KTWV02-Issue 4: Bulbul

Hi Web Surfing Stephanians,

I was thumbing through some old issues of THE WEEK and I came across an interesting aricle by Sejal Shah called "Mountain magic" under the Art Section.

There was a picture of a bearded artist sitting on the floor with his dog, with a background of what was obviously his paintings. The face seemed extremely familiar - it was none other than Bulbul Singh, Stephanian of the fifties/sixties.

Bulbul was a real character in college. I got him to MC the first JCR evening and he was absolutely great in that capacity. He was a naturally talented artiste and although he seems to have had a very interesting post Stephanian era, Kansas university graduate, an executive in Bombay with Hindustan Lever and Lintas, this Quetta-born Stephanian had the call of the hills when he threw all his high life away and retired to a life in Kulu valley to become artist, poet, farmer and social worker. He even runs a free dispensary for the people of his village.

Bulbul has displayed his paintings and reads his poetry around the world. He seems to have have very prominent friends, as The WEEK has listed Koo Stark of Prince Andrew fame amongst the recent guests at his Himalayan abode.

Bulbul was a boisterous Stephanian and one certainly knew when he was around. It is indeed probably that Stephanian character that led him to his life of peace and serenity in the beautiful Kulu Valley where he can compose his poems and create his artistic masterpieces on canvas.

Hope Bilbul has an internet connection to see that we remember him and wish him well.

Talking of art, the New York Stephanians seem to have had a get together to view the paintings of a Delhi artist Sanjay Bhattacharyya. Sreenath informed those Stephanians who he has access to be email that on Friday 8th November, the New York Stephanians, the present head count being as many as 120, were having their get together at Stephanian Deepak Talwar's Art Gallery. It is nice to see such an active group and this should be a role model for other Stephanian groups around the world. Those of us less fortunate are very happy to get to hear of these events and hope others will keep me informed so as to share the camaraderie with the readers of Kooler Talk (Web Version).

And finally this week, because so many of you have requested a photograph to see what I look like here in the Arctic, here is the picture of the original Finnish Father Christmas taken in summer along with my better half of the last 30 years. Sorry for the quality but unfortunately do not have very good photograph reproduction equipment on hand.


Annikki and Jacob

Hopefully, more in a fortnight,

Your Cathedralite friend

Jacob

KTWV02-Issue 3: History of College

Hi Web Surfing Stephanians,

I received this letter last week:

From: vepaa (email address supplied)
Organization: Huron University USA in London
Date: Wed, 23 Oct 1996 13:45:34 +0
Subject: History of SSC

Dear Stephanian,

I wish to inform you that a compilation of College history entitled "Glimpses of St Stephen's College, Delhi" is now available on the St Stephen's page on the web or at the following address:

http://ase.tufts.edu/chemistry/kumar/ssc/html/sschis.html.

If you any remarks/observations, please email them to the undersigned at: email at site and pass on the info. to other Stephanians.

Regards,

ARVIND VEPA

I promptly visited the site and found a goldmine. I downloaded it, sent a thanks to Arvind and mentioned the KTWV.

Here was Arvind's reply:

From: vepaa
Organization: Huron University USA in London
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 1996 12:26:41 +0
Subject: 3 Cheers for Kooler Talk

Dear Mr Matthan,

Thank you for sending the Kooler Talk addresses. Hats off to you Sir, for maintaining the page. For Stephanians, the world will always remain a small place.

Regards,

ARVIND VEPA

Yes, to us Stephanians scatterred around the world, it is a small place. For then I received this letter,

Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 23:14:10 -0700
From: amitcv (email address supplied)
Subject: Hello

Hi Jacob,

My name is Amit Wilson and I passed out of SSC this year in May. In case you are wondering (though I wonder why you might wonder) about how and why and what and when.... I share my surname with Dr. Anil Wilson, Principal on leave of/from SSC, its because he is my father.

Forgive me if you find my letter a little(???) weird but I feel its in keeping with the kind of KTs I have been exposed to.

My e-mail is (supplied)

Try and drop me a few lines. I would love to hear from you. I was in Finland last year in June. I had come to attend the World Youth Assembly held held at Aland (the first "A" is supposed to have a little circle on top of it). I had a good time there though it was a little chilly considering it was the height of summer and the place was awfully empty compared to the kind of crowds I am used to.

Anyway, I'm doing my MBA at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

I believe that you send out copies of KT. I would be grateful if you could send me one too.

Thanks a lot. Sorry for babbling on.

Regards,

Amit Wilsom

I had to explain to Amit that the Web Version was a Web Version and that I had even stopped sending out the reminder notices since all of you are now dropping in regularly without any prompting.

Pity Amit did not know of our existence when he visited Finland!

I will not keep you this week any longer but suggest that you quickly hop over to the page maintained by Arvind and really relish it.

I will have more next week and Arvind's page will be a permanent link in the Contents list from the next issue onwards.

I would welcome any comments on the history (especially clarifications, etc.) as presented as you recall the characters mentioned therein. Many are waiting to hear from you through these issues of Kooler Talk (Web Version).

See you in a fortnight, take care

Jacob
Stephanian 1960-1963