|
Dear Stephanians,
In the last issue I published
the picture of the college. Word got around to Principal Dr.
Anil Wilson and I had this message from him:
From: "Dr Anil Wilson"
<principal@ststephens.edu>
To: "Jacob Matthan" <findians@findians.com>
Subject: Re: Ezines for Cathedralites & Stephanians - Feb.
Issues
Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 07:02:25 -0800
Dear Jacob,
Good to hear from you after
quite some time. Please do visit the 'official' College Web Site
at
http://www.ststephens.edu
and let me have your response.
Dr. Anil Wilson
I think all of you will
be pleasantly surprised when you visit the new college site maintained
by Kevin Dzousa.
And do not forget to read
the Dismissal
Address given by Principal Wilson on 13th March.
It was nostalgic to hear
of the retirement, after 41 years of service, of Mr. G. S. Bhatia
who taught me Physics in 1960-1963. I was one of the first batch
his first pupils. He was a great and understanding teacher!!
I can still remember him smiling through his jet black well oiled
and tied down beard and mustache and saying "Matthanji,
...". I think he sort of liked me, although I was not a
particularly brilliant student, but I follwed his lectures regularly,
unless I had overslept. :-)
Efforts are paying off
after the restart of the web version of Kooler Talk. I had a
very nice email from Subir Kubedan:
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001
12:40:25 -0800 (PST)
From: Subir Kumedan, San Francisco
Subject: Website
To: findians@findians.com
Hi Jacob,
I recently found that this
website existed. I am Subir Kumedan, a 1993 gradute (with a non-functioning
link on your web page :-) at that)
I have been in the US for
a few years now, ditching grad school to follow my photography
and creative instincts to become a web designer in San Francisco
and now a User Interface Architect at a company in Fremont, California.
The web is my life, well along with photography and travel.
So, I thought, I could
use my skills to help you redesign the site and publicise it,
if you are okay with it. It would be my way of giving back to
Stephen's all I got out from it. From the numerous hiking trips
to hanging out in the main lawns, to flunking the supplementaries,
and samosas and the countless bunking classes to hang out in
DU, I still have too many fond memories in Stephens. And I still
compare Stephens in India to Harvard/Yale in US.
Anyway, it would be interesting
to get in touch with and get a sense of what you've been doing
through the website and if I could meaningfully contribute to
it. In the meantime you can check out my new website which is
in alpha stage
http://www.alwaysoutbound.com/photo.htm
ones that I created during
my work at PLural as a web designer -
www.amb.com
www.apptimum.qwest.com
among others. My old photo
site is at my rutgers address at
http://www.cabm.rutgers/edu/~subir
bad design, good photos.
Well, cheers for now, my
contact information is included. Feel free to get in touch with
me anytime.
Subir
Subir Kumedan
929 Pacific Ave
San Francisco, CA 94133
t: 415.981.7161
That was real nice of Subir.
We have been in touch with each other. Maybe sommething will
come out of it.
But how many of you want
a redesigned super duper Kooler Talk (Web Version). From my emails
I see that most of you seem happy with its present presentation.
I did explain to Subir that as far as publicity is concerned,
enter "Stephanian" or "Kooler Talk" in any
major search engine as Google, Altavista, Excite, or the best
of the lot presently, AlltheWeb.com, and without fail, the searcher
will land up at my pages. Since 80% of surfers reach the pages
by this route, the others through the traditional routes of the
college web site, sites of other Stephanians, and the alumni
pages, there was no real hope for any Stephanian to escape being
pushed to this site, even though they may be kicking and screaming
Of course, it could do
with extensive redesign. But what matters is content. The problem
is that I sit down at the computer on a Friday evening and in
one sitting complete my matter as well as upload the pages. I
do not stop till I finish. So being dependent in any third
party for setting up and maintaining these pages may be complicated
- as I am a computer idiot.
I have not rejected Subir's
offer. Maybe we can come up with something simple you all will
like. In the meantime, take a look at Subir's web pages - the
photographs are truly great.
As I am just launching
my own Findians
Panorama web site, which is in its beta stage at the moment,
it looks as if we have a lot of things to do together.
Any other Stephanian wanting
to join us in this cooperative operation, and you have photographs
or works of art you want to offer on the internet, you are more
than welcome. You are requested to get
in touch with me.
Another email I had a couple
of weeks ago was thus:
From: "Davendra Pratap"
UK
To: <findians@findians.com>
Subject: from Davendra Pratap
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 21:21:56 -0000
Dear Jacob
Hello. I hope this gets
to you. If it does, please reply. I would love to hear from
you.
Regards
Davendra Pratap
I naturally replied in
my usual fashion and this was Davendra's reply:
Dear Jacob
It is good to establish
contact. I did try after your email via the alumni link, but
for some reason it came back undelivered. (Ed: This puzzles
me! Anyone else had this problem?)
Doesn't time fly by so
quickly. It seems only like yesterday-spending evenings playing
bridge or table tennis in the JCR.
I have gathered from your
enclosures, amongst other things, that you live in Finland and
that you
are married to Annikki. I would love to hear more about you.
Now perhaps a few words
about me and our family.
I live in Richmond (a S.W. suburb of London) with my wife Joan,
and we have been happily married for over 30 years. We have a
28 year old son, who is a
doctor and a twenty five year old daughter, who works in the
publishing world. Neither is married, but they have both have
their own flats in different parts of London.
I have recently retired
after a long and busy career. I qualified as a Chartered Accontant
and, after some years in a large professional firm in
the City of London, entered industry and worked in various capacities,
eg., Finance Director, Acquisitions, etc., and ended up in the
Shell Group in the early eighties. After a very interesting time
with Shell, I had the opportunity with some colleagues to carry
out a management buy out of a
division of Shell, float it as a public company and then sell
it to a much larger group. All very good fun, but all good things
come to an end! I have
not yet got used to retirement and I am sure I will get involved
in something in a few months.
Unfortunately, I have not
been in contact with any Stephanians other than Ashok Bhargava
(who is a Professor of Economics, University of Wisconsin)
and Vijay Gupta who runs an accountaancy practice in Delhi. Of
the other 1963 ers, Sujit Bhattacharya was in London in the sixties,
but I have lost contact. I last heard he was a Partner in PriceWaterhouse
Coopers in Calcutta.
I should be grateful to
receive any contact details that you may have of anyone from
our period, now residing in the UK or Western Europe.
Look forward to hearing
from you. Best regards to you and your wife.
Davendra
Davendra was with me in
college between 1960 and 1963. He did Economics, being the classmate
of Montek Singh Alhuwallia, Sujit Bhattacharya and Ashok Bhargava
- to name just three of that illustrious class.
I replied to Davendra that
I was just the opposite of him and have updated him on a lot
of you lot who have been in touch with me.
Using his info I did track
down Ashok, who is head of the department of economics at Wisconsin
University. I have dropped him a line. Maybe he will be in touch.
No luck as yet about Sujit. I am sure someone in Delhi will give
me Vijay Gupta's co-ordinates.
Amongst the many emails,
this was a typical one:
From: "Banerjee, Indrajit"
To: findians@findians.com
Subject: Hi
Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2001 15:20:48 -0800
hi Jacob:
Long time no correspondence from you. I also lost the connection
to the Kooler Talk until recently when Alumni.net gave a new
URL.
Just curious.
hope all is fine with you and your family.
regards,
Indrajit
Thanks Indrajit, and others,
for writing an dkeeping in touch. The old URL is still functioning
but losing its place as I do not have enough web space there
to keep the archives up in place. By the end of this year the
archives would have disappeared in toto from the old web site.
And finally, I am repeating
Yogi's letter - please get in touch with him post haste as the
last date for registrations is fast approaching.
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 15:50:04 +0530
From: Yogi Durlabhji <yogi@ksdurlabhji.net>
To: findians@global.netppl.fi
Subject: Fw: your mail
Nostalgia Stephen's
Dear fellow Stephanian,
An event organised by SIR
(Stephanians in Rajasthan) in collaboration with Hotel Clarks
Amer, Jaipur.
Dates: 5th through 7th Oct., 2001
Venue: Hotel Clarks Amer, one of the leading hotels of
Jaipur
Organisers: SIR (Stephanians in Rajasthan) and Hotel Clarks
Amer, Jaipur
Nostalgia Stephen's is
once again in the air. Some of you were here last year when we
had our first Nostalgia bash; others were not.
I am writing to you as
advance intimation. Nostalgia 2001 will be held this year in
the first week of Oct. i.e. 5th, 6th and 7th Oct. This is a three-day
package (two nights and three days) that Hotel Clarks Amer is
offering us at a fabulous discount even though it is an extremely
busy time for hotels in Jaipur.
October is a superb month
in Jaipur when there is a nip in the air! It is perfect for hot
tea, light woollens and sunshine and sparing on the lawns!
It is the right time of
the year for inter-block cricket, crackling bonfires and all-night
dancing on an open stage (such as the one at Clarks Amer). Of
course, the entire event will have the flavour of nostalgia and
memories of samosas and scrambled.
We have blocked 100 rooms
which will be reserved for people on a first-come-first-served-basis.
The last day for confirmation (as also for payment) is 31st March,
2001. We need early confirmation as Jaipur receives large numbers
of tourists in October, and Clarks Amer is an extremely popular
destination since it offers spacious lawns, a beautiful swimming
pool and proximity to the airport. If you wish to participate,
please revert so that we can send you forms that must be filled
up by all participants.
Tariff
Tariff for the bash is
as follows
(2 nights, 3 days - all meals)
Double room
(husband & wife -------- Rs 11,000/- only
Or
Shared between two friends)
Each child (additional) - Rs 2,000/- (for the stay)
If you have any queries,
please feel free to write to me or phone me or e-mail/fax me.
Love and regards,
Yours sincerely,
Yogi Jain (Durlabhji)
(M.A.History -1967-72)
PS: I am writing this letter
to you very early so that you can block dates, and also so that
we can block rooms for you. If you want to know what the event
is all about, please ask someone who attended Nostalgia 2000.
Mr Yogi Jain (Durlabhji)
M/s K.S. Durlabhji
Emerald House
D-31 Subhash Marg
C-Scheme
Jaipur 302 001 (Raj)
E-mail :yogi@ksdurlabhji.net
or ksd@satyam.net.in
Tel # : 91-141-372318/364171
Fax : 91-141-363167
Please get in touch with
Yogi. Annikki and I may be there!!
Not many of you have still
joined the internationally maintained College Alumni. I have
made it easy by giving you a link at the top of the the next
column. PLEASE DO IT NOW.
Please keep those emails
and photographs coming. See you in a month. Remember, this is
your page, more than mine.
It is our KOOLER
TALK
Regards
Jacob Matthan
Honorary Editor
Kooler Talk
(Web Version)
Stephanian 1960 - 1963
JCR President - 1961-1962
|
