Happy Birthday Deepak

Please join me in wishing 59er Deepak Kaikini a very very happy birthday.

Deepak lives in England and is now enjoying his retirement, like me, from a long practice as a General Practioner.

Roopa (also a Mumbaite but not a Cathedralite) and Deepak have two children, Nina who works as a Solicitor specializing in criminal cases and Sunil who works as marketing director with a sports information company.

Enjoy a great birthday, Deepak.

Boycott Call by Jury of Conscience at the World Tribunal on Iraq

The Jury of Conscience, after the final session of the World Tribunal on Iraq, after 2 years of deliberation, included the following recommendation:

7. That people throughout the world launch actions against US and UK corporations that directly profit from this war. Examples of such corporations include Halliburton, Bechtel, Carlyle, CACI Inc., Titan Corporation, Kellog, Brown and Root (subsidiary of Halliburton), DynCorp, Boeing, ExxonMobil, Texaco, British Petroleum. The following companies have sued Iraq and received “reparation awards”: Toys R Us, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Shell, Nestlé, Pepsi, Phillip Morris, Sheraton, Mobil. Such actions may take the form of direct actions such as shutting down their offices, consumer boycotts, and pressure on shareholders to divest.

May I request all my readers to take steps and pass this information on to at least five of their friends.

To read the entire verdict and recommendations of the Jury of Conscience, please visit my blog page:

http://jmpolitics.blogspot.com

Gopa in the vicinity; Happy birthday David

Last Wednesday I had a call from Gopa, daughter of Sadhana Madhusadan (Cathedralite 54er) from Pune, from a nearby village where she was visiting her mother-in-law. Gopa suggested Annikki and I visit them as it was not a long drive (about an hour and a half).

Anniki had tons to do, so I took off in my ancient rabbit and was with them in less than an hour and a half. I would have done the journey quicker but a Police Motorbike shot past the queue of cars streaming out of Oulu, so we did not know where he was in hiding - so we had to keep our speeds to within the speed limit!!

Spent some real quality time with both of them and Timo's 82 year old mother. Although partially blind (she recognises people from their voices as she cannot distinguish them with sight) she lives alone in her home and manages everything like clockwork. A truly great lady, mother of 11 children, she recalled the names of not only all of them but also her 26 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren!!

Timo's mother, now 82

Gopa looked as lovely as ever and Timo was his real gentlemanly self. Gopa was her sprightly full of life self and Finland is really suiting her. She is lucky to have such a wonderful man as her husband.

Gopa had even brought me some real Kerala papadams from Pune!! We love papadams.


Timo and Gopa in front of the traditional built in oven
in Timo's mother's home in a village near Pudasjärvi

And finally, may I take the opportunity to wish 59er David Colaco, from the famous Colaco family which contributed so much to Cathedrlaite life, a very happy 61st birthday on behalf of all 59ers.

More news about the Bangalore tragedy

I do not want to put the graphic details of this gruesome event on the blog so I give a link to the newspaper article on line

News -- Bangalore: Two Brutally Murdered in Broad Daylight - One of Mangalore Origin, Daijiworld News Network - Bangalore (GA), Bangalore, May 17 2005

I am still in a state of shock to think that just a few minutes before he was to leave to reach our home in Finland, this horrific event could have taken place.

Tragic news

Late this evening, just around 11 pm, I was expecting a guest from Bangalore, India. "Tiny" S. Mazumdar, formerly of Hindustan Lever, a friend of Ashok Kunte, who is a IIT classmate of Cathedralite 59er Elijah Elias (Ooky), my long-standing family friend from my Bombay days.

Tiny must have been just planning to leave his Bangalore office en route to the airport to fly in to Helsinki. He would then have proceeded to the Helsinki Railway Station to enjoy the train trip to Oulu.

His visit to Finland was to see for himself conditions here as his son has been admitted to Kuopio University in Eastern Finland to do a course in biotechnology.

Tiny's stopover in Oulu was to meet me and see what my opinion was about his son's stay in Finland, and to possibly help Tiny get a leverage into the Gherkin market as he is a large exporter to Russia. I had organised lunch at a friend's restaurant along with other friends of mine in his line of business.

This morning, just as I visited my email site, there was a message from Ashok Kunte in Thane telling me that Tiny had been murdered in his office yesterday afternoon.

I had just had an email yesterday from Tiny that he had managed to get me some home-made Kerala papadams.

Over the last few weeks we had become quite close friends as we had spoken on many issues for many hours using Skype Voice Over Internet. He had become an avid reader of all my blogs.

I will miss a good friend I made in the recent weeks and it will take some time for me to recover from this shock. My deepest condolences to his family and friends.

Tribute to a wonderful teacher

In Indian custom one must show respect for our Gurus.

There is one guru who has shown respect to every student that has crossed his path.

Pushpa & Willie Shiri

He taught at our beloved Cathedral School. He was an active member of the school in many ways, besides being the Wilson House Staff Head, he was always active as a leading cast member of our school operas, and he sang with a strong tenor voice in the St. Thomas Cathedral Church choir, where he satisfactorily drownwed out all my musical off-keys as I sang as a soprano in the pew in front of him!!

Today, I would like to publicly honour him on his 80th birthday on behalf of all those whom he educated, not only in his subject, Physics, but about life itself. I always remember him standing in front of the class with his unique bow tie as he unfolded the mystery of science to me and my fellow clasmates, and as he walked around the laboratory helping us to do our practical work. I still remember the very first experiment he assigned us - understanding what was "specific gravity".

To him, I owe my career as a Polymer Technologist. The very foundation of Physics that he laid firmly in one corner of my brain was the basis for my successful life, as Polymer Physics became child's play for me.

William Shiri taught Physics in Cathedral School through the 60's till 1962 when he migrated to England. Wife Pushpa was a Class 2 teacher in our Junior School between 1955-62.

Willie was in England about the time I was studying in London but, sadly, I did not meet up with him there. I was surprised to learn later that he did keep track of me through common friends. Pushpa and Willie, with their two daughters, Nina and Kiron, were in Hertford (Herts) between 62 and 68. Pushpa became a peripatetic music teacher in England, visiting three different schools.

They moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 68 where both Pushpa and Willie continued their teaching careers, Willie his usual Physics and Pushpa as music teacher. Pushpa continued her a peripatetic music teacher in Montreal for a few years, then switched to class-room teaching.

They moved to Brampton, a suburb of Toronto in 90 after both of them retired. Their daughters finished their studies in the UK, (Kiron went back from Canada to Sussex to do a degree there).

In June 2000 they moved to a condo apartment in Mississauga, Ontario.

Willie has been a wonderful correspondent ever since we discovered each other in 2000. Not only does he keep me abreast of all the Cathedralites that cross his path, staff and students, but he sends me many interesting, amusing and morally uplifting emails about the beauty and sanctity of life.

I could go and on about this wonderful man, but I guess I should save some data for his 85th and then his 90th bithdays.

Happy birthday, dear dear friend and master. Thank you for being where you were and where you are now.

Nothing exciting can happen to a Cathedralite...

in the Arctic - Right?

Wrong!

I was sitting quietly at my computer clearing my email when the phone rang. It was my foster daughter from South Finland, daughter of 54er Sadhana Madhusadan (née Shah). Gopa had not called me for some time, so we chit-chatted for a while and caught up on the news.

Then she said there was a fellow Jhath-walla - a Cathedralite, who had come to visit her. Would I like to speak to him?

"Sure", I said, as who would not like to chat with another Cathedralite.

His name - Ravi Khote (79er) and he was with his wife,Rita (non-Cathedralite). That did not ring much of a bell, although I do vaguely remember a Khote who was a few years senior to me, but nothing I could recall.

We exchanged pleasanatries and found that we had common friends. Rags, as Ravi is known, is in theatre, composing, music and acting. When I asked whether he was in multimedia - he said it was "multiple media"!

As we talked he said he had two fathers, which puzzled me a bit.

And then he asked me whether I knew a Farookh Metha?

Now, did I know a Farookh Metha?

You bet I did.

Not as a Cathedralite, as Farookh would have been in school before I joined as he is about 8 years senior to me (possibly a 52er) but because of another event in my life.

When I ended my education and my career in England, Annikki and I decided we would sail back to India. Since the Suez was closed, the route was around the Cape. We boarded the ss Victoria of the Lloyd Tristino line at Venice.

1969: Susanna, Jaakko and Jacob on board the Victoria


1969: Susanna, Jaakko and Annikki on board the Victoria


I think it was at Barcelona - another Indian family joined the boat.

As both the men liked to play table tennis, we got friendly.

His name was Farookh Metha. I learnt a lot about Farookh on the trip. Although he whipped me in the finals of the on-board table tennis competition, we were good friends.

I do not remember his wife, Bhakul, but I knew he was travelling with her and their children. One of those was a 9 year old boy - none other than Rags Ravi Khote, as he had kept the name of his late father. Bhakul had been married to Harim Khote who had passed away.

Yes, we had travelled together around the Cape, crossed twice across the Equator and into India, 36 years ago!!

I had met Farookh a few times after our journey on the boat as we had a few common friends. It was certainly a great thrill to hear first hand of a wonderful personality who is still hyperactive that I had got know on our journey to India.

Who says nothing happens to hibernating Polar Bear Cathedralites stuck up in isolation near the North Pole!