Goodbye dearest Rathikant Badu

 Over last weekend I learnt of the passing of one of my dearest friends from our college days, Rathikant Basu.

I will later share a link with you about his professional achievements, revolutionising Indian tv and entertainment in India, written by a former colleague, but first I must tell you about our personal association from our college days.

Sujit Bhattacharaya, son of a former  Chairman of the Reserve Bank of India, studied in Cathedral and John Connon School, Bombay, with me and we both joined St. Stephen’s College in the summer of 1960.

As fate eould have it, we were both in the only Mukarji block of that time. 

Photo of Collrge Mukarji Block

ujit, being a Bengali, quickly caught up with two other Bengalis, Dipankar Basu and  Rathikant Basu, both one year senior to us. 

Sujit is a quiet person with an absolutely great sense of wit and humour. 

We both made some friends independently and they all became our common friends. 

Sujit had earlier studied in Delhi at St. Columbus School, so he knew Rajagopalan Narayanan, who also stayed in Mukarji block, so he joined our crowd. As Rajagopalan  was a Malayali, he found me to be a good friend and sort of hero worshipped me.

Rathikant was of the same mould as Sujit with a great analytical mind, a sarcastic tongue used very carefully and cautiously and was real fun to be with. Commonly known ads Stephanian humour! 

Our other friends were my dearest, late Ajay Verma, Ambassador HE Niranjan Desai, Arun Aggarwal (Tich), Chandu Rijhwani, Devendra Pratap, Ravi Batra, Badrinath, Deepak Chopra, Hirak Ghosh and a few others.

Although Rathikant was not a resident of Mukarji block, as were the others, he literally lived there, going to the cafe or to the dining hall together and hanging out in the JCR.

We had a great time in college. We used to jump gates and go to the movies together.  We shared 7 people in a taxi coming back. 

None of us were the womanising type so we did not hang out in the Wenger cafe but preferred the India Coffee House and the Kamala Nagar restaurants for our out of college jaunts.

The crowd was a cross-section of persons from all parts of India, highly secular, and from a variety of courses as Physics, Maths, Chemistry, Economics and English and covered the years  from 1st to final. All were studious and did spend time clearing our grades.

We loved hanging out together and we had varied sports interests from basketball, hockey, cricket, table tennis, chess, bridge, carroms, and midnight feasts!

Those were golden days and this crowd, along with my cousin Padma Shri Mammen Mathew (Rajen) and his crowd in the first year when I was in my second, stormed me to victory to be the only person to be the President of the JCR in the second year, a feat not repeated again!

Rathikant was a caring individual and immensely knowledgeable about all things in life. 

We discussed every subject that was the topic of the day and I was “educated” by him in the college cafe over coffee, scrambled eggs and mince!

Our paths diverged but came together in the early seventies on my return to India. I used to frequent Baroda as I was doing a consulting job for IPCL.

On one occasion I had an invitation to go to Ahmedabad and was told that Rathikant was the Muncipal Commissioner there. I communicated with him and he responded immediately. He had me picked up on arrival, took me home where his gracious and lovely wife cooked and served a truly wonderful Bengali meal, and he made sure I had everything to make my visit comfortable.

Since then we communicated regularly and he went through many ups and downs, but he always kept smiling. Knowing my family history in the media world he kept bouncing ideas off me. It was a truly interesting time as he went stage by stage to establish a truly strong independent media in India. We owe Rathikant an enormous debt for his contribution to freedom of expression in India!

He lost his better half and was in great depression after that but he found away around that by communicating with his friends like Ajay in Sweden and me in Finland. He must have had others but that is not known to me.

He was in Calcutta and then decided to move to Ahmedabad.

In 2008 I addressed an email to Nirmal Jhalla , one year junior to me, about organising a reunion and and Rathikant was thge first to reply. I attach below my email to Nirmal with cc to others and Rathikant's immediate reply to that. 

From: Jacob Matthan

To: Nirmal Jhala ; Rathikant Basu ; Ajay Verma ; Niranjan Desai ; SUJIT BHATTACHARAYA

Cc: Sarwar Lateef ; Peter (Tubby) Philip ; 57er Ashok (Tony) Jaitly ; Davendra Pratap ; Mammen (Rajen) Mathew ; RamuKatakam ; Aftab Seth ; Aftab Baveja ; Ramani Subramanian ; Badrinath Ramanathan ; Dileep Rao

Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2008 10:32 AM

Subject: Great hearing from you

Hi Nirmal,

Great hearing from you. Noted your new email address.

Rathikant and I got together through LinkedIn. Ajay came to Oulu after he retired. He is back in Lund, Sweden. Niranjan and I have chatted when he was in London. He retired but is working for an organisation in Delhi. Sujit is back online with me through my school network. 

I am thinking of planning a get together in Delhi next December around the time of Founders Day, December 6 2009. 

I am communicating this email to Davendra, Mammen, Katakam, Aftabs (Seth and Baveja), Tony, Tubby, Sarvar, Deepak,  Ramani, Badri, Dileep, to start with.

If all are interested I can start a Google 2009 Reunion Group and we can plan a good bash in Delhi. I have several more from our years on my list. (Ranjit Jacob, George Verghese, Abe Tharakan, Kamlesh Sharma, Karti Sandilya, Ravi Katari, Siddarth Singh, Arun Shourie (if he will codescend to accepting hiis alma mater?), Swami, Mani Shanker, Jose Vellapally, etc.) 

The Delhi-ites can coordinate with the college (Tony, Niranjan, Siddarth, etc.).

If each of you can add 10 to the list, we could have a great get-together and relive the "Sixties". Maybe a mock cricket match as most of us may not be able to waddle to the centre!

I have done this with my school class group of 1959 and we are having our reunion in November 2009 in Mumbai with hopefully over 160 participants (as many wives will also be joining in). Wives of now absent friends are also joining us there.

So much to talk about and so little time ahead! Ajay and I talked non-stop for the two days he spent here in Oulu.

Want to have this as a special tribute to our Kooler Talk Founders - who have inspired me to run the Web Version for over 12 years.

Would love to see you (and all others) there. Calcutta is not on our travel itinerary - Mumbai, Kottayam, Bangalore. Chennai, Hyderabad and finally Delhi.

Regards

Jacob
-- 
Jacob Matthan

 

Oulu, Finland

Blogs:

Jacob's Blog
Kooler Talk - Delhi Stephanians Alma Mater Blog

 

He wanted to open a Tea House in Helsinki but I advised against it as Finland is a land of coffee drinkers.

We communicated regularly and discussed matters of interest to both of us - politics and entertainment being the primary topics. He was a regular reader pf the Kooler Talk Blog run by me.

I found his knowledge immense and I learnt a lot about the Indian Political scene from his vast experience. 

He never shared his problems with me! He only shared his happiness and always told me that I had helped him through his difficult emotional times with my positive attitude.

He promised to make a trip to Finland, but we lost Ajay and that was a sad blow to both of us.  

As soon as I learnt of the passing of Rathikant I sent a message to Sujit who shared with me his deep personal grief in losing Rathikant.

Sujit also shared a link written by a former colleague of Rathikant about the his professional life.

The Taste by Vir Sanghvi: The story of Rathikant Basu and Rajagopalan Indian television industry - Hindustan Times

When I did a Google search about Rathikant I found numerous links of great tribute to this outstanding individual who completely revolutionised the India media and entertainment world by his far sightedness.

Rathikant was more than a friend. A fellow alumni, he always stood for what was right according to the principles we had imbibed from our stay in the college.

May our dear friend rest in peace.

Explosion in Mukarji Court

Mukarji Block (R, S & T, Dec. 2014, Photo by Jacob Matthan)

In my first year in college (1960-19661) I was in Mukarji Block Room S2. Mr. Summerscale was our Block Tutor. 

He was a real gentleman and would regularly host us for a cup of tea and biscuits and discuss any problems he or we had. As he was also in charge of the Shakespeare Society, there were regular sessions where a few of the girls from Miranda House would come to his study and there were readings from Shakespeare plays.

I was not really into Shakespeare, but occasionally joined in as he called us to be part of the session. Tony Jaitly, a Cathedralite like me), twins, Roshan (who acted as Gandhi in the film) and former Indian Ambassadoir HE Aftab Seth and advertising producer Zaffar Hai are those I recall who used to be regular participants.

Kundan Singh was my gyp (all three years) and he would make sure we had sufficient snacks for all of us including plenty of  Sukhiya's barfis and samosas!

Transistor radios were forbidden in residence. Mr. Summerscale knew that I had a Short Wave radio and I would tune in to BBC World Service in the late evenings. 

He checked with my immediate neighbour (I think it was Ramani) if it disturbed him. He said it did not, so he let me keep it but advised me to use it with headphones! Occasionally he would drop on on sSaturday afternons to check the sports news. 

I do not think he took part in College sports but he did look like a cricketer!

In our second year, Rev. Luck, a Canadian pastor, who took over from Rev. Jarvis, was our Block Tutor. 

On the whole he was pleasant personality, but he did have a temper, as can be understood from this incident.

I had exchanged rooms with my friend Rajagopalan Narayan, so I was in Room S8, a room on the verandah side. I do  not know why Rajen wanted to change, but for me it was good. (My speculation is conveyed in an earlier blog entry!)

I closed the corridor door permanently and only used the verandah side door.

We had a habit of playing bridge late into the night outside my room on the verandah. Several guys used to come and watch and there was a lot of chit chat after every rubber.

One night we were unusually boisterous. Suddenly, Rev. Luck arrived from the garden side of the verandah. His face was flaming red. He stormed onto the verandah, and without saying a word took the entire pack of cards and ripped them apart dead centre into two halves and stormed off,

Not a word was said, but the message was quite clear. We had obviously disturbed his beauty sleep. 

We all dispersed, all mad at his behaviour.

The next day there was a lot of discussion as to how we should retaliate.

Some suggested flooding his room by connecting the garden hose and pushing it under the door. This idea seemed to excite everyone till I quickly shot it down.

I said it would be pointless as the one who would suffer would only be Kundan Singh who would have to clean  up the mess.

As I was the JCR President and I had the keys to the JCR, we decided that our bridge sessions in the night would be moved to the back room of the JCR. We could use it as late as we wanted. I got permission from Princi Sircar and Dean Rajpal, so was born the Bridge Club of our college. 

Regular players were the Rai twins, Suraj and Chandra, Tich Arun Agarwal, and Swaminathan Aiyar (Economic Times financial correspondent and younger brother of Mani Shankar Aiyar).

Ajay Verma, my bosom friend, when
he visited us in Oulu.

My regular partner was late Ajay Verma.

In the first ever JCR Bridge Tournament the finals was between the Rai twins and Ajay and myself. 

It was cliff hanger and it went to the last deal where Ajay and I bid 7 clubs and the Rai twins bid 7 spades, a quite unbelieveable bid that only the paranormal communication between the twins could call, and they made it!

Rev. Luck could, therefore, enjoy his beauty sleep!

Dr. Anthony Stone, Memories

 It was a pleasant surprise to receive this email from a Stephanian colleague about a book by Dr. Anthony Stone,  who was teaching Mathematics in college when I was there..

Tony spent a short time with Annikki and me in Oulu many years ago, but then I lost contact till in 2014? I invited himmto attend Annikki’s 70th birthday celebrations. 

It is good to see Tony is still active. 

I have not attached the ”Foreword” as mentioned in the email. If any of you want it , I will happily send it to you. 

If you wish to comment, please contact me and I will put you in touch with Prabhu..

 https://pipparannbooks.com/book/hindu-astrology/

me your sugHeavens 

and Earth: The Story of Astrology through Ages and Cultures , published by Penguin 

 Here are some links where you can discover a bit more about Garima's Heaven and Earth:

 - Simsim: The Story of Astrology through Ages and Cultures: the Amazon UK page.

 - Heavens And Earth: The Story of  Astrology through Ages and Cultures: Amazon India page.

 - Heavens and Earth: The Story of Astrology through Ages: the Goodreads page.

Professor (retired) Prabhu Guptara

Board Consultant, Poet, and Publisher
Cambridge, U.K.
https://linktr.ee/prabhusgu

Remembering our loved ones

 Dateline 28th November 2023

(Posted on Jacob's Blog, Seventh Heaven Blog for Cathedralites and Kooler Talk (Web Version) Blog for St. Stephen's College alumni.

Cathedral & John Connon School 59ers have lost many of our ones in the last few years. 

Here is a partial list of those from our 2969class who have passed on. 

(I do not have any information about our lady classmates except dear Farhana. I hope someone will update me on this.)

Ashok Ruia

Bala Parasursman

Dossu Pagdiwalla

Fali Dhondy

Farhana (Kably) Poonawala

Farukh Kanga

Flicky Shroff

Hasnain Chinwala

Indrajit Shah

Jacob Eapen 

Jack Haskell

 Jaswant Ghatge

Kurshed Balsata

Michael Colaco

Murali Balani

Naubir Mohindar

Pradeep Bhakar

Prem Goel

Ramesh Mirchandani

Virat Gidwani

Trevor Newnes

I have deliberately left out from this list, one of our dearest, who was tragically lost  15 years ago, Ashok Kapur.

59erGolden Reunion Directory

Our Mumbai 59ers met as a memoriam to Ashok

At our 2009 Golden  Reunion of 59ers,  Annikki and I dedicated our Reunion Directory to Ashok with these pages:

But besides Ashok, we lost many others during those fateful days, which has been brought to mind by Rajiv Bhatia on his Facebook page.

26/11

Remembering the late - Ajit & Monica Chhabria, Sunil & Reshma Parikh, Sanjay & Rita Agarwal, Rohinton Maloo, Mohit Harjani, Lavina Harjani, Anand Bhatt, Pankaj Shah, Vishnidas-Nilam-Gunjan Narang, Neeti-Uday-Samar-Kang, Rupinder Randhawa, Ashok Kamte, Hemant Karkare, Vijay Salaskar, Tukaram Omble

I also remember one of my other alumni from St. Stephen’s College with this post from our alumni Facebook page. 

None other than the heroic Ashok Kamte:

Ashish Joshi , the Moderator of our alumni Facebook   page posted this.

LEST WE FORGET

This is what my friend & college senior, Gary (Justice Anupinder Grewal), wrote in the memory of late Ashok Kamte (Gary's batchmate) a brilliant police officer who attained martyrdom on 26/11. Late Kamte was a friend & one year senior to me in the College .

ASHOK KAMTE

I have been attending the annual St. Stephen's College, Reunion very frequently ever since I passed out of college in 1987. However, this year on 14th December, it was drastically different as it turned into memorial service for Ashok Kamte and I was entrusted the painful task of paying tribute to Ashok. 

It was a tragic personal loss as besides being my classmate in college and a friend, I had the privilege of living with Ashok and his family at his mother’s Flat in Hira Mahal on the Amrita Shergill Marg for about year while studying law. 

Ashok had joined us at St. Stephen's College for his Post Graduation after he had Graduated from St. Xavier’s College, Bombay. What stood him apart from the rest of the Stephanians was the enormity of his physical stature, which alongwith his quest for academic excellence was a rather unique combination. What surprised many was why is the National Power Lifting Champion pursuing Post Graduation at St. Stephen's. There is no preference for sports persons for admission in M.A. Little did they realize then that Ashok always strove for excellence, whether in the classroom or the playing field. He had single minded commitment to succeed. He was very happy when he was selected to the I.P.S. He used to say that he was meant for action and disliked other civil services for their bureaucratic file work.

While training for the Power Lifting Championship, he would not compromise on his diet. As his mother would not allow him to have more than two eggs, due to its high cholesterol content he would buy a dozen eggs from the market, cook and eat them at his neighbour's house. He had broken three national records in Power Lifting and won half a dozen Gold and Silver Medals. He had also won the Bronze Medal in Junior World Power Lifting Championship. Power Lifting is one of the toughest sport and Ashok would train for hours in complete solitude. Despite his powerful build, he was extremely agile and could sprint quite fast. Besides his love for swimming and squash he would generate amazing pace and bounce while bowling on the rather placid College Cricket pitch at Morigate. He had played an important role in the victory of our team. 

Ashok was proud of the fact that he had the blood of two Martial Races the Maratha’s and the Sikhs. While his father is a retired Colonel settled in Pune, his grand-father was in the Imperial Police. His mother Mrs. Paramjit Kamte,, who now lives in Gulmohar Park is from the well known Bawa Family of Goindwal Sahib and is grand-daughter of Late Bawa Budh Singh of the Indian Service of Engineers. Bawa Budh Singh was the 14th descendent of the Third Sikh Guru, Guru Amar Dass. When I called on Mrs. Kamte, she said that though she is proud of the fact that Ashok has become a National Hero yet at times she cannot comprehend that he is no more. He was the only male member in the family whom she could look forward in times of need. He had perhaps inherited his very fair features from his maternal grandmother Mrs.Surinder Bawa (maiden name Violet) an English Lady. His sister, Sharmila, a well known model and a ballet dancer, now runs her famous Dance Academy in Dubai. His wife, Vinita, stays at Pune alongwith his sons, Rahul and Arjun. Besides serving the U.N. Force in Bosnia, Ashok had also trained in Punjab for some time. 

Ashok was known for his high integrity and efficiency which was evident in his earlier stints in Maharashtra especially in Solapur, where he had brought an inflammable communal situation under control within a few hours. I had spoken to Ashok sometime back when as Commissioner of Police, Solapur, was in the news for bringing to book the local M.L.A who was flouting the law for noise pollution. Ashok had personally gone and arrested the M.L.A. from his residence at mid-night after the M.L.A. had earlier roughed up police officials. I had asked him whether he had really beaten up the M.L.A. He replied that if he had done so, the man would not have survived as though he no longer competed in power lifting but maintained regular exercise regime. It was his conscientiousness, patriotism and devotion to duty which made him the target of the terrorist attack at Mumbai. He was the Additional Commissioner, (East) and even though the area around the Cama Hospital(South) did not fall within his jurisdiction, he had reached there as he had undergone specialized training to handle terrorism and hostage situation. He would lead from the front and was not the kind to send subordinates to do risky jobs. He lived for others and had a proactive approach. He made the supreme sacrifice and attained martyrdom in the battle field and made his family, friends and the nation proud. "

Anupinder Grewal

Additional Advocate General, Punjab (Now Judge, Punjab High Court)

Let us each keep a moment’s silence, wherever we are, to honour of all our alumni. Founder’s Day for the schoo was November 1th. That for our college is 7th December. 

May all these dear ones friends 

Rest In Peace.

Ramu Katakam (1961-1964) Article in The Wire

 

I have blogged an article by our alumni Architect Ramu Katakam (1961-1964) about Indian cities which appeared in The Wire yesterday with my introduction to an old friend. 

He was a close friend of my cousin, Mammen Mathew (Rajen), and late Suresh Mehra,  Azar Siddiqui and Anil Capoor.

Ramu and Rajen hitch-hiked from India to London. That was when I was studying in London.

Hope you enjoy the blog entry.

https://jmatthan.blogspot.com/2023/10/an-important-question-about-indian.html

KTWV Volume 13 Issue 14: Budget Battleground

This post is made in three of my blogs as it of interest to all my readers of Jacob's Blog, and more specifically the readers of my Mumbai Cathedral and John Connon School Blog, Seventh Heaven, and readers of the Stephanian Blog, Kooler Talk (Web Version).
I apologize for this multi-blog posting, as many of you are readers of all the three blogs!
Budget Battleground was  event that took place against the backdrop of my alma mater, St. Stephen's College, beautifully lit in the background, had a selected audience of young economists from Delhi School of Economics, Shri Ram College and St. Stephen's College, three of the many premier colleges in Delhi.
The anchorman was NDTV Managing Director, Dr. Prannoy Roy, who was connected with another good friend, great economist with tremendous wit, the person who turned around Doordarshan in the late eighties and early nineties and then went on to head Rupert Murdoch's Star TV and then his own channel, Broadcast Worldwide Ltd.,  and also a Stephanian, 61er/63er Rathikant Basu.
This is from the Wikipedia entry for NDTV Managing Director, Prannoy Roy:

Controversy
On 20 January 1998 Central Bureau of Investigation filed cases against New Delhi Television (NDTV) managing director Prannoy Roy, former Director General of Doordarshan R Basu and five other top officials of Doordarshan under Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for criminal conspiracy and under the Prevention of Corruption Act. According to the CBI charge-sheet, Doordarshan suffered a loss of over Rs 3.52 crore due to the “undue favours” shown to NDTV as its programme The World This Week (TWTW) was put in `A’ category instead of `special A’ category

The two in the hot seats were 63er Montek Singh Alhuwalia, who was very much present in St. Stephen's College during my three years there, and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen (difficult to say whether he is an Indian or Bangladeshi as both countries have laid claim to him).
One can never forget 63er Montek, not for his knowledge, but for the unique way he wore his turban and certain mannerisms (the nervous laugh when he knows what he is saying is not what he believes), which have not changed, even as of today. The way he argued a point was always from a point that he could not be wrong, although many times, he was and is!
I give below three extract from the autobiography of Amartya Sen (Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1998). In these extracts you will see the mention of a name - Mumbai Cathedral School 59er Sudhir Anand, my classmate who is Professor of Economics at both Oxford and Harvard, a brilliant economist and undoubtedly a brain who influenced Amartya Sen considerably more than a three time  mention in his autobiography.
59er Sudhir was from our Mumbai Cathedral and John Connon School. Although unable to make it top our 50th year reunion in 2009, he was very much there in spirit.

"I was also fortunate to have colleagues who were working on serious social choice problems, including Peter Hammond, Charles Blackorby, Kotaro Suzumura, Geoffrey Heal, Gracieda Chichilnisky, Ken Binmore, Wulf Gaertner, Eric Maskin, John Muellbauer, Kevin Roberts, Susan Hurley, at LSE or Oxford, or neighbouring British universities. (I also learned greatly from conversations with economists who were in other fields, but whose works were of great interest to me, including Sudhir Anand, Tony Atkinson, Christopher Bliss, Meghnad Desai, Terence Gorman, Frank Hahn, David Hendry, Richard Layard, James Mirrlees, John Muellbauer, Steve Nickel, among others.) I also had the opportunity of collaboration with social choice theorists elsewhere, such as Claude d'Aspremont and Louis Gevers in Belgium, Koichi Hamada and Ken-ichi Inada in Japan (joined later by Suzumura when he returned there), and many others in America, Canada, Israel, Australia, Russia, and elsewhere). There were many new formal results and informal understandings that emerged in these works, and the gloom of "impossibility results" ceased to be the only prominent theme in the field. The 1970s were probably the golden years of social choice theory across the world. Personally, I had the sense of having a ball.
From social choice to inequality and poverty
The constructive possibilities that the new literature on social choice produced directed us immediately to making use of available statistics for a variety of economic and social appraisals: measuring economic inequality, judging poverty, evaluating projects, analyzing unemployment, investigating the principles and implications of liberty and rights, assessing gender inequality, and so on. My work on inequality was much inspired and stimulated by that of Tony Atkinson. I also worked for a while with Partha Dasgupta and David Starrett on measuring inequality (after having worked with Dasgupta and Stephen Marglin on project evaluation), and later, more extensively, with Sudhir Anand and James Foster."

Later he says in his autobiography:

"During my Harvard years up to about 1991, I was much involved in analyzing the overall implications of this perspective on welfare economics and political philosophy (this is reported in my book, Inequality Reexamined, published in 1992). But it was also very nice to get involved in some new problems, including the characterization of rationality, the demands of objectivity, and the relation between facts and values. I used the old technique of offering courses on them (sometimes jointly with Robert Nozick) and through that learning as much as I taught. I started taking an interest also in health equity (and in public health in particular, in close collaboration with Sudhir Anand), a challenging field of application for concepts of equity and justice. Harvard's ample strength in an immense variety of subjects gives one scope for much freedom in the choice of work and of colleagues to talk to, and the high quality of the students was a total delight as well. My work on inequality in terms of variables other than incomes was also helped by the collaboration of Angus Deaton and James Foster.

Readers of Seventh Heaven will remember how I have written about Sudhir and the Nobel Prize awarded to Amartya Sen!
The discussion was lack lustre. Montek took the view that he could not discuss the Budget (the whole point of the programme) and gave no real answer for the blazing question how the poor of India had not improved their lot during the time he has been at the head of the Planning Commission. (At one point he says "We have said, the Government has said,…." )
Montek minced  words as only a political chamcha can do!
Roy was not hard-hitting in his position as Anchorman. He was being pleasant to his guests!!
Amartya Sen was his own self and wanted to be nice to everyone.
Not a receipe for a successful  discussion, but for me, being in the setting of our beautiful college was good enough to sit through the 45 minute discussion!
Anyway, it was good to be away from the depressing media coverage of our hallowed institution which has been plaguing us for almost half a decade!

KTWV Volume 13 Issue 9: Meeting operational Costs

Two of my 19 Blogs

Now that Kooler Talk (Web Version) is back on line regularly, establishing 16 years of service to our alumni, I am now a pensioner and keeping this afloat with my pension is quite difficult. Thanks to so many of you, I was able to install a dedicated server.

I have just 3 ad places to offer on this page, two at the top and one at the bottom.

If any Stephanian would like to help support this Web Version and would be prepared to advertise to the 3000+ Stephanians who visit this site at every update, I would be most grateful.

This is not a broad general audience, but a very very limited one.

Anyone wanting to reach my broader readership can advertise in Jacob's Blog, which is a very popular site, should look at Annikki's and my larger community called The Findians

Proposals can be sent to me at jmatthana (at) gmail.com.

KTWV 12 Issue 1: A time for KTWV to come back?

Kooler Talk (Web Version) is BACK.

It is sad that I restart Kooler Talk (Web Version) at this time of great problems within our
alumni.

I have to now stand up and have my say. That is what Kooler Talk (Web Version) has always done during the last decade and half. Unfortunately, for the first time I have to be vicious - quite against the natural grain of my character.

It has been over a year since I made a blog entry. As the old cliche states "Much water has flowed under the bridge".

In my old age, dementia has been slowly setting in. Although past events are crystal clear in my mind, much of what I have written during the past decade, or even the past week, has faded from my memory. (A test at the Lumosity web site revealed that it the disassociation of the various faculties, eyesight, hearing, the sense of smell and taste, that causes this form of dementia. It is not really the traditional form of dementia.)

I visited my blogs to read some of my past scribblings. (During my Bharat Darshan in 2009, I was only blogging at my main blog "Jacob's Blog", which presently remains locked. Much of what I wrote during that period, which included a visit to the College and attending the Founders Day event, is at the moment still unaccessible to Stephanians.)

What a shock I got! 

I seem to have written, with uncanny accuracy, what I see happening today in our alumni and in the College. I takes no credit for this. It was something which was obvious to anyone who could read the lines - not between the lines. I never make people to read between the lines.

I had written:

"The college is in the media limelight for all the wrong reasons".

Let me be crystal clear.

The common factor "for ALL the wrong reasons", then and now, has been and is Valson Thambu!

I am very happy at the positive and constructive things the alumni Facebook GROUPS (Stephanians and Laal Sitara) are doing. I am also thrilled at the Groups on LinkedIn, and many blogs run by Stephanians.

Yet, there is room for more involvement and improvement.

All the young Stephanian alumni at the helm of these various presentations of their take about our College are very sincere in what they are doing. They have the great respect for our alma mater and want to do something positive. I do hope they will resolve their personal differences and work towards a common goal.

The only person who is scared of their activity has to be one with a guilty conscience. That person feels that his "authority" will be usurped. His real intent would stand exposed.

I sort of laid out part of the goal I saw for the alumni in one of my blog entries last year. (Remember, I have been online for 15 years!!! I have said a lot during that time.)

"I would like to state some of the obvious:


We should have the finest faculty in all branches we intend to teach in our learned institution.
We should have the brightest and best students in the College.
We should have professional management to run the College, both the teaching, the education and the premises.
We should optimise all the aspects of running an educational institution.
We should modernise in keeping with similar institutions around the world.
We should involve alumni who have experience in managing a national education institution.
We should change our focus to handle the problems that face the India of tomorrow.
We should stop the reservation policy for anybody which is only detrimental to all communities in the long run."

I note that one leading contributor recently posted in one of the Facebook Groups about being open about what one says. I have always refused to publish details of subject matter sent to me with an anonymous label.

Let us go back a few years when we had the ad hoc appointment of Valson Thambu as the Principal of our College.

During the short time he was there he tried to change the secularity of the college into a fiefdom for a narrow band of Christians. He brought great disrepute to our alma mater!

I am born a Christian but value all the good of all religions.

Our college was not set up just for Christians. Read 61er Tony Jaitly's history of our College. You will see the first four students admitted to our College were Hindus and the fifth a Muslim!

Then Valson Thambu was removed. We hoped an experienced Administrator would be appointed!

While the process of re-appointment of the Prtincipal was going on, back Valson Thambu was, with a "doctorate" in theology from an Agricultural University! Do read an earlier blog entry of mine on this subject.

Despite the excellent credentials of many of the candidates to head our College, Valson Thambu was again appointed as Principal in a very clandestine manner. The collusion was more than obvious, again bringing great disrepute to our alma mater.

Then, there was a huge public war between the Bishop (the Chairman of our College) and Valson Thambu as they battled to get control of the funds of the College. 

This unseemly washing of dirty linen in public was screamed across the headlines of many national newspapers.

I witnessed all this sitting here close to the Arctic Circle, 7000 km away from Delhi. I wrote to many Stephanian alumni to DO SOMETHING!

The College was again the headlines for all the wrong reasons. 

And now we have the alumni scandal, where Valson Thambu has taken a "cease and desist" approach to something creative, constructive and positive done by a section of the alumni.

Why? 


What has this alumni association done to degrade the name of our alma mater? Why this dramatic over-reaction?


Who gave Valson Thambu ANY authority over my right as an alumni to discriminate  or accept the good of two alumni groups? Certainly not me!

If one reads his 8 page "cease and desist" letter - it would be easy to put the name of Valson Thambu to all the accusations he has leveled against what he calls the "Imitator" alumni association!

It is Valson Thambu who is the Imitator Principal!

If people want to do good for our alumni, why attack them publicly with such a ridiculous liturgy rather than talk and sort things out in a Stephanian way.

Although I belong to both the Groups on Facebook, neither Group has asked me for any money. Nor have they made any demands on me, except for my time and my good wishes.

As I said in one earlier posting, Valson Thambu is past the maximum level set by the Peter Principle.

Conflict diverts attention from the real situation, his legitimacy as the Principal of our College. 

Valson Thambu has no management skill that I am aware of. His actions from Day 1 when he took over as the Principal proves my point. His doctorate is highly questionable. The doctorate relates to a subject not even taught in our College (or was so when I last enquired).

There very "cease and desist" letter signed by him proves beyond a shadow of doubt his lack of competency to head our alma mater!

So on what grounds was he appointed to head our College? 


His knowledge of the English language or a hidden agenda?

I hope all the wonderful members of the alumni will get together and make sure that we have a harmonious relationship amongst ourselves and not be at the beck and call of the dubious holder of the title of the Principal of our College.

Valson Thambu is all what our various previous Principals were not - a very divisive personality. And as I have said before - there is not one Christian bone in his body. 

I will be back on line with my traditionally nostalgic reminiscences of OUR College. Stay tuned.

My approach is quite different from the wonderful SPICE or any other College related group.

And your inputs, criticisms, brickbats, are always welcome.

I am so happy that new SPICE is out. It is a great read. It is a wonderful professional alumni presentation - and Valson Thambu wants to kill this creativity? WHY? 

(The original SPICEs were way after my time in College. I understand they were controversial and racy!)

Kooler Talk (Web Version) will remain what it has always been - MY personal take on life in and after my wonderful experience in St. Stephen's College, Delhi.

Welcome back to all our regular readers. And welcome to our many new readers.

KTWV 11 Issue 21: Old Cottonians act

I have mentioned on my many blogs the unfortunate media publicity attached to some of my alma maters.

I am heartened to see how the Bangalore Old Cottonians Association (OCA) have acted swiftly to ensure to show that they are actively concerned about their alma mater. Past Old Cottonians, as both my late father and uncle, who served as Chairmen of the OCA, would be proud of the stand taken by the present OCA.

I reproduce here the letter that was sent by the present Chairman of the OCA to the Moderator of the Church of South India as per the resolution passed at an Extraordindary General Meeting of the Old Cottonians in Bangalore. Sitting here in Finland, I was kept abreast of the developments and I too fully support the actions of the OCA.:

PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS EMAIL TO OTHER OC's YOU ARE IN TOUCH WITH AND ON YOUR SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES.

5th April, 2010

The Most Reverend Vasantha Kumar
Moderator,
Church of South India
Mission Road
Bangalore


Dear Sir,

We, as the Old Cottonians' Association, have a considerable stake in the upkeep of the fair name of Bishop Cotton's Boys' School and all that this entails. Principals and members of the Board of management may come and go, but once a student passes out of the school, and leaves its gates, he becomes an Old Cottonian and this status remains throughout his life and no force on earth can take it away from him.

We earnestly hope that other stake holders in the school should realise this and act accordingly.
Recent happenings in the school have caused us great concern. Old Cottonians from all over the world have expressed their deep worry.  As a consequence, the OCA held an Extraordinary General Body meeting at the Rotary House of Friendship, Bangalore on the 3rd of April, 2010 and the under mentioned resolution was passed and the same is being communicated to the various persons connected with the management of  the school.

Accordingly I quote below:

"The Old Cottonians' Association (OCA) noted with anguish that the matters concerning the administration of Bishop Cotton Boys' School, Bangalore had recently become the subject matter of various media reports, which had tarnished the good name of the Institution.

The OCA further noted that under Article 2.2 of its Constitution containing the "Aims and Objects", the OCA was entitled and obligated ".... to be in constant interaction with the Management of the School in the matter of maintaining the standards, traditions and conventions of the School."

It was therefore unanimously RESOLVED that the Board of Management of Bishop Cotton Boys' School, Bangalore be called upon to take immediate corrective measures to ensure that the incumbent issues be fully resolved, so as to restore the smooth functioning of the School in keeping with its rich traditions and standards, and to keep the OCA informed of the said measures.

It was further RESOLVED to offer the assistance and support of the OCA to all concerned to enable the resolution of all outstanding issues.

The Chairman and Management Committee of the OCA were accordingly requested to communicate the aforesaid resolution to the Principal, Bishop and Board of Management of Bishop Cotton Boys' School, Bangalore, and to await a positive reaction to the same before undertaking any further course of action."

Yours faithfully


MICHAEL WATSA
CHAIRMAN
OLD COTTONIANS' ASSOCIATION

I wish my other alma mater alumni, The Stephanians, would also act with the dignity and purpose shown by Old Cottonians.

KTWV 11 Issue 20: Secularity in Educational Institutions

(Posted on all my main blogs as this is one of my more serious postings meant to get the broadest reach.)

I learnt from the Times of India of 25th March 2010, Bishop Cotton school principals to resign, that my second alma maters, the Bishop Cotton's Schools in Bangalore, both the Boys and Girls schools, are going through a huge upheaval. The alleged interference of the Church in their running and the seemingly marginalisation of the Principals (also known as Wardens) into puppets, possibly all in the greed for the rich pickings associated with running a well-known educational institution, appear to have taken these two schools from reality into a fantasy world. Accusations are flying left, right and centre.

Sitting 7000 km away from that base, I do not know who is right or wrong, but it is such a shame to see the schools where my late father (he was also the Old Boy's Association Chairman for many years) and all his siblings, and a greater part of my generation of Matthan's, including my four children, being destroyed by these bickerings and the unfortunate media stories being put out.

A similar situation of the differences between the Church and the Principal is causing the rot of the fourth of my alma maters, St. Stephen's College in Delhi. The Alumni in different part of the world are taking actions, but that may not stop the rot.

However, my Mumbai alma mater, The Cathedral and John Connon School, seems to have overcome this problem, or it probably has not yet come to the forefront.

Trying to remember my days in each school and college, I knew I was in a Christian Institution in all these three cases (and also my first, The Good Shepherd Convent School in Mysore).

In Bishop Cotton's Boys' School we had to go, being a Christian by birth, to the Chapel for morning service before the start of school, every single day.

In Mumbai, we had School Assembly every morning with the reading of the Bible by one of the Prefects and singing of hymns. But it was not grossly evident that it was a Christian school.

My 59er class consisted of Atheists, Christians (a handful), Hindus, Jains, Jews, Muslims, Parsis, Sikhs, Sindhis, and probably various other sects and sub-sects. Not once did it cross my mind that my classmates were from different religions.

The only time I was aware the difference was we took our shirts off for PT. I noticed a few of my classmates wore quite different vests - the Parsis, as they had a sleeveless type muslin (?) vest quite different from the rest of the class. Other than mentally noting this difference, and I never even bothered to find out or understand the reason for this, we were all equal in every other respect during our hours in school.

The only differences were those imposed by the time table, as the Christians had to do Scripture as a subject while the non-Christians were exempt from this.

These secular values, and the continuation of the same which I imbibed in St. Stephen's College of the early 60s, has stood me in good stead through my life. I learnt to respect people for what they do and achieve and not because of their religion, caste or creed.

I wish this would be the universal philosophy across the world, as the wars that plague us today are based on these stupid artificial values, called as faith - be it by any religion anywhere in the world where the religious hierarchy fights for power and prestige, misguiding the masses along the way.

KTWV 11 Issue 03: Active alumni is important

It is so wonderful to read on Facebook about the very active alumni we have in Bangalore.

The Southern Stephanian Facebook Group is certainly getting their aim right. The Golf Tournament organised by them is pulling in many takers.

Well done, Southern Stephanians, but do also take up the issues which plague our alma mater these days.

Sreenath Sreenivasan, our talented professor, tech savvy journalist in New York, is certainly helping to keep that alumni faced in the right direction. I know we have a great bunch of guys in Singapore, but they have been out of touch for some time. Pressures of the global financial melt down?

It is only with a strong and active alumni around the world that we can drive our college back along the right track.

Above all we need an active alumni centre at home base in New Delhi.

Any Stephanians in Finland? After Professor Ajeet Mathur moved back to India and the Indian institute of Management in Ahmedabad, I am left as an alumni of 1!

And I am active!!! :-)

KTWV 10 Issue 24: Meeting Another Heap

(Also posted on my main blog - Jacob's Blog, where I am posting all the entries during this extended trip around India.)

Lunch yesterday at the India International Centre in New Delhi was a most pleasant experience. (Not just the Thali meal!)

I renewed contact with another of my dearest St. Stephen's College friends - Niranjan Desai (also know as Heap 1: Ajay was Heap 2: I was Heap 3 - meaning a Heap of TROUBLE!). Niranjan was a year senior to me and was studying English Honours. He was from East Africa. He was and is still is a thorough gentleman with a great sense of humour.

In college, we were a group who lived between 1960 amnd 1963 in Mukerji East residential block. (Mukerji West did not exist in our time.)

Even though I say it myself, we were a great crowd. Besides Niranjan and myself, Ajay (Sweden), Badri (Switzerland, youngest every Padma Shiri), Choppy, Daisy (London), Norval, late Rajen, Rajiv, Ramani, Ravi, Rijwhani, Sujit (Kolkotta), Titch, etc., were just a few of our very happy and lively bunch. We were like one family.

The group consisted of Eco, English, Chemistry, History, Maths, Physics, and General Science students - but that did not make a difference, as we were all on the same wavelength.

When I met Niranjan this time, it was not as if a day had passed since our college days. He was looking trim, and except for his white hair, like mine, he was still the same smiling jovial self.

He has seen much of the world as he took up Indian citizenship, joined the Foreign Service and after being declared persona non grata in Uganda, when Idi Amin was on the rampage, he has served in various capacities including his Ambassadorship to Egypt, Switzerland and senior appointments in London and USA (both New York and Washington D. C.). He organised the Festival of India in both London and the USA, both of which received wonderful international coverage.

Of course, I did not know all this, but learnt a lot during our lunch together when time just passed quicker than one wanted.

Niranjan now works for an interesting organisation run by a brilliant young NRI presently based in Mumbai, who was described by Niranjan as a talented workaholic, Neville Tuli. Known as the OSIAN's, their contribution to Indian Culture is something which takes the breath away. They could not have found a better Ambassador than Niranjan.

Among the many things that have been established, two stick out. They have attempted and succeeded in launching the first serious Auction House in India, much on the lines of Sotheby's, Christies and Philips.

Niranjan gave me the Catalogue they had prepared for the first auction which took place on 29th October 2009. It is a publication which can be treasured as it is of the quality that one expects only from the large international auction houses. And Osian's has built up the in-house expert group which is the only way such an enterprise can succeed over the long term.

The second interesting avenue that this group has organised is film festivals covering a range of subjects. This is something which is different from the film festivals which used to be the attraction for those interested in seeing flesh exposure in the old days!

Anyone who is serious about buying genuine Indian Antiquities and Modern Art, may I suggest that they get in touch with this group. They know what they are doing. Their catalogue explains all the laws and procedures in the simplest of terms, so anyone following their guidelines will hardly fall foul of the "laws" as they are practiced in India!

Niranjan was a bit sceptical about the future of India. Like me, he is of the opinion that the country is fast moving into a state of terminal decline. He agrees with me that civic society has collapsed and the only driving force is the bottom line, which is neither Indian culture or heritage. Corruption has increased to such an extent, in his opinion, there is no meaning in the rule of law. He too is of the opinion that the Naxals will wait and make their move at the appropriate time, resulting in horrific bloodshed.

Having been a diplomat and a civil servant almost all his working life, his assessment coinciding with mine was indeed very strange.

We also agreed that what is happening in our alma mater is a sign that that too is in terminal decline. The college is not about education any longer, but persons in the "administration" jockeying for more power as they file suits and counter suits in the law courts. Even today, the High Court chided the Principal for his misuse of power. Further, the battle between the Bishop and the teachers has hotted up!

Is this what one wants appearing in the Press day-in day-out?

1. St Stephen's row: Court pulls up principal


2. HC chides Stephens Principal for misuing power


3. Stephen's tense over bursar appointment

Are these the examples to set for the students of this august institution?

And, is all this "Christian"?

My visit to the college certainly demonstrated that what is important in the college is being forgotten, while all these external battles are in progress. As I had already mentioned, it appears that no one cares about the state of the college.



The Junior Common Room (JCR) is in shambles. That pained me immensely, as when I was the JCR President, it was my close work with the then Principal, Mr. Sircar and the Vice Principal, Mr. Shanklund, that had driven the JCR to become something of a force in the college for the college residents. The students earned the respect of the staff by the way they organised all the different events and finally the JCR Evening.



The beautiful lawn and rose garden which stood in front of Mukerji East is no longer there - it is just a barren piece of brown earth. The lawns have not been swept of the fallen leaves.

The white interior walls of the college are dirty.



The pictures in many places do not hang straight.

It feels like one is in a third rate institution.

Where is the order and pride in the alma mater that had existed in our time?

It is obvious that people are more concerned of their own political ambitions rather than the state of the college.

Niranjan also expressed that many of our friends had changed over time with their own priorities weighing in their lives. Natural, but unfortunate.

What values we shared when we were in college are those that are worth standing for, even today. A strong alumni can influence the happenings of the alma mater.

Thank you, Niranjan, for showing me that we can still hold our principles, whatever we have been through in the intervening years.