Brinda Somaya - A great interview

 I just sat through this absolutely wonderful interview of Brinda Somaya.

Brinda is just a fabulous and a fantastic alumni colleague.

Many years ago I wrote an article which was a highly controversial one. It was called "Rural Urbanisation 2010". The original was written in 1976!

It harks back to a paper of the same name that Abraham Thomas (then Managing Director of the building group Southern Investments) and I wrote based on his book "The Affluence Machine" and my experience of running a beautiful farm which had belonged to the late Sir C. V. Raman in Kengeri, near Bangalore.

The technology of creating Rural Urbanisation existed 50 years ago and exists in much greater abundance today. We wanted to reverse the migration of the brural population to urban areas and yet create self-generated wealth in the rural urbanised areas.

Brinda talks in this interview about her experience in an earthquake devastated area in Gujarat where the villagers rebuilt their village based on their needs. 

This is exactly what Abraham Thomas wrote in his book and based on my farming exoerience, could see such development in every nook and corner of India without resorting to "Smart Cities" which will result in the same problems we face in Indian cities of today.

Thank you Brinda for being such a wonderful standard bearer for our school and in the world as a leading lady architect.

Hindu Astrology - Author: Dr. Anthony Stone

This blog entry is in two parts, the first on the book "Hindu Astrology" by my late friend Dr. Anthony Stone (Tony) and the second part of the blog is the inauguration of the Ram Mandir Temple in Ayodhya by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 22nd January 2024.

The first part is being cross-posted on all my major blogs while the second part is only being posted on my main blog - Jacob’s Blog.

Late Dr. Anthony Stone

Tony was my teacher of Mathematics in St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and my good friend. His book on Hindu astrology is to be shortly released as a paperback and I wanted to give you a look into the facts behind Indophile, Tony, and our relationship pre the release oif the paperback edition.

I was sent the details of this book by the publisher, another dear friend and alumni of St. Stephen’s College, Professor Prabhu Guptara.  

Tony was the teacher of Mathematics in St. Stephen’s College in 1962-63, my final year. He took over the duties of Principal S. C. Sircar in the Mathematics Department and joined Professors S.R. Nagpaul, S. B. Mathur,  and Ranjit Bhatia (Rhodes Scholar and of Indian Olympic fame) in the college Mathematics Department.

I lost touch with Tony till he turned up on my Kooler Talk Blog in the late 1990s. We established a close  relationship. When his wife Bertha was hospitalised and he had a short holiday in 2000, as he was then caring for Bertha, he decided to visit Annikki and me in Oulu, Finland. He stayed with us for a week and we had wonderful reunion, and discussed many of his projects.

He was well versed in Indian culture and he was working on a few projects, one of which was Hindu Astrology.

He was also working on a special area of mathematical research which coincided with the interest of a Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai, friend of mine, Bhupinder Singh Anand (Bhupi).

Bhupi was a couple of years senior to me but stayed on in School to do the 12th standard HSC qualification. He was also from Savage House and in our final year, he was the Head Boy of the school while I was the Savage House Captain.  

Bhupi, the School Captain is sitting third from the left, while I am sitting second from the right.

I did keep in touch with Bhupi as he joined my “Seventh Heaven” Cathedralite Heaven Google Group although he was not technically a 59er. I had great respect for dear Bhupi as he was a sincere individual and a true Cathedralite.

The publisher of this book on Hindu astrology is Professor. Prabhu Guptara, from St. Stephen’s College, junior to me but also a good friend now living in Cambridge in the UK.

Prabhu had done an chapter in the book "Malayali Diaspora" several years ago about the oldest Malayali in Continental Europe (not the UK), which was about me. 

Frank Raj was the editor of "The International Indian till 2017".

Frank Raj (Picture from LinkedIn)

This was later published in his magazine with pictures of us and our family in the Dubai publication “The Indian International” edited by Frank Raj.

In 2014, when for several reason, I was stranded in New Delhi, which is explained in Annikki and my book “The Titanic Called India”, Prabhu put me in touch with Ivan and Silvia Kostka.

Ivan and Dr.Silvia Kostka (Picture from LinkedIN)

I had the pleasure of dining with them and a couple of friends. Just a couple of months after they were harassed by the Hindutava faction because they were practicing Christians devoting their their life to uplifting the OBC Community. They were raided by the Delhi Police in October 2014 for supposedly saying derogatory statements about Goddess Durga. Their publication FORWARD Press was being targeted by the Hindutava faction of Narendra Modi’s BJP/RSS wing claiming that Ivan and Silvia were converting Indians to Christianity.

Here I must make a point that I went to Christian schools in Mysore, Bangalore and Mumbai. In my class in Mumbai we were just 4 Christian’s while the rest of the students were Hindus, Jews, Muslims Parsi, Sindhis and Sikhs, from all parts of the world, not just India. I did not even know or even care, what religion the students in my class were.

60 years later, I am still the fulcrum of keeping the surviving classmates together and there is not one single student who has changed his/her religion. They all subscribe too a secular education which has broadened their attitude to life and there is no discrimination on any grounds whatsoever. 

Christians lead by example of the two principles laid down by Christ. . 

There is only one God (different names: Jehovah, Allah, Brahma). Secondly, we must love our neighbour as ourselves. 

All the other laws are man-made derivatives of these two fundamental principles.

Thefollowing year, I had the good fortune to get an email from Silvia (a noted plastic surgeon) that she and Ivan were likely to transit through Helsinki and they were likely to be delayed in their return trip to India. She was interested in meeting up with me.

I did offer to put them up in one of the apartments that Annikki and I had in Helsinki during their stay but we lost contact after that.

Ivan was the Founding Editor of FORWARD Press and it was likely to be shut down by the intolerant society which had spread its wings under Narendra Modi. Silvia had told me then that the last edition of FORWARD Press was likely to be in March of that year (2015).

However, FORWARD Press has survived and is thriving even today under Anil Varghese who is the current editor-in-chief.

So that is my personal background to the book on Hindu Astrology penned by Tony.

Until a few years ago, interest in astrology was widespread - but thin. 

Now the astrology market is growing by leaps and bounds.

In the US, over the four years to 2019, revenue from the top 10 astrology apps market saw an astonishing  compound growth rate of 72.8 percent per year! In India, ten astrology firms in 2021 raised INR 1300  million -300% the combined amount raised by ALL such start-ups over the previous five years!!

No figures for the UK are available, but here is a BBC report:

 https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210205-why-astrology-is-so-popular-now

Into this burgeoning international demand, Prabhu Guptara’s “Pippa Rann Books” imprint is publishing the paperback version of Tony’s book, Hindu Astrology.

The hardback came out some decades ago, but only in India.

The author, late Tony, was an Oxford PhD in Mathematics who went as a university teacher to India, where he was so intrigued at finding most highly-educated people allowing their lives to be ruled by astrology that he learned Sanskrit for the specific purpose of reading the texts in the original language, and writing an adequate history of Indian astrology as well as evaluation of it. 

Brief information on the book is attached below, in form of the full cover the book.

But of course the field is highly contested!  

The honourable Supreme Court of India proclaimed in 2004 that astrology is a SCIENCE.

On the other hand, Madhavankutty Pillai argued in OPEN magazine (2011) that astrology is a HOAX - 

openthemagazine.com/features/living/the-scientific-case-against-astrology/

In a 2018 article in The Guardian, “I was an astrologer”, Felicity Carter concludes that astrology is a form of ENTERTAINMENT.

And here is a recent article arguing that astrology is a SCAM: Digital ‘Vedic Astrology’: The $40 Billion Scam | Madras Courier

Naturally not with reference to the articles mentioned immediately above but, in general, Tony concludes: “…it is a pity that many critics of astrology argue at a very superficial level. My purpose in this book is to shed some genuine light on the subject.  I hope the book will stimulate serious discussion about astrology.”

Do we need to start more knowledgeable debates and discussions on astrology?

Read the book and come to your own conclusions.

Guest Blog: 49er Yezad Kapadia

Here is a Guest Blog by 1949er Yezad Kapadia who was also School CAPTAIN that year.

”I was scheduled to start schooling in Standard one in 1941. Having been diagnosed with a touch of asthma was, however, advised to stay a year in Deolali. Here I was tutored by one Miss Daruwala in all the subjects I would have studied in Standard one at Cathedral. Hence in 1942 I could join in Standard two.

By then Hammond had retired and Bruce had taken over. Cannot remember much of the earlier years except that my class teacher was one Miss (?) McNicol and almost certainly had Jamshed Desai in class with me and, perhaps, Naval Patel, both of whom remained with me till we left school. Was assigned to Palmer House. Still have the old report books from those days, with deep red coloured hard covers.

1949 was my final year which, also , was Bruce's last year. Do distinctly remember, as I walked into the school building one day, was greeted by one Freemantle, who mentioned that he had heard I was to be the next School Captain. I could not believe this as I was not even a prefect in 1948. A photograph I saw of prefects of that year in the book on the Schools's history, showed that both Buster Ley and Moti Malani, from my class, were prefects in that year. I was indeed appointed School Captain that year. After the traditional reading of the results of the just passed, I had lined up my prefects outside the hall, to bid a final farewell to Bruce. He broke down aS he went past us shaking hands with each one.

Bruce taught Chemistry, Nix James Physics and Higher Maths. In the final year Arbelot, a Frenchman, taught French, my favourite in school.. Williams taught Urdu, Glynn Howell Geography and Mahar history. Stan Pharoah was great at Maths.Mahar left that year and did not seem much interested in teaching us. I plugged History in Senior Cambridge. C J Oliver had the key subjects of English language and literature. Very meticulous he was. We had to write an essay every week end. Her would compare the marks he gave , over the years, with what we got in Senior Cambridge. He said his marks were a good indication of how we would fare in Senior Cambridge.  Aroo got a distinction in English language, a rare feat. Benji Hayeem came, if I remember correctly, in the first ten in Senior Cambridge in the Commonwealth.

Played almost all the games the school had to offer, most notably cricket which, till this day is my favourite sport. I Was awarded the prize of the best all rounder. Until that year the prestigious Baria Trophy was given to the best all rounder. The rules were changed that year and the trophy was given to another cause. A bit of disappointment for me! Got my colours in cricket and football. 

However, something I still am very proud of was Bruce mentioneing in a certificate ( reproduced in the book on the history of the School ) for me that in his several years of  service to the school my selection to receive the Macdonald Medal for Leadership,was more nearly unanimous than ever before. Leadership is something that comes naturally to me. This statement by Bruce encouraged me to do things " more nearly unNimously" in order to achieve success.

Almost all my classmates have reached their heavenly abode. Aroo Moolgaoker, Buster Ley, Jamshed Desai, Shivji, Bhateja, to name a few. Although Jamshed, Raj Bhandari and I are/were part of the Alumni group in Delhi and met often, both Raj and Jamshed have passed on. When in Mumbai, Viay Ram used to organise a dinner for all class  alumni in Mumbai, but then Vijay, who had organised the 50th reunion in Mumbai, has also passed away. Chandrasen Merchant , whom I occasionally meet for lunch at the  Willingdon and Naval, who lives in Bengaluru and, perhaps Bunny Khattau ( have not heard of him in recent times) the rest have moved on.

 Yezad and his late wife Rati

Yezad Kapadia

History of the School

I understand that for this year's Founders' Day, 2010, our Alumni Association is planning to release a definitive history of our school. They would do well take advice from an Alumni member, 57er Ashok (Tony) Jaitly, who produced a masterpiece for our college, St. Stephen's College, Delhi, when it celebrated its 125th year.

Three outstanding Jaitlys have passed through the portals of our school, 54er Ravi, 57er Tony and 60er Jotysna. All three were brilliant all round students.

From Jacob's Blog

All three, including Ravi's wife, Krishna, and Jotysna's husband, Siddarth Singh (who was my Stephanian yearmate at St. Stephen's College, Delhi), were present in the Delhi Cathedralite Reunion organised by 64er Deepak Deshpande (accompanied by his daughter Pallavi) when Annikki and I passed through Delhi on our Bharat Darshan at the end of last year. Others who attended were 49ers Jamshed Desai, Raj Bhandari and Yezad Kapadia (with wife Rati), 54er Rahul Bajaj, Savage House Captain and also a Stephanian, 55er Anil (Bobby) Bhalla, 56er Pradeep Anand, 57er Annelita (née Uttamsingh) Thadani and her husband, Ravinder K Thadani (Baby), 58er Maiti Sayal, 59ers Harmo Rani Malik (née Uberoi) accompanied by her daughter, 82er Priya, and Vijay Nayar, (and myself), and 60er Dellinder Kohli. Dellinder left early so is missing from the photograph.

Like a few others, Tony and I went through the second alma mater. Our years overlapped by just one.. His subsequent brilliant career in the IAS is well known.

I am publishing here the review I did of it a few days ago for my Stephanian Blog, just to show what would be ideal in publication of a history. Any Stephanian would be proud to be associated with such a publication, which should be the target of our school history. Those who are well known are already well known, so why focus on them? Focus on those who are not so well known but have contributed much to society in their own quiet way.

(From my Kooler Talk, St. Stephen's Collge, Delhi Blog
I have written about the book authored by 61er Ashok (Tony) Jaitly for the 125th Anniversary of our College. Tony, like me, was a 57er Mumbai Cathedralite and then a Stephanian. The character of both these great institutions he graced do come through in this book.

Tony joined the college for exactly the same reasons as me - to save a year! Little did either he or I know at that time that we were joining to the most prestigous educational institution in India!

Yesterday, I completed reading his treatise for the third time. Although quite a slim book, it is crammed with the most interesting facts about our alma mater, that I have not been able to absorb it all in just one or two readings.

Almost everything that we need to know about the history and character of our college is included. The author has not blown his own trumpet in the book. He is an outstanding personality and was, during his time in college, on several fronts - on the sports field, in the theatre, in studies, and also as a Stephanian in Rez.

He has also not blown my trumpet ;-) , as although I get a mention as the 1961 JCR President and also the publisher of this outstanding blog (!!), he failed to mention that I was the only 2nd year student ever to be elected to the JCR Presidency, the organiser of the first JCR evening made up wholly of our internal talent in acting, music, comedy, and also the organiser of the first JCR indoor tournaments - chess, carrom, bridge, draughts, table tennis.

In fact, other than mentioning my JCR Presidency, Tony, covered almost every other institution in the college,  but forgot that the JCR existed as the main centre for the residents in college, the main meeting point for all residents in the evenings and also for day scholars who had to pass the time of day between lectures. The JCR President was the Head of all residents and served on various Committees including the all important Mess Committee! I did a lot of campaigning to change the quality of our food in 1961-62, but it fell back to old standards in 1962-63!

I was lucky to have Shanky (R. I Shankland) and Sircar (S. C. Sircar) supporting all my efforts and 62er Sarwear Lateef on the JCR Committee, who used his diplomatic skills to get many things done. We installed the first gramaphone in the JCR during that year. We installed colourful curtains. We allowed students to stay after 10 pm so that they could listen to Test Match Commentaries from places such as West Indies.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, the present JCR is quite a morbid place compared to absolutely electric atmosphere we enjoyed there in 1961 - 62. When 63er Norval Prakash (Sherwood College, Nanital), my classmate, succeeded me at JCR President in 1962 - 63, he did not have the same hectic agenda as he was busy with his final year studies!

Coming back to Tony's book, it is superb on all fronts except where it was outside his control - the publishing. The sequence of pages in my copy is as follows:

102; 109, 110; 107, 108; 105, 106; 103, 104; 117, 118; 115, 116; 113, 114; 111, 112, 119. 120: ...

Whether it is a simple binding error in my copy or one which has been carried in all other copies, certainly is a spoiler in an otherwise brilliantly written book.

The book is also lacking an all important Index and Bibliography, which are most important for any book purporting to be "A History". That again is not the author's responsibility, but the publishers! In this age of computerised editing, these should have been a couple of the easiest tasks to accomplish!

The amount of research Tony has done, not only from written matter, but meeting and talking to Stephanians of all ages, has been a heroic effort. His comments, like a true diplomat are guarded, but the importance of our college as a secular institution from Day 1 comes through.

I would advise the present Principal, Valson Thambu, to read this book to understand something about the college, as almost everything he has been doing for the last 5 years is diametrically in contrast with the hopes and wishes of our founding fathers and all the Prncipals that have preceded him.

Valson Thambu would do well to remember that the first four students of our college were 'Hindoos' (Sansar Chand, Har Gopal, Kirpa Narain, Ram Lal) and the fifth a 'Mohammedan' (Sajjid Mirza).

I was certainly not aware of the involvement of many of our past staff and students with all the drama that India went through during the last century.

I was certainly not aware that the massacre of Jallianwala Bagh was condemned by, in writing in the Stephanian 1920, by the editor C. B. Young!

As a public institution it is our duty to avoid taking sides on strictly political issues... (but) we are in emphatic agreement with the condemnation bestowed on the action of General Dyer... as Christian missionaries we cannot avoid the duty of forming and expressing a judgement on such a deed of horror as the slaughter in Jallianwalla Bagh.

All the characters that I knew are portrayed with great accuracy throughout the book and it is a credit that Tony was able to write it without causing offence!

I was not aware of the close connection of our college to Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and many more historic personalities of the world stage.

I will be using this book now to put many of my blog posts in context, in future. It is something which has been at my bedside for the last 3 months, but has now been moved to my office table so as to be of service to the rest of you.

I recommend that you get yourself a copy, also! Certainly worth every rupee I paid for it - just Rs. 365 (€ 6!) in New Delhi. They had to order it from the Publisher and I was able to pick it up just hours before I left the city.

Tony went to the right archives, met the right persons and corresponded with all those who could contribute. He did not focus on his years, although those were probably some of the most exciting times of the College. He went to the meat of the matter, such as the association of the College with great leaders as Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore, as well as those Stephanians and staff who held by the values they associated with the College.

The Cathedralite Alumni Association would do well to get in touch with established historians when contemplating such an important document.

I think we 59ers lifted the bar as to the quality of publications with both our CD and the Coffee Table Book which we brought out during and after our reunion. Those that follow will have to really make superhuman efforts to do even half what we 59ers achieved. I am sure that some years will greatly surpass what we did, and I can probably predict now which years they will be.

But let us wait and see!

School Song - West Side Story Version

A couple of Cathedralites have sent me links to this You Tube version of the School Song, made to resemble something out of West Side Story.

Difficult to say whether I approve or disapprove, but the "Let it Rip, Let it Thunder" was a bit feeble! Glad to see initiative by present-day Cathedralites using the New Media.

Page from the Coffee Table Book - Directory of 59er Cathedralites
published in November 2009 as part of our 50th Year Reunion Celebration.
Authored and published by my wife, Annikki, and myself, a 59er.

Given below is the blurb associated with the release of the You Tube Version of the School Song.

A Little about the History of the School Song

These are the words of our school song, originally written for the Cathedral Boys High School, in late 19th century British occupied India. At this time, our school was open only to boys, hence the words of the song emphasise on ‘boys’. This song means a lot to every Cathedralite today, and is sung with great gusto on every major occasion, reiterating the fierce school spirit that we are so well known for. It speaks of everything that this school imbibes in us, that every Cathedralite takes with him or her wherever he or she goes; loyalty, pride, a sense of duty and of course, selflessness above all.

Making of the Video

We've shot a video presenting the school song sung by our Choir. It has candid shots of the choir, Cathedralites beginning marching practice, playing basketball, generally having fun and saying hi to our friends at EUMIND.

Watch it on this link below:

Cathedral and John Connon School Song

The DVD of our 59er 50th Year Reunion may contain the rendition of the School Song in the Cathedral at this year's Founders' Day Service.

The roof of the church lifted at the Rip and Thunder! :-)