PROJECT MOREFROFT - Restoration

With the advent of artificioal intelligence (AI) and my superficial association with it, I have decided to launch a new Project - which I have named as PROJECT MORECROFT.

 ( I apologise for the misspelling in the title! It should be Morecroft and not Morecroft!!  Unfortunately it cannot be changed after publishing!)

Late Arthur D. Morecroft

Those of you who were my clsssmates in 1955 when we were in Standard VII in the Cathedral and John Connon Boy’s High School, Mumbai, will probably recognise the significance of why I named this project such!

As I have already covered this incident in more than one blog entrty, I am linking you to one of them if you are interested in the more intricate details. of why I have chosen this as the name for this project.

At the top pf this blog entry is a picture of Arthur Morecroft for which I used AI to enhance and colourise from this picture below.

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The transformation is quite unique as this is the individual who gave me a second life, revived and restored to wholeness 69 years ago!

Here is the list of the staff members of our School in 1958. You will see the name of Arthur there with his qualification. He had the Army Certificate for Physical Training and it was his quick action that revived and restored my life at Vasind.

As I restore old and scratched photos from the past, I dedicate my work to the man who gave me back my life.

I do hope this project will rejuvenate the lives of many.

If you have a photograph which you think needs to be restored and colourised, send them to me and I will try my level best to get it into the best shape I can. 

To give you a few examples of what I have done, I am showing below a few of the results that I have obtained from my past archives.

Viney Sethi, my dear school friend produced a black and white photograph of us on a class picnic in 1959 at Anil and late Ashok Ruia’s seaside resort Silver Sands at the very end of Juhu beach. 

During Viney’s visit to Oulu a year ago, I cleaned up his black and white version with some degree of success. 

Now, with the use of AI I now have this result.

That is me in the white vest, second from the left in the foreground. The earlier version had so much shadow that most of us were indiscernible.

Here is a photo from 1944 of me in my mother’s arms with my elder sister sitting on the floor.

Amazing result and one which makes me happy with the power of AI.

In 1971, late Basu John, who was an expert on photographic lenses, developed a camera with me, where I contributed to the plastics outer design and moving parts. The first camera was prototyped with these plastic pieces joined together. The total cost in 1971 was just Rs. 20 (€0.10). 

The first photograph was taken at our son’s birthday party on 1st November 1972 at our home in Defence Officer’s Colony in Nandambakkam in Madras.

Basu John enlarged the picture and found no breakdown of the image even at the edges. A tribute to his lens design and the power of glass and plastics technology.

However, as we were working on the final designs at my home, he received a phone call that his photographic shop on Mount Road, called Klein and Peryl, was on fire. We dropped everything and rushed there to save as much as possible.

This was considered by Basu John as a bad omen and we dropped this project.

Given above are the colourised version of the enlarged version which hung in his shop for many years and the close up of the AI revamped image of our two children, Susanna and Jaakko.

I would like your views on this project and would welcome all those who feel they can contribute to it in my areas of interest, 

These include my relatives around the world, alumni from my alma maters, Bishop Cotton School, Bangalore, Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai, St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and my colleagues from my professional and other life around the world, as I recover and restore photographs, just as the dedication of late Arthur Morecroft!

Vive la memory of 

Arthur Morecroft.

The quiet German girl gets....

Posted on the Oulu CHAFF Blog and my Jacob's Blog.

Almost two years ago, I picked up a very shy German girl at Oulu Airport. She had never travelled out of her home state. I took her to our daughter's home as she had signed to be a tenant. Then I took her for first meal in Oulu at the Pailin Restaurant, as Pornpailin Weber, spoke fluent German. Kerstin was "at home" within a few hours of arrival in this big bad world of Oulu!

Kerstin was clutching a little book in her hand. At the next CHAFF meeting I introduced her to the authors of that book, Ildikó amd Ilari, who had written "Culture Shock Finland" in German! Was she surprised!

From then, Kerstin became a dedicated CHAFF participant, attending many meetings and taking part in all the major CHAFF events in the spirit of all our CHAFF participants.

Kerstin became a great friend of our grandson, Samuel, as they could discuss "Football". They watched several World Cup matches together, each rooting for their own teams.

When she finished her stint at Oulu University, where she was working for her German employer, we were all very sad to see her leave, as it has been with many other CHAFF Participants from around the world.

This evening when I opened my email INBOX, there was an email with the subject line:

"We did it!"

Dear Friends,



Yes! From now on I am Ms Mike also known as Ms Birkner!!

Mike and I got married on October 27th and we returned from our honeymoon in Vienna last Tuesday.

The wedding was fabulous! - We had a great and long party with family and friends.

Unfortunately until now I have only a few wedding pictures of groom & bride together, snapshots taken from my little brother. As soon as I receive the other pictures I will email them to you.

For the beginning I send you a few snapshots...

And now...there is another news...Mike and I are pleased to announce that our small family will grow next year (end of April)...I am pregnant and we are happy!!!

Love from grey and moistly Germany,

Kerstin

Kerstin with her Grandma.


Groom Mike with Best Woman and husband of Best Woman.
First time I am hearing of a Best Woman!


Kerstin dancing with her kid brother.


Bride and Groom.

All at CHAFF are immensely pleased at this news. I share the photographs that Kerstin sent with all of you.

I hope Kerstin and Mike will accept the congratulations and best wishes from all their dear friends from Oulu and hope the "family" will visit us here in the not too distant future.