Some people I respect

Ubi was quick to fill me in about some people I respected when I was young and in school. As soon as the names appeared on the screen, wonderful thoughts on my conversations with them came flooding back. Although I got zero in Marathi and struggled with Hindi, right until I had to pass a Hindi exam to get my Bachelor's degree from Delhi University, with them I could converse for hours in both these languages!

Hi,

The tall hamal was Bhagwan. He, in fact, was still in school when my son Samir was Head Boy. It was quite embarrassing to be called "baba" by Bhagwan in my son's presence! He retired and no one knows where he is.

The short one was Ranchod, who rang the school bell. He died, I am told, soon after he retired. His son also worked in school.


Path to the Old Prefects' Room
Photo by 59er Hasnain Chinwalla.

When I was a prefect, the Prefects' Room was the last room (north) on the verandah near the cricket nets. I am told that later it was shifted to where the tuck shop was.

I believe there is no Prefects' Room now. There is also no Head Boy's room anymore.

In fact, I was discussing the same issue with the present Principal, Mrs. Meera Isaacs, when I met her in connection with our 50th Anniversary Reunion last October/November.

It truly was a great privilege to have had a Head Boy's room, even though it had a connecting door with the Principal's Study! One never knew when he would walk through the door (it was always unlocked) and what state of undress one would be in! I recall having discussed serious school issues with the Principal, with just shorts on with bare feet and bare torso!!

Incidentally, I am told that up to the point there were borders in school (first term 48?) the prefects' room in the boys' school was in the belfry! I have been up there. It must have been fun. I am told that prefects those days were allowed to smoke in the prefects' room (that is unsubstantiated information though!)

Ubi.

Stairway to Heaven
Photograph by 59er Hasnain Chinwalla.

What a wealth of information.

Can you tell us where the stairs are to the belfry? Was it up the main Stairway to Heaven?

As Ubi says, in our time the Prefects' Room was behind the stage. Of the two rooms, the back room was always in a mess. I do not know whether anyone ever cleaned it as it always had a musty smell.

Life was so hectic that I hardly spent much time in the Prefects' Room. I remember using it as the Green Room when acting in the school plays. Also, before Assembly, if one had to read the Lesson, I always went to the Prefects' Room to calm my nerves! (Believe it or not, even I suffered from nerves!)

I also remember using the small mirror on the wall to make sure my tie was straight and my hair, usually disheveled, was tidied up! Otherwise, Pop Pharoah would surely make a comment and there would be a smart rejoinder from Glynn-Howell! Gunnery never said a word except after the reading where he would comment on whether it had been read well or not. Rider Salmon would correct some of my diction after the reading. I appreciated that greatly as it meant he had listened to the reading. I doubt whether any of the students ever listened to what we read!

It is the Lesson Reading in front of the whole school which gave me the poise in later life to stand up and speak in front of huge audiences. I remember when I was giving the Plenary Lecture in Lyon, France, in 1987, at the First European Symposium on Polymeric Materials, as I stood in front of the huge audience of over a thousand people, the thought that flashed through my mind as I looked down at the lectern and then up at this audience of my peers, the picture of the Cathedral school children flashed through my mind, just for a second. Then, I started my 45 minute speech with the confidence that no one out there would probably be listening to me. :-)

However, with old age, I have lost much of that poise as the emotion (not alcohol) of the event usually blurs and slurs my words.

When I was at a funeral of a dear friend the other day, even as I read the tribute from Annikki and me (which is customary in Finnish funeral services), for the first time the emotions overcame me and I just wobbled through the words.

Thanks Ubi for the wonderful information. Made my day as you just patched another large hole in my brain.

Bhagwan and Ranchod - may God be with them.

A 1939er?

49er Yezad Kapadia (with my Finnish nickname for him as YESH) just checked in with data of some seniors with this email:

Note about Yesh:

(Dipl. - engineer Yezad Kapadia: Management in the steel and equipment construction industry in India. Yesh is an engineering graduate in ferrous metallurgy. He was over 28 years with Tata Steel, Jamshedpur, first in Blast Furnaces and later in Management activities. From 1987 to 1995 he was a Managing Director of Lurgi India. In 1995 he created his own company, Y.S. Kapadia Consults (P) Ltd., where he is still active as Managing Director. Yesh supports young university graduates in their study and career planning, and helps in planning business enterprises.)

Hi Jacob,

Just got back from Mumbai and Bengaluru yesterday.

In Mumbai caught up with several alumni.

Pilloo Hakim (née Cooper, Savage 1951) and her husband had invited me to a drink at the CCI. Caught up with her class mate Roshan Dodhy (Palmer) and another alumni (cannot remember his name) who claimed to have belonged to the class of 1939!!

The next day I was at my brother Sohrab's (Palmer 1956) where his class mate Ubi Uberoi (Savage) and John Palkhiwalla (Wilson, 1948) were also there.

Whilst in Bengaluru spent over two hours with my class mate Naval Patel (Wilson).

Trust all is well at you end.

Yesh

I found it fascinating that there is someone out there who will celebrate his 70th reunion in 2009. Maybe the 59ers may like to invite him to theirs!

Thanks Yesh for this clip.

[Pune, Mumbai, Chenai, Thiruvananthapuram, .... Has the name of Bangalore been officially changed to Bengaluru? And what about Mysore, New Delhi and Delhi (Old)? Have these been renamed? Just so I can update my CV! :-) )]

49er Naval and 56er Ubi are regular contributors to this blog. They have provided us with much insight about various aspects of life in school, just as Yesh has.

Naval's great service of sending me news items, especially about cricket, of which I am starved in this near Arctic, has warmed my heart considerably.

But I remain intrigued by this 39er - would love to have his name. I do wish someone like Ubi would carry out an interview of him for us. He could reveal many aspects we know nothing about about our school, just as 45er Desmond did.

This is what I call classic nostalgic info

The response was swift to my last posting. 69er Zahid Parkar had this to add.

Re: "The treasures..."

There was Mr Chand who sat in the first floor office where we paid our fees. This office also had the "lost and found" where we would look for misplaced fountain pens. There invariably was a large collection but never the missing one !

The second floor stationery shop was manned by Mr D'Souza (not the teacher).

Apart from stationery and texts, we also bought our hockey sticks from him !!

What I remember of our tuck shop is lining up by the window for hot veg samosas that were sold out as soon as they arrived in a basket, packed in paper packets 3 to a packet for 25np.

Then there were lemon drops and bulls eyes, pencil like candy sticks wrapped in cellophane, packets of spicy chana and dal. There also was a ice cream freezer in the corridor with choccream stick for 15np while the vanilla cost 25np.

During my time the Tuck shop was manned by prefects.

When the shed was replaced by the "new building" the tuck shop was converted to the prefects room.


These are memories of the early 60s in school.

Will Ravi Nangia corroborate the above? I believe he was one year senior to me.

Zahid Parkar
savage 69

Almost everything fits my memory (except the np bit as we were in Rs. Annas. Pies era) especially the ice cream sticks - and not the samosas.

Zahid, made my mouth to water and freeze in this Arctic environment. So I am literally dumbstruck!

And hot of the press: We have today located 59er Trevor Newnes. He is now one of our 59er Google Group. 59er Hasnain Chinwalla gets the credit for locating this one.

Trevor was an outstanding sportsman representing the school in almost all the field sports as well as athletics.

"The treasures"...

56er Ubi is overjoyed but has a request for 68er Nangia.

Hi Jacob,

I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one of your readers who
remembered the Chronicill!!

I was very pleased to read the snippet by Ravi Nangia. It brought back memories.

I had quite forgotten about Lincoln. He was the Head Clerk in charge of dispensing all school materials from stationery to school/house/games shirts, belts, badges and all sundry items.

If I remember correctly, our school fees also had to be tendered to him. He had his "office" on the first floor on the right hand side, as you came up the front stairs. There was a counter between him and us where all the business was transacted.

He was a rather thin person, of darkish complexion, for some reason was fond of black trousers and was hyper active. He also played the piano every moning for the assembly
to sing the hymns!

I wonder if it is asking too much of Ravi Nangia to kindly copy the publication in which CJO's article appeared, in its entirety, and send it to me? I shall be pleased to bear the cost of such an excercise.

The wonder of this blogsite and the treasures it continues to throw up!

Regards,

Ubi.

I sort of remember two such counters, one on the first floor where we paid school fees, and the other on the second. The second floor counter was where, I sort have faint recollection, we could buy school stationary, books, sports shirts, etc. I cannot remember who manned that.

The other room I remember rather well was the "Tuck Shop" where we all rushed to if we had a small pieces of bus money left. Usually manned by Willie Shiri when I got there, but other staff members were also involved but for the life of me I cannot remember whom. Can anyone remind me what we bought at the Tuck Shop?

I spent a lot of 4 annas (or was it 8 annas) getting games against the top 10 table tennis players as we could leave our challenge money there.

I do not remember Lincoln playing the piano. I sort of remember Charles Velu being there, but occasionally remember some lady teacher doing the honours.

Stay tuned as some great photos will soon be appearing on the blog. Tell everyone to check in as the master photographer is now winging his way from Mumbai to Toronto with disks full of goodies.

He has just reported another "success". Fantastic news about locating another 59er.

Ollie's humour

I am indeed grateful to 68er Ravi Nangia for sending me this snippet.

Reading "Ubi's" reference to the "Chronicill" in his recent email to you (posted on your blog of Jan 30), sent me looking for an article, "In Retrospect" which Ollie wrote when he left School in 1965.

The Chronicill folded up long before my time, but this is what Ollie wrote:

"THE CHRONICILL"

Those were the days [Ollie wrote about the late 1940s] when with less than 400 boys in school... We had a limited number of hymns which we sang over and over again, .. I do not know if these were the only hymns known or the the only tunes Lincoln (Head Clerk) could play.

It was not until the "Chronicill", a monthly rag made its appearance that the hymn list was lengthened and the reading of the lesson by Prefects became audible.

The Chronicill (named so due to a spelling error by Bobby Jones [Ollie doesn't explain why he continued to use the misspelt name] ran for about six years under a parody of the School crest and motto

"Clearum difficient stupia"

and lived up to its proud boast,

"We print anything".

It once printed an absentee list which found its way into the contribution box, a toffee wrapper, and somebody's "lines"....

Best wishes,

Ravi Nangia

Seventh Heaven certainly had some competition.

But we have survived and the two first editors (59ers Vinay Dabholkar and Wabhi Zayani) are still out there watching me husband their work!

Hope I am doing a decent job of it? :-)

No fire in his belly?

Cross-posted on the Kooler Talk (Web Version).)

Here on a cold winter evening near the arctic, I was enjoying a 40 winks,when suddenly a unique Cathedral/Stephanian sounding voice came over CNN. I got up with a start to see a familiar face on the TV.



It was none other than our 54er Cathedralite and 58er Stephanian Rahul Bajaj.

Here is the transcript of his interview by Andrew Stevens. (To see the video of the interview please click on this link):

The Board Room: Interview of Cathedralite/Stephanian Rahul Bajaj

PUNE, India (CNN) -- He is one of corporate India's elder statesmen. The man, who for nearly 40 years, provided transport for the world's second most populous country. Rahul Bajaj has now handed the reigns of the $7 billion U.S. Bajaj Auto to his son Rajiv, to spend more time in politics. But he is still chairman and still very much a part of the company he took over from his father in 1968. In a business landscape that is increasingly run by hired executives, family succession at Bajaj remains as strong as ever. Rahul Bajaj spoke to CNN's Andrew Stevens.

Bajaj: The reputation of the Bajaj family, leave alone my reputation and almost the entire wealth of the Bajaj family is represented by the equities we own in these companies and today the best in the world have to exert and exert like mad to survive leave alone prosper so if my son whom I wanted to take over was not good enough, was not the best, I wouldn't put him there and not because I would have become charitable to somebody else. It is in our enlightened self interest, his interest, our interest, the family's interest.

Stevens: So how did you prepare for the succession? How did you make sure that a family member was the best one to lead the company?

Bajaj: You can't. You can only try. To be the CEO you require many things. Books have been written on it and business schools teach that. According to me first is something in the person himself or herself. The genes, the DNA. To me they make a difference. The foundations are extremely important. So DNA or genes, upbringing and education. But then I think the person should not forget what we try to teach our children, the rest is up to them. You cannot teach beyond a limit.

Stevens: You gave your son Rajiv a difficult task of turning around a motorcycle division. If he hadn't achieved success there, and he did, would he still be the chief executive officer of the company?

Bajaj: Probably not. When he joined, the first few years he was on the shop floor he was an engineer and learning a lot and then when I started handing over power it was not to convert a scooter division into motorcycles and the 3 wheelers were earning very good money and they still are, it is to get prepared to prepare him to become the CEO of the company to take over from me and he started doing very well.

Stevens: As with all family companies there can be charges of nepotism leveled at you. What do you say to those sorts of accusations?

Bajaj: My first reaction if I find that in a company or in the government or politicians, if somebody is grooming a son, well the desire and obviously you call it nepotism or you want to keep it in the family, it is there. Good or bad, that is for people to judge. As far as I am concerned, it is good. I think a family guy, if he is a professional if he is competent, he has the advantage of continuity. He will not go somewhere else for getting twice the salary, he has the commitment, he doesn't need stock options he already has all of those. So there are great advantages. The whole problem in family management is if the guy isn't competent and you still put him in the chair.

Stevens: You were the chief executive officer for 38 years. How difficult was it to let go?

Bajaj: It was not at all difficult. I was dying to do it. To succeed you need to have a hunger in your belly. You need a fire in your belly and I had that for all of those years. And they have it now and I don't have that fire in my belly for Bajaj Auto but I have that fire in the belly and that hunger to do something, whatever little I can do, for my country. And that was one of the reasons why when I was approached I decided to get into the Rajya Sabha which is our upper house of parliament.

I wrote to Rahul and complimented him on his forthright views about handing over the Bajaj empire to Rajiv.

If you want to read a hard-hitting interview that Rahul had with the rude and ungentlemanly Doscoite Karan Thapar, please go to this link:

Does Sonia pay my salary: Bajaj

In it, he said:

Rahul Bajaj: Where did you go to school Karan?

Karan Thapar: Is that relevant?

Rahul Bajaj: It is very relevant because your logic is illogical.

Karan Thapar: If it is relevant I will tell you. I went to Doon School, Cambridge, Oxford and I know a lot about politics.

Rahul Bajaj: I went to Cathedral, St. Stephens, and Harvard, slightly better than you in every respect. So I understand logic. But I am a humble man unlike you.

Hope you can note the style of a professional journalist as Andrew Stevens against a ruck maker for the sake of ruck making, as Karan Thapar. Rahul certainly gave Karan a rough time. Well done Rahul!

I hope Rahul can make a difference in India sitting as an Independent in the Rajya Sabha!

Did you switch OFF?

(Cross-posted on my Jacob's Blog and also our Oulu Chaff Blog.)

How many of you switched off all your lights and power units between 19:55 and 20:00 hours on 1st February 2007. (As was pointed out to us by 59er Peter Miovic.)

We did and sat in darkness with our living room flooded by the light of a full moon just behind us.

We did it not only to focus on the Climate Change issue but also as a protest to the "Oil Wars" being carried out by the US in Iraq and being planned in Iran!

As we looked around our small colony of 27 houses, we noted that one young couple with two small children had also followed the instructions, but 25 other families had been either oblivious or insensitive to the situation.


Eiffel Tower at sunrise.

The local newspapers did not cover the issue. It was only the television channels, as BBC World, which covered it by showing the switching off of the lights on the Eiffel Tower.

Today, there was much greater TV coverage of the report released today on climate change which stresses that there is 90% certainty that human beings were "very likely" to have been responsible for this.

We wonder why they stopped at saying "very likely" when it is absolutely certain and every scientist in the world studying this has no doubt whatsoever?