A storm rages.....

Two more outstanding photographs from the 59er Hasnain Chinwala / Chhaya Purwar colllection.

First Floor, photo by Hasnain Chinwala

Stairway to Heaven, photo by Hasnain Chinwala

Can any of you calculate how many times you have run up and down these steps? And how many different circumstances? Running up for class, running down for a break to play marbles or tops, going down to attend Morning Assembly, rushing down to be the first to get to the Table Tennis tables, just going down to catch the bus home? 5 times a day, maybe 10?

I seemed to have caused a storm in a Cathedralite teapot.

Yesh (49er Yezad Kapadia) has written to the Principal to correct his intial on the Mac- / Mc-donald Medal Board from "V" to "Y"!

But more important, there seem to be two ideas about the name of the Medal itself - whether is is a Mac or a Mc Medal. The Board reads as Mc, while the Prize Distribution Leaflet says Mac!

The four winners (and my regular blog readers) whose names were on the Board, that I have addressed directly, 49er Yesh, 58er Earnest (HScer), 57er Ashok (Tony), 59er Viney have not quite answered the problem. I have asked them to look at the Medal itself - the only definite proof.

An answer is awaited as none of them seem to have the Medal readily available.

Viney plumped for Mac, as his dear sister, 62er Usha, seems to sings "Old Macdonald had a farm.." whenever, obviously, Viney tries to show his leadership around the house. :-)

I am compiling the story about the Chapel. I have valuable input, not only from the old timers in our midst, whohave given me a possible reason as to why it was sealed up, but also from the architect who discoverd the Chapel. I have some more great then and now photographs from her.

Thanks for all the input. I will have some more photos from the Hasnain Chinwala / Chhaya Purwar collection in a couple of days.

Passing of a 63er, Nana

I have, with deep sorrow, to announce the passing away of a 63er, Narayan Sankaran, on Saturday March 25th.

As his friend 63er Ranko Ivancevic wrote a few days ago:

"...the loss of our good friend, a wonderful man, someone who had a big heart for all of us - but it seems not big and strong enough for himself."

I did not personally know Nana, as he was called by his friends. But Nana, was a regular reader of this blog.

When 63er Mithoo Malani sent me (and his classmates) pictures of the various section of the Class of 63ers, Nana sent this email to all of us:

Dear friends from ‘Long Ago”:

I am very happy to receive these outstanding pictures. I am sure that my daughters will add them to their albums. I still am amazed at what Mithoo and others have done for us!

Thank you Mithoo - three cheers for all those responsible!

Believe it or not, I am on my way tomorrow to hang out with my dear friends ‘Lucky’ and ‘Billy’ in NYC. It ought to be a riot (for our age anyway)!

Narayan Sankaran

Quite recently, when I put up a maths teaser on the web, it was Nana who sent a mathematical explanation for the teaser and also gave us the way to make it applicable for any year.

As a special tribute I publish here his email which explained the workings of this:

Friday, November 25, 2005 6:37 PM

The solution to the ‘age’ problem is an algorithm that goes like this:

Let the original # be x:

(2x + 5)*50=100 + 250

Adding 1755 (or 1754)

100+250+1755(or 1754)=100+2005(or2004)

Let Year born be=y

Now the last step:

100x +2005(or 2004)-y=100x +(2005-y)=100x + Age....the three digit #

That’s it! This will work next year as well...just use 1756 (or 1755)...and the year after that...

QED :) ......Pass it along.

When in school, Nana lived in St James Court on Marine Drive - the building belonged to the K. L. Nayar family, all Cathedralites, 58er Vinod (HSc), 59er Vijay and 63er Anil, who was Nana's classmate. 59er Ashok and 63er Billy Kapur, who was also Nana's classmate, also lived in that building. 58er Earnest (HSc) and 59er Jack Haskell were amongst the other Cathedralites that lived in St. James Court.

That corner was the evening meeting point for many many Cathedralites, around the year, even during the monsoon time.

So many of you would have known or seen Nana.

While he was not at Cathedral right from KG, he joined the school in Standard IX or X, and was there till Standard XI. (Therefore, he would have been after my time in the school.) He was, in WILSON HOUSE. He was reasonably good in studies and participated in some sports as well.

He hung out with 63er Ranko. Nana recently re-connected with Ranko (thanks to 63er Mithoo in Florida).

Nana had a sucessful business, importing leather goods that were made in India, probably having teamed up with former Cathedral schoolmates who were doing that business in India.

Nana was a friendly easy-going guy, somewhat shy and did not go to the School Socials and Wild Class Parties others used to go to !!

He married a Sindhi girl named Lalitha in Bombay. They have 3 daughters, Shilpa, Nandita, and Sonya, all of whom he was attached to very much.

Mithoo met Nana in Bombay by chance many years ago (1986) when he was visiting India and that is when they renewed contact. Nana lived in (snowy) Wisconsin. They exchanged several phone calls for a short while, but then lost contact until 2002-2003 when Mithoo was getting the Class of 1963's 40th Reunion "Party Celebration" fixed up.

While 63ers, and also of us, will mourn this sad loss of a Cathedralite and Wilsonite who had the nickname "SHAG", he can certainly be remembered for his running to get to class on time or picture him as a healthy "NANA" trying to do one more run on the "HORSE" during Mr. Morecroft's PT Gym Class.

Anil Nayar wrote on Tuesday, March 28, 2006:

Nana was quite sick for the last 15 years; body did not make enough red blood cells and he had to go in for blood transfusion every 2-3 weeks. As a result, he started accumulating iron deposits as well as fluid in the heart. Apparently, a person usually dies within 10 years after they start blood transfusions due to excess iron complications or heart issues. Nana's heart has been functioning at 20% or less in the last 3 years. He was in ICU for several weeks; moved to a research hospital in Madison and finally was advised that that he did not have many days left and was moved to a hospice. I did visit him last Monday and Tuesday and said my final goodbye.

He was cremated today and there was a service for him at 5 pm cst.

I am in grief .... we have lost a very dear friend ; kind of a goofball at times, especially in school, and that made him even more endearing. Also, I found out last week, he wrote some very interesting poetry, played the sax and loved to sing.

It is sad to lose one of our "community" and our hearts go out to his family at this time. From all the email that I have received, it is evident that Nana was loved by all his friends. All his family will be remembered by all of us at this difficult time.

(Compiled from contributions by 63ers Mitho Malani, Ranko Ivancevic and Anil Nayar and email recerived from Nana, himself.)

What a compliment.....

This is another photograph from what I have termed as the Hasnain Chinwala / Chhaya Purwar collection.

It is the plaque of the recipients of the Mcdonald Medal between 1942 (42er T. Harker) and 1960 (59er Trevor Newnes).

When I read the 1949 entry as V. Kapadia, I knew it was wrong. I have the actual Prize Distribution leaflet:



The winner was none other than one of my oldest and most faithful correspondents from New Delhi - 49er Yezad Kapadia, known to me by my Finnish nickname for him: Yesh.

Besides Yesh, 57er Tony Jaitly, (56er - 58er) Earnest Haskell, and 59er Viney Sethi, plus Aditya, the son of the late 56er Tara Malkani, have been in touch with me over the years.

The person who sent me this Prize Distribution leaflet for my archives, several years ago, was 56er Doreen Heimlich (née Feibusch) who lives with her husband, Seth, in South Carolina in the US.

(By the way how many of you sharp-eyed hawks have noted another difference between the Board and the prize distrubtion leaflet?)

Very coincidentally, just today, Annikki and I received a magnificient gift from Doreen, plus these charming beautiful words in the accompanying greeting card:



It is with great humbleness that I say that it is people like 49er Yezad and 56er Doreen, by their contribution and moral support, who have made this Seventh Heaven Blog the best Mumbai Cathedralite Blog.

Let credit go where it is due - our contributors. I am just their mouthpiece.

This was what was said in this email I got today, when I was copied on one by 57er Behram Badhniwalla (Budni) writing to his fellow 57ers:

Dear 57ers,

Ref my telecon today, this is to confirm that Carmie & I, and Fleur will be in Mumbai on Tuesday 4th April 2006. Sunil is not in town so I cannot confirm but he will contact you if he can make it to Mumbai on the 4th.

We have a specific reason to meet in the evening, for dinner at the Bombay Gym., as we must discuss our 2007 Golden Year Celebration.

As the visit is very specific, so please organise with other 57 batch in Mumbai to join us, for dinner & I think it would be best if we had the dinner on a cost sharing basis, to prevent the burden on one individual.

Please confirm the above.

I am also sending the copy of this mail to all of our 57 batch here in India and also overseas so that the Overseas guys should also start co-ordinating amongst themselves and us. Yvonne on her last visit, had quite a few suggestions.

My suggestion to our Overseas classmates, would be to divide the co-ordination region-wise:

America
Canada
UK & Europe
Middle East
Far East & Australia (If any)

I think Jacob Matthan's Blog could be our co-ordinating point as it is the best site!

Hope to see u on the 4th Evening!

Cheers!

Budni

PS: One of the highlights of the 2007 would be to Invite & honour our School Teachers if possible,as it was they,who made us what we are!

This is a long long way from the time I started the Seventh Heaven web site 10 years ago!

I do not know how I can repay any of you for all the wonderful material sent to us, and the goodwill and friendship (and tolerance) shown to both Annikki and me over the years. It has made writing this blog such a heart-warming experience to feel that we are part of a great community, even though we are so far away physically from all of you.

Thank you all dear friends and dearest Doreen, Annikki and I thank you for the beautiful gift.

A TREASURE TROVE of nostalgia

After much waiting, I received this TREASURE TROVE prepared by 59er Hasnain Chinwala (usually refered to as Chin), from Canada.

I have a recent picture of Chin with our dear Physics Teacher, William Shiri (usually known as Willie), taken on Willie's 80th birthday, when Chin did all us 59ers the honours of delivering the card and the flowers, and a lot more, especially our very best wishes.

Chin and Willie - May 2005

But I digress.

Chin was in India for an extended holiday in Hyderabad. On his return trip, he stopped over in Mumbai. There, he visited our school on 23rd February. The school was devoid of students as it was a holiday to prepare for some examinations. (Wonder what major examinations are held in February?)

However, Chin managed, with his absolute charm, to meet with the current Physics Teacher, Ms. Chhaya Purwar. Sadly, Chin did not get a photograph of this delightful lady. This is what the dear lady said out OUR "Seventh Heaven".

I read the Seventh Heaven, in which Mrs Meena Bhatt's name appeared. We were working together in Bombay International school. She retired from there and joined Cathedral to start Learning Resource Centre for Dyslexics. Along with that, she brought me from Bombay International School to Cathedral School. We were together for about a decade. Interesting and amazing!!! The world is really small !!!

She guided Chin around the school and opened locked doors.

Chin is an amazing photographer and he has provided us with a set of gold nuggets.

Chin especially wanted it said:

1. Permission was granted for me to take the photographs, and
2. The photographs were possible due to the contribution of Mrs. Chhaya Purwar. She managed to get the keys to open locked doors (the assembly hall, and the chapel). Essentially, she gave me a guided tour of the school.

I intend to preface the next few entries over the course of the next few weeks with photographs from his collection with thanks attached to these two wonderful people who have made our lives so much richer by giving their time to assemble this collection.

The first 3 photographs are truly astounding for someone who thought he knew the school premises inside out. I had, on many occassion, with the hammals, wandered through wht I thought was every nook and corner of the school, not only during Saturdays and Sundays, but also when it was absolutely quiet during the summer and winter holidays.

Chin and Chhaya have got me totally foxed by a these photographs of what was a hidden Chapel in the school.

To quote Chin again:

These are pictures of the stained glass windows and paintings that were recently discovered during renovations. I don't think anyone was aware of the chapel's presence.

While working my life with those "cheap and shoddy" materials known as "plastics" :-), I became a great devotee to the subject of Art Glass. Over the years, I have managed a very small collection of them. I appreciate the beauty of glass, as Finns, especially, are creators of beauty in this material.

So, these pictures are especially of great interest to me.

I have asked Chin to let me know where exactly this hidden chapel is situated. Stay tuned for more news and photographs.

And finally, one more line about 59er Jack Haskell. He has just sent me another of his outstanding renditions, "Afternoon in Paris", with Wayne Baldwin on the piano and Jake on the bass. Thanks Jake.

It is difficult to say who is the greatest..

I have been pondering about us 59ers.

We have so many outstanding personalities in our midst, that it is very difficult to say who is the greatest amongst our group.

Given below are a few, not in any order - just like scrambled eggs for eggitarians - every morsel is tasty!

Naubir Mohindar revolutionised the subject of Venetian Blinds in India.
Vikram Kamdar set the trend for modern furniture in Mumbai.
The Ruia's - Ashok, Bridge Champion of India, and Anil an outstanding industrialist, like many others as Vijay Nayar and Elijah Elias.
Adi Cooper, besides his work on the race track, was the wizard of computers from when he headed Tata Consultancy Services as the right hand of F C Kholi, vice chairman of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the Father of the Computer Revolution of India.
Jangoo Moos ended a wonderful career in the corporate world as Company Secretary of Glaxo, to become a high range environmentalist trekker!
Bashir Currimjee heads the huge corporate group in Mauritius.
Sudhir Anand has written many of the papers along with Amartya Sen who received the Nobel Prize for his work.
Vijay Shivdasani was the Captain of the INS Vikrant after a very honouerable career in the Indian Navy.
Arvind Thadani had a glorious stint ending at the top of the AOL Ladder.
Ashok Kapur had an illustrious career in banking now Chairing the newest Indian success of banking scene in India, the "YES" Bank.
Gita Vaswani is one of India's leading artists.
Armeane Choksi and Peter Miovic had well-documented careers in the World Bank and their treatises on various subjects, from Bangldesh to Africa, can be found everywhere.
And many others out of our 40+ colleague have performed with distinction in their own areas of expertise.
And, finally, despite whatever Naubir may say, Ratan Singara has to be accepted by all of us as one of the Table Tennis greats of our era! :-) )(More on the last individual in a later post as the irrefutable evidence is still coming in!)

I could go on and on, in every field.

(Modesty is my middle name.) I know, however, who is the lowliest - ME! :-)

I was thinking, besides Percy Mistri, who is hitting the high notes in jazz in Mumbai, who else in our crowd has been outstanding in music.

Then Armeane sent me an mp3 called called "What Is This Thing". It was superb - and I found that it featured none other than "drummer boy" 59er Jake Haskell, but, in this, he was playing the bass. I asked Jake whether this was a shot in the blue.

He promptly sent me another mp3 called "Night and Day".

It is also truly melodious.

I have now an Album in my iTunes called "Haskell and friends" - vintage Jazz.

Here is the story about his music in Jake's own words:

Pianist is Wendy Macbain and it was recorded live at an art gallery in Palo Alto called ART 21. You can tell it was live by the loud voice of one of the patrons! In fact I play there again in June and July on the first Friday of the month.

I played drums as a professional while still at school getting my Master's degree in Madison. Switched to bass when I turned up to play at a jam session with Ben Sidran, two drummers and no bassist - and literally picked it up. Ben insisted I play that instead of the drums so I taught myself the instrument. I also taught myself to read music on a Mac Plus and a program called "Practica Musica". I however learned treble clef much better than bass clef!

So who is the greatest of the whole bunch of outstanding 59ers?

Want to submit an untold story about one of our colleagues?

Want to take a poll?

A 56er checks in...; Snow Rugby in Oulu

Doreen Helmlich (née Feibush) has been a dear friend from South Carolina, USA ,and she is a "56er".

She just checked in so Ubi and Meena can add her to the list.

I hope this wonderful Cathedralite gets to the 56er reunion.

Dear Jacob,

By now, I hope Spring-like weather has arrived in Oulu, as it has over here. The daffodils and flowering trees have been in full bloom, which lifts one's spirits after the winter blahs.

It's been quite a while since we last corresponded, but I do check on your blog periodically to keep up with your news and the Cathedralite news. As a matter of fact, I want to attend the '56ers reunion in November, as it's been a dream of mine to see my old school friends and visit the venerable Cathedral again, and this weeklong reunion celebration would be an ideal time to go there -- before I get even older and creakier.

Meena Bhatt (nee Lele) has done an outstanding and most commendable job in making all the arrangements to take place throughout the week.

I'm just dreading the actual trip to India and back. Just getting to London from South Carolina is bad enough; I arrive there more dead than alive, so flying that much further (in steerage class) will be that much worse. Will need to break up the trip somewhere in Europe for a day or two, if possible.

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with Caroline, who appealed to you for help in finding her Cathedral classmates, although the names of all the other girls who Meena is trying to locate are names that I recognize. Hopefully, someone will have come forward and got in touch with her by now.

I remember how thrilled I was, when I finally found my former classmates through your kind intervention. And I know you've brought about many more such reunions of Old Girls -- and Old Boys -- from the Cathedral, for which we are most grateful.

Best regards to you and Annikki.

--Doreen

Doreen, we are still far from daffodils - yesterday I witnessed a game of English Rugby played in a metre of snow. It was absolutely superb in this idyllic setting on the sea front.



Watch that rugger ball fly in the air



And see an exhausted touchdown.



More action photos soon of this great sport from our region on my CHAFF and my personal blogs!

When riled the sleeper wakes up

59er Ratan Singara had been virtually ignoring his email, so much so that he was actually off my regular email list.

So I was surprised to receive an email from him which read:

From: Niloufer Singara
Date: 12-Mar-2006 11:01
Subject: RE: Class of 59 rackets ..........where's ratan ???

Dear Percy, Naubir & Jacob...

Here's something that will interest you. Check the face in the bottom row of the left hand corner of the picture. Hahahaha.

Ratan

And here was a great picture that he attached with his email:


Back Row: Viney Sethi, Vijay Nayar, Ashok Kapur, Arvind Thadani,
?., ?., ?., Ralph David
Seated: ?., Ramesh Mirchandani, ?., ?., Ashok Ruia.
Seated (Ground): Ratan Singara, Armeane Choksi, Sudhir Anand, Flicky Shroff

Ratan is the one sitting on the ground on the extreme left. The problem that arises is which year was this picture taken?

First, my apologies to Ratan for doubting that he was in the School Rackets Team. My memory was really jogged by the picture. But, it was not taken in 1959.

Compare it with this picture I had published in my blog entry for 11th November 2005 when I wrote about the Tin and Bottle Tournament:


Back Row: Noel Ezekiel, Percy Mistri, Lam, Vijay Nayar, Ramesh Mirchandani, Armane Choksi, Pundole or Jimmy Captain, Neelam Lakhani.
Seated: ?, Ralph David, Abraham, Nalin Dharia, Zarir Suntook, Ashok Ruia, Ashok Kapur.
Seated (Ground): Sudhir Anand, Roger Cloy, ?.

According to Percy, both the unknowns were in our class, but neither are Ratan. Percy threw up one name - Gokern, but I am unable to jog my damaged brain enough to confirm that.

The real question arises as to which year is the picture submitted by Ratan?

But, I tender my public apology for doubting Ratan's talent and his assertion that he was in the School Rackets Team.

As I did say in the email exchange, Ratan was certainly a keen player. He was one who used to rush down to the school hall with me, during the lunch break, to get a few games during that time. I did not challenge him to get onto the School Top 8, and I did challenge almost everyone on the list!

It is clear that Ratan was not in the 1959 Rackets Team but he was certainly in the School Rackets Team for a year UNKNOWN.

Can anyone solve this riddle?

Here is a recent picture of a few 59ers:


59ers as a Group at the Piloo's (18th) birthday party,
59er Ratan is standing on the far right.
Photo courtesy: Naubir Mohindar