What makes it happen?

I was thrilled to read that our alma mater was rated as the best school in India for this year.

Last year, I was a little disapointed when  saw that we were not in the top postion, which was held by a Delhi school.

Our School - by 59er Hasnain Chinwala

I thought to myself - WHY are we No. 1?

Is it the Management, is it the staff, is it the students, or is it the alumni?

If I look back on my life at the school and my times in other schools, we did not have playgrounds, we were cramped in the City Centre, and yet our lives were full of everything.

Our staff, from around the world, those days, were simply of a class well above others.

But then, now comes the rub!

Which has been the best Class EVER in the 150 history of our school.

Having written about this school for the last 15 years, in my mind, there is no doubt.

It is the 59ers, as is embodied in the song written by a 59er Ratan Singara, called "THE CLASS ACT". (Click on the image to see an enlarged version of the song.)

If you look at the 50th Year Golden Reunion organised by our class last year, it is going to be a very hard one to beat.

This picture taken outside the St. Thomas Cathedral on November 14th 2009, shows most of our 50th Year Golden Reunion Group assembled from around the world.

This reflects on how wonderful a class we were and are!

Reflecting on the past, I would say that what made our school exceptional was the combination of the staff and the students. That made our school No. 1, 51 years ago.

Maybe someone could enlighten me as to why our school is still No. 1!

Thank you Deepak

During the last year I have made many new friends from our alumni. One such has been 64er Deepak Deshpande who I realised is a great organiser. He was introduced to me by 49er Yezad Kapadia, who has been in communication with Deepak for organising Delhi Reunions.

Deepak is a wonderful person as he just picks up the phone and calls you, just to say "Hello". He is my kind of man!

Last Friday, he called me and we spoke for a few minutes. But an another incoming call on my mobile made me cut short our conversation. However, I called back a few minutes later and had a great conversation with him including news of the latest reunion of Delhi Cathedralites which was well attended including one of our 59ers, Vijay Nayar.

During our conversation, Deepak mentioned that he had spoken with Mr. Jagdish Pande, and that he was at a Cathedralites office in Mumbai till 1 pm almost every working day. Deepak passed on the phone number.

I have been in close touch with Willie Shiri and his wife, Pushpa, and also Chris Hammill. Mr. O. A. Gregory is on my mailing list, but unfortunately he is not much of an email communicator. I am also in touch with Mr. John Billington. Thanks to the 54ers, William Patel has also been added to my list of staff members.

As we discussed our former teachers, Deepak was all praise for them. But I had a little more to add. It was thanks to the preparedness of our teachers, Mr. W. H. Thompson and Mr. Arthur Morecroft that I am this computer writing this blog entry! I have much more than most to owe to our Cathedralite Staff, as what more can one say when one owes one's life to them.

I was overjoyed at getting Mr. Pande's phone contact that soon after my talk with Deepak, I rang the phone number given. Within a few seconds I was on the line with Mr. Pande himself.

I do not think he recalled who this insignificant person from the 50's was. However, he was happy to receive my call.

I told him the story of how I was his very worst pupil as far as Marathi was concerned. My good friend, 59er Viney Dabholkar offered to help. On Saturday mornings I would go to his palatial apartment at Horniman Circle to study Marathi. But our Marathi lessons soon turned into Billiard sessions. So I still got ZERO in Marathi!

When I recounted this to Mr. Pande this, he was greatly amused. Billiards in Marathi!



Mr. Pande did recall many other 59ers as Ashok Kapur, Vijay Nayar, Viney Sethi, as we had all been under Mr. Pande in our 1959 Hockey XI (picture above).

Mr. Jagdish Pande will be 79 years this October. I hope that I can reach India early enough in 2009, when we have our 59ers 50th year Reunion, to celebrate the 80th birthday of a great Cathedralite teacher.

Setting up the Medical Trust

After my last foray into this subject I have had several messages from some very dedicated alumni about the problems of proceeding with this and many have suggested that the best case scenario is of dealing with each case on a case-by-case basis.

I am probably of another opinion!

Our alumni consists of some of the best Captains in every profession - industrialists, lawyers, doctors, financial wizards, managers, engineers, research scientists, etc. It will be no problem for this group to come up with a solution which is legally correct, easy to administer, and will allow us to make best use of every drop that flows into our Trust Fund. We should use the latest and finest technology at our disposal to set up a fool-proof system.

The late 57er Budni and I discussed this at some length. Had he been alive, I am quite sure that he would have brought together the finest brains to have this up and running, something that other organisations would be praying that they had the ability to produce.

To do this we need the time-honoured approach - Innovation, Motivation and Communication.

No single individual has all these three cornerstones of success in his / her arsenal. Our Alumni President has been doing his best, but is constrained by many other things that must have his undivided attention.

Being 7000 km away from where the action lies I am unable to put my best foot forward. But the correspondence I have exchanged with many of you on this subject reveals that we have all the factors between Mumbai and Pune, and possibly Delhi, Bangalore and Mysore, to have this launched as a successful model within my lifetime (sadly to say, not in that of 57er Budni!)

Let us get on with this task so that by Founders Day next year (November 2009) we can have a working system in operation!

Message from Cat Alumni President

I have been requested by the Cat Alumni President, Rajiv Bhatia, to carry his message below on the Blog.

But before I put you to the message, may I draw your attention to the late 67er Budni, Dr. Behram T. Badhniwalla.



I request you to respond to this request in memory of the tireless campaigner for this cause, the late 67er Budni, till his tragic passing just a year ago.

Announcements

Fellow Cathedralites

Some of you may be aware that our ex- teachers, staff and alumni need financial assistance for medical problems they face. In this age of rising medical costs, this is an important need.

Some ex Teachers are asking Alumni individually for financial assistance. Some of these requests are being referred to us. So this provides you with information on the program we had mentioned at the past 2 AGMs. See http://catalumni.org/news6.asp?nflag=AN

We know many alumni who have expressed the desire to contribute financially for such needs. And many of them have asked us to develop a way to provide their funds channeled through the Alumni Association as a charitable contribution. This will ensure effective use of the funds.

Our Alumni Association has put in place a program for getting ex teachers, staff and alumni financial assistance as warranted. This program is currently being piloted and tested with an ex Teacher.

For the program to be successful, we are asking the person who needs the funds to fill out an application form with relevant information to assess the needs so that the assistance can be provided in an ongoing manner and not ad hoc way. We will also try and help the person(s) with access to the alumni network of medical and social service practitioners’. And we will set up a system for monitoring and reporting the right use of the funds.

As you can see, this is an important program that if set up well can be of great help to many. A more detailed description will follow after we test the program. We will need help from any of you who may want to help in different ways to make this an effective strong program.

In the meantime, if you get requests for funds from ex Teachers, staff or alumni we request that you direct them me at catalumni@yahoo.co.in with a subject line "Proposed Contributions for ex-teachers/staff benefits" If we fund the requests through a systematic process, we will be able to help the individual(s) on an ongoing basis, and avoid any duplication of the funds raised for same purpose.

Past discussions are reproduced for your information as follows.

Alumni Association AGM Minutes

14-Nov-06 (Approved)
Presidents Report

"Ex- PE Teacher Mr. Majumdar had been assisted by ad-hoc contributions during and after his illness. Whereas the gestures of assistance were much appreciated by all, it was suggested that such contributions be routed through the Alumni Association for better monitoring."

13-Aug-07 (Draft for approval at next AGM 2008)

"Members Participation & Remarks

Medical Care for needy Ex-Staffers & Members

Pranay Shah, an Association member from the Class of 1970 has been taking an active interest in the development of a wellness & well being program for retired alumni and school staffers. A brief note was circulated to members present at the meeting and members’ feedback is sought. If the concept appreciated by the members, then the efforts forward may be taken. Interested members were encouraged to communicate with Pranay Shah, Pune Tel: (91 20) 400 44 881, 2 (Work) Email: pranayvshah@usa.net. Meena Bhat was concerned regarding the procedures for disbursements and monitoring such an initiative. Vijaya Pastala suggested that her reuniting class of 1982 ICSE, celebrating its 25th year reunion this year desires to raise funds for needy ex-staffers. She enquired if any such facilities existed as provided by the school. Rohita and Shyla responded in the negative. Rohita said that ad-hoc requests were almost always positively responded to by the Committee and generous members. Vijaya suggested that guidelines to monitor must be framed. She further said that Alumni would prefer to assist needy people as opposed to contribute to building funds etc. She questioned if a Pension Fund could be created. The President cited the caution of the Chartered Accountants of the Association who said that the earnings from amounts raised for such a specific fund would have to be disbursed within 5 years else the Association would have to pay tax on such earnings. The Chartered Accountant had advised in favor of all amounts being raised towards the Corpus and then utilized across the objectives of the Association, for better financial management."

It is important that the beneficiary and donors understand, appreciate and adhere to this. Any donor - beneficiary relations outside the inclusion of the Association cannot be monitored by the Association in any way and may be open to criticism as in the past.

Regards

Rajiv Bhatia

President @ your service


March, 27 2008

My personal request is to do it in the name of our late PT instructor, Arthur D. Morecroft, who, by his watchfulness and readiness, saved MY life in 1955.



I also hope that your helping hand will ensure that no one will suffer the ignobility suffered by our Maths teacher, the late Mr. R. J. Karkaria.

Please extend your hand to the needy from our own back garden.



Finally, may I remind you of a phrase that the late Mr. R. G. Salmon, our English teacher, taught me when I was in school.

"It is drops that make an ocean."