- SH-Issue 1:960421
Hi Web-surfing Cathedralites,
I am glad that I found the list of
all you youngsters being maintained by Vikram Somaya http://pantheon.cis.yale.edu/~somaya/hel.html).
I received and read with interest the newsletter being sent out
by Vivek Sikri. I hope those of you Cathedralites who have not
registered will do so by visiting the site mentioned above.
What is Seventh Heaven?
When I was in the Seventh Standard
in Cathedral School in 1955, Mr. Thompson was our classmaster.
He suggested we start a class magazine. It was great fun as we
put together stuff, typed and wrote it onto stencils with some
nice drawings for the cover, and sure enough we had a nice magazine
which we brought out every couple of weeks. Of course, when we
left the Seventh Standard it died a natural death, but the title
of the magazine remained in my mind.
Our class which passed out in 1959
was a great one and I hope over the next few issues to tell you
some of our escapades and successes on this page. Many of you
may know the sons and relatives of those who were with me during
that time.
I hope you will enjoy this page as
much as I shall enjoy putting it together. I hope to share with
you some stories about our the Headmaster, Mr Gunnery, Vice Head
and character extraordinaire - Mr. Pharoah, and of course details
of several of our seniors and juniors, many of whom have done
as well as most of us in our class.
I hope to update this page every
two weeks and also to maintain an archive of the stories that
I put up. Presently the archive address is the same as this one,
and only after I see what sort of response we are getting will
I decided on whether to split it or leave it as a big master
file..
I would be grateful if some of you
would send stories about your time in Cathedral so that those
of us from the distant past can get a flavour of what happened
after our time.
Best regards
Jacob Matthan
1959 Batch
Savage House Captain 1959
Cathedral and John Connon
School
Fort
Bombay, INDIA
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- SH-Issue 2:960505
Hi Web-surfing Cathedralites,
First and foremost let me inform
you that the World Alumni Register has been prepared and part
of it includes the Alumni Register for Cathedral and John Connen
School in the Indian Alumni Register Section. I would suggest
that you return the Letters to the Editor Section on our main
page "Findians Briefings" and read the letter
from Renu Mehta who is maintaining the India Alumni Register.
This may, therefore, remove the need for Vivek Sikri to struggle
to maintain a duplicate Alumni Register He could come to an agreement
with Renu to use that list for all our needs. About 20 Cathedralites
had registered as of Friday 3rd May, so the rest of you just
rush off and register now.
Many of you have written to me. I was especially happy to hear
from Akiva Elias, son of my very good friend and classmate Elijah
Elias, also popularly known as Ooky. How did Elijah get his nickname
Ooky?
The grandfather of Akiva was a senior officer in the State Bank
of India and was constantly being shifted from city to city.
So when Elijah arrived at Cathedral, I seem to remember it was
either late in our Ninth or early Tenth standard. In the Tenth
we used to have an English Essay writing competition which was
called the Ookerjee Memorial Prize.
Elijah wrote a hilarious piece. Mr. Salmon, a tall Englishman
who was our English teacher did an especially good job of reading
out the essay to us after he announced the winner. It had us
in splits of laughter for many a week. Elijah had all the wit
of Wodehouse. Without any doubt he was the clean winner of the
prize and earned himself the nickname Ooky - which has stuck
through all these years. It also made Ooky one of us although
he joined our class at such a late stage of our school lives.
Plus the fact that Ooky was a good seam bowler, dedicated to
the game of cricket, made him a popular addition to our class.
If I am not wrong, even his wife calls him Ooky when she is in
the company of his classmates!
Speaking of nicknames, in this issue I want to give you the origin
of mine.
We were in the Seventh Standard when our class teacher, Mr. Thompson
suggested we go for a Saturday picnic to a small stream about
an hour and a half from Bombay (Mumbai) by suburban train at
a place called Vasind. The idea appealed to many of us. It was
duly arranged, the two teachers in charge of the party being
PT Master Mr. Morecroft and Mr. Thompson.
I was up early and had a good breakfast. I was about to drink
the glass of milk which my mother had heated for me when the
glass slipped from our hands and crashed to the floor. My mother
was distressed, being slightly supersititious. She told me to
be especially careful on this trip.
I arrived at the railway station to find all the others already
there. We got on the train and had a very lively interesting
journey, with Vikram Singh, one of our classmates, joining us
at some station along the line.
We reached Vasind by about 8 in the morning. A trek through some
fields brought us to a lovely stream with a sandy bank. As I
had insisted on wearing my swimming trunks already from home,
I was probably the first into the water and was splashing away
having a wonderful time before any of the others even made it
into the water. The river was quite shallow, about waist height,
even for us small kids. I was used to river swimming as I used
to swim in the backwaters of Kerala when I was just a few years
old.
I had not been in the water more than a few tens of minutes when
suddenly my feet gave way under me. I do not know what happened,
but I think it was cramp which made me curl up as I lost all
control of my body. I was drowning. I went down for the first
time. When I came up I was trying to shout for help, but only
taking in more water. I saw Vikram swim near me. I made a grab
for him. He thought I was fooling around and let out a viscious
kick. I went down for the second time. At that point I knew then
I was a goner. As I came up for the third time, my thoughts were
not on survival, although the body was struggling to stay alive,
my mind was already tuned to death and my life of the previous
12 years rolled by me in an instant in slow motion. I saw all
the highlights of my life and in my mind I thanked my parents
for all that they had done for me. I went down for the last time
looking at the shore which seemed miles away, and I knew my life
was over as I blacked out. I was not in pain or mentally distressed
at that point of time.
I awoke some time later. Sand was sticking all over me. Someone
was pounding my chest. Water was gushing out of the side of my
mouth.
It appeared that Mr. Morecroft had seen me going down for the
second time. He had been able to get me out just after my third
submersion. Artificial respiration of about 20 minutes had got
me going again. When I looked up I could see the worried faces
of all my friends looking down at me, but beyond them I saw the
bright blue sky. As they saw my open eyes a sigh of relief passed
through all of them.
It was a painful time while they pumped out all the water from
inside me. But both Mr. Thompson and Mr. Morecroft were well
versed in life-saving techniques, and I think both of them thanked
the day when they had taken the trouble to learn these life-saving
techniques. In about half -an-hour, they had me going and they
asked whether I wanted to be rushed to the hospital.
Seeing all my friends were still standing around looking worried,
I knew I would ruin their day if I opted for this. Despite my
insides being raw, I declined. I asked them to prop me up in
the shade of some trees while they went about swimming and enjoying
themselves.
I can remember that day as clear as crystal, as although I was
not running around and jumping and playing with them, I was thanking
God for saving me from the jaws of death.
Seeing how I had been dragged out of the water, held upside down
by my legs before they started artificial respiration and my
very drawn and pale face as I lay there while having our midday
sandwiches, I was not able to eat as my throat was raw, Viney
Sethi (Palmer House Captain 1959) commented that Jakes looked
like a "Dead Chicken" - and that nickname remained
mine for many a year!
I was a resurrected Dead Chicken - and that was fine. I rememeber
my friends and especially these two fine schoolmasters, Mr. Thompson
and Mr. Morecroft all the time as I have got this far in life
only because they were prepared in an emergency.
More true life stories from Cathedral
School in a fortnight, so till then
Yours sincerely,
Jacob Matthan
Oulu, Finland
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- SH-Issue 3:960519
Hi Web-surfing Cathedralites,
What was the most embarrassing moment
of your life? This week I share mine with you. For that I must
go back to school in 1955 or 1956 - I am not sure exactly which
year. However, it was the year when the school play was an Opera
entitled "Aladdin and his Magic Lamp".
I was a member of the Cathedral church
choir. As Charles Velu, who now lives in Birmnigham, England,
the organist of the church choir and choir master was in charge
of putting the opera together, there was no way I could escape
my role as a washerwoman in the laundry maintained by the mother
of Aladdin.
The opera was excellent. It was directed
by Mr. Oliver who was also responsible for all the stage sets
and organisation.
One of the dramatic moments was when
Aladdin rubbed the magic lamp and the genie appeared. Aladdin
requested the genie to transport him somewhere (I think to the
palace of the king). As the genie was granting the wish, the
stage lights were switched off for less than a minute. When they
switched back on, the entire cast of about 20 of us were taken
off the set and the whole complex scenery was changed from a
laundry to a blank stage. A masterpiece of stage direction which
took place in just 30 seconds.
In all the rehersals everything went
like a dream. We were all herded off the stage in those seconds
in a very orderly fashion.
The day of the final performance
arrived. My parents were seated in the front row watching their
son in his multiple roles as waherwomen, etc. etc. At the crucial
point, after a very beautiful solo by Michael Colaco, who played
the lead with his great soprano voice, the genie appeared and
Aladdin made his wish. The lights were then switched off.
In all the rehearsals there had been
a certain amount of daylight which had helped us get off the
stage by watching this through the wings. On this evening, being
dark outside there was no such guide. When the lights were switched
on after those crucial few seconds, yours truly was still in
the corner of the stage at the footlights, totally blinnded by
their sudden brightness. As I was rubbing my eyes as the gust
of light hit my face, in a flash I was rudely dragged of the
stage by some desperate unseen hand. My chance for a soliliquy
had been dashed just when I was in the spotlight!
I do not know whether anyone in the
audience noticed I had been left behind. No-one dared mention
it, probably out of kindness, but I was a quivering wreck, knowing
that all the washerwomen and Aladdin and his mother had been
transported off to wonderland, but I had been left behind!
I have never wanted to act in a play
again after that mortifying experience. Last week, those who
took the trouble to read my other alma mater page Kooler Talk
(Web Version) would have noted how small this world is. This
week I can show you how the world is very small for us Cathedralites
as well.
I use Alta Vista to search the web.
I decided to run through a couple of names of my Cathedralite
classmates. The first one I chose was a good friend that I had
lost complete touch with after I left school. His name is Parasuraman,
and I seemed to vaguely remember his pet name was Bala.
The search yielded about two dozen
references, most of them relating to a Prof. A. Parasuraman,
a marketing wizard of some sort in an American University. I
knew he was certainly not my classmate. Sure enough, amongst
the list there was a Bala Parasuraman somewhere in the US. So
I sent an email message asking this gentleman whether he was
from Cathedral school. Bingo - I hit jackpot as Bala replied
recalling many of our classmates and asking after them. I was
able to fill him with news of several with whom I have kept in
touch.
If any of you want to use an economic
fax or gift service between India and the US, or for that matter
between any two countries, do contact Bala
and I am sure he will give you the very best service. I recall
him being such a nice guy in school with a very sharp wit.
A few days later I got a message
from the email address of Ari Singh Anand, a Cathedralite of
the eighties, with a cryptic talk of what the hell was this dinosaur
doing on the list being maintained Vivek Sikri. The email was
signed by none other than the father of Ari, Bhupinder Singh
Anand. Bhupi, also Savage House, had been School Captain the
year I was Savage House Captain. He was two years my senior and
in the X11th at that time.
Ari has not been well. Bhupi is in
US to look after him and using his email address to keep contact
with his business in India. I hope all of you will pray for a
speedy recovery for Ari. Anyone in the vicinity could offer to
lend Bhupi a hand, if he needs it. I know how difficult it is
for a father to manage a sick son, especially away from home.
Ari is the clasmate of Akiva Elias,
son of Ooky Elijah Elias, one of my dearest friends in Bombay.
Akiva had sent me a message a few weeks ago asking whether I
knew his dad. Ooky is the only classmate who has come and stayed
with us in this remote corner of the world, where, believe it
or not, it snowed last week. I think we saw spring and summer
come and go last weekend!
It is a very small world - and the
internet has made it even smaller. God bless the internet. Do
not forget, if you have something to share with other Cathedralites
of any generation, mail it to me, and I shall put it up on this
page as a record for posterity. Take care. See you in a fortnight.
Regards
Jacob Matthan
Oulu, Finland
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- SH-Issue 4:960602
Hi Web-surfing Cathedralites,
Thank you all for taking the mickey out of me. I am six feet
and two inches tall, weigh a hundred kilos and have very broad
shoulders - and can take quite a lot of flak. Yes (true confessions),
I had to dress up as a washerwoman and also as one of the ladies-in-waiting
of the princess, and sing in my soprano voice. (We were not co-educational
in those days!) That, however, was not the embarrasing part of
the story as many of you seemed to infer!
Well the laugh is on you. Because
I was in the Cathedral Church Choir, which meant twice a week
singing practice - late on Wednesday and Friday evenings and
two church services to attend on Sunday - morning and evening,
and a whole lot of christenings (baptisms), weddings and funerals
to sing at), I did not have to pay the school fees. I think it
was the grand sum of Rs.15 per month.
Some of the people even paid us money
to sing at those events - usually half an rupee - great amount
of money in those days. It was enough to have a hearty meal of
chicken curry and rice at the Pyrkes Restaurant at Flora Fountain,
at Olympic Restaurant in Colaba Causeway or a scruptious meal
at the railway restaurant in Bombay Central, though not enough
to have a chicken burger in a small restaurant almost at the
end of Veer Nariman Road where it meets Marine Drive (think it
was called Skyways) which used to be our regular hangout - that
used it cost 12 annas. The was usually some pies left over for
the Charminars - I picked up all my bad habits while singing
in the church choir, or maybe it was an attempt to destroy my
voice to get out of the drudgery.
As far as I can remember there were
no school fees even for my elder brother and my younger sister,
a family savng of about Rs. 50 at least - so I always tell them
that I got them educated through our alma mater by my endeavours!
I wonder whether this traditional link between the church and
the school continues even now?
I must tell you about our French
teacher, Mr. Ribi. He was a true-life frenchman who had an MG
sports car. He lived on the top floor above the flat of the Principal.
I think you got to it by going up the stairs at the back of the
then Standard X on the second floor (where they used to do the
annual medical examination where we all had to strip and be examined
by a lady doctor who always insisted that we all had to be circumsised!)
Mr. Ribi was a real monster. If we
did not pronounce a French word correctly he would blow his head
off in a rage and if at the second attempt we failed to satisfy
his morbidity, he would screw our ears. Painful experience which
in todayÍs world would probably be called child molestation.
Now you can understand all my psychological traumas which come
through this page! Luckily he left after a couple of years so
I did not have to suffer him till the XIth.
Wonder often where he got too? Any
clues anyone?
Well we did have several foreign
teachers in our day and I will tell you about some of them in
the coming issues and also some of the real local character teachers
which we had.
By the way, I know you are all enjoying
these reminescences but I think some of you should start to take
control and manage this page. I am a little old and weary and
would like to give the reins to a younger and more dynamic editor
so that Ican concentrate on the main page - Findians Briefings
-which is shocking and rocking the world with its hard hitting
style. So if someone would like to slowly take over Seventh Heaven,
you are welcome, and you will always have one devoted reader
- me!! May I, however, echo Kashinath Dandekar, my senior by
2 years who wrote in the latest issue of the Cathedral Newslatter:
"Let us keep the language parliamentary,
it may be a little sterile but it might be more acceptable. Perhaps
I am beginning to feel OLD."
Well, next week I am going to tell you about the "Pharoah"
of Cathedral School and I am sure Kashinath and Bhupi, and Bala,
will not feel quite sooooo old!
Regards
Jacob Matthan
Oulu, Finland
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- SH-Issue 5:960613
Hi Cathedralites,
As promised I aim tell you what I
know about the Pharoah of Cathedral.
Stan Pharoah was Vice Principal during
the time I was in school. He was a great man in more than one
sense. Stan (he would say "Mr. Pharoah to you, young man!")
was my class teacher in the 10th Standard. He taught Mathematics.
His teaching skill was excellent. He made Mathematics interesting.
He had a beautiful writing hand on the blackboard.
The feature about Stan was that he
told us kids that if he had not been lifted you up by the seat
of their pants and walloped you across the bottom -you could
not claim to be Cathedralite! He told us of how even Zulfiqar
Bhutto, who was then Prime Minister of Pakistan, had been so
complimented by the Sphinx. As an aside he did mention that Bhutto
was not very good at mathematics.
Stan had a heart of gold. He, his
wife (her name skips me just now) and two children, Margret and
Claire lived in the GirlÍs School. All were devout Christians.
I used to encounter them in the Cathedral every Sunday morning.
Stan knew and loved every student.
He was always prepared to help anyone that came to him. He made
Ashok Kapur (now Chief Executive of the Dutch ABN Bank in Bombay)
and me Prefects already in the last term of the 10th Standard.
A great honour for us.
Stan retired from the school sometime in the early sixties and
migrated to England as his daughters wanted him to settle there
for their future. I visited him in his nice suburban home in
Surbiton in Surrey in the mid-sixties. Although he was relaxed
and happy and enjoyed his English country garden, he seemed to
miss our Cathedral School every single minute.
Both his daughters finished their studies and were married in
England. As I moved away from London, I lost touch with Stan.
Maybe I was too good - I was not
lifted by the seat of my pants by Stan, so I have little claim
to be a Cathedralite - it would have been an honour to have been
reprimanded by him!
Regards
Jacob Matthan
PS: Maybe one of you out there can
fill us in with more details you may have about this wonderful
character which made Cathedral the institution it has become.
PPS: I am still waiting for authentic
data about Connon, Savage, Palmer, Wilson, Barham - I have received
considerable comments, but almost all are speculations. I am
also looking for data about Gunnery, Kuruvilla Jacob, and earlier
and subsequent Principals from any of you out there.
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- SH-Issue 6:960613
Hi Cathedralites
(sorry to Kooler Talk (Web Version)
readers also visiting here for some duplication),
Ad at the top
You may have noticed an ad at the
top if you are using Netscape. It is part of a contract with
a Portugese group that all my web pages will carry a rotating
ad at the top. If it offends anyone or affects your access time
or download time, please do let me know. I shall reconsider whether
I keep it at the top of the Seventh Heaven page. (Ed: I have
to try to earn some money sometime - I am not very successful
at that task!)
Annoyance
Last issue I asked whether my annoying
reminders should stop - I have a posting of just over a hundred
messages to Cathedralites. I received a total of 0 replies. Well
this split the response 0/0/0 (undecided), so I am continuing
my reminders. Any of you that wants out should let me know.
GOPIO
May I please direct you to the Global
Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO). You can read
the letter from Prof. Thomas Abraham from Columbia University
in the Letters
to the Editor on my main web page. Do take a break and visit
it and the appropriate link.
Glynn Howell
Well a few words about Glynn Howell.
I came upon this absolutely delightful gentleman when I was in
the VIII Standard and decided to take up Latin as one of my alternate
languages. Anything to get away from the throttling hold of Marathi
and Hindi. Glynn was a great teacher. He started off the first
lessons from a book called "Ora Maritama" or "The
Sea Shore". That is probably the present limit of my knowledge
of Latin, as although I was interested, with so many things to
do in school, I had little time to mug up a dead language. (Anyone
interested in sending me the words of the School song?)
When I entered the IXth, Glynn was
our Classmaster. His special subject was Geography. He was meticulous
in his presentation of the subject, immaculately written on the
blackboard. He fostered my interest in the subject so that I
went on to get a distinction in it at the Senior Cambridge examination.
Glynn was always dressed to perfection
with a creaseless suit, starched white shirt with appropriate
armbands to hold up his sleeves so that the chalk dust would
not make them dirty, perfectly pressed trousers and tie and a
neatly folded handkerchief in his top pocket. His attendance
register was a work of art. He never permitted anyone to take
attendance in his absence as he did not like his register messed
up.
He was quite unlike Stan Pharoah
who was always dressed in a sloppy grey cotton coat and equally
baggy white trousers. Also, unlike Stan, Glynn was an intensely
personal individual. I never ever had the opportunity to meet
or know his family.
Secularity
The IXth was a year in which we really
had a lot of fun before we got the serious task of getting ready
for the Senior Cambridge. We were a truly international and secular
class. We had an American (Bobby Anderson), a Baharaini (Wabhir
Zayani), Britishers (John Beddoes and Jimmy Jameson) and a Yugoslavian
(Peter Miovitch). We had Hindus (Bhakley, Chadha, Dhabolkar,
Ghatge, Kapur, Kurma, Nayar, Ruias (Anil and Ashok), Sethi),
Parsees (Choksi, Cooper, Kanga, Mistry, Modi, Moos, Singara,
Shroff), Christians (Colaco, Matthan, Rodrigues, Singh), Muslims
(Ahmedbhoy, Chinwalla, Currimjee, Hoosein), Sindhis (Lakhani,
Thadhani), and also three Indian Jews (Solomon, Hayem and Haskell
- it was the year before Elias (alias Ooky) joined the school)
and others - must ask Jangoo to rattle off the attendance register.
We all lived in total harmony. (Forgive
me if I forgot anyone - 40 years is a long time to remember all
your classmates names. Some like Bala Parasuraman and Narayan
Sesachar got added between the IXth and the XIth while a couple
from this list moved to the B Section or left. The A Section
was the Science stream and the B section the Arts stream.)
Many a time I have been asked whether
being a Christian in India had been a handicap. In truth, we
were so secular in our approach that I never once thought about
the religious background of any of my classmates, especially
as a comparative factor. The only time I realised there was a
difference was when we stripped our shirts for PT class and the
Parsees would have their special type of cotton vests which no
one else had.
I do not know whether this secularistic
attitude is the case in most schools, but my secular and international
attitude for life was definetly sown during the time I was in
Cathedral.
More in a fortnight
Jacob Matthan
Oulu, Finland
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For further information
please contact:
Jacob Matthan
Kampitie 6 B
FIN-90150 Oulu
Finland
Tel. :+358-8-33 69 39
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