. Armeane says that you all owe me a debt. I would like to say it is the other way, as I have had such fun doing this, that it makes life as the Dead Chicken worth living. I cannot put up these issues without your active co-operation. See you in a month when I will answer those queries about my beard.

Regards

Jacob Matthan
Honorary Editor
Seventh Heaven (Web Version)
Cathedralite 1954 - 1959
School Hockey Goalkeeper - 1958; 1959
School Prefect - 1958; 1959
Savage House Captain - 1959

SH-Issue 2: 960505

Hi Web-surfing Cathedralites,

First and foremost let me inform you that the World Alumni Register has been prepared and part of it includes the Alumni Register for Cathedral and John Connon School in the Indian Alumni Register Section. I would suggest that you return the Letters to the Editor Section on our main page "Findians Briefings" and read the letter from Renu Mehta who is maintaining the India Alumni Register. This may, therefore, remove the need for 93er Vivek Sikri to struggle to maintain a duplicate Alumni Register He could come to an agreement with Renu to use that list for all our needs. About 20 Cathedralites had registered as of Friday 3rd May, so the rest of you just rush off and register now.

Many of you have written to me. I was especially happy to hear from 89er Akiva Elias, son of my very good friend and classmate Elijah Elias, also popularly known as Ooky. How did Elijah get his nickname Ooky?


Ooky, Rifka and me in Mumbai in 1994

The grandfather of Akiva was a senior officer in the State Bank of India and was constantly being shifted from city to city. So when Elijah arrived at Cathedral, I seem to remember it was either late in our Ninth or early Tenth standard. In the Tenth we used to have an English Essay writing competition which was called the Ookerjee Memorial Prize.

Our English teacher from 8th to 10th Standard, the late R. G. Salmon Photograph: Courtesy Mr. Salmon's son, Luke.

Elijah wrote a hilarious piece. The late Mr. R. G. Salmon, a tall Englishman who was our English teacher did an especially good job of reading out the essay to us after he announced the winner. It had us in splits of laughter for many a week. Elijah had all the wit of Wodehouse. Without any doubt he was the clean winner of the prize and earned himself the nickname Ooky - which has stuck through all these years. It also made Ooky one of us although he joined our class at such a late stage of our school lives. Plus the fact that Ooky was a good seam bowler, dedicated to the game of cricket, made him a popular addition to our class.

If I am not wrong, even his wife (Rivca) calls him Ooky when she is in the company of his classmates!

Speaking of nicknames, in this issue I want to give you the origin of mine.

We were in the Seventh Standard when our class teacher, the late Mr. W. H. Thompson (see last issue for picture) suggested we go for a Saturday picnic to a small stream about an hour and a half from Bombay (Mumbai) by suburban train at a place called Vasind. The idea appealed to many of us. It was duly arranged, the two teachers in charge of the party being PT Master the late Mr. A. G. Morecroft and Mr. Thompson.


P. T. Master Mr. A. G. Morecroft who saved my life

I was up early and had a good breakfast. I was about to drink the glass of milk which my mother had heated for me when the glass slipped from our hands and crashed to the floor. My mother was distressed, being slightly supersititious. She told me to be especially careful on this trip.

I arrived at the railway station to find all the others already there. We got on the train and had a very lively interesting journey, with Vikram Singh, one of our classmates, joining us at some station along the line.

We reached Vasind by about 8 in the morning. A trek through some fields brought us to a lovely stream with a sandy bank. As I had insisted on wearing my swimming trunks already from home, I was probably the first into the water and was splashing away having a wonderful time before any of the others even made it into the water. The river was quite shallow, about waist height, even for us small kids. I was used to river swimming as I used to swim in the backwaters of Kerala when I was just a few years old.

I had not been in the water more than a few tens of minutes when suddenly my feet gave way under me. I do not know what happened, but I think it was cramp which made me curl up as I lost all control of my body. I was drowning. I went down for the first time. When I came up I was trying to shout for help, but only taking in more water. I saw Vikram swim near me. I made a grab for him. He thought I was fooling around and let out a viscious kick. I went down for the second time. At that point I knew then I was a goner. As I came up for the third time, my thoughts were not on survival, although the body was struggling to stay alive, my mind was already tuned to death and my life of the previous 12 years rolled by me in an instant in slow motion. I saw all the highlights of my life and in my mind I thanked my parents for all that they had done for me. I went down for the last time looking at the shore which seemed miles away, and I knew my life was over as I blacked out. I was not in pain or mentally distressed at that point of time.

I awoke some time later. Sand was sticking all over me. Someone was pounding my chest. Water was gushing out of the side of my mouth.

It appeared that Mr. Morecroft had seen me going down for the second time. He had been able to get me out just after my third submersion. Artificial respiration of about 20 minutes had got me going again. When I looked up I could see the worried faces of all my friends looking down at me, but beyond them I saw the bright blue sky. As they saw my open eyes a sigh of relief passed through all of them.

It was a painful time while they pumped out all the water from inside me. But both Mr. Thompson and Mr. Morecroft were well versed in life-saving techniques, and I think both of them thanked the day when they had taken the trouble to learn these life-saving techniques. In about half-an-hour, they had me going and they asked whether I wanted to be rushed to the hospital.

Seeing all my friends were still standing around looking worried, I knew I would ruin their day if I opted for this. Despite my insides being raw, I declined. I asked them to prop me up in the shade of some trees while they went about swimming and enjoying themselves.

I can remember that day as clear as crystal, as although I was not running around and jumping and playing with them, I was thanking God for saving me from the jaws of death.

Seeing how I had been dragged out of the water, held upside down by my legs before they started artificial respiration and my very drawn and pale face as I lay there while having our midday sandwiches, I was not able to eat as my throat was raw, Viney Sethi (Palmer House Captain 1959) commented that Jakes looked like a "Dead Chicken" - and that nickname remained mine for many a year!


Arvind, Viney and myself holidaying in Mousoori in 1960

I was a resurrected Dead Chicken - and that was fine. I remember my friends and especially these two fine schoolmasters, Mr. Thompson and Mr. Morecroft all the time as I have got this far in life only because they were prepared in an emergency.

More true life stories from Cathedral School in a fortnight, so till then

Yours sincerely,
Jacob Matthan
Savage House Captain 1959
Oulu, Finland

SH-Issue 1: 960421

Hi Web-surfing Cathedralites,

I am glad that I found the list of all you youngsters being maintained by 94er Vikram Somaya.

94er Vikram Somaya Photographer: Unknown

I received and read with interest the newsletter being sent out by 93er Vivek Sikri. I hope those of you Cathedralites who have not registered will do so by visiting the site.

What is Seventh Heaven?

When I was in the Seventh Standard in Cathedral School in 1955, the late Mr. W. H. Thompson was our classmaster.


The late Mr. W. H. Thompson

He suggested we start a class magazine. It was great fun as we put together stuff, typed and wrote it onto stencils with some nice drawings for the cover, and sure enough we had a nice magazine which we brought out every couple of weeks. Of course, when we left the Seventh Standard it died a natural death, but the title of the magazine remained in my mind.

Our class which passed out in 1959 was a great one and I hope over the next few issues to tell you some of our escapades and successes on this page. Many of you may know the sons and relatives of those who were with me during that time.

I hope you will enjoy this page as much as I shall enjoy putting it together. I hope to share with you some stories about our the Headmaster, Mr B. G. Gunnery, Vice Head and character extraordinaire - the late Mr. Stan (Pop) Pharoah, and of course details of several of our seniors and juniors, many of whom have done as well as most of us in our class.

Cathedral Principal Mr. B. G. Gunnery (1953 - 1965)

Cathedral Vice Principal the Late S. Pharoah

I hope to update this page every two weeks and also to maintain an archive of the stories that I put up. Presently the archive address is the same as this one, and only after I see what sort of response we are getting will I decided on whether to split it or leave it as a big master file. (Now it is this blog.)

I would be grateful if some of you would send stories about your time in Cathedral so that those of us from the distant past can get a flavour of what happened after our time.

Best regards

Jacob Matthan
1959 Batch
Savage House Captain 1959
Cathedral and John Connon School
Fort
Bombay, INDIA