A problem of identity

A few days ago I raised the issue of the identity of a 60er.

I had some interesting comments but no one recognised the individual from the name!!. Then along came David Keidan who said he knew Sheikh and remembered him well.

The jigsaw puzzle is now solved.

Below is a recent picture of our 60er Sheikh and his wife, Adeeba, in London. Doesn't his very broad and friendly smile show he is a Cathedralite. Can any of you recognise him from this photograph. I could!!!


Sheikh and Adeeba in London 2005

Then I was sent a series of photographs of school teams from the peroid 1956 to 1960 - and "Bingo", that part of my brain which had been demolished 21 years ago by alcohol was partly rejuvenated - and I remembered the Sheikh as if it was just yesterday. He certainly was one of our great sportsman but, unfortunately, he lived in a day when our class of 59 was overwhelmed with enormous sporting talent that it was almost impossible to make the first team with just normal skills!!

I present here a series of photographs where many readers to this blog feature - even the one who made rather a caustic joke about our fellow Cathedralite - they both played in the same team!!

I will list team members of each team only at the end of this blog entry, so that you can enjoy yourself working out who is who. Some names I have forgotten - so please forgive me. It is not that I have forgotten you, but like in the case of Sheikh, the name and my association to the face escapes me just at this moment.

1. 1956 Junior Football Team - The guy sitting on the right of Wabhi and just below Jack is Sheikh!!


1956 Junior Football Team

2. 1956 Junior Hockey Team - The guy sitting on the far right next to Noel and in front of David is Sheikh.


1956 Junior Hockey Team

3. 1957 Junior Football Team - The guy sitting between Noel on the far left and Viney is Sheikh.


1957 Junior Football Team

4. 1960 Senior Football Team - The guy sitting between Trevor and John Kurian on the far right is Sheikh.


1960 Senior Football Team

5. 1960 Senior Hockey Team - The guy standing between Naubir and Ajeet and above Mr. Pande is Sheikh.


1960 Senior Hockey Team

Now the million dollar question. Has dementia set in for you?

Here are the teams as far as I can remember the guys names. Please correct me if I am wrong. In some cases I may only remember the first name or the surname:

1. 1956 Junior Football Team:

Standing: ?, Viney Sethi, Johnny Jameson, Jack Haskell, Ajeet Mehra, Noel Ezekiel
Sitting: ?, Vijay Shivdasani, Wabhi Zayani, Sheikh Zahur, Solomon
Sitting on the Ground: ?

2. 1956 Junior Hockey Team:

Standing: Solomon, Ajeet Mehra, Jack Haskell, Roger Cloy, David Colaco
Sitting: ?, Viney Sethi, Ashok Kapur, Noel Ezekiel, Sheikh Zahur
Sitting on the ground: Mark Sopher

3. 1957 Junior Football Team:

Standing: ?, Phiroze Mistri, Armeane Choksi, Solomon, David Colaco
Sitting: Noel Ezekiel, Sheikh Zahur, Viney Sethi, ?, Flicky Shroff
Sitting on the ground: ?

4. 1960 Senior Football Team:

Standing: ?, ?, Armeane Choksi, Roger Cloy, Ajeet Mathur
Sitting: Maurice Belacourt, Phiroze Mistri, Trevor Newnes, Sheikh Zahur, John Kurian
Sitting on the ground: Jaswant Ghatge

5. 1960 Senior Hockey Team:

Standing: ?, Maurice Belacourt, Naubir Mohindar, Sheikh Zahur, Ajeet Mehra, Andy Gordon
Sitting: Trevor Newnes, Arvind Thadani, Ashok Kapur, Mr. Pande, Phiroze Mistri,
Sitting on the ground: Jaswant Ghatge

And thank you for the literally hundreds of birthday greetings that have poured in yesterday and today from Cathedralites from all corners of the globe. I will acknowledge each one individually in the course of this week. I am truly overwhelmed by the number of you that took the time to email me and the many who sent email greetings cards. I especially liked the one sent by Willie and Pushpa Shiri, but all of the cards conveyed to me a feeling of great camaraderie that exists amongst this Seventh Heaven community of Cathedralites. I would like to thank Shabir Ahmedbhoy for wishing me two things I have enjoyed almost all my life - Health and Happiness. In that I especially remember, today, as also the start of each day I am on this planet, our PT Master, the late Mr. Morecroft, who gave me the chance to live a second and full life.

Photos from 62er Ranko

I am blessed with such good inputs to keep this blog so interesting (at least for me!!). 62er Ranko Ivancevic sent me info that his daughter, Maja, was married in February. He also sent me photgraphs of Maja with her husband, Marko, Maja with her brother Goran and two beautiful photographs of Ranko with his wife Gordana.


Ranko's daughter Maja with son, Goran


Ranko's daughter Maja with son-in-law, Marko


Ranko with his gorgeous and adorable better half, Gordana
Ranko also sent me a picture of him with his hand draped over the shoulders of a beautiful woman whom he called Julie (and I do not think it is from Madame Tussaud's Waxworks Museum), but to prevent family war outbreak, there has been enough of that in their region, I am holding back on publishing that (unless I have vociferous demands)!! :-)

Eddie checks in from US

Great news, as Savage-ite 63er Eddie Pettersson has checked in from US. Here are a couple of recent pictures of his family.


Eddie & Delores


Eddie family group at Vetern

Eddie is a 63er and not a 62er. He was a great swimmer and won lots of medals - except when he had a problem with his swimming shorts!!

Hip, Hip , Hooray!! Savage won the Championship...

The power of the blog is just great.

Somebody remembers Sheikh Zahur (Mehfooz Ahmed).

Jacob

..enjoyed reading your blog.

I remember Sheikh Zahur well.

He was in the B-Section of the Class of '60. All of us used to hang out on Marine Drive, where he lived. I am in touch with a lot of our classmates, so have him get hold of me, and I will fill him in.


Savage House 60ers Reunion
David is seated on the right.

I was also interested to note your reluctance to show the School Championship photograph of Wilson House. The fact that Savage never won a school championship during my entire 12 years irked me no end.(Jacob: David is so right - it was a long haul... I am sure David did psychology at Harvard!!)

However, I did get some satisfaction. Savage won the Championship in '62, the first half of which I was both School and House Captain (I left to go to Harvard), and one of my prized possessions is the Championship photograph that year, with my brother Brian as House Captain, and Mark Sopher School Captain.(Jacob: Mark was a 59er and I am so glad that he became School Captain. Thank you for making my day and hope sometime I can get hold of that Championship Photograph to use in the Seventh Heaven Masthead!!)

With best wishes,

David Keidan
60 - 62er Savage House
School Captain, House Captain

Happy Birthday Class Baby!!

Percy Mistri, the youngest member of our 59er class celebrates his 60th birthday today!!

He is presently in England staying with his daughter, Farah, and enjoying his granddaughter. I have sent him e-greetings from all fellow 59ers.

Percy (centre), wife Frainy and friend, guitarist Bob Piotrowski

Percy is a great musician and also is remarkably fit.

However, it appears that he has not been looking after his teeth, as for the last few weeks he has been complaining about a toothache.

I suspect it is more like a Jacob Headache?

He was supposed to be visiting me just about this time - but called it off at the last minute.

He has promised that he and Frainy will definitely make it here on his next visit to Europe.

Happy birthday, my dear friend.

A difference in culture

(I owe my secular, liberal view of life entirely to my life in my alma maters, Good Shepherd Convent, Mysore, Bishop Cotton's School, Bangalore, Cathedral and John Connon Boys' High School, Bombay and St. Stephen's College, Delhi.)

For the full text of this blog entry please visit my main blog entry for this date and time at Jacob's Blog 07:30 PM, 25th March 2005

Cathedralites in Atlanta?

Dear Jacob,

Sorry that I've been a very poor correspondent lately. My conscience has been telling me that it was time I dropped you a line again, if only to let you know that I appreciate your not dropping me from your list of correspondents worldwide, in spite of my lapse in e-mailing. (Jacob: How could I ever drop such a loving and caring Cathedralite from my list!!)

I've been enjoying your blogs all along, including the one just posted, containing the page from the prize giving list of 1950 that I'd sent you. Glad that you've been able to make use of it. (Jacob: Thanks to such wonderful people, besides 56er Doreen, as Staff Willie, 49er Naval, 49er Yezad, 54er Sadhana, 54er Suhas, 54er Gracie, 57er Abe, 57er Aubrey, 59er Hasnain, 59er Percy, 67er Shobha, 69er Barbara, 69er Prakash, and many many more, I have great archives and material for another 100 issues of this blog!!)

There's really no news I can give from here. I feel so out-of-the-loop living in South Carolina, with no Cathedralites anywhere around. (Jacob: I think this is not correct. I do believe you have a very famous Cathedralite there who is in the music world and CEO of a famous organisation. I will try to track down this information as it is stashed somewhere on my computer.)

There must surely be some of them living in Atlanta, which is about a two-hour car ride from Clemson. My son lives in Atlanta now, though we just had him here for two weeks trying to get him back in shape from a back injury. (He's been suffering from a bad back, but it didn't help when someone chatting on a mobile phone ploughed into the rear of his sports car when he was near the Atlanta airport for a business flight to Montreal. He still managed to catch his early 'plane, but the severe pain set in two days later, and got progressively worse. He's much better now. We took him back to Atlanta on Saturday, and on Sunday he was on a flight to Orlando for a major conference for 3 days.) (Jacob: This is a very serious offence in Finland, the home of Nokia and mobile phones - but there are still some inconsiderate fools who do this. I see this daily on the streets of Oulu. I slow down and give them a wide berth. If one is behind me I let him pass. I equate this as a crime as bad as driving under the influence of alcohol. People should lose their driving licences if they are caught dong this.)

Although it is officially spring time now, I haven't made any holiday plans for this year, and am beginning to feel that I should spring into action. Am still keeping my sights on the '56er reunion in Mumbai next year. (Jacob: The 56er is being handled by Harminder Uberoi - so please let me have details as many 56ers are awaiting some information about it.)

We're having beautiful spring weather here at the moment. It was like this on Sunday, when I put away most of my winter clothing and brought out the summer stuff, only to have a very cold Monday. (Jacob: I get rid of my long johns when the temperature comes up above -10 C. I drop my sweater when it rises above -5 C. And I get out my sandals as soon as we reach zero - warmth all relative, as on this blog!!)

Wishing you, Anniki and your family a Happy Easter.

Again, thank you for so diligently keeping in touch. (Jacob: My pleasure.)

Regards,

--Doreen