Newsy Notes 014 - School Song Words for 54ers!!!

Hi Cathedralites,

In response to Suhas's request, given below is the
latest version of the school song (from the
land of the midnight sun). Many changes
from the original and even the version of our
times.

Just to inform you that Sunil Sahani (57er) and
wife, Kamal, passed through Oulu, Monday to
Wednesday, and we had a lovely time. It was
nice to think and talk about OUR School. Sunil,
like me (thanks OAG), went on to do Chemistry
(rather he did Chemical Engineering, I did
Polymer Technology) and ended his career as
Research Director of Hindustan Lever. He spent
much time in UK and in China and even has a
Chinese alternate name!!

While walking in the town centre, Kamal noticed
this cloud formation in the sky, which shows
what a beautiful, sunny, warm day we had. And it
was a day without end - literally, as it was
midsummer.

But all too soon, it was time to leave as they
headed for Helsinki and on to St. Petersburg.

57er Sunil Sahani and Kamal when they left Oulu
Gopa, Sadhana's daughter, and hubby, Timo,
passed through yesterday on their way back
to their home near Helsinki. They were
returning from a trip to the Norwegian
sea coast at the top of Finland and a night
at Timo's mother's place about a hour from our
city.

Do not forget to check out the Cathedralite blog
regularly. I will be updating over this weekend.
And we have to wish a 59er Cathedralite for his
birthday on Wednesday - and it will be up on the
blog.

Regards

Jacob Matthan
Savage House Captain 1959

Cathedral School Song 2004

Prima in Indis, Gateway of India
Door of the East with its face to the West
Here in Bombay we are living and learning
India, our country, to give you our best.

Out on the maidan at hockey or cricket,
Or now in the classroom a’driving the pen,
We will try ever to fit us, equip us,
So that in life we may serve you as men.

School School! Play up, School!
Wherever your lot may be cast,
School first, House next, Self last,
School! School! Play up, School!

Himalayan mountains and plains of the Deccan,
Wide sweeping spaces with winds blowing clean,
These are our birthright – ours to defend them,
Ours now to follow where heroes have been.

Out on the maidan our thews and our sinews,
We’ll train and will strengthen a’playing the game.
Then when we leave and go forth to our lifework,
Win for our race and our School a fair name.

School School! Play up, School!
Wherever your lot may be cast,
School first, House next, Self last,
School! School! Play up, School!

Years will roll on, and the palms still be swaying,
Out on the maidan that’s down by the sea,
Pens will be driven by new boys in classrooms
Where we are dreaming what soon we shall be.

Out on the maidan while palm shadows lengthen,
Still will re-echo the old stirring cry –
“Play up school! Let it rip! Let it thunder!
Let it resound to our Orient Sky!”

School School! Play up, School!
Wherever your lot may be cast,
School first, House next, Self last,
School! School! Play up, School!

Happy Birthday Ooks

Elijah Elias, more commonly known to us 59ers as Ooky, as he won the Ookerji Memorial Prize for English Literature with an absolutely brilliant and humourous essay way back in 1958, celebrates his 61st birthday today.

Ooky, his wife Rivca and their two Cathedralite sons, Ben Ari and Akila, are part and parcel of our family for many many reasons.

Happy birthday Ooks, and may you celebrate many many more and enjoy your grandchildren, just as we are enjoying ours.

(photo to be posted later)

Here are three 59ers, Ooky, Vijay Nayar and Vijay Shivdasani at one of our class reunions.

Happy Birthday Sadhana

Many of you may notice the new emblem we have for the blog. This was submitted by the person whose birthday we celebrate today.

One of my most frequent contributors, and now one of my best friends, Sadhana celebrates her xxxxx (rating - means very very young, almost child-like, I am xxxxx- x) birthday today.

Here is a picture of our dear one

(to be posted later)

looking as young and as beautiful as her days in school.

Here is her daughter, Gopa, and her Finnish husband, Timo, when they visited us recently in Oulu. Gopa is now my goddaughter.

(to be posted later)

Sadhana is busy organising the 54er reunion. Her tentacles have reached out far and wide. I thank her for keeping me posted on the reunion plans.

Such distinguished personalities as Rahul Bajaj, Rumy Kapadia, Ravi Jaitly, and many many more will be attending from many corners of the globe.

If you need further details please do contact me.

Is This Typical Cathedralite Character?

Sunil Sahni (57er) and his wife, Kamal, are due here in Finland, on a holiday. During the process of planning their holiday, well well in advance of the time, I found Sunil performing all his functions so meticulously, I was amazed to see the amount of detail he went through.

What really took the cake was when he asked whether I could buy their tickets from Helsinki to St. Petersburg, which I gladly accepted to do. Sunil, quite rightly, did not want to send his credit card details over the internet - a very wise move.

When I informed him that the tickets had been bought, I had an unusual request. Sunil wanted to know the seat numbers so that he could inform the taxi driver who would meet them at St. Petersburg so that they could be picked up at the station to be taken to their hotel!!

Well, when replying to him, I gave him that piece of information and also told him that the tickets would be in the top right hand drawer of my office table in the cellar!!!

He promptly wrote back asking whether the top drawer was locked - to which I replied that we have no keys to anything in our home!!!!!

Birthday Boy - Best wishes

Our dearest and most respected physics teacher, William Shiri, more commonly known to all of us as just "Willie", celebrates his 79th birthday at his home in Canada.

It is my pleasure to convey the greetings of Cathedralites of many generations who had the privilege to study under Willie, all the very best on his birthday and to wish him several more such happy occasions.

It has been my special pleasure to have had him as my email friend these last few years and I do hope that I will have the opportunity to meet up with him and his better half, Pushpa, also a Cathedralite, as well.

Need I Say More?

Wednesday 5th May 2004, 18:44 Finnish time, our daughter, Joanna, delivered a beautiful baby boy, 53 cm length and weighing 4 kg and 300 gm. Samu, Joanna's first born, was 54 cm when born but 3.9 kg.

Annikki and I were looking after Samu all afternoon and evening as dad, Tony, stayed at Joanna's side right from 09:00 hours.

I have just picked up Tony, giving Samu a chance to see his baby brother.

Samu was all excited telling me that his briother had brown hair, but he could not see the eyes!!

Annikki and I are thrilled to have an addition to our family, our third grandchild after a gap of 7 years!!

Mother and baby are well and that is all we asked of God.

Sasser Virus And You

How many of you have been hit by the Sasser virus?

Tony's computer closed down on Sunday as the virus hit Finland. There is worldwide chaos. With this virus you do not have to download a virus email or open any attachment. The virus finds the computers that are connected to the internet and which are not protected, and then infects it.

Of course, you have to be running a PC with the Windows operating system to be infected, which represents 95% of the world computing population.

On the other hand, I am perpetually connected to the internet, do not have any virus protectioon software, and in my 20 years of computing have never experienced a single virus since I run the Mac operating system.

As reports come to me from every corner of the globe about horror stories related to each virus, and there are over 120000 of them for the Windows platform, all I can say is that I am not following the rats off the plank into the murky waters below. I can sleep at night knowing that no-one can infect my computer network.