Thank you and Organising a Reunion

(This entry was sent out by email as a TRIBUTE to several who have tirelessly helped me over the years and to many who are no more. Sorry for the several errors in the email which have been more or less corrected in this entry. Also, I forgot to send copies to the Staff Members of my time who have been helping me over the years - Thanks especially to Willie and Pushpa Shiri!)

Dear Gracie, Sara, and many others,

Dearest Gracie - You never fail me in locating people, - thank you, thank you, thank you.

Dear Sara, don't dream. You can have your reunion.

Two of your 62ers are married to 59ers (Purnima Mazumdar to Viney Sethi and Sucheeta Assomull to Vijay Shivdasani). 62er Monty Wilson in Canada is a tireless worker and organiser. Seeing your zeal, you can have a great reunion, and that is what the Seventh Heaven Blog has been helping in doing for many others.

As a start I am copying this to your fellow 62ers who are already waiting for a move like what you suggested.

I have helped the 54ers (Gracie's Group), 56ers (Ubi's Group), 57ers (Pramila Shivdasani & Fleur Ezekiel's Group and the wonderful late Behram Badhniwalla). The 58ers are presently using it to reach their classmates as also the 64ers. Many later years as the 67ers, 69ers, etc. all use this forum to reach their friends.

But Seventh Heaven is not ME - Jacob Matthan in the frozen Arctic.

It is YOU.

Without people like

45er David Sopher,
47er Farookh Metha,
49ers as Yezad Kapadia and Naval Patel,
54ers Gracie Hayeem, Sadhana Shah and Suhas Phadke,
56er Ubi Uberoi and Meena Bhatt,
57ers as the late Budni Behram Badhniwalla and Pramila Shivdasani and Fleur Ezekiel,
58ers Homi Khushrookhan,
63ers as Mithoo Malani,
64ers as Deepak Deshpande and Rustom Dadabhoy,
67ers as Shoba Jhunjhunwalla,
69ers as Barbara Mont Ros,

and many many more strung out around the world - this Blog would be nowhere.

We 59ers held a great 30th year Reunion in 1989, a 40th Year Reunion in 1999 and our 50th year Reunion will be held as the Mother of all Reunions in November 2009.

In addition we have mini reunions all over the world as our network over the years has been linked through this Seventh Blog (which was a website before) and a Google Group which I started some time ago.

The Seventh Heaven Blog is, however, no longer the centrepiece of 59ers. Cathedralites all over the world read it faithfully to get info and share info. The Cat Alumni uses it to reach Cathedralites around the world.

So Sara, let us get your reunion plans started - What Ho Monty, Judy, Purnima, Sucheeta, Surtaj, Anita....?



And finally - let us all observe A MOMENT OF SILENCE in memory of a great Cathedralite who left us on this day last year - 57er Budni.

--
Jacob Matthan
Kampitie 6 B
90150 Oulu, Finland

Google Groups:
Oulu Chamber for Assistance of Finns and Foreigners (CHAFF)
O-India
Seventh Heaven for Mumbai 59er Cathedralites

Blogs:
Jacob's Blog
Oulu Chamber for Assistance of Finns and Foreigners (CHAFF) Blog
Oulu Best Buy Blog
Seventh Heaven - Mumbai Cathedralites Alma Mater Blog
Kooler Talk - Delhi Stephanians Alma Mater Blog
World's First Mobile Snowman Blog <---- NEW

Old Bombay Project

At my instigation we had planned an Old Bombay Photo Project which involved the joint effort of Mumbai-ite 56er Ubi and Toronto-ian 59er Hasnain Chinwalla when the later was on a visit to India.

Unfortunately, just at the time, Ubi was unwell and we have that project on hold.

However, that did not stop Hasnain from doing some shooting on his own.

He just posted a couple of pictures on our 59er Google Group which I had to share with the wider Seventh Heaven world.

This is the context in Hasnain's words:

Hi Guys,

I am currently in New Jersey, and came across a book titled 'Bombay - The Cities Within' by Sharada Dwivedi and Rahul Mehrotra. It contains some fabulous pictures of old Bombay, that remind me of the fabulous pictures on the walls at Viney Sethi's house in Alibaug, as well as the same type of pictures in Ubi's flat on A Road.

I got a big surprise when I came across this picture that I have attached.

I wonder how many of you were aware of this 'fact'.

I am also attaching another picture of the same building that I took in Jan 2008.

(Please ignore the text about Wilson College, Chowpatty, as this was cut out from the shot.)



Oriental Buildings, Flora Fountain in 2008:



From my archives I am adding two pictures.

The first is the oldest picture I have of our present school from 1890. I wonder when it moved from the now Oriental Building? That part of the history that it was OUR School Building was definitely missing from my records.



The second is Flora Fountain in 1952, but sadly not the view I would have liked to have here!



My mouth waters at the quality of Hasnain's photography as his composition and photo quality are what I strive to attain, but I am nowhere near that level.

Now that I have my new digital I am certainly going to have better quality pictures on the Blog, but it will be a far cry from the work of my correspondent! :-)

I am waiting for Hasnain's inputs from his recent trip to India as I am sure he has some great shots to share with you.

Please send me your best photographs of the school and its history for my November 2009 multi media project. You too can be part of this effort.

Thanks, Hasnain, for this great input. Without you this BLOG would be drab!

I Wish You a Sandpiper

Posted on all my major blogs.

I received this in an email from Joan & Kevin Dean.

Thank you for sending this to me as I am blogging it exactly for the reasons outlined in this story.

I Wish You a Sandpiper


The . Sharp-tailed Sandpiper.

The Sandpiper by Robert Peterson

She was six years old when I first met her on the beach near where I live. I drive to this beach, a distance of three or four miles, whenever the world begins to close in on me. She was building a sand castle or something and looked up, her eyes as blue as the sea. "Hello," she said.

I answered with a nod, not really in the mood to bother with a small child. "I'm building," she said. "I see that. What is it?" I asked, not really caring. "Oh, I don't know, I just like the feel of sand." That sounds good, I thought, and slipped off my shoes. A sandpiper glided by. "That's a joy," the child said. "It's a what?" "It's a joy. My mama says sandpipers come to bring us joy." The bird went gliding down the beach. Good-bye joy, I muttered to myself, hello pain, and turned to walk on. I was depressed, my life seemed completely out of balance. "What's your name?" She wouldn't give up.

"Robert," I answered. "I'm Robert Peterson." "Mine's Wendy... I'm six." "Hi, Wendy." She giggled. "You're funny," she said. In spite of my gloom, I laughed too and walked on. Her musical giggle followed me. "Come again, Mr. P," she called. "We'll have another happy day." The next few days consisted of a group of unruly Boy Scouts, PTA meetings, and an ailing mother. The sun was shining one morning as I took my hands out of the dishwater. I need a sandpiper, I said to myself, gathering up my coat.

The ever-changing balm of the seashore awaited me. The breeze was chilly but I strode along, trying to recapture the serenity I needed. "Hello, Mr. P," she said. "Do you want to play?" "What did you have in mind?" I asked, with a twinge of annoyance. "I don't know. You say." "How about charades?" I asked sarcastically. The tinkling laughter burst forth again. "I don't know what that is." "Then let's just walk." Looking at her, I noticed the delicate fairness of her face. "Where do you live?" I asked. "Over there." She pointed toward a row of summer cottages. Strange, I thought, in winter. "Where do you go to school?" "I don't go to school. Mommy says we're on vacation."

She chattered little girl talk as we strolled up the beach, but my mind was on other things. When I left for home, Wendy said it had been a happy day. Feeling surprisingly better, I smiled at her and agreed. Three weeks later, I rushed to my beach in a state of near panic. I was in no mood to even greet Wendy. I thought I saw her mother on the porch and felt like demanding she keep her child at home. "Look, if you don't mind," I said crossly when Wendy caught up with me, "I'd rather be alone today." She seemed unusually pale and out of breath. "Why?" she asked. I turned to her and shouted, "Because my mother died!" and thought, My God, why was I saying this to a little child? "Oh," she said quietly, "then this is a bad day." "Yes," I said, "and yesterday and the day before and -- oh, go away!" "Did it hurt?" she inquired. "Did what hurt?" I was exasperated with her, with myself. "When she died?" "Of course it hurt!" I snapped, misunderstanding, wrapped up in myself. I strode off.

A month or so after that, when I next went to the beach, she wasn't there. Feeling guilty, ashamed, and admitting to myself I missed her, I went up to the cottage after my walk and knocked at the door. A drawn looking young woman with honey-colored hair opened the door. "Hello," I said, "I'm Robert Peterson. I missed your little girl today and wondered where she was." "Oh yes, Mr. Peterson, please come in. Wendy spoke of you so much. I'm afraid I allowed her to bother you. If she was a nuisance, please, accept my apologies." "Not at all -- she's a delightful child." I said, suddenly realizing that I meant what I had just said. "Wendy died last week, Mr. Peterson. She had leukemia. Maybe she didn't tell you." Struck dumb, I groped for a chair. I had to catch my breath.

"She loved this beach, so when she asked to come, we couldn't say no. She seemed so much better here and had a lot of what she called happy days. But! the last few weeks, she declined rapidly..." Her voice faltered, "She left something for you, if only I can find it. Could you wait a moment while I look?" I nodded stupidly, my mind racing for some thing to say to this lovely young woman. She handed me a smeared envelope with "MR. P" printed in bold childish letters. Inside was a drawing in bright crayon hues -- a yellow beach, a blue sea, and a brown bird. Underneath was carefully printed: !A SANDPIPER TO BRING YOU JOY.

Tears welled up in my eyes, and a heart that had almost forgotten to love opened wide. I took Wendy's mother in my arms. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," I uttered over and over, and we wept together. The precious little picture is framed now and hangs in my study. Six words -- one for each year of her life -- that speak to me of harmony, courage, and undemanding love. A gift from a child with sea blue eyes and hair the color of sand -- who taught me the gift of love.

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NOTE: This is a true story sent out by Robert Peterson. It happened over 20 years ago and the incident changed his life forever. It serves as a reminder to all of us that we need to take time to enjoy living and life and each other. The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less. Life is so complicated, the hustle and bustle of everyday traumas can make us lose focus about what is truly important or what is only a momentary setback or crisis. This week, be sure to give your loved ones an extra hug, and by all means, take a moment... even if it is only ten seconds, to stop and smell the roses. This comes from someone's heart, an d is read with many and now I share it with you... May God Bless everyone who receives this! There are NO coincidences! Everything that happens to us happens for a reason. Never brush aside anyone as insignificant. Who knows what they can teach us?

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SANDPIPERS Scolopacidae

Sandpipers are a highly diverse family which include the ground-dwelling snipes and woodcocks to the highly pelagic Red Phalarope Phalaropus fulicarius. Biochemically they seem to have arisen from a single ancestor but underwent an explosive evolution in the early Tertiary after a great wave of extinctions in the late Cretaceous period (Piersma 1996). Today, the wide variety of sandpipers, and the close relationships of many, present numerous identification challenges. The identification literature alone is impressive. Further, the beautiful patterns and colors on juvenal-plumaged birds are among the most striking in the world, while the striking breeding plumage feathers serve to camouflage adults on their breeding grounds on the arctic tundra. Many of these arctic breeders spend the non-breeding period well south of the Equator, brightening the lives of birders in the austral summer (our winter).

Knowing how it feels to be LOVED!

Yesterday was a strange day. Joanna rang me early morning to tell me that I should take Samu to school as he was going downhill skiing and would I look after Daniel at our home as she had to go to town?

She was over before noon to leave Daniel.

Daniel, Annikki an I did several things including taking Daniel to the City dump to get rid an old TV and to the Tropical Spa to make sure the arrangements for one of our Indian Groups in Oulu were OK for the company party. When I came out of the Spa I found I had a flat tyre. As usual, my good friend, Kamu, in the spirit of CHAFF rushed to help me as I was not carrying my silicone foam repair kit.

Joanna rang me to tell me that she was very tired and would I keep Daniel till we picked up Samuel from the school and then came over so that we could go out for dinner to celebrate my birthday.

I passed by her house at about half past five and I was surprised to see Ildikó and Ilari's car parked in the driveway, but thinking that they were off for a holiday, they may have dropped in to say goodbye, it did not register. When I dropped in at the International Centre (Ville Victor) I was puzzled when Shahnaz said she would see me in the evening! Again, that did not register!

Well, the email I sent out today below explains it all and the composite picture made out of photographs taken by grandson Samu show some of the the people who made it such a great day for me.

Dear Findians, O-Indians, Chaff Participants, 59er Cathedralites, Other Cathedralites, Stephanians and many other friends all around the world,

Yesterday, I was given a great lesson - knowing how it feels to be LOVED.

As I reached the turning point to my senior years, the outpouring of love from all corners of this globe gave me a lesson which made me feel that a new era of my life is opening.

Thank you to all of you, some on the groups, others directly, others by text message, who took the trouble to communicate with me on my 65th birthday.

Ashok, as I took early retirement to help her look after Annikki's mother, I have been enjoying all the benefits and now move from half to full pension. So, I was already enjoying all the free benefits of a social security system I was taxed into the earth for when I was working!

From our daughter's family in England, Susanna, Chris and Asha, Hasnain and Willie in Toronto, Bill Patel in ???, Barbara from Italy, Ellis in New York, Ashok, Percy, Ooky and Rivca, etc., etc, etc., in Mumbai, friends from Helsinki, Tampere, Turku, Chennai, Bangalore, Tokyo, London, New York, and of course Oulu, I received personal greetings. (Sorry I am not mentioning all of you as I still have not had the time to go through all the messages.)

It will take me some time to respond personally to all of you, but respond I will.

But the height of my birthday was a surprise party organised by my daughter and her husband in her home in Oulu. Neither Annikki nor I had a clue till we arrived at her home and found a string of cars parked outside. As I walked in, there was a steady stream of friends, a veritable United Nations, Australia, China, Finland, Hungary, India, Iran, Italy, Peru (in spirit), Turkey, Venezuela, trooping out to greet me.

Ilari gave a profoundly moving speech which had me in tears and Ildikó gave me the gift on behalf all the persons from so many organisations that I felt overwhelmed. I was in shock and was hit even harder by giving me a birthday present that I really love and need - a Canon Digital camera - so that the photographs on my blog and groups will improve! Burcu, Bala and Sameer gave me their own presents. Thank you all.

It was a bring your stuff party so we had some really great grub and the spread was enormous, so much so that Joanna forgot to take out the delicious chicken salad from the fridge!


Top Row: Joanna, Samu, Daniel;
Second Row: Ilari & Tony, Kiran & me, Andy;
Third Row: Shahnaz & Yrjö, Benjamin, Sreekanth, Ani with Maria;
Bottom Row: Elina & Ildiko; Burcu, Bill.
Missing: Annikki, Bala, Pooja, Mani and Anusha, Mathias, Sameer,
Vishu, Esa, Manuel, Osku

My sincere thanks to Joanna and Tony, Ildikó and Ilari, Pooja, Mani and Anusha (who drove down all the way from Raahe (80 km away), Shahnaz and Yrjo, Andy, Ani, Bala, Benjamin, Bill, Burcu, Elina, Esa, Kiran, Manuel, Osku, Sameer, Sreekanth, Vishu, nephew Mathias who just happened to be in Oulu, grandchildren Samuel, Daniel, Maria and above all my dearest of dearest, Annikki for making it such a wonderful birthday.

--
Jacob

Reminisences of an old timer

Recently, I had an email from a Cathedralite old timer who had his computer hard disk messed up and wanted my assistance in locating email addresses of some of his relatives and friends.

I was able to not only give him the email addresses of all he asked for, but also a few more whom I thought he would like to have.

David Sopher had been classified as a 48er in my data base. I was wrong as is evident from this interesting email.

Very many thanks Jacob.

Actually I am a 44er....very old timer. From Cathedral, after the Cambridge School Leaving Certificate I went to St Georges College in Mussourie for The Inter-science pre-medical exam. Then to Grant Medical College in Byculla (J J Hospital).

With me in 44 were Isaac Mansoor, also at Medical School and also in the Indian Waterpolo team in Helsinki in 1952 (passed away in 2007), Eddie Ani, the famous Zufkurali (? spelling) Bhutto, who never, in any of his published educational background, mentioned India although his entire schooling was at the Cathedral, one of the Tata boys, Bomi Kapadia, Phiroze Engineer,..... my senile mind fails me with regard to names of so many others, so many others that I have lost trace of and would dearly love to have news of.

We always referred to Abe (Hayeem) as Abie. Benjy was a brilliant boy and we were all very fond of him. A little younger than me but we met whenever he was in Europe and I kept in touch.

Diana Jardine was also a few years younger than me but I did know her. The girls' school was a few hundred yards away from the boys' school and we would meet on sports occasions or in the school bus.

With kindest regards and many thanks once again.

David

To put you in context, it was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who was the Cathedralite and one which Pop Pharoah told us was quite useless at maths!

This is the Wikipedia entry for Bhutto:

Early life

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was born to Khursheed Begum née Lakhi Bai and Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto of a prominent Shia Muslim family. According to the famous spiritual Sindhi leader Pir of Pagara Sharif and some other relevant and authentic sources Bhuttos are Arain, predominantly Punjabi agriculturist Muslim caste, though there are counter claims as well. Zulfikar was born in his parent's residence near Larkana in what later became the province of Sindh. He was their third child — their first one, Sikandar, died from pneumonia at age seven in 1914 and the second child, Imdad Ali, died of cirrhosis at the age of 39 in 1953.[6] His father was a wealthy landlord, a zamindar, and a prominent politician in Sindh, who enjoyed an influential relationship with the officials of the British Raj. As a young boy, Bhutto moved to Worli Seaface in Mumbai (then Bombay) to study at the Cathedral and John Connon School. During this period, he also became a student activist in the League's Pakistan Movement. Upon completing high school, Bhutto attended Premier College Nazamabad. In 1943, his marriage was arranged with Shireen Amir Begum (died January 19, 2003 in Karachi). He later left her, however, in order to remarry. In 1947, Bhutto was admitted to the University of Southern California. more....

As you will note, the Wikipedia entry acknowledges his time at our school.

It is wonderful getting such emails from old timers who carry so much history within themselves. If any of you out there are aware of any 43ers to 48ers that David could connect with, I am sure he would be thrilled.

David has been a regular reader of this Blog, along with many other Sophers. He presently resides in Central London.

Setting up the Medical Trust

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

I am probably of another opinion!

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

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

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

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

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

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

64ers are getting more active

I am getting tons of mail as the 64ers have had a sudden spurt of energy.



I am posting a picture of 64er Deepak Deshpande and 64er Homi Mulla, which Deepak tried to circulate - but failed.



Also here is a picture of the Boys School Staff of either 1964 or 1965.

I have a list of 64ers Boys not yet located:-

Shishir Bajaj, Shekhar Bajaj, Aranaprasad Balramdas, Neville Bharucha, Jal Bilimoria, Sorab Boga, Homi Commisariat, Burjor Cooper, Homi Dadabhoy, Dady Dadyburjor, Anand Desai, Darryl Devoss, Brian Elias, Maurice Ezeckiel, Christopher Fido, ?. Gane, Shyam Ghia, Michael Gutsatz, Chris Hardwick, Timothy Hines, Rumi Irani, Michael Issaacson, Satish Jain, Renan Jeffries, Manohar Jesudian, S Jha, Vinod Khiani, Vinod Khurana, Ramesh Kinra, Paul Kurien, ?. Lalkaka, Rajiv Madon, Samy Major, Kumar Malani, Mohan Malani, Cawas Mistry, Noel Morris, Neville Nunes, Homi Patel, Vinay Podar, Solly Sassoon, Anil Seth, Dhun Sethna, Sammy Sopher, Mohan Vaswani, Richard Wood, Khider Zakiuddin,

If you have information concerning any of these 64ers, please let me know. I will inform the people concerned.

If Paul Kurien is the brother of 58er John Kurien, we know John is in Pune. If Neville Nunes is the brother of Trevor, we know 59er Trevor is also presently in Pune. And if Sammy Sopher is in any way related to 45er David, 51er Abe, 59er Mark Sopher or any of the Sopher girls, he can be traced from my database.

This hunt is getting exciting.....

Keep up the good work 64ers, and do let me have more photographs!