Ron's Starched Collar! Oh! My hair couldn't touch it!!

"Re-winding my memory .... " During the last two years of school life, there were lots of instances that come to mind that would make St. Peter blush if he had allowed me through the "Pearly Gates", of how we played up. One was the bet that I took with the late Eugene Noronha of having a "Mohawk" haircut and getting away with it. Sure it was the talk of the decade, as "RJ" was the talk of the school, and I remember Lugan telling the class about a geography lesson of how integrated the world was where Indians became Red Indians!! And Papa Yates who was teaching us English, was it?, suddenly looked up from his book that he was reading to the class, put it under his arm, supported his chin with his hand and gleamed with his usual "concerto thoughts" and then carried on the class as if nothing happened. He never asked me a question, and I never gave him a reason, neither did Luke. Even "Smiler" walked down the aisle of the class tapping his ruler on all the end seaters, then muttering "What Now, What now, Johnson!" .. carnt forget the time when Nandi exposed his maths paper and I copied down a problem, only to be hauled up by Smiler the next day, as he had made a dumb mistake and I faithfully duplicated it!! Nandi got fired for making the double mistake, one for showing me the paper and secondly getting the sum wrong!! That was the "stuff" the old guard were made off. They never interfered with your personal life (Boy! They knew more about you than you knew about yourself!!). Of course, it took about a week before "Cop" ( the Original "James Bond" Cop!! Fr. Hilary Pereira, presently the Warden of the Hostel. All the others named "Cop" are all duplicates!!) confronted me around the front of the school garden when I tried to go around the circle and he back tracked and gotta me!! Before he could even open his mouth, I said it was "doctor's orders", What!! "Yes, Doctor's orders!, as my hair was falling down suddenly!!" I had to think fast, boy, those days you really had to think fast to get out of scrapes with "Cop"! He was so stunned, that he blinked and I went on to say, that I was afraid if I cut my full hair it wouldn't grow, so I only "trimmed around the edges" .... that's the story, finally it's out!! The year 1965!! The hair grew so fast after that , don't know if the ragging I got from the "Red'n'Whites" had anything to do with it, but after I left school and joined Loyola, it had reached past my shoulder!! Wasn't taking chances!! Oh, you can see a photo of me with long hair with my rock band "Axis" on the Music page!! I recall the time when I ran into trouble with Sr. Joan by sending a "four-legged" gift to one of the girls across the wall (names have been witheld to protect the innocent! Hurmph! As Lugan would say!), now that is also an original. Can your beleive it, I went to Sr. Joan and told her that "Cop" had sent me to apologise ( she red-faced and unrelenting, said that the culprits who created the commotion should be punished as they long deserved it! Innocent!) and then I went to "Cop" and told him that Sr. Joan sent me to him to apologise!! Can you beleive it! I couldn't either! but it worked! And all the while the damsels were sweating it out as they came charging to School to complain to Cop that they were suspended, did not know that I had quietly got out of the scrape. I took the chance that Cop and Sr. Joan were not on talking terms!! If they were I was sure in trouble, but then those were the early days of "007"!!!! Lewellin Rego would back me on this, don't think for a moment he's as quiet as he looks (he developed that look as he was the direct neighbour of Alvy and Dick)!! So much for myself, let's hear it from the others. I miss my "boarder" friends Thomas Santiago (hey, he did a spar with Cliffie Wilson!) and 'Tangy' Thomas Fernandes and also Fat Joe, Nandi , the late Noor Mohamed (what has happened to the Class of '66?) and so many of the earlier guys and the clever sparks like Brian James, Desmond Rubin. I did come across some of the "Elders" when I landed up in Loyola, and as the news of my exploits had no doubt reached ahead of me, I was taken to be quite notorious, and with that reputation to uphold in front of my "Seniors" in College espically Hostel, I had to be really careful! Jeeze, my wife hasn't read this page as yet, when she does, I am sure in trouble!!Ha. I'll try and update from time to time, Cheers Ronnie.

I'm certain minds more astute than mine would have envisaged the limitless possibilities of networking Old Boys in areas of interest and expertise for personal and entreprenurial gain. Data collection would be of key importance and this could be provided by a well thought out "questionnaire" that elicits specific information such as the precise area of expertise that the OB has to offer, areas of help and consultancy that the OB seeks, budding business ideas, etc. I would be happy to lend whatever support to such a venture.

To return to the original purpose of this message, thanks Ron for all the selfless and herculean efforts that you put in to bring a lot of sunshine to Josephites and Bangaloreans around the world.

My warmest regards to you, Maisie and the children.

Derek

Dr Derek Sequeira Academic Development Officer Academic Staff Development - CELT Charles Sturt University PO Box 789 Albury NSW 2640 Australia Tel: 02 6051 6987 Fax: 02 6051 6987 email: dsequeira@csu.edu.au

Ronnie: Thank you for keeping us all Mr. & Mrs. Alvarez's students fully informed. I spoke with Mr. Alvarez last night. We are all so gratified that he is carrying on despite the great shock he is suffering from at his advanced age. All of us need his presence as a rallying and inspirational beacon. As per his wish I called Jimmy Anklesaria and left a message on his answering machine to inform Chandra Mohan as well as to call Mr. Alvarez as soon as is possible. Jimmy's phone was'nt picked up so I had to leave a message. Also as per Mr. Alvarez's wish we must write to him in our handwriting. I'll do so naturally. However, I have some finger and arm problem which makes it rather hard to write by hand but I should do what our great teacher says and indeed I shall. I got his personal message through you this morning & thanks again for your help. Could you please give a copy of this to Mr. Alvarez? Regards, Hari (Harimohan, Premkumar)

Hi Ron Thanks for latest news explaining the situation on the various sites. I think Jimmy A. had proposed that they already had a site but needed help in designing and loading. They were to be the host site. Jimmy also said, some time ago that if the US and UK had different sites then information was bound to overlap and some duplication was inevitable. I agree with that sentiment, but neither of us have done much more about that. I had asked him if there was likely to be any incompatibility as I operated a Macintosh system, and his guys use Windows. I dont think it will be a problem, only if we exchange info on removable storage. He was getting his techies to check it out. Still waiting info on their findings. David de Nazareth did say he had a good response from the US regarding OBA Calling going on line. It would certainly be a money saver by not having to download any necessary copies, but that remains to be seen. Has anyone come up with the idea of a news group or a mail group on the lines of INDIA-L ? (It's a genealogy group that shared info whith each other, and has a common mailing list for all members) What is involved in that? If you can clue me in I'll investigate the idea from this end. Regards to Maisy CaryThomas (Can anyone advise Cary on the compatiable doubts?)

Hey Ronnie, got to give it to u. you the man. it was such a pleasure looking at all the photographs of my beloved school and evrything else about it. i gradutaed from boys high school in 1987. keep up the great work. u have no idea the kind of stuff you are doing. you have helped a lot of alumni of st joseph's remind them of the good times they had at st joseph's. i'm in the usa right now working for a media and entertainment company in manhattan new york. thanks a lot for this home page. Harsha Moily "Nikhil Patel" <nikhil@dnamail.com>

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