The Rose Bowl | April 2015 by Ritvik Kar

APRIL 2015

NEWSLETTER OF THE DOON SCHOOL OLD BOYS’ SOCIETY

TABLE OF CONTENTS THE ROSE BOWL: SINCE 1985

MYSCAPES | 30

REGULARS

THE HAND GRASP OF A FRIEND

THE GOODLY SMELL OF RAIN

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

PLATINUM JUBILEE OF DSOBS 10

DRINK FOR THOUGHT

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

CLASS OF 1968

PILGRIM DAYS

OLD BOYS' NEWS

GET-TOGETHER GOA

MARRIAGES

DEHRADUN CHAPTER

BIRTHS

GET-TOGETHER

I HEARD IT ON THE GRAPEVINE 35

SPORT

DUBAI GET-TOGETHER

WHIRLED VIEWS WHORLED

OF LONGITUDES AND ATTITUDES

EXPLORATIONS

LEST WE FORGET

THE SERVICE OF MANKIND

FOR THE HARD WORK TO DO

REMEMBERING A BROTHER

NEPAL EARTHQUAKE PLEA

RUN WITH THE DEVIL

A FAREWELL TO JIT

A FOOL FOR MONEY

FULL STOP SELF DEFENCE

O HOUSE APPEAL

DOSCOS HELP OUT IN KASHMIR

A LITTLE BIT OF KNOWLEDGE

@ rosebowleditor

facebook.com/thedoonrosebowl

EDITORIAL BOARD EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: GOVIND DHAR (192 T, 1997) EDITORIAL BOARD: DONNY SINGH (878 T, 1982), MOHIT JAYAL (527 T, 1987) OVERSEAS CORRESPONDENT: RAJIV SARIN (44 H, 1974) EDITOR EMERITUS: VALENTINA TRIVEDI (708 K, 1981) PUBLISHER: THE DOON SCHOOL OLD BOYS’ SOCIETY, NEW DELHI CONTACT: THEROSEBOWLEDITOR@GMAIL.COM C OV E R P H OTO: S t o r m o v e r t h e M a i n B u i l d i n g b y S h u b h o j i t C h a t t e r j e e

APRIL 2015 | THE ROSEBOWL

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Dear Dosco, Thank you for a fantastic reception to the post of chief-

making a business off putting people through mud and

gatherer of news and views of the diasporic Chandbagh

slush in the Devil's Circuit! If you're training regularly,

brigade. Some of you loved the new look, some didn't, and

share your tips and regimen with us so we can at least

a lot of you want more of this and less of that (at least

read ourselves ﬁt. Oberoi house is celebrating its 25th

someone's reading). Topping all the feedback received

anniversary and the DSOBS just celebrated its 75

was a good chit from none other than Shomie Das, my

anniversary. There's also a crime-ﬁghting runner for

former headmaster, who once awarded me a yellow card

charity (Avinash Thadani); a whirl through the Kochi

for having a birthday party in the middle of toye time on

biennale (Sunil Gupta), and a reverie from a former

the bonnet of an Ambassador car. Finally my karma is

master, Mohit Misra, who tells us about lessons he

balanced! All in all, the reception across Facebook, Twitter

learned from his students at Doon. Who'd have thought?

and good old e-mail has been hugely encouraging. Thanks to the January issue being the ﬁrst to get a digital

Please also take a moment to read the appeal for the

release before its print release, there's been resounding

victims of the Nepal earthquake. Our boys are on the

thanks from generations of Doscos from around the

ground trying to get aid to those who need it most.

world. But for those who waited, I believe the perfectly bound, new issue, with its brighter and whiter paper is

Thanks to Gaurav Singh, we have a story on one of the

being called a 'collector's item'. Chairman of the board of

pilgrims of Doon - Col. AK 'Nandi' Khanna (99 H, 1944)

governors, Gautam Thapar, is responsible for giving the

whose memories of school and masters from our sepia

DSOBS this wonderful paper, gratis, and we owe him and

age, is a treat. To uthao mauke ka phaeeda if you are an old

the DSOBS president, Ratanjit P Singh, thanks for keeping

boy who isn't sure of writing for us, get in touch and I'll try

the Rose Bowl alive and in circulation!

and send a correspondent your way to scan some of your old photos and scribble your stories from school days.

In this issue, we see the entry of the 'peej', the pun, the

There's been a loud shout for more nostalgia, so raise a

groaning googly of jokes and cheap humour that Doscos

hand and give us a piece of your mind for posterity.

can offer master classes in with I Heard it on the Grapevine. Look out for more cartoons and ﬁctitious goings-ons and

Get in touch with me at therosebowleditor@gmail.com

send me some squiggles if you are bored at work. We also see the beginning of something of a ﬁtness section;

Enjoy the April issue!

Sameer Bakshi has gone from zero to hero with Krav Maga, a pretty deadly self defence system for a rough and

Govind Dhar

tumble era. Shiven Malhotra and Adnan Adeeb are even

192 T, 1997 01

THE ROSEBOWL | APRIL 2015

L e t t e r s To T h e E d i t o r Dear Govind,

Govind,

Thank you for sending me the January Rose Bowl.

You and your team deserve kudos for the revamped

Congrats on the new look and the excellent

Rose Bowl. The content is superb. You and your team

production. I read it from cover to cover. For me in my

have put in a lot of hard work to make it a fantastic

80th year, the news of gatherings are no longer that

issue.

relevant as the OBs mentioned in them are much

Best Wishes,

younger Doscos, most of whom are unknown to me.

Sudhir Raina (3 J, 1973)

But the wide variety of articles had something for everyone. Doscos had dreams as schoolboys and the

Govind,

school in turn nurtured those dreams by providing a

Your last issue was very well done - excellent design,

multitude of experiences. Most of them are living their

and some great articles. I particularly liked the pieces

dreams and to read articles by them, and of them,

of human interest like the write-ups on B George

keeps the link alive.

Verghese and Arjun Bakshi. I didn't know these ďŹ ne

So thank you for making me nostalgic and proud.

gentlemen, but the stories made them and the

With best wishes,

respect of their fellowship, come alive.

Yours sincerely, Shomie Das (165 H, 1951)

I think you would do well to include news and stories of Doscos from a wide ďŹ eld of backgrounds so we get more contributions and news from different parts of

Dear Editor, I must congratulate you and the team at Rose Bowl on the new look. The latest issue is magazine-like, and refreshing. I am sure you will work your magic to take the publication to greater heights. All the best, Bhavdeep Sardana (400 T, 1993)

Hi Govind, Congratulations for such an interesting Rose Bowl. I have been reading this since Gobind (Singh Chopra, 76 T, 1974) and my four boys - all Tata house guys - left school and this newsletter is the best. Keep it up! Lots of love, Tara Chopra (w/o Gobind Singh Chopra) 02

the world. All the very best, Vinayak Bahuguna (722 K, 1980)

APRIL 2015 | THE ROSEBOWL Dear Doscos,

an esteemed institution which has given us steadfast

In the 75th year of the DSOBS, am

friends. These are friend who will stand unstintingly

very happy to inform all of you that

by us, shoulder-to-shoulder, through thick and thin.

our very popular publication The

The Dosco fraternity is a multi-faceted gemstone,

Rose Bowl has gone digital. I urge

polished by numerous different hands to form a

all of you to check it online and send

rainbow-hued community.

the Editor, Govind Dhar, any suggestions you may have. For those who prefer to get a physical copy of the magazine, you will also notice a major change in the look and feel of the Rose Bowl. I thank Gautam Thapar (200 H, 1979) for the generous contribution of the special paper which has been used, especially as 100% of this paper manufactured in India, comes from farmer sourced wood, not from forests so we are mindful of the environment as well. Since taking over as Editor, Govind has reached out to younger generations of Doscos, I hope you have enjoyed reading their articles and perspectives too. I also want to increase our outreach via social media, if any of you would like to volunteer to help, do email me. We've had an action packed sports calendar as well in the last month, it's been great to see active participation of Doscos young and not so young (we never get old). Look forward to an enriching year ahead and urge all of you to stay connected with the DSOBS. RPN Singh 871 K, 1982 President The Doon School Old Boys’ Society

The Rose Bowl is a unique publication that plays a pivotal role in strengthening the Old Boys’ network. It makes the Society and the Dosco community more inclusive and vibrant. Our newsletter has come a long way since it was launched during the School’s Golden Jubilee in 1985. Today we have an interactive, net-based platform with a downloadable electronic version on dsobs.net. Through Facebook and Twitter, the magazine has increased its youth readership and encouraged contribution from far-ﬂung members too. As our alumni increases every year and spreads all over the world, it is important for us as a Society to ensure we remain connected. The hard work of all our past editors and presidents has been commendable. Our current editor, Govind Dhar, is based out of Colombo in Sri Lanka and has done a wonderful job of giving The Rose Bowl a new look. The values we imbibed from our alma mater were part of a purist’s legacy that included not just educational brilliance, but equality, compassion and leadership. These notions remain at the core of our collective ethos. The Rose Bowl continues to foster these values and after 75 years of the DSOBS, I wish the Society and the Rose Bowl every success for the future.

Dear Doscos, We are indeed a magniﬁcent

Jaswinder Singh Bull

fraternity, celebrated across

344 J, 1986

the globe for our inimitable

Vice President, DSOBS

camaraderie. We are products of

The Doon School Old Boys’ Society 03

THE ROSEBOWL | APRIL 2015

O L D B OY S ' N E W S and charters commercial, cargo and private airplanes,

A call to the Batch of 1955

globally.

The diamond jubilee of the batch of 1955 comes

Namrata Kumar (IFS 1997), wife of Abhinav Kumar

up in October 2015. Separate letters have been sent to the entire batch. Contact details for the following are unavailable however: Anthony Jain (300 K), Jai Shankar Kala (138 H), Hiranand Kriplani (208 J), Ashok Malhotra (311 J), Inderjit Matkar (120 T), Virendra Singh (288 K). If you have details for the above please contact your batch representative on the following details: Ashok Mehta (295 H), 35 Vasant Marg, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi 110057, kjc@chaudhri.us, +91 9811871071 (Delhi), +91 9863241576 (Shillong), +91 1126142034.

(285 T, 1991) has been promoted to joint secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. Our congratulations to the proud family. Siddharth Singh (191 T, 2003) won the ﬁrst Indian Open Submission Grappling Tournament organised by All-India Mixed Martial Arts (AIMMA) at the Body Power Expo in Mumbai on March 14 2015. Siddharth th,

participated in the 70-80 kg category and won all four ﬁghts to take gold. Fantastic stuff Siddharth. Ali Fazal (413 O, 2005) continues on his acting career path with a starring role in Khamoshiyan which released

The Quadrangular Cricket Tournament was organized

in January earlier this year. More recently however, the

by cricket aﬁcionado Donny Singh (878 T, 1982) and

actor appeared in the rambunctious Hollywood

played on February 28 and March 1 , 2015. The

blockbuster, Fast and Furious 7. Well done Ali!

Quadrangular is played between the old boys of Doon, Daly College, Indore, the Lawrence School, Sanawar

Rohanjit Chaudhry (74 J, 2007) and Avyay

and Mayo College. A report with ﬁnal scores follows in

Jhunjhunwala (539 H, 2007) have received admission

this issue.

to the Kellogg School of Management for MBAs. Well done guys.

Vikram Bagai (265 J, 1976) has been appointed vice president of marketing for USA and India at jetair-

Vinayak Bajoria (543 O, 2007) has received admission

executive.com. The company leases, sells, ﬁnances

to Baruch College, New York for an MBA. Superb!

The Doon School Old Boys' Society has a new address: C- 574 (lower ground ﬂoor), Defence Colony, New Delhi – 110024, India T: +91 11 415 09 019, E: ofﬁce@dsobs.net To set up or donate towards bursaries, scholarships or renew your Rose Bowl subscription, please contact the secretary, Sheel Sharma, directly at secretary@dsobs.net

APRIL 2015 | THE ROSEBOWL

MARRIAGES Tridib Ranjan Das (168 H, 1997) married Bithika Doel

family including dad Raghavendra Madhav (610 T,

Basu at Chelsea Registry OfďŹ ce in London, England on

1979) and brother Neel 'Magic' Madhav (348 H, 2011).

April 7 , 2015. Shabaash Tidbit!

This is reportedly the ďŹ rst marriage in the 2009 batch!

Mritunjai Inder Singh (123 T, 1997) was married on

Pradeep (219 K, 1961) and Kiran Gupta's son, Nikhil

May 28 , 2006 to Pooja and they have a daughter

married Naina in November, 2014 in Bangalore,

named Ahilya born on July 24 , 2012. A belated

followed by a reception in Houston, Texas. Congrats!

congrats to Kurulily and the gang! Angad Rangar (164 K, 2003) married Sameera Sandhu Suryavir Madhav (148 H, 2009) married Srishti

on January 18 , 2015. Doscos were in full force at the

Manchanda on December 16th, 2014. Congrats to the

wedding. Congrats to all including proud dad Jagdeep

Rangar (256 K, 1971).

B I RT H S Himmat Singh (20 K, 1989) and wife Catalina

Siddharth Agarwal (219 O, 1997) is happy to announce

welcomed a son, Vivaan Singh on March 19 , 2015.

the arrival of his second son, Arjun born on January 8 ,

Congrats to the couple and grand dad Arjun 'Sarge'

2015. Congrats old bean.

Singh (233 K, 1961) and chacha, Sangram Singh (363 O, 1992).

Grandson of late AL Chopra (59 J, 1936), Akshay Chopra (241 J, 1998) and his wife Anusuya were blessed with a baby boy Krishna Govind Chopra on

Pradeep Ratnam (334 T, 1992) and wife Mekhala

January 28 , 2015. Congratulations to Akshay's father

welcomed a baby girl, Akhila Sankari Ratnam into the

BM Chopra (104 J, 1964) and several Dosco uncles

world on December 12 , 2014. Congrats you guys!

and cousins too.

Varun Mohan Soni (335 J, 1999) and wife Wasiq were Dhananjay Inder Singh (73 T, 1995) and Rupalee were

blessed with a second son, Nyle on January 10th, 2015

blessed with a daughter, Devyani, on February 3rd this

in New York. Congrats to the family including proud

year. The couple were married on January 22 , 2013.

grand dad Vijay Soni (153 J, 1960).

Congrats to all the Woodys including grand dad Yashdev Singh (123 T, 1965).

Amit Verma (486 H, 2000) and Radhika have been blessed with a boy on October 6th, 2014. They have named him Abhiraaj. Well done guys! 05

THE ROSEBOWL | APRIL 2015

OBITUARIES Gautam Khanna (37 K, 1939) passed away on

February 27 , 2015 in Gurgaon. Our deepest

February 19th this year. Our deepest condolences go

sympathies go out to his family.

out to the Khanna family. Harish Kumar Nayar (287 T, 1964) left us on the We are remiss in reporting that Tara Dhar, wife of PM

morning of January 23 this year. We join his wife

Dhar (108 T, 1948) expired in July 2014. Our belated

Veera and son Raghav in mourning this loss.

condolences to Toby and family. Rajinder 'Guts' Deswal (62-H, 1967) passed away It is with a heavy heart that we inform you of the

unexpectedly of heart failure at 12.30 pm on February

passing of Minoo, wife of Vilas Nath (160 H, 1957) who

13th, 2015. Our sympathies go out to his family.

bravely fought, but lost to cancer in March this year. Our thoughts are with Vilas and his family at this time.

We are grieved to report the loss of Ajai Kumar, father of Aditya Kumar (567 O, 1993) who passed away on

Pavan Kumar Hari (258 K, 1961) passed away on

January 21st, 2015.

Planning a visit to Chandbagh? Read this ﬁrst! We've all been there: you turn up to School wanting

signature pale green-coloured scooter. Check the

to walk around memory lane and you require all

dsobs.net site for visiting hours.

sorts of school chits and permissions. Now, the DSOBS and School's Development and Alumni Relations office have digitized this process on dsobs.net so the process is smooth and hassle-free. Click the 'Plan your visit to the Chandbagh' button and fill out the online form, after logging into the site. Aside from options to use a golf cart at school for disabled or senior citizens, you can also select visiting the archives so you can see your school records too. There is also a new lounge for Old Boys to rest their weary feet and have a coffee with Rishabh Sharma (553 J, 1994) our friendly director of development and alumni relations (or 'our man in Havana'). You'll find a bunch of treasures in there including Bond's

A screen-grab of the visiting form on dsobs.net

APRIL 2015 | THE ROSEBOWL

Remembering A Brother

yaar!” But behind that party exterior was a solid human being who loved life and stood by his friends like a rock. When I lived in a modest mud hut in

ANGAD VOHRA

Auroville he arrived with Rupa and

293 J, 1968

Adrit and spent some fun days with

Although we were both from the

whatever legal or bureaucratic stuff I

Class of 1968 I only got to know Arjun

had to deal with. He seemed to know

Raha (180 T) after we left school.

everyone and always introduced me

Hanging out together at a swimming

with very strong recommendations.

pool in Calcutta and venturing to live

More than a friend, he became a

jam sessions at restaurants in Park

brother. Always ready to party and

Street, were our indulgences until I

celebrate life, we continued our

left for England. On returning, it was

friendship after he moved to Muscat,

Arjun with whom I connected and in

Oman simply because he was

whose home I was always welcome.

always ready to join our class

When my parents father passed

reunions, and made sure that they

away, on separate occasions, it was

were fun and quite boisterous. If he

Arjun who was ready to help me with

made a call to Chennai, he'd dial my

Dad

number next, because “It's nearby

us in 1986. We built our house at that time and he was happy to come and stay there. In 2013 he would come to stay again when he brought the family to celebrate his father-in-law's 80th birthday in Pondicherry. As my years pass rapidly by, I realize that people like Arjun aren't destined to age; they ﬂash by brilliantly, sparkling and leaving a trail of light. Rest in peace, brother!

touched many through his rally

taught me how to live. I'm sure he's

racing days, golﬁng, judging the

creating havoc wherever he is! It

races in Calcutta or just by being

remains surreal, but true – we have

Dad was a dil khulla man if ever I

himself. A true Dosco, who I am sure

lost our captain.

knew one. He opened his doors to

will be missed not just by the Class of

any stranger, particularly to Doscos.

1968, but any who met him.

ADRIT RAHA 590 T, 2001

His motto: the kitchen never closes; the music never stops and the bar

It took me some time to get to know

never shuts! He always managed to

Dad. I shared a relationship similar to

offer more than he had!

many from his generation. We were distant; he was a father who provided

A husband, a son, a brother, a friend,

for the family. But over time, as I got

and a father; he was our captain! It's

older and matured, I understood his

difﬁcult to really quantify his zest for

ways. We were able to talk openly

life, but he was always one for some

about women, life in general and

serious fun with afternoon beers or

family over the same bar that was 'off

his whisky soda in the evenings. He

limits' as a teenager. Simply put, he

Arjun Raha 07

THE ROSEBOWL | APRIL 2015

A Fa r e w e l l t o J i t SAROJ MEHERA 122 K, 1944

During our schooldays in the 1940s,

Rajib 'Jit' Gupta (145 K, 1948) passed

cloudless sunny sky, "perfect walking

the Calcutta party would travel by the

away on September 17 2014, at the

weather" as he called it. There was no

9 Up Doon Express of the East Indian

age of 84. We will miss him.

crowd or chaos at the crematorium; all

Railway from Howrah to Dehra Dun; a

his close friends and family were

journey of two nights and one day, in a

around. One of the last things he saw

reserved second class compartment

on TV was his beloved Manchester

with ﬁve berths. There were no

United return to their winning form. He

corridor coaches in those days except

leaves behind a discrete set of friends

on special mail trains and that too only

and enough acquaintances to be a

for ﬁrst class and air-conditioned

sociologist's delight. Some of them

bogies. Rajib Gupta, affectionately

will miss the occasional phone calls

called Jit, was a childhood friend, two

and half-hour visits; some of them will

years my junior. His father, Ranjit

not know of his passing. This inclused

Gupta ICS, was chief presidency

the trafﬁc policeman to whom he gave

magistrate, Bengal, later chief

biscuits "because everyone abuses

secretary, West Bengal. Jit was

him"; the beggar at the head of Sunny

enrolled as 145 K at Doon and joined in the second term in 1942. With several relations present at Howrah station to see him off, his father asked me to look after him on the journey. No

RAJIB GUPTA

DAD

Park who got an old sweater one winter morning; the bearers and durwans at his club who would be asked whether Nitish Kumar was better than Buddhadeb or Mamata;

sooner had the train pulled out and

JAYADITYA GUPTA

clerks, receptionists, peons and

gathered speed, than Jit decided to

He used to wake up at 4am, sit at his

liftmen - for whom you or I would not

leap across the compartment from

desk for a bit and organise his day.

spare a second glance - across the

one upper berth to the other and

Then he'd put on his shoes and go off

city, who would suddenly receive a

back. Refusing to listen to the other

for a walk. And that's exactly what my

diary or a chocolate or just a smile in

boys, including myself, Jit's antics had

father did on September 17 , 2014 - a

greeting. He would walk everywhere -

to be restricted by yours truly tying

few minutes after 4am, he went for his

and when he was prevailed upon to

his legs with a leather strap (taken

early morning walk - only this time, he

slow down, he would take a minibus.

from his bedding roll) and hooking

went a longer distance and to a

Ev e n a t 8 4 - e v e n a f t e r b e i n g

this on to the alarm chain. The

different place. To quote one of his

diagnosed with cancer - just to prove

consequences of moving his legs was

heroes, "he slipped the surly bonds of

that he could do it. He can now walk to

enough warning for Jit. Along with

earth". He went on his own terms - no

his heart's content, but I hope he takes

stern advice from the rest of us, this

hospital bed, no tubes, none of the

the occasional break to have a steak,

had its desired effect, and peace

indignities of old age and inﬁrmity. The

smoke a cigar and down a peg or two

reigned thereafter.

day that followed was perfect for him:

of the ﬁnest Scotch. He's earned it.

APRIL 2015 | THE ROSEBOWL

DO SOMETHING F O R N E PA L T O D AY No doubt you will have seen the footage of the terror

What is crucial is that through these Doscos, we are

and devastation caused by the 7.8 magnitude

assured that our contributions will reach the quake

earthquake that hit Nepal on Saturday, April 27 ,

victims directly.

2015. Varun Chaudhary is our point man in Nepal. So far, At the time of writing, over 3,200 people have been

Varun, a Nepali citizen and his generous family of

reported dead and 6,500 people are estimated

Doscos has distributed over half a million packets of

injured â&#x20AC;&#x201C; these numbers are rising. Hundreds of

Wai Wai Noodles and thousands of bottles of juice

foreign and local climbers are trapped in an

and water to victims. His family's colleges and

avalanche around Mount Everest. Several hundred

schools have been converted into relief centers where

thousand people have been displaced due to the

there is food, water and emergency medical aid.

destruction of their homes, without food, water or power and are now, especially children, becoming

Our point man in Delhi is Nauhar Shamsher Rana

exposed to disease.

who is closely coordinating with Varun.

Nepalese in the affected areas are sleeping in

To donate relief aid, contact

rudimentary tents or in the open. The earthquake

Nauhar Shamsher Rana (375 J, 1986)

was followed by a 6.7 magnitude aftershock on

Mobile: +91 99100 55970

Sunday, 28 April, complicating relief and rescue

nauhar.rana@gmail.com

efforts further. Hundreds of villages have been left to fend for themselves.

Varun Chaudhary (319 J, 2004) Mobile: +91 99100 30002

The need of the hour is basic medicine, tents, water,

varun@cinnovationgroup.com

dry food, blankets and warm clothes. To donate cash, contact If you can help, please contact Doscos Nauhar

Sheel Sharma (345 K, 1966)

Shamsher Rana (375 J, 1986) and Varun Chaudhary

Doon School Old Boys' Society

(319 J, 2004) who are coordinating a relief effort on

C-574 Lower Ground Floor, Defence Colony,

behalf of the DSOBS. If you'd like to donate cash

NEW DELHI 110 024

towards these efforts, please contact the DSOBS

Tel.: +91 11 24334808, Fax: +91 11 41509019

secretary, Sheel Sharma (345 K, 1966).

oďŹ&#x192;ce@dsobs.net

THE ROSEBOWL | APRIL 2015

P L AT I N U M J U B I L E E OF THE DSOBS SHEEL SHARMA 345 K, 1966

To kick-start the celebrations of 75 years of the Doon

beautiful cars. The entire decoration and set up of the

School Old Boys' Society, a grand dinner was organized

evening was done courtesy the Antara Group, who made

for October 14 , 2015 at the Kamal Mahal banquet hall at

it a special evening for all Doscos. The theme for this

the ITC Maurya hotel in New Delhi. All those who made it

evening was 'Doon days nite'.

were ďŹ&#x201A;oored by the amazing set-up that welcomed them. The artistic layout and the nostalgic giant drop-down

It was a poignant and memorable evening not least

banners depicting the Dehradun railway station, Tata

because we had some of the stalwarts of the society in

house, and the Main Building, captured imaginations and

attendance. Notable amongst them were RPN Singh -

took Doscos down memory lane. The banners were

president of DSOBS, Jaswinder Singh - vice president of

bathed in blue lights and gave a stunning ďŹ nish to these

DSOBS, past presidents Dhruv Sawhney, Vijai Kapur,

pictures. A touch of glamour was added to the evening

Pushpinder Singh Chopra, Lalit Nirula, Harpal Singh,

with two Porsche cars placed on a side of the hall. We

Darshan Singh, Sunil Kant Munjal and Sumanjit

owe thanks to the Porsche group for their generosity in

Chaudhry. We were also very happy to have amongst us

this regard, not to mention some from the old boys who

Gautam Thapar, chairman Doon School Board of

got themselves photographed standing alongside these

Governors and Peter Mclaughlin, headmaster, Doon

Distinguished Guests from (L-R): Jaswinder Singh, Darshan Singh, Pushpinder Singh Chopra, Dhruv Sawhney, Peter McLaughlin, Vijai Kapur, Sumanjit Chaudhry, Lalit Nirula, R P N Singh, Gautam Thapar and Harpal Singh 10

APRIL 2015 | THE ROSEBOWL School. We are thankful to them for taking the out time to be with us and their presence added grace to the occasion. Over 300 Doscos, many with their wives attended the festive occasion, retelling of old times and dancing enthusiastically. The food, catered by ITC Maurya was much appreciated by all Doscos. The spread was lavish and the food, lip-smacking. All of this added to make the evening one 'helluva' of a night and was a great way to begin the 75th year of DSOBS.

The Cricket Champs: Kenneth Sanoo, Donny Singh, Asheet Lanba, Indushekhar Singh and RPN Singh

Food Tasters: Jag Mohan Khanna, Vijai Kapur, Indrave Mann, Sumanjit Chaudhry, Rommel Varma

Vivek Narain, Harsh Gupta, Jatin Bery, Amitav Virmani

3 super models: Porsche car, Gitanjali Singh and Sonia Singh

John Travoltas: Darshan Singh, Savita, Janardhan Kapur, Jaspreet Singh, R P N Singh, Sonia Singh, Dushyant Singh, Gitanjali Singh

Class of 1964. (L-R) Seated: Rommel Varma, Vinoo Mathur, Bharat Khaneka. Standing: Amrendra Nath Singh, Surinder Singh, Brij Mohan Chopra

(L-R): Jayant Sahai, unknown, Sangeeta, Rajesh Wadhwa, Bindiya Malhotra, unknown, Ajay Pasricha 11

THE ROSEBOWL | APRIL 2015

Class of 1968 Reunion In Goa

ANGAD VOHRA 293 J, 1968

When we joined School there were 61

well appointed homes. Not as many

It helps that our resident Goans are

of us in the batch of 1968, but sadly

came as had expressed the desire to,

serious foodies!

we've lost 10 since then: Arun Rao (341

but we settled for whoever could and

T), Dilip Lall (281 H), Shunil Rawlley (10

spent our time lazily enjoying each

Nobody went sightseeing and the only

J), Sukhjit Singh Dhillon (209 K),

other's company, swimming and

shopping was a tour of the Saturday

Avinash Singh Bindra (42 T), Anil

indulging in excellent food.

night market at Arpora. All of us went away feeling that this was time very

Bhavnani (222 K), Anil Anand (133 H), Ranjit Sahgal (329 J), Rajiv Monga (233

Linda and Harbaksh 'Kushi' Kullar (346

well spent and are absolutely ready to

H) and Arjun Raha (180 T).

J) came from California, Subir Hari

repeat the experience at the next

Singh (418 J), Parabjot Singh Dhillon

opportunity. We hope that those who

(105 J and strictly a 1969er but

missed out will make an effort to join us

promoted recently to 1968), Seema

the next time, hopefully for a week in

and Deep Narayan (342 H), Ramni and

Auroville and Kodaikanal, in 2016!

And the numbers of those who leave us will only increase with time. Thus it was agreed amongst ourselves to try and reconnect as often as possible. This year several of us made it to Goa. We were hosted by Anila and Rajiv Mehta (174 T) and Rajul and Vijay Mohan (90H) at their very comfortable and

Deepak Nirula (165 K), Rupa Raha and myself, all landed up and spent the

Angad Vohra lives in Auroville and

most restful four days going to well-

runs mantrapottery.com

researched restaurants and doing justice to the carefully selected menus.

(L-R): Linda Kullar, Anila Mehta, Kushi Kullar, Rupa Raha, Parabjot Singh Dhillon, Angad Vohra, Rajul and Vijay Mohan, Ramni Nirula, Subir Hari Singh, Seema and Deep Narayan, Bharat Swaroop ('69), Deepak Nirula and Rajiv Mehta 12

APRIL 2015 | THE ROSEBOWL

DEHRADUN GET TOGETHER DSOBS CHAPTER, DEHRADUN

The Dehradun chapter of Old Boys ﬁnally got together over lunch on February 15th, 2015. For the last two years, the plan has been to organise something out in the open so we could enjoy the lovely winter sun. But the rain gods played spoil sport each time we tried to freeze dates. Finally, we settled for a location on Rajpur Road – the Grille restaurant - where there was sufﬁcient shelter in case the weather turned. In the end, we got lucky with sunny skies.

Despite feeling unwell, former headmaster Gulab Ramchandani (225 T, 1944) attended too. It was a great pleasure to see him in good spirits, chatting with all the old boys. To join him, the current headmaster, Dr Peter McLaughlin was also in attendance, despite being very busy on campus. It was great to see him enjoying the afternoon sun and regaling everyone with anecdotes of boys' 'activities' in school. As in any Dosco get-together, it was great to see the bonhomie amongst everyone, irrespective of their age, as they caught up with each other. The last of us left as late as 6pm, when the restaurant staff were preparing for their dinner service.

Fortuitously, this was also the day when India took on Pakistan in the 2015 Cricket World Cup. Of course the match was being televised at the venue and it was great to see everyone cheering, just like a keenly fought match being played in School. We were lucky to have Doscos with us from across the globe! Ravi Chaudhry (244 K, 1964) was in from Canada and Sandeep Ahuja (137 H, 1967) from Kenya. We were fortunate also to have amongst us, the vice president of the DSOBS, Jaswinder Singh 'Bull' (344 J- 1986). Doscos of all ages and vintages were present – some who had passed out of school more than 70 years ago, to those who hadn't been out of Chandbagh for more than a year.

Mr. Ramchandani in conversation with the Headmaster Dr Peter McLaughlin, Jaswinder Bull and Vicky Narain

(L-R): Mr. Gulab Ramchandani with Mr. Puri (standing), in the background Jaswinder Bull talking to Ravi chaudhary

(L-R): Rishab Sharma, Jaswinder Bull, Ravi Chaudhary, Sanjeev Bathla, Sameer Dhingra 13

THE ROSEBOWL | APRIL 2015

Q UA D R A N G U L A R Dubai CRICKET JAMBOO BHANDARI

59 T, 1970

The DSOBS team played a cricket match at the Daly College in Indore against old boys from Mayo College, Ajmer, The Lawrence School, Sanawar and the Daly College, Indore. It was an eventful two-day play and stay for the boys. Our team tried its best, but in the end luck favoured Daly College. It was my great privilege to host an evening tea for our team as well as some old boys of the host school. The evening was ﬁlled with fond reminiscences of our time spent at school. The boys who attended were from batches ranging from year 1968 to 2014.

Dosco Gathering IMRAN AFRIDI 265 K, 1998

An impressive cohort of 35 Old Boys of the Dubai chapter got together on January 8th, 2015 at

I look forward to welcoming any visiting Doscos to Indore.

Ashish Sharma's (821 K, 1981) house in Dubai. The dinner was well-appreciated by both Doscos and their wives. In attendance was the president of the DSOBS, Ratanjit P Singh (871 K, 1982), who got a chance to interact with the old boys of Arabia. The pleasant weather and company of old friends further embellished the evening and it was a ﬁtting start to the new year. Samvit Chopra (93 H, 2001) has replaced Bipin Bhatia (417 H, 1986) as co-representative of the UAE chapter and has joined me in an

Sitting (L-R): Gaurav Agarwal 560 KB '94, Dilip Bhandari 96 T '71, Jamboo Bhandari

effort to keep the Dosco ﬂag

59 T '70, Sangeeta Satish Bhandari, Meena Jasbir Bhandari, Kr Sumer Singh 299 J

ﬂying high in the region. On

'68, Satish Bhandari 123 T '71, Ritu Jamboo Bhandari, Durgesh Agarwal 81 H '2014

behalf of the old boys here, I would like to thank Bipin for his

Standing (L-R): Siddhraj Singh Barwani 433 K 2000, Vivan Rai 61-H '08, Rituraj

support and friendship over the

Raizada 42 O '08, Shrivats Chandra 48 J '08, Arshad Khan 202 OA '96, Raghav Mallik

years and for working tirelessly

133 Kb '84, Sandip Vij 941 K '82, Donny Singh 894 TB '82, Jasbir Bhandari 61 T '68, Abhishek Mishra 253 JA '91, Uday Bawa 488 J '94, Simar Barnala 511 OA '06, Hemant Bishnoi 479 T '06 14

to keep this chapter intact.

APRIL 2015 | THE ROSEBOWL

Old Boys’ Tr i a n g u l a r C r i c k e t The second edition of the annual Old Boys' Triangular Cricket tournament was hosted by the Doon School Old Boys' Society at the Doon School in early December 2014. It was during the commencement of the DSOBS' diamond anniversary celebrations. With the participation of the old boys of Mayo College and the Lawrence School, Sanawar, this turned out to b e a g re a t e v e n t p l ay e d w i t h exemplary sportsmanship, camaraderie and competitiveness. All three teams were evenly matched, with each side winning once at the league stage. Ultimately a Net Run Rate format was used to decide the ﬁnalists, by which the Mayo and Sanawar teams came up ahead of us. In the matches themselves, Sanawar beat Mayo, Doon beat Sanawar and Mayo beat Doon. The ﬁnal was a close fought battle that went right down to the wire. Mayo came up victorious, beating Sanawar by 16 runs. The Dosco team boasted a great blend of experience and youth, with the senior-most members being from the class of 1982, and the youngest from 2013. Each one of the team members played their hardest and with true Dosco spirit. The seniors guiding the team were Sandeep Vij (1982), Raghav Mallik (1984), Asheet Lanba (1987) and

yours truly (1982), ably supported by young stars Pratyush Vaishnava (2000), Amitoj 'Johnny' Singh (2004) and Rishab Saklani (2005), Rohan Gupta (2013), Chirag Nangia (2007), Dilsher Khanna (2008), Ankur Joshi (2004), Janak Singh (1992), Nishant Nawani (1998), Aayush Wasu (2006), Vivan Rai (2008) and Aman Nath. There were some outstanding performances, especially in our game against Sanawar, where Rishab Saklani (Man of the Match) and Amitoj Singh put up a spectacular partnership to win us the match from a very difﬁcult position. The brief scores are given below. Former headmaster Mr Shomie Das was chief guest, not least because he has the distinction of being the only person to head all three schools. We invited Michael Dalvi as the guest of

DONNY SINGH 878 T, 1982

honour, who not only is the ﬁnest cricketer that the Doon School has produced but has also inspired more than a generation of young cricketers to emulate his feats. A thanks to the current headmaster – Dr Peter McLaughlin for allowing us to host the event on the main ﬁeld and to Sameer Katre, director of administration for all the help in organizing the event, which was a great success. To end, I would like to include a message I received from Shomie Das, which sums it all up in a few words: “ T h a n k s D o n n y. I t w a s a g re a t tournament and the atmosphere was full of sportsmanship and friendship exactly as I had envisioned. So thanks to you and the others. Hope to witness more such events involving the three schools”

The DSOBS Cricket Team! 15

THE ROSEBOWL | APRIL 2015

DRINK FOR THOUGHT JUSTIN BURRETT 60 J, 2002

I don't remember many events from school life. Not the

and mindless clambering up and down the Garhwal

score in that decider of a football match. Not

Himalayas. To others (including me) they were the single

percentages in an important exam. Not even the chief

most exciting time of the term. A time when mundane

guest at our ﬁnal Founders' day. But some things bring

routine gave way to bracing cold winds, jingling bells on

back glimpses - quick as a shimmer on a distant hillside

mules on hill paths and the smoky smell of ﬁrewood at

on a hazy summer's day. Things like the hopeful call of a

campsites.

koyal on a sultry afternoon. The sticky sweet juice of lychees running down my arm. The waft of a curry like

The day came, and we set off. As the Vikram strained up

the one we got twice a week with mutton in it. And the

the gentle climb towards Rajpur village, I gazed past

bliss of cold water running down a parched throat.

the tussle of carry mats and rucksacks with a wry expression and made a quiet oath to do a more manly mid-term the moment I entered emancipatory A-form when we could start unaccompanied mid-term expeditions of our choosing. Derision continued to mount when three hours later, we had to abandon the climb towards Mussoorie, somewhere midway and opt for a local bus instead. But that evening, we did manage to make it to our ﬁrst camp near Cloud's End. We proceeded the next day, downhill, towards the tiny

Memories of Mid-terms

village of Dudhli. It was only after that, that the climb began. It wasn't much of an incline, but unrelenting and

Our C-form in Jaipur B was notorious (among other

quite uncomfortable in the midday sun. Forgetting the

things) for being one of the largest cohorts in any one

advice of DVS (Mr Devender Singh) who had warned of

house (11 of us). I remember our tutor at the time - a

the lack of water in the area, we plodded uphill, the yellow

Mr Daniel from Kerala, who probably hadn't been a metre

slopes of Bhadraj egging us on towards the top of the

above sea level for most of his life, telling us on one of

mountain.

our weekly Saturday tutorials that we had to decide upon a trek for the upcoming mid-term. Much to my

Evening saw us set up camp and as the Doon valley

disappointment, it was decided that we were to do the

disappeared into twilight, we began to contemplate our

Rajpur-Mussoorie-Bhadraj-Kalsi trek - a mild walk that to

scarce supply of water - a mere litre and a half between

my mind didn't even merit its label as a trek. I silently

12 of us. To make things worse, some of the big boys

scoffed at this cushy option we had chosen.

were hungry (our form was also notorious for some of the largest C-formers there were). A debate ensued,

Mid-terms meant different things to different people. To

followed by a vote on whether to save the water for

some, they spelled ﬁve or seven days of doom, sweat

drinking, or to use it to cook a 'nourishing' meal of Maggi.

APRIL 2015 | THE ROSEBOWL Democracy prevailed and Maggi it was. I remember

was probably the worst to fear. But to our minds, we had

hardly eating a bite, fearing the onslaught of instant

survived nothing short of a real adventure.

thirst after the spicy yellow mix of noodles and masala. At 30 I'm not sure I can boast of having learned too many I remember waking to slanting rays of the sun coming

life lessons, but I did learn on that trip that they can come

through the gauze tent window, and a dry throat. Our

from the most unexpected places. To this day, every

descent on the other side of the windswept ridge took us

easy stroll to the fridge for some water brings back a

through some thick oak forests and soon the

memory of that hilltop. And I think therein lay the

unmistakable tinkle of cattle welcomed us into a village.

importance of mid-terms - we didn't have to climb a big

We drank from the village hand pump, feeling like little

peak to create memories, learn a lesson, or understand

Lawrences of Arabia. None of us would have died that

the value of little things.

day, or even the next, without water. Mild dehydration

Doon School Blues VIJIT SINGH MALIK 265 H, 1985

You won't ďŹ nd me reachin' for the moon,

Sometimes I yearn, sometimes I pine,

Cause I'm goin' back to Dehradun

For rivers to swim and hills to climb,

And I've got them big Doon School Blues!

And I've got them big Doon School Blues.

So I won't wander and I won't roam,

So hey Doon you've made history,

Cause hey D Dun I'm comin' home,

And here's to your platinum jubilee,

And I've got them big Doon School Blues.

When I was young you learned me right,

Vijit Malik is a banker and musician based in Dubai.

Taught me to stand up for a ďŹ ght,

Contact him at vijits@mashreqbank.com

And I've got them big Doon School Blues. You made the rules laid down the stakes, For bustin' bounds and changes-in-break, And I've got them big Doon School Blues. Best things in life boys don't you see, Was a cup of chai with my Chota Hazri, And I've got them big Doon School Blues. Cause you're so hip and you're so fab, From Ghanta Ghar to Paonta Sahib, And I've got them big Doon School Blues. 17

THE ROSEBOWL | APRIL 2015

RUN WITH THE DEVIL SHIVEN MALHOTRA

82 K, 1995

I have ﬁnally been acknowledged by my father as an

I quit my job as head of sales for the India and Middle East

entrepreneur!

markets of a billion dollar consulting ﬁrm. Why? To try and create India's biggest amateur sports business. The

I am sure a lot people in India have gone through similar

resistance to focus on a business and vertical in which no

situations of annoying their parents by quitting their jobs.

parallels existed were immense. From parental pressure

My career provided the fantastic salary, the paid vacations

to that of my peers; they all thought I was suffering a mid-

and the German cars, but also gave my parents a sense of

life crisis. Even potential investors had blinkers on for

satisfaction that they had parented well.

anything outside of e-commerce (or the 'moneyvanishing business' as I call it). Nonetheless, it has taken us less than a year, but we seem to have found our footing in India's ﬁrst and largest obstacle-running series called the Devil's Circuit. It's a 5km course of obstacle-running that includes mud, trenches, slush, ice and barbed wire. Five editions later we have 10,000 runners and a social media community over 100,000. We've scaled our concept up to include more

APRIL 2015 | THE ROSEBOWL Devil's Circuit is mind-boggling.

up and take notice of a concept that is

We've even had the odd blade runner

unconventional, and support our

and movie star and everything in

initiative. I believe that concepts like

between aggressive 17-year olds and

the Devil's Circuit will bring about the

evergreen 68-year olds!

elusive work-life balance that is practically non-existent in most of

What is even more refreshing is that

corporate India today.

we now have people wanting to ape our concept! Running a start-up that

Interestingly, when I have a bad day

was created in a barsati to hiring

at work it is my father who tells me to

talent, attracting sponsors, and

keep at it because success is right

runners required more than what we

round the corner. If nothing else, I

were taught at business school.

seem to have won back his respect

What we were taught at Doon came

and trust in my choice of a career.

in handy of course: discipline, focus, jugaad, networking, and of course the

Amen to that.

belief that to be successful, one needs to be shameless in asking for favours! The next few years will deďŹ ne what we would want as our epitaph. I know that we have a ďŹ rst against our name in terms of having the courage to go against the tide and provide to cities in India with a separate

thousands of runners an experience

variation for television. The diversity

that they remember forever. I also

of runners who have experienced

hope that corporate India will stand

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THE ROSEBOWL | APRIL 2015

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APRIL 2015 | THE ROSEBOWL

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pass for you at Antara. The morning view from your window is of charming hills and green trees. You start the day with a robust prebreakfast yoga class followed by freshly prepared breakfast at the restaurant in the clubhouse. You pass an inviting heated indoor pool on the way there and promise yourself a refreshing dip afterwards. A lush putting green sprawls in the distance, and you know you will ﬁnd your friends there. The day is spent at the clubhouse, playing cards and unwinding after the active morning. No doubt that the second part of the day will be as exciting and intense as your morning. Want to pamper the senses, revitalize the body and open the eyes to fresh thoughts? Experience the holistic spa, a 50-seater private theatre for art lovers and a wellstocked library for aesthetes. In the

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GARDEN VERANDAH, CLUBHOUSE, ANTARA DEHRADUN 21

THE ROSEBOWL | APRIL 2015

A Fool For Money Avinash Thadani 424 O, 1999

Doon taught me a few things. One: it's not always about me. Two: don't take yourself too seriously. So I thought, why not make an ass out of myself for people's pleasure so that they donate money toward a charity of my choice. I put up a simple post on Facebook, asking friends to give me dares and I would do whatever they asked for charity money. The way I saw it, this was a winwin for everybody. I also decided to run a marathon for charity. Sport was the single greatest part of my school experience. I played everything I could and there was never any shortage of people to play with. But these days, finding time, space and people to play with are like finding tuck in dorms; it happens, but not that often, and when you do find it, you just want more. Despite hating crossies at school, in 2012 I stopped smoking and took up running. I did my first two half-marathons within two months that year. It was tough, but I was hooked. The organisation I ran for is called Teach For India. It is an NGO that gets volunteers to go into underprivileged schools and teach children. I knew a few extremely smart and passionate people who dedicated their time towards this NGO. I decided to raise money for TFI. My target – a humble 35,000 rupees. But back to the dares from Facebook. The first dare was to eat spaghetti and slurp. Not too crazy and easy to do. I raised 5000 rupees with that one. The second one was fun. When I was 20, I got a superman tattoo on my arm with a 'T' instead of the 'S', for 'Thud', my nickname in school. The dare: wear a bed sheet as a cape, run on Marine Drive, show my tattoo to people and say “I am Thud Man”. What was funny about this was that while I did this on the streets, people just smiled and didn't raise 22

an eyebrow. What kind of nuts do we have roaming around for this to be ordinary? Next dare: spend Saturday mornings at spin class with overweight aunties while spinning on a stationary cycle to Bollywood music. There is a video of me spinning to Bollywood music with disco lights in class. The aunties were really cute about it. Then a Dosco asked me to go outside Tendulkar's house and shout, “Dravid was better.” Great. That was fun to do to an Indian legend. Another Dosco asked me to run on Marine Drive naked – go ﬁgure.

APRIL 2015 | THE ROSEBOWL Then, my close friends upped the ante. I had to wear the complete Super Man suit with outer underwear, a 'T' painted on my chest and run on Marine Drive shouting “Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it's Thud Man!” I worked with my ofﬁce to get this suit created. I ran on Carter road wearing the crazy suit, with the cape ﬂying in the wind. People stopped, took pictures and started following me. The best bit is it's all on Facebook for you to see. Doon taught me to compete. Doon taught me to be the best at anything I did. It also taught me to talk which

helps me run my business. I thank Doon for all these things. School also helped me have the conﬁdence to not take myself seriously, and give something back. How much did I raise? 1 lakh. And I shaved 25 minutes off my running time too. As far as I'm concerned, that's worth dressing up for. Avinash Thadani runs his own creative agency called Please See in Mumbai. Contact him on avinash.thadani@please-see.com.

CALL TO ACTION:

OBEROI HOUSE SILVER JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS FOUNDER'S DAY 2015 Dear Old Boys of O-House,

community and we need your help.

After its doors opened to Doon School boys for the very ﬁrst time

We plan to have a grand dinner

in 1991, Oberoi House will be

for Old Boys at Founder's and

celebrating its ﬁrst landmark

want to design a coffee table

anniversary in 2015! To honour

book chronicling our lives

and celebrate the successes of

and experiences through the

the past 25 batches of the

O-House lens. Since we can bank

house, we are hosting a Silver

on only a third of the old boys

Jubilee Celebration and a Pagal Gymkhana at that other houses can, we need your help make Founder's Day 2015.

this a success. We need anecdotes, drawings, photographs and stories. If you can help with any

Oberoi House arrived at The Doon School long of these, please drop us a line. after the original four houses, and it has taken us time to build our own identity. The past 25 batches We even have a Facebook page: search for of Oberoi House boys have laid the foundations on “OberoiHouse25”, like our page and spread the word. which our collective identity stands. The silver To contribute any content or to give us suggestions, jubilee celebrations would be a perfect way to cap please email housemaster Manu Mehrotra: our achievements as an integral part of the Dosco mmr@doonschool.com.

THE ROSEBOWL | APRIL 2015

P I LG R I M D AY S GAURAV SINGH 114 H, 1997

Colonel AK 'Nandi' Khanna (99 H, 1936-

Bahadur Mehr Chand Khanna) in the

sending their sons (PN Khanna 159

44) was present and accounted for, at

NWFP who wanted their boys to

H, 1945, Avinash Khanna 78, 1942,

the dawn of Doon. As a member of only

experience [English] public school

and Manmohan Khanna, 34 T, 1947)

the second intake of boys to School,

education and were considering

to Doon as well.

he has the distinction of having

sending their boys to Doon. Our

witnessed several ﬁrsts, many of which

family was close friends with a

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

have formed the foundations of what

Colonel Puri, whose sons, Yogesh (43

It was a new environment and

we consider the Doon spirit and ethos.

H, 1941) and Yugal (44 H, 1943), were

extremely exciting. There was a lot of

From his razor sharp memories of

also going to Doon, and suggested

emphasis on sport, especially cricket

those early school days, it is clear that

the same for me. As it happened, Mr

– which I was really looking forward

the Dosco character remains in ruddy

Martyn was a guest at their house for

to. There were people from various

health. Jai Chandbagh!

a few days in December 1935, en

nooks of the country (including

route to Gulmarg for the winter

places such as Swat and Chitral in

WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO DOON?

sports ski festival. I met them there

the NWFP and the north east of India,

At the time that Doon was founded,

and after a brief exchange, it was

respectively) and some from as far as

there were several senior ofﬁcials

decided that I would join Martyn

East Africa and Japan. The masters

and members of well-known families

House the following term in spring. It

were of unmatched calibre – and that

(including the likes of Khan Abdul

also helped that we knew a few other

really set the school apart. There was

Ghaffar 'Badshah' Khan and Rai

families from Peshawar, who were

a lot of English public school inﬂuence (AE Foot, JAK Martyn, Eric Sprawson, housemaster Chestnut House, and Mr Clough, an RAF man who was later appointed Ambassador to Nepal) complemented by powerful personalities like Rashiduddin Ahmed (who was later appointed Director General of Radio Pakistan), CP Menon (Math whiz), RL Mehta, Dr Bahai and Bashir Ali Sheikh among several others. STRONGEST MEMORIES CRICKET My strongest memories all relate to cricket. Not only was the sport

Colonel Nandi Khanna with his sons Varun and Arun 24

actively promoted, we also had some

APRIL 2015 | THE ROSEBOWL exceptional talent in the masters incharge as well as the players. For instance, the ﬁrst cricket coach at Doon (1936, spring term) was Mr HW Barritt (House Master, Tata House). He had played for Yorkshire when he was just 22 years old. He left shortly, after just one term, and later captained the Western India Cricket Association team in the Ranji Trophy – while he was Principal at Rajkumar College, Rajkot. Bharat Chand Khanna (BCK) took over next (1936, autumn term - 1939).

Doon School vs Aitcheson Chiefs College Annual Cricket Fixture, Lahore 1940

He was a Cambridge Blue, had played for Radcliffe in the Lancashire

The annual ﬁxtures (alternating

HOLDY'S INNINGS

leagues and after Doon went on to

home and away) with Aitchison

RL 'Holdy' Holdsworth joined Doon

play for Hyderabad in the Ranji

College, Lahore continued from

and took over as master-in-charge for

Trophy. He played 40 Ranji Trophy

1938-1940, and were stopped when

cricket in 1940. He was earlier the

matches and held a record for taking

the second world war started.

principal of Islamia College in

100 wickets.

Peshawar, where he used to play for The school team also had an

NWFP in the Ranji Trophy and

BCK was instrumental in nurturing

unintended beneﬁt from the outbreak

against the ﬁrst MCC team in the

school cricket in its formative years.

of WWII. Several boys who were

King George V Silver Jubilee

Among his many initiatives, was the

studying in English public schools

matches. He was active in ﬁrst-class

introduction of inter-school and inter-

were unable to go back, and joined

cricket from 1919 to 1942. He played

house matches that went on to

Doon. These included promising

for Warwickshire and Sussex. He

became a regular feature.

cricketing talents including Amirali

appeared in 109 ﬁrst-class matches

Jairazbhoy (273 J, 1941), Raﬁqali

as a right-handed batsman who

The school team played its ﬁrst ever

Jairazbhoy (274 J, 1942), Ashok

scored 4,716 runs with a highest

match on the Skinners ﬁeld against

Gaekwad 256 H, 1941), Murtaza Ali

score of 202 among eight centuries.

the team from IMA on Founders Day

from the Rampur ruling family) and

Holdy continued to raise the proﬁle of

in 1938 (Doon won!). It was a grand

Kalih Mody (263 H, 1940).

school cricket.

served around the ﬁeld for all the

The Sir Frank Noyce Cup (named

The honours for this vintage of

spectators. From then on, the school

after the Governor of the United

school cricket continued even after

cricket team started playing matches

Provinces), for inter-house cricket,

these boys had graduated from

ag ai ns t n e i g hbour i ng s c hool s

was introduced in 1937. This was the

school. The IMA team that went to

(Colonel Brown School, RIMC, IMA,

ﬁrst ever presentation of any cup at

Sandhurst to play against the Royal

etc.) as well as annual ﬁxtures with

the school assembly. (Hyderabad

Military Academy in May-June 1947

Aitchison College, Lahore, regularly.

house held the cup from 1937-44).

had four Doscos: Ranjit Singh Grewal

event with a spread of high-tea

THE ROSEBOWL | APRIL 2015 (165 T, 1942), Bhupinder Singh (117 H, 1944), Raza Ul Haq (161 T, 1946) and myself, Nandi Khanna (99 H, 1944). Holdy, who was also in London for the summer, joined the team as umpire for the game with Cheltenham. The boys also met with AE Foot, who hosted them in London and took them to Eton where they all had lunch with the house boys. [Mr Foot had been a housemaster and science teacher at Eton from 192332 and brought with him slang we still use today, including 'trials', 'dames',

Hyderabad House Team

'fagging', 'tuck shop' and 'schools'.

Nandi Khanna also played in the Ranji Trophy OTHER SPORTS We had great coaches and an inspiring environment for several other sports too. Hockey: was led by Bashir Ali Sheikh, an Olympian who had played with the likes of Sayed Mohammad Jaffer Shah (1932 and 1936 summer Olympics) and the global hockey sensation, Dhyanchand. He was a part of the Indian contingent to the Melbourne Olympics. He was followed by Hunter Boyd (Scottish I n t e r n a t i o n a l ) a n d AV K a l e b (Beighton Cup and hopeful for the Indian Olympic team). Tennis: We used to have a staff tennis court between the Chestnut (later Martyn House) and Tata houses where we would host exhibition matches with players from the All26

APRIL 2015 | THE ROSEBOWL India Tennis Tournament held

scored 200 runs in a match

annually at the Savoy Hotel

against his house (he was

(Mussoorie) with masters and

House Master of Kashmir

students. We had players such as

house), and the next morning,

Ghaus Mohammad and Narendar

right before our geography

Nath (both Davis Cup players),

class he sought me out and

Chetan Anand (London University

gave me a few whacks for it

Blue) and General Mubai (RIMC).

(playfully).

Swimming: In the ﬁrst year, we had a

At another time, Balram,

'duck pond' behind Hyderabad house

Bhupinder and I decided to

in which we us e d to pr actice

raid the mango tree in

swimming. By 1937, a proper

Gibson's yard – while he was

swimming pool was built and we

supposed to be on detention

went on to get an Olympic level

duty. As luck would have it, he

swimming coach – Raja Ram Sahoo.

appeared unexpectedly. While Balram and Bhupi managed to

We had Mr Qureshi for boxing),

get away, I was left up on the

Shareef Pehelwan from the famous

tree. I refused to climb down

him after tennis. There, instead of the

Gama Pehlwan Akhada in Patiala for

fearing the cane, and stayed till he

promised grub, I was greeted with my

wrestling and Jack Gibson for

gave up and went away. A few days

share of cane-whacks!

fencing among many others.

later in class, Gibson invited me to play tennis with him that afternoon

A few years later, I went to Mayo

MEMORABLE MASTERS

(we frequently played tennis

College as a part of the armed

I had a great bond with Jack Gibson.

together) and to join him for tea and

services' cricket team. Jack Gibson

sandwiches afterwards. I assumed

was principal there at the time. He

He used to carry a cane and was

my mischief had been forgiven or

took us for a walk around the

happy to use it to discipline us! Once, I

forgotten. So I went to his house with

campus, and when we got near the swimming pool, he pushed me in. I was dressed in uniform and found it quite embarrassing in front of the other cadets! Perhaps the most embarrassing moment in school for me, was when Balram, Bhupinder and I were caught taking a shortcut in cross country. We didn't run the complete course, sneaked in from the dhobi ghats and went straight to the bath tubs. Mr Martyn came to the baths to tell us

IMA Team at Sandhurst

that he knew we had not completed 27

THE ROSEBOWL | APRIL 2015 the cross country run, and

Mrs Foot was 'Bagheera') as a junior

number of other school supplies

summoned us after supper. The

scouts club. The Wolf Cubs later

were also made on campus,

matter went up to the headmaster!

graduated to the Scouts where

including items like shoe polish, soap

Since we were all sports captains, we

they joined scout groups from

and shampoo.

were not given yellow cards. Instead,

other schools to take on social

items under the guidance of Mrs

it was announced in assembly that

development activities around the

Foot. The bakery made biscuits,

the school cricket, boxing and tennis

Doon valley and participate in annual

small cakes and bread. [In this era we

captains were caught taking a

camps at Raiwala.

are informed there was no such thing

Staff made these

as 'raiding'].

shortcut – followed by a sermon on the dangers of taking shortcuts in life.

SONG AND DANCE

Arguably that was more effective

Theatre and music was great fun. On

ODDS AND ENDS

than a YC!

the occasion of the ﬁrst Founder's

They built the Rosebowl (speciﬁcally

Day, we staged a play on the History [Despite all this, Mr Khanna went on

of Doon. Starting from the dinosaur

to become school captain! Huzzah!]

(played by me!) era it traced the history of Doon to end with a Dosco

CASTOR OIL

being sent to the headmaster for a

Our hospi sister, Ms Welby and her

punishment. There was a lot of

assistant Samuel had their tales too.

European inﬂuence on the music. Ms

They would creep up on us and give

Rolo was the music in-charge, who

us doses of castor oil if they caught

drove into school each week in her

us without the uniform felt hats in the

baby Austin and gave us music

summer months. At other times,

lessons. Our music school was quite

Samuel was instructed to take away

well equipped with instruments

the pyjamas of the boys in the

including a cello! Mr Lawrence was a

hospital who were almost ﬁt to be

guest with the Foots for a term and

discharged. As they would have no

he joined the school orchestra in a

clothes to wear, it would stop them

concert performance My dear friend

from running around and getting up

George Verghese used to sing

to mischief typically when they were

highland songs and was quite a hit.

convalescing, a day or two before being discharged.

OUR DAILY BREAD The school bakery was looked after

the wall which bears some of the Ajanta-like carvings). All the boys had to complete labour quotas by completing various development and cleaning activities around school (aka the dreaded SUPW)! They had one girl at school during their time - Mosin Ali's (254 H) sister. Prefects’ Council gathered every week to meet the headmaster before call over, where they were given sermons to shape character of other boys. Hyderabad House had a 'fat boys’ table' that consumed more chapatis than all the others put together. Some of the 'fat boys' were Hamid Sayed,

I remember enjoying natural history

by Mrs Barritt, assisted by Gaffar

walks with Salim Ali [the celebrated

Baig and Sheetal Prasad (he played

'Bird Man' of India who made such

tennis for the staff, dressed in

frequent visits to Doon to study birds

churidaar-pyjama). Mr Foot used to

Ghulam Jhilani (son of the school

and nature, he was made an honorary

insist on brown bread being served to

bursar and PA to headmaster,

member of the DSOBS], being a part

the boys as he felt it was more

Captain Sardar Khan) went on to

of the Wolf Cub or 'Bagheera' pack,

nourishing. We received brown bread

become the Governor of Lahore twice

set up by Mrs Foot. This was an

from Monday to Wednesday and

and was hailed as the 'Maker of

adaptation of the Jungle Book (hence

white bread for the rest of the week. A

Lahore'.

Janak Singhji and Piloo Mody...

APRIL 2015 | THE ROSEBOWL

DOSCOS HELP OUT IN KASHMIR RAHUL VERMA In September 2014, the state of Jammu and Kashmir was devastated by one of the worst floods recorded in the state in over a century. The Uday Foundation launched relief efforts within 48 hours of the floods with the support of NDTV, Indigo Airlines, Air India, Jet Airways, the Indian Air force, the Border Security Force and J&K Armed Police. To date, Uday Foundation has extended its support to over 50,000 flood-affected victims with distribution of over 300 tons of relief material including tents, tarpaulin, new warm clothes, medicine, medical equipment, drinking water, dry rations, edible oil, water purification tablets, health and personal hygiene kits for women, baby food and school stationery. We have also distributed over 20,000 new blankets to the flood victims. Our teams of doctors provided medical facilities with free medicine to over 15,000 flood victims in eight flood affected districts of Jammu and Kashmir. We are grateful to the Doon School Old Boys' Society for their timely assistance to the flood victims in Jammu and Kashmir. With their generous support, 1000 blankets were distributed to the flood victims at Parihaspora, Lasjan and Batamaloo (Srinagar). Many of the victims lost nearly all their belongings due to the natural disaster. This noble gesture by the society was a boon as it helped Kashmiris stay warm during the cruel winter season. The 20 battalion of Indian Reserve th

Police also supported our effort in the distribution of blankets, which boosted the conﬁdence of ﬂood victims in our forces. Rahul Verma is the founder of the Uday Foundation. For more information, please visit udayfoundationindia.org. 29

THE ROSEBOWL | APRIL 2015

MYSCAPES

DGAR: The DG of Assam RiďŹ&#x201A;es

SHUBHOJIT CHATTERJEE

319 K, 2009

Binnaguri, West Bengal

Three Children, NIVH, Dehra Dun

Books and More Store, Dehradun

Beggar Girl, New Delhi

Friends, Deodar Woods, Mussoorie

A Quintessential Living Room In West Bengal

APRIL 2015 | THE ROSEBOWL

Cos Artrac

Cmdr Bhattacharya

Laxmi Amma and Dog, Chennai Shubhojit Chatterjee (319 K, 2009) is a true son of Doon. The son of tabla and music teacher Mr Chatterjee, Shubho got his ďŹ rst digital camera from the wife of Math teacher Ajai Banerji (397 H, 1972). He now puts together beautiful coffee table books of his work as a director of ISIS pvt ltd. Contact him on dosco319k@gmail.com. 31

THE ROSEBOWL | APRIL 2015

O F LO N G I T U D E S AND ATTITUDES

MOHIT MISRA (aka MHM from 1995-1997)

We shall not cease from exploration

First day, ﬁrst class - C4 - Geography. Question for class -

And the end of all our exploring

if the time in London, longitude 0 degrees is 12 noon,

Will be to arrive where we started

what would be the time in India? I look at the class. They

And know the place for the ﬁrst time.

gaze up at the ceiling, the level of disinterest is palpable. I

TS Elliot

try to explain how to come up with the answer. Students look further disinterested and then one of them asks me

He looked straight into my eyes and said- “You're hired.

- “MHM, what is the real use of this to us in our lives?” It

You can start immediately.” It was August 1995 and this

was a seminal question, a deep one - what was the use

was Mr Shomie Das offering me the opportunity to teach

after all? This kind of questioning is something I would

at Doon. I had just completed my Masters in History

get in Doon a lot. “Sir - how does this relate to what we

from Delhi University and had met Mr Burrett in College,

are doing in our lives?” “What's the practical use of this

who had indicated it would be a good idea to come and

versus that?” That sort of questioning of the why is

teach bright young minds for a few years.

something I learned from students in school. I would change my attitude towards life in general and

I had gone over to Doon and met Mr Sheel Vohra and

academic questions in particular.

Mr Devendra Singh amongst others. My lack of teaching experience notwithstanding, they all said I

Back to the geography question- I thought about it for

would be a good teacher for three reasons. First - I had

days. And then, as I was playing cricket with the boys, it

good communication skills and evidenced by my

struck me. They needed me to connect their passion

debating record at DU. Second - I was pragmatic and

what was being taught in class. Suddenly, it all became

didn't complicate concepts. Third - I could relate well to

clear. I rephrased the problem- “If India was playing a

people and would be able to gel with students.

cricket game at Lord's in London that began at 10am, what time would we turn on our TV sets in India?” The

I landed in Chandbagh with pride and trepidation - pride

switch was immediate, there was a murmur, there was

to be teaching in the ﬁnest school in the country,

scrambling for longitudes and just in that moment, I saw

trepidation at whether I would succeed, the students

that attitudes towards geography and time sums

would accept me, I would get along with my peers etc.

changed. It was something quite signiﬁcant, a simple

Doubts, questions….and Doon's reputation of elitism can

lesson in knowing your audience and adapting to the

be intimidating. I decided to do what I could do best.

situation - I have not forgotten that ever since.

Control what I could control, which is my performance in class and on campus and second- build as many

I have also not forgotten the Senior English Debating

relationships as I could potentially both amongst the

Society meetings where we debated about major issues

students as well as the teaching community. It would be

of the day, the 'for' and 'against' motions, the healthy

the best two things I would do over the next few years.

back and forth and how we turned into a group of major

APRIL 2015 | THE ROSEBOWL winners in the mid 90s. We won the

or privilege. It is fundamentally

Burrett) and I reminisced about

All India Debate at Bishop Cotton

about values and experiences that

Geography lessons and our

twice in a row. It was sensational

shape and embellish those values

obdurate middle order cricket

stuff.

and experiences that are created

partnerships in the Students vs.

while playing various sports in

M a s t e r s g a m e s . A AQ ( A s h a d

At the end of two years, I decided to

Chandbagh. Experiences during the

Qezilbash) and his lovely wife (Abia)

do an MBA, went to Manila to the

mid-terms that I initially was

laid out a splendid dinner for us

Asian Institute of Management, and

sceptical about but eventually loved

even as we talked about Macbeth

since have worked in Singapore,

to death, experiences that bonded

and all other works of Shakespeare.

Boston and New York but I will never

seminal friendships not just

PMV (Piyush Malviya) in his own

forget the years at Doon - they were

amongst students but teachers

understated self, made me feel back

informative and formative in more

as well. And the bonds grow

at home in my domain of history and

ways than one.

surprisingly stronger with time.

PKN (Prabhakaran Nair) regaled me with some astounding caricatures

It was a heady experience. And

After I got married, my wife, who is

of everyone back in the day. It was

introspective. I learned as much

from the Philippines, insisted we

as if I never left. And that is the

from the students as they probably

went to Doon as she had heard so

fascinating and unique thing about

learned from me. The notion of

much about the school from me.

Doon. It leaves a lasting impression

elitism at Doon is a whole lot of

The love and affection I received

on you, and the community you build

rubbish! It is a character-building

from the students and fellow

is literally for life!

experience that doesn't go by place

teachers was incredible. PBR (Philip Years later, I was in Barcelona and as I checked-in on Facebook, a few Doscos, who were in Barcelona too, wrote back. “Wanna meet?” I wouldn't pass it up for anything. And as we gathered together in La Ramblas, one of the students looked at me and said - “Remember, you taught us time sums? That was great!” I asked to have another beer and slept well that night. Mohit Misra is currently VP and Global Head of Talent Management at Novartis Pharmaceuticals based in New Jersey. Drop him a line at mohitmisra03@gmail.com. Mohit Misra at Red Bulls' Arena, New York 33

THE ROSEBOWL | APRIL 2015

A Handful of Poems These poems are taken from Vishvijit Prithvijit Singhâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (361 T, 1964) latest book of poems entitled Kucch Dhundli Tasveerein published by Yatra Books in 2015.

John Elliott, Dr Subhash Chandra, Mihir Sharma and Vishvijit Prithvijit Singh at the Jaipur literature festival, 2015

APRIL 2015 | THE ROSEBOWL

I HEARD IT ON THE GRAPEVINE

ANGOORI MAAL

Cobbled together from ﬁctional Dosco conversations

Pumpy: Hey boys, what's cooking? I smell jaljeera.

everywhere, here is the ﬁrst edition of 'I Heard it on the

Tonty: Arre boss, Lofty's been telling me about investing

Grapevine'; a curated sample of hugely inexpensive

his millions in Africa.

humour. Please note: Stunts were performed by experts,

Pumpy: Africa? Millions? Hah! I'll believe it when I see it!

and all drinks mentioned are as alcoholic as Brut Rooh Afza

Lofty: Oh ho yaar it's nothing. Just some small

or a new world Cabernet Jaljeera. All names have been

investments.

cleverly disguised and any resemblance to jocks, nerds or

Pumpy: Buddy seriously, if you're going to put your cash

chamchas is purely coincidental, but might sound like

down somewhere, I suggest Vietnam! That's where the

people you know. Apologies if you get nabbed.

action is! (Romeo comes crashing into the group from the other side

Delhi Gymkhana, some time before midnight.

of the party causing everyone to spill their jaljeeras.)

Tonty and Lofty see each other in between receiving

Everyone: Arre yaaar!!! Watch it yaaaaar!!!

jaljeeras at the bar.

Tonty: Bibi is in Hyderabad so you're out on the prowl haan?

Tonty: Arre yaar, how are you buddy? You're also having

Romeo: Don't talk rubbish. When Romeo's out, aunties

the jaljeera 12-year old?

are on the prowl. What are you slackers talking about?

Lofty: What to do man? They've run out of Glengoldspot-

Chhota haazri recipes?

15. I generally prefer my jaljeera from the Isle of Duty

Pumpy: We were talking about your amazing physique

Free.

and how you've managed to keep all your hair intact.

(They hug trying not to spill their jaljeeras, but do anyway.)

Lofty: (stroking Romeo's bald head) Must be all those

Tonty: I believe you've just come back from Switzerland.

champis your Tadaaa house juniors kept giving you.

Stashing your millions?

Romeo: Whatever! You guys are just intimidated by my

Lofty: Oh ho what rubbish. I'm done with that backwater.

off-the-hook machismo. I'm training for Iron Man this

They don't offer those caviar cutlets in ﬁrst class to

year boys. Gonna ﬂex these crazy skills and make all you

Geneva any more. I'm stashing my cash in Swaziland.

golﬁng losers look sad.

Africa's all the rage these days yaar. Wake up.

Pumpy: Accha it's iron, not 'irone'. But seriously, we were

Tonty: Switzerland se Swaziland. Arre wah! Swaziland

talking about investment and I'm telling you guys, the

mein kya hai dekhne ko? Wahaan pe caviar cutlets milta

best place to put your cash down right now is Vietnam.

hai?

Tonty: Lofty says he won't invest there unless they have

(Pumpy is spotted walking into the bar. There is a

good bun-tikkis in ﬁrst class.

spontaneous cry of laughter and backslapping.

Lofty: Cutlets buddy!

Mrs Pumpy follows behind. The boys quieten down.

Romeo: If you want my tip, I've been making crazy

Pumpy makes his way over.)

returns in Uruguay. Minerals guys. It's all about the 35

THE ROSEBOWL | APRIL 2015 minerals.

All mumble and cough in agreement. The ﬁrst lines of

(Mrs Pumpy arrives. The boys stiffen up. Hellos and hugs

'Lab pe aati hai' can be heard rising from the far corner of

are exchanged.)

the Gymkhana...

Mrs Pumpy: Hi boys. What is it this evening? Breaking

Mrs Pumpy: And there goes the bat signal!

bounds? Bond? The goodly smell of your dorm rooms?

Lofty: Oye! Oye! They're singing the song yaar...

Lofty: Oh ho, the usual. We were just remembering the

Tonty: Oh ho, let's go, let's go...

time Pumpy got slapped so hard by Bond his ears were

Romeo: Mr and Mrs Pumpy we're just going to catch this

ringing for days.

song and come back. Just give us a sec...

(Everyone bursts into laughter...)

(The boys all disappear to sing Lab pe aati hai...badly)

Tonty: And you remember, he got the second rap on his

Mrs Pumpy: Classic.

other ear because he didn't hear what Bond said in this

Pumpy: Arre no darling. You know what it's like. The song

ear.

is the song na. What to do? They'll just be back.

(They all laugh. Rooh-afza Sauvignon shooters are brought

Mr and Mrs Pumpy stand silently sipping their drinks.

by the waiter.)

The last verse of Lab Pe Aati Hai can be heard. Pumpy is

Mrs Pumpy: Wah! I have NEVER heard that story! But

tapping his leg furiously, craning his neck in the direction

before you retell it in great detail for the ﬁftieth time, I'm

of out of tune voices...

doing a charity event next weekend. We're raising money

Pumpy: They're almost done...

for a local cause...

Mrs Pumpy: Hurry up then!

Tonty: Perfect! Put Lofty, Romeo and Pumpy down. They

Pumpy sprints off. There is a crash as he ﬂies into the group

have just been telling us about all the money they've

of boys singing the last line. There is a cheer as the song

been making around the globe. Minerals and all that.

ends. There is much backslapping and laughing. Cabernet

Right boys?

Roohafza spills everywhere. A good time was had by all.

A LITTLE BIT OF KNOWLEDGE NARINDER BEDI 108 K, 1955 My wife and I formed an NGO in the 1970s called the

assets; right to participate in Panchayat Raj elections

Young India Project and started organising struggles of

under reservations, etc. I realised that what compelled

rural labour on rights legislated for the rural poor in order

me to help rural labour take up rights struggles was that I

for them to improve their lives: right to land; right to

was an alumnus of the Doon School. I felt that I had to

justice under the Prevention of Atrocities Act of 1989;

return to society at least part of what I had received from

women's right to ownership of government-given

my education.

APRIL 2015 | THE ROSEBOWL The values that the Doon School taught me made me

It is the responsibility of the two NGO workers assigned

decide that I must use the conﬁdence of my privileged

to each mandal to ensure that all MGNREGA member

station and the mental skills I had acquired, to work to

groups in the mandal demand and receive all the rights

improve the lot of those who were not as fortunate as I

given by MGNREGA. They conduct monthly meetings in

was. From 1975 onwards we started taking up struggles

each gram panchayat. Each NGO worker is paid

for justice of the poor peasantry in Andhra Pradesh.

Rs. 3,500 per month through the NGO. It is this

Our ﬁnest achievement has been to enable these Indians

partnership between the government and the NGOs

to exercise their right to earn a guaranteed livelihood

which has made ANDHRA PRADESH the best

under the Central Government scheme or MGNREGA

performing state.

(Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act). We achieved this by persuading the

In 2011 and 2012, I was appointed as an Eminent Citizen

government of Andhra Pradesh to form a partnership

to monitor implementation of MGNREGA in Chitradurga

with NGOs called APNA. This gave NGOs the

district of Karnataka. In Karnataka, MGNREGA is being

responsibility of conducting rights-training for MGNREGA

implemented by Zilla Parishad (ZP) and the CEO of ZP is

workers by organising them into Gram Panchayat

in charge of MGNREGA; but I learnt that neither he nor

Samakhyas (Federations), and conducting monthly

his deputy have any real power, and the power is

meetings of the Samakhyas to solve their problems.

exercised by the panchayats and district political leaders. Contractors and machinery are being used

Andhra Pradesh is the only state which has formed

contrary to the Act; and selection of works is being

such a unique Government-NGO partnership, and

made by local landed classes to suit their interests.

consequently it is the best state in the country in the

Furthermore, the ratio of labour to materials, in many of

rights-driven implementation of MGNREGA. Our work

the works we visited, was 20/80 - well below the

directly beneﬁts 40 percent of the 80 million rural labour

acceptable ratio of 60/40.

population in Andhra Pradesh by ensuring that they get 100 days of work on demand with minimum wages,

There are no NGOs involved in the implementation of

inclusive of health, death and other insurances.

MGNREGA in Karnataka leaving workers unknowing of their rights. Thanks to the partnership between the

We wrote an article in Civil Society a magazine published

Government of Andhra Pradesh and NGOs, APNA

in Delhi titled “Andhra's APNA Job Scheme” in Vol. 12 of

was given the responsibility of monitoring the

November 2014. The article states that the 230 NGOs,

implementation of MGNREGA to NGOs who are

working in all 13 districts, cover almost 425 out of 625

enabling workers to protect and exercise their rights.

mandals in Andhra Pradesh: which is 68 percent of the

This is not a one-day beneﬁt but a permanent right.

cumulative whole. The article goes on to say that more

Imagine the extent of beneﬁts each MGNREGA worker

than 80 percent of households in Andhra Pradesh are

will derive in the future.

covered by these NGOs. As a result, the average number of work days generated per job card was 52.53 as

I dedicate the part I have played in the creation of APNA

compared with the non-NGO mandals of 39.9 days.

to my school. 37

THE ROSEBOWL | APRIL 2015

WHIRLED VIEWS W H O R L E D E X P LO R AT I O N S SUNIL GUPTA 562 H, 1980

Laxmi (my wife) and I made it to the

soldiers landed in search of spices

ground. There was Neha Choksi's

2nd Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2014 in

and riches, in the earliest efforts of

melting ice boat that evoked the

the nick of time. I had heard many

globalization. The second was

Indic notion of the soul being freed

great things about the show, but

between the 14th-16th centuries

upon death from its vessel, to the

they paled in comparison to what we

where Kerala's School of Astronomy

disappearing islands off the Indian

saw, up close. Set in the beautiful

and Mathematics was making

coast. There was a gigantic crab,

town of Fort Kochi, the Biennale was

steady advances in trigonometry

feeding on waste on the beachfront,

spread across old buildings and

and calculus. Drawing a cluster of

to Navjot Altaf's live library exhibit

public spaces with the main exhibits

signs, images and metaphors from

that highlighted the signiﬁcance of

being shown in the magniﬁcent

these references, allusions to the

Kerala's literacy movement and

Aspinwall House. The more you

historical and cosmological recurred

library culture, and two millennia of

sought, the more you discovered.

throughout the exhibition. Like

continental temperature rise. Flashy

pointers to draw in a range of ideas

kaleidoscopes, black and white

and images, these helped onlookers

screens, a world deﬁned by anthems

grip concepts in the present.

sounding off, deserted memories…

The exhibition was loosely based on two chronologically overlapping, but unrelated events in Kerala. As stated

I could go on.

by Jitish Kallat in his curatorial note

The exhibits included a 27-meter

they were of the 15th century where

long, loop-interpretation of the

Two things were certain - the show

the shores of Kochi were closely

universe, and Anish Kapoor 's

was a complete mind-bender and

linked to the Age of Discovery – full

gigantic water vortex 'Descension'

I'll deﬁnitely go back (in December

of tales of grit, greed and human

that destabilised us and our

2016) for the next edition.

ingenuity as navigators, seamen and

experience of standing on solid

So should you.

PAN-ANTHEM / 2014

DESCENSION / 2014 Anish Kapoor

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer 38

ICEBOAT / 2012-13 Neha Choksi

APRIL 2015 | THE ROSEBOWL

TRAVELLERS TALES -

ATLAS DES ILES PERDUES, EDITION 2017 / 2007

CHRONICLES OF THE SHORES FORETOLD / 2014

MARY WANTS TO READ A BOOK / 2014

CARRIERS OF DEMOCRACY / 2014

ANIMA MUNDI / 2014

BALANCING ACT / 2014

BLUE PRINTS / 2014 Lavanya Mani

Marie Velardi

Navjot Altaf

Theo Eshetu

BACKBONE / 2014

Shanthamani Muddaiah

Gigi Scaria

Mansoor Ali

Gulammohammed Sheikh

PUNARAPI JANANAM PUNARAPI MARANAM / 2013

NS Harsha

THE ROSEBOWL | APRIL 2015

Full Stop Self Defence SAMEER BAKSHI 270-H, 1998

Krav Maga meaning 'close combat' in Hebrew was developed by an IsraeliHungarian called Imi Lichtenfeld in the mid-1930s to help Jews protect themselves against violence in the anti-Semitic riots that took place in Bratislava at the time. He trained in multiple disciplines: boxing, wrestling, and gymnastics and won awards in all. However he was quick to realize that though boxing and wrestling were great sports, they were not always practical for the aggressive and unpredictably brutal nature of street combat. It was then that he began to re-evaluate his ideas and techniques, and modiﬁed them accordingly. The essential root of Krav Maga is to end confrontations quickly with preemptive and powerful counterattacks. It is an innovative selfdefence system that uses a mixture of striking techniques, wrestling and grappling methods, as well as positional and tactical awareness in an environment of threat. It is known the world over for its simple-to-use techniques, designed and based on the natural reﬂexes of the body. It does not count itself as a martial art however. Krav Maga is not governed by any rules except survival. It links a series of basic movements used by the average person on a daily basis. For example, the mundane activity of climbing steps is actually the basic 40

movement for the develop-ment of the knee strike, one of the most effective counter attacks available to the human body. It is governed by the base principle of 200 percent defence. For example, the use of a forearm to block a slap and hit back with a straight punch to the face simultaneously. Even though I played squash for school, bullies took interest in me because I was not the strongest-built. I would ﬁght back whenever possible, but I secretly yearned for a weapon of combative skill that would put me beyond them. I had friends who suffered the same way, and in some cases, leaving school was the only way to avoid a life of gallowy gloom. I

meet many students who have incredibly underrated physical strength and agility, and seriously low self-confidence thanks to bullying. One particular student of Krav Maga w a s a t t a c ke d a t c o l l e g e by a seasoned bully. He managed to almost knock the bully out, using a simple deflection technique and a knee strike. This boy had always had strength, but lacked self-confidence. His basic self-defence caused friends and college staff to rally round him. WHAT DOES KRAV MAGA INVOLVE? There is a saying in most Krav Maga gyms and dojos around the world that goes something like this: “You will not get the perfect body, but you will understand how to use your imperfect body, perfectly”. Combatoriented training can make you physically fitter. It uses multiple muscle groups, and a diverse range

APRIL 2015 | THE ROSEBOWL BENEFITS TO OLDER ADULTS

of motions, such as punching, kicking, knee-strikes, grappling, getting up from the ground after a fall, learning to break a fall, rolls and more. The use of body calisthenics like push-ups, pull-ups, squats, lunges and knee-tucks along with progressive intensity pad-hitting work can do wonders for cardio and functional muscle strength over time. Functional strength is unlike gymbuilt muscle; it lacks the size and possibly the deﬁnition of body building, but offers lithe agility and uncanny explosiveness if performed with correct technique and discipline.

we teach all our students tactical awareness for preventing a dangerous situation in the ﬁrst place. Examples of this would include avoiding areas of obvious danger, but also those with many corners, or avoiding earphones or telephone conversations in public areas. In Krav Maga, accuracy, repetition, and getting comfortable with the idea of hitting a target can lead to ultimately understanding one's own hidden force. I've seen this ﬁrst-hand in workshops.

This is where one goes back to the earlier saying regarding the usage of an imperfect body. Age is always a topic most of us only start to take seriously once we cross forty and ﬁnd certain earlier agilities and s p r i n g i n g m o t i o n s d i f ﬁ c u l t to perform. A person can be intimidated by younger or more athletic p a r t i c i p a n t s . H o w eve r, u n d e r standing such limitations in physicality is what becomes an advantage when learning Krav Maga. The system allows for training using your range of motion and weight. I've trained a few veterans and seen some in action as well. I can vouch for how effective older patrons can be. Krav Maga India has bases in most metropolitan cities in India with its HQ in New Delhi. Log onto kravmagaindia.com or call 011 41764207. Get in touch with samirbakshi@gmail.com to learn more.

BENEFITS TO WOMEN Women are wrongly regarded in physical terms as the weaker sex. Krav Maga works towards the advantage of women since unlike any traditional martial art - it has no rules, and speciﬁcally asks you, the defender, to target vulnerable and sensitive points in attackers like the throat, eyes, knees, nose and the more obvious. Further, 41