Petrol prices and its impact on moblity

(Cross-posted on my Jacob's Blog.)

A few weeks ago Cathedralite 69er Prakash Thadani sent me an email in which he requested everyone to observe a "No Petrol Day" on 22nd May 2007 as a protest against the price in India in comparison to neighbouring countries:

Petrol Prices
Pakistan Rs 17 per litre
Malaysia Rs 18 per litre
India Rs. 48 per litre

Prakash was a bit surprised to learn the price in Finland € 1.370 per litre which works out at over Rs. 75 per litre.

Over 70% 0f the price of petrol in Europe is taxes collected by the Government.

These taxes are used for several purposes, including maintaining the roads, plus other environmentally sound policies. The Oil Companies do make substantial profits, but not to the extent as in the USA.

I have been boycotting several multinationals including several oil companies for many years. But the reason has not been just price gouging but more important issues as the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, the ignoring of reality by denying that Climate Change was due to burning of fossil fuels, etc.

This year I have started using a petrol scooter which consumes considerably less petrol than our car. I get 50 km per litre as against 7 km per litre in our car.

Only when Annikki has to go out or when I have to use the trailer or take Mika for his Physiotherapy, do I use the car.

I have saved a considerable amount of money. The more important reason is that using a scooter in Oulu has considerably extended my flexibility and saved me a lot of time!


Anil's Electric Scooter.

I would love to get the Electric Scooter, given to me by Anil Anathakrishnan, working again. Anil is the brilliant electric vehicle designer from Bangalore. I am sure that I will do so, again, probably this summer.

Anil launched the Electric Scooter in India.I understand it was priced too high to have made an impact.

That was certainly not Anil's decision. He was of the opinion that anyone wanting to buy one of his electric scooters should be able to draw the required money from an ATM!

Be warned or die

(Cross-posted on all my major blogs.)

One of my alumni friends sent me this post which I think is very important.


Coke cans stacked in a warehouse.
Not all warehouses are so clean and tidy!

Leptospirosis -- VERY IMPORTANT PLEASE READ

This incident happened recently in North Texas.

A woman went boating one Sunday, taking with her some cans of coke which she put into the refrigerator of the boat. On Monday she was taken to the hospital and placed in the Intensive Care Unit. She died on Wednesday.

The autopsy concluded she died of Leptospirosis. This was traced to the can of coke she drank from, not using a glass. Tests showed that the can was infected by dried rat urine and hence the disease Leptospirosis.

Rat urine contains toxic and dangerous substances. It is highly recommended to thoroughly wash the upper part of Soda cans before drinking out of them. The cans are typically stocked in warehouses and transported straight to the shops without being cleaned.

A study at NYCU showed that the tops of soda cans are more contaminated than public toilets (i.e).. full of germs and bacteria. So wash them with water before putting them to the mouth to avoid any kind of fatal accident.

Same goes for the envelopes, do not lick it.

I do not know how many times I have drunk directly from cans. I have been lucky but may not be next time.

In an article which appeared in an English online paper Milton Keynes Citizen dated 22nd May 2007Rat infestations on the increase this was stated:

Among the 70 diseases that rats are known to carry are cholera, typhus, bubonic plague and leptospirosis, a bacterial illness spread by their urine contaminating water or food.

Leptospirosis is also known to infect anglers who can come in contact with rats' urine when fishing on the riverbank.

Council environmental health officer Simon Teesdale warned that bird feeding is one of the top causes for attracting rats to residential properties.

I am not an angler, so I need not worry about that. Annikki is planning on feeding the beautiful birds that visit our garden. We will now follow rules that will endure that no rats come to eat at the same bird house.



My thanks to my good friend 55er Bunny Rao of the Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai, for sending me this message. He may have saved many a life, including mine, with this one.

Part 2: Why do I do the things I do?

(Cross-posted on all my major blogs.)

The reaction to the first part of this blog title was so overwhelming that I thought I would share another of my very simplistic theories with you.

This blog entry covers the subject of physical and mental endurance.


Beautiful Rauma.

Two scooters belonging to my friends had to be delivered to Rauma, a lovely small town in south Finland. In the normal course I would have just booked them in a truck service and sent them on.

Not having done a long distance drive since 2003, when I drove 1300 km to Helsinki and back the same day, I wondered whether I could repeat part of this by driving to Rauma and back the same day - a total distance of 1100 km up and down.

When I told Annikki my plan, she said I was crazy. She tried to talk me out of this foolhardy mission. But my mental make-up was such that I knew I had to do this trip.



I loaded the scooters onto the trailer. Just as I was tying them down as firmly as I could, my Zambian friend, Kamutaza Tembo, turned up. He did the job of tying both the scooters down as tight as he could.

It looked as if we had done a good job.

Friday was a busy day. We had been invited to dinner by Indu and Asheesh, an Indian couple newly settled in Oulu. Their 4-year old son, Karthik, is a real whiz kid. I get on famously with him.

Indu and Asheesh decided we would dine at the Indian Cuisine, the new Indian Restaurant in Oulu. The owner, Michelle, was there to look after us. She produced an absolutely great meal. For the first time in the last 10 years we had tandoori chicken which tasted as much as tandoori chicken from Moti Mahal on Chandini Chowk in New Delhi.

After this meal, eaten slowly and enjoyed till the last mouthful, Indu and Asheesh suggested we visit their new home. Indu has done a wonderful job with this flat, bright and airy and really home-like. We chatted and finished with ice cream. I had to drag Annikki away, as I planned to leave at sunrise, about 3:30 am.

When we got home, I go a shock.

Annikki said she would also accompany me on this long journey! Although grateful to have her company, I was wondering how she would last this journey, as I had no intention of stopping halfway!

She has not done such an arduous journey in the last 15 years.

I had a shower and hit the sack. I was tired when I went to bed, but I was up, fresh as a daisy, at 3:30 am. As it was raining I decided to wait till it got a bit brighter. I let Annikki sleep while I got all the paperwork for the trip ready. Just as I was going to fill the petrol at 4 am, I told her that she should be ready in about half an hour.

As soon as I hit the first bump on the road, I realised that the scooters would give me trouble en route. After filling the petrol, I thought of a great idea and put the spare tyre between the two scooters, wedging it in tight. I then re-tightened all the ropes. When I tested it driving home, I was sure that for the most part there would be no damage en route.

I was home by 4:30 and we were able to get on the road by 4:45.

We took a route which is non-traditional. Although driving slowly because of the load in the trailer, we made good time. We stopped at a petrol station for a cup of tea. I stopped another 3 times to ensure the ropes were tightened. By 12 noon we were in Rauma.

After unloading the scooters, we dropped in to see our friends, Padma and Mika. It was Mika's birthday so we had a piece of cake and some great Indian tea. We had to refuse the meal that Padma had cooked for us as Annikki and I had eaten crisps all the journey down to Rauma.



Kannan is moving to a new flat at the end of the month. We went to see his nice new apartment. Then we drove to a lovely restaurant, HR-Kala in Olkiluoto, which specialises in Fish.

The lunch, two pieces of beautifully smoked salmon, a large fish cutlet and sliced gravey salmon served with freshly cut vegetables was superb.



HR stands for the name of the fisherman, Hannu. He has two boats, a 5 metre and a 10 metre one. He fishes in the waters of Olkiluoto and sells his fish at the Rauma market. He and his wife run this great fish restaurant.





We had this delicious early dinner. By 4 pm we set on our way back, Kannan taking the trouble to put us on the highweay.

We took another route, the main road between Rauma and Oulu, but we discovered it was a ghastly mistake.

This route is lined with camera speed checkers. I am not averse to camera speed checkers, but in the Swedish-speaking section in Finland, the Police have deliberately placed the cameras in a way to catch offenders by creating them.

The cameras are set up in one speed zone (say 100 kmph). Then, all of a sudden, one hits a speed limit change sign (say to 80 kmph) and even before one has the chance to reduce one's speed to the new speed, less than 50 metres away, they have placed the camera.

In other parts of Finland the cameras are at least 200 metres after a speed change sign.

Keeping the cameras so close to the speed change sign, has one hitting the brakes, causing the cars behind you to focus on why you are braking, and then they too realise they are being forced to brake to reduce the speed dramatically to avoid being caught for speeding.

This is catastrophic and causes a great deal of mental anguish while driving.

The whole object of this exercise is to trick drivers into a mistake and then they get caught for speeding.

It was close to 11:30 at night that we were on the last stretch home. I had been driving well within the speed limit, but as the last 5 minutes were ahead of us and we were on a motorway, I told Annikki we would be home in 5 minutes and I speeded up.

Just as we were pulling of the highway I saw the Police car behind me. I pulled up, knowing my mistake instantly.

With a trailer one is limited top a speed of 80 kmph. I had been at 110 kmph. I knew I was going to be fined. The Policemen were courteous and sympathetic, but I got my dose of the correct medicine!

Because if this slight deviation from the routine we got home just before midnight.

The entire day for me was from 3:30 am till midnight: 20+ hours approximately, in which I had driven 1155 km. The real pick-me-ups on the way had been three extra strong cups of tea, two lie-downs of about 5 minutes each to rest the eyes and limbs, and a couple of stops to fill petrol and stretch my legs.

After a quick sauna, I hit the sack at a quarter past midnight and I was asleep in less than a minute. I slept like a lamb till 9 am, five hours longer than normal, but on waking up I felt on top of the world.

The moral of this story is quite simple.

Test your endurance capacity regularly as you grow older. It is important that you know where your body stands. Any weak links will be shown up immediately when stressed to the limit. Then, you can work to correct the problems.

My weak link is that when driving for a long spell, I get an ache at the knees. Stopping and walking around for a couple of minutes eases this ache completely for the next couple of hours.

I must find out the reason for this. That was the only problem I had during this 1155 km 20 hour drive day. Mental agility and reactions were as perfect as when I used to drive like this in my younger days.

Annikki also lasted through this trip without any problems. We mid-60ers can claim to be in a reasonably sound condition as our bodies have spoken!

A genuine "Finnish" misunderstanding by me

(Cross-posted on my major blogs.

When I was told by Ville Suomi that we would have two visitors from the Palam Rural Centre in India, I believed that they were from New Delhi, assuming Palam to be related to the Palam Airport.



However, when I went to the chappal making demo on Tuesday noon, I saw a humble "moochi" sitting on the floor making a sandal using his traditional skills.

Daniel Jesudasan, and his boss Benjamin Sundarkumar, are from Tirupur in Tamilnadu.

The real name of the organisation should be Paalam. Paalam mean "bridge" in both Tamil and Malayalam.

Tirupur is the major textile centre of India producing undergarments and t-Shirts by the millions and these can be found in even the most exclusive of shops around the world.

Daniel is a humble cobbler, having learnt the profession from his uncle over 30 years ago. In the period since, he estimated that he has made over 50000 sandals plus a variety of different products as leather bags, key ring holders, and many other leather products. His wife and his children have also been part of his professional activity.


Range of fragrant soaps "literally" lovingly hand-packaged in beautiful hand-made paper cartons from the Paalam Rural Centre.

Benjamin Sundarkumar is the Secretary of the Paalam Rural Centre, which is a cooperative of around 130 families, who are working to create an honest and good life for themselves and their children. They are producing leather products and also about 30 different fragrant soaps at their facility. They now intend to diversify into liquid soaps and shampoos.

Over the last 30 years the cooperative, started by a Swedish pastor, has taken legs of its own and has become part of the Fair Trade worldwide programme. (After Oulu, Daniel and Benjamin were on their way to Sweden so see this 80 year old pastor, now living in retirement in Stockholm.)


Kati Hjerp of Juuttiputiikki introduces the visitors from India.

In an evening programme at the WALDA Youth Centre, Benjamin said that the prices they received from the Fair Trade programme was certainly "fair" and had helped the cooperative to develop itself. The small profit had been wisely invested in improving the livelihood of the families that form the cooperative.

Impressive was the Primary School which was equipped with computers and which they hope, with further improvement in profits and help from a few friends, that they can develop into a High School.


Daniel and Benjamin at the Tropical Botanical Greenhouse.

On Thursday, I took the two of them for a tour of the city of Oulu, showing them the Oulu University Central Hospital, the Medipolis area, the Technopolis area, the University of Oulu including the fascinating Botanical Gardens and the Zoological Museum, and then a trip to the Oulu Nallikari Beach including a visit to our friends at the Children's Park.


The first ground bloom flowers in Kampitie.


View of the Kampitie garden.


View of the Kampitie garden.


View of the Kampitie garden.


Annikki's new experiment this year - peat bricks as a border.

After this I took them home to meet Annikki and view the Kampitie garden, which today is a splendour bathed in much colour.

We had a delicious Indian meal at the Indian Cuisine Restaurant. Then, I dropped them off at Juuttiputiikki, where Daniel was once again going to demonstrate his artisan skills to a much larger audience than on Tuesday.

During our conversations, many serious thoughts struck me.

Firstly, with the children of the now cooperative members being educated presently in modern facilities, it is most likely that the artisan skills of Daniel and his friends will not be passed on to the next generation to follow. It is, therefore, imperative to develop their cooperative in a manner that does not drive these educated children away from their roots and homes as they are forced to seek employment in the metropolitan cities.

Secondly, I felt that as water is a scarce resource in Tirupur, when making their liquid soaps for export, it would be far wiser for them to export the liquid soapconcentrates, and market these concentrates in the Fair Trade outlets, just as Juuttiputiikki is doing of products from many other producers of liquid soaps and shampoos.

Thirdly, the cooperative should cooperate with Universities and other organisations to ensure that the water scarcity which plagues their region is solved using modern scientific methods. Otherwise the entire region, which today depends on fast depleting groundwater, will be led to total ruination!

And finally, the manufacturing facilities are truly primitive, but yet they produce a great range of products suitable for the elite of the western world. Here, I am caught in a dilemma as to what to say. If I say that the facilities should be modernised, it will take away the glamour of the humble way of life of these people. But if they do not modernise, their competivity will be lost and they could grind to a halt in the not too distant future.

The primitivity is what impresses me, YET depresses me. To think that India, with its explosion on the world economy, still has such manufacturing primitivity is extremely hard for me to accept.

Having spent many years with Annikki in villages around Karnataka - I know this is a reality. Maybe someone will help me clarify my thinking!

Some important feedback

Many of you, especially Cathedralites, have commented on my will power of giving up smoking, alcohol and coffee in one swoop, 25 years ago.

I am afraid all of you are wrong about "the will power" part.

It was NOT will power that made me stop. What it was, was that I had always, and still, always, listen to what my body tells me. That was the main point of my earlier blog entry!

Considering that human brain only uses about 4% of the enormous capacity that it has, it is not usual for the damage to the brain, in the early stages, to coincide with that part of the brain that is actually being used. In my case, this did happen, and MY body realised that immediately. Many observe this damage much later in life, by which time it is quite difficult to go through that regeneration process. Hence, the difficult slide continues, leading to dementia and many other brain-related problems.

I do suffer from rather selected dementia, however! :-)

What would this blog be without such insightful inputs of the likes of Staff members as William Shiri, 49ers Yeshpal Kapadia and Naval Patel, 54ers Gracie (née Hayeem) Leno and Sadhana (née Shah) Madudansadan, 56er Ubi and 69er Prakash Thadani, among many many others.

I am so glad that our Alumni President Rajiv Bhatia took the advice of our late 57er Dr. Behram (Budni) Bhadniwalla in his very last email to the world, seriously, and has started to use this blog as one of his means of reaching the wider Cathedralite audience in the world.

I would like to make a plea to the many who send me jokes. I greatly appreciate your wanting to share these great jokes with me.

However, as I have a readership on my various blogs of well over 120000, it means that I am getting a spate of jokes from several readers. May I kindly request you to limit the jokes sent to a maximum of one a day, and possibly 2 per week.

This will greatly help me manage my account as I am getting repeats of the jokes, and as many of 8 to 10 copies of the same joke, every day!

Also, like Budni, if the joke has a deeper underlying message, it will be much more valued as I share many of these jokes with many others on my different blogs. This makes you a valuable contributor to one my many blogs.

Selected feedback, like Naval Patel on cricket, or articles that appear about the school in various media, are also greatly appreciated. I remember 57er Kashinath Dandekar especially, as he used to send me articles from various media about our school. (Unfortunately, this source has dried up after his return to India!)

The special city reports, as those submitted by 69er Prakash Thadani, are much appreciated, not only by me, but by those who I share them with. Especially inputs such as this one about Global Warming:

from Prakash Thadani
date May 23, 2007 7:47 PM
subject Global Warming, Please attend the screening if you can

Dear Friend,



This is the copy of our invitation for the screening of "An Inconvenient Truth" - a documentary by Al Gore.

We would appreciate it if you could spread the word amongst your friends.

Please ask those interested to call RISHIKA at 9820354428.

Also, it is not compulsory to carry the card as long as they confirm that they will be attending the show.

thanks

Sincerely,

Prakash A Thadani

Ubi remembering his friends at the 56er 50th year Reunion.
For a slide show, loooong and sloooow, about this event visit the 56er Reunion Site.

I am grateful for 56er Ubi (H. S. Uberoi) for sending met this very personal note about his relationship with the former Principal of the school, Col. Eric J. Simeon.

Dear Jacob,

I met Eric for the first time in Belgrade, then Yugoslavia, in 1971/2 or so.

He and his wife Jean came to visit Jean's brother Mr. Rikhi Jaipal, the then Indian Ambassador to Yugoslavia.

The Jaipals brought the Simeons along to our home for dinner. We struck up a good rapport and spent some good times in Belgrade for the period that they were there.

I remember Eric telling me that though he was an army officer, he had an abiding interest in education.

If my memory does not fail me, his first educational assignment was as the head of India's first Sainik School.

He was a hardcore La Martiniere man (I forget which, Calcutta or Lucknow) and I suspect that his innermost loyalties were with La Martiniere!

After Belgrade, our paths crossed again in 1977 in Dehra Dun, when he was the Principal of the Doon School. We spent a night or two in Dehra Dun with some old students and evaluating as to whether we wanted to send our first born to Doon School. We decided in favour of keeping him with us.

Years later, in 1981, when I was transferred back to Bombay from Nairobi, my thoughts turned back to Cathedral and the need to find admission for both our son and daughter, Samir and Yasna.

I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that Eric Simeon was then the Principal of the Cathedral School! It was indeed a small world!

If it was 1971, when we first met the Simeons, Samir was three and Yasna was not then born!

When I spoke to Eric Simeon from Nairobi, he felt that I should come to Bombay to get Samir tested for admission. So, in 1981 August or so Samir entered Cathedral under the stewardship of Eric Simeon and shortly thereafter, did Yasna.

Our relationship continued and grew stronger in Bombay and I recall with fondness of the occasions Eric asked me to be the chief judge at the annual cross country races (I recall Tara Malkani being a judge too one year and when he asked me to coach the schoolboys in boxing in 1984/85.

He was often critical of the standard of judging in boxing in Bombay!

We met frequently, both he and his delightful wife Jean.

It was during his tenure as Principal that the school celebrated its 125th Anniversary.

In 1984/5 Samir and his wife now Anahita (née Mehta) both became headboy and headgirl respectively under Eric Simeon.

I'm sure Eric had something to do with the chemistry the two developed and eventually get married!

As the ex-officio Vice-President of the Alumni Association, Eric Simeon could not suffer fools and was quite outspoken in his views!

I met him last in 1986, in Bombay, when I was transfered to Abu Dhabi.

I shall cherish the memory of Jean and Eric Simeon warmly.

Ubi

I must also draw attention the Memorial Service which will be held in New Delhi for Col. Simeon. This was the message from his son Dileep, a fellow Stephanian:

There will be a Memorial Service for the Late Col. Eric Joseph Simeon, ex-Principal, at the Cathedral of the Redemption, North Avenue, Near Gurdwara Rakabganj, New Delhi, on Tuesday May 29, 2007 at 5:15 pm sharp.

Dileep Simeon

Once again, remember that this blog is by you, about you, for you, and Annikki and I are purely vassals of all of you out there!

Why do I do the things I do?

(Cross-posted on all my major blogs.)

Recently there was a programme on an American internet radio station about how humans were less developed than animals. Examples cited included the fact that all the animals moved to higher ground before the tsunami struck. Several other examples were given and it reinforced my view that animals are infinitely superior in all respects to human beings as far as knowing themselves and their environment.

The programme also highlighted how much we have to learn from animals. For instance, when the super-fast train was being built in Japan, there was a sonic boom when the train emerged from a tunnel at the high speed. This was solved by watching how a kingfisher enters the water with its specially formed beak and it moves effortlessly from one medium into another! The front of the train was designed to be like the beak of a kingfisher.

I have been a strong believer in the philosophy that my body tells me exactly what I should eat or drink. As a result I have never been a pill popper AND I have not been seriously ill for many a decade. In my 23+ years in Finland I never missed a day at work.

People find it hard to believe my very simplistic theories. Usually, when I draw their attention to facts when they are published later, they forget that I had told them the reasons well before scientific evidence had proven something.

I must go back in time when I was a heavy smoker, consuming nothing less than 80 Charminars a day, drinking several bottles of beer and finishing the day with a bottle of rum. This was also a time when I drank about a dozen cups of coffee per day!

Even with this I had never been drunk. I lived and worked hard, usually a grueling 20 hour day.

I also had an unbelievable memory where I could recall facts instantly. My ability to scan a letter and pick out errors was uncanny. My secretaries were astounded by how I glanced down a sheet and faster than they came in they were out of my office with a pageful of corrections on the sheet.

Then, one day I walked into my office in Bangalore and could not find an important paper, I realised my memory was failing. My body immediately told me to lay off alcohol.

Within 24 hours I had given up not only alcohol, but also coffee and cigarettes, as the consumption of one to the other was interlinked.

People were astounded how I had such enormous will power - but it was not me doing the choosing, but my body.

It has taken close to 25 years to rebuild the small portion of my brain that was damaged. Although it was a small partr, it was quite a considerable portion.

My alma mater web sites and my blogging were part of a long term programme which helped me rebuild my damaged brain.

When I quit all the "harmful" parts of my intake, I went on to consuming water for several months. Then my body told me to take to tea.

From then onwards I have been consuming anywhere between 5 to 8 cups of tea per day. The effect on my entire body as well as my brain has been so invigorating. If I told anyone that my tea intake was being controlled by my "intuitive" need, I would be laughed out of the room.

Today, when I read this article on BBC Tea 'healthier' drink than water, I knew my body was the one which had been right all the while.

I quote a couple of passages from this article:

Drinking three or more cups of tea a day is as good for you as drinking plenty of water and may even have extra health benefits, say researchers.....

....Experts believe flavonoids are the key ingredient in tea that promote health.....

....These polyphenol antioxidants are found in many foods and plants, including tea leaves, and have been shown to help prevent cell damage....

...Other health benefits seen included protection against tooth plaque and potentially tooth decay, plus bone strengthening.....

Besides tea, I also consume about 5 to 7 litres of water per day, as my body demands that.

It is my contention that tea not only prevents cell damage, but it helps restore damaged cells, although that is a painfully slow process and needs much outside stimuli to repair the cells to its original form. Maybe this will be discovered in 10 years!

That is how my brain cells have been regenerated!

So I say, learn to listen to your body!

Tributes to a past Principal

Although I did not have the pleasure of knowing former Principal Col. Eric Simeon, from the tributes that have come in, it appears that he did our school proud.

Dear Jacob,

By the way did you hear of Col. Eric Simeon's death in Delhi yesterday. He was suffering from cancer.

The former Principal of Cathedral had lost his wife some years ago.

He was well respected and kept in touch with many Cathedralites, when he was living in Pune.

69er Prakash Thadani

And the Alumni President Rajiv Bhatia submitted this "Recall" report:

from: Catalumni - Rajiv Bhatia
to JACOB MATTHAN 59
date May 16, 2007 3:47 AM
subject Recall

Col. Simeon succeeded Mr. Kuruvilla Jacob as Principal of Cathedral School. He took my General Knowledge Class at the `SLR'.

I had the good fortune of meeting him in Pune, after he retired, from time to time, thanks to my friends the Lobo's (Col. Ivo Lobo, the Late Mrs. Jean Simeon's brother).

When I met Col. in early 2005, he autographed my copy of the new Hymnal, as designed by Mrs. Isaacs. His nephew and my friend Jonathan Lobo (Barham 1981 ISC) had taken me over to his residence at Ashoka Apts in Pune. Col's wife Jean, had passed away a few months before in late 2004 and he was heart broken. Seeing her suffer during her last he said he often recapped the words from `Abide with me' -

"When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless,
O abide with me."

It is comforting to know that the prayers and good wishes of scores of his highly accomplished students have always been with him.

The Armed Forces stood behind him too. It was'nt without reason that NDTV flashed text messages last night that a noted Educationist was no more.

Prannoy Roy was Col.'s student at Doon.

Such is the regard that those who knew the late Col. Eric Joseph Simeon will always have for him. His was most certainly a life well lived. In our hearts, he will live for ever.

Rajiv


The late Col. Eric Simeon with Pushpa Bhatia (53er)
on Christmas Eve 2003 in Pune.
_______________________________________________________________________
Rajiv Bhatia (Barham, 1981 ICSE)
President @ your service

May Col. Simeon rest in peace.