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.

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.

KTWV Volume 15 Issue 4: Nandita Narain retires fromCollegeol

 

I studied in College between 1960 and 1963. Principal Sircar was the one who taught me Mathematics along with Professor Nagpal. 

Later Rhodes Scholar Ranjit Bhatia returned after his taking part in the Olympics and joined the Mathematics Department.

When I started Kooler Talk (Web Version) in 1996, I started to hear about a Maths teacher in college who was changing the scenario.

Later I watched her activity on Facebook and other local media as NDTV.

Each report I heard only made me more appreciative of her work.

Now, after a tumultuous career in our college and also in the University of Delhi, Nandita Narain is retiring.

Although I never had the opportunity to meet her personally, I held her in great respect as she always stood by her principles and also what our college stood for.

Her history has appeared in the media so it is not my intention to repeat what has been written about her.

I wait to see what she will do next as she is a firebrand and will not leave the scene quietly. 

Nandita will always stand up for the right against the wrong.

Well played Nandita.

You are always welcome to share your views on this platform as we respect you as alumni and as an  associate of our college. 

Au revoir Nandita, welcome back Nandita.

KTWV Volume 15 Issue 3: New lady Vice Principal

 This entry is thanks to John Dayal from Facebook. Photograph from LinkedIn.

Congratulations Dr. Gabriel

College is likely to soon see the first woman Vice Principal in its long history.  

Dr Karen Gabriel has reportedly been selected for the post at a time when a Delhi University administration is is trying to block the extension given to Dr John Verghese as Principal.  

The governing body of St Stephen’s  College is defying the university move. 

Karen Gabriel heads the English Department at St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. She is also Founder-Director, Center for Gender, Culture and Social Processes at St Stephen’s College. 

She has published extensively on issues of gender, sexuality, cinema, representation, melodrama and the nation-state, which are her core research interests. 

Her publications include “Melodrama and the Nation: Sexual Economies of Bombay cinema 1970-2000”, and the edited volume “Gendered Nation”

She is currently working on a book on dystopia, and one on homosociality. 

Her international fellowships and awards include the Digital Fellowship (2021), World Society Foundatio and the Council for European Studies (CES-WSF) at Columbia University, the European Union's International Incoming Marie Curie Fellowship, Scholar in Residence at the College of William and Mary (USA), the Leverhulme Fellowship at the UK, three post-doctoral Fellowships for Gender Excellence at the Centre for Gender Excellence, Linköping University, Sweden, and the Government of Netherlands fellowship for her doctoral research.