Wednesday, March 28, 2001

KTWV04 - Issue 3: News from many

Dear Stephanians,

In the last issue I published the picture of the college. Word got around to Principal Dr. Anil Wilson and I had this message from him:

From: "Dr Anil Wilson"
To: "Jacob Matthan"
Subject: Re: Ezines for Cathedralites & Stephanians - Feb. Issues
Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 07:02:25 -0800

Dear Jacob,

Good to hear from you after quite some time. Please do visit the 'official' College Web Site at

http://www.ststephens.edu

and let me have your response.

Dr. Anil Wilson


I think all of you will be pleasantly surprised when you visit the new college site maintained by Kevin Dzousa.

And do not forget to read the Dismissal Address given by Principal Wilson on 13th March.

It was nostalgic to hear of the retirement, after 41 years of service, of Mr. G. S. Bhatia who taught me Physics in 1960-1963. I was one of the first batch his first pupils. He was a great and understanding teacher!! I can still remember him smiling through his jet black well oiled and tied down beard and mustache and saying "Matthanji, ...". I think he sort of liked me, although I was not a particularly brilliant student, but I follwed his lectures regularly, unless I had overslept. :-)

Efforts are paying off after the restart of the web version of Kooler Talk. I had a very nice email from Subir Kubedan:

Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 12:40:25 -0800 (PST)
From: Subir Kumedan, San Francisco
Subject: Website
To: Jacob

Hi Jacob,

I recently found that this website existed. I am Subir Kumedan, a 1993 gradute (with a non-functioning link on your web page :-) at that)

I have been in the US for a few years now, ditching grad school to follow my photography and creative instincts to become a web designer in San Francisco and now a User Interface Architect at a company in Fremont, California. The web is my life, well along with photography and travel.

So, I thought, I could use my skills to help you redesign the site and publicise it, if you are okay with it. It would be my way of giving back to Stephen's all I got out from it. From the numerous hiking trips to hanging out in the main lawns, to flunking the supplementaries, and samosas and the countless bunking classes to hang out in DU, I still have too many fond memories in Stephens. And I still compare Stephens in India to Harvard/Yale in US.

Anyway, it would be interesting to get in touch with and get a sense of what you've been doing through the website and if I could meaningfully contribute to it. In the meantime you can check out my new website which is in alpha stage

http://www.alwaysoutbound.com/photo.htm

ones that I created during my work at PLural as a web designer -

www.amb.com

www.apptimum.qwest.com

among others. My old photo site is at my rutgers address at

http://www.cabm.rutgers/edu/~subir

bad design, good photos.

Well, cheers for now, my contact information is included. Feel free to get in touch with me anytime.

Subir

Subir Kumedan
929 Pacific Ave
San Francisco, CA 94133
t: 415.981.7161


That was real nice of Subir. We have been in touch with each other. Maybe sommething will come out of it.

But how many of you want a redesigned super duper Kooler Talk (Web Version). From my emails I see that most of you seem happy with its present presentation. I did explain to Subir that as far as publicity is concerned, enter "Stephanian" or "Kooler Talk" in any major search engine as Google, Altavista, Excite, or the best of the lot presently, AlltheWeb.com, and without fail, the searcher will land up at my pages. Since 80% of surfers reach the pages by this route, the others through the traditional routes of the college web site, sites of other Stephanians, and the alumni pages, there was no real hope for any Stephanian to escape being pushed to this site, even though they may be kicking and screaming

Of course, it could do with extensive redesign. But what matters is content. The problem is that I sit down at the computer on a Friday evening and in one sitting complete my matter as well as upload the pages. I do not stop till I finish. So being dependent in any third party for setting up and maintaining these pages may be complicated - as I am a computer idiot.

I have not rejected Subir's offer. Maybe we can come up with something simple you all will like. In the meantime, take a look at Subir's web pages - the photographs are truly great.

As I am just launching my own Findians Panorama web site, which is in its beta stage at the moment, it looks as if we have a lot of things to do together.

Any other Stephanian wanting to join us in this cooperative operation, and you have photographs or works of art you want to offer on the internet, you are more than welcome. You are requested to get in touch with me.

Another email I had a couple of weeks ago was thus:

From: "Davendra Pratap" UK
To: Jacob
Subject: from Davendra Pratap
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 21:21:56 -0000

Dear Jacob

Hello. I hope this gets to you. If it does, please reply. I would love to hear from you.

Regards

Davendra Pratap


I naturally replied in my usual fashion and this was Davendra's reply:

Dear Jacob

It is good to establish contact. I did try after your email via the alumni link, but for some reason it came back undelivered. (Ed: This puzzles me! Anyone else had this problem?)

Doesn't time fly by so quickly. It seems only like yesterday-spending evenings playing bridge or table tennis in the JCR.

I have gathered from your enclosures, amongst other things, that you live in Finland and that you are married to Annikki. I would love to hear more about you.

Now perhaps a few words about me and our family.

I live in Richmond (a S.W. suburb of London) with my wife Joan, and we have been happily married for over 30 years. We have a 28 year old son, who is a doctor and a twenty five year old daughter, who works in the publishing world. Neither is married, but they have both have their own flats in different parts of London.

I have recently retired after a long and busy career. I qualified as a Chartered Accontant and, after some years in a large professional firm in the City of London, entered industry and worked in various capacities, eg., Finance Director, Acquisitions, etc., and ended up in the Shell Group in the early eighties. After a very interesting time with Shell, I had the opportunity with some colleagues to carry out a management buy out of a division of Shell, float it as a public company and then sell it to a much larger group. All very good fun, but all good things come to an end! I have not yet got used to retirement and I am sure I will get involved in something in a few months.

Unfortunately, I have not been in contact with any Stephanians other than Ashok Bhargava (who is a Professor of Economics, University of Wisconsin) and Vijay Gupta who runs an accountaancy practice in Delhi. Of the other 1963 ers, Sujit Bhattacharya was in London in the sixties, but I have lost contact. I last heard he was a Partner in PriceWaterhouse Coopers in Calcutta.

I should be grateful to receive any contact details that you may have of anyone from our period, now residing in the UK or Western Europe.

Look forward to hearing from you. Best regards to you and your wife.

Davendra


Davendra was with me in college between 1960 and 1963. He did Economics, being the classmate of Montek Singh Alhuwallia, Sujit Bhattacharya and Ashok Bhargava - to name just three of that illustrious class.

I replied to Davendra that I was just the opposite of him and have updated him on a lot of you lot who have been in touch with me.

Using his info I did track down Ashok, who is head of the department of economics at Wisconsin University. I have dropped him a line. Maybe he will be in touch. No luck as yet about Sujit. I am sure someone in Delhi will give me Vijay Gupta's co-ordinates.

Amongst the many emails, this was a typical one:

From: "Banerjee, Indrajit"
To: Jacob
Subject: Hi
Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2001 15:20:48 -0800

hi Jacob:

Long time no correspondence from you. I also lost the connection to the Kooler Talk until recently when Alumni.net gave a new URL.

Just curious.

hope all is fine with you and your family.

regards,

Indrajit


Thanks Indrajit, and others, for writing an dkeeping in touch. The old URL is still functioning but losing its place as I do not have enough web space there to keep the archives up in place. By the end of this year the archives would have disappeared in toto from the old web site.

And finally, I am repeating Yogi's letter - please get in touch with him post haste as the last date for registrations is fast approaching.

Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 15:50:04 +0530
From: Yogi Durlabhji
To: Jacob
Subject: Fw: your mail

Nostalgia Stephen's

Dear fellow Stephanian,

An event organised by SIR (Stephanians in Rajasthan) in collaboration with Hotel Clarks Amer, Jaipur.

Dates: 5th through 7th Oct., 2001
Venue: Hotel Clarks Amer, one of the leading hotels of Jaipur
Organisers: SIR (Stephanians in Rajasthan) and Hotel Clarks Amer, Jaipur

Nostalgia Stephen's is once again in the air. Some of you were here last year when we had our first Nostalgia bash; others were not.

I am writing to you as advance intimation. Nostalgia 2001 will be held this year in the first week of Oct. i.e. 5th, 6th and 7th Oct. This is a three-day package (two nights and three days) that Hotel Clarks Amer is offering us at a fabulous discount even though it is an extremely busy time for hotels in Jaipur.

October is a superb month in Jaipur when there is a nip in the air! It is perfect for hot tea, light woollens and sunshine and sparing on the lawns!

It is the right time of the year for inter-block cricket, crackling bonfires and all-night dancing on an open stage (such as the one at Clarks Amer). Of course, the entire event will have the flavour of nostalgia and memories of samosas and scrambled.

We have blocked 100 rooms which will be reserved for people on a first-come-first-served-basis. The last day for confirmation (as also for payment) is 31st March, 2001. We need early confirmation as Jaipur receives large numbers of tourists in October, and Clarks Amer is an extremely popular destination since it offers spacious lawns, a beautiful swimming pool and proximity to the airport. If you wish to participate, please revert so that we can send you forms that must be filled up by all participants.

Tariff

Tariff for the bash is as follows
(2 nights, 3 days - all meals)

Double room
(husband & wife -------- Rs 11,000/- only
Or
Shared between two friends)
Each child (additional) - Rs 2,000/- (for the stay)

If you have any queries, please feel free to write to me or phone me or e-mail/fax me.

Love and regards,

Yours sincerely,

Yogi Jain (Durlabhji)
(M.A.History -1967-72)

PS: I am writing this letter to you very early so that you can block dates, and also so that we can block rooms for you. If you want to know what the event is all about, please ask someone who attended Nostalgia 2000.

Mr Yogi Jain (Durlabhji)
M/s K.S. Durlabhji
Emerald House
D-31 Subhash Marg
C-Scheme
Jaipur 302 001 (Raj)
E-mail :yogi@ksdurlabhji.net or ksd@satyam.net.in
Tel # : 91-141-372318/364171
Fax : 91-141-363167


Please get in touch with Yogi. Annikki and I may be there!!

Not many of you have still joined the internationally maintained College Alumni. I have made it easy by giving you a link at the top of the the next column. PLEASE DO IT NOW.

Please keep those emails and photographs coming. See you in a month. Remember, this is your page, more than mine.

It is our KOOLER TALK (Web Version)

Regards

Jacob Matthan
Honorary Editor
Kooler Talk (Web Version)
Stephanian 1960 - 1963
JCR President - 1961-1962
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