Brinda Somaya - Award for Excellence

AD100 2024Award for Excellence 

Our own 64er Brinda (née Chinappa) Somaya of Somaya and Kalappa (SNK) Consultants have been awarded the AD100 2024 for their excellence in the renovation of the Cathedralite and John Connon School project at Thomas House in Fort, Mumbai. (Not St. Thomas House but it is named after T. Thomas, who was married to my cousin. Thanks to Shyla Boga Patel for this correction.)

Brinda recently shared with me the above picture of her with her brilliant two children, Nandini Sampat and Vikram.

She also shared the details of the inauguration plaque of Thomas House laid Mr. Solomon Raj Sathia, Chairman Emeritus  Anglo Scottish Education Society.

She shared with me a few more photographs of details the building and its interiors.

A truly fabulous collection of photos which will be treasured by all Cathedralites. 

Every detail is perfect. 

I especially love the flooring which gives a beautiful ambience to the space!

Thank you Brinda for sending me these photographs which will be a delight for all our alumni to bask in your well deserved glory.

Controverdy on our Seventh Heaven Google Group

Everybody is entitled  to their own religious and political viewpoint.

Our 59er classmates together in 2009, 50 years after we left school.- Christian, Jew, Hindu, Muslim, Parsi, Sindhi, from around the world reunited for our Golden Reunion..

Several years ago, Annikki and I made it clear that on our Seventh Heaven Google Group for 59ers, religious and political opinions are personal and we would not permit posts that may demean others.

For several years this has been the rule followed by everyone.

With the Israeli/Palestinian conflict there were views expressed on both sides which provoked the other side to react to them and that resulted in threats and counter threats.

The problem  was of my making as I put moderation on auto-pilot which meant the posts violating our principles went through ”unmoderated”.

Annikki and I apologise for this.

I have asked Robert Tyabji, a  co-moderator to follow these rules and he and I will discuss anything we consider bordelline cases.

These rules do mot apply to our blog posts and our opinions. Where relevant, we will be post our views on our approptiate blog, and we have several!

We hope-all concerned will follow these rules we have set down for our Google Group for 59ers.

Looking Back: 37 years of Blogging - Journey of Self-Discovery

Golden Reunion of 59ers, 2009, at late 59er Ashok Kapur's residence in Alibaug, hosted by his wife, Madhu Kapur

I got this email last week from a regular reader of the Seventh Heaven Blog from Italy:

Jacob you have really and truly persevered!

Sunday, April 21, 1996

SH-Issue 1: 960421

April 21, 1996!  

almost 30 years ago! and your ginormous project had most probably started even before, also because unlike me you remember so much from school days and also what followed, even if you were isolated in faraway Finland!

and this is to say, most probably to repeat, that I am fascinated by the enormous amount of data, of facts, of entries and posts you have put together, a little at a time!

and yes! Seventh Heaven was certainly a webpage I read with great interest, particularly when the personal stories of cathedralites and the teachers were posted!

and now here we are ANOTHER school! the Junior Middle and Senior schools were the first, then the little one (probably it was Sunnyside where my youngest sister went) for the younger kids on Malabar hill, and now the IB section!  this is really proof of Cathedral standing through the ages!

check if the name of the new house is SAINT Thomas, or only Thomas... I have a little doubt about that

love Jacob

and a hell of a lot of admiration!  

Keep it up!

Barbara

Barbara is right. It is not St. Thomas House on DN Road, but Kodak House is now Thomas House. I am glad to be corrected. I also love her “Italian” English: :-)

And then  I had this email from a regular reader from Canada:

Dear Jacob

Thank you so much for your writings, your blogs, your photos, your messages. I love reading all you write though I don't say so every time. 

Please keep them coming.and looking forward to your memoirs.

Love and hugs to Annikki and you, Sheila

It is with this encouragement that Annikki and I still keep blogging.

We started to look back at our blogging history. In our Jacob’s blog blogs on general matters, there are almost 1000 blog entries. Our Seventh Heaven blog is exclusive for Cathedralites with almost 500 blog entries.

This blog journey started on 21st of April 1996 where I paid my tribute to 94er Vikram Somaya and 93er Vivek Sikri, who were my inspiration to start my web pages and this blog Seventh Heaven for Cathedralites and then in 2007, my Seventh Heaven Google Group for 59ers.

The blog has now hit 495 posts. My Google Group for 59ers has shared some 12200+ posts and discussions. 

This has been my great interest to put together trivia information about our school.

I thought that as Founder’s Day (14th November 2023) approaches, I would reflect on some of the highlights of the last 27 years of this blog and 16 years of the Google Group for 59ers. (This also includes many editions of Newsy Notes that I have sent out occasionally.)

Before I start this journey, my first stop is to restate my thanks to the Gang of 18 who took me out of severe depression after my heart failure and amputation of my right leg and put me back on the road (sadly not behind the wheel but in my wheelchair) when I received a Christmas Gift in June 2021 of a brand new iPhone and a MacBook Air just as my antique iPhone 4 was dying and my trusted 2011 Mac Mini was on its very last legs.

This Gang of 18, behind my back (and that is very difficult to do), got together across the world (Canada, India, Israel, Malaysia,  Saudi Arabia, Singapore, UK,  US) and got delivered to my doorstep in Oulu the dual gift which rekindled all the bones in my fingers. 

We were back on the road to rehabilitation. Those in  the Gang of 18 were:

Late Hasnain Chinwala (Chinnie) (Canada)

Robert Tyabji (from Malaysia)

Vikram Savara (US)

Adi Cooper (Mumbai)

64er Rustom Dadabhoy (Mumbai)

Elijah Elias (Ooky) with wife, Rivca (Mumbai)

Nihal Kaviratne (Singapore)

Vijay Nayar with his wife, Meera (Delhi )

Captain Vijay Shivdasani with his wife, Suchita (Mumbai)

Mark Sopher (Israel) with my younger daughter, Joanna

Ratan Singara  (Mumbai) with  Annikki and me

Wabhi Zayani, (Saudi Arabia)

'

Prof. Sudhir Anand (UK), 

Ellis Hayeem (US)

Noel Ezekiel with his sister, Fleur (US)

Late Jack Haskell (US)

Viney Sethi with his wife. Purnima (US)

Arvind Thadani (US) with Viney and me (1960).

However, let me start at the beginning.  

I have the Annual Prize Distribution and Speech Day brochures for the years 1949 and 1950 which were sent to me by 1954 Doreen (née Feibusch) Hemlich from the US.

There are lot of familiar names in this list. 

My three oldest readers, 49ers Sheila (née Contractor) Vaney (wife of late 49er Peter Vaney) in Canada, Naval  (and 54er Armaity (née Mody)) Patel, Bengaluru and Yezad Kapadia from Delhi, feature prominently in the prize lists.  

The late 54er Pamelaf Ballantine, School Captain in 1954 and who received the MBE, also features also in the prize lists. (Balsara Prize for English, Scripture and Class Prize, Scripture and Honours Prize).

You will find many names you will recognise in these pages. 

Hope you enjoy perusing them at leisure just as much I have had putting them up.

Sheila got the Anglo Scottish  Education Society Prize and also the prize for the Best Prefect. Naval got the prize for Mathematics for two years as well as the prizes for French, General Knowledge as well as Astronomy.  Yezad got the Baria Medal for School

Captain  as well as the Macdonald Medal for Leadership. 

It is also nice to see such names as Yoku Hamid in these lists.

I get a few of motivating messages and emails from Naval every week. Like me, he is a cricket fan, and so we share a common vice! Glued to our screens when we should be doing something better!

Sheila sends Annikki and me absolutely beautiful handwritten cards and letters that we treasure.

Yezad is a constant virtual companion and his daughter, Ruki,  in Helsinki is an adopted daughter to both Annikki and me.

Naval  and 57er Fleur Ezekiel (our first ever Miss India) and elder sister to 59er Noel, children of Mrs. S.  Ezekiel, a senior teacher in the Girls School, both sent me First Day Covers when the school stamp was released, knowing I was a serious Stamp, Postcard and First Day Cover Collector.

An invaluable  part of my school memorabilia 

First Day Cover of release of our School Stamp in 2010.

I would like to tell you much of my life and episodes in school between 1954 and 1959. However, this is covered fully in my memoirs of this period which will be released in the not too distant future.

But one episode from my school days has to be related here.

 

When we went for a school picnic in 1955 to Vasind River, I drowned in waist deep water due to cramp. I was saved by an ever vigilant PT Master Arthur Morecroft. 

He pulled me out of the water and resuscitated me. I came to life again. 

I remember Mr. Morecroft every day of my life.

When he pulled me out of the river and took me ashore he was holding me upside down from my legs. Viney Sethi called me “Dead Chicken”. 

Hanging in my living room is Annikki’s depiction of this “Dead Chicken” pair.

Annikki’s depiction of Mr. & Mrs. Dead Chicken.

My travels and work since I left school have been exciting. 

In 2009, we had the Mother of all Reunions, the 59er Golden Reunion. Besides over 100  classmates and their spouses who attended, we were fortunate to have Bill and Pushpa Shiri, John Billington and Mr. D’Zousa  attend our reunion. 

John Billington wrote a guest blog for me here.

My interaction with Cathedralites continued when I joined St. Stephen’s College in Delhi. 

Late MP Rahul Bajaj had just finished. But 57er Ashok (Tony) Jaitly and 58er Dr. Peter Philip were there. 

I joined with 59er Sujit Bhattacharya. Although Rahul had left college, he had left a legacy there. Thanks to the support of my fellow Cathedralites, I was elected President of the College Residents in my second year, something that had never happened before and has never happened since.

Several dual alumni members, as Gopikiran Rao and Ravi Nangia were on my list of Seventh Heaven readers. 

I am sure there are others, and I would love for them to contact me.

The greatest tributes that I received for my small contribution to our Cathedral alumni was firstly when in 2009, at the alumni dinner, I was presented with the new version of the school tie designed for the 150 year celebration of Founder’s Day.

The other was when I reached Delhi, 64er Deepak Deshpande held a special meet of Delhi Cathedral School alumni in my honour. and it was graced by the late MP Rahul Bajaj, who would have normally returned for the weekend to Pune. I was so happy to meet my old friends, Ravi, Ashok (Tony) and 1960 School Captain Jyotsna Jaitly. Jyotsna has married my Stephanian year mate, Ambassador HE Siddharth Singh. 49er School Captain Yezad Kapadia, 59er Girls School Captain Harmohina (Rani Uberoi) Malik and 59er Boys School Captain Vijay Nayar were also there to greet us. This group picture tells a thousand words. (Full list of participants is in the link.)

It was a proud moment for both Annikki and me to be so honoured.

 

Over the years, in over 450+ blog entries, from 1996 onwards, I have tried my best to honour my fellow alumni who have achieved so much in their years of professional life and have been a beacon for my life.

But above all are the friendships I have made from Cathedralites from 1941 to the present day.

54er Gracie (nee Hayeem) Lerno

Late 56er Harminder (Ubi) Uberoi

Persons as 54er Rumi Kapadia and Gracie Hayeem, late Harminder (Ubi) Uberoi,  59er Bhupinder Singh Anand, 71er Prof. Ajeet Mathur, are just a few  examples, but there are thousands who have interacted with me over the last 38 years. Gracie and Ubi were constant sources of information for me.

Each one is not just a name but each is a personality from whom I have learnt the value of being a Cathedralite.

As years progress we are growing old and we sadly lose our friends year by year. 

I restate that the reason I started this blog was that when I reconnected to my classmate Bala Parasuraman in 1996, I was really enjoying our many connecting emails. He took leave of me to go for a kidney transplant, never to return.

My pledge that day was to reconnect with all my classmates and alumni so that we can share our live's values together.

 

Whether I have succeeded is in your hands to pass judgement. Annikki and I have tried to do our best.

The Gang of 18 showed me what true friends are made of. 

We have lost two of them recently, with the passing of my constant online companion, Chinnie, (who was my worldwide photographer) and later dear Jack (whose music will live on forever). We also lost Arvind’s wife, Gita. And then dear Bill left us. 

,

But it is not just the Gang of 18 that has kept my juices flowing. Three 49ers with their ever presence, Yezad Kapadia, Naval Patel and Sheila (nee Contractor) Vaney, have made life so beautiful. 

54er Gracie Hayeem from California, late Sadhana (née Shah) Madhusadan from Pune and 56ers Primla (née Kapur) Madhok, Joan (nee Rees) Austin, late 57ers Budhni Badhniwalla and TonyJaitly, 64er Rustom Dadabhoy, Deepak Deshpande, Anil Kapur, Kishore Shivdasani and Rajiv Ved, 67er Shobha Jhunjunwalla and Rajiv Bhatia and 69er Barbara  Rossi Monteveichi from Italy, are amongst those with their constant feedback, have rnade sure that I was in touch with the world around me. And from the alumni association Rohet Tolani, Rajiv Bhatia, Viral Doshi and Shyla Boga Patel, have kept me in the loop over the years, making me feel wanted. 

Not to mention dear 64er Brinda (née Chinappa) Somaya in my list eould be criminal. I have several past entries about her and her son Vikram on this blog!

Little Barbara in the school Kindergarten.

When Barbara was a tiny little girl  in the kindergarten, Gracie Hayeem taught her as her nursery teacher. I was able to connect them! And this is their and our wonderful memory!

Barbara’s kindergarten book signed by Gracie Hayeem.

They are still both dear friends. 

Gracie was my absolute rock as she was able to put me in touch with many past as Kim I.

I must thank all the Cathedralites who have taken the trouble to travel to remote near Arctic Finland so we could meet, even if it was only for a few hours! Annikki and I have enjoyed sharing our fellowship with you.

49er Yezad Kapadia, 54er late Sadhana  (nee Shah) Madhusadan, 57er Sunil Sahni, 59ers Elijah (Ooky) Elias, Viney Sethi, Narayanan Acharaya, 64ers Kishore Shivdasani, Brinda Somaya, 71er Prof. Ajeet Mathur, 04er Ashwin Kumar,

Let me be honest: One of my greatest pastimes is just going through my posts on my Seventh Heaven blog as it brings so many wonderful memories to my mind. There have been inputs from so many of you documented here that I could link almost everyone mentioned here to a specific blog entry that I had made. The list is endless. At this old age, it is one of the best pass time hobbies. 

If you have any memories to share, do send it to me.

On this Founder's Day I find  the words of our School Song resound loudly but I, from Oulu, Finland, shout instead "World skies"!

“Play up the School" Let it rip! Let it thunder!

Let it resound to our Orient skies!"