KTWV02-Issue 12: Macs vs PCs, ROI

Dear fellow Stephanians,

My sincere apologies for coming up late with this issue, but some grave problems confronted me in the form of influenza which knocked me cold - leaving me with no option but to delay my extra-ciricular activities. However, all is well that ends well, and your host is back on line - minus 10 kg of his 115 kg original flab.

New York seems to have been most active last month as they got our Indian Representative to the UN, none other than the tall and lanky (as I remember him), Kamlesh Sharma to attend the reunion.

I had a look at the New York list of Stephanians and I was most pleased to find the name of another good colleague, Alan Robertson, 65 History, listed. He too is at the United Nations.

Alan was the first non-Indian from the African continent that I ever met and got to know (Rathikant Basu - claimed Khartoum, Sudan, as his base while Niranjan Desai was my friend from Nairobi, Kenya).

Alan was a fine upstanding fellow during his college years. If I remember right, he used to be in training with the late Arjun Soni (Horse), about whom I wrote last week

Maybe the first person one meets from a new place can set your mind about a whole continent, and Alan was a true Ambassador in the sixties for the African continent.

New York's active Stephanian, Sreenath, is also responsible for this month's letter from our Principal - which is in a good cause to help develop our college. I hope all of you will act on this request - as every dollar contributed will be worth its weight in gold.

I hope Anil will tell us the bank account to which we should transfer whatever meager assistance we can steal and divert from the mouths of our starving babes.

*

ST. STEPHEN'S COLLEGE DELHI - 110007
STUDENTS UNION SOCIETY

5th Dec 1997.

Dear Sir,

St. Stephen's College is one of India's premier educational institutions. For over a century it has consistently maintained high and exacting standards in the field of liberal arts and sciences. Along the way, it has produced many of India's leaders in politics, business, administration and other professional streams.

At present the college offers Honors courses in Economics, Mathematics, Physics, History, English, Philosophy and Sanskrit along with a General course in Computers. The college plans to offer an Honors course in Computers from next year. It also plans to make access to the Internet and email available to every student. This requires an augmentation of the existing computer infrastructure in college.

The college plans to set up a modern computer centre and seeks the help of a corporate sponsor in this venture. We would be grateful if you either provide us financial support or contribute the equipment. Enclosed is our proposal for what such a venture would entail. We welcome any changes or additions that you might have to suggest.

The college would recognize your participation and the form and manner of that recognition could be discussed with the college later.

We look forward to a favorable response from you. All payments may be made to the Principal, St. Stephen's College. We would like to express our gratitude to you for your support of St. Stephen's College.

Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
(ANIL WILSON)
Principal, St. Stephen's College

(ABHAY GANGADHARAN)
President, Students Union Society

This is the proposal for a new computer centre for St. Stephen's College. We plan to offer each student access to the Internet and email. The centre will also have desktop publishing and multi-media capabilities.

Fixed Costs (all figures in Indian Rs.)
1. Three 2-tonne air conditioners 100,000
2. 1 UPS 20,000
3. 2 Laser Printers 80,000
4. 2 Color Inkjets 50,000
5. 2 Modems 20,000
6. 2 Phone Lines 6,000
7. 1 Server 100,000
8. 1 Scanner 25,000
Sub-Total 401,000

Infrastructural Costs 300,000

Variable Costs
20 Computers 100,000
Sub-Total 1,701,000

Annual Maintenance & Upgradation 2,500,000

Total Endowment Rs. 4,200,000
(roughly $100,000) The centre will also have desktop publishing and multi-media capabilities.

Although this is not the forum for debate about computer platforms, a couple of points may be worth making. Stephen's is the centre of forward thinking and learning. Second, there is an important phrase in the above:

" The centre will also have desktop publishing and multi-media capabilities."

This alone points to the choice being made to install Apple Macintosh computers rather than PC's at Stephen's.

The reasons for this are plentifold, but when over 80% of those in publishing use Macs, the argument would be compelling.

The recent GISTICs Executive Education Knowledge-Based Publication Series report, Volume II Issue 1 Number 1 Revision 4.8 dated Summer 1997 - I can submit a copy to whomsoever is interested - showed that the return on investment (ROI) in the publishing field of a Macintosh-using creative professional produced US$26441 more annual revenue and US$14488 more net profit than a Windows user of comparable skill engaged in similar work. This revenue differential enabled a PowerPC Macintosh-based studio to achieve payback on a new platform in 4.59 months, whereas in stark contrast, a WINDOWS NT-based form required 12.58 months to recoup its investment.

This is one of the primary reasons for the predominance of Macs in this area of technology.

Probably a more compelling reason would be the conclusion of this report published in the UK by the British software company SCO and Harris Research which found that most time was lost through PC malfunction or misuse. Seven out of 10 surveyed said they became frustrated when their PCs failed to work. On average, each employee surveyed wasted 100 minutes a week during the first month a new system is introduced. "Consequently, the latest software isn't empowering these users -- it is disrupting their working day," - Geoff Seabrook of SCO commented. The survey of 400 PC users in medium-sized and large companies in Europe found that personal computers caused stress, with employees feeling that they had to work harder than ever before. Such malfunctions are rare on a Mac. I have hardly lost a moment of my computing time in 14 odd years.

Further, I quote a couple of lines from the April 21st 1997 issue of TIME which had the special report on the wife and mom of Stephanians - none other than Booker Prize winner and world best-selling authoress - Arundhati Roy .

*

"All the more wondrous for a book that according to the author, came into being almost on its own. Once Small Things showed up on the screen of her Macintosh desktop, Roy virtually chained herself to the keyboard in the bedroom of her book-lined, one-bedroom New Delhi apartment, emerging for little besides aerobic classes."

My own experience (with 3 local best-sellers between my wife and myself , three webletters coming up for the last two years every fortnight, and over a 1000 articles published between us), with the Mac has been similar - and till today this old decrepit Stephanian who puts up this crazy webletter for equally gonky Stephanians world-wide, has no clue what his computer is doing - and I do not want to know as all I am interested in is productivity.

And as to productivity on the Mac - that I can swear by - as when I came to Finland in 1984 - I had never touched a computer before (barring my whopping big calculator) - and I was thrown into the highest tech lab in Oulu - Microelectronics (the heart of electronics) - where everyone swore by IBM and DOS.

I started by looking at a few manuals and playing around with a VAX machine, and I knew in my heart I was just wasting time.

A friend of mine and I chanced upon the Mac - and before you could say "Jacob the Finn" - we were the two most productve guys in the lab. Thereafter, virtually every high tech operation, including control of excimer and argon ion lasers, research on the high temperature superconductors, and research on a mass of new technologies was being done on Macs. The entire staff in the lab got themselves Macs, both for their office desktop as well as for their home computing.

What is even more interesting is that over the last 14 years, except for my earliest acquisition for the lab, none of the other Macs have been retired as they still perform in the high tech environment with all the efficiency required. (I bought my earliest Mac acquisition for the lab at an auction last year and I am still using this antique 14 years on with no loss in productivity!)

There are several even more compelling reasons for staying away from PCs - there are over 100000 bugs and viruses associated with PCs - which is chaotic in a public facility where students bring in their own discs. The total number of bugs and viruses on Macs is just 35 and the disinfectant and anti-virus programs are all free.

However, probably the most compelling reason is that you can run all the main operating systems on a Mac - Windows, MacLinux, and of course, the Mac operating system, which the rest of the computer world is trying to emulate - rather badly at that, whereas with a PC, you are stuck with just one operating system.

I could give you hundreds of other reasons why our college should use Macs - but probably the greatest is just productivity. If you want Stephanians to be productive in the wide world - then equip them with the real thing and not just a bad copy of what has set the world of computing alight 15 years ago. Face it - Windows is a copy and will always remain a copy of the real thing!!

Oh, by the way, the Marketing Manager of Apple Computers Inc. in the US is a good Mallu - Jacob Kandathil - and if the right approach is made to him, I am sure that Apple Computers Inc. should be able to make a substantial donation to the most prestigious college in India.

Moving on to other subjects, I promise you an exciting next issue of Kooler Talk Web version, with a most revealing photograph of four Stephanians. Three of them, plus a 4th who is the Chairman and Managing Director of one of India's most respected companies (but sadly not a Stephanian) in that photograph, will probably pay me good money to stop the picture coming online - but this old coot (the fourth figure) cannot be bribed - so watch out for the next episode of a new volume of Kooler Talk web version which should come online by the beginning of March 1998.

Till then "näkemiin (Finnish for - goodbye till we meet again)" from a frozen north where temperatures for the past week have been hovering around -39 Celsius.

Your Kooler Talk (Web Version) Editor

Jacob

KTWV02-Issue 11: Reader Inputs Plenty

Hello fellow Stephanians,

What has been the most embarrassing moment of your life? (Seems to be an ideal opportunity for many of you to send me your true life confessions.)

Mine was when I was stranded as a soprano washerwoman on the operatic stage in Bombay instead of being carted off to be a harem girl in a Chinese palace. A short-lived career indeed. But two friendly(?) Stephanians changed all that in the month of December 1997.

Our Professor of Journalism from the Big Apple, Sreenath, having read some of my musings, thought he would drop a gentle hint by subscribing me to the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) mailing list so that I could be exposed to the 90 odd learned scribes who share their thoughts on matters of earth-shattering importance (as do we Stephanians) - as to which is the best Indian sweet. (Some came out in favour of something known as "pinni", which in my long life in North India - especially with the cooking wizards in the Stephanian Mess, I was sadly kept in ignorance of. I stodgily stood behind Bangalorean K. C. Das's Sweet Curd - some had the nerve to claim this Kannadiga delicacy was from Bengal! I would have suggested Sukhia's barfi, but I was in a cussed South Indian mood.)

Coming back to my narrative, as I expressed my preference for this mouth-watering delicacy to the journalists, and then questioned why the Indian flag was called a tricolour when it has a fourth colour - the blue in the centre as the chakra - causing many of the assembled audience to unsubscribe from the list - suddenly, appeared a message to this all star cast saying something like - "Hey there, Sorry to use this for a personal query. Is the Jacob Matthan who questioned the use of tricolour the same as Sushil Matthan?"

My world was shattered to smithereens - here was I hiding in my anonymity and a fellow Stephanian, albeit a few years senior to me, with whom I just happened to share a flat in London for three good years, drops a hot potatoe (so with my Dan Quail spelling, now you can grade me to be inline for the American Vice Presidency) to this sombre (almost as dropping a brick at the Drones Club) list of great names from the American media, asking for the well hidden truth!!

A few more unsubscribe requests must have made Sreeni wonder whether he had destroyed his pet project by including me. In the process he put me in touch with Anil Kumar, Stephanian 1956-1959, Chartered Accountant from London 1966, much travelled character extraordinaire, as he can describe ball-by-ball (takes the good part of five days to get through it), even today, the final between Bombay University (captained by Ajit Wadekar) and Delhi University (captained by Akash Lal?) in 1959. He is now working in the Big Apple for a small population organisation which promotes family planning by using radio and tv soap operas to convey the message.

Welcome to Kooler Talk (Web Version) - Annie, yes, I thought I should respond in kind and reveal to our Stephanians your plomme de num (you can guess I got distinction in french for my Senior Cambridge as I mixed this nom de plume!!).

Thank you all for not castigating me for flooding your mailboxes with my reminder message last month - but I suffered the most, as there were 38 wrong addresses,, which meant I got over 150 returns in my mailbox, and I had to go through each one to check for the fault. See why I hate sending those reminders!

The response to the last issue was heartening - but the glory belongs, not to me, but the contribution of our dear Princi. Most suggested that I should give him a permanent space for his scribblings, which I think would be well worth it.

Many suggestions of titles for Anil's column came in - the most popular being "Corridors of Fame" - his piece about our sacred Stephanian corridor, so kindly circulated by Sreeni, having aroused a great deal of comment!

I have not decided on the name, and neither has Anil agreed to grace these pages on a regular basis - but we can always live in hope.

He has, however, has sent me a letter for this issue, so here goes.

*

Subject: More about College
Sent: 29/11/97 08:31
From: Dr. Anil Wilson, Principal of St. Stephen's College

Dear Jacob,

I have gone through Issue Ten of the Web Version of Kooler Talk and have enjoyed it. A brief update on some of the issues mentioned by you:

VED PARKASH MARWAH, our Chief Guest for the Founders Day, is of the 1949-53 vintage. Graduated in Economics and then went on to do his post graduation in History. Joined the IPS and served in important positions. A more detailed CV will follow when I have a little more time.

Vikram Seth was not at St. Stephen's though there are some who suggest that he did join College for a very brief while before leaving for foreign climes. This needs to be checked out. However, the hero of "Suitable Boy" is specifically made out to be a Stephanian (is this an example of vicarious wish-fulfilment by Seth? Any shrinks among your readers who could delve deeper into this??)

(Ed: This issue remains unresolved - but the bulk of those who wrote told me to get on with it and read the book, nevertheless - still struggling on with this Five Year Project, but must say I have read some better stuff in my day!)

Talking about writers: Arundhati Roy's step daughter and husband are Stephanians. Hence we could persuade her to come and read portions of her "God of Small Things".

I do not think there is any Stephanian worth his mince who hasn't heard the story about Natwar Singh's comment in the College Visitor's Book: "I am what I am today because of College," and Mani Shankar Aiyar's, retort a few days later, "But why blame the poor College!?"

Well, Mani was in College two days ago on an IDG invitation, spoke on well into the night (he left at 11.30 p.m.) and the large audience, like the Wedding Guest in Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" were held in thrall by the glittering eye and tales of yore of this our own home-spun Ancient Mariner.

However, not to digress from the point from where I began: On leaving Mani wrote the usual courteous things about College in the Visitor's book, and ended up with, "But, No, I will not write anything about Natwar this time."

On the subject of Ancient Mariners and Old Boys: Sriniwas Sohni (63-68, History) who was Secretary to President Shankar Dayal Sharma and was appointed Secretary-General Rajya Sabha just before Shankar Dayal Sharma retired, was unceremoniously dumped thereafter and relegated to an inconsequential position. Sohni, with the help of another well-known Stephanian, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal (also member of the College Governing Body), took the johnies to court. Yesterday his position was vindicated and he was reinstated.

However, all is not bonhomie and camaraderie among Stephanians. Stephanian Jagmohan Dalmia and Stephanian Sunil Dev (both powers-to-reckon-with on the national cricket scene) were involved in a messy public squabble over the control of the Cricket Board of India. Body-line bowling and nasty bouncers were the order of the day till Dalmia got the better of his junior brother-[up]in-arms.

While on Cricket: College cricket team has reached the semi-finals of the Delhi University tournament. En-route, among the important victories were the one against Aurobindo college (Aurobindo: 121 all out. SSC: 121 for two) and, more important, against the chaps across the road (Hindu: 82 all out; SSC: 82 for one).

In the other DU tournaments concluded so far we have won the University Championship in both the men and women basketball. This is the first time that both these championships have come to us--we have been winning one or the other alternately.

The College debating team has been invited to Greece to participate in a World Debating event. In fact during the past few years the College Debating Team has been participating in a number of international events and doing very well.

(Ed: Should have them up against a series of Old Boys teams - we will then know which generation can produce the greatest amount of gas!!)

More in my next mail.

Best wishes,

Anil

Need I add any more to this issue? Not to disappoint you folks, here are a few baby dinosaurs who have appeared on the scene during the last year.

*

Subject: Katy, 1969-70
Date: Tue, 08 Jul 1997 21:55:00 -0400
From: marshall-shah

Dear Jacob,

You've created a veritable nostalgia funhouse!

I graduated Stephen's in 1970 and was in residence from 1967 (Allnutt South).

I was also the Katy Editor in 1969, the year that Katy was "confiscated" by a group of students who didn't like the editorial content or the tone of the articles in a particular issue. Things got quite out of hand and the balance of the world seemed to be at stake for a short while!

It WAS a long time ago. Anyway, I'll have to try and remember more.

Amit Shah

*

Subject: Stephanians
From: Prabhu Guptara
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 1997 10:07:16 -0400 (EDT)

I did not know that there was a Stephanian so near the Arctic Circle! And if I had realised it, I would certainly have dropped in on you when I was in Oulu doing some work for Nokia!

(Ed: Anyone else heard of this small Finnish company my daughter was working for before she decide to produce my first grandson - the very same daughter who has set me lines to read Suitable Boy as a process of father education - while she vacations in Bangalore?)

Though I hear about others from time to time, the only Stephanians I am in more or less regularly in touch with OUTSIDE INDIA are Anish Mathai (in NY) and "Juno" Verghese Varkki, (in Luxembourg).

I also WAS in touch with Trinanjan Mitra in Luxembourg but have lost touch with him for some years.

If any of you knows the whereabouts of Stephen George (Physics, 1960s; then LSE for his Masters; when last heard of he had formally changed his first name to Ranjit (or Ranjeet?) and was in California...).

And if any of you fellow mission-college guys ever visits Switzerland, look me up - I am based about 45 minutes north-east of Zurich airport, overlooking Lake Constance.

Prabhu Guptara
e-mail address is available

And again:
*

From: Prabhu Guptara
Date: Wed, 16 Apr 1997 07:41:41 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: Stephanians

Dear Jacob

I was at SSC 1965/70, then lectured there 1970/73, before going to Scotland for 3 years and England for 16 where I set up a consultancy while keeping up my academic links.

We did some work for Union Bank of Switzerland in 1995 and they made me an offer in 1996, so I have been with them 18 months as Group Director, Organisational Learning & Transformation while also continuing as Chairman of the consultancy in the UK.

Prabhu Guptara

*

Subject: Re: Hi There

From: Jose Vellapally
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 12:43:23 +0500

Hello Sushil (Ed: yet another who reveals all),

Sure, I remember you and am delighted to hear about your "Kooler Talk" site.

I have just registered myself on both my old school and college registries on world alumni net. Yours is the first response from an old Stephanian.

I am now based in Delhi and have been practising in the Supreme Court since 1991.

Looking forward to seeing the next edition of KT.

regards,

Joseph Vellapally Stephanian 1962-1965

(Ed: Joe was the only person I ever ragged in my years at Stephen's. He was made to stand on one leg for a very long time - but, of course, I was not looking and he was cheating!! :-))
*

Subject: Re: Hi
From: Dileep Rao
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 16:06:29 GMT

Dear Jacob,

Yes, we were indeed in SSC together..... and I think I remember you somewhat better than you do me!

You were with Rajan Narayanan (Ed: Rajan was last heard of at Cochin working for one of the plantation companies) and the late Arjun Soni, weren't you?

(Ed: It was sad to hear about Arjun's demise. Arjun was popularly known as Horse because of the way he ran - he was a long distance runner of some merit and kept in training with Rhodes Scholar and Stephanian Olympian Ranjit Bhatia. I last met up with Arjun in Bangalore where he was branch manager for India Foils in the mid-seventies. He appeared to be in great physical shape then. Can anyone fill me on the details - as Arjun was a wonderful Stephanian and a happy personality.)

I clearly recall the story of your altercation with the late Arun "I'm tough" Babbar, who earned great laurels in his brief police career for valour and gallantry!

(Ed: Again, I am also very sad to hear of the demise of Arun - as he lived three rooms away from me during my three years in college. He was tough on the outside but a real softie inside - and after our first head-to-head confrontation, he realised that he had better not bother me - I was twice his size and also twice his weight, and just as physically fit as he was!!)

It's great to hear from you!

I read History Hons., doing my B.A. in '63 and my M.A. in '65, after which I went to Oxford for three years and have been working with ITC Ltd. since '69.

Write soon. Yours aye,

Dileep Rao

How is that for a sample from my mailbag. I have lots more to come from many a generation so please stay tuned for the February issue, which will end this Volume.

I shall then try to revamp the site to make it a bit more daring, but considering my total lack of knowledge about this thing they call a computer, it is really going to be an effort.

Those of you with web pages, please submit the correct URL - as some of the links given below (about 2 issues down) are broken. I have left thm in so that you will write to me when you note your link is not working.

As an aside - ad space on the Kooler Talk and the Katy Archive pages, as also all my other web pages are going at a premium. If you want to advertise to some 52000 hits from 70 countries every issue, do let me know. I will ask my ad agent, an young Indian nuclear physicist from Hyderabad working in a town, Jyväskylä, about 300 km south of Oulu in Finland on the local cyclotron, to get in touch with you. My intention is to help a few struggling Indian students here in Finland earn a small income so that they can support their studies in Finland as they are not entitled to any form of grant or subsidy, and living costs are substantial.

A very happy new year to all of you out there (be it Tamil, Parsi, or any other - I will not be repeating this greeting - my brand of secularism - for the next 365 days!) - and take care.

Your Kooler Talk (Web Version) Editor

Jacob - one who is still surviving the bitter cold of the Arctic - the Finnish word is "sisu" which the Finns say is Robert Bruce type perseverance but which in my case translates better as "blockhead"

KTWV02-Issue 10: Email from Principal Wilson

MY SINCERE APOLOGIES FOR MULTIPLE MAIL COPIES TO THE SAME ADDRESS

IT WAS DUE TO A GLITCH IN MY MAILER PROGRAMME

Christmas is upon us here in the North Pole (figuratively speaking) and the snow cover, though there in plenty to lighten the dark days, is not too much so that we have to dig our way out. Not that late sleepers, like me, have to dig our way out as the snow ploughs shift the snow in the city during the early hours.

The last month has been one of consolidation and thanks to the mail from our tireless New Yorker, Sreenath (you can read an interview with S-cubed on Indialine) , who sent us that humourous note about Dr. Anil Wilson's thoughts about our much loved Stephanian corridors (please email me if you did not receive it and I will send you a copy), I established contact with our lively Head of State.

Here is his last message, which includes invitations all round - so I hope that those of you in the vicinity will take the opportunity to join up in the festivities.

From: Dr. Anil Wilson,
Principal,
St. Stephen's College,
Delhi.

Dear Jacob,

Delighted to hear from you and to know about you in some detail.

I have visited the web site and enjoyed what I read there though I could not access the one with your photograph ( Ed: I wonder why - as it comes up without any problem - anyone else had this problem - or is the devil in that picture playing tricks with your computer?).

Regarding the College version of Kooler Talk, it may interest you to know that after I took over as Principal (January 1991) I discovered that quite a few traditions had flittered away which I felt should be restored. In this process I came across old copies of Kooler Talk (Ed: I wonder whether he found the one with the scandulous article by the 3 HEAPS - Big Heap (me), Middle Heap and Little Heap?) but could not find out why it should have been stopped. Hence, I decide to put it back on the rails and asked Dr.Vijay Tankha, (who, as you know is teaching Philosophy here and is also an Old Boy) to become the Staff Adviser. Last year Vijay went off on study leave and now the Staff Adviser is Dr. Christel Devadawson (read English at College then did her Ph.D. from Cambridge and is now on the faculty).

It would interest you to know that the JCR activities, that you initiated, are going strong. Instead of a JCR Evening (Ed: My lasting contribution to Stephenia - I now know I have done at least one valuable thing in my life!!), now we have a JCR Week!! (Ed: If I find my bridge partner Ajay Verma, we will take on anyone but the Rai twins (Suraj and Chander) at a bridge challenge competition!!)

These days College is preparing for the Founder's Day. Normally this is on Dec. 7, but 7th being a Sunday, we are commemorating it on Dec 6, 10.30 am IST.

(Ed: Dec. 6th is the 80th Finnish Independence Day - so we will be watching on TV all the dignatories, including our own Ambassador, Mrs. Kumar, enjoying their fun and frolic in the Presidential Palace in Helsinki.)

Ved Prakash Marwah (distinguished Stephanian) (Ed: Will someone fill me in on Ved and the exploits that have made him distinguished) will deliver the Founder's Day address.

In recent years I have made it a point to invite only Stephanians as Chief Guests for this occasion. B. G. Verghese (Ed: Who married a lady Stephenain of the 50's era, glamourous Jameela, for those who think that women in college is a new fangled sport) was our guest a couple of years ago. Letters of invitation are sent to those Old Students in Delhi whose addresses we have on our files.

(I wonder if there are a good number on the Web Stephanian Directory and if so could that be used to send them this invitation?)

The Old Students Reunion and Lunch is on Sunday December 14. Normally 350 to 400 Old Students turn up. (This too could be notified through the 'net')

In order to make this occasion more meaningful I have added a few things to it, apart from the usual basketball and tennis matches: we put up an exhibition of old photographs and memorabilia which is very popular, we remember the 'dear departed' during the previous year, and invite three of the oldest Stephanians present to speak about their days in College. I have also taken to inviting ten to fifteen Junior Members (the President of the Students Union Society, of the JCR, Secretary of the Social Service League, Shake Soc etc. etc.) to be the 'hosts' and receive the Old Students as they come in and, in general, to interact with them.

Well, there is so much more to write, but let that be for the next time.

(Yes, Kundan Singh (Ed: my absolutely wonderful gyp - who made me drink a glass of milk morning and night - following my mother's orders) is going strong).

Best Wishes,

Anil

Amongst the other letters I had was one from Singapore.

Subject: From a fellow Stephanian
Sent: 26/11/97 01:27
From: Akash Mohapatra, email address provided

Hi Jacob,

It has been a real pleasure to go through the Kooler Talk (Ed: Web Version, I assume). I have been following it since the past year or so.

I am Akash Mohapatra, Economics - 1989.

Presently based in Singapore. It made me so nostalgic.(Ed: It seems our dinosaur from Canada is not the only one is driven into nostalgia by this electronic noise!!)

I had called college last week and Raghunathji is now the Section Officer - Where there was Mr Rampall earlier. I was told that a Girl's Hostel has been opened in college, near the New LCR.

I must say St. Stephens is putting in it's bit for gender equality. I was very happy to hear this. I wonder when the college will have a Lady Principal(Ed: Watch out Anil - Now you have a real unequal threat!!) and a Lady President.

We had a Stephanian get together here in Singapore about 3 months ago and are planning another get together this Sunday, November 30th and I am taking copies of the Kooler Talk and Vepa's History of St Stephen's to share with everyone.

(Ed: If you can rattle up some ad revenue for this rag out there in Singapore from our well-to-do Stephanians - and also from the New York and Washington groups - maybe we can make this webletter into a bundle of joy with some glitzy pictures and video images, some real audio featuring music from Stephanian Jazz and Pop groups, etc., etc.!!)

We are about 25 Stephanians here in Singapore and I shall send you the list.

Regards

Akash

My Address and contact.
Tele:.. 65 - 3567792 (Res) 65 - 2901306 (Off)
Email: akash.mohapatra@chase.com (Work) akash@cyberway.com.sg (Home)
Blk 194, Kim Keat Avenue, # 10-420, Singapore 310194

Joanna (pronounced Yoanna), my younger daughter (a Masters in English Philology from our local university) dumped an enormous book "A Suitable Boy" on my table before she left for a long holiday to India to show off my first grandson (8 months) to his greatgrandmother in Bangalore. She sort of mumbled that it was by a fellow alma materite - Vikram Seth.

Looking at the sheer size of the book - 1474 pages - I told her that I doubted very much if any Stephanian would have the concentration to sit down and write such an elephantine monster.

In my younger days I was a master of speed reading - 1500 words per minute - but with age (bad vision and lack of concentration in matters not of utmost importance and interest - as the latest cricket scores and match reports) it has dropped back to the normal sedate 300 words per minute - so it is going to take me a good, long time before I finish this book - sort of 10 pages a day schedule.

Will someone confirm or deny the antecedents of Vikram - as if he is one of us I will have to indicate that in my Authors and Personalities page where a couple of other Stephanian names (e.g., Arun Shourie, Shashi Tharoor) have found their way into the hall of fame alongside Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, etc....

Now a request from someone who wants to be Stephanian -

Subject: College info
Sent 20/11/97 17:29

Respected (Ed: I am flattered) Mr. Matthan,

You are probably wondering who the hell I am?

Well, my name is Rashmi and I am studying abroad; to be specific in the American school in Athens. My parents however cannot afford to send me to the States for a College education, so I decided I wanted to go to the St. Stephens College in Delhi.

My parents told me it was a very good college in Delhi. But in order to go I really wanted some advice as to what percentage you need to get accepted and what the interview is about. I mean what type of questions they ask you!

So after a lot of surfing (Ed: Must have been wind-surfing - any Stephanian or would-be Stephanian would know that by typing Kooler into any search engne you will land up at this page. :-)) on the net I found this site.

Please guide me - I 'll really appreciate it !

Thanx

Yours Sincerely,

RASHMI

Sadly Rashmi did not give me her email address so there was no point of forwarding her request to the people who could help her. If anyone knows who she is or if she happens to surf by again, please send the correct email address to me and I will ensure that your request is sent to some present day Stephanian who can advise you - sitting on top of the world here in Finland, I am ill-equipped to give any info on the subject.

Maybe Anil will take note and help me put up a web site which has all relevant data about our honoured institution - something we cannot put off for much longer in this day and age. My old school, Cathedral in Bombay, has decided to put up its site - a flashy one with the Princi's picture, splash screen, etc. after the success of my other webletter - Seventh Heaven.

And finally a note from one mini-Stephanian searching for another.

Subject: Do you know Christopher Cecil?
(Ed: Thought it was Christopher Robin :-) )
Sent: 25/11/97 10:57
From: pal@pacbell.net

Looking for an eco honours student who started at St Stephens in 1960. Any info will be appreciated

Dharam Pal Luthra

P.S. I joined St Stephens with him in 1960, became his buddy but then left India

Ed: I did know a Chris - but I cannot swear he was surnamed Cecil, and I certainly do not know whether he was an Eco Honours student - but I am sure one of our many 1960 - 63 crowd (e.g., Sujit Bhattacharaya, Montek Singh Alhuwallia, Rajagopal Narayanan, etc.) should be able to help Dharam.

Surfers have helped fill this issue and my news bank has remained intact for another issue or two. Do please write and tell me what is happening in your area (we have Stephanians in over 70 countries who have been surfing in to this site) so that Stephanians in that region can meet up and take part in events, such as in the Big Apple and Singapore.

Wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope you will join me again to read a bumper New Year Edition on the 1st of January 1998.

Till then, Your shivering frozen editor

(You should read the great tip about how to get yourself a home-made hot water bottle which I use every cold winter night!!)

Jacob from the Arctic

KTWV02-Issue 9: Gossip galore

Another month has passed. Hence, it looks as if the routine of the web version of Kooler Talk will be as a monthly, despite a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth from many of you. It is no stress for me to keep this going at this pace.

First - some of the hot news about a few Stephanians.

Rathikant Basu is again in the news, as he and Rupert Murdoch were asked to appear in front of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of Delhi, Prem Kumar, on 27th October for "offensively invading and depraving public morals" for showing 4 "obscene" films on Star TV using cable transmission.

How hypocritical can some in Indian society be if they feel that movies can deprave and yet allow all the possible violence to be shown, day-in and day-out, in the Bollywood productions. The suggestive sex in Bollywood films is far more depraving than anything that I have seen on the western screen during my 30 plus years of living in a Western society, but, of course, moralists in India cannot dare challenge the money and power of Bollywood!!

Another couple of Stephanians in the limelight are Pradip Kishen, husband of Arundhati Roy, who was the first home-grown Indian to win the Booker Prize this year, and Pradip's elder daughter Pia (20) - Arundhati's step-daughter, currently a 3rd year history student at Stephen's. Pia is a fourth generation Stephanian, and all the generations have studied history. Pradip is a film director. He has directed three feature films, Massey Sahib, In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones and Electric Moon (facts courtesy Stephanian Debasish Mukerji - special correspondent of The WEEK).

Massey Sahib was hilarious. My better half (Annikki) and I had the chance to convert the script of this movie to Finnish and Annikki read the script over the microphone (microphone interpretation) while the movie was being shown during the International Children's Film Festival held here in Oulu a few years ago. I must admit that is one of the very few movies that I have enjoyed in recent years. I understand that Arundhati acted in Massey Sahib, although I do not particularly remember the cast.

Pradip's younger daughter, Mithva, who is the 12th standard in a school in Dehra Dun, may also become a Stephanian, but maybe not, as she may follow in Arundhati's footsteps as a writer or an architect (?), now that the world is at their feet.

Now let us take a look at a Stephanian who has been in touch with me during the lay-off of this web-rag. I had mail from someone whose address was shown as Inderjit Jhala who claimed to be in Stephen's the same time as me.

Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 10:41:56 +0530
From: Indrajit Jhala (email address provided)
Subject: Hi Jacob, Remember Me?

Came across the KT Page , U did not tell the sequel to the Luck story, i.e. the revenge of the Bridge Fanatics, and poor Luck's situation as reported by Kundan Singh. More if I can get a reply from u.

Nirmal

I knew of two Jhala's but no Indrajit, and in my carelessness I had not noted the signature which was in the body of the message. So I sent a message describing the two Jhala's I knew and back came the reply:

Got your prompt reply. First let me make a few small corrections in yr recollection of yrs truly.

* My name is Nirmal Jhala, Indrajit our eldest boy is the holder of the VSNL student's concession account. I only fiddle about with it now and then.
* I am NOT the gent who acquired undying fame as "Mad" Jhala, that distinction belongs to Mahendra Jhala who was also a part of our gang of cricket freaks, Ajit(singhji) being the first member (Jacob: Ajit was my year, - captain of the Stephanian cricket team in our last year 1962-63 and possibly the cousin of Stephanian and Indian wicket-keeper Inderjitsinghji. Ajit was a real gem of a person, always smiling, even when he was out for a duck!!).

He died soon after leaving college, of throat cancer, never having smoked all his life. Incidentally, Mahendra also lives in Cal. He now leads a life of leisure, having quit after a near fatal encounter with a brain tumour. He has a son working in USA.
* Parmar, Jitu - (Jacob: Also a fabulous and elegant stroke-player) has retired to his home town Rajkot. He played Ranji Trophy for a few years.
* Re self, I joined the IAS in '67, Married a fellow probationer, Krishna Dasgupta , (sister of C. S. Dasgupta, History '61, IFS '62 (Jacob: Remember him very well - very prim and proper, he was), Currently at Brussels), Transferred from Haryana to W Bengal in '72, Begot Three boys, IJ, Age 22, first year IIM Cal, Ranjit J., Age 19, 2'nd yr Computr. IIT Delhi, and Sanjit J, 17, hoping to do same this yr. (Jacob: Sadly, like me, no Stephanian genealogy to follow!!)

That more or less sums up the story of my life. Yes, I have been working, if that is the word, for the Govt. of WB and for the GOI for about thirty years now. Not much to show for it ,as you can see from the little story (Jacob: not) given below. Don't send it out on KT (Jacob: Sorry Kooler Talkians, only my privilege to get to see some of the juicy stuff), The Statesman might object.

The Moral of the Story

Nirmal Jhala

Jacob's memory had struck again!!

More next month about some more Stephanians of the past - so keep those letters rolling in!!

Regards

Jacob Matthan,
Honorary Editor,
Kooler Talk (Web Version),
Oulu, Finland

Web Pages of Stephanians

Alumni Directory

As requested by many of you, here is a list of Stephanians with web pages (thanks to Krishna Kumar) unsorted - oldest (used to be me at the top of the list).

Let me know of any mistakes or any missing ones. I shall try to find a permanent place for this list and also try to keep it up-to-date.

Keep your fingers crossed and Click - and hopefully you should reach the page in question.

I am still waiting for our Monsieur from Canada to replace me as the oldest Stephanian on the web!!

Updated as of 2nd August 2005

1. Dr. Anthony P Stone's Staff
2. Enver Masud 1959 B.Sc.
3. Jacob Matthan 1963 B.Sc.
4. Vikram Randhir SriHari 1969 B.Sc. Link Not Functioning
5. Cyrus Mehta 1974 B.A. (Hons.) History
6. Rajive K. Khanna 1974 B.Sc. Passed away Link removed
7. Gautam N. Achanta 1978 B.Sc. (Hons) Physics
8. Anil K. Sahai 1979 B.A. (Hons.) Mathematics
9. Sunil Joel Porter 1979 B.Sc. Link Not Functioning
10. Satyen G. Baindur 1982 B.Sc. (Hons.) Physics 1984 M.Sc. Physics Link Not Functioning
11. Raman Uppal 1983 B.A. (Hons.) Economics
12. Priya Raghubir 1983 B.A. (Hons) Economics
13. Michael Joseph Rebello 1984 B.A. (Hons.) Economics Link Not Functioning
14. Bhala Narayan Ghatate 1987 B.Sc. (Hons.) Mathematics
15. Bhaskar Vira 1988 B.A. (Hons.) Economics
16. Gita Kerstin Lal 1988 B.A. (Hons.) Economics
17. Mandhir Singh Uppal 1988 B.A. (Hons.) Mathematics
18. Amartya Tanay Bhattacharjya, 1989 B.Sc. (Hons.) Physics Link Not Functioning
19. Ram Seshadri 1989 B.Sc. (Hons.) Chemistry
20. Sunil Saxena 1989 B.Sc. Chemistry
21. Gautam Bhandari 1990 B.Sc. (Hons.) Chemistry
22. Radhika Vathsan 1990 B.Sc. (Hons.) Physics
23. Sushmita Roy 1990 B.Sc. Chemistry Link Not Functioning
24. Krishna Kumar 1991 B.Sc. (Hons.) Chemistry
25. Rajiv Krushna Kamilla 1991 B.Sc. (Hons.) Physics Link Not Functioning
26. Sanjay K. Reddy 1991 B.Sc. (Hons.) Physics Link Not Functioning
27. Sreenath Sreenivasan 1991 B.A. (Hons.) History
28. Kaustav Biswas 1992 B.Sc. (Hons.) Chemistry Link Not Functioning
29. Abhishek Begerhotta, 1992 B.A. (Hons.) Mathematics Link Not Functioning
30. Saurabh Saxena 1992 B.Sc. Link Not Functioning
31. Subir Kumedan 1993 B.Sc. (Hons.) Chemistry
32. Arvind Ranganathan 1994 B.Sc. Link Not Functioning
33. Divya Mahajan 1995 B.Sc. (Hons.) Mathematics Link Not Functioning
34. Jhelum Chowdhury 1995 B.A. (Hons.) Economics Link Not Functioning
35. Shymmon Banerjee 1995 Link Not Functioning
36. Rajesh Ranjan 1996 B.A.(Hons.) Economics
37. Royans K Tharakan 1997 B.Sc. Computer Science Great Site!!!!
38. Kanishka Singh 1998 B.A. (Hons.) Economics Link Not Functioning
39. Shashi Tharoor 1975 B. A. History
40. Ali Kazimi B. A. 1982
41. Luke George Haokip 1995 B.A. (Hons.) English 1997 M.A. English
42. Tushar Dev 1985 B.A. (Hons.) Economics

KTWV02-Issue 8: Resilience

Thank you fellow Stephanians for welcoming back Kooler Talk (Web Version) with open arms.

I hope all of you did not mind me sending you the good news about the Cool Site Award given to us for our work on the web, which included this Kooler Talk (Web Version) site.

I promise that these Press Releases, which are usually only for the Press - will not become a habit, but I was so thrilled that I got a bit carried away to get such a solid recognition from SearchPoint, the centre that I personally consider as the most useful to carry out searches on the web.

During the lay-off, several of you have fed me with news and stories which I shall slowly start to unravel and unveil in coming issues.

Please do not stop sending me material for me to keep constructing a readable webletter. Here are a few recent letters - I am working my way backwards.

Subject: Thanks from Rajesh Ranjan
Received: 9/9/97 12:12 pm
From: rajesh ranjan, email address supplied

Dear Mr. Matthan,

I am really touched by your dedication and commitment to the Stepahanian cause (whatever that means).

Sir, you have done a great job by bringing out the Kooler Talk (Web Version).

I joined "College" in 1993 (Economics, presently at IIM-C). I used to write the various "spices" only as Kooler Talk was too much of an "intellectual" affair.

Till 1996, the year I graduated, the "spice" culture was kept alive by few enterprising souls. But I do feel that it is on its way out (they aren't that interesting and exciting anymore).

May be you can think of bringing out one spice (web version, of course). It would be much easier for you to take the initiative as you have data regarding all the Stephanians.

It can cover all the Stephanian glitterati (once agian, whatever that means)!!

Thank you.

Rajesh Ranjan IIM-C

Rajesh assumes that I would know much about Spice - but it happened a long time after my days in college. Being 7000 km away from Delhi makes it also a bit difficult to get hold of the real spicy news!

My knowledge of Spice is limited to what Jhelum Chowdhury wrote in the Kooler Talk Web Version 01 - Issue 5 way back in June 1996, which, to say the truth was very little.

If any one of you would care to send me a few issues (which I agree must be difficult if it was a underground publication) - maybe I can try to parody an issue within this Web Version!!

Subject: Kooler Talk Sent: 31/8/97 9:13 pm
From: Krishan Dhawan email address supplied

I stumbled across the site today and really enjoyed going through it and was disappointed to see that it had been shut down. I will appreciate your letting me know if it resurrects.

I was in college and residence in 1973-76 doing a BA in Economics. I was one of KT's editors in 1974-75. I think it was shut down in 75-76 because of the Emergency.

I currently live in Los Angeles.

Regards,

Krishan Dhawan

KrishD came upon the site a day before it was restarted! He was indeed most happy that he could get to the restarted version.

Maybe Krish should read Kooler Talk Web Version 01 - Issue 2 where Amitabh Dubey, son of a Stephanian of the same era as me, Suman Dubey, told us how Kooler Talk was restarted in 1991 by Vijay Tankha (a philosophy professor) and himself and how he was followed by Siddhartha Sivaramakrishnan as the editor.

It was most interesting to hear that KT was shut down because of the 1975 Emergency. Mrs. Gandhi had a novel way of censorship - she cut the newsprint quota to newspapers that did not toe her line. I did not know that KT had such a wide readership during those days to have been affected by Mrs. G's method!!

Subject: Re: Kooler Talk Web Version Reappears New URL
Sent: 28/8/97 7:33 pm
From: Srikanth Rajagopalan, email address supplied

Hi Mr. Matthan,

Please change my ID on your mailing list to:

email address supplied

Congratulations on your work and resilience!

All the best,

Raja

I must admit my resilience part as whatever the troubles, it is my Stephanian spirit and background that has helped me fight back with double vigour. Anyway, beside the cost of web space, a pretty hefty telephone bill as I am not on a direct conection, and a bit of my time, there is not much to do in putting up this webletter so long as I get such excellent feedback from all you Stephanians out there.

Our web page of well-known Indian authors and personalities already features, what I hope is the complete works of, two Stephanians - Shashi Tharoor and Arun Shourie, who as many of you will remember, was my hockey captain. Shashi, however, was just a 4 year-old todler while Arun and I were fighting Hindu Collegeites with hockey sticks during our heady days in Stephen's.

I used the biodata provided by Srini in his info to New York Stephanians as the intro to the works of Shashi (hope you do not mind Srini).

I hope others will let me know the names of other Stephanian authors so that I can list their books on the pages I have created as a tribute to great Indian writers.

I was pleasantly surprised when I got some mail from a company in Delhi called Info Edge who contacted me about a web page they are running for a company called Sanka India Ltd, which is called naukri - a sort of head hunting and placement service.

When I asked for details I found that two Stephanians were among the enterprising souls behind this company - Sanjeev Bikhchandani 34, BA Eco. St. Stephen's MBA IIM Ahmedabad and Surabhi Motihar 32, BA Eco. St Stephen's MBA IIM Ahmedabad.

Seems quite a few Stephanians are following the route to get MBA's after their stint at Stephen's, a sort of change from the days when everyone headed for the IAS/IFS/IPS exams.

More in a month.

Regards

Jacob Matthan,
Honorary Editor,
Kooler Talk (Web Version),
Oulu, Finland

KTWV02-Issue 7: BBC deabate in Stephania Land

Fellow Stephanians,

Here I am again folks.

I hope this time round that I will have input from all you Stephanians out there to ensure that I can keep up this web zine for as long as I am able.

I start with a very nostalgic moment of this week.

I was not able to tune in to BBC World Service at 5 pm last Sunday (24th August 1997) to hear International Youth Debate which was billed to come from Delhi. I had to pick up my better half from work just during that hour. This year she is having a holiday looking after a museum which is open on Sundays during the summer and autumn (she gets to work when she gets home to look after this slob).

Come Monday morning, at 11.15 am on a beautiful early autumn morning, I sat comfortably next to my Sangean digital shortwave set and tuned in to BBC to listen to an edited version of the previous day's debate.

Like International Question Hour (as readers who read the LATE LATE NEWS will know, the programme on which I put a question to Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General), given a chance I always take time off from my absolutely Stephanian-like schedule (in short - bumming around) to enjoy these well organised BBC listener participation programmes.

The topic of the debate chaired by Britisher - Ms. Sahara Chauhan of the BBC was "50 Years of Independence and Still No Freedom".

(I hope all the characters mentioned here will excuse me if I do not have all the names correct as they were deciphered over the usual radio noise and the general assumption that everyone in the world understands a name spoken over the radio).

I was happily surprised (although I do not know why - after all, from where else can a debate in Delhi come from), just as when someone serves up Sherry Trifle for dessert, when Sahara announced that the debate was coming from our beloved institution, St. Stephen's College, Delhi.

Sahara asked Vinembra Agarwal to put forward the proposition. Vinembra did this in a masterly fashion as only Stephanians know how.

This transported me through time to the lively debates that I had listened to and participated in during the early sixties in the Assembly Hall

(I was never of top calibre debating skill during my time in Stephen's with the likes of Montek Singh Alhuwalia and many Aiyars (Mani, Swami and friends) around, but I had my day when I was later in London where my fast-talking Stephanian PJ skills shone against the rather mediocre mundane natives of England.)

The main thrust of Vinembra's argument was that as 97% of Indians are in the unorganised sector, 30% live in abject poverty, and as the per capita income is just $340, in the main areas of life, economic, social and political, the mass of Indians can by no stretch of the imagination be considered free (freedom being something which is individual-oriented) even after 50 years of independence. Vinembra said that freedom was only on paper. Discrimination of all communities (ironically, presently including the upper classes) was a fact of life and the corrupt political system was so evident that today a politician was able to install an unelected person, his wife, on the throne as Chief Minister when he was being hauled over the coals for possible corrupt practices!

Certainly a strong opening shot. I waited with bated breath for the reply.

Jaideep Bagchi was asked to respond. This was a well-grounded presentation in true debating fashion - not just a reeling off of counter arguments. Jaideep argued that independence is the freedom of the individual to choose. The fact the Indian electorate has on several occasions removed Governments, the most notable being Indira Gandhi after she imposed her emergency for 2 years, showed that India had a responsible and knowledgeable electorate.

Jaideep certainly had the audience moving in his direction with his arguments and elocution ability.

When the topic was then opened to the floor, the question of the literacy level in India came into question. With this came the usual question whether better education would result in freedom. It was here the bourgeois opinions started to tumble out when the elite(?) of society, Stephanians, linked education with literacy?

The arguments were strong and fierce but, in my opinion, they all missed the vital point about what is education?

Is a farmer, who can till his land at the right time using all the correct agricultural practices which have been handed down from time immemorial and not corrupted by present day non-eco type agricultural methods, and who produces bumper sustainable harvests from his small tract of land, but yet is unable to read and write or even sign a piece of paper, i.e., illiterate by standards laid down by the UN, uneducated?

Or, is education only achieved by becoming a Stephanian?

Moving to the second half of the proposition, Abajit Safiriyan was asked to present the future scenario.

Abajit used a very appropriate simile when he alluded to the bribery and corruption that was in place in India and that it was like a cancer which could not be cured by just a dose of chemotherapy. Abajit made a strong case that if India and Indians really wanted to be free, then, like the cancer or tumour, major surgery was required and the offending organ had to be removed by its roots.

Rahul Uspana was requested to respond. Rahul made a spirited attack on the proposers. He pointed out that today, 14 parties were in coalition to form the United Democratic Front Government in Delhi, with many States of the Union having completely different political parties in power, but yet able to form a national framework government. He drew reference to a few statistics, that exports were up 13%, the gross domestic product had increased by 7% and that India's market share of the world economy had doubled since independence. He projected that freedom would continue to increase for all Indians with greater globalisation.

Although there was not a woman debater on the dias, there was much solid contribution from the opposite sex from the floor. Certainly made my mind to wander back to our female-free environment of the sixties!!

The crux of the debate suddenly revolved around the fact that India had taken 200 years to attain Independence and hence 50 years was just a short period of time in a nation's history. As was succinctly put, the British had suggested that India should have independence when the people were "educated" - which undoubtedly would have been on a never-never basis!!

A key issue arose when Sahara posed the question whether everyone considered India was a happy land? Another question that came into the debate was how and when inequalities in society would be eliminated? Unfortunately, no clearcut answers to these questions emerged during the debate.

Sadly, the time flew by so quickly that the edited version of 45 minutes was over before I even realised it, ending in a vote, with 21 for the proposition and 34 against.

Personally, on a debating basis, I would have tied the debate, as all four participants were superb, in their debating skills and the content that they presented. I would have asked the (British) Chairperson to give her casting vote, but Stephanian dry vindictive humour was sadly not to be seen here in that context!!

I must admit that Sahara did a very professional job in the chair, almost as if she were a Stephanian (compliment or insult - Sahara?).

What was so illuminating was that even after a period of just over 30 years, although a generation may have passed, over the radio waves it was as if I was listening all over again to my friends and colleagues debating in the auditorium.

The attitudes and the stances were typically Stephanian in character and roused memories so poignant that as I looked out over the gleaming golden sunlit autumn leaves on the trees which surround our wooden arctic hut, I was transported back to the early wintery feeling of Stephen's as we congregated on the lawn, fringed with a few rose bushes, in front of Mukerji Block to debate the burning issues of our then world - whether the Mess Secretary should be fired for the lousy aloo-gobi served up for lunch, whether Sukhia's barfris were indeed the best in the world or at least in the Stephen's compound (our universe), or whether Deepchand was really the best barber/masseur in Delhi?

Well done Stephanians and thank you for dropping in to my home on that day (and in passing - also thanks to BBC!!). Hopefully, I have taken the mood to all those web surfing Stephanians who missed your performances.

One more news item in this issue that should interest Stephanians is that The WEEK, the Indian weekly from Cochin has come online. The latest cover story concerns none other than, guess who - a Stephanian in trouble.

You will remember not long ago I mentioned how Rathikant Basu, a good friend and colleague in college in the early sixties had been appointed as the head of Star TV India by Rupert Murdoch.

It seems that jealousy has taken hold of the situation and Rathikant is in the middle of a fantastic storm that is rocking the Indian establishment. The WEEK has featured it as their latest cover story. It is a good read.

Since The WEEK is also run by two Stephanians, and is a sister publication of this (our roots are the same as we are all of the K. C. Mammen Mappillai - Malayala Manorama stock), it is worth a read as the back-up Stephanian publication on the web!! [ :-) which means broad smile for some of you not so web savvy Stephanians]

Of course, nothing could replace Kooler Talk (Web Version) as your primary No. 1 Stephanian web magazine - it is your magazine which I am privileged to host!! [because this old badger thought of it FIRST]

I hope all of you will take note and feed me with stories and anecdotes to keep this a lively web site in its reincarnation - something which is quite common for Kooler Talk per se. Do let me know whether you feel it should be a monthly or a quarterly, or God forbid - a fortnightly. I do not want to penetrate your lives too much with too many scandulous stories - but a few contributions would be worth receiving.

Thank you for bearing with me as I have invaded your privacy yet again!! More in awhile.

Your (g)host (PJ of The WEEK?)

Jacob Matthan,
Honorary Editor,
Kooler Talk (Web Version),
Oulu, Finland

KTWV02-Issue 6: Au Revoir

Au Revoir Web-surfing Stephanians and Cathedralites,

The time has come to say au revoir to all of you wonderful web-surfing Stephanians and Cathedralites.

Many of you are probably too young to know how Indira Gandhi effectively introduced censorship of the critical news media during the mid seventies. Besides imprisoning the political leaders and her sharpest media critics, her most effective weapon was to restrict the quota of newsprint to the critical press and also the amount of Government business directed to the outspoken media - very effective ways of shutting them up.

Here, in this western democracy called Finland, the establishment has a very effective method in this tightly run society. All your contracts vanish, making it impossible to survive if you are in conflict with the establishment. Hence Findians Oy had no option but to seek outside assistance to prop it up while they tried to restructure their actvities to be able to withstand the tirade. They attempted to raise sufficient funds to save their three popular webletters. This was not successful. They reached only part of the initially targeted amount.

Hence, the new owners of Findians Oy (Annikki, my better half, and I had to sell out our interests in the company for technical reasons) have informed me that they are returning all the cheques, money orders and cash received from many of you wonderful people out there. This will be done over the next two weeks so as to avoid any loss during the present Christmas postal rush. They will be returning the documents registered post acknowledgement due. If you do not receive the contribution, you so generously made, by the 7th of January 1997, please send me a message.

I have succeeded in getting myself a private email address outside the clutches of the authorities and outside of Finland, and you may like to note this email address:

jmatthan@gmail.com

I am glad that KOOLER TALK (WEB VERSION) and SEVENTH HEAVEN lasted 18 issues. I can honestly say I had a lot of fun putting up these pages every fortnight. During these last 9 months I made many wonderful friends from all around the world from different school and college generations, older and considerably younger to me.

Surprisingly, I did not get a single bad vibe during that entire time, which, as a professional editor, was quite a feat - no, not even a single staff member complained about my abraisive style and content!

I am taking the optimistic view that the alma mater webletters are temporarily suspended till I can raise enough funds to put them up without any assistance from Findians Oy. It may mean setting up my own web server equipment, my own computer with sufficient storage space, etc. which, unfortunately is rather an expensive process and outside of my present financial (and probably technical) capabilities. After all, as you all know I am not one of the present youthful generation and in my younger days we were lucky if we learnt how to operate a calculator which weighed as much as my present portable Mac on which I hammer out my books. My next one, Handbook For Survival in India, which is a sequel to our last local best-seller Handbook For Survival in Finland, is about halfway through at this stage.

Hopefully I can leave the archives on line for some time. If I manage to locate a permanent home for these archives, katy1.html, katy2.html and the one one which will go up next week katy3.html for Stephanians and sevven1.html, sevven2.html and sevven3.html for Cathedralites, I shall move them there and post the location in the World Alumini Register. I will leave the entire index archive as a single entity as koolertalk.html and seventhheaven.html till such time I can restart them.

What pleased me the most and made me particularly happy was that many of you thought me to be of just your generation, although, in some cases, I was at least 30 to 35 years ahead of you at the alma mater. Thank you for all the compliments which flowed like water from all of you.

In a way I am sad that it had to come to an end in this way, for no fault of any of us. Unfortunately, Annikki and I are people who believe in freedom of expression, and we accept criticism as much as we give it. My grandfather, the late K. C. Mammen Mappillai (KCMM), stood for this principle, which saw him suffer many ignoble things, but the foundation he laid has resulted in the Malayala Manorama becoming the largest circulating newspaper in India.

It may be too much to hope, but one of these three webletters may hold a similar position on the web well after my time - and that thought itself spurs me to be ready to hand it over to capable hands that may come forward. Consider that the Malayala Manorama had to stop publication for almost a decade when KCMM was imprisoned and it was restarted only after India attained independence.

Emails still continues to pour in. This week I want to only reproduce one from a current Stephanian - which shows how alive this webletter was:

Fri Dec 13 19:12:46 1996
From: "Shashank Luthra" email addess supplied
Subject: More info from St. Stephen's
Dear Mr. Matthan,

Hi ! Do you remember me? (Ed: Of course I do) I am the boy who is still in college.

Anyway, here are some of the current happenings from college.

Founder's day got over last week. I missed both the day and the Old Boys' reunion due to my CAT (MBA entrance exam) on the 8th of December - Sunday. But it should have gone off well.

This weekend Shakesoc is putting up its annual production of King Lear (Ed: I remember Roshan Seth in the role in 1962-63 - great performace!). It is on 15th, 16th and 17th of December. It is being directed by Arjun Raina. The play has shaped up decently and they finally started practice inside the hall at the beginning of this week. The director has got some new ideas and interpretations of Shakespeare which should make the play exciting.

More news later.

Toodledoo!

Shashank

-------
Please reply to email address supplied
This is my new and hopefully "permanent" address.

So, as you can see life goes on and I wish the play all success and hope it throws up another Roshan in my lifetime!

Your Stephanian/Cathedralite colleague

Jacob Matthan

KTWV02-Issue 5: Stephanian Malayalis

Hi Web-surfing Stephanians,

I was web surfing when I came across the mention in some Indian web newspaper that the Kerala Seafood Exporters were intending to start a stir for something or the other. When I looked down the srticle I noticed the name of one Mr. A. J. Tharakan, who is the Convenor of the action Committee. Bells jingled in my head as I put two and two together!!

This week I concentrate my topic about a couple of Stephanian Christian Malayalees - you can't get away from that crowd, can you!

Who is India's largest sea-food exporter?

He is none other than Stephanian Abraham Tharakan (the same J. A Tharakan mentioned above), known as Abe during his days at St. Stephens, who was in residence along with me in the early sixties.

Abe was one of the few Christian Malayalees at college and was an inseparable friend of Ajit Ninan. (Other Christian Malayalees I can remember by name are Delhi veteran journalist B. G. Verghese who married lady Stephanian Jameela, my elder brother in Chennai Dr. Ranjit Matthan, Bangalore top electronics consultant T. Joseph Joseph, athlete and Indian Army Officer, now Kottayam based Publishing Manager of Manorama Publications, Jose Vallikappan, guitarist Ranjit Jacob (see below), Bombay Cathedralite, Stephanian, Cambridge and Stanford economist, Dr. Peter Phiip, New Yorkian (?) artist, etc. Prakash Joseph, John Thomas (sorry - no info), Kottayam planter and industrialist George Verghese, Trivandrum planter Ajit Ninan, Chief Editor of Malayala Manorama, Ko tayam, Mammen Mathew, Kottayam and Supreme court lawyer Joseph Vellapally, Managing Editor of The WEEK in Kochi, Philip Mathew - and the Arctic jack-of-no-trade, supposedly Plastics and Microelectronics expert, yours truly.) (Others - please inform me!!)

Abe completed his economics degree (along with present Indian Finance Secretary Montek Singh Alhuwalia) in 1963 and joined the Indian Revenue Service. However, he did not think much of being a bureaucrat and shifted as a management executive and tea taster to Brooke Bond. After 10 years he shifted to Kochi and started a small business called Amalgam Foods.

It took him about 2 long years to get his product accepted on the international market. Today Amalgam has a turnover of around US$65 million which is about 8% of the marine exports from India.

Abe started the process of freeze-drying and pre-cooking shrimps. He started the first cooked shrimp factory in India. He then started several other sea-food related ventures and now has factories all along both Indian coastlines.

Abe has set a target of crossing a turnover of US$100 million by the end of the millenium and to do this he has planned a cold-store chain across the country and a large poultry farm complex. I think we wish him all the best to achieve his target.

I do not know whether Abe is on the web as yet, but as a high flyer I am sure that he will soon have to be. It feels good to share in his success.

The story of Ranjit Jacob is also remarkable. He was a classmate of my elder brother, Dr. Ranjit Matthan (who left college in 1960 and did his doctorate on Rubber Technology from London).

I think that it was in 1959 when they all parted to go home for their vacations, that Ranjit Jacob fell off the train on Jamuna Bridge and was very seriously injured. He missed a year at college and returned the year I joined. Although his speech was slightly impaired he was back to all his old tricks being a great singer and guitarist. He used to seranade and entertain us in his room with all the popular melodies of the fifties. Shy and retiring by nature I believe he is now settled in Chennai.

Hope to give you more stories in a fortnight,

Till then, take care,

Your Stephanian colleague

Jacob Matthan

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

KTWV02-Issue 2: Research Visa?

Hi Stephanians and you others,
I was pleasantly surpised to receive this letter.

Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 11:38:35 +0100 (BST)
From: wrg1000@hermes.cam.ac.uk


Dear St. Stephanians,

I am a research student at Cambridge University, working on early twentieth century Indian History, focussing on Uttar Pradesh. At the moment I really need to get out to India. Unfortunately, my research visa has not yet arrived, although I applied for it in June. I would really appreciate any suggestions or help that anyone might be able to offer... otherwise I'll be stuck in freezing Cambridge for the whole winter! (Ed: Cannot think of anything more horrifying than that. :-))

I enjoyed reading your page. I hope someone can help,

William Gould

I am sure that one of our 242 readers scattered worldwide - [yes, that is the fortnightly repeat hits we have been getting to Kooler Talk (Web Version) page regularly over the last three months] - can extend a hand to help out our fellow reader in true Stephanian style. The thought of him freezing in one of those digs in Cambridge certainly wants me wanting to help William somehow!

However, recalling for a moment the freezing winter mornings in college, running to have that early morning bath once Kundan Singh had heated that coal-fired water heater just outside my room and drawn the water, in a leaky metal bucket, and then shivering and freezing after it as I returned to my room wrapped in my towel, till I sat down in front of that most ineffective two bar radiant heater glowing red on my room floor, is not the very comforting thought that I want to share with William. I hope things have changed for the better when William goes out to Uttar Pradesh where, I think, the winters can be quite cold and there is no central heating system to be found anywhere.

In spite of this, sitting on the green lawns in front of Mukarji East on a sunny January mid-morning (cutting class, of course), and being bathed in the warm glow of that Delhi winter sunshine, was probably one of the most exhilarating feelings of my time in college. There were then a few rose plants bordering the lawn flowered, as the college gardeners tried their level best to turn that barren area in front of Mukarji East and the JCR into a garden.

The weeds from the open area between this and the then new science block, however, kept making their task seemingly impossible. No doubt, with the setting up of Mukarji West, this must have improved.

The Delhi winter is in sharp contrast to the dry burning heat of mid-May when I felt that I was sitting in a tandoor! One summer I had to stay on in Delhi to do some extra course and vowed never to be in that city again during those summer months, a vow that I have been able to faithfully keep over the last 33 years.

Coming back to William's problem, personally I do not know of something called as a research visa. Whenever I sent out a researcher to India, the Indian Embassy in Helsinki (where we did have a Stephanian - First Secretary S. Tripathi, probably 75 batch, an absolutely great and nice guy who moved to Panamma!!) issued an ordinary tourist visa valid for six months.

Education - What is it?

This week, in my second editorial in Findians Briefings, I tackle the question of Education where I ask the question as to the number of handicapped persons, those who are blind, deaf, dumb, or wheel-chair ridden, who are being used as teachers in schools and colleges. Can any of you name any handicapped person who has been in a teaching or administration position in our alma mater. Just curious! (Don't all stand up and shout that I have just described the average Stephanaian through the ages!!!)

Yesterday, Annikki, my better half for the last 30 years, made Masala Dosais for our son and daughter - but not for me! My mouth was watering as I recalled those delicious dosais I used to consume ever so often at the India Coffee House on the campus.

(The reason why I was denied this luxury of a dosai, despite my begging like a dog, was that she had just enough in the dosai mix packet for the kids. She usually makes the dosai mix up by grinding the rice and dhal in her heavy duty antique coffee grinder - works great, but she was anxious to get to a clearance sale in one of the local department stores, where she and our daughter had agreed to meet to pull the hair out of some other women.)

This meant it was just soup for me. It is not as if we can pop around the corner and have a dosai in this Arctic town. We do not have a single Indian restaurant here, hence Wengers, India Coffee House and the Kamala Nagar Coffee Centre seem like heavenly beacons to me. The only source of good Indian food is my dear Finnish wife!!

I do not know about you, but that is all the nostalgia I can take for this week.

See you in a fortnight, take care

Jacob, Stephanian 1960-1963

KTWV02-Issue 1: Kudos, no brickbats!

Hi Stephanians,

Here are a few letters from regular readers of Kooler Talk (Web Version). Makes life a little difficult!!

---

Date: Mon, 23 Sep 96 14:10:00 PDT
From: Stephanian Indrajit Banerjee
Subject: Re: Stephanian Rathikant hits the Headlines (SUBSCRIBE)

Hi Jacob:

SUBSCRIBE !!!!!!!

I also had to endure Hindi exam (the compulsory one), taught by Dr. Arya.

I was in Delhi in Dec. 1990 and met Dr. Arya. Had tea with him. He was great. Last Oct, I was again in StephenÍs, he had retired a nd moved to Roorkee.

I passed my compulsory Hindi, but in a weird way - Dr Arya had taught us the "wrong" book. It turns out that different books were to be taught according the year's syllabus. But because of people like you (and me) the exam would have questions from different books (to cover student's from different years) and only the relevant ones (depending on year of admission) needed to be answered. However, Dr. Arya, being in the exam committee, taught us the book by Premchand (not for 1971 admission students), knowing full well that the examiner would not check which year we were admitted, or which book we were supposed to be taught.

I almost walked out of the exam not answering anything (seeing I was taught the wrong book). Then something happened and I scribbled something. Dr. Arya said that if I had written some minimum number of pages, I would pass. I did!!!

Good to hear form you. Keep up the good job!!

Regards,

Indrajit

---

From: Stephanian "Monsieur A."
Subject: Re: Stephanian Rathikant hits the Headlines
Date: Mon, 23 Sep 96 15:36:10 EDT

Jacob:

I never groan at getting your messages ... they brighten up my day even if you think you are trying to depress us:))

I am not groaning ... I am bugging you now.

Best wishes

Samuel

---

Date: Wed, 25 Sep 1996 09:32:29 -0700
From: "S. Raja Gopalan"
Organization: Columbia University
Subject: Stephanian on mailing list

PLEASE CHANGE MY ID TO: (email supplied)

THANKS FOR A WONDERFUL MAGAZINE! ALL THE BEST!

SRIKANTH RAJAGOPALAN

---

Date: Fri, 4 Oct 96 16:08:26 CDT
From: "Sanjay Mundle"
Subject: Pl. add to KT list

Jacob,

I just got through reading the excellent "newsletters" you put together from your experiences at Stephens. I graduated back in 84, and appreciate all the background info. you have included in your writings. I would love to be included on your mailing list for Kooler Talk

(email: supplied)

Looking forward to your next issue.

Regards,

Sanjay Mundle
BA 1984
Houston, Texas, USA

---

It is the several letters like these that helped me continue writing this webletter. We are having several problems as the Finnish Government is extremely unhappy about our hard-hitting editorials and comments that are contained on the main page. We have heard they have tried to put pressure on some organisations to stop our web access. A sort of censorship which would put the steps in Singapore seem like heaven!

In anticipation we are negotiating with some Web Site providers in different parts of the world to host our web pages outside of Finland. Then all I need will be a regular shell account and I can upload the webletters without interference from Finnish Government authorities which are ridiculously sensitive to any form of political satire. They just do not seem to appreciate satire.

What seems to have irked them is that the last editorial on Scientific Fraud in Finnish universities where our rebuttal of the claim that there was a mechanism for detection and tackling of Scientific Fraud in Finland was in existence, got an airing on BBC World Service on Sunday 29th September.

Since I was the first "whistleblower" in Finland, and they just glossed over my complaint about a colleague professor who was stealing the work of my students in our laboratory, this has raised a storm as the Professor's Union, the Finnish Academy, the Finnish Ministry of Education and my own Union, the Finnish Union for Researchers failed to raise a finger to bring the person to book. Well that is life!

I wonder whether in Delhi University and in Stephen's, Professors and Researchers carry out this form of Scientific Fraud, or is it that unlike universities in western countries, very little research work actually takes place in the college or university.

It does appear strange to me after all these years that I do not recall any of our college teachers actually being involved with any original research in Stephens - or is my memory failing me!!

Here is a letter from our New York Stephanian Coordinator

Date: Sun, 6 Oct 1996 15:02:47 -0400 (EDT)
From: Sreenath Sreenivasan
Sender: email address supplied
To: "stephanians (non-new york)":

Subject: SSC #3: our next event


vol 1 / #3: oct 4, 1996

dear stephanians:

a short, occasional newsletter to tell you of our activities in NYC...

the october meeting scheduled for oct 12, 1996 has been CANCELED. (our host-to-be is going to be out of town that day)

instead, our next event, a reception, is now scheduled for nov 8 at the bose pacia gallery in manhattan. a big thank you to deepak talwar (bsc '85), gallery director, for offering to host this event.

date: friday, nov 8, 1996
venue: bose pacia modern
(20th century masters and contemporary fine art of india)
580 broadway, suite 202, soho
212-966-3224 (please RSVP to ss221@columbia.edu or dtalwar@aol.com)
time: 6-8 pm

on display will be paintings by sanjay bhattacharyya, a well-known young painter from delhi.

see you there... pass on the word... if you know of any stephanians who aren't on our list, let us know!

see you there...

cheers,

sree

FYI: anil wilson has taken a three-year leave as principal of SSC to work at himachal univ, and horace jacob is acting principal...

I am still working on a map layout of the college as it existed in 1963 and hopefully in a month I will have it up.

Regards and take care,

Stephanian Jacob Matthan
Oulu, Finland

KTWV01-Issue 12: Rathikant Basu

Hi Stephanians,

It is with a great deal of pleasure that I put pen to paper, or rather hammer away at the computer keyboard this week. I bring you the story of a fellow Stephanian who has hit the big time. My joy at bringing you this news is not only because is he a fellow Stephanian, but also a very dear friend.

Rathikant Basu was in his second year of his BA (Economics) when I joined college in 1960. As another Bombay Cathedralite to join Stephens along with me was Sujit Bhattacharaya (son of the then Governor of the Reserve Bank P. C. Bhattacharaya), a Bengali, Sujit's circle of friends in college became my friends as did mine become his.

One of those who joined our flock was Rathikant, already a member of Mukarji Court and resident in one of the upper storey rooms of T-Block.

Rathikant was a widely travelled individual and added a great deal of spice to our lives. If I remember correctly, he had been living in Sudan for several years prior to joining college. Rathikant had a great sense of humour and his sharp wit used to have us rolling with laughter. Yet he had a very unsupposing attitude and a completely simplistic approach to all around him.

When I finished college in 1963, Rathikant was going on to his final year of his MA and studying hard for his IAS entrance exam. He got into the IAS in 1964 and was part of the Gujarat Cadre of 1964.

In the mid-seventies when I was on a trip to Ahmedabad I accidently bumped into Rathikant. He was then the Muncipal Commissioner of the City. He had not lost his humouristic streak. He was a bundle of efficiency. I watched him go through a day's work with a keeness hardly seen in bureaucratic circles.

Rathikant's success at the helm of Doordarshan is well known. His last IAS stint has been as the Secretary of the Departement of Electronics where he has been busy ushering in the rapid change in the electronics sector in India. I am reasonably sure that the lowering of import duty on software was one of his moves as he has always been progressive in his approach to a problem. India's export boom of software has been only because of this opening of the inward flow of technology.

At the age of 54, Rathikant has now been hand-picked by world media moghul Rupert Murdoch to head the Hong Kong based Indian arm of Star TV, News Television India. Reports say that he has been offered an annual salary of $500000 plus a chauffer-driven Mercedes. Rathikant takes over from Gene Swinstead in October.

Rathikant has been given directives to Indianise the network's programming which presently is highly westernised. There could be no one better equipped for this job, as is well known from his activity under the former Information and Broadcasting Minister, K. P. Singh Deo. Rathikant is a highly focused individual as well as results oriented, so will undoubtedly deliver the goods.

As was succinctly put by THE WEEK in its September 15th issue, "Doordarshan reached its azimuth during Basu's term as Director-General."

Rathikant will liase with the Hong Kong based Director, Gene Davis, but network programming and commercial decisions will now be made in India.

I am sure all you Stephanians out there will join me in wishing Rathikant the very best in his new job. I hope that he will drive his arch competitor, his former paymaster, Doordarshan, to higher standards by bringing in top-notch competition in the Indian TV news spectrum.

End of Reminder Messages

I am afraid that I will need you to subscribe separately to be able to continue to receive these reminders as the whole process seems to have got out of hand with my postings touching about 3000 every fortnight and the number of wrong addresses resulting in returns amounting to about 10% every time. My mailbox is just crammed with returned messages so it takes me a while to get to my normal mail. Most of the returns are people who have registered and then not informed me about change of address, etc.

Our main site has expanded at such a remarkable pace that I am getting fully tied down with getting these three webletters up every fortnight and also getting the mailing list out that it has really not left me much time for the investigative journalism for which my web pages were originally created.

Hence Stephanians who want to get a reminder from me should send a SUBSCRIBE message to our email address as otherwise from the next issue you will not get any reminder.

More next week,

Regards

Your Editor Jacob Matthan

Or as Rathikant would say "Arre Jacob"..