The Garbage Dump - India

By Annikki & Jacob Matthan

The good news of yesterday. Samba Siva, our dear friend from Patni Computers, who used to be in Finland and is now working in Electronic City outside Bangalore, rang Jacob to tell us that his wife has delivered a beautiful baby boy, 2.6 kg. He was off to see them as they are near her parents place in Andhra. I have conveyed best wishes on behalf of our entire Findian community to them.

It is difficult to know how to start this piece. We are not writing this to offend anybody. But we are seeing reality, our way.

Yes, we are in Incredible India.
Yes, we are in Ahmedabad, from where Mahatamaji started a mission.

We are about to try to start a mission or be clobbered by all of you for even thinking of starting it!

It is 10 years since we were last in India. Jacob came back a few months after our visit to his niece, Suchi's wedding, to say his last farewell to his mother. At that time, by some quirk of fate, there was an enormous traffic jam just outside Chennai Airport and it took Jacob about 2 hours to reach his mother’s home. That was an unusual morning.

During that visit he did also make a visit to Bangalore. He noted that the city had exploded. It took about an hour for a journey which used to take him just 15 minutes 15 years earlier. Progress?

Yesterday evening, as we watched Indian TV, there appeared an ad in which someone opened a car window and tossed an empty bottle onto the road in front of a scooter rider and his passenger. The scooter rider picked up the bottle, sped through the traffic, probably breaking hundreds of traffic laws in the process, caught up with the car, knocked on the window. When the window opened, the bottle was tossed back into the car!

Effective ad? Effective message?

When you are living in a garbage dump, shifting the rubbish from Point A to Point B, hardly seems a worthwhile activity. And breaking laws to do that seems even more of a “No! No!”.

This time, for our visit to India, we landed in Mumbai at 02:30 am and were duly impressed by Sea Link, designed just like many of the cable stayed bridges in Finland.



Above is a picture of the Replot Bridge (Swedish: Replotbron; Finnish: Raippaluodon silta). It is a cable-stayed tuftform bridge connecting the island of Replot with the mainland in Korsholm, near Vaasa, Finland. It is 1,045 metres (3,430 ft) long and the longest bridge of Finland. Two supporting pylons are both 82.5 m (271 ft) high. The bridge was inaugurated 27 August 1997 by the president of Finland Martti Ahtisaari. (Acknowledgement: Wikipedia)


Mumbai Sea Link - 2009, the pride of Mumbai.

Our visit to Mumbai taught us that the traffic situation had got worse and even with all best intentions, there would not be much improvement.

Our daily blogging of our India trip, which is reaching many thousands of people in all corners of the globe, has got us some good and interesting comments. One, from a dear friend in Finland, sticks out. He commented how nice it was that we were not writing about all the dirt in India.

We could hardly contain ourselves - Dirt in India?

People in India are living in the largest Garbage Dump in the world. This is what The Honorable Jairam Ramesh, the Environment and Forest Minister in the Indian Government said last week:

If there is a Nobel prize for filth, India will win it: Jairam Ramesh

NEW DELHI: Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh, known for making forthright comments, today said if there was any Nobel Prize for dirt and filth, India would get it.

"Our cities are dirtiest cities of the world. If there is a Nobel prize for dirt and filth, India will win it, no doubt," he said at a function to release a report of TERI.

Ramesh lamented the poor facilities for disposing municipal waste in majority of the cities in the country.

The ministers' comments assume significance as the TERI report on 'Green Indian 2047' says that waste management is not given priority in local bodies.

There is poor compliance with the solid waste management rules.

Dirt and filth could have both the physical and philosophical interpretation! In India, it has both, which are intertwined at the hip.

Mumbai was bad, but on our first few days we were too busy to notice this. Although the stench and dirt was everywhere, we somehow coped with the situation, seeing all the positives.

We then went to Cochin.

In the old days, Kerala was always considered to be the home of the clean.

The very first evening, Jacob needed to buy a camera, so he walked to the shopping centre nearby. It was like walking through a sewer. And this was just metres away from one of the top radio stations in Cochin, a couple of hundred metres away from the local home of one of the largest media conglomerates in India.

Anyone oblivious?

The drive the next day between Cochin and Kottayam confirmed to us that this was not the Kerala of yesteryear. With all the progress, the roads were just as wide as before. The traffic had tripled, quadrupled or x-upled. The entire infra-structure is in shambles,

As we walked around Kottayam, Jacob was amazed how such a clean and beautiful city of his childhood could have become yet another amazingly large rubbish tip.

If Kerala was bad, our next stop, Bangalore, Jacob’s birthplace, was infinitely worse. It used to be referred to as the Garden City as lush green parks, well maintained, were the heart of the town. Beautiful buildings, well laid out roads and avenues, fountains, were all part of the landscape of the city centre.

This is a city which is now in terminal decline. Every nook and corner is filled with rubbish, every road is a metal jungle. there is no such thing as civic sense. Home to the biggest IT giants, these mighty men, who are among in the richest in the world, care two damn hoots for their surroundings, the health and well being of their workers or the people of Bangalore. All they provide is lip service and then point to corrupt politicians. They may know something about IT but they know nothing about urban planning, health or welfare. They know how to stash away their billions, and leave their industrial bases in total and complete turmoil.

In all this, Jacob came upon one little oasis, where the small corporate group run by his friend, 59er Elijah Elias, was trying to keep some degree of sanity in this madness. A losing battle, but it showed Jacob that if one wanted, it was possible to have a sense of civic sense and pride and maintain an atmosphere of dignity for one’s workers.

To our surprise, Chennai, our home between 1969 and 1976, was a welcome change, although the frailty of the system was exposed by the heavy rain which caused much of the city to be flooded, roads to be clogged and traffic to be severely hampered. As we wandered to the far reaches of the city to meet our friends, we found that the civic sense of the new centres was lost, especially once the IT companies moved into a region. The only intention seemed to be to maximise their bottom-line while throwing the rest of the area to the dogs!

Yes, there were plenty of stray dogs around.

Knowing several of the professional chiefs in many of India’s top IT companies, we do hope that they will suggest to the top management and corporate owners that they should change their ways.

The longer subsequent visit to Mumbai revealed to us that opulence is living side by side with filth and dirt on a scale which is hard to imagine.

Yes, the fisher folk in the small hut on the seashore do have a satellite antenna stuck on their roof, but they have no sanitary conveniences or “education” as they foul the rocks daily in full view of the enormous sky scraper world behind them.

Does anyone care?

Some of the worst possible slums in the world are located around the city. They harbour infections, breed diseases and the slum dwellers are the scum of this earth to the surroundings.

As 59er Anil Ruia put it, Mumbai generates 7000 tonnes of garbage every day. Even with 10 tonne garbage trucks to haul this away, it would require 700 trucks moving in and out of the city every single day just to take this rubbish “somewhere”.

Where?

The garbage trucks presently plying the streets are fit only for some metal junk yard, These toy trucks are probably filled by just going down one street. The hydraulics do not work and no compactation is possible. So the streets remain filled with garbage and stink to high heaven.

Over 15 years ago Jacob had written an article “Western Recycling Doomed; A lesson From India”.

He now eats his words, as Incredible India has moved into the darkest of ages, while the rest of the world has progressed in civic sense, concerned about the environment, health and hygiene of the population. India has given up its past ways and now follows neither its old philosophy or the western model - moving the country into chaos surrounded by filth and dirt.

What was an ordered established system that worked has now descended into nothing but hell. Instead of trying to give dignity to the untouchables who did yeoman service to the entire country, they were treated as animals and forced to give up their profession. Instead of uplifting them, giving them the tools of the trade and a salary and honour for the noble work they did in keeping a country clean, they have been denied their right to improve themselves. And there has been no one to take their place.

The Jerrypuranwalas who used to roam the streets gathering the junk, have virtually been done away with, only causing more and more rubbish to be dumped onto the streets around the country. Almost all open spaces are strewn with rubbish.

What a terrible sight. What a health hazard!

But who cares?

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, meeting yesterday the US President Barack Obama, would probably have been better off asking for help in converting the Garbage Dump called India into a habitable country, rather than asking for assistance on the nuclear front!

It is not that Indians do not know what is to be be done and how to do it. But it is greed and rapid expansion of a middle class into existing urban areas, led by an even more greedy corporate leadership, who remain “uneducated” about social values and responsibilities, that is partially responsible for this chaos. The corrupt politician and bureaucrat, a corrupt police force, all lead to the same way - chaos.

About 30 years ago, Mr. Thomas Abraham (Ebbi), a philosophical and brilliant engineer with an equally deep financial sense, the then Managing Director of Southern Investments (P) Ltd., a large construction company operating out of Chennai, wrote a wonderful small book called “The Affluence Machine” about the way cities of the future should be designed. Even then he was not talking futuristically, as all the technologies existed at that point of time to execute his dream.

Based on his book, he and I authored a paper called “Rural Urbanisation” which would take the development away from the existing urban centres and move them into to serial distances away from them which were manageable but would help each centre to benefit the hinterland. The idea was that every two hours away from a metropolis, two hours on a high speed motorway, there would develop a self-generated urban spread, which with the minimum of Government inputs, could be developed into thriving economic power houses, where the people would self generate their wealth.

Just imagine, 2 hours (roughly 150 to 180 km) between every metropolis all around India.

The concept of Mr. Thomas was to have a central core of the city where all the major services would be located, enough to serve the population of that region. The old and elderly would have housing generated near to this city centre and the city would expand along the radial axis. The suburbs would develop to serve the younger local population who were mobile enough to use their own transport. A very efficient public transportation system (futuristic in some sense) would be created for most of their needs. The circular rings would generate areas of economic activity. From the circular rings, high speed transportation, which at that time would have been considered futuristic, would bring the outlying population into the City Centre.

The major traffic would be kept out of the city area as the economic public transport system would be developed to serve each suburban community and link them to the central hub as well as the outer rings.

Facilities such as sports fields, etc, would be on the outer rings, ensuring environmental harmony.

Mr. Thomas, who is a builder of great repute had crunched the numbers. He knew that with the seed capital, this model was a self supporting, self generating one, which he as a builder would have been happy to be part of.

Our joint paper was submitted to many Chief Ministers, but only one showed interest, but he too was out of power before he could commence his intention of following through this model.

In response to a recent email from me, this is what Mr. Thomas wrote yesterday:

It was wonderful to remember those days.

"The Affluence Machine" was the name of my book, which was of interest to just four or five people. I remember that Mr. V. Suresh, the CMD of HUDCO once took a copy for a Minister friend. The report that you prepared was once used by Tamil Nadu industries Development Corporation in their proposal for an industrial township. I have a (not yet moth eaten) copy of that particular report.

After the failed attempt at building new cities, I got into this far out idea that human intuition is a pattern recognition algorithm. I have a website www.intuition.co.in which describes that idea.

More tilting at windmills!

Still, the property development thing is going OK and my son now runs it.

Do keep in touch.

Ebbi

His new website is fascinating. But it is sad that Ebbi moved away from developing a concept which would have avoided the present random development followed by utter chaos.

Take for example the development of Panvel on the outskirts of Mumbai. This would have been an ideal centre to develop the City Model described in “The Affluence Machine”. But presently Panvel demonstrates how one should not allow growth to occur.

The decision to build the new international airport there and the way Mumbai has clogged itself, caused the property speculators to rush into this one paan shop ( biriyani restaurant) town and ruin not only the area, but make it one of the dirtiest centres in India, even before the first stone for the airport has been laid.

And the journey from Panvel to Mumbai is tragedy in itself.

Our visit to Ahmedabad, from where Gandhiji was able to run his mission to free India, was to see how things were shaping in Western India. We were totally disappointed with what we saw. Although not as bad as Mumbai or Bangalore, it is another city which is falling quickly by the wayside.

Gujarat had started its trunk road system way back in the 60s and 70s, making intercity transport fast. But they stopped there and allowed the uncontrolled city growth to happen within existing city centres while not developing the civic services to meet the demands of the expanded population. What now exists, like all the other cities that we have visited, is a junk yard and garbage dump as far as the eye can see.

One wonder what the residents feel like living inside a garbage dump?

Beautiful buildings of the past are no longer visible as hideous constructions as overbridges are developed a few feet in front of them. Beautiful monuments reflecting a glorious heritage are covered in dust and tucked under the rubble of even more monstrous flyovers and approach roads. The left hand does not know what the right hand does. NGOs battling to look after our traditions are left powerless and speechless by the financial muscle of the corrupt politicians and industrialists.

And when you drive along any street, what you see is that every second shop is an eatery, every third house is a “bank”, every fourth house is a mobile phone dispensing centre. Each one is struggling to keep alive. They live together in squalor and spread more. Are these the only industrial activities that we can be involved with? Are these the "industrial activities" which push up the GDP?

We do not want to appear to be purveyors of doom. We still hope to see some of our faith in this country be rejuvenated when we visit New Delhi and Chandigarh. But from what we have seen so far, greed and corruption pervades all.

Constructive suggestions:

1. Road construction:

We give a simple example how in Finland an activity of building a new road or bridge is done. The first step after the designing of the construction is to set up the diversion route which takes the traffic away from the construction site so that there is no disruption to normal life. Once this is constructed and the traffic pulled away from the area, the area is cordoned off so that building work can proceed rapidly. Target dates are hardened, special areas for materials designated, service roads built. Materials move in on a Just-In-time basis and work is done on a 24 hour basis to ensure that the dates are kept, as otherwise severe penalties are imposed on the contractor. Usually the work is completed ahead of time, and the well planned diversion becomes an emergency road, not to be just done away with because the main job is done.

In all this, the normal work of the citizen is hardly affected. Time is valuable - but in India, only the time which affects the pocketbooks of the rich and mighty is considered valuable. The rest of the citizens be damned.

What is more important is that the quality of the work is never affected. The materials are not contaminated, there is little waste, and everything can be done "on time".

2. Household garbage:

Or let us look at how household garbage is handled in our small town of Oulu. Each house is provided with two bins. One is for mixed waste, the other is for bio waste. Every wek a truck comes to the area and collects the waste, just one man with his well equipped truck where he wheels the dustbins onto a loading platform which automatically lifts the bin, empties it into the back of the truck and this is compacted immediately. the whole operation takes hardly a minute and it is clean, neat and with no spill or left overs.

Recylable rubbish, such as newspapers, cardboard boxes, plastics of all forms, glass, metal are kept by home-owners separately. Nearby centres with huge well like dustbins, lined with ultrastrong tarpaulin fabrics are built into the ground. residents take there rubbish there at their convenience and empty them. The special trucks with gear to empty these wells and put fresh storage bags arrive as soon as the bags are filled. being located in strategic places as petrol stations and supermarket complex compounds, it is not much of a problem for residents to take and dispose their recyclable rubbish at these points.

In addition, near every colony there is a large container which is especially meant for newspaper and pure paper waste. No other waste is permitted in this container as it goes directly to the paper mills for making new paper.

In addition to all this there is a huge rubbish centre just on the outskirts of the town. there you can take all your different types of waste like electronics junk, refrigerators, fridges, radios, wood, all metal containers, and dump them into huge containers which are then sent to special recycling centres.

There is a huge mixed waste centre where you weigh your vehicle and trailer when you enter and you can dump this into the tip. You weigh your vehicle and trailer on the way out and pay a small fee for using this tip, as the city has to find suitable means for disposing this. (A biogas centre has now been developed to utilise this waste.)

In addition, any dangerous and hazardous materials have a special section where they can be dumped.

As a result you see no rubbish lining the streets of our town. Once established and the residents educated, this is like clockwork and any rubbish lying around sticks out like a sore thumb.

When, Oh when, will this happen in India?

Incredible?

If India is to survive, it will not be because of the rapid growth of the middle class as an "uneducated" mass which trundles to work regardless. It will be when each citizen can be proud of his or her country. Sadly that vision of that day is receding by every hour that passes.

Mumbai over; Murphy's law?

The last day in Mumbai was certainly one of great nostalgia plus quiet excitement for me.

I set off to see Ooky & Rivca. I managed to spend some quality time with Rivca in their lovely apartment, as Ooky was off on his "golf" round. I am so happy that I had some really wonderful moments with Rivca as she is so sensitive, direct and honest. She expresses her hopes and desires and also the pros and cons of life in such a manner that one can see what has been before and where she hopes for life will go tomorrow. She is so childlike!

I was hoping to see Suchita and Vijay, as they live in the same building, but Vijay was on his way to help out Mrs. Sethi (Viney's mom) as Viney and Purnima are away in Papua New Guinea and Australia. I shared a few words with him. I had not disturbed him since our last evening of the Reunion, and I had been right, as he told me that for the past three nights he had slept through each for 12 hours! I do not wonder!

Then it was on to Ubi's across the road to return the Old Boys' Association tie that he had kindly lent me for the Founders' Day Service and to say thank you to my wonderful friend. We shared a few thoughts and to my surprise he told me that my childhood friend, Ravi, whom I had blogged about just a couple of days ago, had been one of his closest friends when they were in Germany. What a small small world.



This visit also got me a snap of Ubi as he had not come to the Evening with the Findians and during his hosting of a party for Annikki and me, along with celebrating Meena Bhatt’s birthday, as I had not taken out my camera.

I rushed back to pick up Annikki and Mika and go to Pappa's (97, Peelukuttychayan, Mr. K. M. Philip, my mother’s elder brother) and Mummy’s (Chinnammakochamma) place for lunch. I had misunderstood the time as 13:30. Suresh (Peter Philip) had said 1 or 1:30.

On the way I saw my first mumbai example of traffic rage when two private car owners got within 10 mm of crashing. They shouted abuse at each other, waving fists through their car windows, but, luckily as all the cars were packed together like sardines, neither cold get out to become physically violent!

At Pappa’s house they were waiting for us, Pappa, Mummy, Suresh & Meera and Anna (daughter of my niece, Mammy (Thambachayan's daughter) & her husband, Anian (K. P. Philip) , who live in Belgium). Anna works for the Rolling stones magazine and seemed clued upon everything! Bright girl.

Mika ate like a horse as the food was delicious. I pecked at everything but ate the sweet heartily - something I should not do.



Pappa, at 97 and Mummy (90+) are both mentally as sharp as I have known them all my life. Pappa goes to play an hour or two of bridge every evening at the Willingdon Club - at 97!!!! He made me promise that we would see them before we left India for Finland, which i certainly shall on the 13th of December.

Then we went back to the Guest house to wait for our taxi. It arrived a few minutes late, but when we went down, there was panic. by some quirk the keys were locked inside the car and we could neither put our luggage in our get in to go to the airport.

The driver, Ramesh, acted quickly. he sprinted off somewhere. Five minutes later he returned with two boys carrying a long strong metal ruler. they inserted this between the window and the body of the car and tried to smash the lock open - but it did not work.

They sprinted off somewhere and were back in two minutes, this time with a very heavy screwdriver and a long strong copper rod. While one guy plied the door of the car open with the screwdriver, the other pushed in the copper rod and cleverly pulled the inside door handle lever and, presto, the car door was open.

An amazing feat in a place where we did not know there was such “talent”.





Later, I asked Ramesh where he had found these guys. He told me he had gone to the Traffic Control point and pleaded for some help from the policeman there. He was assured that help would come in a couple of minutes - and these two guys had appeared out of nowhere.

I wonder what the profession of these guys really is, but obviously the Police know them well and use them!!

We arrived at the Airport just in time to complete our formalities and board the aircraft.

The flight was delayed by about half an hour so we arrived in Ahmedabad about 8 pm and our apartment at 9 pm.

A nice clean apartment and they had very nice simple Gujarati vegetarian meal waiting for us.

We are going to enjoy our stay in Ahmedabad, that I am sure.

We are graced and blessed

Annikkki has been complaining of a skin / allergy discomfort for a long time. And she has been self conscious about it although any skin rash could only probably be viewed with a microscope. She has tried many remedies but claimed that nothing worked. She wanted an allergy test, but I found that allergy tests can only be done on a doctors orders.We asked friends and my cousin gave us the name of a top specialist in Mumbai. A call revealed that no appointments were possible during the time we were in Mumbai.

I told Malathi. She said she would attend to it.





Dr. Ashok with his wife, Malthi and their two boys,Darshan and Disanth (some years ago)

Her husband is the "Doctor of Dharavi". Dr. Ashok Khembahavi works from 10:30 to 14:00 hours and again from 16:30 to anytime the last patient arrives in his small Dharvi clinic, 6 days a week. To get him to join even for a family get together is something historic. Considering that he charges Rs. 10 per patient (€ 0.15) and even that most do not have, so are FREE, shows that he is truly one carrying out a noble profession. And to top it, besides being a general practitioner, he is a skin specialist!

Yesterday evening at around 18:30, this God's gift to humanity, arrived at our doorstep. The minute he saw Annikki, he arrived at his diagnosis. After speaking to her confirmed it. He probably sees more patients in a month that a Finnish doctor sees in his entire lifetime.

I have invited Dr. Ashok, as he is fondly known to his patients, to come and stay with us in Finland, a country that his wife, Malathi adores. He has promised to do that.

Dr. Ashok worked in the Congo for two years. His clinic was set inside a factory compound. He told me about the deadly Malaria mosquitoes of Africa. No wonder, when my friend, Kamu, goes there, he gets back to Finland and is taken directly into the hospital. Kamu is presently in Zambia!)

Such a human being as dr. Ashok is so rare in this Universe. I hope and pray that God preserves him as the people of Dharvi need him more than anything else.

Thank you Dr. Ashok. We are humbled by your visit to us.

A rude awakening....

Annikki went to her Seventh Day Adventist Church in Byculla.

I had about an hour to spare. I decided to visit the grave of my elder sister, Nalini, something I had not been to see since the gravestone was laid there in early 1961.

My taxi driver found the cemetery after asking around a bit. The cemetery office was well managed and run. The office was open. The officers quickly found the location of Nalini's grave on paper. But when the guy took me out, could not find the grave.

We returned to the office to recheck. First, he told me that probably the plot may have been purchased, suggesting that someone else may have been buried over her grave. Then he said that no tombstone had been laid.

I assured him that I was there when she was buried and also I had been there when the tombstone was laid.

He then handed me over to another cemetery worker,. This gentleman took me to another part of the cemetery - just 10 metres from the office. At first, he too could not locate the grave. But suddenly, I recognised the large tombstone my parents had laid for their daughter, my sister.

As I stood in silence, something that had never struck me before, hit me right between the eyes - Nalini had been just 23 when she had died, not even in the prime of her adult life.

I wept at this thought as I had always considered Nalini as my elder sister, the mature one, the old one. And she had always been that to me.

To think that here was I, at an age of 66, looking down at my sister's grave some 49 years after her passing. It was a shock to me just to think she had been just 23 years old when she had left us.

I remember much talk in our home that she would soon be too old to get married. The rush had been on to find her a husband.

And what tragedy had followed.

As the marble grave was raised, almost to knee height on a granite slab, it was not dirty of filthy like many around it at ground level. I thanked my parents for their foresight, something which had not been given by my siblings when they planned the graves of my parents.

Is it a life of coincidences?

Yesterday, I had an email from someone in the USA asking whether I could recall an M. Varghese who had studied and finished from Bishop Cotton’s School in Bangalore in 1956. As I had left when I had completed the IVth Standard in 1953, I did not recall that name.

I replied to the gentleman that maybe he could contact Aditya Sondhi, the school historian (in my eyes), or my cousin, Anand Matthan, who had finished school in 1955. Or, maybe he was thinking of my cousin Varghese Matthan, who would have completed school in 1956 had he not left to join Madras Christian College School in 1952.

In passing, I asked the Old Cottonian whether he was any relation to the fabulous cricketer of that time who used to play for the school. I had watched him many a time, sitting on the stone parapet around the school ground, plucking and eating the fresh bamboo sprouts that lined the first eleven pitch.

I quickly had a reply from him, thanking me for my efforts and that Aditya had provided him with loads of material. Further, he was indeed the cricketer that I was thinking about. And his father had been a friend of my father.

Further, he added, that was I not the same person who lived opposite St. Joseph's College Hostel and who had a quiet shy sister, Nalini, who, obviously had been the heartthrob for many of the St. Josephites - and he listed a few of them to me.

He was thinking that as he had lived just around the corner from where I had, maybe we had played tennis ball cricket together. We did have a team but I do not recall this outstanding young cricketer of our time sharing the field with the likes of me and our rag-a-muffin cricketing friends!

In passing he paid me a nice compliment which I will treasure. He wrote:

You are a Renaissance type of an individual ( passion, vision, empathy & creativity ) & continue your quest of keeping us informed.

Sadly, I am not a blogger about Cottonians as I was there too short a time to write about for 10 to 15 years nostalgically. I do wish there was someone doing just that!

It is indeed a very small world . As I am having a bit of a discussion on Facebook with some Home Educationists, I wondered how all this would fit in with their thinking of isolating the children from the real world of childhood, daily interaction with many tens of children, and the most important cry of our Mumbai School "School First, House Next, Self Last".

But that is another subject that maybe I will take up later.

Suffice to say that when I returned back to the Guest House, my thoughts were on my sister, a shy pretty girl, married at the age of 22 (because many thought otherwise she would be too old to get married), childbirth at 23 and followed by her tragic demise 15 days later of tetanus. Thoughts kept flooding back to my mind and I wondered what a difference life would have been if she had been around.

Finally, in passing, as nostalgia is on my mind. I thought I would share with you a photograph of my family dating back to the early 1980s.



Much water has passed under this bridge!

What a week that was

Twelve years of concentrated effort, whittled down to three years of intense effort and we had one of the best reunions that I can remember, taking all classes in our school into consideration. (I have been helping several classes to organise their reunions.)

The credit goes to the entire Mumbai crew, headed by Capt. Shivi and Piloo. Let us make no mistake about that.

Without their perseverance, persuasion and immaculate planning, it would not have been possible. Many credit me with the success. I refute that completely.

What Annikki and I did was enjoy ourselves connecting people who desperately wanted to be connected. Now they have established their connections, they can continue with this way or they can use the direct channels.

So, as was suggested by some, we can the of our Google Group to do something worthwhile for our communities. I will, over the next few weeks, try to highlight some of the important projects that could merit our support. Some are being done by members of our Google Group, others by members of our School or College, and yet others by persons not connected to either but friends who need to be supported in their efforts.

After the Tuesday Parsee dinner, both Annikki and I suffered total burnout. I managed to meet a young boy, my cousin's son, Aanad Katakam, and have lunch with him on the Wednesday. This youngster is so fascinating and so alive, it brought back much of the youth in me. He is interested in everything . T is the sign of greatness. He could talk to a 66 year old with such confidence and be interested in what I had to say. A mark of the greatness that lies ahead of him.

On Thursday, I went to Chembur to meet Abhijit, who had done the catering and decoration for "The Evening with the Findians". I thanked him for the wonderful flavour he brought into our lives. But on the way there and back i was virtually gassed out of existence. The pollution in Mumbai is so overpowering, I really wonder how one can live in this. Coming from a country where the air is clean and fresh, 365 days a year, this sort of throttled me to a stop. I got home and slept from around midday till the next morning.

Friday I was still tottering, but I stayed away from food and tried to stay close to home, but I had to meet Malathi halfway. She came in from Powai and I went to Bandra Gymkhanna. We spent a couple of hours talking about the past and the future.

While at the Gymkhanna I watched the kids on the tennis courts in what was a coaching session. How different coaching sessions here are compared to in Finland. In Finland, the first emphasis is on physical fitness followed by increase of flexibility and mobility. Then comes a more focused training in the sport of interest. So jogging, muscle activation, etc. are the key aspects of a training session. Hitting the ball would be the last stage of the process.

In a one hour training session, the first 10 minutes is the warm up, the next 15 minutes is the physical fitness part of the training, the next 2o minutes would be the training in the sport, the next 10 minutes would be fun time, and the final 5 minutes would be the warm down.

Maybe I should see some more training sessions before I make generalised comments about training in India vis-a-vis Finland.

I feel well enough to venture out today, so stay tuned for more from the blog.

On to the last day of the 59er Golden Reunion

(Special note: Let there be no mistake, but most of the good pictures I am uploading are by our photography ace - 59er Hasnain Chinwala (Chinnie). It is not any of my expertise. A couple of others have sent me photographs as 64er Rajiv Ved. That is why my blogs remain popular as the inputs are from across the board of my readers. A special thanks to them as they are my co-authors!)

The staff who joined us. Willie planned to be here for our reunion
3 years ahead of the date! John planned his trip to coincide with this.

17th November, and the last day of the Golden Reunion was ahead of me. Chinnie sent me this picture.


Some of the stragglers of the group at Alibaugh at Madhu Kapur's home.

A beautiful picture through Hasnain's camera, taken by the professional cameraman on the spot, of some of those who had stayed on late afternoon at Madhu's home. This scene has brought tears to Annikki and my eyes. Meera, Vijay's wife, brought in Mika for this photograph and he had joined us, willingly.

On the morning of the 17th, I had agreed to meet a childhood friend, Ravi Arapurakal, formerly known as Ravi Abraham. (Thanks to 59er Geeta for putting us in touch.)

We had not met for 51 years. We had played "Cowboys and Indians" and "bang bang" in the compound of the Meher Mansion building (Cooperage Road) as kids and more sedate gamesin his home opposite Dhanraj Mahal, a building I believe which caught fire and has never been rebuilt.

Ravi came over to the Malayala Manorama Guest House. It was just like yesterday as we caught up on our past years. We talked non-stop as we probed each other for the most important events in our lives - our work, our marriages, our children and our roots. Although we are not related, we found that our association by marriage had become stronger over the years, although I had not been aware of it. My nephew, Joseph, son of my cousin, Somakochamma (Mrs. G. K. O. Philips) was married to the daughter of Ravi's sister-in-law. (I hope I have got this right, as we did go through a lot of relationships.)

As Annikki had had a late breakfast, and the delicious Parsi dinner was not far away, Ravi and I adjourned to the Chinese Restaurant in Kemps Corner. I devoured my favourite, a large dish of noodle soup, while Ravi had his favourites, including Chilli Chicken.

Two hours passed by as if it was just 20 minutes. I was to have renewed this old friendship. Ravi is in a fascinating area of work, and hopefully I will be able to use what he taught me in those few hours to make my life better. Thank you Ravi.

Back to the house.

By 20:30 we were at Piloo's mansion for what was the last event of our reunion. A few had left - Viney for Papua New Guinea, Vijay for Delhi, Noel for Pune, but the major lot of my classmates were still there for this event hosted by Piloo, Armeane and his wife Mary and by Adi and Ratan. It was a sit down dinner to be served on banana leaves and it was being prepared by the best Parsi caterer in Mumbai.

I had several soft drinks - Lychee Juice, Orange Juice, Sprites, while some of our friends stayed on course with the hard stuff. Many did not, and the evening was filled with our merriment, not in the least bit alcohol induced.

There was an air of sadness about us as we all knew that in a few hours we would all be going our separate ways. Friendships had been recemented and new ones forged, especially between the girls and boys and among the spouses.

Shivi gave the final farewell toast which I reproduce below:

Good evening.

I will take the suggestion of George Burns who said -- "The secret of a good speech is a good beginning and a good ending and to make the two as close together as possible!"

It is impossible to single out any one person for making our Golden Reunion a Reality and such a great Success. We owe it to each and everyone of you present or not, to your spouses and to your indomitable Cathedral Class of 59 spirit --- May it Rip, May it Thunder!

We have set a huge precedent by our Mother of ALL Reunions -- A Class Act! On your behalf I would like to thank our hosts for the many spectacular events. They came forward spontaneously and generously to make each one unique & a thumping success!

Could we ever forget ---

The curtain raiser cocktail dinner by Ooky Elias & Rivca and Viney and Poornima Sethi, held at the Bombay Gymkhana? Despite rain and cyclone warnings they set the pace by their warmth for the events to follow.

The Elvis Theme dinner-dance creatively set up by Meera and Vijay Nayar which set us rocking under the stars?

The Findian Evening, a treat of delectable south indian dishes by Annikki and Jacob Matthan?

The Founders' Day Church Service so dignified and beautifully orchestrated by our School which was a poignant reminder of our youth?

The Alibaug cocktail lunch at the state of art Kapur Bungalow, perched atop a hill overlooking the whole of Alibaug, which was inaugurated in our honour and in our presence by Madhu Kapur?

The regal Ruia House set in the middle of gardens and fountains where Ashok, Anil & Amla Ruia regaled us with music, games & an amazing 48 varieties of veggie dishes at their dinner?

And finally this fabulous 'Seaside' setting for our grand finale sit down dinner by Piloo, Armeane & Mary Choksey?

In the years to come, we will, I am sure, recall with the greatest pleasure these wonderful moments which took our breath away! Could you please raise your glasses and toast them!

Thank you."

Ooky was more direct in singling out a few others and focusing on me in particular as the one who had brought everyone together by my perseverence, and Shivi and Piloo for keeping this reunion focused and of a quality which will never be matched.

I had to respond to tell the assembled gathering, that although I was the conduit to this reunion, many others, like Hasnain Chinwala, Percy & Frainy Mistri, Viney and Purnima, and many others from other classes had helped with their inputs.

A delicious dinner, which was everything traditional Parsi, with some really wonderful vegetarian dishes to boot. The chicken and fish dishes were just as I had always known them, showing me that the quality of Parsi traditions had been preserved over the last 50 years.

I was greatly saddened that Mary, Armeane's wife, was indisposed and not able to be thanked by us personally for her participation and her hosting of this event.

Many of those who had not sent in material for our book, now seeing that they would be the losers, had rushed home and prepared short write ups and also come armed with photographs. Thanks guys and gals - you know who you are! :-)

And then it was time to leave (as described by Annikki) this paliatial Tata home in the centre of Mumbai, (much like the two palaces at Alibaug) and return to our little "mouse holes" with beautiful memories to take back to our cubicles.

Before I left, I talked with Amla Ruia about the wonderful work she was doing with the villagers. She was ready to ring her local representative in Rajasthan, then and there, at midnight, to allow me to see the work. But the better counsel of her husband, Ashok, prevailed . She promised to be in touch with me in the morning.

Sure enough by 07:30 am I received a text message from her with the phone number of her manager, Bhupendra. Amla had already spoken to him before I could ring.

I am excited that I will see earth shattering work that Amla has performed in Rajasthan. I hope I can spread the message after witnessing it myself what success she has achieved and show her passion and commitment to her cause, which is also my cause, even though I am 7000 km away. If we do not act, and act quickly, there will be a continuing of the chaos and the demise of all around us.

I went to bed that night, happy with the achievements from my work of the last 14 years which had culminated in 7 nights of sheer joy. I slept well knowing that I had a lot on my plate during the next few days before I left for Ahmedabad. It was work I would enjoy doing.

Thank you 59ers for all the joy you have brought to our lives. I rested in peace, knowing that my dear friend, the late 59er Bala Parasuraman, would have enjoyed this and I would record this success in his name.

A day without excitement

On Monday, after a brunch at 59er Viney and 61er Purnima Sethi's place, we set out for Mumbai at around 11 am. When we approached Panvel, I got the shock of my life as this one restaurant wayside village was now a high rise city with the new International Mumbai Airport being constructed at its perimeter.

In the 1970, Thomas Abraham of Southern Investments and also head of the SI Construction company had written a fascinating book about how the cities should be planned. He had created a financially self generating model and also looked at the structure of the city in relation to the different age groups that would inhabit a growing metropolis. Based on this, we had prepared a joint paper called "Rural Urbanisation" which took into account maximisation of the use of the resources and the economics of such a venture.

After the seed capital, Abraham's model was that urbanisation would be financially self generating. But the structure of the development HAD to be controlled.

In today's context only the worst of Abraham's model is in place in that it is self financing but the growth is unplanned and the new metropolises are slums even before the first building is set up.

The skyline at Panvel is proof of this.

We managed to get into Mumbai without too much hassle as the driver knew the routes where the traffic was minimal.

After a rest, I went to see Cathedralite 56er, Shyam Chainani, Honary Secretary of the Bombay Environmental Action Group. It was fascinating to see him work in his childhood home (where his father Chief Justice Chainani had lived) which he has converted into his office hub. He is inundated with material and he is working on several fronts. I wished I could help him as all the causes he is working for are noble ones, but it requires physical presence in Mumbai, or India, to be of service to Shyam.

If any of you are action oriented, please do meet up with Shyam and do what needs to be done. India, and especially the larger cities in India will surely collapse under this unrestricted and unplanned growth now in progress. Already, Bangalore, as a city, is grinding to a halt while all those software engineers sit in their ivory towers oblivious of how they are the one's responsible for this chaos. While their bosses rake in the money, these youngsters labour under the illusion that they are contributing to India's growth, little realising that each one of them is part of the problem.

Dinner, that evening, was with one of my dearest of friends, 56er Ubi and his wife, Bubbles. Also present were 49er Yezad Kapadia from Delhi and his brother, 56er Sorab and his wife. 56er Meena and her husband, Vikram Bhatt, 59ers Harmo, Hasnain, and Shivi and his 61er wife, Suchita, were also part of the guests along with Ubi's youngest sister, Dimple.

It was an interesting evening where all topics under the sun concerning our Alma mater were discussed threadbare. Annikki and I came out "educated" by our peers.

We all agreed that the present Alumni Dinner on Founders' Day has to be changed in format if it is going to be an event worth attending. If it retains its present format with no structure and 750+ attendees, no purpose will be achieved. I certainly would not like to take part in chaos!

Monday was, therefore, a day of relaxation and wonderful food dished up by Ubi and Bubbles.

Politician or bureaucrat

In an article which appeared in Emirates Business, my former Stephanian colleague, Mani Shanker Aiyar, says that "bureaucrats make very poor politicians".

May I disagree and say that "bureaucrats make very dangerous politicians" as would be the example of Matti Ahtisaari, former President of Finland, who bureaucratically engineered his whole political career and after with the grip of a bureaucrat.

Ahtisaari travelled the world at his taxpayers expense, working to one goal. He then weedled his way to a Nobel Prize. He is now scheming to get one of the top European posts, President or Prime Minister.

I say "Beware of a bureaucrat with political ambitions!"

A sabbath day

First, I must share with you the picture taken by Hasnain at the Church of those 59ers who came ON TIME for the photo session.



Annikki will get very angry with the title, as to her the only Sabbath is Saturday! However, I am using it metaphorically, as I could not blog on Sunday because at Alibagh i did not have access to internet.

Mika, Annikki and I chose to go by car. For Mika to step onto the ferry would have been very difficult. We left at 08:30 and reached Alibagh at 11:15, well ahead of the guys and gals on the ferry. We went to Viney's place, where he and Purnima had moved his mother and sister to town to allow us to stay in their home.

Annikki and I fell in love with their home.

Our first event of Sunday was at the home of Madhu Kapur. What a heavenly place, so futuristic that only our Ashok could have dreamt of a house like this one. All our thoughts were of our dearest friend. All of us could feel his presence amongst us.



The infinity pool had my hair standing on end. The bathtub on the verandah in the bedroom was outrageous! The snacks and the food were simply ravishing. It was great to meet Ashok's daughter and her husband and Ashok's son and his wife.

Madhu was a perfect hostess, aided by Suchita and Shivi and Ashok's two children and their spouses. They had all struggled to get the place ready for our get together.

We especially remembered Pamela in London who was celebrating her birthday on this day.

After the lunch and a short rest, we went to the Sai Inn Resort, where many of our colleagues were staying. We had a session where everyone had a chance of introducing themselves. Some of the info was fascinating. How I wished people had sent in this info to Annikki to include in the Coffee Table Book.

Back home to change and then to the Ruia's place for our second major Alibagh event. Another outstandingly beautiful home and beautiful garden, with a lovely lawn and an open air dance floor.

Amla, Ashok and Anil, had done everything themselves along with their team of helpers. All in house! My thoughts here went out especially to Anil, who must have been wishing that his dearly beloved, Madhu, could have been with us.

I saw Amla individually supervise every small detail. What a lady. All the time, even under the greatest of pressure, she looked as cool as a cucumber. She reminded me so much of my late mother, who, even when the world was crumbling around her, would never get flustered. Ashok has been blessed with a wonderful partner.

The evening was great entertainment and fantastic food. Each snack and dish was labelled after a participant - a very novel idea - but just imagine - over 50 different dishes.

The atmosphere was unique as a special Master of Ceremonies kept the evening buzzing with games and music. Ashok had organised for everyone to have their photograph taken and a framed copy with the event to be prepared on the spot.

Jangoo gets a head massage while Robert waits his turn
and Armeane is getting in line!

There was a massage room where many were able to enjoy a foot or head massage by experts. What organisation! No wonder Phoenix High Street is such a success!

The new house and garden are a spectacle. There is a meditation room for as many as a thousand people. A garden unique in itself. Beauty unsurpassed, as we imagined how wonderful this would be when it was completed.

After a superb vegetarian meal followed by a sheaf of deserts, it was sadly time to draw things to a close. We returned, all, to our respective places for the night and ready for another day of comradeship.

What glorious reunion it has been, and one hoped that it would never end.

Alumni Dinner

Apologies - Several of you wondered where my posts had gone after Day 2. By some quirk, they entries had gone into another of my blogs. I have shifted them back to my main blog, so go backwards to read everything after Day 2!!)

After our hasty retreat from the Church, we left home at around 20:45 to go to the Blue Sea on Worli Sea Face for the Alumni Dinner. (Just to tell you that 56er Ubi had brought me an Old Boys tie to wear at the Church. What a thoughtful gesture.)



The Blue Sea Event was a huge affair - with over 600 people attending. I was greeted by the Alumni co-President Viral Doshi who said that he had a present for me and that I should see him before I left.

Annikki was exhausted. I soon found a large round table. 59er David and wife, Jane, and Annikki and I sat down there. We found that this table had been reserved for us 59ers.

It was HOT under the canopy and within a few minutes I was consuming gallons of soft drinks.

People of all years were searching for me. I realised now how widespread my blog was being read. Knowing I was attending, alumni of all years were asking others if they knew me and whether I would meet up with them! Crazy!

Everyone wanted to call me for dinner or give me some present. 64er Rustom sent me a box of dried fruits. 69er Prakash sent me a hilarious "head scratcher" and a car seat briefcase hanger while he sent Annikki a beautiful pair of earrings. Annikki does not wear earrings but she knows what to do with what she got. 54er Sadhana had a key chain for me and gift vouchers for Annikki! A candle holder and candle from......, and so on. Thanks to all of you. But no more presents - Please? This blog is for our fun - not to promote myself!

I met 54ers Ravi Jaitly, Rolf Sonawalla. 54er MP Rahul Bajaj came to greet me. I chatted with 52er Yoku Hamied CEO of Cipla, 57er Shyam Chainani, the well known environmentalist and Roxanne Davur, who is running the Terra Anima Trust for Animal Welfare. I met 63er Ashok Adavani of Business India. 49er Yezad Kapadia was around and wanted to speak more at the Delhi get-together organised by the Delhi Chapter. All the 64ers who I had already met came to say hello and brought more friends.

Many were friends from the past. Many were my heros while at school. Yoku had left before I joined school, but he was active in the Kanga League and I used to go and see our Old Boys Team cricket play. I told both Yoku and Shyam of the wonderful work that they have been doing - one bringing the Indian Pharmaceutical business into the limelight internationally and the other for setting the tone for India in the environmental context. I am sure that Roxanne can do with all the help any of you can give her.

I met 69er Sheeba Eapen, younger sister of late 59er Jacob Eapen. Sheeba is a friend of my Italian contributor, 69er Barbara. Sheeba has promised me some photographs of our 59er and a short write up about him.

It was wonderful to meet up with 54er Zarine Aga and her husband Minoo. Zarine has become a dear friend.

As I wandered around I was stopped every few metres - I was greatly embarrassed by this as I could not respond with my usual "I know you" response. People talked to me about our late cat, my late mother-in-law, Annikki's snowmen and her cakes. People knew us intimately and I did not know them.

59er Farhana brought her son, also a Cathedralite, to meet me. What a wonderful youngster.

Madhu, Ashok's wife, to whom I had given one copy of our Class Directory told me that once she had reached home, she had read the whole book from cover to cover - a great tribute to Annikki and me from a good friend.

Annikki declined to have dinner. she was in great suffering. I made an attempt to eat the wonderful spread of food - but the heat made the food unappetising.

By now the sound in the hall had become unbearable. I wonder what it was like in the dance hall? I decided to call it a day as we had to set off early today by car for Alibaug.

Alumni co-President, Viral Doshi had a special gift for me.



This is the Alumni Tie which is being released for the 150th year celebration of the school. It is indeed a grand gesture and in return I gifted one copy of our 59ers Directory of our Golden Reunion to the Alumni.

They are planning a similar publication for the 150th year celebrations. The stakes have been raised and they have to come with a publication better than what we 59ers have turned out.

Our reunion, the 59ers, is certainly the Mother of All Reunions, the reputation of which will be further enhanced tomorrow when we proceed for a day of fun and games at Alibaug.'

Thank you Alumni for the signal honour -I love you all and I love to blog for you. Keep those emails coming, but do also let me have a photo, so that next time I can identify you and not be embarrassed that only you know me.

So by 10:30 we were in our taxi driving back to the Guest House. Both of us were exhausted, but i decided to complete the entry. Unfortunately some error was being generated, so i could not post this entry till the morning.

Stay tuned for more.

The wisdom of a High Court Judge!

The battle of the elite in St. Stephen's College continues. What a shameful example to set for the students.

Correctly, the High Court Judge hearing the battles asked all these so-called leaders to sit across the table and sort out their issues amicably.

Settle scores yourself: HC to St Stephen’s, Thampu

But childishness and power politics, pride and greed are at the forefront and the world watches the washing of dirty linen in public.

Shame on all of you!

Founders' Day Church Service

Even with the traffic rush, we managed to reach the Cathedral Church by 16:45.

Our Class photograph session was in progress. This year it was different from previous years where the sessions have been conducted in the school premises with chairs, banners, etc.

I do not know what photographs were taken, but no doubt they will reach me soon. I posed for many.

Then it was inside the church, where there were several rows reserved for us 59ers and we there in full force.

I have never attended a Founders' Day Service ever since I left school but have had many moving descriptions of it. It lived up to my expectations.

Principal Mrs. Merea Isaacs, in her welcome address did mention that previous staff had come from various parts of India, but no one had told her that William Shiri and his wife, Pushpa, had come all the way from Canada and Richard Clark from England. John Billington could not stay for the service, but had attended several of our 59er functions, and he too had come from England. Joe D'Souza in his frail condition, had come from Goa!

We 59ers did get a special mention in her speech as we were celebrating our Golden Reunion.

The Church Service was wonderful. It ended with the rip roaring shout that we as a school are famous for.

The exit from the church was slow and the blistering breathless heat was taking a toll on many. As I headed to the snacks section, Annikki decided that she could not stand the heat. So we left directly.

I will blog the next episode after the Alumni dinner dance at the Blue Sea on Worli Sea Face which starts in about half an hour. Knowing Mumbai time, will it be an hour or two away?

What is the mathematical chance of this?

Mumbai is an ENORMOUS City with thousands and thousands of taxis.

I have not been here for 10 years. I found Mumbai taxis to be cheap and efficient.

What are the chances that a taxi driver will pull up on the road, with passengers in the back seat, get out and greet you?

That happened this morning? I felt deeply touched by his actions.

Incredible India, but I have taken note of Ubi's warning - go only where you intend to go in a taxi, never take anything edible from a taxi driver .

Our REUNION Day

Yesterday, for Annikki and me, was a historic one. It was a day that we had worked for for 13 years, ever since I had heard of the passing away of my dear friend and classmate, the late Bala Parasuraman.

The day was one I took easily. 59er Geeta Simoes saw me sitting on the lawn in front of her home and shouted out for me to come in. I declined, so she sent out for water for me on a sweltering day. I was waiting for the decorators to arrive, but it was also time for me to silently contemplate what lay ahead. For over an hour I sat and thought about what I have been striving for, and that it was just a few hours away. The positives and the many negatives streamed through my thoughts. (Thank you Gita for giving us such a beautiful location to host our evening.)

The wonderful support and help of Malathi, over the many months of planning, were foremost in my mind. Even with her busy schedule at work, she was there to help me through these last hours. How can Annikki and I repay this wonderful lady, who through her own work (the way she cared for a young man with no arms and legs in Finland) and that of her husband, Ashok Khembhavi, "the Doctor of Dharavi" make me feel so inadequate?

I went and did some shopping soon after the decorators arrived. I then went home and took Annikki out shopping, just to get the event out of my mind. On our way back we stopped at the roof garden.

I was humbled at the ingenuity of Abhijit and his crew. The ground was too soft to take the load of the chairs. When you sat on one, it sank backwards into the ground and you would topple off. They had the brilliant idea of taking two short pieces of bamboo and tying them under the back legs, distributing the load and preventing the sinking and toppling.

Such genius can only be found in India - this Incredible India!

The florists and the electricians were busy at work. The place was taking a different shape. It was already 15:30 and I was nervous whether they would finish in time. The caterers had arrived and they too were busy.

We returned home. After a shower, I decided that I would not wear the traditional Kerala gear but the more North Indian one. I dressed and was at the site by 17:00 hours. I noted that a huge traffic snarl up was possibly going to occur.

The next couple of hours were hectic as I had to get my Mini Mac working and at the same time I had to answer hundreds of calls from people wanting to know a a multitude things. Abhijit's team were simply wonderful as they did not panic through each major hurdle, showing the experience and competence on every front of organizing an event of this magnitude.

By 18:30, the time I had chosen for us to begin, we were ready to receive the guests except for some things on which I depended on others. But they called and reassured me that they were on their way.

The three ladies who were our hostesses arrived. I took the first sip of our welcome drink - the Coconut Juice served in the Coconut Shell. It was a brilliant thought as it not only set the trend for the evening ahead but it also saved the caterer the job of cutting up all those coconuts and pouring out the juice into glasses! Thank you, Abhijit, for this stupendous idea.

The guests started arriving, slowly, all recounting that the traffic chaos in Mumbai and around was in a stalemate position. But I knew even the latecomers would be in time for the dinner!

Malathi brought me the mundu (dhoti) and I rushed into Geeta's apartment and changed. I looked somewhat like a Malayalee, but I am sure most Malayalees would have thought I was an insult - and I held up my mundu WITHOUT a belt!!

It is hard to say what was the best part of this event, as I enjoyed every minute of it. When I released the book, the Coffee Table publication that Annikki and I had strived to be a fore-runner for other reunions, I was tongue tied for several minutes. My usually nonchalant extempore approach failed me. Several times I had to resort to looking at my notes.

The music of Sibelius and the video clips from Finland through all the seasons, showing the wonderful country that Annikki and I have lived in for 25 years played in the background. I did not let it superimpose itself on the event, as that was not the reason that these people were here. They were here to meet and talk to others.

Slowly the tables were filled and the noise of the chatter was like happy music to me.

The food was served and the very mention of freshly cooked appams had everyone on their feet. Even the late arrivals did not spend much time at the bar - the food was of a quality that matched that of our maestro from Kottayam, the 75 year old wizard, Vasu.

The outstanding preparation was the Pineapple Pachadi, a creation of Abhijit, but it was not the only dish that drew comments from the gathering. They simply loved the food and every single person who attended came up to both Annikki and me and thanked us for opening up the splendour of the Kerala cuisine. (When I had gone to the tasting session where Abhijit had preparaed a spread of over 30 items, the mouthwatering Prawn Starter and the Pineapple Pachidi stood out by a mile, both original creations of Abhijit - and they proved to be the hits of the evening. My intuition and Abhijit did not fail me!)

My heart and soul thanked Malathi and Abhijit and their staff for what was a culinary delight in a surroundings of fairy and Chinese lights, a memory that Annikki and I will treasure all our lives.

I am sorry I cannot post any pictures, as being the host I did not have time to be behind my camera lens. But it has been recorded for posterity on the Class DVD and I did note that my eyes to the world, Hasnain, was busy behind his lens! Chinnie, what would I do without you?

Slowly, as planned, we drew the event to a close by 23:00 hours.

I missed all my classmates who had not been able to attend. I missed all my friends who had not been able to come. I missed my relatives who also had not been able to come. That was my failure.

As Malathi, Annikki and I sat down after the event when all our friends had left, we agreed that 90% of our objectives had been achieved - and both of them were happy. I was sad. Above all, I missed my dearest of friends, Ashok Kapur, and my greatest mentor, 56er Harminder Uberoi (Ubi) who had fallen ill and could not attend.

Friendships have been cemented. Long lost friends found, and new friendships made. Names on the internet have become faces to remember. They are now live persons with whom I can now relate as human beings and not as persons@anywhere.com!

Above all, I would like to thank my three cousin brothers, Rajen, Thambi and Chacko, who have made this trip to India a reality beyond all our dreams. Without them behind me, their tremendous love and care for Annikki and me, all this would have remained just a dream. They way they have taken all their publications to be brand leaders in their categories - the Malayala Manorama, The WEEK, Vanitha, Balrama, the Manorama Year Book, just shows the power of positive thinking and the power of love and affection. Annikki and I owe them an immense gratitude for whatever they have done for us.

But above all, thank you, everyone who attended, for a wonderful evening.

Now the stage is set for the Founders’ Day Church Service and the Alumni dinner. (I still have to buy a tie. Ubi has warned me not to go where taxi drivers take me - my foolishness.!!!)

Reunion Day Two is over - i am feeling deflated already!

Today I wanted to get a coat for the Founder’s day Service and the photographs. i went to Colaba Causeway in the morning to my old tailor in Rajsi and found that they no longer had a tailor. On to Grand Bazaar and I found that was now a Reebok shop.

I went to a Raymond's shop and they did not have my size.

I was walking down the street thinking where I should go, and I remembered that my mom used to take me somewhere in Crawford Market for my school blazers - yes, blazers in plural, as I kept growing out of my old ones. I saw a taxi driver across the street staring at me as if he had seen a ghost!

As his car was pointing in the right direction I went over and got in. This guy was convinced that I was Amitabh Bachan. He was from Benares and spoke a beautiful poetic Hindi, but his fixation about me being someone had him transfixed.

I asked him to go to Crawford Market. Sure enough he took me there, talking non-stop about “my” films.

When I told him I wanted to buy a coat, he told me he would take me to Dadar, which he said was the “home of coats”.

En route, he told me great stories about Kalidas and Tulsidas, stopping to get a pan for himself on the way. I declined his kind offer.

We were soon in Dadar in front of a shop which sold the most exquisitely designed coats, with gold sequins, many Bollywood Style. My taxi driver was sure I would come out wearing a stunner.

The shop owner was quite disappointed when I told him I wanted a blazer type coat. He produced one and it was too short. Then a colleague said that they had two large ones somewhere and came across to help. After rummaging through the shelves they found two black coats, and sure enough they fitted. One was labelled Rs. 3000 and he offered it to me at Rs. 2000. The second one was Rs. 3500 and he offered it to me at Rs. 2500. I had tried on a similar style one in Raymond's and it had been labeled at Rs. 10000.

I bought it without hesitation and decided to head back home, having accomplished my days work. I had more stories and poetry on the way. I was glad to pay this guy Rs. 300 for an couple of hours if great enjoyment and ego boosting. I think he remained convinced that I was Amitabh in mufti, even as he sped off!

Oh, I forgot to mention that Gita rang earlier to tell me that the green grass lawn was bone dry and fit for our party on Friday evening. I activated all mechanisms to get the place ready.

I rested in the afternoon (after a Chicken Biriyani delivered to our residence) and was ready to go our most favourite childhood haunt - St. Jame’s Court, well ahead of time. But as the caretaker of the Guest House had taken his grandchild to the doctor we had to wait till 9 pm before we could leave.

We arrived at the same time as Rivca and Ooky, and as we were walking into the building we saw ELVIS. Togged up and standing at the lift was someone in an amazing Elvis white outfit. We got the shock of our lives - but I quickly recovered as under all the dressing I saw Vikram Savara. It was hilarious.

Rivca, annikki and I went up. As soon as I got to the top floor I alerted the cameramen. The entry of Vicky Elvis was recorded for posterity.

The evening was simply wonderful. Booze flowed freely and I had several Sprites. This evening I focused on my friends from abroad - Arvind, Armeane, David, Hasnain, Peter, Vicky and some old timers who did not quite know everyone there, as Inderjeet.

We had two other Elvis dressers - Shivi and Percy, and both looked great. It was fun to see all of them move on the dance floor, despite the age. Naubir was swift on the floor as well as he twirled our Elvisphile, Piloo. Ketty, who had told me the night before that she was a secret elvis fan, did not take to the floor.

I did not see a under the legs slide attempted. I am sure no one was fit enough or young enough for that type of antics! It was a little strange to see our 59er "Elvis" sitting quietly. He was missing his better half, Purnima, who was not there as she was tending her mother.

It was simply amazing to see our 59er crowd still enjoying themselves in our childlike ways, as it brought home many many memories of our school socials. Piloo recalled the game we had played at a party in my Meher Mansion home. When the music stopped, the newspaper we were dancing on had to be folded in half. Wow! (I wonder who won?)

The "Evening under the Stars" was a 5-star event. The view from Vijay’s place over Marine Drive was simply breathtaking. Unfortunately, my little Cannon was unable to get a good picture of that sight. It looked as if this terrace roof was sitting atop a golden necklace.

Before we knew it, dinner was served inside. It was a simply grand meal. The desserts were great - hot jileebis, rasmalai, cheese cake and blueberry cake. I had much more than I should have.

And after a wonderful evening, it was soon time to go home.

Today is our party. I am in for some tough work all day as I try to get the occasion set in the mood we want. If you are attending, do not be late - 19:30, as the occasion has a different flavour to what you have experienced in the previous two days. The location has not been changed.

The REUNION continues and it is an experience that all of us seem to be enjoying. I hope it is so! But I am already thinking that soon it will end. I am feeling terrible that I will soon part company with so many wonderful people that I love so much. Deflation has commenced!

The REUNON has begun

The cyclone warning in Mumbai after a continuous unseasonal downpour had us all in a tailspin(I do not know the nautical term for this!). But Captain Vijay Shivdasani kept the course of our boat steady, calming many nerves. He has been a wonderful Captain to serve under (A Captain is senior to a Commander!)

I set of early morning to get hold of Gita Simoes as I had to get some papers from her. That done, it was off to Colaba Causeway to meet the boss of Leopold, who is almost the same age as us (65) and was also a kid on Colaba Causeway when we used to listen to the jukebox in the cafe! I had a cup of tea, there, exchanged a few pleasantries with the owner, when he told me the jukebox had been removed in 1964.

Then to the CCI where I met Malathi and her colleague, and then tea with 64ers Rajiv Ved and Deepak Deshpande and their staff member, Richard Smith. Richard had not been there when we 59ers were there.

They asked me to bring the staff members attending our reunion to theirs, which I promised to do.

Then to the school to pay my respects to the Principal, Mrs. Meera Isaacs. She was on the steps of the school entrance seeing an orderly dispatch of the students home as the cyclone warning had meant closure of all schools, colleges and government establishments in Mumbai. I was surprised she knew of me when I introduced myself! We exchanged a few pleasantries and I was quickly off after inviting her to the "Evening with the Findians". She was courteous enough to ask me join her for a cup of tea, but I knew she was busy.

I walked in the rain to Akbarally's and bought myself an umbrella. Then to a Xerox centre to try and print something. Total failure and on top of that I left behind my new umbrella. Dementia has set in!!

Home to have lunch with Annikki and Mika, a rest and then get ready for our do. I got Annikki the medicines for her bronchitis and sinusitus, en route, prescribed by Ashok Khembhai, the selfless doctor of Dharavi!

The cyclone warning was still showing on TV with all people advised to stay at home after 5 pm. But our Captain knew better as he already had info that the cyclone had DIED!!!

Annikki and I reached the Middle School already by 18:05 for the "Breaking of Ice" to find Rivca Elias, Suchita Shivdasani and Jangoo Moos there. We pitched in to help. Got the silver memento, the much discussed keychain. It is beautiful. Changed my name tag from Jacob to "Dead Chicken".

The others started to roll in and the atmosphere was electric. What a wonderful feeling as we hugged each other. In a short time the gym was humming with a noise level of several decibels. The Reunion had begun and everyone knew that now it was for real. My concern - Would they GEL? I did not have to wait long for the answer - they did! The samosas were forgotten as the people spent time talking rather than eating. I had two samosas. Great.

From the Canada, US, England, Mauritius - and of course Finland. But we knew that from Australia, Germany, Canada, US, UK, Israel, people were with us in spirit, as was evident from the three typical messages that Shivi read out. Thank you Sigrun, Mark, Narsys, Sudhir for your wonderful words, which were shared with those assembled.

I was surprised to hear that over the years there had been 4952 messages exchanged by email between our classmates, but Shivi has had many many more! (GREATEST OFFENDER IS ME!)

David had some wonderful photographs from the past - Oh, I would like to get my hands on some of them. David was so thoughtful that he had brought me a book in which my dad is mentioned. Thank you David.

Several seemed to believe that I was instrumental in making this reunion happen. All my protestations were ignored - so I decided to keep quiet till I had MY opportunity to speak at our event.

As promised, with the help of Vijay Nayar's car, I quickly sped William Shiri and his wife, Pushpa, and John Billington, to the reunion of the 64ers at the Royal Yatch Club. There I met Mr. J. P. D.Souza and his wife and also the 64ers that had assembled. Billy Kapur and his wife were there and he promised to drop in at our evening function.

Despite much protestions, I whipped my care back to our reunion, hosted by Ooky and Rivca and Viney and Purnima, but not before they had had a wonderful time renewing contacts with another great batch of Cathedralites and also talking to another staff member many many miles away. Thank you Deepak, Rajiv, Rustom - you are doing a great job.

Back to the Bombay Gym where I noticed the usual Indian Purdah system had set in. The men at the drinks while the women sat in groups. I went from table to table, meeting many whom I did not know, especially the girls. I was just so happy to be there and meet many classmates that I had not known at school. I felt it was time to focus on those I had not had the opportunity to know in our younger days. I felt sad that I had not known them earlier. I loved them all.

But we missed many and tears were in my eyes when I met up with Madhu. She is so wonderful and brave. Everyone in our class loves her as much as we had and still love Ashok. His presence was amongst us as we laughed and joked.

My mind kept going back, not only to Bala Parasuraman, Dossu Pagdiwalla, Jaswsant Ghatge, Michael Colaco, Murli Balani, Pradeep Bhakle, Prem Goel, Virat Gidwani, Jacob Eapen, Flicky Shroff, who had not option and could not be with us, but the others who could have been here for some reason had not been able to make it. That was MY failure!

The food was excellent and I indulged in many gulab jamuuns, which I should not have. As I saw people leave, I was surprised they came to thank ME, also!?

I knew all of them were looking forward to today, where Vijay Nayar and his wife, Meera, will be our hosts.

Thank you Piloo and Vijay and Suchita, who have done such a stupendous job. Thank you ooky and Rivca and Viney and Purnima for the wonderful start to OUR Reunion.

We are going to have several more funfilled days ahead. Many surprises in store - so stay tuned.

PS: AS I look out of my window over the sea, the air is thick with cloud, but it is DRY. The green grass of the garden in front of me looks just perfect. I do hope Gita's roof garden grass is dry and strong, as that will make the best venue for Friday.

Taste of Mumbai

Woke up late yesterday morning so my blog posting was only after 8. I had a whole lot of things to do, so I made my list. Annikki was down with bronchitis and many other disorders caused by fatigue and heat.

After breakfast I set off to Colaba Causeway as I wanted a soft leather briefcase and to repair my hand held passport case. I used the city taxi and the fare was Rs. 70 (Euro 1). I cannot get onto a bus in Oulu for that price!

I then strolled down the street I knew so well and saw my many landmarks. I remembered the Saturday when I listened to Radio Ceylon, answered a question and ran full pelt down to Grand Bazaar to be the first in line for a Rs. 10 grand prize. I won and bought Rs. 9.50 worth of sweets and a plastic jar for my mother (before I had started to study plastics). My mom waß happy with the plastic container but not so happy with the sweets!

I went past my old Irani restaurant haunts which have now become famous for all the wrong reasons. Leopold used to be hang out for us Colabites as it served a great biriyani and also had a Juke Box which pumped out the hit songs of the fifties!

Memories flooded back but I was sad to see that many old shops as my favourite barber shop, Modern Hairdressing, was no more. The bus stand where I used to catch the bus to school, opposite Regal Cinema had been removed.

I went on to Trident where I was to have lunch with Mohamed Noorani. In 1964 Mohamed had been working at Bayer in Leverkusen, and although he was an expert in leather he was then working on Rubber Chemicals. He was assigned to look after me, and we have become fast friends from then. I had not seen him since 1984 and I was overjoyed at seeing him look so young and fit. Waiting in the restaurant was one of my dearest friends - Viney Sethi, whom I had introduced to Mohamed, and they had enjoyed a great relationship since.

The three of us joked and laughed through a very light lunch, as i was still full from the enormous meal I had had at Radisson the previous afternoon.

After lunch I strolled onto Marine Drive and went to the house of another old friend - Vijay Kumar. He used to be the Technical Director of the State Industries Corporation of Maharashtra when this state was the leading industrial state in the country. He was such an honest officer that he could not even buy a ticket to the cinema without thinking twice.

Then fortune struck him in the form of Dirubhai Ambani. Vijay became the advisor to that giant before he became a household name. He served Dirubhai faithfully and he was rewarded in many ways. Vijay, brilliant as he was and with a razorsharp mind, used to use me as a sounding board, and it is no small thing to say that many a Dirubhai venture in the field of Petrochemicals started with a conversation between Vijay and me.

It is a friendship which has stood the test of time, and even though difficult times fell on Vijay after he left Dirubhai (as he knew he would never fit in with the two sons), he was still smiling when I saw him today. He now has to spend Rs. 15 lakhs as his wife Veena is seriously ill and has to be flown in a private plane to Coimbatore to be treated.

Vijay will do anything in his power to look after his lifelong companion.

I heard news of Vijay’s two sons who had become part off our family.

Then it was time to go home and talk on the phone to my dear cousin, Susykochamma (Mrs. T. Thomas) daughter of the late Mr. K. M. Eapen (Eapachayan), my god father.

There is only one person who looks into the mirror and remembers me - that is Susykochamma. When I was born and the news arrived at their home in Bangalore, she was so excited she ran full pelt from the gate to the house to tell her father the news of my arrival into this world. She tripped and fell and injured her nose, but even so she yelled the news through her pain to her father.

That scar has remained till today.

Susykochamma was another one of my guardians while I was studying in Delhi. I loved to go to her place to be with her, although her husband was not a person I cared for much as he was too aggressive. Considering how aggressive I am, we had to disagree on almost everything.

I will not say much about him, known to us as Papachayan. I do not know whether I will meet him. I have not met him for over 30 years.

Susykochamma was not the joyous self that I had known her to be all her life. She seemed depressed and I discovered the many reasons for it. I too felt depressed talking to her and I have promised to myself i will go and see her and meet one of my dearest cousins, an elder sister to me.

It was then time to go to the Chembur Golf Club where the caterer for the Friday dinner had organised a tasting session. I left Warden Road at 18:00 hours, giving myself an hour and half to reach Chembur. It was an eventful journey in that although traffic continued to move, it moved at a snail’s place. At one stage I heard an ambulance wailing like a cat, behind our car. It was about three cars behind, but there was no way to get through, not that anyone would have given way. The cat wailing lasted for about an hour, all the time behind us. Then, when it came to side of our car, it had stopped the siren. I guessed the patient in that ambulance was no more and the emergency was now over.

I thought to myself how ridiculous all this was as I saw an ambulance rushing at snail’s pace in the other direction!

I reached the Club just after 20.20 for the tasting session. The taxi bill for the 20+ km was Rs. 280 (€ 4) which is what I pay for bus ride from my home to the City Centre in Oulu, 2.5 km away.

I will give you the delicious menu AFTER the dinner, but it is going to be wonderful with a couple of creations by the caterer himself. (As it was an air-cooled cab - it was 4 times the normal cab fare.)

I met with the decorators and Malathi, a Finnophile in Mumbai, and my organiser at this end, also joining for the final tasting session.

I went home in a normal cab and the bill was Rs. 70 - just € 1!!!!

I am set for another full day of things to be done before our reunion starts tomorrow at 18:45. I am excited, I have been 3waiting for this day for 12 long years - and the Mother of All Reunions is about to commence. Stay tuned folks.

PS: There was a tropical cyclone warning for Mumbai yesterday and a Police Alert last night. But I have trust in God that he will make the REUNION a total success! As I watch the sea out f my widow - it is quiet.

Last day in Chennai; On to Mumbai

Please accept my apologies - I mentioned Meyer Hillel as a girl - Here is Gracie's email:

Jacob,

Meyer Hillel

He was in my sister Vilma's Class, of 53. In fact, they were born in the same Hospital in Bombay as their Birthdays are in October.

It was a great sadness to hear of his Early Passing away in Israel where he lived and he was a famous Rabbi Spiritualist. He helped many people who were in bad health.

I hope that his sister, June, will write something about him, later.

I believe he was in Blue house. He was in Bombay for his 50th Re-union. I have not spoken to June yet as Mourning and prayers go on for 7 days.

Freddie Sopher was the brother of Solomon Sopher [who passed away many years ago as a result of Leukemia.] He studied to be a Dr like his Brother David in the J. J.Hospital in Bombay. Freddy is his elder Brother and was so well known in Bombay as he took care of the Bombay Jewish Synagogue and was in Fro men's Travel Book. To stop by and meet Freddy. He would take congregants to his home Friday and Saturday afternoon for Lunch and Dinner and Friday. All this for the Sabbath. A good man he was and A Big Heart.

He was a true Jewish Indian at heart. I am not sure what class he was in probably early Forties or late thirties. I still have to find out.

The same with Ruby Hayeem. Both Old Timers!

Ellis leave for Bombay tomorrow. I know he is VERY Excited about it.

Thinking of all of you.

Cheers

Gracie

53er Sen Philip was shocked to hear of Meyer's passing as he had spoken to him just a few weeks earlier. He had mentioned that he was sick, but not that ill.

My last day in Chennai was as hectic as the rest. I left home at 7 am to go to the Osler Diagnostic Clinic where I had had the Executive Check Up done 10 years earlier. It had changed slightly, but it is not like a train station as Apollo. I was the first patient and things moved quickly, but the doctors were late in arriving, so half way through I got blocked. However, once they got there, things continued till they told me I had to go and get something to eat to do another blood test.

I ate at Murgan's Idli Centre, which in Madras is as famous as MTR. The Idli, Masala Doasi and the complimentary Vada, were of superb quality. The place was clean and hygienic. I was served on the traditional banana leaf. So it is not a thing from the past as this restaurant has been using the leaf all the while.

I went back to the Clinic, and they then told me to come back an hour and a half later!

So I went home, packed and came back for the blood test. I had a meeting with the doctor who told me that physically I was in good shape, but he could not comment fully as the biochemistry results would only be with him in the evening. He promised that the results will be couriered to me in Mumbai and that I could ring him whenever I wanted.

We said farewell to Shashank and his wife, Shiri, and Shashank’s mother. Shahsank had made a compilation CD / DVD especially for me. Annikki and I are hoping to listen to it shortly.

Dr. Subramanyam had taken his daughter for a recording session and had said goodbye to Annikki. I am sure we will hear more of this young lady very soon.

We loaded the car and went to the book shop recommended by Abe - Odessy, in Adayar. Annikki found her slim book about Indian Butterflies!

On to Radisson for lunch and then to the airport.

We bade farewell to our driver Thirumeni, who had re-educated us about Chennai. A wonderful personality and extremely caring. A fund of knowledge considering his 28 years as a tourist taxi driver in Chennai.

The Mumbai flight was Air India crew but in an Indian Airlines marked plane. The service was much more streamlined and professional than the other Indian airlines we have flown in so far. And the soft drinks and dinner were free. Nothing to write home about, but still it was welcome to get a meal before we landed in Mumbai.

We had a new driver, Mahesh, us in Mumbai. He spoke Hindi and Marathi. He considered himself a refugee from Delhi, having settled here in Mumbai many years ago.

I dropped Annikki at the Malayala Manorama Guest House and got dropped at the Willingdon Club where the Cathedralite 64ers were having a session. I was welcomed like their family. The discussions were quite expressive at times. This was the first time I was personally meeting another year Group - and it proved to be quite an interesting evening.

Of course, a few of them did not know me, my blogs, my life in Finland nor my work as a social worker. How could they! Hopefully they will read our blogs and see that the actions speak louder than the words that Annikki and I put on the pages of our many blogs.

I was so happy to hear that many present are following these daily updates. I was also so glad to meet a fellow Mac User - I am an avid Mac User, like all Mac users!

It was so nice to meet all these who so far had only been images on my blog. A lovely crowd, and I was able to share a few words with all of them.

I promised to make an appearance at their reunion party on the 11th. It clashes with our own 59er party at the Bombay Gym, hosted by Viney and Ooky. However, they have managed to get Mr. J. P D'Souza and probably Mr. Jagdish Pande to attend, and I hope to have these two teachers can attend Annikki's and my get-together "An Evening with the Findians" on the 13th. Fingers crossed.

Mumbai is pleasant, but there were unseasonal showers late last night. Many of our reunion events are outdoors, so we have to keep our fingers crossed that dry weather prevails!

Today I have a few important people to meet from my pst life in Germany and Mumbai. Annikki can rest till the evening programme sets in. Brief you tomorrow - so till then, stay well.