Thank you and Organising a Reunion

(This entry was sent out by email as a TRIBUTE to several who have tirelessly helped me over the years and to many who are no more. Sorry for the several errors in the email which have been more or less corrected in this entry. Also, I forgot to send copies to the Staff Members of my time who have been helping me over the years - Thanks especially to Willie and Pushpa Shiri!)

Dear Gracie, Sara, and many others,

Dearest Gracie - You never fail me in locating people, - thank you, thank you, thank you.

Dear Sara, don't dream. You can have your reunion.

Two of your 62ers are married to 59ers (Purnima Mazumdar to Viney Sethi and Sucheeta Assomull to Vijay Shivdasani). 62er Monty Wilson in Canada is a tireless worker and organiser. Seeing your zeal, you can have a great reunion, and that is what the Seventh Heaven Blog has been helping in doing for many others.

As a start I am copying this to your fellow 62ers who are already waiting for a move like what you suggested.

I have helped the 54ers (Gracie's Group), 56ers (Ubi's Group), 57ers (Pramila Shivdasani & Fleur Ezekiel's Group and the wonderful late Behram Badhniwalla). The 58ers are presently using it to reach their classmates as also the 64ers. Many later years as the 67ers, 69ers, etc. all use this forum to reach their friends.

But Seventh Heaven is not ME - Jacob Matthan in the frozen Arctic.

It is YOU.

Without people like

45er David Sopher,
47er Farookh Metha,
49ers as Yezad Kapadia and Naval Patel,
54ers Gracie Hayeem, Sadhana Shah and Suhas Phadke,
56er Ubi Uberoi and Meena Bhatt,
57ers as the late Budni Behram Badhniwalla and Pramila Shivdasani and Fleur Ezekiel,
58ers Homi Khushrookhan,
63ers as Mithoo Malani,
64ers as Deepak Deshpande and Rustom Dadabhoy,
67ers as Shoba Jhunjhunwalla,
69ers as Barbara Mont Ros,

and many many more strung out around the world - this Blog would be nowhere.

We 59ers held a great 30th year Reunion in 1989, a 40th Year Reunion in 1999 and our 50th year Reunion will be held as the Mother of all Reunions in November 2009.

In addition we have mini reunions all over the world as our network over the years has been linked through this Seventh Blog (which was a website before) and a Google Group which I started some time ago.

The Seventh Heaven Blog is, however, no longer the centrepiece of 59ers. Cathedralites all over the world read it faithfully to get info and share info. The Cat Alumni uses it to reach Cathedralites around the world.

So Sara, let us get your reunion plans started - What Ho Monty, Judy, Purnima, Sucheeta, Surtaj, Anita....?



And finally - let us all observe A MOMENT OF SILENCE in memory of a great Cathedralite who left us on this day last year - 57er Budni.

--
Jacob Matthan
Kampitie 6 B
90150 Oulu, Finland

Google Groups:
Oulu Chamber for Assistance of Finns and Foreigners (CHAFF)
O-India
Seventh Heaven for Mumbai 59er Cathedralites

Blogs:
Jacob's Blog
Oulu Chamber for Assistance of Finns and Foreigners (CHAFF) Blog
Oulu Best Buy Blog
Seventh Heaven - Mumbai Cathedralites Alma Mater Blog
Kooler Talk - Delhi Stephanians Alma Mater Blog
World's First Mobile Snowman Blog <---- NEW

The purpose of a blog is....

Many have asked me what is the purpose of maintaining this Seventh Heaven blog?

Although it started out to reunite 59ers as I discovered them around the world, it soon became evident that every one of us out there was living with a great deal of nostalgia for our Alma Mater.

It became popular amongst many Cathedralite who wandered into the web pages in the late 90s. I redesigned it a couple of times till finally I made it a blog.

This old guy sitting near the Arctic, knowing nothing about computers, was able to stay ahead of the pack and recognise where technology was leading us.

There are many Cathedralites who have blogs, but this one, with the help of so many of you who correspond with me, has become the main one linking Cathedralites across many generations.

I am greatly honoured that our Alumni President, 81er Rajiv Bhatia, shares his thoughts with me to share with all of you.

So, this email from 56er Ubi shows how we can cross across many generations, and yet be very personal and caring towards one another:

Dear Jacob,

I have, as always, been following the goings on of your blog!

There have been very varied and interesting comments over the past few weeks!

The 57ers Reunion must by now, have ended.

It was good meet them all at the Middle School after the Founders' Day Service.

Tony Jaitly, Arjun Waney, Billoo Bhatnagar, Tom Holter and quite a few more!

It was indeed very kind of the 57ers to have invited me to a few of their functions, and tempted as I was to attend, I firmly feel that such Reunions are strictly for just classmates ans spouses!

As I was neither I did not go!

It was great,however to have had Tom Holter, his very charming wife, Sue, his brother and his wife at home for a few drinks and a trip down memory lane! We exchanged old memories and news about each others' families. Several photographs were taken to commemorate the occasion! I await the arrival of the photographs from Tom!

Regarding Mr.Rahim, I do recall meeting him very many years ago, in the school after a Founders' Day Service!

I am trying to jog my memory if it throws up anything else.

I am trying to remember who it was that introduced me to him!

How is your eye problem? I do hope it is under control and resloving itself!

Take care,

Ubi

My eye problem is still there as my date at the University Research Hospital to determine what should be done is in mid-January. Till then I have to continue to use my old pair of glasses, which means my vision is severely limited. I cannot read written printed text.

But the computer allows me to enlarge anything on the screen to a comfortable size.

I would love to get back to reading books as a whole collection has piled up over the last few months which need my attention!

I am awaiting pictures from many reunion groups to share with you!

67ers plan their 40th year reunion

I had an email from a fellow 67er, Hira, who had seen a mention of 67er Shobha Jhunjunwalla (née Agarwal) on one of my web pages and asked to be connected to her.

I did connect them.

In return, Shobha sent me an email telling me that she was busy planning the 40th year reunion of their class on the 14th of November.

Some of the 67er bevy of beauties
at their 37th year reunion.

The last time the 67ers had a reunion, Shoba and Anita Watamull sent me some wonderful photographs, some of which I was able to put up in the 37th year Reunion page.

As we reflect on reunions, this last week my mind was drawn to one person who, with humour and dedication, brought together Cathedralites from all corners of the globe - my dear friend, the late 57er Behram Badhniwalla (aka Budhni).

Monday October 8th would have been his 66th birthday.

As the 57ers plan the final touches of their 50th Reunion programme, I am sure that all of them must be reflecting on the life and work of this wonderful human being that they must celebrate for getting them together the way are today.



My heart goes out to his wife, Carmelita. Budhni worshipped the ground she walked on.

May the spirit of Budhni reunite all Cathedralites in the common cause of dedicated service to their fellow men and women with a joyous smile on our faces.