(Editor’s note: The exchange with Mr Goss is, as expected, lively. Here is an amusing yet poignant incident which seems to have ended happily after 50 years!! Little boys do carry grudges, real or imagined. !!

A background introduction is given to lend the correspondence a perspective

The intervening mail from Badal inducts a spot of fun in this exchange.
Badal is a gentleman-at-large and a mining baron in a day and age where this breed is currently under siege. He has a puckish and provocative sense of humour which is well meaning and really innocuous.

Joe  Joshi is the elder brother of Dr. Jai Hind Joshi. Joe is a News Editor with Al Jazeera in Doha, Qatar. He was in Vietnam during the years of turmoil in that country.

Jai Joshi is an eminent doctor and lives in Houston. Both these brothers, originally from Burma, did well and made their mark in society)

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Goss,

Rishi Rana may be the only other person who recalls this.

Do you recall a young boy who found a little white rabbit in the hills near school, brought it with him and then asked you to look after his little pet. He was not expecting you to agree but was thrilled when you did. For weeks the little boy dreamt about his rabbit, wrote home to his parents, and planed on how he would try and take his rabbit back home to Burma, a thousand miles away, at the end of the school year

And do you recall that a few weeks later when that boy came to visit and asked if he could see and play with his rabbit, the both of you laughed and said that you had enjoyed that rabbit for dinner weeks before.

I wonder whether you recall, also, that many years later, when that boy graduated, and would come visit school with his brother; you said something about how a bad penny was sure to always come back.

That was more than fifty years ago.

I was happy to hear that you have done well as I was to hear about Mr. and Mrs. Williams. I remember Ms Gardner (who later became Mrs. Williams) with the fondest of affection as our KG home room teacher and Mr. Williams was my house master. I have always held them in very high esteem, and hope Mrs. Williams is part of this mailing list

Regards to you both
Jai Joshi, MD

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Sent: Sat, Mar 31, 2012 9:02 pm
Subject: RE: Memories from a long time ago

Hey Mr Goss…… you can Run But you can’t Hide…… This lil burmese boy is hot on yr tail…. and like the elephants in burma he dosnt forget anything……suggest you go to australia next… hear theres lots rabbits there . maybe you can send him one..or like the proverbial bad penny he might show up at yr door one day…. last i heard … his bro Joe was joining  him in the hunt …. whoa.. he has had some really wild experiences as a gunfighter in vietnam…. near death stuff… he’s a real bounty hunter… i was you id be scared …..REAL scared….your sins are catching up on you mr goss…….LOW MARKS…. RABBIT KILLING…. JUGGED HARES…. We don’t even know whether you preferred sherwood to BCS …….. so tomorrow by Sundown you better be outta town boy….. (as we say in the deep south uf the United States)…. ADIOS AMIGO.

Inderjit Singh Badal

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Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2012 17:32:39 -0400

Badal – you are just too nicely funny. Am sure Mr. Goss will take it all in good sport. He did reply to my story, by the way – and very pleasantly, too. As for crossing the river, again: the situation now is a lot different, with texicans not gringos as border patrol men, the coyotes are now gringos and the river at El Passo is all dried up, so your swimming prowess will not help- you will have to walk
Joshi 2

Jai Joshi, MD 

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Dear Jai
Thank you for your letter.  You will forgive me if after all these years I cannot recall looking after your pet, but I can assure you we did not have him for dinner as neither my wife nor I have ever acquired a taste for rabbit stew.   Telling you that we had feasted on your pet was probably our way of letting you know that the rabbit had escsaped to be reunited with his family in ithe hills despite our vigilance.

Surely I didn’t refer to you as a “bad penny”!  My sincere apologies, although 50 years too late.

Tell me more about yourself.

With kind regards,
Ronald Goss

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