Golden Directory Project now in full swing

As of today, Monday 22nd June, the professionals have moved in to get the 59ers Directory Project onto a time based schedule.

I have a young Ethiopian student who will work in my office translating all our dreams into a reality. He will work by my side on all the mundane stuff. Annikki will chip in with her artistic inputs and comments. I will do the stuff that can only be done on my Mac mini. (The student is using a Windows computer!)

If you have not sent Annikki your write up, the way you want it to appear, and photographs, please do that as soon as possible.

Besides the usual stuff we have unearthed stuff which will make your heart pump at an accelerated pace when this Coffee Table Book is in your grasp.

Please continue to send us material as we want to ensure we have all useful and interesting material in the book. (I am still looking for a Prefect's tie as that had the gold emblem on a blue fabric, if I remember correctly.

Did I once refer to this as the Mother of All Golden Reunions?

We are well on the way to that, even though many would doubt that we could achieve that status!

1959 Issue of The Borderer

Today I received the 1959 Issue of The Borderer from 59er Trevor Newnes in Australia. (I also got the 1960 and 1961 issues from Trevor, but I already had the last one sent to me by Mr. Billington a few years ago, which I must return to him!)



It is fascinating as much as it is a memorabilia which is worth a small fortune. That is like all things from our school in 1959! :-)

If anyone else has a copy or knows of any, please ask them to contact me immediately. I want to establish how many copies of this issue are available out there. Considering the Prefects´ Notes by School Captain 57er Bhupinder Singh Anand in The Borderer, maybe not many!

It looks like the 59ers Coffee Table Directory is going to be a publication which is going to be worth a million, considering I am only going to publish just a 100 copies of it. Free to all our Class Members attending the reunion and those who assist our reunion efforts (seen and unseen) and on sale to others. (Also free to staff members attending the reunion.)

I already have the 1959 Cock House photograph (Palmer), School Prefects photograph, School Hockey Team photograph, School Cricket Team photograph, School Football Team photograph, Sports Day brochure, many other items, and some absolutely wonderful pictures of many of our year. I do have photographs of almost all the staff members.

I am still looking for input from the 59er girls. I do have a class photograph of them. Wish I had one of the boys, but I do not think we had class photographs for us boys in that time! Maybe I can be proved wrong!!!

But there are a few surprises in store for you in this publication.

Anyone having an undamaged copy of the picture of the class visit to the Sathe Biscuit Factory in 1954 should scan it and send it to me. The one that 59er Percy Mistri sent may may be too difficult to restore - but my photo experts are trying hard to restore it. Was the Sathe Biscuit Factory owned by our late Sudan Sathe's family? Is it still functioning and can anyone get me a photograph of it if it is still out there.

Anyone with snaps from our 1955 visit to Vasind should also let me have a scanned copy of it. Remember the Dead Chicken was reborn there!

More about Cooliris

I was stunned to read one of the comments on my blog about the exciting Cooliris.

It appears that a Cathedralite - Mayank Mehta - is one of the people behind Cooliris. I located a Mayank Mehta who is a 99er.

Anyone with more info about this person - please let me have it.

Reason for excitement

(Also posted on all my major blogs.)

Many of you have emailed me to ask why I was so excited with the software "Cooliris".

There are many many reasons, but I will highlight the two major ones:

1. There is an old Chinese proverb which says: "A picture is worth a thousand words."
2. You can browse thousands of pictures in a couple of minutes, unlike text.

This is now the era of the photo-journalist. If he / she can succeed in capturing the truly great image that depicts an event and add a single one line caption to it, the number of hits one can get to that image or video, and subsequently the caption and then the text, even if the Google Search result was likely to be on the 50th page, is going to be amazing.

Just search for "Jacob, Oulu" on Google Search and you get 95,800 links. It will take months to through those links.

Search for it on "Cooliris" and see how much more you get and you can get to even the 5000th result in a jiffy!

Don't believe me - take any random name of a friend and see what you get!

Truly amazing results. And, you can go through all those tens and tens of results in a flash.

Beware of one problem with "Cooliris".

You can get motion sickness as you race through the thousands of images.

I tried various search combinations yesterday and was thrilled with the results.

But, when I got up from my office table, I was tottering as my eyes had been working overtime going through this huge bonanza of results.

Yes, there is a reason to be excited, but also a warning that this could seriously affect your brain!

Rarely am I so excited

Also posted on the Seventh Heaven Blog, Kooler Talk Blog, CHAFF Blog and the Oulu Best Buy Blog.)

Rarely am I excited about new computer software. Today I came across one which sent shivers down my spine in what it can do.

I downloaded separate versions for SAFARI, the Mac only browser and for FIREFOX, probably the best browser online presently till Google comes up with its Chrome Browser for the mac.

The software is called "COOLIRIS" and it allows you to see many thousands of images and videos from your computer or the web in the blink of an eye.

My time is so limited that I hardly have time to go through all my pictures on the computer. But here I could see all of them in a 3-D type motion and I could see all the top story pictures before you could say "COOLIRIS"

I suggest you enter "Cooliris" in your Google Search facility and then download the version suitable for your browser.

I found a great video called "Slam Dunk Kitty" amongst the literally thousands that came up as I flew through the selection that came before me.

And you can use this software with Facebook, Google, UTube and also your computer images and videos!

What's the bet that Google will acquire this software - which is absolutely FREE, before the lamb shakes its tail!

Oulu Cricket Club (OCC) formed

(Also posted on Jacob's Blog.)

Finally it has happened.

Three enterprising cricket enthusiasts in Oulu, one Finn (Joose Kankare) with Australian enthusiasm, and two Indians (Prabhu Sundar and Prasadh Ramachandran), got together and quietly formed the OCC (Oulu Cricket Club) as a Registered Association.

They called the first meeting for yesterday afternoon to announce their hopes and plans starting with a summer season of training, practice and matches.

There was indeed a healthy turnout of people for the meeting - mainly Indians, but there was a Pakistani also present.

After the tea and introductions, there was a very lively discussion, showing that there are several who are keen to play cricket in Oulu.

The membership fee for a summer season is just Euro 30 (June till August).

I asked that they make a life membership category so that I do not have to pay year in and year out and the Club can drive some benefit by getting a lump sum when it needs it most.

I also drew attention to the importance of having player insurance if the Club is to avoid serious financial problems due to injuries incurred while training or in play. I suggested a similar approach followed by the Finnish Football Union, where no player is allowed to take part, irrespective of age, unless he / she holds a valid insurance from the union.

I also suggested that besides being under the wing of the Finnish Cricket Association, they should become a member of PoPLi (Pohjois-Pohjanmaa Sports Association), which is the umbrella organisation which looks after interests of all sports organisations in this northern region.

Since I did work for them (as well as the Oulu Sports Department), a good ten years ago, I did know that they would get substantial benefit in being a member.

I also suggested that they become a member of Liikkuka ry, a multicultural sports federation which is run by my friend, Christian Thibault, Executive Director, which could help them with closer relationship with the Finnish Sports Federation.

From Seventh Heaven

The Cathedral and John Connon Boy's High School (Bombay) Cricket Team, 1958-59. I am the one sitting on the ground with the score book.

Although I cannot play any more, as my bones have dry rot, and I cannot be an umpire or scorer (I have difficulty in seeing my nose, as my eyesight has failed), I still have great interest in the sport and will certainly go out of my way to see that this club in my home town of the last 25 years, the northern-most cricket club in the world, sets off on the right track.

It would be great if any of you out there from the great cricketing nations as Australia, Bangladesh, England, Kenya, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Zimbabwe, who would like to sponsor this northern-most Cricket Club in the world. It does more than just introduce the sport in this area as it also give expats from these countries to interact with the lcal population and cause the exchange of culture.

I am, in my old doddering age, with you all the way. Good luck guys.

I was certainly wrong

(Also posted on Jacob's Blog, Jacob's Politics and the Kooler Talk Blogs.)

I now realise how divorced I am from Indian Politics and especially the mentality of the Indian people.

This was just in:

Only a few results have been confirmed so far - they included a win for former UN diplomat Shashi Tharoor for Congress in Kerala's capital, Trivandrum.

In the old days, an outsider would never have got in this easily as Shashi did. I remember how K. T. Chandy, who had been Chairman of Hindustan Lever, tried and failed to get into Kerala Politics in the Seventies. He was called a "foreigner" by the Keralites!!

I do hope this change also ushers in a new form of Government, especially in Kerala, where the school final failed party members have dominated the Government.

Also the antiques who have dominated Kerala Politics for a couple of decades should now call it a day.