My First Alumni on their most memorable firsts

The Cathedral & John Connon Alumni Magazine

The2014

www.catalumni.com

Out of the boxNeha Choksi

Class NotesWhere are your batchmates now

NostalgiaKhalid MohamedSpotlightRabi Ahuja, Anuj Rakyan

My FirstAlumni on their most memorable firsts

ContentsPresident’s Report 2014 4Principal’s Message 7

Spotlight Rabi Ahuja 11 Anuj Rakyan 13Out of the Box Neha Choksi 14Nostalgia Khalid Mohamed 17First Citizen Nihal Kaviratne 19Special Programme 21My First 22 Aditya Hurry Mikhail R. Yawalkar Reenita Malhotra Hora

Lighter Side School Memories 25Events Summer School 27 Founders’ Day 28Teacher Updates Notes from the Staff Room 31Class Notes 32

Editor Udita Jhunjhunwala (ICSE 1984)

Editorial teamShyla Boga Patel (ISC 1969)

Mitali Anand Kalra (ISC 1989)

Anushka Shivdasani Rovshen (ISC 1997)

BusinessRohita Chaganlal Doshi (ISC 1975)

Amit Advani (ISC 1994)

Editorial Support, Design and PrintingSpenta Multimedia Anaita Vazifdar-Davar, Cyrus H. Merchant, Nikunj Parikh This magazine is not for sale and is intended for internal circulation only. Any material from this magazine may not be reproduced in part or whole without written consent. Views and opinions expressed in this magazine are those of the individual authors and not necessarily those of the Publishers. The final decision on all editorial content remains with the magazine editorial committee.

Published by The Cathedral and John Connon Alumni Association, 6, P.T. Marg, Mumbai 400 001 and printed at Spenta Multimedia, Peninsula Spenta, Mathuradas Mill Compound, Lower Parel, Mumbai 400 013. www.spentamultimedia.com

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3227 Do write in with your feedback and ideas to [email protected]

To my fellow alumni,

I pen this in optimistic ink, under the shadow of welcome monsoon clouds arriving and, Inshallah, Iraq clouds receding. The epic

election outcome and a positive 100-day report have raised the bar of expectations and aspirations, banishing inertia and paralysis. Closer to home, the year-that-was finally saw some light at the end of Mumbai’s infrastructural tunnel. We now have a new Eastern Freeway, a Monorail and a Metro service, albeit leaky.

Against this backdrop, I got to travel backwards in time when I reconnected with our founder Arthur

Members of the Executive Committee 2014-15

Seated (L to R): Rohita Chaganlal Doshi, Chitra Rajkumar, Mukeeta Jhaveri, Shyla Boga Patel, Mitali Anand KalraStanding: Bibhash Asar, Sundeep Ahuja, Udita Jhunjhunwala, Shonar Lala Chinoy, Gautam ShewakramaniMissing from picture: Anushka Shivdasani Rovshen, Amit Advani, Pragni Kapadia, Prakash Thadani, Viral Doshi

T. Savage’s grandniece and nephew, now in their nineties, in New Zealand. Sharing our ‘Undefiled Heritage’ with them was a proud privilege for them and for me. Hearing Mrs. Isaacs announce the much-anticipated roll-out of the International Baccalaureate curriculum in April 2015 made me appreciate how necessary a global future has become. The SMAC Stack or attack of social media, mobility, apps and cloud is something we must all navigate and negotiate to stay relevant and au courant.

Founders’ Week 2013 went off with its usual flourish and reunions. Abundant fun and nostalgia.

4 The X-Cathedralite 2014

President’s Report 2014


The Executive Committee looks forward to your active involvement with the Association. Please do contact us on the Cathedral Alumni

Helpline (99305 77120) or through our website www.catalumni.com

Executive Committee(2014 – 15)

PresidentMukeeta Jhaveri(ISC ’83, Savage)

Vice-PresidentsRohita Chaganlal Doshi

(ISC ’75, Wilson)

Bibhash Asar(ICSE '86, Palmer)

Co - TreasurersSundeep Ahuja

(ICSE ’77, Palmer)

Shonar Lala Chinoy(ISC ’90, Palmer)

SecretaryMitali Anand Kalra

(ISC ’89, Wilson)

Committee Members (ex-officio)

PrincipalMrs. Meera Isaacs

Committee Members

Viral Doshi(ISC '75, Palmer)

Shyla Boga Patel(ISC ’69, Savage)

Udita Jhunjhunwala(ICSE ’84, Barham)

Amit Advani(ISC ’94, Palmer)

Prakash Thadani(ISC '69, Savage)

Pragni Kapadia(ISC ’94, Palmer)

Anushka Shivdasani Rovshen(ISC ’97, Barham)

Chitra Rajkumar(ISC ’56, Savage)

Gautam Shewakramani(ISC ’01, Savage)

Webmaster

The monsoon havoc denied us a cricket pitch, but a basketball tournament in the Middle School quad more than made up. The old boys literally kicked ***. On the Willingdon Club greens, 36 golfers battled it out with organiser Akshay Kilachand bagging many laurels. Thank you, Meher Amersey and Pushpa Bhatia, for your continued stewardship of this popular fixture. More than a hundred attended the post-Church High Tea at the School. Cheval in Kala Ghoda was the site of much multi-generational camaraderie and revelry at the bi-annual association gala. It is always lovely to see many of our old teachers, especially Miss Hallegua, let their hair down.

At the annual Manori Summer School, in addition to robotics, astronomy, football, dance and environmental studies, some 70 children from Manori village and Cathedral School also enjoyed a visit to the local East Indian Museum and made Christies-worthy spider web sculptures. Meanwhile, the lotus-eaters Sundeep Ahuja, Chitra Rajkumar and I savoured the summer breeze, curry and homemade pickle. Thank you, Shyla Boga Patel, for bringing so much joy to so many for 13 fun-fuelled fulfilling years.

The pilot Teachers Medical Benefit Scheme managed by Bibhash Asar and Shyla is running well and currently serves 45 teachers and staff. Please do continue to donate generously. As healthcare costs escalate, even a small contribution from the Association is embarrassingly well received and appreciated.

Our magazine under Udita Jhunjhunwala’s eagle eye and the website under Gautam Shewakramani and Anushka Shivdasani Rovshen continue to flourish.

The Association has undertaken a mammoth Digital Archiving project to help nostalgic alumni looking to reconnect with their peers and others looking to learn something about beloved relatives who were at Cathedral many years ago. If you have anything you’d like to contribute or share, please connect to the Project Archive box on the catalumni.com website.

Thanks are due to my stellar Executive Committee for keeping the now well-oiled wheels of our little Association running smoothly. I look forward to your continued engagement with Catalumni.

~ Mukeeta Jhaveri née Kataria(ISC 1983)



Principal’s Message

Mr. and Mrs. Mariwala, Members of the Board of Governors, Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls. I deem it a privilege to welcome

you to our 154th Annual Speech Day. We have come together this morning to celebrate the achievements of our children and to thank all those who have helped to translate their dreams into reality.

No end-of-term summing-up is complete without recording my appreciation to our Board of Governors ably led by our Chairman, Mr. T. Thomas.

Cathedral is well known for imparting a holistic educational experience so that every child can have his/her own unique place in the sun. We give our children opportunities to move along the path to excellence but it is up to them to take them and use them. As a pithy Chinese proverb succinctly puts it, “Man who waits for a roast duck to fly into his mouth must wait a very, very long time”.

I know that we harp on the fact that marks alone are not the benchmark of excellence; yet, in the contradictions of reality, we accept the fact that much hinges on public exam scores. So here I go... The Board results have, as usual, been absurdly though exhilaratingly astounding. Out of the 151 candidates who appeared for the ICSE Std. 10 examination, 99 were in the 90+ category.

We sent up 114 for the Std. 12 ISC examinations. Sixty-four students got 90% and above. Moving to the Advanced Placement Courses, of which we currently

offer 17, 93 students appeared in May 2013; 88.2% achieved scores above grade 3; 13 students were awarded AP Scholar and AP Scholar with Honours Certificates and nine were awarded AP Scholar with Distinction.

Our College Board results continue to be excellent. Our candidates maintained a mean SAT Reasoning Score of 2000 out of a best possible 2400, as compared to the worldwide mean score of approximately 1488.

Of the class that will be graduating in May 2014, 42 students opted to apply to colleges in India, 56 applied to the US, 12 to the UK, two to Canada and three to Singapore.

During the course of the year, besides the Annual Career Fair organised meticulously by our Guidance Counsellor, approximately 160 College/University representatives from USA, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore met our students, giving them first-hand information as well as opportunities for interviews on home turf. Our Std. 12 students have much to thank the School, and especially Mrs. Shukla, for.

Only some of the achievements of our students are highlighted in this speech, as it would be impossible to give a comprehensive overview of all five sections of the School. Here are a few snippets: a detailed account on the School’s website does justice to the controlled mayhem.

Students from the Senior School attended ‘Reach Cambridge’, an intellectually stimulating summer school programme at the University of Cambridge; a cultural exchange programme — the Sunburst Youth Camp at Singapore; a Community Service-based exchange programme with Phillips Academy, Andover, USA, and another exchange programme, ‘Eumind’, with schools in the Netherlands.

At ‘Melange’, an Inter-School Festival organised by G.D. Somani School, approximately 70 of our students participated in 18 events. They won a number of prizes and our School was placed third. They also participated in ‘Odyssey’, an Inter-School Festival at

Annual Speech Day – 2013-14

At the lectern: Mrs. Meera Isaacs, Principal


Principal’s Message

St. Gregorios High School. Here too our School came third overall.

The students’ writing skills and worldview have been showcased in the Out of Eden Project, an online learning programme of Project Zero of the Harvard School of Education. The 14-week pilot project was successfully completed in July 2013.

The Ethical Leadership Programme for Std. 8 to 10 is alive and well. The selected group of Std. 11 leaders started various initiatives focussed on the safety of women in Mumbai. The Community Action Plan was presented at the Annual Interact Club Meet. “The Know Your Seniors Programme”, an initiative started last year, continues to be successful with students of Std. 11 mentoring students of Middle School on a weekly basis.

‘Encore’, the music concert and fest, apart from showcasing the soaring talent of our youngsters, raised 20 lakhs through the initiative of the students of Std. 11. The money was divided among three NGOs that the school supports — Muktangan, The Foundation and Apnalaya.

The Cathedral Model United Nations Conference is one of the highlights of the year. Now in its 17th year, 600 participants from 41 schools across India and Nepal came together to deliberate, debate, discuss and dialogue on the world’s most pressing issues both real and imaginary in

the salutary and rarefied atmosphere of the Trident Hotel.

At the Brain and Behaviour Camp, our School team secured first place for their research presentation on ‘Nutrition and the Brain’. While working on this topic, the students had the opportunity to interact with many eminent scientists in the field from TIFR.

At the annual Inter-School Science Quiz organised by the Nehru Science Centre, our team of Std. 9 students placed third.

On August 26, 2013, 26 students from Std. 11 and 12 participated in the Annual Mathematics and Statistics Fest conducted by H.R. College. Our team secured first place. The International Mathematics Olympiad for students of Std. 8, 9 and 10 also saw our students doing us proud by winning

three golds and one silver medal.

The Nirbhaya Case, which forced society to discard its blinkers, was the catalyst for our Sociology Seminar, aptly named ‘Towards an Equal World’. The brainchild of a proactive HOD and her enthusiastic department hosted a workshop and seminar discussing women’s issues ranging from ‘intimacy and abuse’ to ‘objectification of women in Bollywood and the dangers of censorship’. The seminar that followed involved speakers such as actor Rahul Bose, activist Abha Singh, journalist Geeta Anand, academic Nilesh Chatterjee and lawyer Mrunalini Deshmukh.

To quote the great Muhammad Ali, “Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they

have deep inside them — a desire, a dream, a vision.” That desire, dream and vision is what drives our many champions on the sports field and hence the wide array of medals won at both the School and individual levels.

Rumi’s “The only lasting beauty is the beauty of the heart” runs like a refrain through the School, beginning with the Pre-Primary and actively working its way through the Infant, Junior and Middle Sections — each with its own carefully orchestrated programme, till it flows with intensity in the Senior School through the Interact Club, which is ably helped by the Nature Club and the IAYP. They have striven tirelessly through the year to make a small but significant impact on the world around them.

The students and teachers contributed

Mrs. Mariwalla with members of Cock House, Wilson


50 lakhs for relief work for Uttarakhand; a large number of NGOs is hosted and supported by them. The most important part is that the children give of themselves — their time, effort and talent in addition to generous funding. Most recently, they raised 2 lakhs, which they used to help build houses at Karjat under the aegis of Habitat for Humanity.

One of the most active contributions of our students has been writing for the visually challenged students at St. Xavier’s College. In December, the club organised two events that were undoubtedly the highlights of the year. One was Cathedral’s first ever ‘4C’ Conference. One hundred delegates from 12 schools congregated at Cathedral to engage in discussions and form a collaborative action plan on various social issues. I am truly proud of our children’s generosity of spirit, their sensitivity and their endeavour to walk in another’s shoes.

The School’s vision was complemented and enhanced tremendously by a massive digitisation exercise with each classroom from the Primary to the Senior Section being fitted with Interactive Smart Boards. Needless to say, the enjoyment of the learning and teaching process for pupils and teachers soared substantially, together with the knowledge of exciting new possibilities in the school education space.

Another important change that we are preparing for is the introduction of the IB Diploma Programme from the year 2015. We have been working diligently towards this goal. The teacher and administrator initial training is over. We have acquired the status of a Candidate School. Again, there is much excitement within the School community.

To our Vice-Principals, Mrs. J. Mayadas and Mrs. N. Samuel, our Headmistresses, Mrs. D. Bhattacharya, Mrs. S. Ganguly, Mrs. R. Talpade and Mrs. S. Lele, our Bursar, Mrs. Gehna Malkani, and our administrative staff, especially my long-suffering personal assistant, Sandra — thank you for the ability to carry out so many onerous duties with such élan and good humour.

My deep appreciation to all members of the PTA, who every year seem to be getting enviably younger and slimmer, led by Mrs. Mrunalini Munim (Chairperson), Mrs. Khulood Noorani (Hon. Secretary) and Mrs. Jasma Kapadia (Treasurer). Without their support, we would find every event — of which we have dozens — a chore.

We owe a debt of gratitude to all the members of the Alumni Association who support the school in various ways, to all my former pupils who are always so helpful and forthcoming. To Shyla Boga for her

teenaged brainchild, the successful Annual Manori Summer Camp, now in its thirteenth year, and to Dr. Anand Gokani, alumnus happily on perpetual call for not only medical emergencies but for leadership programmes which the Std. 12 students find so inspirational.

At this point, I would like to tell you about a teenager who has made an impact on many of us and most certainly on me. I salute her spirit, which has refused to accept anything less than a ‘yes’ for an answer; who has shown that the human will can survive and conquer. She’s come a long way — from her hospital bed where she lay comatose two years ago to the feisty young lady who is determined not to be confined to her wheelchair. For her courage, her innate strength of character and

her grit and determination to beat all odds, and for her parents, her sister and extended family, who continue to be the wind beneath her wings, ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to put your hands together for Rayna Arya.

I turn now to our graduating class, which was led with integrity, poise and good humour by Anam Alwani, our Head Girl, and Raghav Mehrotra, our Head Boy. On their journey beyond the gates of Cathedral and into the real world, I trust that they will remember some of the deeper truths that they experienced here.

However, while they are on their quest, maybe Ralph Waldo Emerson’s definition of success will steady and guide them.

To laughoften and much,

to win the respect of intelligent peopleand the affection of children;

to earn the appreciation of honest criticsand endure the betrayal of false friends;

to appreciate beauty;to find the best in others;

to leave the world a bit betterwhether by a healthy child,

a garden patch, or aredeemed social condition;

to know even one lifehas breathed easier

because you have lived.This is to have succeeded.


Smooth sailingPadma Shri Commodore (SCC) Rabi Ahuja (Wilson, 1953) tells us how sailing has been in his blood and is his life.

I had a flash of insight when I was with Commodore (SCC) Rabi Ahuja. It felt like I was

talking to someone my own age. This active septuagenarian runs an organisation known as the Sea Cadet Corps (SCC) with an enviable vitality and enthusiasm. I was fascinated by his life before Partition, when he studied in an English school in Karachi (Karachi Grammar School), and then his arrival at the Cathedral Boys’ School, Fort, when he moved to Mumbai (then Bombay) in 1948. He nostalgically recounted his daily commute from Andheri to school and “mucking around” in the quadrangle with his pals, “rarely ever going home clean”.

“A large focus in school then was on sports — cricket, football, hockey — and far less on studies than it is these days,” says Commodore Ahuja. He would sail on Saturdays and train in the SCC every Sunday. He was initiated into sailing by his father, who was the founder of the Sea Scout Group in Karachi, an offshoot of the Boy Scout movement. In 1951, it was renamed the Sea Cadet Corps. Since 1966, the headquarters reside in the Training Ship Jawahar, named after Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who laid the foundation stone (or “keel”) of the ship in 1963. Commissioned in 1966 by Dr. Radhakrishnan (then President of India), it is today an organisation with more than 2,000 young boys and girls from all strata of society in Mumbai and another 3,000 in Service Establishments across India and an international school.

“We impart practical nautical and allied training to children,” says Commodore Ahuja. “Many kids don’t have the same skill set learnt in schools such as Cathedral. We teach them how to march, tie a knot, pull an oar and some even sail a boat to inculcate the

correct way of doing things and learn responsibility, teamwork and leadership.”

The organisation has had several moments in the sun, first in 1976 when its Sea Cadets won India’s first medal for sailing in a World Championship; then in 1988, it won the first Gold Medal in a world event in yachting, and, in 1989, India’s first Gold medal abroad in China.

“A very small group of our kids actually learns to sail,” admits Commodore Ahuja, explaining that most are taught basic and practical techniques and learn how to “understand the elements”. He says Indians aren’t very comfortable with water, despite being surrounded by it. The primary aim of SCC is to break down those barriers. Commodore Ahuja generously extended an invitation to all those interested to come aboard and see the training

facilities. Training Ship Jawahar is affiliated with INS Viraat and participates in an annual regatta with more than 400 Cadets pulling, canoeing, kayaking and sailing.

A number of Cathedralites in the ’50s and ’60s joined the Corps — KSM Anees (1953), Sohrab Kapadia (1956), Bejon Nadir (1956), Dante Mody (1954) are just a few. Gradually, many youngsters joined and helped make the organisation what it is today. Commodore Ahuja, our feisty Head Boy of 1953, is involved seven days of the week and oversees the running of the SCC. Despite his busy schedule, he enthusiastically joined his batchmates for their Golden Jubilee reunion in 2003, and he remains a true-blue Cathedralite at heart.

~ Dhanwanti Rajwade (ICSE 2000)

Spotlight


Health, nutrition and fitness have always been Anuj Rakyan’s passions. Last

year, he realised that this passion could also be a business opportunity. “When I started my career, I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do but what was meant to be done. Like every good Indian son, I studied Commerce to become an investment banker in the US, but I kept flitting; first, brand consultancy in the US, and then the jewellery business,” he says.

Anuj quit the jewellery business overnight, without knowing what he wanted to do next. That’s when he realised how important his friends’ circle and networks were. “There are so many overachievers in the Cathedral network, so you get great professional advice.”

Spotlight

Conceptualising to launching Raw Pressery took six months and Anuj’s biggest challenge was people management. “I started alone and now, a year from the birth of the idea, we are 65 people. I realised the first 20 people will make or break your company.”

We talk about the health F&B market in India and Anuj says that people have started becoming aware of what’s good for them, but in the organised market, there are few products that are as good as the raw produce. This is where he saw a business opportunity. “In the last 10 years, health has become cool. We used to boast about how little we slept and how much we drank, but those same people now talk of being vegetarian and waking early for yoga before work.”

However, the beverage segment is still lacking. “There’s unhealthy, less healthy and more healthy.” For example, in an unhealthy Tetra Pak

of orange juice, there’s less than five per cent of the real fruit, he says. “How can anything in a cardboard box with a shelf life of six months be considered fresh?”

‘Anything that’s good for you can go bad’ reads a sign on his factory walls.

Cold-pressed juices, such as those from Raw Pressery, are 100 per cent juice without any added water, made under sanitary conditions with machinery that preserves nutrients. Doctors and dietitians have been consulted for the percentages of various vegetables used to provide different benefits. Sensory evaluation teams have helped deliver on taste, resulting in a product that arrives at your doorstep the same morning it was made.

What is the Indian consumer’s perception of health? “Nutritionists, fitness trainers, dermatologists — there’s often conflicting advice for the same objective and this has led to confusion, which leads to misconceptions,” says Anuj. According to him, ‘calories’, ‘sugar’ and ‘fat’ have become bad words because of incomplete or wrong information about them.

What does the future hold? Anuj wants to settle down before he loses any more hair! On a serious note, his mission is to scale up and be “India’s first honestly healthy food and beverage company”. He also intends to move into the food sector with unique products that do not require added preservatives or chemicals. Anuj has proved that anyone with a new, genuine idea can juice it.

~ Anushka Shivdasani Rovshen(ISC 1997)

Juicing a raw ideaAfter a decade in the jewellery business, Anuj Rakyan (ISC 1997) made a radical shift to the health and nutrition space, launching a brand of cold-pressed juices in India.


Presented at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Frieze Art Fair’s Sculpture Park in

London, The Generali Foundation, Vienna, The Enclave Gallery, London, Neha Choksi’s works are in notable public and private collections as well. Excerpts from an interview:

What inspired you to enter the world of contemporary art?I always wanted to be an artist. Besides being gifted at drawing as a child, which is what leads many people into art, I thought I should learn other things. I wanted to incorporate all sorts of liberal arts into my education — theatre and

Out of the Box

poetry both excited me. I ended up studying Greek and Latin at UCLA, mainly for the poetry and theatrical traditions, along with some Sanskrit and Avestan. A few years later, I transferred to the School of the Arts to get a dual BA in Art. I was lucky enough to attend a school with distinguished artists teaching, such as Paul McCarthy, Mary Kelly, John Baldessari and Sharon Lockhart. My formal art education was already slanted towards the very contemporary.

After UCLA, what?After UCLA, I spent a year hanging out with DJs spinning records in

Mumbai at various clubs. I studied French and German as preparation for my entry into the PhD programme in Classics at Columbia University. While there, I was trying to make art at the same time. I had a two-person collaborative show in Australia over summer break and I soon realised I wanted to make art full-time. But doing art and studying Classics was proving to be a schizophrenic existence because few in grad school really knew, or were interested in, my other life. I had my first solo art exhibition after grad school, but full-time art came only much later, in 2005, when I could afford to.

The art of the matterContemporary artist Neha Choksi (ISC 1991) explores the relationship between time and space, what is left out and what is left in. The work is sometimes poetic and absurd, sometimes tragi-comic, but always perceptive and sensitive.

Iceboat, featuring the artist Neha Choksi. Image courtesy the artist and Project 88.


What is your process and inspiration? The ideas that motivate me and lie behind the work keep me challenged daily. Works such as Minds to Lose, 2008-2010 (for which I anesthetised myself and four farm animals) and Leaf Fall, 2008 (for which a peepul tree was denuded over the course of a single day, leaving behind a single autumnal sprig) came out of a profound sense of emptiness and absence and wanting to figure out what that meant in a life that is lived in a material fashion. You have flesh and you need other material things; yet, there is a striving towards nothingness that is apparent in my work.

How do you engage with all the mixed media and various craftspeople, experts, artisans?It’s more like “Why?” It’s mechanical and emotional and comes from within me. How to put it all together is my journey and where I am coming from and where it will lead me. I try to make a work that takes it all in. As for technical things, I usually try to teach myself as much as I can about the medium. Of course, for things like bronzes, you rely on craftspeople because the foundry is important. But there is no path teaching you how to denude a tree or make a boat out of ice. I teach myself.

How do you deal with the market and commercial aspects? Although I am pragmatic about the need to make a living, I am not pragmatic about how I go about it. I make work that comes to me and hope that it does well. Sometimes, it is not clear or meaningful to buyers at that moment. That’s when the despair comes in. But you have to keep making work that you believe in and trust its time will come.

Any memorable moments?A high point would definitely be during the video performance work Iceboat, 2013, when the boat melted and I was dropped into the lake. The work was many years in the making. For it, I row a boat made entirely out of ice in Lake Pavana. I am dressed in a fully soluble cellulose garment and am without my glasses, so I am virtually blind beyond five feet. It was just me, the boat and the lake. Although I was working very hard with my body, that sense of freedom and liberation sans cold, fatigue and fear was exhilarating. The moment I slipped into the water, when the boat could no longer support my weight, everything became clear.

In 2010, I exhibited a sculpture of a gravity-defying bed, which was a mattress held aloft by flower-filled vases. A child found it inviting, engaging and interactive enough to actually sleep on, knocking vases over in the process. I was amused and charmed at the fearless impulsiveness. The piece was eventually bought by a South American collector from Frieze London.

How did your years at Cathedral fit into the equation? I did not take Art as a subject at

either of the school Board exams. I outgrew very quickly both art teachers and tutors, even though I continued to paint. In 2006, at the invitation of architect Kapil Gupta and filmmaker Ashim Ahluwalia (ICSE 1989), I collaborated on India’s first-ever entry to the Venice Architecture Biennale. It was a collection of films within an installation. I did a film based on a 25-year-old illegal building at Banganga that still does not exist on Mumbai’s development plan and another on designated green spaces in Byculla that do not exist in reality.

Any advice to young alumni thinking of careers in art?I urge anyone considering a career in contemporary art to learn not only about contemporary and traditional art forms but also other creative endeavours. Go to the theatre, learn music, attend musical events, participate in poetry readings. Find ways to engage with culture as it is being produced. Humble yourself before the vast cultural productions of humanity.


Neha Choksi, Poise II, Mattress, clear vases, colour-sequenced flowers, gravity, time, 2010, life-size. Image courtesy the artist and Project 88.



Cat o’ timeless talesKhalid Mohamed (ISC 1965) reminisces about art, essays and being cast as a tavern wench in Henry V.

Let me attempt a spontaneous take on the way we were. “We” meaning the coolest Cats of

the swinging ’60s. At the risk of being heckled as snobs ‘n’ toffs, the Cathedral & John Connon School on Outram Road, facing the somewhat pedantically named Parsi Lying-in Hospital, was a rarefied world. Want magic realism? You got it!

The campus sprung surprises, Gothic Anglo-Saxon arches giving

way to restored post-Independence classrooms atop a longish, winding stairway. And if one wing looked as if it was in sync with a medical prescription, there was the attic roomlet straight out of an Enid Blyton illustration. There, the doting Mr. Hazarnis presided, striving to make us Picassos and Modiglianis.

Since my draughtsmanship was wonky, that helped. The kind soul liked my choice of colours, even if the apples in my still-life renditions looked like rotting squares and triangles. “So cubist!” he would thump my quaking back, rewarding me with the coveted Powvalla Art Prize. Protests went up from the other kids. The Indonesian Consul General’s son, Agus Sutarjo, had painted a grey-black-and-white

Nostalgia

watercolour of a ship in a storm. It was a stunner. Mr. Hazarnis, however, had a taste for the obtusely abstract.

That attic was my art paradiso. And down below, the commodious hall, topped by a proscenium stage, was as utilitarian for chanting morning hymns (if late, you had to stand in a corner for 20 minutes and count the cracks) as it was for staging the annual school play. Every year it was a riff on Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer,

performed by professionals, till it was decided the kids would have a go and one of the teachers would direct.

Mr. Dexter, History-Geography teacher, embarked on this project to direct Shakespeare’s Henry V. A Godrej scion was Falstaff. Because of my papyrus-thin voice, I was the tavern wench, Hostess Quickly. Padded up, I was a wreck on the last day of rehearsals. For what seemed like an eternity, I was pinched, particularly on my derrière. On stage, I released all my pent-up anger about the compulsory padding. I was awarded the Best Actor trophy!

I find myself unable to compose a structured ode to the school where I learnt all that I have, other degrees being a mere extension. The

abundantly stacked library introduced me to Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Ellery Queen, Daphne du Maurier and Leo Tolstoy (I pretended I’d completed War and Peace; I still haven’t). It doubled up as lunchroom for kids whose homes couldn’t send them hot lunches. The Irish stew (nice), mutton cutlets (dry), sultana pudding (delicious name, but too custardy) were delivered from the Bombay Gymkhana.

I’m indebted to Miss Mordecai, Miss Rahimtoola, Miss Sutermeister, Mrs. Karat, Mr. Mehta, Mr. Joshi, Mr. Lewis and Mr. Elisha. Mr. Elisha is the Dr. Frankenstein who created this monster, moi. In Std. 7, he asked for an essay on ‘My first flight’. Never having flown, I imagined this mildly flirtatious conversation with a fantasy airhostess. Mr. Elisha found the essay “interesting”. He read it out to the class, which was in splits, in a nice way.

He then looked me straight in the eye to inquire, “Do you know how many marks you should get for this?” I beamed. Signing my essay with a flourish, he announced, “Zero!”

So, to show Mr. Elisha he was wrong, I swore I’d write and be read somewhere, sometime. If you’ve reached this sentence, sweet revenge is mine. Cats somehow always script their own purrfect ending.

Khalid, seated on the ground, third from right.

Khalid Mohamed is an author, film critic, scriptwriter and film and theatre director and is pretty proud of his double promotions at school.


First Citizen

A helping handNihal Kaviratne (ISC 1963), named one of ‘25 leaders at the Forefront of Change’ by Business Week in 2002, capped a 40-year career at Unilever and now sits on a number of eminent boards. He is Chairman of TVS Indonesia and Akzo Nobel India Limited and a champion of CSR.

Your pioneering role in corporate social responsibility (CSR) was recognised as early as 2004 when you received a CBE for your work in sustainable development.Forty eight years of corporate life in different parts of the world taught me that you can only do well by doing good. Today, brands derive strength from how well their companies are aligned to serve the needs of the societies that sustain them. This sort of enlightened self-interest earns for corporates the trust and loyalty of communities. Many of us want to make a difference but find it difficult to make a start.True. Our waking hours are consumed by work, commuting, family and personal needs. Joining an existing organisation avoids the huge time investment of your own start-up. Look for one founded on a big idea, run with efficiency and integrity. Pick a cause you are passionate about. Within that organisation, take on a job where you can personally make a real difference.

How did you zero in on such a neglected aspect of the cancer story (care for children and families undergoing long-term cancer treatment) when you set up St. Jude in 2006?

I have always had an abiding interest in the welfare of children. Returning to India after 22 years, I was looking for a need gap. Providing physical and emotional comfort to these needy kids and their accompanying parents from rural villages while they were in large cities for traumatic treatment and recovery would complete a circle of holistic care and move the needle on survival rates.

St. Jude has evolved into a case study showcasing the success of corporatising the NGO/not-for-profit model. All the learning from my corporate experience has been applied. Using the proven recipe of Think big, start small, move fast, the founding team spent 20 months developing, with creativity and rigour, a breakthrough yet scalable business model in a prototype centre. We are now in rapid replication mode across the country and plan to have 100 centres running by 2021. But the learning never stops. The manuals are continuously updated without sacrificing one iota of the unique quality that is the hallmark of the St. Jude’s brand. There are numerous NGOs doing great work in India but scaling seldom happens.The secret is to retain the soul of a small company in the body of a

burgeoning one. Small specialist teams are responsible for the design work in each of the jobs to be done and implementation is by all. Successful scaling requires vision, focus, drive, resources and, perhaps most important, the suppression of personal egos. How do you juggle your schedule between London, Singapore and Mumbai while sitting on the boards of eminent MNCs to consistently commit to St. Jude?Wherever I am, I devote half my time to St. Jude. Today, there are many great people on the team driving the bus. My role as Non-Executive Chairman/Director is to help pave the road ahead and to mentor. It keeps me refreshed and in touch with a fast-changing world, as does the time I spend with my daughter and grandchildren. Each of us has so much to be grateful for.


St. Jude provides the physical and emotional needs that will give children undergoing cancer treatment a better chance to beat their disease. For more information, visit http://www.stjudechild.org/

Nihal Kaviratne with the little warriors

Presenters of Presenters of

To know more about the Foundation:E-mail: [email protected]

Visit: www.vsdf.org

The ‘Vinod & Saryu Doshi Foundation’ is a non-profit, charity trust that aims at promoting Art, Culture,

Education and Community.

“Within 5 years, the Vinod Doshi Theatre festival has come to be recognised as the litmus test for first-grade theatre.”

dr. girish karnad, playwright

“The Vinod Doshi Theatre Festival has revived the experimental theatre movement in Maharashtra; it is of great value to young playwrights, directors and other rangkarmis.”

dr. mohan agashe, actor

“One day, I will be a professional basketball player.”

mohammed shan, 5-year-old participant at a chip summer camp

supported by the vinod & saryu doshi

foundation

“I am the first girl in my family to go to an engineering college. After completing a degree in Computer Engineering, I will pursue my Master’s from a U.S. University. The Vinod & Saryu Doshi Foundation gave me a chance to dream big.”

chitra watwani, vinod doshi-coep merit scholar


In an era of selfies, 140-character communications and ‘the article as a slide show’, here’s how the Cathedral Junior School is encouraging little tablet-swiping fingers to enthusiastically flip through the pages of good, old-fashioned books.

The Junior School library is a large, airy room with streaming sunlight and shelf-lined walls

crammed with books bearing the most delightful titles. A wander through the heritage building reveals that each classroom not only has a Smart Board system, complete with an Internet connection and projector, but also houses its own mini-library of well-thumbed books. Clearly, this is a place where adults are working hard to get young minds excited about reading.

The Junior School Headmistress, Mrs. S. Ganguly, who started the school’s pioneering Reading Programme (RP) in 2007, is a firm believer in the lifelong benefits of a reading habit. She envisioned providing children “a free space without classroom-style agendas or expectations of comprehension” where they view reading as play, not work. The RP aims to promote fluency, frequency and the enjoyment of reading, while simultaneously building literary confidence.

As with any initiative, the programme encountered some early stumbling blocks, including the challenge of burdening teachers. A viable solution presented itself in the form of parents who are ardent readers and are keen to share their love of books with children. Through a stringent application process that includes an extensive questionnaire, Mrs. Ganguly personally selects a team of parents in sync with the programme’s philosophy. Each volunteer parent mentors a

group of six children, conducting fortnightly Book Club sessions to encourage active sharing of reading experiences. Through the year, they explore different genres including fiction, non-fiction and verse, and children are encouraged to choose additional library books at their own reading level. Hindi sessions, author interactions and class activities enhance the experience. While it is difficult to measure tangible success, parents have reported that previously reluctant readers are enticed into reading for pleasure and continue to do so for years.

Ardent young readers benefit too, since RP activities help focus attention, an important skill for fluent readers who may be tempted to race through their books. Concentration and increased attention spans are important for kids who will soon be immersed in short posts, chat messages and tweets. With multiple information sources, tomorrow’s youth will need to be intelligent consumers of media, able to sift through reams of material to discern authenticity in the clamour of information overload. It is heartening then that learning to find your own voice starts early, with the RP inviting children to share observations, form personal opinions and articulate their views.

Possibly one of the best outcomes of reading books is the development of rich imaginary worlds. The RP encourages young readers to tap into their creativity by drawing favourite parts of stories, creating new book

covers, writing alternative endings to stories or acting as they imagine a particular character would.

Studies show that children and teenagers who read for pleasure have better academic results and larger vocabularies; and books certainly serve as entertainment, providing tranquillity and stress relief. But many reading enthusiasts point to a deeper reason they cherish the habit —books can be wonderful tools in a journey of self-discovery, bridging time and geography to connect with minds, enabling a greater understanding of the world. It is hoped that reading programmes such as this one will gift the next generation all those benefits, raising voracious readers who live in a world of shortform digital communication but still have their social media feeds peppered with ‘shelfies’ of their beloved book collections.

~ Miel Sahgal

(ISC 1989)

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Shelfies are forever

Presenters of Presenters of

To know more about the Foundation:E-mail: [email protected]

Visit: www.vsdf.org

The ‘Vinod & Saryu Doshi Foundation’ is a non-profit, charity trust that aims at promoting Art, Culture,

Education and Community.

“Within 5 years, the Vinod Doshi Theatre festival has come to be recognised as the litmus test for first-grade theatre.”

dr. girish karnad, playwright

“The Vinod Doshi Theatre Festival has revived the experimental theatre movement in Maharashtra; it is of great value to young playwrights, directors and other rangkarmis.”

dr. mohan agashe, actor

“One day, I will be a professional basketball player.”

mohammed shan, 5-year-old participant at a chip summer camp

supported by the vinod & saryu doshi

foundation

“I am the first girl in my family to go to an engineering college. After completing a degree in Computer Engineering, I will pursue my Master’s from a U.S. University. The Vinod & Saryu Doshi Foundation gave me a chance to dream big.”

chitra watwani, vinod doshi-coep merit scholar


My First

Stepping outCathedralites love making the most of any experience. Here’s a look at three of them and their memorable firsts.

My first year in college

Approximately a year and a half ago, I was in the exact same position on my bed,

headphones on, Kanye West playing, churning out application essays by the bucket-load. Today I sit here, same bed, same headphones, different music, different me.

My first year of college at Tufts University in Boston, USA, has been everything someone’s first year should be. It’s been tough, no doubt. But that’s what I love about it. I’ve

totally changed my roommate’s perception of Indians by correcting his grammar and I’ve met people who have more information about Hinduism at their fingertips than I could ever dream of having.

The ‘me’ that sits here today, as opposed to the one that sat here a year and a half ago, is confused. I’m confused because of the knowledge I’ve acquired, the people I’ve met and the experiences I’ve gained. I’d say I’m just slightly more confused than

my friend was when I referred to an ‘elevator’ as a ‘lift’. My first year of college has been the most confusing and most liberating thing possible!

This freshman year saw a number of firsts — first time living away from home, first time having to make my own money and live off it, first time trying to survive a Boston winter. As of now, I’m majoring in International Relations and Economics with a minor in English. Tomorrow, International Relations might become Computer Science — who knows?

This is the first time in my life I’ve been this confused and I love it. And as this set of firsts comes to a close, all I can think about is how I want seconds.

~ Aditya Hurry (ISC 2013)

My first Bollywood film

I come from a family of artists — sculptors, to be precise. My father was a third-generation sculptor

who never once told me I must follow my family’s line. He always advised me to follow my dream and do what I love…and so I did.

Having spent five years in the U.S.A. pursuing a degree in Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management followed by a stint as Assistant F&B Manager at The Peninsula, New York City, I came back to India with no real idea what I would do next. I had dabbled in modelling and acting as a child, but never pursued it. Someone suggested I try my hand at it again, so I decided to enroll at The Barry

John Acting Studio for a four-month course in theatre and drama. I knew I had a serious task at hand, coming from a non-‘filmi’ background, but I was beginning to love the craft, so I kept at it.

I had begun auditioning, making short films and also compéring at friends’ weddings. Then, at the sangeet of one of my closest buddies (and classmate), I got ‘noticed’ and had the opportunity to audition for Yash Raj Films. Several rounds of auditions later, I got that call and I started my career with a role in YRF’s August 2014 release, Mardaani (starring Rani Mukerji). It was surreal.

Costume trials, readings with my director, meetings with assistant directors — I had dreamt of this and now I was actually feeling like an actor at work. We worked on a few things, including my look for the film, for which I had to grow out my beard and moustache. Since my character was meant to ride a motorbike — something I had never done before — I signed up for bike lessons. Prepping for my role was exciting!

On my first day of shooting, I had to be on set at 7:30 a.m. and didn’t sleep until 4 a.m. I wasn’t nervous, just super excited. When I got to the set, I was thrilled to see my name on the door of the vanity van, even though I didn’t spend much time in it. I preferred mingling with everyone, like on a first day at school. One of the assistant directors commented that once I become a star, I won’t venture out of the van. Time will tell.


1MY

I did well on my first day and got applauded by the entire unit. They termed it my ‘debut’. I went through my share of trials, tribulations and copious amounts of black coffee while shooting. There was chaos and I felt lost at times, but it was beautiful.

I am now officially one film old and a part of Bollywood. For me, nothing in this world compares to being on a film set. It’s where I belong and where I’d like to spend the rest of my life.

~ Mikhail R. Yawalkar (ISC 2003)

Reflections of an emerging novelist

As far as the world is concerned, my young adult crossover story, Operation

Mom — How I got my mother a life…and a man, is my debut novel. Entirely different from my previously published non-fiction, this book was huge amounts of fun to write, something that I ‘spat out’ over the course of a summer two years ago.

When I embarked on a mission to write a novel about being a teen in Mumbai, I thought, how hard could it be? But it was. My nephew was quick to remind me

that my lingo was out of date, and my teen references, out of context. Then followed a crash course in contemporary Mumbai slang. Between that and a slew of my own young adult experiences, the story unfolded. My characters and settings are heavily inspired by my own life scenes, so people who know me are always looking to relate a particular character to my family members or friends. And while there is an overlap with things that have been, as a fiction writer you have the luxury of twisting situations and characters into what you want them to be.

Truth be told, although Operation Mom is my debut novel, the yet-to-be-published Arya’s Chronicles is the story that marked my transition to writing fiction.

To define the trauma you go through from shifting writing styles is to imagine the out-of-body experience that a caterpillar must face as it takes wing in its reincarnation as a butterfly. Week after week, I attended critique groups in San Francisco, to be

constantly reminded to shed my structured non-fictional writing style, to get out of the box and let my story flow.

Anyone who knows me can attest to my rather, er, uptight nature. I see happiness as a function of my ability to plan things; to see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Or so I thought. On a karmic level, this must be one reason I find myself writing fiction and why my first piece of fiction was developed in California, the playground of the anti-uptight. All of us have terrific stories submerged within the depths of our subconscious, but in writing my first novel, I woke up to the realisation that to birth those stories, I needed to blur my vision; to shift my focus from that pot of gold. Because whether in fact it is attainable or not is a journey of discovery...one that can be made only if you acquiesce to the currents of your subconscious and see where they take you, rather than fighting against them to stay ashore where life is safe because you’ve seen it before.

Arya’s Chronicles is fantasy fiction, about a 12-year-old boy in San Francisco who falls though a crack to find himself in Ramayana land. He brings with him the very last copy of the ancient epic, which Ravana, the king of demons, wants to destroy so he can rewrite history from his own viewpoint.

My biggest problem was that typical of first-time novelists: I loved every character and was not open to ‘killing my darlings’ to really bring the story to life. The book took forever to write, edit and bring to publishing, but in the process, I went through my own metamorphosis as a writer of fiction. Now I have an entire garden of stories to pollinate.

~ Reenita Malhotra Hora (ISC 1989)


Fake it till you make it!School extracurricular activities taught me the art of ‘faking it’ — faking a stomach ache, the flu, nausea, a really (really!) bad headache; the same crinkled, crumpled yellowing doctor’s certificate in my pocket to add authenticity and relief from this torture.

After what was becoming a weekly ritual of absence, the House Captain would see me approaching and solemnly nod at me to just carry on. It was the success of that experience that emboldened me to use the same ‘art’ in my later life — when the thought of going to work on a Monday morning seemed akin to hell. Like they say...experience is the best teacher.~ Farhad J. Dadyburjor

(ICSE 1990)

One dozen memorable yearsMy love affair with Cathedral began in Standard 1. When Daddy dropped me to school, I didn’t let go of the doll in my hand. I was calmed by the sandpit and slide right outside our classroom...and the cherry on top — a geriatric tortoise (who would come home with us on school holidays), resident pet of 1M.

Our class teacher, Ms. Whitebread, had the neatest handwriting. She was partial to a few cute kids, carrying them around and pulling their cheeks at break time. Others, whose writing was not clear, were joked at — “Nxxxxxxx Cxxxxx is a mouse because his letters of the alphabet are the size of a mouse.”

Ms. Athaide, the music teacher, is unforgettable. In her lovely flouncy dresses with matching beads (the size of TT balls), playing the piano and teaching us Summer Holiday and Jamaican Farewell, and Mrs. Menezes’ booming voice singing Kumbaya.

There was never a time I didn’t want to be at School...although during the monsoons, I did hope for that one rainy day when the city would be flooded beyond recognition and school would close.

~ Farah Kohli née Mistry (ISC 1995)

Colour codedWhile second-generation or third-generation Cathedralites talk proudly of “inheriting” their House, I am different. Not sure which House to assign, Ms. Pruce pointed to a balloon and asked, “What colour?” I blurted out, “Blue” and was swiftly assigned Wilson.

~ Rustom Dadabhoy (ISC 1964)

A line to rememberOur Middle School Headmistress, Mrs. Koshy, was a force to reckon with — stiffly starched cotton saris, grey hair firmly tied in a neat bun at the nape of her neck and glasses that slipped down her nose to just the right angle to make the average 10-12-year-old want to disappear. Fearfully, we awaited our first Geometry class with her.

Mrs. Koshy began with a line that still thunders through the years. She speared us with her gaze, rocked gently back and forth on her heels and said: “Geometry is the study of angles; not angels! Anyone mixing up the two can expect a zero in their papers.” Then with a grim smile, she began the lesson. Since that day, I have never had the slightest inclination to confuse the two.

~ Sweta Dugar (ICSE 1995)

Such a long journey During Cross Country one year, a marker accidentally gave wrong directions to a whole bunch of runners, sending them off the charted course. Not only were they untraceable for quite a while, they were eventually sent home in a hearse! Imagine the shock for their poor families!

~ Shiraz Mehta-Vaid (ICSE 1996)

~ Compiled by Anaita Vazifdar–Davar (ICSE 1996)

If you have an interesting anecdote to share, mail it to us at [email protected]

Going the distanceI’ll never forget this Cross Country: all the best runners were beaten by someone in my class who had never played a sport before! Perplexed, we gathered around him at the finish line to ask how he had managed to achieve this without even breaking a sweat. He smiled conspiratorially and said, “Auto-rickshaw.” Not only did this kick up quite a stir with the super competitive House Captains, it also resulted in him receiving a pink card!

~ Dhimaan Shah (ISC 2004)

Lighter Side

Everyone has a memory or an anecdote about school they love recounting. Here are flashbacks from a few ex-students.

Those were the days


Summer School Cathedral students tell us about their experience.

The 13th annual Summer School at Manoribel was held from April 28 to May 5,

2014. The camp is an integration initiative and includes 25 children from the local village.

“This is the one week of the year that I look forward to the most. The camp has taught me how to do things I never thought I was capable of — theatre skits, rappelling and much more.”- Devika Madgavkar – 7D

“These seven days just flew by. Today is the last day but I feel like the camp has just begun.”- Rae Billimoria – 6D

“The chefs made different cuisines such as Chinese and Indian as well as some yummy desserts. There was brownie and chocolate ice cream and jelly, which made my mouth sweet and refreshed… We also learnt how to be more independent and do our work ourselves.”- Muskan Betala – 7B

“We saw the moon and Jupiter, we cracked insane PJs, we danced till the floor shook and this has been the best summer ever.”- Mehak Chadha – 7C

“The reason I come here every year is because the Summer School just has a different vibe to it. The lazy

afternoons sitting on the hammocks and the sound of the calm waves in your ears...what’s not to love about Manori!”- Urja Mehta – 9C

“What’s the first word you think of when you hear ‘Summer School’? For me, it’s ‘FUN’!”- Nikita Fernandes – 7C

“Playing on the beach, chilling in the rooms, relaxing on the hammocks, dancing with everybody...they’re all memories I will never forget. I had amazing fun with the Manori children. I made such great friends in such a short time. Saying goodbye to them was hard.”- Varun Kapadia – 9A

“This camp will be a bookmark in my childhood.”- Sanaya Havaldar – 9

“I loved ‘survival skills’, where I overcame my fear of heights.”- Sam Vatcha – 6

“I’ve been to Manori thrice and I absolutely love the camp!”- Akshata Kapoor – 7A

“There were many activities arranged for us such as Robotics, Art, Theatre, Pottery and Astronomy. We friends had midnight feasts. We had fun with

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the Manori children; they were very friendly and kind.”- Ananya Agarwal – 7A

“The sessions we took part in taught me a lot and I’m sure this knowledge will help me in life.”- Devansh Koppar – 9B

“We had a local home visit in which we saw how others live their lives.”- Hansini Somaiya – 5D

“The first day we had ‘survival skills’ — rappelling, river crossing and zipline. While rappelling, I felt scared going down, but I soon calmed down. In Robotics, we had fun making different models and remote controls. In Astronomy, we saw interesting videos and made a telescope. In Theatre, we did some plays. In Art, we made a spider.”- Devina Mogha – 5D

“My favourite part of the camp was beach games. We woke up every morning and went to the beach to play football.”- Samin Khimji – 7B

“My parents always ask me why I want to keep going back to camp but they don’t understand that the camp is a passage to better friendship between the seniors and the juniors. We also had a lot of fun with the Manori children. They are really kind, sweet and generous.”- Lianne Dhalla – 7B



November 14, 2013, better known as Founders’ Day, was celebrated with its usual vigour and camaraderie. After a serene morning at St. Thomas’ Cathedral, the alumni moved to the Middle School, where there was much chatter about old teachers and friends, as they browsed through the photos on the walls. The tea and snacks were also a huge hit! Meanwhile, the old boys ‘thrammed’ the current class in basketball. The evening before, old friends reunited over cocktails and dinner at Cheval in Kala Ghoda. The photos say it all.

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Anna PhilipAnna Philip retired from Cathedral in 1991, but she visits it at every opportunity she gets. Now living in Kerala, the former Mathematics teacher comes to Mumbai often and especially tries to make it to the Founders’ Day service. “Last year, I couldn’t be present on November 14, but I’m looking forward to it this time,” she says. The mother of four proudly states that three of her children schooled in Cathedral. Mrs. Philip is enjoying retired life, reading, cooking (“now my family is very diet-conscious; I can’t cook with so much oil!”), knitting and crocheting (“I like giving what I make as gifts”) and keeping in touch with her Cathedral acquaintances. Former students can contact her at [email protected] and 09847061208.

Mohini Sharma“If I lived closer to school, I would visit it every day!” exclaims Mohini Sharma with longing. When she retired in January 2008, the Junior School Hindi teacher took with her some wonderful memories. “The children were so attached to school and us teachers,” she reminisces. “When they had to write compositions about whom

From the staff room

Teacher Updates

they liked best, they would write about us.” She recalls meeting a former student at a restaurant many years after she had taught him. He asked if she remembered him, to which Mrs. Sharma replied, “Yes, you are my sweetheart.” “No, miss,” she was promptly corrected, “We are your ‘shameless creatures’.” Mrs. Sharma says it is heartening to see

her ex-students doing well in all walks of life. “They have

brought laurels to our great institution. I feel so proud of their achievements.” Is she enjoying retired life? “Not much, because I miss school. And I am not interested in housework; I prefer to go out. My husband knows everything about the house, whereas I don’t,” she laughs.

Manu Cariappa “Cathedral spoilt me!” exclaims Manu Cariappa. “After I left, I didn’t want to work anywhere else.” Armed with a degree in Library Science, Mrs. Cariappa

took over as Middle School Librarian for five years in the ’90s, a post she thoroughly enjoyed. “The school allowed me to be creative and I had a whale of a time.”

She insists she isn’t retired. Working on her husband’s coffee estate in Coorg doesn’t give her a chance to live a retired life,

she says.

However, she enjoys reading, gardening and looking after her dogs. Her sons, Arjun and Kartik, live abroad; when she can get away from the estate, she visits them. Although she hasn’t returned to Mumbai, Mrs. Cariappa is still in touch with many of her former colleagues. “We were so close,” she reminisces, “but I could never go chat with them in the staff room, because at lunch time I had regular students who wouldn’t want to leave the library!”

Ravindra KashikarOn the day of his interview in 1972, Ravindra Kashikar’s grandfather

passed away and he couldn’t attend. However, a few days later, Cathedral called him “and I was selected on the spot,” says the octogenarian who taught Sanskrit, Marathi and Hindi. He was also in charge of the buses, no mean feat. “School also sent me for the Road Safety Patrol course offered by the Police department.” This enabled Mr. Kashikar to ensure that the Cathedral kids had a safe journey wherever they went, be it

to the maidan to practise for Sports Day, to the buses or from one school building to another.

Mr. Kashikar left Cathedral in 1984 “because Mr. Newton, the Principal of G. D. Somani School, asked me to join him

there to implement all the programmes we had at Cathedral” but he enjoys attending our Founders’ Day service. “I can relive the good times and meet many people,” he says.

Retired and living in Dahisar now, Mr. Kashikar says, “In 1998, my brother offered me a job in his company, Mika Engineering India Pvt. Ltd. We have good staff, so I don’t need to be there, but I go to the factory every day. It keeps me active and I enjoy it.”

~ Anaita Vazifdar-Davar (ICSE 1996)

Anna Philip

Mohini Sharma

Manu Cariappa

Ravindra Kashikar


It was the early fifties. Times were different; we were just emerging from the influence of the British Raj. “African deserts and snows of the Rockies, wide sweeping prairies with winds blowing clean” were our birthright… Not yet changed to “Himalayan mountains…”

Girls and boys had separate schools. They came together only for the annual socials or in the school bus. Boys had furious games in the quadrangle at lunchtime. We slid down the corridors, rushed to the tuck shop during break, played Kitty Kitty and….

Out on the maidan, hockey/cricket/football/athletics inter-House matches were played with a fierce competitive spirit.

Sixty years ago, in December, the class of 1954 graduated with a Senior Cambridge Diploma and “went forth to our lifework to earn for our school a fair name.”

Rahul Bajaj (Savage) is a Padma Bhushan awardee and a former member of the Rajya Sabha. He obtained a B.A. (Hons.) from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, an L.L.B. from Mumbai and an M.B.A. from Harvard University. He joined the family business in 1965 and has since built it into a vast industrial empire. He now plays “Parthasarathy” (role of adviser) to his sons, Rajiv and Sanjiv, who manage the businesses. He will NEVER retire!

(Late) Pamela Ballantine (Wilson) was a topper and an inspirational leader. An Economics graduate from

Cathedral 1954 vintage

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Class Notes

Bristol University and a Diploma holder in Social Administration from L.S.E., Pamela devoted her time to social service in various fields in and around London and was awarded an M.B.E. in 2000 for her services to race equality in the London borough of Redbridge. She is, sadly, no longer with us.

Armaity Mody Patel (Palmer) studied Nursing but did not graduate. She married Naval (Wilson, Class of 1949) in 1960 and was a homemaker, residing in various places, mostly in North India, and then in Mumbai from 1990 to 2005. Having played hockey, tennis, badminton and basketball, she and Naval enjoy watching sports on TV. They are now settled in Mysore.

Arnavaz (Guzder) Wadia (Savage) obtained a B.A. (Hons.) from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. She did some secretarial work for a few years, but has been a homemaker since 1985. Settled in Pune, she travels a lot, visiting new places in Europe and Asia.

Gracie Hayeem Lerno (Barham) did a Teacher’s Training course at Cathedral and then migrated to the U.K. and then the U.S.A. She was a flight attendant for many years. Recently widowed, she now devotes time to teaching senior citizens how to take care of arthritis. She practises yoga, T.A.T. (Tapas Acupressure Technique),

Zumba and Tai Chi and lives in Simi Valley, California.

Homa Shirazi (Palmer) did a Diploma course in Dressmaking from Christian Dior, Paris, and had a successful dressmaking career in Mumbai before returning to her native Tehran, Iran. She keeps busy teaching and tailoring her own clothes in her spare time. She travels quite a bit, especially to London, Rome and the South of France, where she enjoys swimming. In Tehran, she enjoys going to the mountains, taking long walks and being with friends.

Jer Masani Delvadavala (Wilson) obtained a B.Com. from Sydenham College and an L.L.B. from Government Law College, Mumbai. She helped her husband run his construction firm and now likes to travel and listen to English pop music.

Mehroo Balsara Mistry (Savage) attended a private finishing school in Mumbai. After a brief marriage that sadly ended in divorce, she joined the family firm “Balsara”. Based in Mumbai, she now works in real estate.

Naju Vakil Dadrevala (Wilson) was married and widowed early, but has successfully raised her daughter and son to achieve eminent positions in life.

Nalini Chandran (Savage) obtained a B.A. (Hons.) from Elphinstone College, Mumbai. She forged a career as a teacher


Class Notes

in the various towns in which her Army-officer husband was posted. Widowed early, she devoted herself to social work and educational activity and has founded the Hari Sri Vidya Nidhi School in Thrissur.

Nergesh Mody Bharucha (Palmer) did some secretarial work and was homemaker to an Army General. Now retired, she and her husband read, play Scrabble and bridge, walk, meditate and practise yoga and aerobics.

(Late) Nilina Parker (Palmer) obtained a B.A. (Hons.) from Elphinstone College, Mumbai. After marriage, she moved to the U.K. in 1963 and continued to work in the airline industry till early retirement in 1966, when she moved to Pune. She passed away a few years ago. She had an ear for music and a bright, nonchalant attitude towards whatever life threw at her. Some of it was cruel, but she bore it stoically and always with a smile.

Zarrin Lam Aga (Savage) obtained a B.A. (Hons.) from St Xavier’s College, a B.A. (Hons.) from Leeds University, U.K. and an M.A. in Information Management from Thames Valley University, London. After working in Mumbai and London, she settled to be a homemaker. She is currently studying both The Avesta and the Avestan language in Mumbai.

Dr. Vijaya Hattiangadi Gupchup (Palmer) is a Ph.D. and an educationist and historian. She was Headmistress of the Cathedral Infant School from 1991 to 98. She has authored several books, such as Bombay: Social Change 1813-1857, St. Thomas’ Cathedral – A Witness to History and Sir George Birdwood – The Promoter of Goodwill between East and West. Her children and grandchildren are also Cathedralites.

Ratan Ramchandani Chawla (Wilson) worked at JWT for five years and married in 1962. She had two children and moved to London, as her husband was an international trader. After living in the U.S.A. for three years, she came back to India in 1992 and is now settled in Bengaluru.

(Late) Sadhana Shah Madhusudan (Wilson) was the very essence of a Cathedral girl. She brought her upbringing both at home and at School into every facet of her life. Her sunny attitude was infectious and it permeated through to her friends who held her in high esteem all her life. She passed away in 2013.

Tahamtan Aresh migrated to the U.S.A. in the early sixties and got a degree in Electrical Engineering from Cal. Poly., San Luis Obispo. In 1970, he moved to Iran, where he was involved in land development. He returned to the U.S.A. in the mid-seventies and started a real estate development company in California.

Rumi Daruwala (Savage) obtained a B.E. (Civil) from V.J.T.I., Mumbai. He worked with the Tata Group, rising from Trainee Engineer to Chief Civil Engineer. He is now a consulting

Engineer, Architect and Valuer settled in Mumbai.

Dara Dastur (Palmer) obtained an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Polymer Science, both from U.D.C.T., Mumbai. He then went to England to the National College of Polymer Technology, London, from where he obtained his professional qualifications. He worked in the plastic and rubber fields in two small companies over a period of 36 years, finally retiring in 2001. He now indulges in his hobby — walking.

Soli Davar (Barham) obtained a B.Com. from Sydenham College and A.C.A. in 1963. He then worked in his father’s firm as well as with P.C. Hansotia, rising to Partner in both firms. P.C. Hansotia later merged with Deloitte, where he continued as Partner till he retired. His specialty being Tax, he did some consultancy work before retiring completely.

Darab Dubash (Barham) graduated with a B.Com. from Sydenham College, Mumbai. He immediately joined the family business (founded in 1810) and has been managing that ever since. He now spends most of his time abroad but keeps in touch with his business from overseas.

Pratap Dundh (Barham) graduated with a B.Com. from Sydenham College in 1959 and an L.L.B. from Government Law College in 1961. He worked with Mitsubishi in




Class Notes

Mumbai. Since retiring in 2001, he has a textile consultancy business and spends most of his time with his grandson, also a Cathedralite.

Saleem Fazelbhoy (Wilson) spent two years at St. Xavier’s College and then joined the family business, selling auto parts in Maharashtra and Goa. Eight years ago, he moved to Pune, where he spends his time playing golf and going to the horse races. The business is now closed.

Prem Prakash Gupta (Palmer) operated various hosiery units in Mumbai and Ludhiana and founded India’s first Angora rabbit farm in Kullu, HP, in 1965, for the purpose of wool/hair (not meat), which he made the largest in the world.

Ravi Jaitly (Wilson) graduated as a Mechanical Engineer. He is now a gentleman farmer in the Delhi suburbs, where he lives in one of ‘those farm houses’!

Rumy Kapadia (Savage) obtained an M.S. and FRCS (E.N.T.) and has lived and practised in London since 1966, retiring in 1999. A great believer in medicine, of all varieties and ancillary allied professions, he always aspired to the standard of a concert pianist...without quite making it. He loves to travel to different countries, both for pleasure as well as to attend music festivals.

Mohinder (Chubi) Lalwani graduated with a BE (Mech.) from Benaras Engineering College after finishing his Inter Science from K. C. College. He

has operated automobile workshops, indulged in motor races and rallies and has won numerous races. He continues to be involved in the automobile field.

Sohrab Mehta (Barham) graduated with a B.Com. from Sydenham College and qualified as a Chartered Accountant from the U.K. After a varied career in Finance and Management, he retired as Finance Director of a textile and property group in London in December 2003. Now, computer pursuits, oil painting, chess and philately keep him in fine form.

Dante Mody (Palmer) worked in a bank for a few years and then migrated to the U.K., where he works in the photographic industry in retail, wholesale distributing and manufacturing. He is currently involved in manufacturing and selling worldwide.

Caveh Munshi graduated with an M.A. from Mumbai and an M.A. from Oxford University and taught English at Elphinstone College, Mumbai.

Suhas Phadke (Barham) graduated with a B.Sc. (Hons.) from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, and a D.B.M. from J.B.I.M.S., Mumbai. This was followed by a varied career in sales and marketing for consumer products and prescription medicines until his retirement as General Manager, Marketing, Beiersdorf India Ltd. in 1998. Now, computer surfing, following sport on TV and generally bumming around keep him busy.

Anthony Ramsinh (Savage) graduated with a B.A. from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. After stints in copywriting, advertising and P.R., he emigrated to the U.S.A. in 1976, where he worked as a Purchasing Executive with IBM for 20 years. After retirement, he indulges in travelling around the world, collecting art, watching over his wine cellar, horse racing and driving exotic cars, besides caring for a variety of wildlife in his area.

Col. Perminder Singh Randhawa graduated from the National Defence Academy and joined the Indian Army as a Mechanical Engineer, where he served for 32 years, including in four major wars. He is involved in spiritual activity on his retirement.

Arun Shenoy (Palmer) qualified as a Chartered Accountant in the U.K. and worked in various European companies in Finance, Marketing and General Management before moving to the U.S.A. as a Consultant to the pharma industry. He retired to Florida to indulge in his passion for golf.

Jal Tata (Palmer) graduated with a B.Com. from Sydenham College, Mumbai. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, he worked in various Tata companies in Financial and General Management, retiring as C.E.O. of Tata Services Ltd.

- Compiled by Suhas Phadke


Class Notes

Reunion — Class of 1963 The stage was set. After considering Chiplun, Alibaug and Khandala, the plans were final. There were to be two get-togethers — one hosted by Hiroo Advani at his mansion in Khandala; the other, by Rajkumar Seksaria at the C.C.I.

“What about the rest of the programme?” people asked. “Well, there is the Church Service, where we’ve been provided special seating since it’s our 50th year. This will be followed by a visit to the Middle School, the one that we all remember so well.”

The arrangements were flawless. Those who requested hotel stays booked in advance. Cars were aplenty. The take-off was timed perfectly. We all arrived at Hiroo’s mansion together.

It was a promising day, with plenty of sunshine, lots of food and drink and conversation galore. People were, after all, catching up after many, many years! We were 36 in all — classmates and a few spouses.

The Church Service followed the next day and, like obedient children,

everyone arrived on time. Soon, we were ushered into the area reserved for the Class of 1963. The Service was beautifully rendered. Singing hymns and the school song brought back memories of yesteryears. Albert Aboody, Head Boy of 1963, was accorded the privilege of reading a Lesson.

The Middle School tea ceremony was fun, but it was the visit to the

main school that elicited oohs and aahs from all of us. Remembering what happened where, who sat next to whom in which class…even tables and chairs were recognised in

many instances. The dinner at C.C.I. gave everyone

the opportunity to dress up according to the smart casual code. What a lovely evening! Good food, lots to drink and music from the 1950s and ’60s filled the air. It was difficult to believe we had spent three days together.

~ Kishore Shivdasani

50-year reunion

Fiftieth Reunion

Anand Desai (Barham) has worked in the I.T. industry starting with Compaq Computers/H.P. as a Computer Systems Analyst, where he designed information systems solutions of large and medium enterprises and set up new computer systems, both hardware and software applications, to increase productivity. Married to Ishwari, he enjoys travel, swimming and reading.

Dady Dadyburjor (Savage) received

his B.Tech. degree from I.I.T. Bombay and, subsequently, Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Delaware, all in Chemical Engineering. He is currently a (full) Professor at West Virginia University. He was in the first group to receive the Distinguished Alumnus award from I.I.T.-B., in 1983. He is one of about 20 people worldwide to be both a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and a Fellow of the American Chemical Society. He has been married to Lou since 1973.

Deepak Deshpande (Palmer) moved

to New Delhi in 1965 with his parents, where he got a B.Com (Hons.) degree and qualified as a Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary. After working with Price Waterhouse and Union

Class of 1964


Our thanks to

Sammy Medora

Vishesh Agarwal

for their generous contribution to

our Retired Teachers and

Staff Medical Benefit Scheme

Special thanks to the following

donors for their generous contributions:

Bajaj Foundation

Nisha Khattau

Pereena Lamba

Sarita Bhalerao

A well-wisher


Class Notes

Carbide, he started his own Management Consultancy firm, which over time evolved into a trading and representation business. He lives in Delhi with his wife, Rajul, and they have two daughters and a son. “While my business keeps me busy, I endeavour to give back to society what this life has given to me.”

Deena Thacker (Palmer) is presently Principal of Davar’s College of Commerce. She has three children, also ex-Cathedralites. Her grandson is a fourth-generation Cathedralite. The words “School first, house next, self last” have motivated her all her life. She has worked closely with the Association for the Blind. Fond of gardening and animals, she has a house in Goa and a farm in Boisar.

Dr. Rohinton K. Khambatta (Barham) did his post-graduate studies in Sydney, Australia, after which he started his private practice in dentistry for nearly 30 years. He retired in 2004 and now spends a few days every month in Goa. He is married to Gooloo Chothia (Class of 1969) and they have two daughters.

Dr. Nadir Eddie Bharucha (Savage) is Professor and Head, Department of Neurology, B.H.I.M.S., Consultant Neurologist at Bombay Hospital, and Head of the Department of Neuroepidemiology at Bombay Hospital. He has more than 150 scientific publications in journals/textbooks, has helped organise scientific conferences and is on the editorial board of medical journals. He initiated community-based epidemiologic studies for the prevalence of neurological disorders. His committed work has earned him numerous awards, including the Wockhardt Medical Excellence Award (Harvard Medical International). Married, he has three daughters. His interests include reading, Western classical music and travelling.

Hannah Behar (Barham) did six

months at Davar’s College of Commerce, worked as a secretary at Bombay University for a year, then moved to Israel, where she studied Hebrew for six months on a kibbutz and married Moshe. She has two children and four grandchildren, and is working as an Executive Secretary, living 20 minutes from Tel Aviv.

Homi B. Patel obtained an M.B.A. from Columbia University and spent 35 years in the apparel industry. He retired as Chairman and C.E.O. of Hartmarx Corporation. He has served as Director of Amalgamated Life Insurance, Mrs. Fields Cookies, TCBY, Neways Corporation, and Northwestern Memorial Hospital, as Trustee of the National Retirement Fund, President of the Clothing Manufacturers Association of America and Adjunct Professor at Kellogg School of Management. He lives in Chicago with his wife, Anne. They have three children.

Homi Mulla (Savage) has more than 35 years of experience in the fields of Human Resource Development, Organisation Development and other Behavioural Science Applications in industry. He is a trainer and facilitator and has conducted more than 900 workshops and done a lot of organisation development work for a range of corporate clients. He has also acted in many theatre productions and advertising films, including a role in a film with Salman Rushdie and a cameo in Aamir Khan’s Dhobi Ghat, besides being an accomplished pianist and accordionist.

Jimmy P. Billimoria (Palmer) qualified as F.C.A. in London in 1975. He was Group Finance Director, Inlaks Group, a private,

international group of companies headquartered in Geneva, and Director of Finance in several charities in London. Married to Geeta, he is now retired and lives in Pune.

Michael Isaacson completed his schooling in London and then obtained his degrees from the University of Cambridge. In 1976, he moved to Vancouver, Canada, to join the faculty at the University of British Columbia. He served as Head of the Civil Engineering Department for a five-year term and then as Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science for an 11-year term. Michael’s primary research interests relate to coastal and ocean engineering. He has served as a specialist consultant on many engineering projects and has held various positions with provincial, national and international engineering societies and associations. He is married to Sharon and they have four children and six grandchildren.

Mira Savara (Palmer) obtained a degree in Liberal Arts from Reed College, U.S.A., and a Ph.D. in Sociology from Mumbai University. Currently living in Pune and Mumbai, she has a jungle hut in Karjat. She loves to travel, is fond of music and also enjoys watching documentaries, partying and practising yoga and Pranic Healing. She would like to go on an African safari, write a book, put drip irrigation in, and start a green house in her jungle hut (now solar-charged).

Nowroze J.N. Vazifdar (Savage) graduated with a B.Com. (Hons.) degree and qualified as A.C.A., M.M.S. (Finance) and F.C.S. and was President of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India. He has worked in the accounting, finance and

Our thanks to

Sammy Medora

Vishesh Agarwal

for their generous contribution to

our Retired Teachers and

Staff Medical Benefit Scheme

Special thanks to the following

donors for their generous contributions:

Bajaj Foundation

Nisha Khattau

Pereena Lamba

Sarita Bhalerao

A well-wisher

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corporate secretarial and compliance functions, in Godrej, Colour Chem, Mahindra Ugine and Kotak Mahindra. He left Kotak in 2003 as Executive Vice President and Secretary. He serves on the boards of various companies and writes and consults on law, taxation, audits and planning. He has also served as President of the Rotary Club of Bombay. He is married to Niloufer and they have two children (both ex-Cathedralites) and two grandchildren.

Paul Kurrien (Savage) obtained his M.A. in Applied Psychology from the University of Bombay and went to New York to work/study marketing and media research for four years. He then spent a year in Manila to get a ‘South East Asian experience’. He took over the family businesses in 1976 and continued to run them till 1992, when he relocated to Bangalore.

Phiroz Bhagat attended I.I.T. Bombay and then obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He was a Research Fellow at Harvard and a faculty member at Columbia University. He spent more than 20 years at Exxon, and founded Strategy Engines. He has enjoyed working in many fields ranging from petroleum and chemical plant simulation and reactor inventions to the development and deployment of artificial intelligence in industry (he has published a book, Pattern Recognition in Industry, through Elsevier), and is currently consultant to a financial hedge fund. He is married to Patti and they have two daughters.

Purnima Banswara married

in 1970 and has two children and three grandchildren. After residing in Jamshedpur, Mumbai and Delhi,

she presently lives in Jaipur. Owing to her husband’s abiding passion for the environment and nature, she has developed a keen observation of wildlife, ornithology and gardening. Her great passions have been painting, art, film, music, fashion and style. She has participated in several exhibitions. School and its wonderful teachings made her truly appreciate the beautiful and simple things in life.

Roma Chandiramani Malkani (Wilson) graduated with a B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in Microbiology from Sophia College, Mumbai. She married Dr. Gulab Malkani in 1970 and has two sons. Once they started attending Jamnabai Narsee School, she did a B.Ed. degree and subsequently taught there for some years. She and her husband are now enjoying being grandparents.

Shishir Bajaj obtained an M.B.A. in Finance from New York University in 1974 and attended the Owner/President Management Program of Harvard Business School in 2000. He is C.M.D. of Bajaj Hindusthan Ltd., India’s leading sugar producer and the fifth largest in the world. He is also Chairman of Bajaj Group, whose Bajaj Almond Drops (manufactured by Bajaj Corp) is the second largest hair oil brand in India. Married to Minakshi, they have two sons. He enjoys travelling, reading and photography. e-mail: [email protected]

Rustom Dadabhoy (Wilson)

obtained a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from Brooklyn Polytechnic. After returning to India, he married Meher in 1976 and they have two sons. He retired as C.E.O. and C.O.O. of a large civil engineering firm, and has

Class Notes

designed and built several prize-winning projects, such as power stations, ports, bridges and industrial, residential and commercial structures, besides creating a new city, Lavasa. “What you build is what you see; when you’re gone, your creations remain as footprints in the sands of time.”

Shabnum Malkani Jagtiani (Barham) is presently a French translator and tutor. After obtaining her B.A. degree with French from Elphinstone College and a Master’s degree in French from Bombay University, she worked for Banque Nationale de Paris, Mumbai. She was then selected for a French Government scholarship to Université de Montpellier (South of France) and Université Paris-Sorbonne, which was a dream come true. Shabnum lives in Mumbai with her husband, Kumar, and they have two sons. She enjoys reading, yoga, watching movies and travelling.

Shahzadi (Advani) Kundanmal (Savage) is Director of Finance with a yachting company, Ocean Crest Marine, at Mandwa. She is also a grandmother to three. Both her sons are also ex-Cathedralites. An ardent painter, she travels extensively with her entrepreneur husband, Ramesh, who is in automobiles, yachting and real estate development.

Sorab Pochkhanawala (Savage)

is settled in Toronto, Canada, and is a Member of the Institute of Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario,


and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He has more than 40 years of senior management experience with some of the foremost multinational corporations including the Tata Group, Johnson & Johnson and the Emirates Group. He is married to Sheroo and they have three children.

Rajiv Ved (Palmer) received his B.Tech. degree in Mechanical Engineering from I.I.T.-Bombay and then went to London for his M.B.A. from the London Business School. He worked for an international photographic company for more than 20 years, and has a son and a married daughter.

Tamim Tyebjee attended Sydenham College, Mumbai, and then joined his family business. He later branched out on his own, doing ship repairs for the Indian Navy and progressed to becoming the sole British Admiralty Chart Agent in India, a business which still thrives. He now spends half his semi-retired life with his wife, Durriya, golfing in the Nilgiris. They have two children.

Dr. Manek-Phiroz Eddie Bharucha is a retired Psychoanalyst and Child Psychotherapist, qualifying from the Seth G.S. Medical College and K.E.M. Hospital, Mumbai, and the Tavistock Centre, Institute of Psychoanalysis, and Willesden Centre for Psychological Treatment, U.K. He teaches a small group of students at the Psychoanalytic Therapy and Research Centre on a part-time voluntary basis (psychoanalysis-mumbai.org).

Manohar Godfrey Jesudian (Barham) immigrated to Canada in 1966, where he enrolled in Ryerson

University, graduating in Engineering in 1970. Shortly thereafter, he joined the largest Canadian telecommunications company, Bell, and has since enjoyed a successful career, mainly in the telecom sector, having held senior managerial positions with various public and privately-held companies in Canada and overseas. He is currently V.P. of Business Development for a technology firm and plans to officially retire end-2014. He is married to Diana and their principal residence is Toronto, with another residence in Florida.

Rupendra Singh (Barham), F.C.A., trained with Touche Ross & Co. in London, where he was part of the team of partners that established KPMG’s India operations in 1993. He also led the firm’s Forensic and Business Ethics practices and retired as Chairman in September 2008. He is currently Chairman of the KPMG Foundation in India and has served on the board of The Prince’s Youth Business International in London.

Anil Kapur obtained an M.B.A. in Finance from Wharton Business School and then worked with major global corporations such as the World Bank, Citibank, McKinsey & Company, Inc. and Ford Motor Company in South America, Asia, Europe and Africa. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at the School of Business, George Mason University, Virginia. He is married to Martha and they have lived in Washington, D.C. for more than 30 years.

Brinda Somaya (Palmer) is an architect and urban conservationist and the founder of Somaya & Kalappa Consultants, Mumbai. In 1978, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from her alma mater,

Class Notes

Smith College. Her commitment to merging architecture, conservation and social equity in projects (campuses, St. Thomas’ Cathedral, quake-hit towns) has won her prestigious awards, including UNESCO recognition and the peer-led Weinberger. Brinda is one of 100 Global Public Interest Design people working at the intersection of design and service globally. Married to Dr. Anand Somaya, a Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgeon, she has two children and is a grandmother.

Basil Colaco’s (Wilson) ‘Stairway to Heaven’ started with the Cathedral choir under Mr. Velu, playing a tea-chest bass in the first school band, The Hearthrobs, with Homi Mulla, continued to a 1960s pop band, Country & Western, folk choir, rock musicals, disco work, teaching, and still continues with singing in a classical choral choir. Married to music and Christine, Basil has had a successful career in Youth & Community Project Development.

- Compiled by Rajiv Ved

Class of 1966Ashok Kurien (Savage) has been

building brands for more than 35 years, having a keen eye on driving start-ups. These include advertising, TV, lottery, PR and dotcoms, where he both invested and mentored, successfully. Founder of Ambience Advertising, which was subsequently sold off to Publicis Groupe, he is a founder-promoter/director of Zee TV, Dish TV, Playwin Lottery, India.com and Hanmer & Partners. He is currently a promoter of Livinguard Technologies (producing low-cost water filters for below-the-poverty-line families).



George N. Chacko, MD, ABNM

was Chief of Nuclear Medicine at the University Hospital in Oklahoma City. He is currently Director of Midwest Medical Isotopes - Medical Cyclotron Facility in Oklahoma City, and in private practice at the Oklahoma PET (Positron Emission Tomography) Center at Deaconess Hospital in Oklahoma City. After Senior Cambridge, he went to Jai Hind College, followed by medical school, from where he graduated as a radiologist who dabbles in making medical isotopes. He is married to Christie and they have two children and live in Edmond, Oklahoma. His future plans include retiring in four years and doing social service in rural India, while based in the U.S.A. He has adopted an orphanage in Badlapur, Maharastra.

Jehangir (John) Pestonjee (Wilson) is retired in Tucson, Arizona, following a 40-year career in engineering and management at Texas Instruments and Raytheon. He is married to Gayle and they have two daughters and one granddaughter (so far). He stays busy with travel, woodworking, guitar lessons and being a grandpa.

Monojit Chatterji left Cathedral in 1963 and, after completing his Senior Cambridge from St. Columba’s, Delhi, returned to Mumbai in 1967, to Elphinstone College, from where he graduated in 1970. He then went to Cambridge and read for the Economics Tripos degree and did his Ph.D. there. He remained in academia as a Professor, teaching at several universities in Britain, U.S.A., India and Australia. He is currently teaching at the University of Cambridge, where he holds a Fellowship at Sidney Sussex College. He holds a number of public positions, recently being appointed as an advisor to the Speaker of the House of Commons. He

Class of 1968is married to Anjum Rahmatulla from Karachi and they have three children and a golden retriever and live in a rambling old house in Scotland.

Rahul (Bunty) Sood joined good friend Monojit Chatterji for a B.A. in Economics at Elphinstone College. With fellow classmates Anand Patwardhan and Akeel Bilgrami he learnt a lot and took their college to new sporting heights while bunking classes. A chance meeting with Ashok Advani pointed him to Development Communications at Stanford University, where he earned an A.B. (Film) and, years later, a Ph.D. Exciting stints in Hollywood’s documentary film production industry and India’s development sector followed. Married to fellow Elphinstonian, Meena Lal, he went into academia, teaching Communication at Stanford and other universities in California, where he rose to Full Professor. Returning to India in the 1990s as a bachelor again, he switched gears to run a T.V. production company, Gudia Ghar Productions, which produces pro-social and edutainment programmes for children. He is also Founding Trustee of the NGO Atma Mumbai. His new joy is writing articles on his first love, golf. He and his wife of five years, Harinakshi Somaiya, travel the world whenever possible to cover big-ticket golf events and to play on wonderful golf courses.

Ranjit Malkani (Wilson) retired as C.E.O. of Kuoni (Asia). He is loving life in Buddhist studies and Zen meditation and supports various charities.

Roshan Danani née Davierwalla (Wilson) attended St. Xavier’s College and then obtained an L.L.B. degree from Government Law College, Mumbai. She is married to Nikhil Danani and they have a son and a daughter and recently became proud grandparents. They live in Bandra, Mumbai.

Xerxes Rusi Colah, MD (Palmer) is an orthopaedic surgeon practising in Clinton, Iowa. He likes to walk by the Mississippi River and bicycle on bike trails.

- Compiled by Rahul Sood

Ambika (Ambu) Morarka (Barham) obtained a Ph.D. in Archaeology and was Senior Advisor to UNDP (NY) for Science, Technology and Sustainable Human Development. From 1999 to 2007, he was Honorary Consul of the Ivory Coast. He is active in socio-cultural, business and educational institutions, has received 10 awards and is a keynote speaker in various historical fora. Ambika lives in Mumbai with wife Rashmi, two sons and three grandchildren.

Anand Mahajan (Savage) obtained a B.A. from St. Xavier’s College in 1974 and an M.A. from Mumbai University. He worked with State Bank of India from 1975 to ’81 and then obtained an M.B.A. from Cornell University. He has been with Grindwell Norton (M.D. since 1991) and Saint-Gobain Group (South Asia Head since 1996) for the past 31 years. He is married to Vera and they have two children.

Anil Hitkari (Barham) is no longer with us. His memory lives on with his family and friends.

Anita Jean Captain née Cambata (Palmer) designs luxury tours to India for family company Greaves. Not forgetting her theatre roots, she does voice-over work and records books on tape in her spare time. She also learnt to fly a plane! She lives in Toronto and is married to Rustom. She visits Mumbai often and is looking forward to the 50th reunion.

Anjalie (Elizabeth) Gupta (Barham) is an internationally reputed Kathak dancer, who has delighted Indian Presidents, Governors and the press. She placed third among 168 countries (second for choreography) at the World Folk Dance Festival in Spain, and has received a fellowship for dance at the N.C.P.A. Anjalie heads the Kathak Dance Academy of the Salaam Bombay Foundation, where she teaches 120 underprivileged pupils. She has also choreographed the 150th anniversary dances for Cathedral School.

Anjla Singh (Savage) obtained a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature and a Master’s degree in Medical and Psychiatric Care. She spent 11 years working in child and family therapy,

Class Notes


took a short break to dabble in furniture and home accessory design, and re-entered private practice more than a decade ago. She has two daughters, also from Cathedral.

Antica Polic née Milos (Palmer) lives in the village of Hreljin in Croatia with her husband, Mladen. After retiring in 2013 as Finance Manager of Navis Consult (Rolls-Royce in Croatia), she has finally slowed down her life. She has two grown-up daughters and four grandchildren.

Arun Hitkari (Barham) obtained a B.Com. from H.R. College. An industrialist, he runs a diversified family business that manufactures cigarette filters and specialty products for writing instruments, exports tobacco-related material across the world and trades in paper products and machinery with 12 Fortune 500 companies. Married to Debbie, he lives in Mumbai and has a son.

Asha Pochkhanawala née Nerurker (Savage) was a stewardess with Air India after St. Xavier’s College. She worked in London with Thomas Cook and in Dubai

as a primary school teacher for 15 years. She now lives in Toronto with husband Farhad (Class of 1968) and they have two children, both lawyers.

Aspi Chubb (Wilson) lives in Melbourne, Australia, where he is currently Finance Manager at Seadan International. He is also Trustee of a charitable trust and participates in the Cathedral Old Boys’ Association in Melbourne. He is married to Arnavaz and they have three daughters.

Avinash Naik (Savage) was a Member of Legislative Council of Maharashtra for seven years and Minister of State for a couple of years. Semi-retired now, he looks after his family business and loves playing golf. He is married to Nita. They have two daughters and live in Mumbai.

Bahadur Shroff (Palmer) worked for many years in Tata Share Registry and thereafter at Tata Mutual Fund. Having retired prematurely to look after his wife, Prochi, who fell critically ill, he now devotes his life to caring for her. He lives in Mumbai and has a daughter and two grandsons.

Beroze Mehta née Ghadially (Barham) obtained a B.A. from St. Xavier’s College and worked at President Hotel as Front Office Receptionist and at Air India as a stewardess from 1974 to 1996. She married Ronny in 1981 and they have a daughter. The entire family loves dogs, especially Lhasa Apsos, and playing the piano.

Bina Sanghavi (Savage) studied photography, practised law and has lived on three continents. She tries to explore and experience both inner and outer worlds and continues on the mysterious, sometimes perilous, but always awe-inspiring journey. She is married to Sylvio Leonardi and they live in Koeniz, Switzerland.

Boman (Bomsie) Nicholson (Palmer): A talented artist and actor (he adored Liz Taylor!), fashionable, with pointed shoes and skinny trousers, and ahead of his time, he ultimately lived in England doing his own thing. He was swept away with the tide of life and is missed by all who knew him.

Chetan Wagle (Savage) has been in the U.K. for the past 41 years and works in London as Finance Director for Freshair Ltd. Single again, he has a daughter and a son.

Chhaya Dwivedi née Shukla (Palmer) obtained a B.Sc. from Sophia College and works as an accredited part-time teacher in a special education programme. She lives in California. Her husband is an urologist in private practice. She has three children.

Colin Clarke-Hill (Savage) went into marketing research and became a business academic, finishing off at the University of Gloucestershire as a Reader. He retired in 2009 after a serious illness, but continued his links with the University, where he was appointed Emeritus Reader of the University of Gloucestershire.

Cyrus Kharas (Wilson) has retired from professional life and is now a full-time bum! He was a Management Consultant for almost 30 years, first as a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers in Holland and later as C.E.O. of Atos Consulting in London. He lives in the Netherlands with his wife, Punnika, his daughter and his wine collection, and spends his summers in Néoules, France.

1968 PrefectsFront row (left to right): Yohan Jeffereis (Savage House Capt.), Shobhna Patel (Wilson House Capt.), Bahadur Shroff (Palmer House Capt.), Urmila Banerjee (Barham House Capt.), Sammy Medora (Head Boy), Mrs. Fernandes, Mrs. Jean Cabral (Principal), Mr. Trevor Barrow (Vice Principal), Antica Milos (Head Girl; Palmer House Capt.), Dinsa Mehta (Deputy Head Boy; Barham House Capt.), Asha Nerurker (Savage House Capt.), Jeevak Parpia (Wilson House Capt.)Middle row (left to right): Nawal Seth, Perveez Merchant, Minal Melwani, Ravi Nangia, Gooloo Chothia, Ruma Roy, Gautam Desiraju, Naila Kanthawala, Jean Bhavnagri, Cyrus Kharas, Meher Katgara, Gunita Khera, Suresh GoelBack row: Heena Kamte, Mohan Shivdasani, Dolly Grewal, Tingoo Khatau, Monica Chudasama, Jyoti Chowdhry, Kapil Mathur, Debby Richardson, Shireen Jejeebhoy, Pheroze Madon, Bina Sanghavi, Harish Utamsing

Class Notes


Cyrus Meher-Homji (Wilson) obtained a B.E. and went to the U.S.A. in 1976 for an M.E. and M.B.A. He has been working at Bechtel Corporation in Houston, Texas, for the past 15 years, currently as an Engineering Fellow. He is married to Chinnu and they have twins.

Darius Shroff (Barham), Senior Counsel by profession, practising in the High Court, Mumbai, is also an actor (stage and film, English and Bollywood) by passion. Married to Sonja, he lives in Juhu and has two children.

Debby Maneckji née Richardson (Savage) lives in her childhood home in Mumbai and enjoys visits from her daughters and two grandsons from Singapore and the U.S.A. Sadly, she lost her husband, Jean, a few years ago. She still spends time in her beloved Matheran and stays in touch with old friends.

Dhanvir (Tingoo) Khatau (Barham) obtained an M.B.A. from London Business School. He participated in the Asian Games in 1970, won the Arjuna Award in 1973 and has participated four times in the World Marathon Swimming Championships at Capri-Naples. He met his wife, Karin, in Capri and now lives in Lausanne. They have two daughters, two Beauceron dogs and three international equestrian eventing horses.

Dilip Mirchandani (Wilson) did his A Levels in London, followed by a degree from the Goëthe-Institut and Karlsruhe University, Germany. After apprenticeships in the U.S.A., Dulwich College and France, he joined the family business in 1979. He has been C.E.O. of Rafano (Belgium), manufacturing for European fashion labels, since 1990. Married to Annie, he has two sons. He has done humanitarian work through Rotary and plans to retire in Altea, Spain.

Dinsa Mehta (Barham) managed trading businesses at JP Morgan, New York, for his whole career, where he was Managing Director, Global Head, Foreign Exchange Options and Commodities. He lives in Bedford, NY. He is married to Carole and they have two children and two grandchildren. Although retired, he is Partner at Pebblecreek Capital, running Algorithmic Trading. He is also an aspiring sculptor and avid gardener.

Elizabeth Virkar née Alexander (Barham) has taught at various schools and currently lives in Mumbai, where she teaches creative writing and art and craft. Married to Jeevan, she is mother to one and a happy grandma to two.

Farhad Pochkhanawala (Savage) worked with Coopers & Lybrand in London, then as Finance Manager for an aluminum smelter in Dubai for 17 years.

He is currently Chief Operating Officer for a food manufacturing facility in Canada. Settled in Toronto, he is married to Asha (née Nerurker). They have two children.

Ferial Lenterna née Irani (Palmer) studied Chemistry and Microbiology at St. Xavier’s College (it was never her true calling, though!). She married Massimo, has a son and lives the sweet life (a.k.a. la dolce vita) in Perugia, Italy. She has a fashion company in Italy and supplies embroidery to designers in the West. Fashionista per sempre!

Gautam Desiraju (Palmer) is a highly cited Indian chemist, working in the Solid State & Structural Chemistry Unit of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and is responsible for the acceptance of weak hydrogen bonding in structural and supramolecular chemistry. He has authored books on Crystal Engineering and Structural Chemistry and is the recipient of Indian and international awards, including the Alexander von Humboldt Forschungspreis.

Gooloo Khambatta née Chothia (Wilson) remembers school nostalgically...as happy, fun times. She went to Art School, worked in a window display firm and taught at Mrs. Shellim’s nursery school. She is married to Dr. Rohinton Khambatta, a dentist, and they have two daughters. Her five-year-old grandson is the apple of her eye.

Gunita Singh née Khera (Wilson) is a dental surgeon, having qualified from Government Dental College after two years at St. Xavier’s College. After managing her own dental practice until a few years ago, she now works part-time at a charitable hospital and is happy with this laid-back status. She is married to Kiranjit and they have a daughter and a son. They are settled in Delhi, where she enjoys her three granddaughters.

Haren Mehta (Savage) obtained a B.Com. from Sydenham College, followed by an M.B.A. from California. He is engaged in his family’s business (textile manufacturing, real estate development) and enjoys yoga, tennis, swimming, reading and travelling. He lives in Mumbai. He and his wife Nilima have a daughter, a son and two grandchildren.

2010 Mini ReunionFront row: Shireen Jejeebhoy, Anjla Singh, Ritu Anand, Sammy MedoraMiddle row: Kavas Dadabhoy is behind Ritu; Shabbir Anik is above Sammy’s left shoulderBack row: Raju Shah in centre; Jeevak Parpia on extreme right

Class Notes


Harish Utamsing (Barham) moved to the U.S.A. for an M.B.A. and has lived in New York and Texas and, finally, California. He worked in the hi-tech industry until a few years ago and then started his own businesses. Married to Mala, he has three children. He has travelled the world and loves playing golf and watching cricket with buddies.

Heena Kamte née Morarji (Palmer) worked at Dharamsi Morarji Chemical Co. from 1970 to 1990 and thereafter in Goa for nine years. She then returned to Mumbai, got involved in theatre and (finally!) put up an animal rescue farm (her dream come true!) near Pune, where she spends most of her time.

Hemant Shah (Palmer) obtained a B.Com. from H.R. College. He relocated to Ahmedabad in 1987 to manage his family business of textile trading and manufacturing. Being fond of the peaceful, laid-back life, he has settled there. He gave up the textile business in favour of marble supply and fixing. He is married to Minal and they have two daughters.

Homi Byramji (Palmer) spent 35 years in computers and financial information, including a stint as Senior V.P. for Thomson Reuters. He switched careers to create Nezua, a resort and residential community in Nicaragua (www.nezua.com), which helps to preserve the Rio Escalante Chacocente Wildlife Refuge. Married to Ellen, he has two sons and a daughter. He lives in Boonton, NJ.

Ira Kapur née Chopra (Barham) obtained a B.A. in History from Delhi and has worked part-time at the American Embassy School as a secretary since 1982. Married to Inder, she has two sons and a granddaughter and lives in Delhi.

Jean Thomas née Bhavnagri (Barham) obtained an M.A. from Christian Albrecht University, Germany, and has lived in Casablanca (in preparation for her M.A. thesis), Cologne and Koenigstein, Germany (where she experienced motherhood), Taipei (working at the Taipei American School), Hong Kong (working at Diamate Impex, jewellery manufacturers), and Erlangen, Germany (where she taught early education and pre-school English).

Married to Christoph Hellwig, she retired in Neunkirchen a. Br. and has two children.

Jeevak Parpia (Wilson) joined St. Xavier’s College for a year, then graduated in Physics at I.I.T., Chicago. After getting a Ph.D. degree at Cornell, he remained in academics and is now a Department Chair at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Married to Banoo, he still does the things he loves.

Joanna Gentilli née Tims (Savage) graduated with a B.A. in Literature, a Diploma in Teaching and an M.A. preliminary degree in Classics. She taught high school and technical college and now teaches History of Theatre at Academy of Performing Arts, Perth. She is a theatre critic for The West Australian newspaper and an occasional book reviewer for The Australian. She has a daughter and spends every Christmas in Rome.

Jyoti Chowdhry (Wilson) obtained a B.A. from St. Xavier’s College and thereafter worked in the travel business for many years. Interested in reading and swimming, she has also travelled extensively, both in India and overseas. She lives in Mumbai.

Kapil Mathur (Savage) graduated in

1972 from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, then did textile training in Germany, returned to India and started his own textiles export company. He is currently a buying agent for some European companies. He is married to Arati and they have two children. He is also a grandfather, but claims he doesn’t look it!

Kavas Dadabhoy (Wilson), B.Com., A.C.A. (Eng & Wales), has worked two years in Mumbai, nine years in the U.K. and returned to ‘desh’ for the next 24

years ‘silver-smithing’. He settled in Canada in 2008, where he continues his business remotely and volunteers time for ‘not for profit’ work. He married Meher in 1991 and proudly witnessed his son’s graduation in 2014.

Khoorsheed (Kookie) Treasurywala née Batliwala (Wilson) obtained a B.A. from St. Xavier’s College. She re-started giving tuitions in 2008 (after her husband, Firoze, expired) to keep away the sounds of silence and prevent the brain from being addled. She tutors primary-senior students in the Arts stream. She lives in Pune and has a son and daughter.

Kiran Wagle (Savage) obtained a B.Sc. from St. Xavier’s College and worked in hospitality with the Taj Group of Hotels (Mumbai, Dubai and Bengaluru), where he became Regional Director of Sales. He resigned in 2006 and then worked as V.P. – Sales & Marketing with Concept Hospitality for three years before retiring. Now a Consultant to the Kohinoor Group of Hotels in Mumbai, he is married to Gauri. They have two daughters and are expecting their fourth grandchild.

Lalit Bhuwalka (Savage) obtained a B.Com. in Kolkata and owned an auto ancillary business in Pune. Fed up of the ‘rat race’, he cashed out in 2001 and now works from home in the travel business, pursuing the things he wants in life. Married to Shobha, he has three children and a two-year-old granddaughter.

Larry Peters (Palmer) attended Wilson College, St. Xavier’s College and Elphinstone College. He lived in Bahrain and Dubai before settling in Melbourne, Australia, in 1988. Now married to Andrea, he has 10 ‘at-home kids’ and two ‘away kids’ (contributions from three wives!), three grandchildren, a one-eyed cat and a demented dog. He works as an I.T. programmer in order to keep the wolf from the door.

Loubnan Jumabhoy née Moloobhoy (Wilson) graduated from St. Xavier’s College and is interested in mass media. Living first in Singapore, she is now settled in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where she is active in organising cultural events for the expatriate Indian community. Married to Rafiq, she has two children.

Kapil Mathur and Monica Chudasama

Class Notes


Opening on November 22nd 2014 on view until January 9th 2015 at TARQ

11 a.m. to 6 p.m.Closed on Sundays

TARQ F35/36 Dhanraj Mahal, C.S.M. Marg,

Apoll Bunder, Colaba, Mumbai 400001

[email protected] | 022 66150424

THE SHADOW TRAPPER’S ALMANAC

TANMOY SAMANTA

CURATED BY RANJT HOSKOTE


Madhuri Moorjani (Barham) graduated from Sophia College and is now a homemaker, living in Mumbai with her family.

Mallika Singh née Dolly Grewal

(Palmer) lives in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. She volunteers thrice a week at an organic co-op. farm in Cedar. She has a wholesale business of handicrafts that she imports from India.

Mariam Ram née Abraham (Savage) is in the business of delivering publishing services and developing software for academic publishers. She moved to Chennai after school and has lived there since. Now married to N. Ram, she has a son from an earlier marriage, a stepdaughter and two granddaughters.

Marise De Quadros (Palmer) obtained a B.A., B.Ed (Bom), Dip of Teaching and B.Ed (Melb). She taught in Cathedral for a couple of years. After 40 wonderful years of teaching, she is enjoying retirement by keeping fit, volunteering and babysitting. She lives in Melbourne and has two children and three grandchildren.

Meher Bhandara née Katgara (Barham) worked with Travel Corporation India for 25 years. She is currently Director, WaterMaker (India), and a Partner of Trail Blazer Tours in Mumbai. Married to shipping consultant Jehanbux, she has a daughter and a son. She is also grandmother to a fourth-generation Cathedralite.

Mohan Jacob (Savage) obtained a B.Com. in Jaipur. He then worked with Sharp & Tannan, Lakmé and Greaves Foseco, and in 1991, moved to Pune as G.M. (I.T.) at Sesa Seat for four years. He drifted into semi-retirement in 1995 and is now an active and dignified

‘senior citizen’. Married to Anne, he has two daughters.

Mohan Shivdasani (Wilson) went to I.I.T. and the University of Michigan, followed by a hectic consultant’s lifestyle at Accenture, Deloitte, A.T. Kearney and T.C.S., supported by an understanding wife, Adele (since 1977). He has two children. Now retired, he keeps busy and young teaching at Georgia State University’s B-School.

Mona Jhuremalani née Malani (Savage) has been living in the U.S.A. since 1980 and lives in Bowling Green, Ohio, where she has made new friends, a new life and built a career in personal banking. Having worked with three different banks, she is currently with First Federal Bank of the Mid-West. She always gets excited about news from school buddies!

Monica Vaziralli née Chudasama (Savage) has been an interior designer for 30 years and lives in Mumbai. She has a son, a daughter and four grandchildren. She is a personal shopper and organises high-end vacations in India. She has been written about both in Europe and America.

Nadir Reporter (Barham) boxed for the school team and was fondly nicknamed ‘Beta’. He obtained a B.Com. from H.R. College and was a Chartered Accountant with his own established practice. He was a well-respected professional in business circles until he was snatched away from us very suddenly. He is survived by wife Niloufer and son Hosner.

Naila Stremke née Kanthawala (Wilson) claims that her education really began after school! She married Gerd and settled in Germany, battled with a new language, another mentality and a myriad chores she had never even dreamt of doing before! She has two girls.

Nandkumar Seksaria (Barham) completed three years of B.Com. from Sydenham College and then joined the family business. Now into real estate, he deals mainly in suburban Mumbai and enjoys reading. He married Reeta in 1972, has three children and is a grandfather to four little ones, three of them in Cathedral.

Nawal Seth (Palmer) is semi-retired after working 21 years in the shipping and freight business. He now helps young children gain admission to Prep Schools in America. He is married to Sneha and has three children.

Niloufer Singara née Sethna (Palmer) obtained Sociology and Psychology degrees from St. Xavier’s College and then worked two years with Oberoi Hotels as Front Office Receptionist. She then worked for Kuwait Airways as Sales Officer for 34 years. Now retired, she looks after family properties. Married to Ratan, an advertising copy director, she lives in Mumbai and has two children and a granddaughter.

Perveez Merchant (Palmer) obtained a B.A. in Psychology from St. Xavier’s College and then managed her family’s oil company, specialising in finance. She wrote for Inside Outside, a design magazine, for 10 years and continues her involvement with family investments. She lives in Mumbai and enjoys art, literature and travel.

Pheroze Madon (Palmer) is currently with Entrac Inc., an engineering export group in Englewood, NJ. He was formerly in Dubai and then moved to the U.S.A. (NYC / NJ). He was involved in garment manufacturing. Having lived in L.A. from 2005 to 2009, he was in China from 2010 to 2013 and is now home in New Jersey.

Poonam Chand née Chaudhary (Wilson) headed the East India operations of South India Surgical Company for 16 years before retiring to a life of zen meditation and attempting to make the world a better place via her participation in various social outreach and upliftment activities. Married to Rajiv, she has two daughters and lives in Kolkata.

Radhika Rajpal née Rita Rajpal (Savage) obtained a B.A. in Psychology and Law. She moved to the U.S.A. in 1975 after marriage and returned to Mumbai in 1982, forging a dance career alongside being a single mom. She lives a happy, meditative dancing life. Now married to the man of her dreams, Subhash, she has two granddaughters and lives in California and Pune.

Dolly Grewal and Heena Kamte

Class Notes


Raj Melville (Barham) is Executive Director at Deshpande Foundation, where he supports four centres that have helped launch several start-ups. He has spent more than 25 years among Microsoft, Digital Equipment Corporation, Booz Allen and some internet and mobile start-ups. He has a Master’s degree from Sloan School, a doctorate from M.I.T. and a Bachelor’s degree from I.I.T. Bombay. He lives in the U.S.A.

Rajendra (Raju) Shah (Barham) spent a year at I.I.T. Bombay and six years at M.I.T., studying Chemical Engineering and Management. He was thereafter involved in long-term stock market investments and occasionally raising monies for small and medium listed companies. He lives in Mumbai, is married to Shefali and has two daughters.

Rajiv Gupta (Barham) graduated from S.R.C.C., Delhi, and started his own business. He lives in Mumbai and divides his time equally between business and social work as a Rotarian. He is married to Minakshi, a scriptwriter, and they have a son.

Raju Chainani (Wilson) was a unique squash journalist, ever ready with a quip and humour. He had a deep knowledge of the sport and global players. He criticised India’s squash authorities for the woeful way they selected teams. Too late in cutting back on alcohol and cigars, he succumbed to heart failure at 49.

Ramesh Kapadia (Palmer) obtained a B.S. (Hons.) from St. Xavier’s College and has been in the U.K. since 1974. After finishing postgraduate studies at U.M.I.S.T. (Manchester), he changed career paths. He is currently a partner in a Chartered Accountancy firm in the City of London, having qualified as a Certified Accountant (FCCA) and Chartered Accountant (ACA). Married to Meera, he has a daughter.

Ramgopal Rangaswamy (Barham) joined Cathedral in Std. 10. From the very beginning, he became one of us, as if he had always been there. He impacted us all and why he was snatched away so suddenly and tragically remains a mystery. He will always remain in our hearts.

Ranjana Maliye (Palmer) loved horses and was an amateur rider. She spent early mornings at the racecourse looking after a stable-owner’s horses and invested seriously in the stock markets. Gentle, soft-spoken and always smiling, she was interested in chess, animal rights and vegetarianism. She passed away a few years ago and is missed by her school friends.

Ravi Nangia (Palmer) obtained a B.A. (Hons.) from St. Stephen’s College and a double M.Sc. in Economics, and Public Administration and Policy from L.S.E. He worked for 17 years with I.C.I.C.I., then consulted with the World Bank, I.F.C. and A.D.B. for more than 20 years. Now retired in Delhi, he is looking for the occasional consultancy work. Married to Rita, he has a daughter and a son.

Rita Mehta née Karanjia (Savage) was formerly the owner of Cine Blitz and Hi!Blitz magazines and is now Director, Keynote Media (India) and Key Global (U.A.E.), an international celebrity, brand and event management agency. Living in Dubai with her daughter, she visits Mumbai regularly for business and loves travelling to exotic places. Her husband, Karl, passed away in 2011.

Ritu Anand (Wilson) obtained B.A. degrees from Wellesley College and St. Xavier’s College and an M.Sc. from L.S.E. and then worked in India before spending many years at the World Bank with some stints in India. She returned to her motherland end-2004 and worked at S.B.I. and I.D.F.C. Recently retired, she is ready for the next phase in life.

Rohinton (Ronnie) Desai (Palmer) is a musician, singer, copywriter, composer of advertising jingles and audio producer for radio, TV and films. He is presently the proprietor of audio production house Musica, Studios Eardrum and Soundslap, and is a Director in Musicard Productions, Bandwagon Studios, Octavius Studios, 32nd Street, and a Partner in Sound Bar and Hi Octane Studios. He is single and lives in Mumbai.

Rohit Panchal (Savage) relocated to Bengaluru from Australia in 1998. Having formerly worked with K. Raheja

Group and Patel Engineering, he now specialises in real estate, currently consulting with M.N.C.s interested in real estate deals. Married to Rita, he has two sons and two grandchildren.

Rubeen Malkani (Palmer) is currently Director, Percept Ltd, Director, 7 Peace Values and CSR Advisors. He works with ECCO/CMS and Allstate as an advisor/consultant and is also legal facilitator to various lawyers and solicitors. Married to Sunita, he has two daughters and a granddaughter and lives in Mumbai.

Ruiynton Dinshaw (Wilson) has lived in the U.K. since 1972. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant before embarking on a banking career and is currently Director, Capital Markets, Citigroup London. Married to Khorshed, he has a son and a daughter. His interests are sailing, wine and travel.

Ruma Medora née Roy (Palmer) lives in Kolkata and has moved from travel to tea to I.T. (Consulting). Currently Director, Operations (India), at A.M.I. Partners, a global I.T. & Telecom consulting firm, Ruma is waiting to sign off and take on G.M. duties, but no luck yet.

Sammy Medora (Savage) obtained a B.Com. from Sydenham College in 1973, followed by a Chartered Accountancy qualification in England in 1978. He has worked with Arthur Andersen (1979-1993) and KPMG (1994-2014) in five countries and settled in Canada in 2012. He is semi-retired (enjoys home gardening) and consults six months a year with KPMG India. Married to Havovi, he has a daughter.

Sanjay Nene (Wilson) worked as a scientist for 29 years with National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, and retired in July 2014. He plans to keep sane with minor consultancy and relaxing in a shack built in Wai (with music, reading, gardening and drink!). Wife Suvarna is a dental implantologist and they have two sons.

Shabbir Anik (Palmer) obtained a B.S. in Pharmacy from Institute of Chemical Technology (Mumbai) and a Ph.D. from Wisconsin. He is Senior V.P. at Onyx Pharmaceuticals and Chairman of Valgenesis (a software company).

Class Notes

The Furniture Store

www.pinakin.in2nd Floor, Raghuvanshi Mills Compd.,

S.Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai - 400 013


Married to Ashrafa, he has a son and a daughter. Settled in the Bay Area since 1978, he has been doing ‘good drugs’.

Shireen Jejeebhoy (Barham) obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania following a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College. She worked at W.H.O. Geneva (1998-2002) and as an independent researcher from Mumbai. She has been a Senior Associate at the Population Council since 2002, doing policy-oriented research on the situation and needs of young people in India, and more generally on women’s health and rights. She lives in Delhi.

Shiv Mathur (Savage) studied music (1975-80) and obtained ALCM (Associate London College of Music) and LTCL (Licentiate Trinity College of London) qualifications. He then returned to India and has done advertising music (jingles and the like) ever since. He enjoys chess and is married to Elfin. He lives in Mumbai.

Shobhna Patel (Wilson) worked as a credit manager for a travel company and now works in Finance, being responsible for several care homes in the U.K. She is single once more and enjoys yoga, power walking, charity walks for cancer and gardening. Living in North London, she makes annual trips to the U.S.A. to babysit her sister’s grandchildren.

Sohrab Davar (Palmer) obtained a B.Com. from Sydenham College. He is an advertising photographer in Digital Fine Art Photography and is known for the ‘Silverpoint Calendar Series’. He was Hon. Secretary and Founder Member of the Advertising and Industrial Photographers’ Association and was on the Committee of the Photographers’ Guild of India. He is a member of Rotary Club of Mumbai Midtown, a Freemason and an officer at Grand Lodge of India.

Sorab Lawyer (Savage) left his classmates a few years ago after a long illness, but memories of him sneaking ‘fags’ outside class, his first dance at the social, and stealing the famous school bell will live on! He married twice and has two children and four grandchildren.

Soyam Chidakashi (Palmer) went to Jai Hind College and then obtained an M.B.B.S. from Seth G.S. Medical

College. Following two house posts in Paediatrics and Nephrology, he worked for a year on an oil rig at Bombay High and as a K.E.M. medical officer for a year, then in private practice as a G.P. He has now stopped his practice, but makes emergency house calls in his own area.

Sudhanshu Ranade (Barham) worked with State Bank of India until 1984 and then went to Princeton mid-career and got a Ph.D. He never thought he would become a journalist but surprised himself by working with The Hindu and writing several good articles during his tenure there. He lives in Chennai.

Sudhir Diwan (Barham) gallivanted at I.I.T. Roorkee, worked, attended the University of Toronto for Architecture, practised, and from the age of 26 to 56 struggled, relearnt, earned 15 minutes of fame, published, received awards and authored books. Now gracefully retired, he runs Sanskruti interior design correspondence courses. He is awaiting the next reunion, wherever it may be.

Sunil Morarka (Barham) joined his family business in 1973 after attending St. Xavier’s College. He left Mumbai in 1989 and settled in Hospet, a small town in Karnataka, running his own logistics business. Married to Sumita, he has a daughter and a son.

Suresh Goel (Wilson) obtained a B.Com. from H.R. College and studied in England to be a corporate trainer. He returned to India and is now a corporate trainer to a large number of companies in India and abroad. He married Leela in 1977 and has a son.

Urmila (Mila) Banerjee (Barham) graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wellesley College, where she studied on a full scholarship. She has been a teacher and has published short stories in literary magazines such as The London Magazine and Chicago Review. She is now a (dancing!) Osho sanyasin.

Vanita Makhija née Advani (Palmer) studied interior decoration at Sir J.J. School of Art for three years and worked in her father’s plastics company in Accounts. She married Micky Makhija, an actor, in 1981 and has two sons.

Veenal Vasvani née Minal Melwani (Palmer) lives in Kingston, Jamaica, where she heads a foundation for rape, domestic violence and abused women. She still parties hard and travels extensively. Married to Deepak (in 1972), she has three children and two grandchildren. Reggae singer Bob Marley’s sons are partners with her second son in Marley Coffee.

Victor Sassoon (Savage) obtained B.Com. and Chartered Accountancy qualifications in India. He then worked in finance with several companies such as Larsen & Toubro, Escorts and Hertz. He was General Manager, Response, International Media Representation with the Times of India Group, and is now Vice President, Strategy, with Osource India. He lives in Mumbai.

Vidya Virkar née Shanbhag (Palmer) studied Microbiology at St. Xavier’s College, followed by Mass Communications at Sophia College. She has done genetic research in Cambridge, copywriting in London, newsletter editing in Holland, and partnered her father in setting up six Strand bookstores in Bengaluru and elsewhere. She subsequently closed many stores, responding to global trends. Her spiritual calling now predominates. Married to Prakash, she has a daughter.

Yohan Jeffereis (Savage) left Bharat in 1972 for the U.S.A. on a one-year scholarship. He is still there, 42 years later! He married Amy (his student at Columbia University) and moved to Wilton, CT, to raise three kids. Corporate training pays the bills, while he roars, “Let it rip! Let it thunder!”

Zarine Pavri née Panthaky (Wilson) obtained a B.A. from Xavier’s and studied Ancient Indian Culture and English Literature. She is an avid collector of coins and stamps. Married to Nariman, she has one son. She lives in Mumbai and takes full-time care of her bachelor brother who lives with her.

The following left our class shortly before 1968:

Darius (Dolly) Kapadia (Palmer) is a Chartered Management Accountant. He worked in the U.K. and Kuwait in financial management positions and

Class Notes


Anaita Udwadia Hegde (Palmer) is a Paediatric Neurologist. Her patients are surprised when they find their specialist doctor to be tall, slim and wearing high heels, or, as one of their mothers recently remarked, “Why didn’t you tell me Dr. Hegde was such a ‘phataak’?” Looks and brains aside, she was known at school for her legendary hot lunches and tuck packets, which half the class counted on for sustenance. And, more importantly, for being the best sprinter the school has ever produced — winning medals in the Indian nationals. Anaita still juggles a mind-boggling array of activities, from fundraising for the Jai Vakeel School to running medical camps

Class of 1983/85

returned to India in 1992. He managed Everest Advertising and its subsidiary, Edge Communications, until recently, when they were sold. He spends his time in Mumbai and London. He has two sons.

Jaishree Lachiram (Palmer) attended Sophia College till the intermediate examinations. She then received a B.D.S. in Dentistry from Government Dental College. She lived in Jakarta for a few years and now lives in Mumbai. She has a son, a daughter and a two-year-old grandson.

Meenal Manning née Nevasker (Barham) is an advisory teacher for hearing-impaired children in Ipswich. After leaving India in May 1967, she moved to Nairobi and then settled in the U.K., where she got an M.Ed in Audiology and Education of the Deaf from Manchester University. She is married to John and they enjoy playing golf and other sporting activities.

Mukesh Munim (Palmer) spent 20 years in commercial photography in Mumbai. He has been fulfilling his dreams in Coonoor since 2006 and is married to Anjali. Looking after home, dog, five hens and a rooster keeps him busy. He spends his spare time painting, growing his own vegetables, teaching photography, practising asanas/pranayama, watching films and listening to music.

Radhika Nath née Mahindra (Wilson) taught at nursery school initially and now works at Mahindra & Mahindra. Married to Kanwar, she has a son and daughter. Living in Mumbai, she keeps busy working and pursuing her interests — travelling, reading and listening to music.

Sohrab Framjee (Wilson) left Cathedral in 1967 for Bishop Cotton, Simla, and settled in London after a B.Com. from Sydenham College. He served as an independent director on various boards and was also Director of Tata in the U.K. Married to Uttara, he has a son. Now semi-retired, he shuttles between the U.K. and India.

- Compiled by Sammy Medora, Perveez Merchant, Anjla Singh,

Kavas Dadabhoy, Ambu Morarka

X-Cats in the news

Jeroo Mulla (ISC 1969)Jeroo Mulla, associated with the Sophia Institute of Social Communications Media and Sophia Polytechnic (Social Communications Media Department), Mumbai, in leadership positions for more than three decades as well as teacher of Film Appreciation, Photography and the Fundamentals of Communications, received the Prof. Satish Bahadur Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contribution to Film Education in South Asia at the Alpavirama Film Festival 2014. The award is named after the Professor of Film Appreciation at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).

in rural areas and hiking in North India. She is married to Hemant Hegde and they have three children. [email protected]

Rahul Bose (Savage) was best known in school for his performance as the prince in The Prince Who Wouldn’t Talk in Std. 7 and for the eponymous role in The Little Man in Std. 12. He went on to become a well-known stage actor before embarking on a film career as actor, screenwriter and director. He also represented India in Rugby from 1998 to 2009. In 2006, Rahul started an NGO called The Foundation, which sends underprivileged children from the furthest corners of the country to some of India’s top private schools. He still lives in Mumbai, still frequents the Bombay Gymkhana and frequently shows up in school at Mrs. Isaacs’ request to speak to unsuspecting students forced to listen to his speeches.

Renuka Lalwani Kirpalani (Palmer): What would you do if your daughter wanted to become a race car driver? Renuka is proof that a woman can go into the most male-dominated profession, thrive at it, have a family and do all this while looking like a million bucks. Renuka followed her father into race car driving, winning her first race at the age of 18. She pursued motor sports until 1993. She has taken part in and organised multi-country rallies, including ASEAN, which involved driving from Singapore to India overland. She is a juror for the World Car of the Year awards among myriad motor competitions. She currently hosts The Autocar Show on Bloomberg TV India. She is married to Ravi Kirpalani and they have two children. [email protected]

Sarita Saraiya Bhalerao (Barham) can boast of being one of Bollywood star Rahul Bose’s first leading ladies — and, quite likely, the most reluctant. In Std. 7, she played the queen in the class play, The Prince Who Wouldn’t Talk. The script called for Sarita to kiss Rahul on the cheek, but demure Sarita steadfastly refused, forcing the director to change the script to allow her instead to tap him on the cheek with a rose. Sarita is

Class Notes


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now a doctor, specialising in obstetrics and gynaecology. She is married to Abhay and they have two children. [email protected]

Nasir Khan (Wilson) was perhaps best known for his lead roles in the school plays, most memorably Teahouse of the August Moon, where he played Sakini. He studied in the U.S. and has worked in banking and lived in Manhattan ever since. He is now Managing Director in infrastructure deals at Bank of Tokyo in New York. He is married to his childhood sweetheart and former Cathedralite, Mona Anand, and they have two daughters. [email protected]

Sumana Ramanan Dixit (Savage) was known for her passion for academics and her avid basketball playing. She has spent her 20-year career in journalism playing a leadership role in Hindustan Times as one of the top editors before leaving recently to become a consulting editor with Scroll.in, a digital daily, based in Mumbai. She also focuses more now on her own writing as a freelancer. She is married to Jaikumar Radhakrishnan and they have 14-year-old twins. The family lives in the same TIFR compound where Sumana herself was raised. She continues her lifelong devotion to Indian classical music. [email protected]

Ramona Palia Maheshwari (Barham) runs Montessori classes out of her home in Bandra, where she focuses on teaching Mathematics to young children. This is a constant source of amusement to her classmates because Mathematics was her least favorite subject! In school, she was best known for being the naughtiest, boldest and most fun of her classmates, introducing them to Judy Blume in Std. 7, when most of them had read only Enid Blyton. She went on to study at St. Xavier’s College, then flew with Pan Am and Air India to see more of her boyfriend, Neeraj, who was studying in the U.S. She later switched professions and taught for five years at Besant Montessori School before starting her own Montessori classes. She and Neeraj have two daughters. [email protected]

Maneesha Garware Shah (Palmer) is perhaps best known for having the

two daughters. She has been a fearless journalist for 20 years, breaking several stories, including two that were part of WSJ’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of corporate corruption. In Std. 7, her writing caused its first stir, when she began ghostwriting scores of chits on behalf of amorous suitors until one got snagged by a teacher, resulting in numerous counselling sessions with Mrs. Bapat. She sobered up in Std. 11 and 12 and became Head Girl. Today, she is an avid practitioner of yoga, which, together with her unrelenting sense of humour, keeps her sane amid deadlines and juggling work and family. [email protected]

Hari Aiyar (Wilson) was best known in school for being a champion tennis player and swimmer, carted off to competitions all over India by his devoted grandfather. Being the youngest in class, he was the object of amusement for (read, bullying by) certain female classmates and, perhaps, therefore founded the Brahmachari Club (which also counted PV Rao, Akhil Agrawal and Shobhik Choudhary as members). He studied in the U.S. and lived in New York for almost two decades, working at Morgan Stanley. In 2006, he returned to India and surprised everyone by getting married! He and Aparna have a three-

Class of 1983/85, Std. 7

Class Notes

only Std. 10 romance that resulted in marriage. She and Shatul Shah went on to marry and have a daughter. They live in Pune, where they frequently play host to their classmates from Mumbai. Geeta Anand claims credit for introducing Maneesha to Shatul, whom she knew from training together at the Breach Candy pool. Maneesha had a near monopoly over her classmates in Marathi class, where they relied heavily on one of the only Maharashtrian students to save them from almost certain failure during exams! [email protected]

Vinay Dube (Barham), the class’ favourite all-rounder, who excelled in both athletics and academics, heads Delta Airlines’ Asia operations. He lives in Hong Kong with his wife, Swati, and their three sons. Vinay broke many hearts when he left after Std. 10 to study at the United World College in Wales, followed by Knox College in Illinois, U.S.A. Vinay’s only weakness has been his questionable spelling ability. Fortunately, heading an airline doesn’t require any special expertise in that area! [email protected]

Geeta Anand (Palmer) is a senior writer at The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in Mumbai, where she lives with her husband, Greg Kroitzsh, and their

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year-old daughter and a baby girl. Hari runs an investment firm, First Finance. [email protected]

Cyrus Taraporevala (Barham): If any Cathedralite’s life has panned out exactly as he wanted it to, it has to be Cyrus’. Focused from Std. 9 on a career in finance, Cyrus completed an M.B.A. from Cornell University and then worked at McKinsey & Company for 14 years in New York and Copenhagen. He is currently at Fidelity Investments, where he is Executive Vice President of Investment Solutions and President of Fidelity Investments Life Insurance. He lives north of Boston with his wife, Fie, and potters around as a country squire with his sundry four-legged “children” (horses, dogs, cats). [email protected]

Shatul Shah (Wilson) turned his Std. 10 romance with classmate Maneesha into a devoted marriage. He was known in school for his raw athletic ability, most notably in swimming, diving and gymnastics. He won medals in the Nationals in swimming and diving. Shatul is a champion of a friend. When close friends have encountered personal obstacles, they haven’t found a more ardent supporter than Shatul. He and Maneesha live in Pune, where he runs a family-owned engineering firm.

Lakshman Charanjiva (Savage) was known for his passion for tennis and his kind, gentlemanly behaviour. He lives in South Florida with his wife and two children, after multiple-year stints in New York and Washington, D.C. He is Chief Information Officer at

NextEra Energy, North America’s leading renewables power company. He is one of the most devoted dads we have ever encountered. No parent sang Do the hokey pokey louder, spun around more energetically or climbed higher on the monkey bars than Lakshman! He’s been spotted in Mumbai on occasion, visiting his family. [email protected]

Anil Asher (Palmer) was known as ‘ODO’ in school. A jovial, easy-going person from behind his thick-lensed spectacles, and a friend to all, he runs his own manufacturing company, Datawrx, in Plano, Texas. He calls his family the AAAA family — wife Aneesha, daughter Anika and son Akhil. [email protected]

Gaurav Bhatia (Wilson) and brother, Anuj, are best remembered as the ‘Bhatia Brothers’ who sang songs such as Crocodile Rock. Gaurav lives in Bengaluru with his wife, Rupali, and 14-year-old son. He is Global Leader for Business Excellence at leading business services company Concentrix. After school, he studied Economics at St. Stephen’s College in Delhi and obtained an M.B.A. from McGill University in Montreal. [email protected]

Premal Pajwani (Barham) obtained a B.Com. from Sydenham College, then an M.B.A. from the University of Cincinnati. He spent 10 years in New York, working in various Wall Street firms. He has been living in London since 2000. He’s married to Nisha and works at J.P. Morgan Asset Management as a global healthcare specialist. He visits

Class of 1983/85, 25-year reunion

X-Cats in the news

Class Notes

Homi Adajania (ISC 1990)After wandering the world overland and underwater, Homi Adajania set off on a new adventure as a filmmaker. In 2006, without any formal training or background in the field, he made his directorial debut with Being Cyrus, followed by the Bollywood romance Cocktail. His third film, Finding Fanny, released in September this year. Adajania says he sees life “as a series of shots… The advantage of not knowing what tools you have around you is that nothing restricts your imagination.” His next feature film is the Bollywood adaptation of The Fault in Our Stars.

India frequently and almost always calls his classmates to arrange a get-together. [email protected]

Jasmin Jagada (Wilson) was a champion diver. She graduated from Randolph-Macon, Virginia, with a B.A. in Liberal Arts and spent a few joyful years in San Francisco before returning to India in 1991. She then worked with The Bombay Environmental Action Group for a couple of years before starting Le Papillon, a clothing company that specialises in nightwear. Her true passion, however, is animal welfare and activism. Perhaps that love for animals was sparked by her pet Beagle, Rolly. She currently lives between Pune and Goa with her partner and their many beautiful, furry critters. [email protected]

- Compiled by Geeta Anand and Sarita Bhalerao

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Abhijay Sandilya (Barham) lives and works in Singapore for Whitbread PLC, working on hotel development and investments. [email protected]

Chetan Gupta (Palmer) is now an account strategist with Google Inc. [email protected]

Digvijay Singh Kathiwada (Wilson) has pursued fine arts as a career after graduating in urban planning and

Class of 2001/03 business from USC. He is a full-time semi-professional sportsperson (cricket) and will create one of India’s greatest business houses for sports infrastructure by 2017. [email protected]

Mayank Kochhar (Savage) works at DBS Bank in Singapore, focused on the telecommunications, media and technology space. [email protected]

Mayank Sekhsaria (Palmer) co-founded Greenlight Planet, bringing

affordable solar-powered lights to rural homes, after working at Google in Silicon Valley. With Greenlight in the hands of an amazing team, Mayank has now become the seventh generation to join his family business. He resides in Mumbai with his wife, Tanvi. [email protected]

Mihir Sheth (Wilson) is currently working at Khosla Labs. After obtaining an undergraduate degree from Harvard, he has jumped between finance (Lehman Brothers), government (Aadhaar) and being an entrepreneur in the vocational training sector. He lives in Mumbai with his wife, Namrata. [email protected]

Natasha Sabharwal (Savage) is based in Mumbai and is on the board of Inventive Green Technology Solutions, whose patented product, Nectair/Aakash Amrit, creates drinking water from the atmosphere. She is also the creator of the brand Shimmer Shack, which deals in costume jewellery. [email protected]

Neha Arya Sethi (Barham) decided after a year in investment banking that finance wasn’t her thing and chose to go in the opposite direction by opening her own bakery/cookie joint — Sweetish House Mafia. [email protected]

Paridhi Mittal Somani (Wilson) obtained a B.Sc from Babson College, after which she worked at Grant Thornton LLP in Boston as an investment banker. Switching gears, she acquired an M.S. Ed in Educational Leadership from University of Pennsylvania. She has since been at Walsingham House School as the Junior School Coordinator. [email protected]

Ranbir Batra (Wilson) is a chef who has trained and worked in Chicago. He is now back in India and expanding his family’s restaurants. He aims to have one restaurant in every major Indian city in the next five years. [email protected]

Rustom Chowna (Wilson) is an assistant vice president at Barclays Wealth & Investment Management in London, where he manages Client

Reunion — Class of 1994/96 On Founders’ Day in 2012, Anshuma Shah (our very own Senior School teacher) commented to her husband, Runit Shah, and to me that our class (1994/1996) didn’t get together at all. Perhaps to defend our class’ pride, or simply to show her that two Wilsonites (had to throw that in here!) would prove her wrong, we boldly stated that we would organise an event shortly. So the wheels were set in motion, and with Rohini Behl’s help on our class’ Facebook page, Runit and I started planning something for December-January to accommodate our N.R.I. classmates who would be in town for the holidays. After much polling, we decided on a brunch at

Busaba on January 6, 2013, and had approximately 50 alumni and their spouses show up.

Over five hours, we met old friends, reminisced and had more than enough to drink and eat. Of course, any reunion would be incomplete without a rendition of the school song and some ad hoc speeches that had us laughing. It’s been 20 years since we finished our I.C.S.E. and over a decade since some of us last met, but the brunch served to remind us how school friendships and bonds from the time we spent together in school remain so close.

~ Aditya Dhawan

Class Notes


Portfolio Analytics. [email protected]

Shaila Pandole (Barham) is a pre-primary teacher at Hill Spring International School. [email protected]

Vaibhav Maloo (Barham) is Managing Director of Enso Group, based out of London. He obtained an undergraduate business administration degree from Carnegie Mellon University, a postgraduate diploma in global business from Oxford University, and joined the Executive MBA programme at Cambridge University, which he left midway to join business. [email protected]

Varun Jalan (Wilson) and Neha Hiranandani had a baby this January. Varun has started a logistics company, while Neha continues to grow her House of Hiranandani. [email protected]

Varun Parikh (Wilson) pursued a Master’s degree in Strategic Management at Cass Business School, London, after obtaining a degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Mumbai. He works for Jefferies in London and started his career in investment banking with RBS. [email protected]

- Compiled by Mayank Sekhsaria

Class Notes



Class Notes

Adwaita Nayar (Barham) went to Yale University to study Applied Mathematics after an I.B. from the Dhirubhai Ambani International School. After graduation, she joined Bain Consulting in New York for a year. Since then, she and her mother have started an e-commerce company, Nykaa.com, which focuses on beauty and wellness products in India. Next year, she will be at Harvard Business School for an M.B.A.

Alisha Sett (Savage) is an Edmond J. Safra Network Fellow at Harvard University, working on a project about psychiatry in Kashmir and also works as an analyst at Dasra, a strategic philanthropy foundation. After school, she studied English and Political Science at Tufts University.

Anchit Desai (Palmer) is moving to the United States to train with a New York-based track and distance running club. He is simultaneously pursuing a Master’s degree in cyber security. He completed his undergraduate engineering education at Imperial College London.

Aneesha Shah (Palmer) graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from St. Xavier’s College. To pursue her childhood dream of acting, she completed a year-long course from Stella Adler Studio of Acting, Mumbai. She has featured in multiple TV commercials for brands such as Airtel, Fastrack, McDonald’s, Hyundai and Maybelline. She has also acted in several theatre productions.

Arati Venkatram (Wilson) has been ‘reaching for the stars’ since 2008. After completing her B.Com., Chartered Accountancy and L.L.B, she ventured into the world of investment banking. She now works in equity capital markets at Kotak Investment Banking after a three-year stint at Deloitte.

Arshan Vakil (Palmer) obtained a B.Sc. in Economics from The Wharton School and a B.Sc. in Engineering from Penn Engineering and then moved

Class of 2006/08 back to Mumbai to join Hopscotch, an e-commerce start-up. He also founded a mentorship and career guidance initiative called Project Vahana. The combination of the start-up and Project Vahana convinced Arshan to start Kings Learning, an education setup focused on enhancing the employability of India’s youth. Kings Learning is based in Bengaluru with a second centre in Chennai.

Avisha Shah (Savage) pursued her childhood dream of becoming a dentist. After finishing five gruelling years at Y.M.T. Dental College, she now holds a B.D.S degree. She is doing advanced clinical training in Endodontics at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Azhar Chougle was not Head Boy in 1979! After pursuing further studies in monasteries, breweries and universities, he spent four months on the Amazon River as Brazil’s 49th poet-in-residence. Four years and five-and-a-half days later, he took up knitting and led Cameroon’s national team to their first ever ice hockey victory.

Dr. Deepak Bhushan (Palmer) studied at D.G. Ruparel College. Upon completing the H.S.C. exams in 2008, he spent five and a half years studying for the M.B.B.S. degree at Rajiv Gandhi Medical College, Thane. He is currently studying for his postgraduate entrance examinations.

Dhvanil Sheth (Wilson) acquired Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Commerce from H.R. College and simultaneously qualified as a Chartered Accountant. He works at The Boston Consulting Group in Mumbai.

Diksha Ahuja (Palmer) pursued undergraduate studies in Life Sciences and Biochemistry at St. Xavier’s College after a two-year stint at Cathedral. She then obtained a Master’s degree in Immunology from the University of Oxford. She currently works at Kantar Health, a healthcare marketing insights company, in Mumbai.

Gitanjali Dusija (Palmer) graduated with a B.Com. in Accounts and Finance

from H.R. College and spent two years with Deloitte in the Risk Consulting practice before deciding to transition to the social sector. After working with impact investment firm Elevar Equity in Bengaluru, she is now with Edelweiss in the Venture Philanthropy division. She is also pursuing her L.L.B. from K.C. Law College.

Ishita Advani (Barham) graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Management Studies (B.M.S.) from H.R. College in 2011 and then worked at Deloitte in the Enterprise Risk Services practice for two years. While there, she simultaneously pursued an L.L.B. at Government Law College, Mumbai. After working on several civil cases, she embarked on a career in law. She graduated from law school in 2014 and currently works at M/s Desai & Diwanji, in Mumbai.

Jivesh De Sousa (Savage) is pursuing a Ph.D. in Economics at Duke University after graduating from the University of Notre Dame.

Jyotika Udeshi (Wilson) obtained a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree (B.Pharm) from UDCT, Mumbai. She is currently studying for a degree in Law from Government Law College, Mumbai.

Kabir Barat (Savage) joined St. Xavier’s College after I.C.S.E. He then spent the next five years at Symbiosis Law School, Pune, where he received a B.B.A.-L.L.B degree. In 2013, he joined M/s Desai & Diwanji as an associate and has been working in civil litigation and commercial arbitration.

Kanika Khakhar (Palmer) obtained a B.A. in Law and Business Studies (Qualifying Degree) from the University of Warwick, after which she completed the Legal Practice Course (L.P.C.) from B.P.P. Law School, London. In order to practise in India, she completed the Indian Bar Exams and currently works as an associate lawyer with Desai Desai Carrimjee & Mulla.

Krishna Shivdasani (Barham) graduated from the Stern School of Business at NYU in 2012 with a B.Sc. in Finance and Accounting and is


Class Notes

currently a management consultant in KPMG’s Advisory Practice in New York, working mainly with financial services firms. Krishna and a friend from college are also working on a start-up that aims to change the way luxury retailers deal with customer relationship management.

Kunal Sajdeh (Wilson) pursued C.A. along with a B.Com. degree at H.R. College. He worked at Deloitte for two years and at Credit Suisse for a year while studying. He is now with Citi as an assistant manager. The one constant in his life, which helps de-stress the most, is his first love — football.

Leesha Tirodkar (Palmer) graduated with a B.B.A. from N.M.I.M.S. University, Mumbai. She then pursued a

Master’s in Finance from Cass Business School, London. Returning to Mumbai made her realise that her passion lies in education. She is currently managing The Scholar High School, Mumbai.

Lianne Ginwalla (Wilson) obtained a B.Com. in Accounting and Finance from H.R. College and an M.Sc. in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She works as an analyst in institutional banking at DBS Bank, Mumbai.

Malvika Sharma (Palmer) graduated from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, with a double major in Psychology and Sociology. Her keen interest in organisational behaviour led her to pursue a Master’s degree in International Employment Relations and Human Resource Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science. After completing a year in Human Resources at Godrej & Boyce, she is currently working with Deloitte as part of the human capital consulting team in Mumbai.

Meghna Mehrotra (Wilson) obtained a Bachelor’s degree from Mumbai University and an M.Sc. in Communications and Media Studies from the London School of Economics. She is now with the L’Oréal Group in India where she has worked on sales and marketing projects across the country. Based in Mumbai, she is part of the marketing team for professional luxury skin care brand Kéraskin Esthetics.

Mihir Shah (Wilson) went to Purdue University for undergraduate studies in Computer Engineering. He now works for Accenture as a management consultant for the Accenture Digital Division.

Mikhail Vaghani (Barham) obtained a B.A. (Hons.) degree in Management Studies from University of Nottingham and an M.Sc. in Marketing Management from the Aston Business School. His dream was to work for his family business. He is currently a marketing

executive in the digital marketing division at Hamilton Housewares Pvt. Ltd.

Mriganka Lulla (Palmer) graduated from Bryn Mawr College, where she completed an undergraduate degree with Honors in Political Science, Psychology and Human Rights. Mriganka has worked with refugees, migrants, high-risk populations, women and children in Johannesburg, Philadelphia, New York, New Delhi, Kashmir, Assam and Mumbai. She has dabbled in high-level policy and advocacy as well as spent time on the field with the United Nations and Save the Children International (India). She currently works at Dasra in Mumbai.

Radha Venkatraman (Savage) obtained a B.A. in Anthropology and Philosophy from Bryn Mawr College and worked with Asia Society, a global not-for-profit, for two years, focusing on business and policy programming and business development. Radha will shortly be returning to the U.S. to pursue a Master’s degree in Communications at Columbia University.

Radhika Tiwari (Palmer) left Cathedral after I.C.S.E. and, after graduating from the Stern School of Business at NYU, has been working in New York as an analyst for a venture capital firm for the past two years.

Raghav Bubna (Wilson), a true-blue Wilsonite, soon moved on to the blue of Deloitte, where he trained in audit for three years. After obtaining a B.Com from H.R. College and qualifying as a C.A., he switched to corporate finance. He is now in London for a six-month stint in M&A transaction services.

Rahul Krishnan (Barham) worked at Microsoft and IBM and graduated in 2013 with a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Toronto. He decided to shirk his responsibilities to enter the workforce and contribute to society, and is presently pursuing a Ph.D. in Machine Learning at N.Y.U.

X-Cats in the news

Justice Rohinton F. Nariman (ISC 1972)Harvard Law School graduate Rohinton F. Nariman has practised law for the past 35 years and has more than 500 reported Supreme Court Judgments to his credit. An expert in Comparative Constitutional Law and Civil Law, he served as Solicitor General of India from July 27, 2011 to February 4, 2013 and was elevated to the position of Judge of the Supreme Court of India in July 2014. He balances his commitment to legal practice with his passion for Western classical music. He is also an avid reader of history, philosophy, literature and science and a dedicated daily walker.

Class Notes


Rebecca Phillips (Savage) graduated from Boston College in 2012 with a B.A. in Economics and did a stint at a social media and publishing start-up in New York. Rebecca currently works at Dasra, India’s leading strategic philanthropy foundation, where she creates and designs content for training programmes that build the capacity of India’s social entrepreneurs.

Riah Kapashi (Wilson) pursued an undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied Economics and Psychology. She has been working with Deloitte Consulting LLP in New York City for two years in the strategy and operations service area, focusing on clients in the financial services space.

Dr. Rudra Sukhathankar (Wilson) joined D. G. Ruparel College after I.C.S.E. She then joined Nair Hospital to pursue a career in medicine. She cleared the MBBS exams this year and is preparing for the postgraduate entrance in November. She is to be married in 2015.

Rustam Sethna (Palmer) graduated from University of Warwick with a Law degree in 2012, after which he passed the L.P.C. as part of solicitors’ training in London in 2013. He returned to India and qualified as a lawyer in 2014. He is now practising at AZB & Partners, Mumbai, in their corporate law division.

Sanjana Basu (Palmer) graduated from Tufts University, where she studied International Relations and Economics. She is now pursuing an M.B.A. from I.I.M. Bangalore. She has interned at public policy think tanks such as Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. and Gateway House in Mumbai, conducted fieldwork with the Tata Chemicals Society for Rural Development in Gujarat and the Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (IDSK) and has worked in investment banking at Barclays in Mumbai.

Shamit Munjal (Barham): After a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, he took the non-traditional route by pursuing a career in health care risk advisory services with Deloitte. He is based in Boston and hopes in the near future to pursue an M.B.A. following which a move back home is a possibility.

Shanaya Mehta (Savage) acquired a B.Com. from H.R. College followed by a merit diploma in architectural interior design from Inchbald School of Design in London. She works as an interior designer at Talati and Panthaky Associated in Mumbai.

Simoni Bhansali (Barham) obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design from Parsons, New York, and then worked as a graphic designer with Skarma for almost two years in Mumbai. She is now testing the waters as a freelance designer, cooking and giving back to the community. She hopes to be able to set up her own communication design studio in the near future.

Simonil Rustomji (Barham) was just your average Cathedralite. After a B.Com. in Accounts and Finance from H.R. College, she took a gap year to figure out her life. Travel, introspection and a puppy named Muttin led her to the social sector, where she started her career at Swadhaar FinServe Pvt. Ltd., an urban microfinance institution. She now works for Samhita Social Ventures, a CSR consulting firm. She also volunteers with the Welfare of Stray Dogs (WSD) and her life’s goal is to create world peace.

Tejasvee Prasad (Palmer) left school after I.C.S.E. He completed his higher education from Ramnivas Ruia Junior College and obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Pune. He is now a graduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, looking to complete his Master’s degree in Civil

Engineering by May 2015. Presently interning as a structural engineering consultant in San Francisco, he absolutely adores the Golden Gate Bridge and, in his free time, apart from hiking and cycling, dreams of being a part of a landmark structure like that!

Udit Hinduja (Savage) obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Politics from New York University, after which he was with KPMG for a year and a half. He works in the social enterprise space at Mumbai-based Micro Housing Finance Corporation, which provides housing finance solutions to low-income families. “Hi, mom. I am finally in a magazine!”

Uzra Khan (Savage): After a B.A. in Psychology and Journalism from Yale University, she worked in research for Reuters in New York and has written for Foreign Policy and The Huffington Post on social and political issues in India. She will be starting a Master’s degree in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government this year, as a Shorenstein Center Scholar.

Visheshh Jatiaa (Barham) obtained a B.Com. from H.R. College. After a three-year stint with Ernst & Young and qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 2012, he joined his family business. After expanding the business in the mining and realty sector, he started his own digital printing business, VVH Printing Solutions. He is currently setting up a new chain of restaurant-bars in the city.

Zahan Malkani (Wilson) lives and works in the San Francisco Bay area. He spends his weekdays helping Facebook grow its user base in emerging markets. The rest, he spends experiencing the cultural and natural delights of the city and exploring all he can on two wheels. He welcomes any book suggestions you may have on Indian history/politics. Yes, he’s at that stage now!

- Compiled by Uzra Khan

Class Notes

THE GIVING BACK FOUNDATION

“We are to the universe only as much as we give back to it.”Meera Gandhi, CEO & Founder

We are excited to announce that

THE GIVING BACK FOUNDATION 2015 GALAwill be held

on Wednesday, April 15th 2015 at the Pierre Hotel,

with a star lineup of guests already confirmed. Tickets are $1250 each

To book your tickets contact [email protected]

Meera Gandhi, General Chair

2014 Giving Back Gala

Ajit Hutheesing accepting the 2014 Giving Back Gala award from Phylicia Rashad

on behalf of Nimesh Kampani

Barbara Tober, 2014 Giving Back Gala Honoree,

with Meera Gandhi


Documents

My First Alumni on their most memorable firsts