Speaking with Bill

Yesterday evening I rang to Toronto, Canada, to wish my Physics teacher of 50 years ago a very happy 85th birthday. I also spoke to Pushpa, his wife, who had also been a teacher in our Mumbai school. My classmate, 59er Hasnain Chinwala (Chinnie), who also lives in Toronto was with Bill (prearranged) when I called as we, 59ers, paid our respects to a man who firmly shaped our lives.

That Bill and Pushpa attended our 50th year reunion in Mumbai last year was itself such a joy for all us 59ers. They lent their solidarity with a class of boys who have traversed the world and sought success based on the fundamentals of life that were instilled in us by our teachers. Not just our classroom performance, but our moral values were instilled in us by these wonderful Gurus!


(Photo thanks to the 64er Rajiv Ved when we took time off for a fee minutes to attend their reunion in Mumbai.)

In the olden days, as per the Indian Civilisation, the Guru was a man to be revered. All of us 59ers have revered all our teachers during the ensuing years. But Bill and John (who was our class teacher and our English teacher in 1959) are very special as they took the time to travel a long distance at great expense, many thousands of kilometres, to be with us as we reveled in our past last November.

In our conversation we talked about many things - including the greetings from other 59ers (which Hasnain had forwarded to Bill,) the loss of another wonderful teacher, Alberto Zavala from peru, our geography teacher, the exploits of Greg, our Chemistry teacher, and the whereabouts of many past Canadian Cathedralites, as Torontian 59er Narsys, but not just our classmates, as 63er Monty Wilson and 49er Peter and 51er Sheila (née Contractor) Vaney, and Peter's brother, 57er Herbert.

Now that Pushpa and Bill live right in the centre of Toronto, a stone's throw from Lake Ontario, I will make it a point to visit them soon as my grandson, Samu, an Ice Hockey fan, wants to visit that great city, with his Grandpa, to see one of his favourite teams play.

Happy birthday Bill - we love you!

Pande unwell in Mumbai

In 2008, thanks to Deepak Deshpande, I was able to ring and speak to Mr. Jagdish Pande, who was a teacher in our school from the mid-50s. Not only was he my Marathi teacher, but he was also an outstanding sportsman and was in charge of our school hockey team.

When I spoke to him, he sort of remembered me as I was an absolutely useless student in Marathi. The reason was quite simple. In school I had to study English, French, Latin, Hindi, Marathi and German - besides having had to keep up with Kannada (which I had started while being brought up in Bangalore and Mysore, and Malayalam, our home language).

That was just too much. I had to consciously shut off some languages. Kannada, Hindi and Marathi were the first to get a chop. We were the last batch in school which did not have to Hindi as a compulsory subject for our Senior Cambridge examinations.

I later dropped Latin, as it was also too much for me. Mr. Glynne Howell, who taught us Latin, was a bit disappointed that I decided to drop it!

I stayed with French, despite being taught by the masochist, Mr. Ribi, but later mastered reading German text, enough for my technical studies in England.

Rajiv Bhatia, former Alumni President, informed me that Mr. Pande had been admitted for observation to hospital. He later visited him and said he was progressing.

Let us hope for a speedy and full recovery. We all love Mr. Pande, who though tough, is wonderful personality.

Orbituary of Mr. Nagia

Former President of our alumni, Rajiv Bhatia, informed me that Mr. Nagia, who was once the physics teacher in our school, had passed away.

 Mr. Nagia was obviously well after my time in school.

I have conveyed the condolences of Seventh Heaven readers to Rajiv to pass on to the bereaved family of Mr. Nagia.

If someone could tell me about this worthy gentleman, I would be pleased to publish his bio on the blog.

I have great respect for both Physics and Chemistry teachers, especially from our school, as it is they who gave me my lifetime profession by their enthusiasm and drive in teaching me these subjects.

Other Reunion Reports now ONLINE

After I put up the Reunion Report of 54ers, I was pressed by many who asked me to put up other Reunion Reports that I may have. It provides interesting and nostalgic reading, especially for those who were unable to attend.

As a result, I have already put up 2 Reunion Reports - the 50 year Reunion Reports of the 1949 Students who met in 1999 and the 50 year Reunion report of the 1953 Students who met in 2003.

Many thanks to 49er Yezad Kapadia and 53er Aislynn Moses (née Hyam) who had sent me the reports.

I am now preparing Web Pages of other Reunion Reports that have reached me. Stay tuned as I have several to put online and your classes may be one of them.

If you have a Reunion Report that you would like me to put up as a web page in this Section, please send me a text file (preferably not a Microsoft document but an rtf file would do just fine) of the report.

I will create the web page.

So as to make the report really meaningful, please send me any photographs that you may have taken at the reunion OR photographs of your years in school. I will use as many as possible. A photograph of the authors would also be very much appreciated.

I hope you enjoy this new feature of the Seventh Heaven Blog.

Please do not forget to view Ranko's blog, another Cathedralite from Belgrade, who is making a valiant effort to set up a nice, readable blog. the link is in sidebar of this blog.

If you have a blog meant for Cathedralites that you want listed, please send me the blog address.

Remember - what Jacob does TODAY, the others SHALL DO TOMORROW!

Mr. Rider Salmon, English Teacher d. Jan. 2002

Our great English teacher pictured above, who is sadly no more, Mr. Rider Salmon, would have shuddered at my last sentence.

This is what his wife, Pauline, wrote to me at the time of his passing:

"He was a fine humorous and loving husband for over 52 years, so it will be quite hard without him. He loved remembering his teaching years in Bombay and his pupils there."

And, I was one of his very "lucky" pupils.