Founders' Day 2010 - A messge from Piloo

A message received by Jacob and me from our wonderful friiend - 59er Piloo Tata (née Dastur):

Through you, and your wonderful worldwide network of communications, I would like to bring to the attention of all 59'ers, as well as all Cathedralites, that our School is having a big function to celebrate the 150th Year on the 13th of November, 2010, at the Royal Western India Turf Club in Mumbai. It is going to be like a fun fair, and a dinner dance. If any Cathedralites, especially the ones living abroad, want to make advance plans for being in Mumbai during these celebrations, they can start thinking about it and planning from now. Ofcourse, I hope the ones in India will come in large numbers.

On 14th November, 2010, on Founder's Day, there will be a church service in the evening at St. Thomas' Cathedral, followed by high tea, something like there was last year during our 59'ers reunion celebrations.

From Hasnain 59ers 2009

59ers before the Founders' Day Church Service in November 2009.
Jacob and I were very disappointed with the organisation by the Alumni for Founders' Day 2009. We left within a hour or so as it was chaotic, hot, and totally impersonal.

There must be structure to an event of this magnitude, not just the money collection and statistics of the numbers attending!

I did not even get to the food table. The number of seats allocated for the 59ers was not even enough to seat the better halves who accompanied their alumni partners.

I do hope the organisers would have learnt from last year's fiasco and organise the 2010 one with some thought as to bringing the alumni together.

Now that the Bharat Darshan is over

Many of you are speculating that now that the 50th Reunion of the 59ers is over, and i did manage to attend the College Founders Day in Delhi, that I have lost interest in the school and college and their activities.

Nothing can be further from the truth.

All assume that as I am retired, I have infinite time.

True, I do have infinite time, but each hour of that infinite time is booked solid. Blogging used to get about an hour in that schedule, before. Now it is down to a few minutes. If my brain stays inactive during those few minutes, then that day's blogging is lost.

But I still am getting emails from all of you and they are being preserved.

Will I make it to the Reunion and Founders Day this year?

That is a really huge question and it still remains unanswerd. But, it will not be a Bharat Darshan like last year. Just Mumbai and Delhi and Bangalore, and Chennai, and Hyderabad, and Kottayam, and... Well, if I do get there, it will have to be a Bharat Darshan, I guess! :-)

Card, Cake, Champagne, and a glorious surprise

Chinnie has done us 59ers proud.

He visited Bill on his 85th birthday with a card, cake and champagne on behalf of all us 59ers:

From Bill Shiri's 85th Birthday

From Bill Shiri's 85th Birthday

From Bill Shiri's 85th Birthday

From Bill Shiri's 85th Birthday

From Bill Shiri's 85th Birthday

And guess what, a glorious basket of fruit arrived at the doorstep courtesy our own 59er Ellis Hayeem from New York.

And in my last report I had mentioned that Peter Vaney was a 49er. I was quickly pulled up by my ultra sharp 49er on the web, Naval Patel from Mysore. Peter must be a 50er or 51er. I am at my work computer and these records are on my home computer. Sorry Peter for this slip.

Speaking with Bill

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

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


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

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

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

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

Happy birthday Bill - we love you!

Coffee Table Book arrives

After a long and very nerve racking wait of almost 4 months, the final version of the 59ers Directory, the Coffee Table Book put together by Annikki and me, finally arrived in our post box.

From Coffee Table Book

The new cover had been laminated as the old cover was being damaged by handling in high humidity conditions as Mumbai. A lot of the beautiful photographic lustre has been lost in the new cover.

From Coffee Table Book

The size of the final version is smaller than the first version. It is shorter in length and breadth, as well as thickness, as the printers have used a lighter paper than in the original. This has helped to reduce the weight for posting.

The posting cost to Finland worked out at Rs. 665 (€ 11), so that shipment cost (including packing materials) is about Rs. 750 (€ 13) for the overseas copies. I will ask the dispatchers in Bangalore to use a better envelope. I think they used the best that was available in India, along with the bubble packing material, so that no damage occurred except for a slight warping. Placing the book under a weight for a day has corrected this warp and a serration effect.

Parvin's signature on the contents page, which is a photocopy of what was signed by all those who attended, was cut in half! Sorry!

As reported by Anjula, she had been mistakenly promoted. Luckily no-one had been demoted, as Gita was also shown as the Orange House Vice Captain!

There were several small errors. But almost all the gross design errors that Gita had so painstakingly pointed out, such as the alignments and colours, were all near to what was intended.

Of course, these corrections, and any others which will be no doubt be reported by my classmates, will be done in my master copy on my computer. Those who want to add matter or photographs are welcome to do so, so that the next edition can be better than the first!

Are we happy or sad with the final version?

Annikki is mildly ecstatic because she has got the final product in her hands.

I feel a little let down as I expected much more.

All the errors are of my making, so I take full blame.

Alberto Zavala - Orbituary

Yesterday, I received a communication from my Class Teacher and English Teacher of 1959, John Billington, conveying to me the very sad news of the passing of Alberto Zavala, my Geography teacher in 1955 (8th Standard). 


The late Mr. Glynne Howell taught me Geography  from the 9th to the 11th, Thanks to these two wonderful teachers, who raised my interest in world geography, I got a distinction in the Senior Cambridge in this subject.

He was around 80 years old. He died on 8th March at his home in Masschusetts, USA. He passed away peacefully in his sleep, while resting from working in the garden.  It was quite unexpected as he had not been unwell. 


Alberto was the Junior Housemaster of Barham. As John added, others will recall his help in Table Tennis and Football. and of course as a teacher of Geography. When he was teaching at the school, he had an M.A. from Nashville, Tenessee, USA. Because of his presence, I learnt where South America was on the map of the world, and he taught us about the ancient Indian heritage of the South Americans, and introduced us to the Incas of that great land.

Zavala was a Peruvian and brought a great deal of colour to our school in the 50s. He looked stern, but he had a heart of pure gold and a broad and fascinating smile. He was a wonderful and intense sportsman. I remember him from his antics on the hockey field when he was in the forward line and making rushes at me. He played ferociously and was always ready to strike the ball hard and high into the net. If he beat me, he would console me with a wry smile!


Alberto was the one who taught me that fitness was all important when taking part in any sport. 59er Percy Mistri has recalled how Alberto helped him with his table tennis.


I tried my level best, through both William Shiri and John, to persuade Alberto to attend our 59ers reunion in Novermber 2009, but unfortunately, I failed. Our loss!


I have asked John Billington to convey our deepest and heartfelt condolences to the family of Alberto. May his soul rest in peace.

Secularity in Educational Institutions

(Posted on all my main blogs as this is one of my more serious postings meant to get the broadest reach.)

I learnt from the Times of India of 25th March 2010, Bishop Cotton school principals to resign, that my second alma maters, the Bishop Cotton's Schools in Bangalore, both the Boys and Girls schools, are going through a huge upheaval. The alleged interference of the Church in their running and the seemingly marginalisation of the Principals (also known as Wardens) into puppets, possibly all in the greed for the rich pickings associated with running a well-known educational institution, appear to have taken these two schools from reality into a fantasy world. Accusations are flying left, right and centre.

Sitting 7000 km away from that base, I do not know who is right or wrong. The literally hundreds of "Comments" in the newspaper make it difficult to understand the correct situation.

But it is such a shame to see the schools where my late father (he was also the Old Boy's Association Chairman for many years) and all his siblings, and a greater part of my generation of Matthan's, including my four children, being destroyed by these bickerings and the unfortunate media stories being put out.

A similar situation of the differences between the Church and the Principal is causing the rot of the fourth of my alma maters, St. Stephen's College in Delhi. The Alumni in different part of the world are taking actions, but that may not stop the rot.

However, my Mumbai alma mater, The Cathedral and John Connon School, seems to have overcome this problem, or is it that it has not yet come to the forefront.

Trying to remember my days in each school and college, I knew I was in a Christian Institution in all these three cases (and also my first, The Good Shepherd Convent School in Mysore).

In Bishop Cotton's Boys' School we had to go, being a Christian by birth, to the Chapel for morning service before the start of school, every single day.

In Mumbai, we had School Assembly every morning with the reading of the Bible by one of the Prefects and singing of hymns.

My 59er class consisted of Atheists, Christians (a handful), Hindus, Jains, Jews, Muslims, Parsis, Sikhs, Sindhis, and probably various other sects and sub-sects. Not once did it cross my mind that my classmates were from different religions.

The only time I was aware of a difference was we took our shirts off for PT. I noticed a few of my classmates wore quite different vests - the Parsis, as they had a sleeveless type muslin (?) vest quite different from the rest of the class. Other than mentally noting this difference, and I never even bothered to find out or understand the reason for this, we were all equal in every other respect during our hours in school.

The only differences were those imposed by the time table, as the Christians had to do Scripture as a subject while the non-Christians were exempt from this.

These secular values, and the continuation of the same which I imbibed in St. Stephen's College of the early 60s, has stood me in good stead through my life. I learnt to respect people for what they do and achieve and not because of their religion, caste or creed.

I wish this would be the universal philosophy across the world, as the wars that plague us today are based on these stupid artificial values, called as faith - be it by any religion anywhere in the world where the religious hierarchy fights for power and prestige, misguiding the masses along the way.