Newsy Notes 009 - Talk to me

i folks,

The saying for this issue:

"A smile :-) is the shortest distance between two people."
Borge Víctor

It was April 23rd when I last sent out Newsy Notes.

Today I had a message from Percy Mistri which read:

"Long time no hear. Hope you and the family are well
Vinay and Purnima are in Bombay but you must be knowing
that. Talk to me. - Percy"

The very next email was a horoscope which read:

"Sit down and take it easy. You're either working too
hard or having too much fun. Do a little laundry, pay
a few bills or groom your pet. The little things in
life need their share of attention."

Putting two and two together got me to Newsy Notes 009!

April 23rd was not just the day I sent out the last Newsy Notes.
It was also the day I had a meeting with my doctor and did some
tests - and the shock I got!

Sitting at the computer, eating chocolates and crisps had sent
my cholestrol through the roof as well as my blood sugar. And
my weight had hit 120 kg prompting my dear wife made a sly
comment that I looked as when she was 8 months pregnant.

My problem is that I do not ever look at a full length mirror
- so I had not noticed all these great features as my pot belly. :-)

Finns have a trait which is known as "sisu" - which is about running
like a mad bull to do what they think they have to achieve. Living
with a Finn for 35+ years and living in Finland for the last 18 -
some of that sisu seems to have rubbed off onto me.

I started by walking 3 hours a day. I cut back on all sweets
and fats. I increased my fibre intake. My weight started to drop.

I felt walking was not enough.

Going back to our school days and just after, when
Viney Sethi, Noel Ezekiel, Arvind Thadani and I used to go to a
gym on Waudbhy Road early morning, I started visiting a local gym,
not once, but twice a day. The guy who runs the gym is a former
Mr. Finland (and his wife is a former Miss Finland - bodybuilding)

After 4 weeks I checked my blood sugar and cholestrol and found
they were better than my dear wife's who is blessed with a strong
solid constitution. She complains like mad but I have not seen anyone
who is fitter than her for her almost 60 years. (She is going to hate
me for revealing her age this as most people accused me of cradle
snatching when I married her!! She just loved that.)

My weight had dropped to 111 kg - 9 kg in the month. Not bad,
I thought.

But my triglycerides were still high, so I have been mecrilessly
keeping up the exercise programme. (I have been trying to the
Ayurvedic Guggul tablets which are just great to bring down the
triglycerides but they are not available in Finland.)

I do not know whether any of you remember me when I was in school
in the seventh standard - thin and skinny. My mom promised me my
first pair of long trousers when I crossed 100 lbs in weight
as I was hovering around 90.

Now my target is to cross the 100 kg limit on the back slide and
I have reached 104.1 kg and I am losing 100 gm per day. Not far to go,
and I feel at the top of the world.

Maybe I can then wear a pair of short shorts - Viney? :-)

So the horoscope was right and Percy's message was the trigger to
stop for the moment and do something I really enjoy - communicating
with all of you. So, here I am talking to you now - Percy!!

Yesterday, I sat enthralled at my computer watching India chase
the target of 325 to beat England in the Natwest One Day Cricket
final. It is sad that there is no live audio commentary as there was
from the West Indies during the Indian tour there. Of course, being
in Finland, we are not blessed with TV coverage. So watching the
scorecard move and the tense last over when the overthrows resulted
in the winnning runs for India was a great feeling as I watched the
Commentary at the CricInfo live scorecard site. But it was also great
to watch our very own Madrasi (Chennai) star Nassar Hussain reach his
maiden century and also show some great captaincy with his handling
of the bowling. Reminded me of some of our Vijay Nayar's and Ernie
Haskell's brilliant captaoincies in 1958 and 1959. Anyone have
Ernie and our very own 59er Jack Haskell's email addresses?

Let us welcome Ajit Mehra to our group. Ajit was a year junior to
us (60er). He was in London the same time I was there. He had a very
busy flat on Abbey Road (not far from where I lived). His pad was
the other centre for many Cathedraalites to congregrate.

Ajit, Askok Kapur (were you with us?), Noel Ezekiel, Viney Sethi and self
(plus a non-Cathedralite, Navin Bhel), had a great holiday in St. Tropez
in the South of France in 1964 (before Bridget Bardot discovered
that sunspot as a tonic for her success). We drove through France
in a Bedford van, camped on the beach in St. Tropez, Viney donned
his Sea Captain's uniform as he struted around the busy pier, we
spent a few hours in Monaco, visited a Casino and lost most of
our money, drove through Switzerland, seeing the Luzzane Exhibition
on the way, and the guys dropped me off for my summer job at Bayer
in Leverkusen (near Koöln) after driving up the Rhine Valley and spending
the night at Lorelie. It was a great trip - must tell you the sordid
details in another issue!!

While I was at Bayer, I was looked after by Mohamed Noorani, who has
become a lifelong friend and who later married Cathedralite Surtaj Hai.
I introduced Viney to Mohamed in Bombay many years later and they too
have become great friends. Mohamed is the most perfect gentleman that
I have the pleasure to knw. (One of his many brother's is the writer
A. G. Noorani.) Surtaj's brother is Zaffar of great Indian film making
history and he was with me (one year my senior) in St. Stephen's.

Thank you Farhana, for sending me St. Theressa's Prayer:

May today there be peace within
May you trust your highest power that you
are exactly where you are meant to be....
May you not forget the infinite possibilities
that are born of faith
May you use those gifts that you have
received, and pass on the love that has been
given to you....
May you be content knowing you are a child of God....
Let this presence settle into our bones,
and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance,
It is there for each and every one of you....

I do not make a wish for anything for myself as I have everything
that I need. All I can wish for is World Peace and harmony between
all people of all religions.

Farhana sent me some info about Bobby Choonawalla and Yuku Hameed:

Dear Jacob,

Hi! I am in Dubai visiting my daughter again.

What year was Bobby Choonawalla? Yes, he is still in
Singapore. He married Janu (Jehanara Rahimtoola) who
was I think 2-3 yrs our junior. Do u remember Shamim
Rahimtoola, one year senior to us who was that 'tomboy'
with Jean Hilel, Maki Bikaji etc I forget the other names.
Janu is Shamim's cousin. Bobby nd Janu hv two daughters
who are settled in the US, nd one has recently married.
Bobby has done extremely well for himself.

Yuku Hameed of Cipla, I think he is the one who married
film director Kardar's daughter. Kardar had six beautiful
daughters nd Fareeda married Yuku. Fareeda's elder sister
was Ruksana. She still is as gorgeous as ever.

Yes, we Cathedralites are all over.

Until next time.

Warm regards

Farhana

Guju-Mallu Sadhana Madhusadan sent me this message:

Thanks Jake for the info!

Hope you and yours are enjoying the springtime in Finland.
Here it is the April heat dust and general feeling of despair over
the happenings in Gujarat- once the land of milk, honey and PEACE!
But, then, we shall ovrcome as usual in due course and become
wiser because of it! Btw, as far as our '54 class reunion is considered,
I was of the opinin that it should and would take place in 2004 here in
India when we would meet on ye olde school, go to ye olde Cathedral
for the services and have a bash with ye olde schoolchums. Meeting up
in London was not my idea. However, if any of my other classmates
plan on it and do succeed, well, I'll be happy for them.

It was great really great to know that finally my old friend Armaity
Mody's id has been traced. She was in Palmer (Orange House) and
I have played against her in several Netball matches. I was always
appointed "Attack" and due to my dimunitive persona, was very
aggressive and would deftly retrieve the ball from between legs of
taller, towering players. Much to Armaity's chagrin. I still remember
her smile If you are readng this, Armaity, pls do mail me direct. Arnavaz
Guzder now Wadia , and I were remembering old times here in
Pune. Tell us more about you and Naval. We must meet someday
and plan on our "54ers reunion. I have also been in correspondence
with another athlete from '54- Nalini Nair (Savage House). She is
headmistress of a school in Trichur, Kerala Will be meeting her soon
when I visit Kerala. Well, time to go now, Bye and stay cool.

Sadhana.

Here was a message from Naval Patel, Armaity's husband
- so Sadhana will have to wait another 3 months to meet up with
her friend:

Dear Jacob,

Yezad and I had a phone conversation just yesterday,
during which he remarked what good service he was
getting from Mantraonline!   Rati and he were away to
New Zealand for a holiday last month, could you have
had the trouble then?  I got messages through to him
successfully in end Apr.

Right now the Kapadias are visiting their younger daughter
in Bangalore, then to Mysore and Ooty.  Nevertheless I will
let him know of your problem.

Did I tell you that we are off on 6 May to stay with our son and
family in Chicago, hopefully for 6 months.  Tatanova assure me
that messages sent to this address will reliably be redirected to
Minoo's system and the mailbox will not be allowed to get stuffed
full, as happened last year.  If correct, we shall have no difficulty
in mutual exchanges.  However if you find messages being
returned, then send them to Chicago.

Our walks are only at Hanging Gardens, and these have
recently petered out.  The temperature and humidity have
detered us entirely;  if we shed some mass through a walk,
we reacquire it immediately on return home by soaking up
a beer!   Hopefully we shall trot frequently beside the Lake
in Chicago, though the speed of progression might be
determined by the grandson in tow.  :-)

Armaity does not recall the names you mentioned as being
in her class, and certainly they were not in mine and, to my
best recollection, not in either of the following two years' classes.

When hunting for some old papers yesterday, I came across a
trove of School Prize Dat programmes, from 1948 to 1955
(with some gaps).  Any interest for your archives?  

(Jacob says: YES, please.)

However I shall be able to access them again only after
my return home.

Also, there is a long article in today's Times of India on Dr
Ardeshir Khambatta (who as Eddie was in the class of 1950).  
He is a Harley Street ENT Consultant, with several opera divas
and tenors among his patients.  I shall take the clipping with me,
and mail it to you if you are interested.  Or can you pick it off the
Net through TOI's web site?

Best regards

Naval Patel

Please note, Yezad, your mantraonline address is still bouncing
mail so I am sending this to both your email addresses.

Another who joined the Grandpa's club is Rumy with
a TAXI-born grandson. Is this a crazy world
or is it that crazy things like this only happen
to us Cathedralites? :

Hi Jacob

Seeing that the Club now features in your newsletter,
I felt it my bounden duty to let you know that I
became a member of it on 29 December last year.

Emile's parents (he is my son's son) made elaborate
plans to have a water birth at home; in the event, he
was born in a taxi, my son helped to deliver him in
the back of a black cab (driven by a Pakki) and his
Birth Certificate shows the place of birth as a
roundabout in Sheffield!

He will be 4 months old soon (one need not have taken
Add. Maths. at school to have worked that out) and
will soon start solids, but not in the grand fashion
of the Royal Princess of Japan, who was fed her first
solids traditionally by chopsticks!

RUMY KAPADIA

Had this newsy email meant for his batch mates from 69er Prakash
Thadani (edited version below):

"Hi there

Its been raining here but not that much. Yesterday was a sunny day.

Mumbai has seen a lot of activity in form of new restuarants
Hav'nt met any of our batch during the past 2 months except for Rohet
who I met at a party at 3 flights up.( The bar cum night club behind
the Regal Cinema on Battery Street)

A new Italian restaurant in Cumballa Hill where the old Nish Resturant
used to be has opened up and it sounds like good Italian food. Will let
you know when I go next week for a sampling courtesy Meher Moos.

By the way many of us our turning 50 soon. Any views that can be shared.
please email I'm sure all would like to know what happening and what we
plan for the 50th year of our lives?

I have a lot of say but first lets hear it from someone else.

Ranjan Mark Mirchell Nee Sukhthankar sent me her new email id.
Shekhar Shah called up sometime back to chat after he read about
my winning the MEN CAN COOK CONTEST.

Took my boys for an eye check up to Anand Shroff's Clinic at
Gobind Mahal. A state of the art Clinic. No one would imagine
that such a clinic does exsist in Mumbai. Anand specialises
in Glaucoma cases.

Remember Rustom Joshi the guy in white. Well he continues to wear
white shirts and trousers - even to this day.

Can amble on but first I'd like some responses from some of you.
So just spend a few minutes and send me an email.

Its never too late

Cheers and have a great weekend

Prakash"

Here is a messge from Doreen Heimlich (nee Feibusch):

Dear Jacob,
 
    I've been slack about writing to you lately.  Fact is,
I am most impressed with your careful planning and the hard work
you're putting into a reunion in Finland.  Cannot say quite yet
if I'll make it, but I'm very tempted.
 
    Tomorrow (Thursday), my husband and I are flying from Charlotte,
N. Carolina, to London, where we'll arrive on Friday morning.  The
exciting thing is that on Saturday, the 27th, I'll be seeing two of
my very old Cathedralite friends [Joan Densham (nee Myers) and Jane
Bigg (nee Simon)], who I haven't seen since the very early 1050's,
so that would make an absence of about half a century!  We'll be
returning to Clemson on May 11th. So that gives us two weeks in
England, which makes me very happy, since I feel more "connected"
to my friends over there, and I also have some family to see in
London and near Bristol. In London, we'll be staying with an old
Bombay friend of mine, Gay Millen (nee Helms), who lives in
Pinner. Her father was an Optometrist in Bombay.  His shop,
Helms Optics, was near Flora Fountain. Gay went to the Loretto
Convent in Darjeeling, and she has some nice get-togethers in
London with her "Loretto girls," which makes me positively envious.
 
    It's 10:30 p.m. now, and I must get on with the business of
what to pack.  It wouldn't be such a chore if it weren't for all
the gifts that have to be taken, and having to go prepared
(clotheswise) for the unpredictable British weather. I like to
travel light, and it drives me crazy to take even a pair of extra shoes! 
 
    So, I'll get in touch again after I get back.
 
    In the meantime, please forgive my slackness --
I have enjoyed your last two Newsy Notes.
 
Best regards,

Doreen

Thanks to Doreen and Prakash for their inputs and for Prakash for
including me on your email list. Congrats on winning the Cookery Contest!!
I got a cookbook once but I could never do anything with it. Every one of
the recipes began the same way - 'Take a clean dish'. So, for obvious reasons,
my wife barred me from the kitchen after we got married!

And now some comments:

Noel, your former email address is sending out virus emails -
I have received two from that address.

Willie Shiri was worried he was sending out viruses, but I
did not receive any from him.

What or which was the first computer virus?

The germ of the idea can be traced to John von Neumann, the father of the
computer program. In the late 40s, he came up with the notion of a program
that could reproduce itself.

In the 60s, when time-sharing on large computers was still common, two
programmers at the Bell Labs invented a routine that could steal time on
the machine from other programmers. By the early 80s, several harmless
programs that we would recognize as computer viruses had been
demonstrated on Apple computers.

(That, in my humble opinion, is why Apple computers are now immune
to almost all of the 90000 viruses you have on the PC, and especially
Windows platform, and I do not have sleepless nights of my hard disk
being wiped out!)

With self-replication and the potential ability to cause mischief in place,
the stage was set for real digital deviance. In 1985, the EGABTR virus,
disguised as a graphics program, was spread via email. It wiped out
everything on a hard disk, leaving only the message,

ìArf, arf, Gotcha!î Oh, you dog.

Source: www.digitalcraft.org

My other Cathedralite friend (Prof. Ajeet Mathur) in Finland is away
in India so we have not had any reunions here lately. Waiting for his
speedy return, as he is missing an absolutely great summer - with
temperatures of over +35 C (in the shade). But midsummer is over and
the days are slowly getting shorter - although it is still bright
right through the night. Last night I was painting the new garden
fence till aroung 3 am!! Burnt some 3500 calories in the process.

Kashinath Dandekar has been updating me on the stories that
appear in The Times of India about our school - sadly, I do not
find the Archive Page at the Times Site to pass on the links to you.

And keep your emails coming as I love to hear from all of you.
And I do love some juicy gossip.

Regards

Jacob Matthan
Savage House captain 1959
Oulu, Finland

Newsy Notes 008 - Emotional Posting

Hi folks,

1. Fabulous Web Pages of School Renovation
2. Welcome back Noel Ezekiel
3. Sadhana Madhusadan (nee Shah) is also back
4. Cathedralite listedamong Top Asians in TIME magazine
5. Grandparents Club grows
6. 59er Reunion in 2004
7. email received from 54er
8. Photograph of Physics Teacher William (Willie) Shiri
9. Register at alumni.net
10. Petition signing online

I was intending to send out this issue over last weekend - but the
cricket commentary on the 2nd cricket test match between West Indies
and India coming in live audio over the internet from Port of Spain
kept me on my seats edge. I just did not get around to compiling and
sending this issue. (Of course, you can pay and watch the live
internet TV transmission over the internet also - but I hardly have
time to sit glued to a video transmission. By listening to the audio,
especially the very expressive commentary of Harsha Bhogle, I can
continue to do my work with the radio commenatary in the background.
Harsha just described a weak throw from the outfield by Harbhajan
Singh as putting one tea bag into 4 cups of water. Just beautiful. :-)

1. Fabulous Web Pages of School Renovation

I am rarely emotional. However, the mail I received from 64er
Brinda Somaya (nee Chinnappa) pointing me to her companies web pages

http://www.snkindia.com (click on the Projects button)

had me, as a Cathedralite, in raptures. You can see the excellent work
she has done in renovating the Junior, Middle and Senior schools .

I sent my comments to Brinda. She had her internet team make a few
modifications (what I thought were important) and then, voila (I hope
that is right as Mr. Ribi screwed my ears to make me learn this word),
the pages are now sheer magic.

When you visit the site, click on the images and the enlargements will
open up making you feel as if you are where you were 45 years ago and
yet give you the feeling of the wonderful restoration work that has
been done. The flowing colour images are just great and the impression
created made me want to visit school again as soon as possible!!

Well done Brinda.

As I may have mentioned earlier, Brinda is a childhood family friend.
The picture of her shows that she has retained her youth, beauty and
vitalism which is reflected in the marvellous work she and her team
have done for our school.

2. Welcome back Noel Ezekiel

As I was looking at the pictures of the Junior School, I remembered
trudging to the top, as my good friend, Noel, used to stay there with
his mother, whom many of you will remember.

As I mentioned several issues ago, Noel’s email was bouncing. So when
I received a re-direction of my last Newsy Notes, by Viney Sethi to
Noel, I hope I have got Noel back on our circulation list.

Hope he stays there as he has a habit off hitch-hiking all over the
world. I remember him landing up at my house in Shawbury, England,
35 years ago when he had hitched rides on Royal Air Force planes all
the way from Singapore to England!!

3. Sadhana Madhusadan (nee Shah) is also back

Due to an error on my part I was posting Newsy Notes to 54er Sadhana
at an incorrect address resulting in the mail bouncing. When Dara
Dastur wrote to me asking about details of the 54ers reunion, I
forwarded it to Antony and he told me to get in touch with Sadhana
Madhusadan (nee Shah). Instead of using my master list I used another
address book which had the correct address - and so Sadhana is back. I
am awaiting input from her about the 54er reunion, possibly in London
later this year.

4. Cathedralite listed among Top Asians in TIME magazine

As you all will know Sachin Tendulkar made it on the cover of the
recent TIME magazine when he equalled Dob Bradman’s number of test
centuries. But did any of you notice that Cathedralite Yusuf K.
Hamied, Chairman of CIPLA, was in list of top Asians.

In this context of Yusuf hamied I recall an email received sometime
last year from 49er Naval Patel.

Dear Jacob,                               

As introduction, I too was in the Class of 1949, a classmate of Yezad
Kapadia, Benjie Hayeem etc.  I was at Bombay University until 1954,
then read Chemical Engineering at Loughborough College in
Leicestershire UK.  From 1958 to 1990 I was with the ICI Group in
India, then with Tata Consulting Engineers until 1998.  Now my wife
and I have leisure to visit our children at length - our son is with
United Airlines in Chicago - and watch as much cricket on TV as I can
keep awake for.

Regarding cricket, I too was in the School 1st XI in 1949, then played
for the Cathedral Old Boys as long as I was in Bombay.  We entered the
Kanga League for the first time in 1954, in the 'D' Division which was
then the lowest one.  We batted first in our opening match, and I had
the honour to face t he first ball of the Association's competition
participation.  My opening partner was Yukub Hamied, who as I recall
was familiarly called Yuku.  He batted right handed and bowled left,
moderately quick by our experience in those days.  Yuku would have
passed out of School in '52.   Yusuf, I think, was his younger
brother.

We won our first two matches outright i.e. a two-innings r esult within
the six hour playing time.  The second of these matches actually
started only around 1 PM due to a wet ground, yet we won by an innings
after an enterprising declaration by our captain Mehli Lalkaka,
followed by brilliant bowling by him and Bobby Choonavala which
devastated the opponents, all out for 14 in mere 40 minutes!

I do not have details of further matches because I sailed for UK {yes,
actually by sea in those days, 17 days voyage!} immediately
thereafter.  I do know that we topped our Division easily and were
promoted to 'C' Division.  I think we did fairly well there too, in
1955, but perhaps were just short of further promotion.  Thereafter I
lost touch, but I believe migration of the principal players for
studies or jobs depleted the team severely, and they no longer
participated in the Kanga League after being demoted to the lowest
Division.

Incidentally my wife too is a Cathedralite, she was Armaity Mody at
School, a very successful athlete and netball player.

All regards

Naval Patel

I am still a bit confused. Was the 52er Yukub, the elder brother, and
Yusuf, the younger brother, the 56er.

Bobby A. F. Choonavala was in Singapore where he used to head the
Asia Pacific Region for Digital Computers. I think he was Chairman o f
Digital Equipment (India) Ltd. in Mumbai before it became Digital
GlobalSoft Ltd after the merger of Digital with Compaq. Any idea
where Bobby is these days as he must have retired by now.

5. Grandparents Club grows

I was very delighted to hear the 59er Ooky and Rivca have joined the
Grandparents Club. Their Cathedralie son, Akiva and his wife, Leena,
having produced a healthy baby boy. I have conveyed congratulations
to the happy grandparents and on to the parents.

6. 59er Reunion in 2004

Glad to say several have indicated their serious intent to make the
trip. So I have started working on the details and will keep you
informed as we progress. So start saving and let me know when you want
to make the remittances. I will ask Prof. Ajeet Mathur to make the
necessary bank arrangements in due course.

7. email received from 54er

From: dara dastur
Date: Fri Apr 12, 2002 08:46:30 Europe/Helsinki
To: Jacob Matthan
bject: Old Cathedralite

Hi Jacob,

I was at Cathedral & left in 1954. You had sent an e-mail to my
brother Kavsy in U.S.A, saying that there was going to be a '54 class
reunion this summer in London. I would love to attend, could you send
me details please? I'm retired now & live in the north near Durham.

Thanks

Dara

8. Photograph of Physics Teacher William (Willie) Shiri

Thanks to Chinny Chin Chin (nee Hasnain Chinwalla), as I would say to
my grandson Samu when reading the story of the Wolf and the three
little pigs, Hasnain from Canada sent me a great photograph of our
Physics wizard and master of the 50’s, Willie Shiri. This is now in my
archives.

Here was Willie's most recent input:

Hi Jacob,

Sorry I have been out of touch.....it is just this Age Factor, I
guess.   I haven't really been doing much else either.... except
filling in  Tax Returns for the Canada Customs and Revenue !    Don't
even sing in any choirs, having recently got out of the last one after
a month... their demands on my  time for fund-raising were unending!   

I still  sing... lustily.... in the bath-room  !!  Thought you'd
like to know.. after all, we did once sing in the same choir !!

Pushpa and  I are  interested in  your plans for a 59er Reunion in Finland
in 2004  since it is open to the old staff.    In spite of the
scarry dimentions of those local mosquitoes, Pushpa is inclined to put
aside her inborn mosquito-phobia, and is all eager  to join in !   This
is a spot we have never considered before for a visit.   This will 
give us a chance, apart from seeing some old familiar faces and  some
new ones, --a chance to see the midnight sun !  

We will, however, not rush in with our commitments . Considering the
frailties and  uncertainties that go with our ages, we should wait as
long as we are allowed, to be sure we are still fit enough to venture.   

We may be with  the last few to reserve our places !     

Pl. keep us informed of future developments.

Do you know if there is any special Reunion on the next Founders Day,
Nov.  '02 ?  Say, of the Class of '52  or  '62 for instance ?   Pushpa
and I  hope to be in Bombay between Nov 10 and 20, dates arranged
mainly to attend the Founders Day Service.  With our contact with you and
the Seventh Heaven  and reacquaintance with Nusly Pocha and some past
students via the Internet,  we decided  a year ago that Nov. 14 would be
the day to meet some.  Mr. Mohan Rao, we are hoping, will also be there. 

I expect the date  to be still  Nov. 14.  (?)  and that it is still a popular 
event.  

Well, Jacob, how about asking via your Seventh Heaven, each
of those  who attend school reunions, whenever it happens, to carry  a
period photo of himself ?   We both mean to do it.  I was looking at
some photographs of the Class of ' 60  taken when they got together in
2000.  They look so changed !   A few look amazingly unchanged,  while
a few others look almost my generation !! We hope we get a chance to
meet in Madras either Ranjit or Elezebeth (your siblings ) or both ! 
We will be there later in Nov. 02  I do have their email addresses.
Hope all is well with you in your new home. 

Keep well.  Regards to Annikki. 

Thanks again for all you are doing for all of us !

Willie

9. Register at alumni.net

Many of us are registered at Alumni.net which is one of the oldest and
most widely used alumni net pages. You can either cut and paste this
complete URL given below into your web browser and then register in
our School alumni. (Remove any line breaks when you paste this URL as they
would have been introduced because of the line lengths of this email. There
should be NO breaks.)

http://www.alumni.net/cgi-bin/affiliate.pl?email=findians%40findians.com
&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.alumni.net%2FAsia%2FIndia%2FMaharashtra%2FMumbai_%28
Bombay%29%2FCathedral_and_John_Connon_School%2F

10. Petition signing online

I was forwarded a link by Bhupinder Singh which I think should be
signed if you feel strongly about what is happening in Gujarat. You can find
the online petition hosted on the web by a free online petition service, at:

"Protest Gujarat Government's Behavior During Communal Riots"

See you soon and keep the emails flowing in . I really love to hear from you.

Regards

Jacob Matthan
Savage House Captain 1959
Oulu, Finland

Newsy Notes 007 - Going to get married

Cathedralites,

Mumbai Cathedralite 59ers are having a reunion at
Percy and Frainy Mistri’s place on the 28th.

I promised Percy I would be there via my Newsy Notes
- so here I am.

I hope Percy has his beautiful new flat screen iMac
by then in the living room.

I am sure that's the only place Frainy would keep such
a beautiful computer. Then you all can read this on this
fabulously designed computer. As you may have guessed -
I am a Mac addict. :-)

Ratan Batliwalla seriously ill

Percy gave me the news that 59er Renuka Dhanrajgir's
husband, Ratan Batliwalla, also a Cathedralite of 57
era, was seriously ill and at Breach Candy Hospital.
I do hope he recovers quickly. I am praying for his
speedy recovery.

About finding a spouse

I get a fair share of mail from Cathedralites and
Stephanians from around the world. Life is worth
living reading their email inputs.

Within the last three months I did get a number of
unusual requests from Cathedralites (and Stephanians).
Probably it was a result of my recent call to be a
Cathedralite / Stephanian in one's way of life?

The requests have been from older Cathedralites and
Stephanians of my generation who are anxious to find g
ood spouses for their children.

Yes, I am saying this - I have been asked to run a
matrimonial service for Cathedralites and Stephanians.

Besides my well known nickname as Dead Chicken, for some
reason, probably because I was going twice a week to
church for choir practice,attending two Sunday church
services, morning and evening, and all the weddings,
christenings, and other events the choir was asked to
sing at, Californian Viney (Sethi) had also given me
the second nickname as "Padre"!

This Padre, however, is not empowered to legalise a
marriage.

I can assure you that I have some excellent eligible young
gentlemen and ladies on my list - all data given to me in
strictest confidence by their parents with the full consent
of the eligible son or daughter. Includes a few
millionaires of the dot.com boom who have not yet gone bust.

I was deeply touched when one parent wrote to me to remove
the word "Hindu" from the biodata sent to me. He wrote:

"I have removed the word Hindu between the 5ft 8ins and
well rounded personality. After all a good person is
more important than being a Hindu."

Another asked me to remove the word "Malayalee" which had
been included in the original write-up. A third asked me
to remove the restriction of the bride-to-be being a “Muslim”.

As you all know, it will be difficult for ME to run a
marriage bureau as I was probably one of the first to
break tradition and to find my own wife, running the ire
of many of my family in India. That was nigh 35 years ago.
That bitterness still lingers on in the mind of some of
my relatives.

But I have been the happiest man on this earth as I was
blessed with a "good" non-Indian, non-Malayalee person
as my life's partner. We have been through many
hardships, many successes and many many failures. We
stuck together through all of them with our feet
firmly on the ground and we feel greatly rewarded
by our life together over this period.

How can one so inexperienced as this run a matrimonial
bureau?

My intention is I hope I can put "good" people together
to know each other, even if it does not result in a
marriage. You may not find a soul mate through me, but
what harm is there in finding a good friend?

If you have someone near and dear to you who is looking
for this form of introduction, then send me the data.
I will do a match and let you have a corresponding
person's data in-confidence. Then it is up to the
people concerned to see whether they hit it off together.

My present list consists of people who are only
Cathedralites or Stephanians or children of
Cathedralites and Stephanians and are from many
communities - Americans, Europeans, Indians,
Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Gujus,
Kannadigas, Maharashtrians, Mallus, Punjabis,
Sindhis, etc.. They live all over the world.

All, both gentlemen and ladies, without exception,
are well employed and are of independent means.
So a change in employment location, may result
if the process of matrimony begins. One must be
prepared for that eventuality. It is difficult t
o see me matching two people exactly in Boston or
Los Angeles, etc.

The ages of people on my list so far are gentlemen
and ladies from 25 to 34, all single to date.

What about my fees for the service?

Receiving a wedding invitation card would be more
than sufficient, although you can rest assured I w
ill not be able to attend!! My schedules are already
too crowded. But I love getting beautiful wedding
invitation cards, like the one 59er Ashok (and Madhu)
Kapur sent out for their daughter's wedding. Something
to be preserved in my collection of cards - I have
several thousands as I am a postcard and general
card collector!! I specialise in cross-written
postcards more than 100 years old.

Email received

I had this input from Yezad Kapadia, a 49er.

From: Yezad Sam Kapadia
To: Jacob Matthan
Sent: Sunday, March 03, 2002 7:49 AM
Subject: Newsletter

Hi Jacob,
 
It was great receiving your latest newsletter. Have
a few comments to make.
 
It was good to know that Vasind continued to be the favorite
camping place for the Scouts even in your time. I remember
the time we were caught in the rains and Oliver had to
make a bivouak to keep himself from getting soaked. He
did a great job of it. Most of us had tents.
 
If Pop Pharaoh was still around in your time and Karkaria
was the maths teacher, what subject was Pop teaching?
In our time Pop was the maths teacher.

(Ed: Pop taught us Maths till the 10th and Karkaria took
over only for the 11th.)
 
Cannot remember Doreen Feinbusch but if she has the
documents from the Prize Giving functions of the years
1949 and 1950 I would be interested in seeing them.
I was the Head Boy in 1949. If my memory serves me
right, these functions were held right in the beginning
of the year. One of my first assignments was to go to t
he topmost gallery of the C J Hall and lead the school
to a hearty Three Cheers for the Chief Guest and  his
wife. I only know how I shivered before getting the
words out of my mouth - " SCHOOL, Three Cheers for...."
In 1950, on that occasion, I got the Macdonald Medal
for Leadership. In my final certificate, which I still ha
ve, the departing Principal, L. M. S. Bruce, was to write
that I got the Medal more nearly unanimously than he
had ever known before. I was and am still proud of this.

(Ed: Yesh features greatly in all the documents that
Doreen kindly sent me. I will scan and put up on the
web in due course.)
 
Your tribute to your English teacher was moving. We
never knew him. In our time Oliver taught us English.
I never got beyond a 4/10 in our weekly essays and
just about scraped through the finals!. Aroo Moolgaker
got a distinction in English Language, which was
quite an achievement.
 
Glad to know that you are getting out of your winter
slumber.
 
Warm regards.
 
Yesh.

Next major reunion of 59ers

59ers, how about our next major reunion?

Have you considered my offer for the venue in 2004
to be Finland? If so I must get cracking on booking
the absolutely beautiful place on the side of a lake
in summertime when we have 24 hours glorious sunshine.
The place I have in mind can house around 60 couples
- more if we accept dorm style living.

It would be a reunion of a type never before experienced
by any Cathedralite. I shall try to keep the costs to
within about US $ 250 per person for food (breakfast,
lunch and dinner) and accommodation for 5 days (US $ 50 per day),
and including all the amenities at the location - sauna,
barbecue, water and land sports, etc. And I could organise
the services of a great Rock Band - live, so plenty of
dancing possible.

You will have to come well prepared with mosquito repellent
as the size of a mosquito in north Finland during summertime
are about that of a bee or wasp!! :-)

I am sure Viney and Purnima (Mazumdar) Sethi as they have
close relations nearby in Stockholm, and Ajeet (Prof.
Ajeet Mathur) from Tampere (although not a 59er from our
Finland Alma Mater club) will be able to help me out at
the final run-up to the event.

The dates would be ideally about a 5-day period in July
2004 - Thursday or Friday to Monday or Tuesday either pre-
or post- Wimbledon / Test Match as it would be no point
getting stuck in front of a TV when there is glory all around.

We could welcome staff and non-59ers also if they wish
to take the opportunity.

You would have to find the fare to reach from your
location to Oulu (near the Arctic Circle). SAS has
direct international flights to Oulu daily through
Stockholm.

If organised properly I can ask SAS to offer a special
fare from Stockholm to Oulu and back as there will
certainly be more than one flight load as they run only s
mall planes to this destination. And maybe Purnima (with
her previous Air India contacts and good contacts in
Stockholm where she was Air India chief for several years)
can help us get a good fare from Mumbai and some point in
US and UK to Stockholm?

If this is acceptable I will set up a separate bank account
where you can deposit the fee at convenient times in
convenient amounts, so the burden is not all at once.
I will ask Ajeet to maintain the accounts.

Give it a thought and get back to me as I have to work
with my contacts at the University to ensure that this
absolutely delightful lakeside place is reserved for us.

Summertime in Finland is so glorious that we really have
to book this 2 years in advance to be sure we get it.

Winter nearly over

Snow is all over the ground still, although temperatures
are slowly heading above the zero mark. Driving is quite
dangerous as under a light snowfall there may be very
slippery patches. I had a nasty fall in my garden just
day before yesterday resulting in a badly bruised shin.

I was also in a car slide the night before. I was turning
a gentle corner when the car just slid with the wheels
locked in the turning position. It jammed into the snow
and was impossible to get out single-handed as the wheels
were turned about 45 degrees, even though I dug out most
of the snow with my bare hands. I called my son-in-law,
Tony, to come with a shovel to dig me out. But a good
young Samaritan with a tow rope in the boot passed by
in a few minutes and pulled me out before Tony could
even leave home!!

Believe it or not - in my 18 years in Finland -
this was my first car snow slide!!

Yahoo Users Beware and be Forewarned

I have it from the grapevine that Yahoo intends to start
charging users to use their, till now, FREE email service.
Try to find another quickly - preferably not hotmail. I
f desperate - contact me and I shall try to get you a
free service from the many I know.

You have been warned.

Best wishes from where spring is just around the corner
- hopefully!!

Jacob Matthan
Savage House Captain 1959
Oulu, Finland

Newsy Notes 006 - Polar Bear comes out of hibernation

Rider Salmon

Dear Cathedralites,

March the 1st has just ebbed away and I am coming
out of my hibernation.

"How To Stay Young, Happy & Healthy"

Throw out non-essential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctor worry about them. That is why you pay him/her.

Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down. If you really need a grouch, there are probably a few dozen of  your relatives to do the job.

Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts,
gardening ...whatever. Just never let the brain idle.

Enjoy the simple things. When the children are young...
that is all that you can afford. When they are in college... that is all that you can afford. When they are grown and you are on retirement... that is all that you can afford!

Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath. Laugh so much that you can be tracked in the store by your distinctive laughter.

The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life is ...ourselves.

Surround yourself with what you love, whether it is
family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies ...
whatever. Your home is your refuge.

Cherish your health. If it is good ... preserve it. If it is
unstable ... improve it. If it is beyond what you can
improve ... get help.

Don't take guilt trips. Go to the mall, the next county, a
foreign country... but not guilt.

Tell the people you love, that you love them ... at every
opportunity.

Remember ...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.


Rider Salmon

I received this message from Rider's wife, Pauline:

Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2002 19:04:00 +0000
Subject: Thank you
To: Jacob Matthan

Dear Jacob Matthan

It was good to receive your very heart warming messages about Rider's passing away.

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

Thank you for your words of sympathy and also tribute to him

yours

Pauline

I placed a picture of Rider Salmon sent to me through Abe Hayeem in London in the last issue of Newsy Notes. I asked and got permission from both Pauline, and their son, Luke, to put it up on our Seventh Heaven website - which I have done.

My wife, Annikki, asked me why I thought so much about Rider. The answer for me was very easy. I told her that I had been just one of the thousands of Rider’s students. When he woke up in the morning after his days at Cathedral he would never have thought a moment about me. I would have passed from his memory a few years after we parted company.

But to me, as a writer, every time I sit down to compose
any piece of writing, just as this one, or edit a technical
or scientific article (which has been my bread and butter for several years), I would think for a moment about that tall handsome gentleman with that beautiful smile who taught me how to compose a decent sentence, express a point of view, write a line of prose in this language, or read a chapter in a book and understand its meaning not only as the words lay on the page but also get the meaning that lay between the lines.

It is Rider, and John Billington, Willie and Patel (Physics), OA Gregory (Chemistry) and POP Pharoah and Karkaria (Maths), who have made me what I am.

Of course, neither I cannot forget the late Mr. Morecroft, no, not for his side-lock pulling every gym class - but for fishing me out of the water at Vasind!!

Can I forget such people for even a moment in my life.
Rider taught me that the Wren’s Grammar book was not
the be all and end all of the English language. Rider taught me to write with my own expressive self.

Above all, Rider taught me when to say “I shall” and “I will”.

And it is the latter expression that has made me what I am today.

Can I ever for a moment forget such a wonderful teacher?

No, not on your life. Although Rider is no more, he will stay in my memory till the day I breathe my last!!

For that I say, “Thank you, Rider”.

A special message for Californians:

Next week is skiing holiday week here in Finland. Schools close by rotation starting in Helsinki in mid February and up here in the Arctic in early March, for a week at a time, so as to allow Finns and their kids to have a week of their winter enjoying skiing in the countryside.

In that context here is a word for those of you living near Hollywood. Annikki’s workmate, a very nice young Finnish girl, Hannele Leskelä, and her boyfriend, Kimmo Tyni, are visiting Hollywood as they are keen of seeing what the Hollywood stars are
all about. Kimmo works at Nokia Moibile Phones in Oulu. If any of you have an evening to spare and you are near the region, they would certainly like to spend an evening with a "local" family,

Their coordinates in Hollywood are

Hannele Leskelä and Kimmo Tyni,
Best Western Hotel
Hollywood Hills
6141 Franklin Avenue
Hollywood
California 90028
Hotel Tel: 323 - 464 - 5181

and as all Finns, they do have their Nokia Mobile phone. Here is Kimmo’s mobile phone number:

+358 - 400 - 759638

You can also reach Kimmo by email

Hope they can get to see some of you. Annikki and I would love to hear about you from them.

Formula 1

Tomorrow morning will see the start of the Formula 1
racing season in Australia. This year we will not see the flashy Mika Hakkinen. He has been replaced in the Maclaren Mercedes line-up by another young Finn, Kimi Raikkonen. Kimi is a focused young man witha truly dead pan Finnish character. I am sure he will drive well.

But more likely to succeed is the second Finn who is making a comeback this year driving for theToyota team. Mika Salo will pull in some surprises as he is a determined driver and going all out to show the world his real class.

Michael Schumacher and his brother, Ralph, had better
watch out for some aggressive driving by these two Finns.

Messages received:

Prakash Thadani fed me with some data from Mumbai:

***
Had to tell you of the ROCK Concert last night -2 bands Pythagorus and Parikrama The crowd was 5000 plus. Age was no barrier when I heard Pink Floyd - (wish you were here) & Deep Purple to enjoy any form of music, though Pythagorus played the latest ROCK Nos. and then a few known old Rock band tunes while Parikrama played most of their own compositions heard on MTV and the all time favourite WE WILL, WE WILL ROCK YOU .

The Indian Jazz Yatra 2002, at the Rang Bhavan is being hosted by JAZZ INDIA 22nd to 23rd March featuring the greatest Indian jazz Musicians. So do try to book yourseason tickets in advance.

The Raza celebration of his 80th birthday at the Jehangir art  gallery last week brought together all those who havehis paintings or those who appreciated he work. The release of a  book with 3 signed prints for a whopping sum of Rs. 37500, was talked in hushed tones..

A few words by the Master, Raza, and short speeches were welcome by all who drank fine french wine and ate tastybites.

The footpaths outside Jehangir art gallery had many
interesting works of art on display. I personally liked
the ARTQUEST stall with bright vivid colours and paintingson home furniture pricey but still great to create an impact. The Jewel Gallery also featured some new talent being displayed on ART PLAZA the open air footpath gallery now on for the Kalaghoda festival.

The PICASSO show Metamorphoses is still on at the National Gallery of Cotemporary Art formerly Cawasji Jehangir Hall opp. Regal. NOT TO BE MISSED BY anyone. Take a guided tour. The guides really gives you an insight into the life of Picasso.

Sunday is the running of the  Poonawalla Million a horse race worth 38 million bucks. for 3 years old to be run over 1400 Metres.

There are prizes like a Maruti Car and plenty of gifts
usually won by those who have no clue about the horse
racing scene in Mumbai. One has to nominate the horses in winning order on a contest form. Sounds very easy but luck plays and importrant part here. All thanks to the dynamic Vivek Jain an ex Cathedralites who has
implemented many new ideas . Racing is now a family outing.  One can take your kids to the Mahalakshmi Race Course and enjoy the afternoon. Kids have amusement rides, and the entertainment.
***

Prakash also informed me about the passing away of Miss Oliver  at the ripe old age of 92. Miss Oliver was the handiwork (I think)  teacher in the girl’s school and many of our friends acquired their cooking skills from her.

Here was an interesting input from Doreen (nee Feibusch) Heimlich from Clemson, USA.

Dear Jacob,

I had just mailed off an envelope to you this (Saturday)
morning, containing xerox copies of the Cathedral's Prize Giving Day Programmes of 1949 and 1950, wherein you should  recognize a good number of the names, even though you  are of a much younger vintage. It's interesting to see Ellis  Hayeem's name, and some of the other boys, listed under
the Girl's School, because in those days the Lower School b(Upper K.G., Lower K.G., Transition, and Preparatory) was  "co-ed" -- though in those far-off days we were not familiar  with the term "co-ed." And you should enjoy the listing of  the teachers and the subjects they taught, for the Boy's
School and the Girl's School.  Made copies of the same
items for Gracie Hayeem, but am waiting for her response
to my e-mail request for her snail-mail address, which I
was unable to find on the internet. I don't know how
long this envelope will take to get to you, since I've never
posted anything to Finland before.

For now, my very best to you and your family,

--Doreen

Having received the package, I certainly do have a lot of
material for many Seventh Heavens considering also the great
stuff sent to me by Abe.

This was the input from Viney and Purnima (nee Mazumdar)
Sethi from the USA:

Jakes - thanks for 004....also received 003 after some delay....

Purnima is at present in Stockholm helping her daughter
Shonaar with her 2nd baby girl Sabine (born on 15th Dec.)....
we have recently come back after a 2 month stay in India
(Oct 24th to Dec 25th)...attended the Founder's Day service
after 41 and 39 years respectively!!!!.....what an experience..
.a real "tear jerker" and highly recommended to bring home
old memories and acquaintances.....we were also there for
Diwali and did not get much sleep for 7 days due to the
fireworks.....HAPPY NEW YEAR and our very best wishes to
Annikki and the family,

Viney & Purnima

Abdul Kalam

Recently, one of you sent me an interesting enclosure:

Mr. APJ Abdul Kalaam's speech in Hyderabad. A must
read for every Indian.

I certainly take my hats off to that gentleman scientist for his
forthright views and also the touching story of how his research
helped a little girl get a lighter artificial limb.

However, consider for a moment that story and the issue of patriotism.
If we think that we are Indian, or British, or Hindu, or Muslim, or
Jew, or Arab, or Christian, or set up other man made divisions,
what we face will be turmoil and senseless violence as was
witnessed in Gujarat yesterday.

And just as I was writing this - Kashinath Dandekar sent me a link to
the Times of India article of yesterday which read:

Gujarat school trip that turned into a nightmare

ROSHNI OLIVERA

TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ FRIDAY, MARCH 01, 2002 10:58:45 PM ]

"We saw the city burning, there was smoke all over...
it was so frightening," exclaims 14-year-old Mehak Goyal,
a student of The Cathedral and John Connon school who's
just returned from her Ahmedabad trip.

Mehak and her classmates, around 140 students, were in
Ahmedabad between February 25 and 28 when the city
was severely hit by riots. Theirs was an educational trip
along with nine teachers, which turned into a nightmare.....

Many years ago when we were living in Madras, the Finnish Ambassador
wrote to Annikki saying that she had received instructions from the
Finnish Government that in case of unrest in India she would be able
to get the help of the Embassy for her evacuation from India as she
was a Finn. Annikki’s reaction was simple and straightforward - she
asked the Ambassador whether she would leave her husband and
children behind in the face of unrest just because they were not Finns!!

Many years ago the now Chief Minister of Karnataka made a speech in
the Karnataka Assembly about the “sons of the soil” policy and about
job resevation. I was forced to ask him what son of the soil was I -
my origins are from Kerala, one of my grandfathers was the Chief
Minister of Mysore during the time of the Maharaja, I was born in
Bangalore, studied the second half my schooling in Bombay, did my
University in Delhi and then studied in England, worked for the
British Government in a Research Laboratory and then moved to
Madras with a Finnish wife, two British passport holding children
and two Indian passport holding children. Which son of the soil was I?

Today, I hold an Indfian Passport, my wife, two children and one
grandchild hold Finnish passports, while another two children and
another grandchild hold British passports. Does Abdul Kalaam expect
me to pick up a gun as an Indian and kill my grandchildren just
because they were born in a different country to the one where
I was born?

Brother against brother, sister against sister, husband against wife,
son against father, daughter against mother - is that what life
is supposed to be.

Nobody dies for one’s country - one kills for it.

If we can learn to live as true Cathedxralites, as brother and
sister, respecting all people and their views and opinions, what
a wonderful place the world would be. We would have no need for
nuclear weapons or the research to kill people being conducted
by great scientists as Abdul Kalaam. I hope for that world where
Palestinians and Israelis, Arabs and Jews, Roman Catholics and
Protestants, Hindus and Muslims, would live together as
friends, as neighbours - loving their neighbours as themselves.
Then September 11th can never be repeated. But with divisions and
man made struggle for power, there will be many more September 11ths
and I do not want to wish that on my grandchildren.

Let us learn to live as true Cathedralites - in peace with each other
and not as Hindus or Muslims, Christians, Jews or Arabs, not as Indians
or Pakistanis.

And finally, I thought I would share an appropriate joke that also came
to me in today’s email:

If you can start the day without caffeine or pep pills,
If you can be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
If you can eat the same food everyday and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when loved ones are too busy to give you time,
If you can overlook when people take things out on you when,
through no fault of yours, something goes wrong,
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
If you can face the world without lies and deceit,
If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can relax without liquor,
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,
If you can do all these things,

THEN YOU ARE PROBABLY THE FAMILY DOG

OR

THE DEAD CHICKEN!!

Jacob Matthan
1954 - 1959
Prefect 1958 - 1959
School Hackey Goalkeeper 1958 - 1959
Savage House Captain 1959

Newsy Notes 005 - Heavy Heart

Dear Cathedralites,

It is with a very heavy heart that I send you this edition of  Newsy Notes.

About a fortnight ago I had a message from Prakash Thadani (1960 - 1969), who was a founder member of the Cathedral & John Connon Alumni Association and former President of the Alumni and who is currently still involved with the Alumni Association.

Jacob,

I regret to inform you of the sudden demise of Rajkumar Advani fondly known as Kumar Advani on early hours of Thursday 27th.

The funeral was held at the Chandanwadi Crematorium on Thursday morning and the Condolence meet (MARKA) was held at ther Jai Hind College Auditorium on Friday 28th.

His effusive presence will be missed by all those who had got to know him over the past few years.

Prakash Thadani
1969 SAVAGE

Raj Kumar Advani is sitting on the ground on the left of the picture

I was also informed of the same by Hasnain Chinwalla (1950 - 1959)  from Toronto, Canada:

Jacob,

Late last night I heard from my cousin in Mumbai who reported that Rajkumar Advani had suffered a massive coronary last week and passed away. He was one year senior to us, but had a lot of friends. 

His two brothers, Ashok and Hiro were also at Cathedral. I am trying to get his address so I can send a note of condolence.

Hasnain Chinwalla
1959, Wilson

I knew Rajkumar well as we walked around the CCI block almost daily for many years. Although he was one year my senior, he was someone who enjoyed talking to all age groups on a variety of subjects. He was always a very happy person and will be missed by all those who knew him. He would turn out to support the school in many of its sporting events, especially
cricket. Like me, he loved an argument. I was not lucky enough to meet him after I left India in 1963.

The second sad news I have was conveyed to me last night by Abe Hayeem in England when he copied me on his email to Luke Salmon, son of Rider
Salmon, our English teacher between 1956 and 1958.

Rider Salmon - Our English teacher 1956 - 1958 Photograph supplid by his son Luke Salmon
This was the message received by Abe Hayeem from Luke:

> From: "luke.salmon"
> Date: Wed, 09 Jan 2002 05:05:20 +0000
> To: Abe Hayeem
> Subject: Rider G Salmon
>
 Dear Abe Hayeem
>
> It is with regret that i have to tell you that my Father died on Saturday 5th January at home.

There will be a service of remembrance this Friday the 11th in St Andrews Chuch, Kings Road, Colwyn Bay at 3.30pm

 yours sincerely

luke salmon

This was Abe’s reply to Luke.

Dear Luke,

I only just opened my email (Friday at 6.00pm) and was shocked and saddened to hear of your bereavement of your father . Please accept my deepest condolences to you, Pauline and all your family.It will be a great loss to you all and our thoughts are with you at this difficult time.

When I last spoke to him and your mum, it was about this time last year, (to give news of the passing away of Pam Ballantine, another of his students and a friend) Pauline did say that he hadn't been too well, but he still sounded like I remembered him from those years at
Cathedral School, and also the couple of times that we saw him and your mum when my wife and I visited them at Colwyn Bay many years ago.It's still a shock to hear of his passing, and also signifies an end of an era.

He will be remembered fondly by us and all at Cathedral School who knew and were taught by him, both for his great teaching, and also his jovial nature and sense of humour that made him such a popular figure.

I will post this on the "Seventh Heaven" email circuit of
ex-Cathedralites through Jacob Matthan, all of whom I am sure will join me in sending our condolences. Please give our love to Pauline.

Yours sincerely

Abe Hayeem and Family

I have, yesterday, sent the following email to Luke:

Dear Luke,

I was very saddened to hear of the passing away of my finest teachers a person who always had a smile, quite mischievous at times, on his face. 

I will always remember him charging me as a forward in the staff hockey team as I played in goal.

Abe was kind enough to let me know and I will send out a special edition of Newsy Notes to inform Cathedralites around the world of this sad loss,
a truly great friend of many who passed through his care. I shall also place a tribute, mine, to a person who was much more than a teacher to us - a friend who loved all his students.

I hope you will convey my condolences to your mother and other members of the family.

Yours in deep sorrow,

Jacob Matthan
Editor: Seventh Heaven
Oulu, Finland

Such sad events that are becoming more common place amongst our age group brings deep sorrow within me and I realise that life is such a short space of time that we must enjoy each other as long as we can.

It is sad I did not have Rider’s email as I would have had loved to have him read some of the things I have written, especially as my writing style was formulated under his guidance. I have much to be grateful for to this “English gentleman” who gave me so much.

I especially remember him doing the cricket match sequence in "A Pattern of Islands" (?) by Arthur Grimble about the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. He
laughed as much as us when he was reading it out in class - our 10th Standard, when late POP Stan Pharoah was our class teacher.

If I remember coirrectly, he did Shakespeare’s Midsummer Nights Dream in the 8th Standard, Tempest in the 9th and Hamlet in the 10th with us.
I am a bit confused whether it was John Billington who did Macbeth us in the 11th for I seem to remember Rider reading "Out, out damned spot"
to us at some point of time.

I also remember how effusive with praise Rider was when he announced that Elijah Elias had won the Ookeridge Essay prize while we were in the 10th
Standard. Rider compared Ooky's humoristic style with that of none other than P. G. Wodehouse, who, at that time, was one of my favourite authors.

No doubt, you will now remember how Elijah got this pet name of Ooky, which has stuck with him till this day.

There is one point on which I am not clear as it was pointed out by Vinay Dabholkar when he corrected me that Rider was not our class teacher in the 8th Standard, but Mr. A. Zavala from Peru. I stand corrected on this point, but did Mr. Zavala go for a holiday to Peru, or was he unwell for a period of time when Rider was our Class Teacher for a short time that year?

But above all I do remember Rider on the hockey field when I saved a particularly stinging shot from the top of the D to the goal from him. 

He smiled at me and with his twinkling eyes and typical British humour said “That will be 5 marks off your next essay!!”

I would be grateful if anyone could send me a photograph of Rider for my album, as also pictures of other staff that you may have with you. The picture of the CBS Staff in 1960 which Willie kindly sent me does not feature Rider who had returned to UK by then.

I hope through this email I can convey the sincere and heartfelt condolences of all those who had the privilege and honour to be taught by Rider and of knowing him as a wonderful human being.

And finally a few words about a topic which I seemed to have caused a stir about - Viruses being spread inadvertently by some of you. I do not mean to
complain but only point out that the computer is only a tool for me to do my work. I am not an expert on it. Hence if people tell me this and that about what has to be done about viruses, it is far to above my head.

Hence, I chose a computer system that does not have any viruses. For 17 years I have been free from them. As I gave an analogy the other day - if I buy a pen and it leaks, I get it fixed. If it leaks again i throw it away and get myself one that does not leak. If my computer is virus and bug ridden, I would throw it away and get one which is not bug ridden. I have been successful
in choosing a system which is free of bugs and viruses. What really bothers me is that others do not respect the sanctity of those who have chosen to stay away from viruses even when they know full well that they are using a system which propagates viruses around the world.

I am not suggesting any particular system for you to choose. I am not a computer expert to help you draw road maps on choosing computers. All I emphasize is that you should, like junk mail, try to ensure that you
do not make life miserable for others because you believe in using a particular system.

It is very likely that a class action suit will be be formulated against those who spread viruses, advertently or inadvertently, as people do have a choice but are choosing to ignore it. Most of you who sent me
viruses over the last 3 months do even know that you have done so, as it is done behind your back by the programmes you have on your computer. You will only know it when friendss like me tell you about
it or your entire system crashes causing you much heartbreak.

Yours with a heavy laden heart,

Jacob Matthan
1954 - 1959
Prefect 1958 - 1959
School Hackey Goalkeeper 1958 - 1959
Savage House Captain 1959

Newsy Notes 004 - By Popular Demand

Dear Friends,

A Friend

A friend is like a flower, A rose to be exact,
Or maybe like a brandnew gate That never comes unlatched.
A friend is like an owl, Both beautiful and wise.
Or perhaps a friend is like a ghost, Whose spirit never dies.
A friend is like those blades of grass You can never mow,
Standing straight, tall, and proud In a perfect little row.
A friend islike a heart that goes Strong until the end.
Where would we be in this world If we didn't have a friend?

I have been inundated by email from ladies across the globe who want
to see a picture of Annikki's prize-winning 2001 Ginger Bread House
Cake. I am, therefore, attaching the picture of her year 2000 creation
which is a peculiar type of a Finnish Barn which stores the hay
through winter.

Latto by Annikki Matthan (2000) - Gingerbread Creation
It is called a Latto and the construction is remarkably simple. The green
hay is the green (and yellow) string sweets that children love. The kids
just adored this simple design.

The second photograph is the 2001 creation of a Laplander's wigwam,
known in Finland as a "Kota", which won the competition this year.
There are some new and unusual features, something she does every
year and which gets copied by others in subsequent years.

Kota by Annikki Matthan (2001) - Gingerbread Creation
This year she made the candle holder (which is very traditional one at
Christmas where they make blocks of ice and keep them at the front
gate with candles burning inside them) out of eucalyptus sweet balls
she stuck together. But the real masterpiece was the ice pond she made
in front of the wigwam which showed the reflection of the burning
candle and the distant sun or moon as you prefer (which is not visible
in this picture). She made the pond by melting and spreading the
eucalyptus sweet evenly on a piece of gingerbread. The fireplace inside
the wigwwm was also unique, but it is not visible in this shot.

Her prize winning creation for 1998 has been on the web for a couple of
years. In 1999 she missed the competition as we were holidaying in
India (as will be remembered by those who attended the 40th year
reunion of the Cathedral School Class of 1959).

Annikki's unique creations of cakes include a enormous turtle on the
beach she made as a 5 kg birthday cake for Kachum, the 4 year old son
of Michelle, the local Chinese restaurant owner here in Oulu (who is a
girl from Calcutta).

Birthday Cake for Kachun, "Turtle on the seashore"
Grandson Samuel's 1st birthday cake which was a 4 kg creation of
tree stump with a crow's nest and eggs and a beautiful meringue
moulded and carved chocolate coated crow on it.

Another masterpiece for Samuel's 3rd birthday which was an
enormous snowman whose black hat was made by crotcheting the
string liquorice sweet.

All her creations are being compiled into a book and I will publish it
during one of the coming years.

I was greatly honoured to be asked By Antony Ramsingh to attend the
reunion of the Class of 54 which may be held in England. I am sure I
will be able to make the trip as I can take the time to spend some
time with my granddaufghter, Asha, at Birmingham.

I have also been pushed with requests for copies of the programme
brochures of the Cathedral school plays. I will try my best to put
these up soon. I am also most gratful for others who have offered to
send me copies of the memorabilia that they have. The Arctic Museum
of my interests is not going to be a dream for long!!

So far the guesses as to the characters who played various parts in
the play have not come anywhere near the facts. Only one, the most
popular Cathedralite ever, the late Tara Malkani, has been guessed by
many. That really shows his fame. Some of you guessed that Ashok
Jaitly had played the role of Aladdin - not so. He did act in the play
but as one of the Guards. He also acted in "The King of Sherwood
Forest" as one of the Alto Maidens but by the time of "Ali Ba! Ba! or
the Forty Black Sheep" he had become a Tenor and acted as one of the
forty black sheep!! Others named Colin Hunter as Ali Ba! Ba! - but he
played Sir Richard Lea, Badmanazar and Hassarac in the three plays.
Still others guessed Herbert Vaney, but he played Dorothy, Bu-Tea
(Laundry Student) and an Alto girl from one of the various nations,
respectively.

Keep those entries coming in as that Alvar Aalto glass vase is a rare
and beautiful specimen. I am keeping the competition open till the
end of January 2002.

Many of you asked more about Tony Jaitly. Tony was with me not only in
Cathedral but also at St. Stephen's. I did meet up with him many many
years later when he was the Private Secretary (non-pollitical) to
George Fernandes at the Ministry of Industry at the time of the Janata
Government. His wife, Jaya, was in politics and the former Samata
Party president, and his daughter, Aditi, recently married cricketer,
Ajay Jadeja. (There is no truth in claim that Celina Jaitly is Jaya's
and Tony's daughter.) This is the description of Tony as it appears
on the Rediffusion.com pages:

"Suave and powerful, Ashok Jaitley is chief secretary of (Indian) Jammu
& Kashmir.  In control of the civil service, he sits quite literally
at the apex of local government.  Jaitley is an institution in
Kashmir, having been around for many years.  He lives in a beautiful
mock-Tudor mansion by Dal Lake, which was used as a set in the
Bollywood movie, Mission Kashmir.  It also used to be - so it is
alleged - an interrogation centre in the early 1990s.  Jaitley is as
interested in sorting out the economic mess that is Kashmir as he is
in fighting militancy.  With Farooq Abdullah and Giresh Saxena, he is
one of the key decision-makers in Kashmir."

We are having a very very cold season. Yesterday, Annikki and one of
her younger sisters refused my offer to drive them to town to attend
the post-Christmas Sale shopping spree - they decided to walk the
couple of kilometres!! On the way back they were so frozen the called
me from a restaurant to go and pick them up. When they reached home
and thawed out, they found they had left one shopping bag somewhere,
so I drove them back. It was not in the restaurant or the locker in
the shop, but unknowingly they had left it in the middle of the
pedestrian pathway when they had stopped to warm their hands. And it
was still there about an hour after they had left it there!!

Some problems with email addresses:

Viney and Purnima Sethi's email to bigfoot is being redirected to
earthlink and bouncing from there. I have changed the email address to
hotmail as advised by Piloo. However Newsy Notes 003 has not been
sent to this address. Naval Patel's mantraonline account is so full
that all mail is being bounced. Will someone tell him as he is
happily sending out mail from there and wondering why he is not
getting mail from me!!

Hrushit Bhatt's email address at usa.net has lapsed, as has many others,
so could he please be informed by Rohit or someone else who knows
his present whereabouts (in Delhi, I think).

Dr. John David's email address at yahoo is bouncing email, so will
someone please tell him to send me his new address. It may be a
temporary error, so I am sending this message to him also in the hope
that it gets through.

Willie and Pushpa from Canada sent me this short note:

Dear Jacob,

I do feel as though some thing is missing when I don't hear from you
for a while. Thanks for the mail that arrived yesterday. Will write a
proper reply when this Xmas rush is over

Bill

Thanks Willie. It is nice to get such a compliment. But I do wish
someone would tell me once in a while what a horrible guy I
am, bringing all this rubbish and smut onto the internet and
wasting their bandwidth. :-)

Eddie in Salt Lake City is waiting to see (the Finns win medals at the
winter olympics! It will take a few years for the Finns to come back
to par in this sports field after this year's dpping scandal of all
the very top of their sport (sportsmen and women, doctors and
coaches as well) at the World Winter Sports Championships
held in Lahti, Finland, last January.

Thank you for the many offers to help me run my web magazines. The
editorial content is not the problem as there is so much great input
from all of you that I am never short of matter. What I need is
someone who is computer and web savvy to redesign the original pages,
take the old issues on the web and set them up again so that the
content can be found easily and also take all the past issues of these
occasional newsletters and set them up to complement the web page
archives.

Once that is done it should be possible to add the new content fairly
easily.

By the way, if you want me to share your email address with others, you
must explicitly give me permission to do so. Also, I only have the
office email addresses of several of you. Please give me your private
ones as I hate to send these crummy emails to your offices addresses.

Hope you enjoy the photographs.

Best regards

Jacob Matthan
Savage House Captain 1959
Oulu, Finland

Newsy Notes 003 - My Season's Greetings

Dear Cathedralite friends far and wide,

"Age is of no importance unless you are a cheese"
wrote Billie Burke.

I promised this issue would stew up the nostalgic juices -
I hope I succeed.

This time of the year, in this snow and ice fridge, is
one of great loneliness as the dark nights creep in on us
by 2 in the afternoon. The shortest day ended yesterday
so now we look forward to the ever lengthening albeit
substantially colder days.

My sense of time is all hay-wire. I wake up at about 2:30 am and I am at my computer keyboard hammering away on my forthcoming books. I have been commissioned to write a handbook on a plastics processing technique on which I may have
some little experience. Delivery is as early as March 2003, which means I have to complete about 2000 words every single day for the next six months. Plus my non-fiction novel (following George Bernard Shaw's advice: "If you cannot get rid
of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.") in two languages is required to be made page ready by my publisher by March 2002. That is also a Herculean task.

So you wonderful guys and gals will have to forgive me if I do not update the Seventh Heaven web pages as I would like to. WOULD ANYONE LIKE TO HELP ME WITH THIS?

I am grateful to 57er / 59er Abe Hayeem who sent me the original programmes of three school plays in Mint Condition: The 1954 production of "The King of Sherwood" written by Fred Edmonds with music by Thos Hewitt; the 1955 production of "Aladdin and Out", a comic opera in three acts, again by Fred Edmonds and Thom Hewitt; and the 1956 classic production done jointly with the girls' school of "Ali Ba! Ba! or The Forty Black Sheep". Wouldn't you like to get your hands on these pieces of sheer gold.

It revived many memories for me as I joined school in 1954 and remember the first play very vividly. I auditioned for it but was not successful.

Many names are listed including Bashir Currimjee's two brothers Mustan and Zulfee, Vijoy Nerurker, Sudhir Grover, Nazir Hoosein, Frank Rozario, Clive Ciel, etc., etc. What a wonderful donation from Abe.

I wonder how many of you can recall who acted as Robin Hood? One of the most popular Cathedralites ever, sadly no more.

The "Aladdin and Out" 1955 programme featured my name.

If any of you have read the Seventh Heaven online magazine,I recall in one issue the most embarrassing moment of my life while I acting in that play. Take a look and laugh yourself to oblivion at my expense.

Large as life is my name in the lights as one of the Laundry Students afterwards Court Ladies!! Aubrey Ballantine and Ellis Hayeem were two of my colleagues in this role. Many recipients of this Newsy Notes are listed there.

Wonder if any of you can guess who acted as Aladdin?

It revived memories of John Temple (whose mother was the Art Teacher, a subject at which I was miserable - drawing a straight line with the help of a foot ruler was a work of art for me). MNo wonder I got a fabulous artist as a wife!! Unfortunately all her best works have been appropriated by our daughter and adorn her walls. Annikki (my better half if you had not guessed) has just won - yet again - this year's prize for the best Ginger Bread House cake - a fantastically designed completely edible Finnish Laplander's Wigwam with the Lappish scenery to complement it.

And the Ali Ba! Ba! - recalls such names as Ashok (Tony) Jaitly who is now serving as Chief Secretary in Kashmir (and whose son called up to speak to me from Japan after reading an issue of Seventh Heaven), Ramesh Punwani, Abey Stevenson, Charles, Herbert and  Margaret Vaney - Peter's family entourage.

Guess who acted as Ali Ba! Ba!? This is a difficult one but those with good memories will certainly remember that outstanding performance.

The first person who submits all three names correctly (excluding Abe) will be rewarded with a special Art Glass creation by Alvar Aalto of Finland.

If I have time I will recreate these publications on the Internet in glorious colour. I will attempt it this coming year. It is one of my New Year Resolutions.

Thanks to 59er Farhana, I was put in touch with another lovely 59er, Narsys Irani. She and her husband are doctors in Toronto, Canada, and as Farhana put it - theyhave two brilliant sons. Here was Narsys's
response to my last Newsy Notes. We have a wonderful email relationship going on now as I have with so many of you. Her writing is so poetic.

Dear Jacob ,

Farhana forwarded one of your Cathedralite Newsletters.

I used to be Narsys Irani till 1969 Subsequently through the Institution of Marriage I assumed the married name Narsys Punthakee...and that is who I am to all those who know me. You may have to jog my memory to help me remember who you really are. The only two male
classmates I can remember are Sunil Anand (JM: it was Sudhir Anand), And .....Shivdasani (JM: who could forget the debonair Vijay) from our Physics class.

There was a Parsee math teacher in Cathedral school, Mr. Karkaria (JM: my Additional maths teacher) whose son I met a year ago in Canada while he was visiting from Singapore.

It is good to know you have taken it upon yourself to keep Cathedralites alive in their old identity as Cathedralites. In our various earthly identities,life appears to be diverse and mosaic......and yet underneath all this outward show and drama we are ALL ONE. The waves and the ripples are not at all anything other than the ocean. To Know and experience This Supreme Truth is man's only salvation..........to Peace and Bliss which dwells in his own heart and not in an imaginary place we imagine to be heaven.

Once again, Jacob ,thank you for your input of "sharing in the caring". You have touched our hearts!

Godluck and Godspeed !!

Narsys.

Narsys does not know that I do this for a very selfish reason. To have fun and to recreate the lost brain cells due to my heavy drinking habits which I stopped in toto 20 years ago. Reviving those old memories has helped me restore about 85% of my damaged brain, but then
my 59er classmates always thought I was born with that damaged brain!! :-)

Gracie Hayeem sent me this email and you will understand how close many of our dear friends were to tragedy on September 11th and why I value very dearly this online relationship with each and every one of you:

Jacob,

It sure is good to hear from you again. Missed hearing from you.

We are all fine here in California. But my sister Vilma, brother Ellis and Benjie all live in Manhattan, on the easy side. We have been really dazed by the events on the 11th. It took us a day to get in touch with the family. Vilma watched from a big window with her 6 grade students the actual events unfolding in front of their eyes. They actually saw the planes crash into the buildings. Till today she cannot open her windows. The smell and smoke radiates through. Ellis works one block from the Twin T: and was late getting to work that day. He heard the news and stayed home. Ben also lives a few blocks to the T:T: and watched all from his window. He later on in the day caught much of
the aftermath on film. As a flight attendant myself, it was extremely difficult visualizing the on goings. I have been as I think I mentioned on a medical leave for 3 years now. Sure felt like getting  back.

Gracie

Sister Sophie was not far behind in writing:

Dear Jacob,

Thank you so much for your 'comprehensive' newsletter! Yes, I am a 49er!

And Benjie and Abe Hayeem are my brothers. Brothers Benjie and Ellis live in New York. Vilma (sister) also lives in NY. I live in Simi Valley in California as does my other sister, Gracie. I have been here 45 years!

I have always been in touch with my childhood best friend, Sheila mContractor who was also a 49er, as is Leila Punjabi, Rashida Chinoy, and Siloo Vakeel, who are all still in Bombay. Rumba Sabavala is in
Sri Lanka. I am afraid I do not know their married names. Sheila lives in Vancouver, Canada and is married to Peter Vaney, thus Sheila Vaney. Rita Moodlier lives in Canada too, and I do not know her
married name.

It's great that you are keeping us all in touch in this life, and I applaud all your efforts. Unfortunately I lost touch for many years, but appreciate all contact and news.

Thanks and hope to hear from you again! Right now we are in the midst of the terrorist war and pray that America succeeds in their mission.

Best wishes,

Sophie

After putting Yezad (Yesh) Kapadia in touch with Gracie and then him getting in touch with Sheila, Yesh copied me his message to Sheila Contractor of the reunion of the 49ers which was held in November. He
also mentioned that the 51ers also held their 3 day reunion a few days later. In the meanwhile Peter Vaney did update me on their situation in Canada.

Hello Sheila, 29.11.

We missed you at the class reunion last Sunday. It was a lively affair at Vijay Ram's (also Wilson House, like you) place. He has a lovely flat in El Cid on the 9th floor with a view of the sea from two sides. Leela will give you a detailed account. Silla (Vakil) was also there with her husband. Leela showed me pictures of you and your family. You do not seem to have changed much. Except for the white hair like mine. I should have
been able to recognize you had I met you unawares.

Apart from Murli Jumani, who passed away, and Sarosh Wadia who continues to be in poor health, all who attended last time came this time too. Moti Malani, who was not there last time (Wilson House Captain), also passed away. Chottu Padamsee surprised us by
turning up at the last minute.

I also attended the Church Service which, as usual, was a stirring experience. The School beat the Old Boys in the traditional cricket match. The lunch at the then Girls' School (now the Middle School) was delicious. Somehow or the other, they always prefer to have a
Parsi wedding menu. I can assure you that the food was far superior to what we get to eat at the weddings!!

The class of 51 also had its reunion. It was a very lively affair at the Yacht Club. Live band, dancing and all that. This class was a very mischievous one and the girls used to tease the life out of us very shy boys. For the dance they had invited representatives from other
classes too. They had a three day programme. They had a picnic at the week end cottage of Rasheeda (Rahimtulla), somewhere across the harbour
and a trip to Matheran for a few days. Rashida is married to Yusuf Curmally of Rhythm House.

Do let us know when you are coming to India next. May be we can organise something when you are here.

Yezad.

The 59ers were out in force at the wedding of Ashok Kapur's daughter, AV 3 day extravaganza in Bombay in early December. One of the best invitation cards that I have received.

The most newsy correspondent during the intervening period was none other than Naval Patel. Here are his two inputs:

Dear Jacob, 14 Oct 01

Yezad Kapadia sent to you on 22 Apr comments on your Newsletter, and marked a copy to me, to tap my recollections too. I was away from my regular residence in Mumbai, on a visit with my daughter in
Mysore. Although my e-mail server had been instructed to forward my mails to her system, it did so erratically and none of the correspondence with you reached me there. Instead the wretched bundle of circuits retained every message (even those which I collected in Mysore) in its mailbox. All these then poured on to me when I eventually returned home, which was only on 7 Oct, and reconnected from here. Only then did I see your messages.

As introduction, I too was in the Class of 1949, a classmate of Yezad Kapadia, Benjie Hayeem etc. I was at Bombay University until 1954, then read Chemical Engineering at Loughborough College in
Leicestershire UK. From 1958 to 1990 I was with the ICI Group in India, then with Tata Consulting Engineers until 1998. Now my wife and I have leisure to visit our children at length - our son is with
United Airlines in Chicago - and watch as much cricket on TV as I can keep awake for.

Regarding cricket, I too was in the School 1st XI in 1949, then played for the Cathedral Old Boys as long as I was in Bombay. We entered the Ksnga League for the first time in 1954, in the 'D' Division which was
then the lowest one. We batted first in our opening match, and I had the honour to face the first ball of the Association's competition participation. My opening partner was Yukub Hamied, who as I recall
was familiarly called Yuku. He batted right handed and bowled left, m moderately quick by our experience in those days. Yuku would have passed out of School in '52. Yusuf, I think, was his younger brother.

We won our first two matches outright i.e. a two-innings result within the six hour playing time. The second of these matches actually started only around 1 PM due to a wet ground, yet we won by an innings after an enterprising declaration by our captain Mehli
Lalkaka, followed by brilliant bowling by him and Bobby Choonavala (JM: My last contact with Bobby was in 1994 when he was Chief of Digital
in Singapore for the South Pacific and Asia regions) which devastated the opponents, all out for 14 in mere 40 minutes!

I do not have details of further matches because I sailed for UK {yes, actually by sea in those days, 17 days voyage!} immediately thereafter. I do know that we topped our Division easily and were promoted to 'C' Division. I think we did fairly well there too, in 1955, but perhaps were just short of further promotion. Thereafter I lost touch, but I believe migration of the principal players for studies or jobs depleted the team severely, and they no longer participated in the Kanga League after being demoted to the lowest Division.

Incidentally my wife too is a Cathedralite, she was Armaity Mody at School, a very successful athlete and netball player.

I recall Sophie Hayeem, she was either in our parallel class or just a year junior. Her younger sister Gracie was Armaity's classmate and a very close friend in schooldays. We have had no touch with Gracie
since. I am sure Armaity will be eager to contact her if Sophie can provide the link, so request Sophie to communicate with us directlyplease.

In your "Newsy Notes 008" you list that you are searching for Johnny Jameson - 2. Would that be the Old Boy who has attained the highest cricketing level of anyone of us - he played County cricket for Warwickshire and was the England opening batsman in two Test Matches against India in 1971.

ANother section in your Notes is

"Deceased Class Teachers - A Section

Mr. D. A. Timmins 1954
Mr. W. H. Thompson 1955
Mr. A. Glynne-Howell 1957
Mr. S. Pharaoh 1958"

The dates surely cannot imply the years of their decease, for I recall meeting all of them myself at least until 1960. (JM: They were the years they were MY Class Teachers!!) CJ Olliver was another of our
Masters, very respected and well beloved. Much later he became Headmaster of St. Peters Byculla, and passed away in the second half of the 1980s.

All regards

Naval Patel

And his second in response to my reply:

Dear Jacob,

You deserve gratitude from very many of us, for creating this delightful CAT network. You must quickly have mentioned our interest in Gracie Hayeem's whereabouts to Sophie, for simultaneously with your reply to me we received an eager contact from Gracie herself. Surely we shall keep touch now, computers
permitting - mine is grumbling presently.

Further example of the "small world" - Gracie told us she worked for 20 years with United Airlines; our son works in United Airlines' R&D Group and so we travel only on their flights on visits to and within USA.

So sorry you had disharmony with Gavin D'Costa. He received mails addressed to me due to another manifestation of the incorrect response from mantraonline software while I was with my daughter. To the best that I can check, my mails are now reaching me and no one else, so please do reinstate me on your mailing list.

Is Johnny Jameson really one of the present England cricket selectors? I cannot recall seeing his name mentioned in this context, surely his nomination would have registered specifically with me. His father
Jimmy was not only a Police Inspector, he was one of Bombay's magnificent all-round sportsmen of the 1940s and 50s, rivalling for acclaim as "best" our Cathedralite Leslie Woodcock. Jimmy just
marginally missed inclusion in the Indian Olympic hockey teams of 1948 and 1952, maybe through bias or regional "quotas" according to critics of those days such as Bobby Taleyarkhan. Leslie was the better track
athlete, the two were equal club cricketers.

Brinda Somaiya led the restoration of the Boys' School building. She presented its essence audio-visually to the alumni at the 1998 Founder's Day function. The old stone building in particular has been excellently restored, and beauties that had been hidden from us
are now emphasized. Examples are the wooden buttresses and crown above the main front staircase, and a stained glass panel that stretches across the width of the building adjoining the inside wall
of what was for me the Physics Lab, on the first floor. Apparently this panel had been boarded up "for protection" in 1914 and forgotten about thereafter! All of us must have spent an year in that classroom
unaware of the existence of this beautiful work behind the lockers and wooden partition at the back of the room.

Do you get much news of Indian sports achievements? The latest glory has been our hockey team winning the Junior World Cup, held in Hobart. The junior teams have been repeatedly successful - we won the Under
15 Cricket in 1996 (or was it 1997?) when we defeated Pakistan comprehensively at Lord's, and won the Under 19 Cricket World Cup last year in Sri Lanka when we beat Sri Lanka again most convincingly. Apart from Paes and Bhupathi's tennis doubles triumphs, our other
successes at the top levels are occasional and individual performances, no worthwhile team title since 1985.

Best regards and Diwali Mubarak

Naval Patel

Another correspondent was Rumi Kapadia who set me a travelogue of his recent visit to Kerala:

Hi Folks

I have had a wonderful holiday in Kerala. In a few
moments, I shall be flying back to Bombay.

To start with, I could attend my Cathedral School
Founders' Day Service and see faces from 50 years ago
that I had not seen; then I could attend both the
Engagement and Wedding ceremonies of my classmate Jal Tata's daughter. Call me a (male) chauvinist pig if
you like, but really no one holds weddings like the
Parsees! Then I met Suhas Phadke after 40 years, June
Hillel after perhaps 15 years, and will see Meyer
Hillel in Bombay on my return!

Kerala has really taken off for tourists; true, the
infrastructure could be better. I spent a night in a
treetop house and one in a houseboat on the backwaters - both unique experiences, which I would only want for one night. There is nothing to do after dark andwashing with cold water loses its attraction after 1 day! Both the Spice Village and Coconut Lagoon Heritage resorts are spectacular and well staffed with excellent food - the seafood restaurant at the latter is one of the best I have eaten in and, believe me, I have tried some fabulous places all over the world. I spent 1 night in Cochin.

Today, the most amazing coincidence took place. On my
way back to the airport, we passed through the village
where one of the Kerala doctors I helped to train
lives, and I went to a large hospital that I knew
belonged within the family, got someone to phone him
and he appeared within 5 minutes and today is his 60th
birthday and he was very pleased with my totally
unexpected visit! He is contemplating retirement. I
met his wife and mother and was taken round their
family factory, which is clearly a huge establishment
and there is no doubt that when you are rolling in it
in India, life is great!

I shall be staying with Meherwan Nadirshaw on my
return, before I fly back on 5th December.

Love to everyone

RUMY


Of course all my regular writers - Willie Shiri, Abe Hayeem, Aubrey Ballantine, Kashinath Dandekar, Vijay Shivdasani, Farhana, have been sending me updates. Without their inputs life could be quite miserable - so please, please keep writing, sending me those photographs you find in that old tin box, and
the other memobralia - and who knows, soon we may have a museum of Cathedral School artefacts buried in the frozen Arctic.

And thank you all for the great Christmas cards that you have sent me. These online cards are great as they are so beautiful and alive.

And finally Season's Greetings from both of us here in Santa's backyard. We have been feeding Rudolf to be sure he gets on flight on time this year. Hope he wings these greetings to you before the New Year arrives.

Love from a snow-bound cold -30 C northern city of Oulu in Finland.

Jacob Mathan
Savage House Captain 1959
Oulu, Finland