Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai, Bombay, India Photo Blog

Col. Eric Joseph Simeon (Retd.), ex-Principal, passed away

Col. Eric Joseph Simeon (Retd.), ex-Principal, passed away in New Delhi earlier today, just past noon. He was 89.

May his soul Rest In Peace.

RIP John Paulose

Mr. John Paulose, teacher of Chemistry passed away during the early
hours of Friday May 4th, 2007 from a heart attack.

Our sincere condolences to his family and prayers that
his soul may rest in peace.

Farewell to Judah Gabbay

Our dear friend Judah Ronen Gubbay
passed away on Wed 13 March 2007, after
a long very courageous battle against
cancer.

There will be a prayer meeting for Judah in
the school quad on the 5th of April 2007
at 5.30 pm.

Bombay 1920s

Map of Bombay from 1920s showing Cathedral School,
Has anything changed in the map except for the names?

Ex Principal Col Simeon

Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007

Ex Principal Col. Simeon is in the ICU in a Poona hospital.
He is battling cancer and various other ailments.

Farewell to G.Bose

Date Fri, 23 Mar 2007

Mr Bose passed away today
morning of a heart attack.
He was 73 and was in
Bangalore at the time.

Cathedral from 1900s

Can you tell which direction is the front gate of Cathedral (or Siddharth College) or Chem lab?

3G Sings

From Juzar and Yaseen:
Subject: ICSE 84, 3G singing in Junior School.

Pratap, Nikhil, Vijit, Sudeep, Deven, Anup, Saradhi Rajan (Barham),
Bakhtiar, Preeti Gholap, Sarah Sloan, Shibani

Not seen here: Sarita Garware (Barham), Juzar, Anil, Rica Guedj, Ajay,
Preeti Yamdagni, Arnaz, Yaseen, Mandira, Preeti Kamlani.

This was the SLR once.

The Gym (3rd floor), 8B,9B (2nd floor), Library (1st floor).

11B on the ground floor

A photo of 8D from the cat reunion series.

Cathedral school song - play up school.

Cathedral & John Connon School Song.

Cathedral School Hymn

The same and not the same -- Cathderal stands alone at 6 Purshotamdas Thakurdas Marg in a hundred year old picture.

Cathedral School Prayer.

Top standing: Fareed Zakaria, Vinay Gupta, Sudip Ghosh, Rohan Dalal, Rajiv Nair, Madhu Uttamchandani; Row 2: ?,?,Vera Tata, Maya Sharma, ?,?,?,?; Sitting: Rajit Kapur, Ananhita Doongaji, John Lewis, Mr Simeon, Mrs Patruni, Judah Gabbay. 1982.

Nihal Mehta and Sudip Ghosh, titrating the rare salts, giving Rocky sleepless nights.

Pull of knowledge at Marine lines stadium during sports day sometimes in 1980s; Mrs Kochar, Mrs Eapen, Mrs Issacs, Mrs Vishnu, Mrs Sonia at tug of war.

Mr. Nepali cheering for Savage house at the Marine Lines Stadium on Sports day, sometime in the 1980s.

David Elisha, Cathedral, 1958-1984. 8-Oct-1984.

Cathedral 10A

Cathedral School 10A

Row 1: Madhavan Thirumalai, Judah Gabbay, Sudip Ghosh,
Row 2: Fareed Zakaria, Rangan Banerjee
Row 3: Dennis Shah, , Nihal Mehta, Mr. Majumdar, Vera Tata, Vikas Seth
Row 4: L2R:Mr. Chacko, Mr Vatcha, Mr Elisha, Mrs Kamat, Mrs Phillips, Mrs Nagorwalla,
Mrs Issacs, Mrs Vishnu, Mr. Wagh, Mr. Nepali, Mr. Paulose, Mrs Kapoor

Others .. add your own names in comments or email me.

Cathedral School 10B

Cathedral School 10B,

Row 1(top): Calvin Melanie, Fali Landana, Arjun Gupta, Manjit Singh,
Rajendra Arora, Rajiv Judge, Umesh Soni.

Row2: Rajiv Nair, Aman Malik, Homi Katgara, Mohsin, Rohit Mohindra, K.B.Unni, Sanjeev Khandelwal, ?, Hiten Shah, Sangam Pande;

Row3: Mohanjit Singh Malik, Deepa Punja, Sunder, Roma, Jogesh Motwani,
Molina Seth, Rita Chainani, Vikas Seth, Dinesh Melwani, Namrata Shahani,
Colette Austin, Khursheed Mama, Nanik Mulchandani, Arjun Erry?,
Puneet Agrawal, Vineeta, Rajesh Manachanda, Yamuna Siddique, Mr Majumdar;

Row 4, L2R: Mr Nepali, Mr Rao, Mr Krishnan, Mr Swami, Mrs Kamat,
Mrs Nagorwalla, Mrs Vishnu, Mr Paulose, Mrs Kapoor, Mr Wagh,
Mrs Poonose, Mr. Vatcha;

Comments welcome and/or send me email.

Cathedral School 10C

Cathedral School 10C,

Row 1: Sameer Parekh, Jamshid Lal, Mohet Lamba
Row 2: Rustom, George Abraham, Milind Gadekar,
Row 3: Vivek Kalra,
Row 4: L to R: Mr Sharma, Mr Patki, Mr Swami, Mrs Samuel, Mrs Kamat, Mrs Kapoor, Mrs Nagorwalla, Mrs Kochar, Mrs Phillips, Mrs Poonose, Mr. Lobo

Anonymous said...
Row 1:Samir Parekh, Rohan Dalal, Rajan Rajgopal,
Sanjay Dalal, Jamshid Lal, Rahul Subberwal.
Row 2: Russa Mehta, George Abraham, Porus Kaka,
Milind Gadekar, Shirish Agarwal.
Row 3: Reena Kewalramani, Samira Mistry, Anuradha Bose,
Sheila Kunj, Malavika Munshi, Sharmila Sen, Sumati Rajan,
Archana Mallik, Smeeta Vaswani, Preeti Vohra.

Others .. add your own names in comments or email me.

Cathedral School 10D

Cathedral School 10D.

Row 1: Vishak Das, Firdaus Dodhi, Lamba?
Row 2: Rohan Kailasam, Amit Ahuja,
Row 3: Rebecca Harrison, Sandra Wise, Nirmala Swami
Row 4: L2R: Mr. Lewis, Mr Patki, Mr Elisha, Mr Sharma, Mrs Kamat, Mrs Issacs, Mr. Chakko, Mrs. Kapoor, Mr. Pande, Mrs Samuel, Mr. Lobo.

Others .. add your own names in comments or email me.

Senior School, the back door is now permanently locked.
Too bad I don't have pictures from the 80s.

Cathedral Class Reunion coming up in Mumbai

Click to join CathedralClassof80
>>Date: July 27, 2005 1:54:56 AM PDT
>>Subject: class reunion
>>
>> Hi
>> We are planning a class reunion at the end of the year and would
>> appreciate your help to get the email id s of as many of our batch
>> mates as possible.
>> Could you pl send me the ones you have at the earliest.
>> and please keep the 16th and 17th of December free.
>>
>> Maya Koregaokar Arora
> Ketan D. Kothari
> AlphaSmart

Missing in the list are Rajiv Judge and Fali Landana.

> Abhijeet.Mankar aniabhi_at_att_net
> Ajay.Marwah.Narula ajaymarwah64_at_gmail_com
> Aman.Malik amanmalik63_at_hotmail_com
> Amit.Ahuja amit.ahja_at_vls_com_au
> Anand.Chandrasekher yasminc_at_comcast_net
> Arjun.Gupta agupta_at_kraftasia_com
> Arun.Nilkant arun.nilkant_at_gmail_com
> Asheem.Chandna asheem_at_chandna_com
> Avinash.Bhandoola avin99999999_at_yahoo_com
> Calvin.Malaney calvin.malaney_at_ntlworld_com
> Colette.Austin colette.austin_at_lintasindia_com
> Darsha.Dalal darshadalal_at_yahoo_co_in
> Dennis.Shah DenShah_at_nyc_rr_com
> Dinesh.Melwani dnvmel_at_yahoo_co_uk
> George.Abraham georgeabraham_at_hotmail_com
> Hiten.Shah hshah1963_at_yahoo_com
> Homi.Katgara homi_at_vsnl_com
> Hrishi.Kamat hkamat_at_gmail_com
> Jai.Bhandarkar jaibhandarkar_at_yahoo_com
> Jamshid.Lal jamshidlal_at_aol_com
> Jogesh.Motwani jogeshmotwani_at_hathway_com
> Judah.Gubbay judahgubbay_at_hotmail_com
> KB.Unni unni_kb_at_hotmail_com
> Ketan.Kothari ketank_at_gmail_com
> Khursheed.Mama kmama_at_colostate_edu
> Madhavan.Thirumalai mthirumalai_at_yahoo_com
> Madhu.Uttamchandani timberking7_at_gmail_com
> Mala.Punwani.Shahani malapunwani_at_hotmail_com
> Malini.Sawhney malinisawhney_at_hotmail_com
> Manjit.Singh makkm_at_tpg_com_au
> Marina.Chotia marinac1980_at_yahoo_co_uk
> Maya.Arora.Koregaokar coachkleats000000000_at_hotmail_com
> Meenakshi.Chandiramani.Thadani min_at_netvigator_com
> Milind.Gadekar milindg_at_yahoo_com
> Mohanjit.Malik tejaindustries_at_vsnl_com
> Mohet.Lamba mohet_lamba_2061_at_yahoo_com
> Mohsin.Ahmed mosh_ahmed_at_yahoo_com
> Namrita.Jhangiani.Shahani namrita.jhangiani_at_ezi_net
> Nandini.Mankar.Kohli nandinimankar_at_yahoo_com
> Nandu.Devaya nandudevaya_at_yahoo_co_in
> Narayan.Mulchandani nmulchan_at_netvigator_com
> Neville.Tuli nevilletuli_at_yahoo_com
> Nihal.Mehta nihalmehta2001_at_yahoo_com
> Nikhil.Amin nikamin7_at_comcast_net
> Paulomi.Jain paulomijain_at_yahoo_com
> Piyush.Goel ppgl26feb_at_rediffmail_com
> Poonam.Talwar poonamnitco_at_yahoo_com
> Porus.Kaka persian_at_vsnl_com
> Preeti.Vaswani.Vohra preeti_at_vaswani_us
> Prithviraj.Singh eagreal_at_tpg_com_au
> Punit.Aggarwal punit_at_tajonline_com
> Radhika.Robertson.Bhaveja robshome_at_emirates_net_ae
> Radhika.Sood.Sawhney Rsoods_at_aol_com
> Rahoul.Subberwal rahoul_at_falconfoods_com
> Raj.Arora tancara2004_at_yahoo_com
> Rajan.Rajgopal rajgopal232_at_yahoo_com
> Rajit.Kapur kapurrajit_at_yahoo_co_in
> Ranjit.Ahuja ranjit_at_ranjitahuja_com
> Rebecca.Tombs.Harrison rebecca.tombs_at_hotmail_co_uk
> Rikeen.Dalal rikeendalal_at_yahoo_co_in
> Rohan.Dalal rdd_at_vsnl_com
> Rohan.Kailasam missing
> Rohit.Mohindra educon_at_mtnl_net_in
> Romin.Kohinoor 22843031
> Roopesh.Patel patel_roopesh_at_yahoo_com
> Rumman.Ahmad rumman.ahmad_at_legend_com_pk
> Russa.Mehta russa.mehta_at_vsnl_com
> Saleel.Sheth saleelsheth_at_hotmail_com
> Sameer.Parekh sameerp_at_intelliconltd_com
> Sandip.Aggarwal sandipaggarwal_at_privserve_com
> Sangam.Pande goodkarma888-cathedral_at_yahoo_com
> Sanjay.Dalal sanjay_at_tarladalal_com
> Sanjay.Sitlani jay.sitlani_at_hellerehrman_com
> Shakir.Fazelbhoy maxfazel2006_at_yahoo_co_uk
> Sharokh.Engineer Sharokh_at_sharokhengineer_com
> Sudip.Ghosh sjghosh_at_doctors_org_uk
> Suku.Shah sukushah_at_olivetreetrading_org
> Sumati.Rajan sumati1_at_comcast_net
> Sunder.Subbaroyan sunder.subbaroyan_at_doerfer_com
> Suneel.Utamchandani utams_at_vsnl_com
> Vaibhav.Sanghi vaibhav_at_sanghioverseas_com
> Vera.Choksey fchoksey_at_mtnl.net.in vera_choksey_at_yahoo_co_in
> Vikas.Seth vikas.seth_at_csfb_com
> Vinay.Agarwal godvinay_at_hotmail_com
> Viren.Khanna khannaviren_at_hotmail_com
> Vivek.Kalra vivek_kalra_at_yahoo_com

Palmer, Cock house 1976. Dr. Krishnan, Mr Pande, Kuruvilla Jacob, and you know the rest of motley crowd.

"Your city is so small that thirty strides will take you all the way around it. To be always in the sunshine, you need only walk along rather slowly. When you want to rest, you will walk-- and the day will last as long as you live."

"The thing that is so good about the box you have given me is that at night he can use it as his house." -- Little Prince, Exupery.

What's a nice building like that doing at Flora Fountain?

"Bright was the day, and blew the firmament;
Phebus hath of gold her stremes doun ysent
To gladen every chyld with her warmnesse."

- - Chaucer in "Merchant's Prologue"

Translated:
Bright was the day, and blue the firmament;
Phoebus has her streams of gold down sent
To gladden every child with her warmness.

"Of aventure happed hire to meete
Amydde the toun, right in the quykkest strete,
And oon have I in remembraunce,

- Chaucer,

Trans:
"By chance happened to meet her
Amidst the town, right in the busiest street,
and one I have in rememberance"

Fountain is not crowded at 3:30pm

" You shall also make no noise in
the streets; for, for the watch to babble and to
talk is most tolerable and not to be endured."

- Dogberry, Much Ado, Shakespeare.

"Today we'll wander through the streets and note
The qualities of people." Mark Antony, Shakespeare.

"Build Dadabhai's statue to make him glorious:
But tidings to the contrary, are brought your eyes;
what need speak I of books and brookes
and people and pipal trees at bus stops?"
- Pericles, Shakespeare.

Bombay Stock Exchange as seen from Fountain.

"What need a man care for a stock with a bench, when
she can knit him a stock?"
-- Launce in Two Gentlemen of Verona, Shakespeare.

BEST bus #84 at Junior School, Fountain, Mumbai.

Onions in vinegar and pickles.

Junior School at Fountain

Middle School

?, Mr Paul, ?, Dr. Wagh.

Mr Sharma, Meera Agrawal, Kuruvilla Jacob (Principal), Sanjay Khanna, Mrs Phillips, Tariq Ansari.

Mr Gilbert Bose (Vice Principal), ?, Mr Sharma, Meera Agarwal , Barham 1978.

Jamshed Lal looks at the transit of Venus outside Udipi Palace, Sunnyvale, CA 94986.

Ketan Kothari of 12A, Sydenham, Apple, explaining the IPO of his Alpha Smart in Sunnyvale California USA.

Palmer House, Cock house of 1976, some familiar faces - Mr Pande, Kuruvilla Jacob, Dr. Krishnan, Mt Paul, Mr. Nepali, Mr Mazumdar.

Abhijeet Mankar and Rahoul Puri outside Udipi Palace in Santa Clara, looking at the Transit of Venus in the sky.

Top row boys (Standing, left to right)
Hiresh Wadhwani, Juzar Ahmed, Dev Lamba, Vinay Gupta,
Anil Sadhwani, Amit Chopra
Second row boys (Standing, left to right)
Deven Karnik, Ravi Sheth, Yaseen Samara(Yateen
Chitre), Nikhil Vasudeva, Bakhtiar Soonavala, Rajit
Singh Walia, Abel Beayne, Tushar Bhagat,Alok Agarwal,
Vijit Cherian, Sudeep Shah, Anup Roy
Missing from boys: Saradhi Rajan (Barham), Graham
Larson (Barham), Jason Farmer (Wilson)
Standing girls (left to right)
Rashna Batliboi, Reena Patel, Mandira Dalal, Arnaz
Kotwal, Caroline Miller Smith, Preeti Yamdagni, Sulina
Connell, Shibani Bhatija, Nandita Abraham, Maryam K.
Sitting girls (left to right)
Sanjana Dalamal, Jyoti Sangani, Galina Koregaonkar,
Mrs. Vilma Heredia (class teacher), Rica Guedj, Preeti
Kamlani, Preeti Gholap
Sitting on ground boys (left to right)
Sunil Pereria, Tridip Roy, Ajay Singhvi
Other Alumni:
Bhaba, Wadia, Tata, Sulman R, Rhea P, Karishma K, Padamsee, Bhutto (see google news).
- Yaseen sent the details

A Cathedralite wrecked his Mercedes
trying to drive on the beach.
He sent this photo to me and swears
he will never drink and drive
on the beach again.

"Even as men wrecked upon a sand,
that look to be washed off the next tide."
--King Henry V, Shakespeare.

Someone sent this photo:

1: Radha Chopra, Kushal Desai, Mukund Acharya, ?, Noopur Desai (Biswas), Lalit Mohan, Ranjan Chaudhuri, Arun Sagar and Leela Pastala.

2: Ajay Kaisth, Nasir Khan, Jagori Roy, Dinesh Vazirani, Geeta Anand, Vijay Mehra, Gautam Wadhwani and Rajeev Samant.

3: Mr Paulose, others, Mr Nepali,?,Mr.Patki.

4: Mr Rao, Mrs Isaacs, Mrs Samuel, Mr. Lewis, Mr. Lobo, Mr. Simeon, Mrs Patruni, Mrs Sonia, Mr Nangia, Mr. Wagh.

Principal Kuruvilla Jacob in 1977.

Someone sent me this photo of Wilson House.
That's Blue in case you are seeing this in black and white.

Philip Sen writes:

This "1953"photograph appears to me to be '47 or 48 ,or pre '47.
Bruce is the headmaster and I vaguely remember the housemaster.
I joined in '47 and was the 53 batch.
-- Sen

From: HS Uberoi hsuberoi_at_hotmail

The one sent to him by "Sen", the year is 1954, the principal is Bernard
Gunnery and not L.M.S.Bruce. The House Master is A.L.Glynne -Howell- also the
geography teacher. Played great jazz on the piano. The Head Boy is Rafique
Sonavala, the Vice-Head Boy is Ravi Jaitly -Tony's brother. The House ofcourse
is Wilson.

Wilson College, at Chowpatty

Chowpatty crossing.

That is near VT.

Like the sign says, this is Sir Phirozshah Metha Road, Bombay 400001.

Rohit Mohindra and Ayaz Hawa Zakaria on a rainy night at Benezer in Agripada, Mumbai 11

Its a long climb to the top, one step at a time.

11B on the slide

The Happy Frog

Birds I view of 10B

11B at the top

Balustrade

The Village Schoolmaster's AC

It is cold at the top!


The Village Schoolmaster



Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way

With blossom'd furze unprofitably gay,

There, in his mansion, skill'd to rule,

The village master taught his little school;

A man severe he was, and stern to view,

I knew him well, and every truant knew;

Well had the boding tremblers learn'd to trace

The days disasters in his morning face;

Full well they laugh'd with counterfeited glee,

At all his jokes, for many a joke had he:

Full well the busy whisper, circling round,

Convey'd the dismal tidings when he frown'd:

Yet he was kind; or if severe in aught,

The love he bore to learning was in fault.

The village all declar'd how much he knew;

'Twas certain he could write, and cipher too:

Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage,

And e'en the story ran that he could gauge.

In arguing too, the person own'd his skill,

For e'en though vanquish'd he could argue still;

While words of learned length and thund'ring sound

Amazed the gazing rustics rang'd around;

And still they gaz'd and still the wonder grew,

That one small head could carry all he knew.

But past is all his fame. The very spot

Where many a time he triumph'd is forgot.

-- Oliver Goldsmith

10B is where ISCE is crammed

Mr Newton Lane

Is that 9B or 11B?

Classes in Perspective

Classes Stacked

Basketball Court

Patterns in Time

See 8B

Patterns in Time

No Exit

Corridors of Edukation

The Dark Room

Roads to Victory

MiddleMarch

Mrs Cherian summarizes

A Teacher Remembers...

September 5th - Teachers' Day - is an annual event for every school in India, where some form of celebration takes place. One or two years ago, we were in church as usual on Sunday, when suddenly in the midst of the service, the pastor announced, "Will all the teachers, past and present, please stand."

It was indeed nice to see so many teachers, both young and old in the congregation. He then announced that the church would like to honour all of us, and we were presented with a nicely-wrapped single rose. To receive this simple memento gave me a great feeling of pride and achievement, even though not a single old student of mine was present there. We now reside in Bangalore, where there are many ex-Cathedralites and we have had a couple of get- togethers earlier. I remember one at which eight ex-Cathedral teachers were present.

On that day, the Sermon was rather long and covered many aspects of life in general as well. I must confess that my mind wandered a bit, and went back to my teaching days in Cathedral, where I taught French for a while, and then started the Department of Sociology, for the ISC stream. When I came home, I thought I would put down some of my thoughts on paper, and believe it or not, all the names mentioned in this article, and many others, came streaming back to me without reference to any book or register.

One of my first students was Soumindra Hazari. He always had an excuse for not doing his work on time. However, he would readily admit to having looked into his neighbour's book during a Vocabulary test. After his 12th, he sent me a photograph of a few of us taken in class with a note in broken, erratic French to say - "Thank you for the trouble taken to make me study!"

Then there was the polite and ladylike Meera Agarwal who went on to become Head Girl and then on to UWC. From there she wrote me a note to say that on one occasion she was the only one who knew her verbs and their tenses and that she felt like a . "champion". She later married Vikram Gandhi who was also Head Boy and lately they have been in the news as they bought some house that belonged to the Roosevelts in New York city. Petite Sujata Birla and Leena Mahindra were great friends and after Sujata left school, she once came charging out of a shop on Colaba Causeway and greeted me so effusively that my husband was quite taken aback at her warmth. It was while we were posted in Kochi that I learnt of her tragic death in an air crash. Both she and her brother were in Wilson House, to which I too was attached as a teacher and now the same brother heads the Birla empire. Arshad and Fareed Zakaria were both my students, and in those days everyone used to compare Fareed's work to Arshad's. Now I see that Fareed, who was Managing Editor of the American publication 'Foreign Affairs', has moved on to greener pastures and is the editor of the Asian edition of Newsweek. Deven and Ravi Khote were the two other brothers whom, should I Say, I had the pleasure of having in my class. Both now seem to be doing very well in the media world. Rhea Pillai, now Mrs Sanjay Dutt, was in my sociology class and when I checked her for chewing gum, she said she could concentrate only if she chewed gum or bit her nails!

Kavita Daftary, now Mrs Vinod Khanna, was Palmer House Captain and another of my students. A very capable and good student, she was also quite a holy terror as Captain. Once, I remember, a mother calling up the vice- principal's office. and since neither he nor Mrs Kumar was in their seats, I took the call. She said that her daughter could not stay for house games, and that she had been given a note to that effect. However, she was so scared of her House Captain, that the mother had to call up to inform the school authorities! Quiet and soft-spoken Kamal Sawhney was another student who was Savage House Captain and both she and Kavita went on to UWC. The Talwarkar sisters too were excellent students and involved in so many extracurricular activities, but never at the expense of their work.

Anita ldiculla, a budding actor in the US, wrote to me at her graduation and sent me an invitation to the function, saying she wished I were there, as I was a part of her growing up days! These incidents stay etched in one's memory forever!

Then there was, of course, Ramesh Menon, who always thought He got an appropriate answer from me, which he had least expected. The whole class burst out laughing and so he just sat down quietly. Another time, after I had pulled up Neville Moos for some misbehaviour in class, I noticed him several times in the corridor. I was a bit worried at that time, till suddenly, one day he came up, around, to say he was sorry. I remember Kalpana Rao who Palmer House Captain was crying away when Sudeep Ghosh, the Barham House Captain, was beaten in the boxing finals!

Anahita Doongaji was injured badly just before her ISC exams. She was a very pretty Head Girl, so there was always a long line of gallant, young Cathedral stalwarts waiting to carry her up the stairs, as the exam centre was on the top floor! How can I forget NDTV's famous Rajdeep Sardesai - who always had his work done, but rumour had it that he could sleep in any class with his eyes open! Gyan Correa, son of architect Charles Correa, had his mother come to school to face all his teachers because he refused to work, as he should. His contention was that there was too much interference in his style of operating, that is, in his love for music and his eternal telephone calls! Rajit Kapur was always a star debater while in school. I met his some time ago when he had come to Bangalore with, a theatre group. He was genuinely happy to see me. Today, he has risen to greater heights and one feels proud of him. Once when I wanted to return some notebooks to the 12th Std after the bell had rung for lunch break, I found that Miss Hallegua was still in class. I left the books outside the door trying to attract the attention of Hiten Desai, who was sitting closest to the door. He looked absolutely blank and later when I asked him why, he said, "in Miss Hallegua's class my eyeballs do not move!" Here, however I must mention that I have come across many senior Cathedralites in my sojourns here and there. Very often their first queries have been about Miss Hallegua.

Siddharth Singh was a student who came from the US, and had to catch up with the class. l took special classes for him and twice he kept me waiting and did not turn up! Later he told me that the second time, he had gone to lunch at Raj Bhavan. I replied that he could have gone to the "White House" but that he should have told me and not made me wait! He said, 'sorry' - nothing more. His mother too called and apologised on his behalf. Much later, he said he was going to Ahmedabad to meet his grandfather. Even then he said nothing till in the course of conversation, he casualty said that his grandfather was the Governor of Gujarat! When I was leaving Mumbai, he brought me a cake with "Thanks Mrs C" written on it. Then he sat down and ate quite a bit of it and said "Mrs C, I am helping you not to put on weight." I was very amused, but his mother was not.

Athiya and Ivy were two other students for whom I took special classes in French to help them catch up with their 12th Std classmates. I always marvelled at how hard they worked in spite of all the other subjects they had to cope with and finally managed to do better than the others.

Ayesha Bulchandani who was Savage House Captain and Mukeeta Kataria who was Head Girl, were scolded by two or three teachers for having, on one occasion, asked me to take the class register up to the vice principal's office, as is normally done at the end of the day. They sulked in my class the next day, thinking I had complained about them but Later they realised I hadn't. After that they were soon back to their cheery selves! Ashutosh Mankad is another of my students whom I met in Bangalore outside the famous K C Das sweet shop. He was surprised that I did not recognise him at first sight, but then, boys change so much when they become young men! He then told me he was married to another Cathedralite - Nandini, and Later when I met both of them and their kids it was such an indescribably good feeling! I also met Udai Mathan and George Abraham, who is no longer his skinny self. I attended his wedding too!

I met a whole lot of them when I went to visit my daughter Anilla, like Judah Gubbay, Monish Sahni, Kamalakshi Lal, Ramesh Menon and a few others. They all came from all over to see a visiting ex- Cathedral teacher and we had great fun talking about the old days in school!

How can I forget to mention the inimitable Banoo Dubash, who did so well in her "Structure of Modern Government" paper, that she shocked the late Mr Elisha, who had at one time said he would eat his shoe if she got above 40 per cent. Then there were Vijaylakshmi Pastala, Amrita Zaveri and Amrik Singh, daughter of Dr Manmohan Singh, and a host of others.

There are so many other faces and incidents that come to mind my daughter's friends, Shivani, Tanya, Radhikha, Dipti and Kayoko the first Japanese girl to be House Captain of Barham House. Colin Saldhana, Vivek Jacob, Amit Mohindra, and Vivek Goel. Deepika Bulchandani who told Mr Patki she would set him right if he talked any more nonsense! Diba and Kaleem Siddique were twins and great friends of Anilla's. They were instrumental in getting her and many others to apply to US universities.

These and a myriad other faces come to mind. Sometimes I wonder where they are and what many of them are doing. Whether they remember those school days that were both cheerful and depressing, and remember them with the same amount of nostalgia as a teacher does.

Elizabeth Cherian.
See http://www.catalumni.com

The School Song - Cathedral & John Connon School, Mumbai

The School Song - Cathedral & John Connon School, Mumbai

Prima in Indis, Gateway of India
Door of the East with its face to the West
Here in Bombay we are living and learning
India, our country, to give you our best.

Out on the maidan at hockey or cricket,
Or now in the classroom a’driving the pen,
We will try ever to fit us, equip us,
So that in life we may serve you as men.

School School! Play up, School!

Wherever your lot may be cast,
School first, House next, Self last,
School! School! Play up, School

Himalayan mountains and plains of the Deccan,

Wide sweeping spaces with winds blowing clean,
These are our birthright – ours to defend them,
Ours now to follow where heroes have been.

Out on the maidan our thews and our sinews,
We’ll train and will strengthen a’playing the game.
Then when we leave and go forth to our lifework,
Win for our race and our School a fair name.

School School! Play up, School!

Wherever your lot may be cast,
School first, House next, Self last,
School! School! Play up, School

Years will roll on, and the palms still be swaying,

Out on the maidan that’s down by the sea,
Pens will be driven by new boys in classrooms
Where we are dreaming what soon we shall be.
Out on the maidan while palm shadows lengthen,
Still will re-echo the old stirring cry –
“Play up school! Let it rip! Let it thunder!
Let it resound to our Orient Sky!”

School School! Play up, School!

Wherever your lot may be cast,
School first, House next, Self last,
School! School! Play up, School

Bussing

Middle

Cats and Dogs outside Middle School


From The Deserted Village, 

by Oliver Goldsmith



  The playful children just let loose from school,

  The watch-dog's voice that bay'd the whisp'ring wind,

  And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind,--

  These all in sweet confusion sought the shade,

  And fill'd each pause the nightingale had made.

  But now the sounds of population fail,

  No cheerful murmurs fluctuate in the gale,

  No busy steps the grass-grown foot-way tread,

  For all the bloomy flush of life is fled!

Juniors

Lost soul behind Junior School


From The Deserted Village, 

by Oliver Goldsmith 



The broken soldier, kindly bade to stay,

Sat by his fire, and talk'd the night away,

Wept o'er his wounds, or, tales of sorrow done,

Shoulder'd his crutch and show'd how fields were won.