Christmas Letter 2009 (Vivek Bhasin Lefroy 1961-1970)
Where are all of we….?
…. Should have started and ended this letter before the dam burst, before the fireworks lit up the London Sky and before the Three Kings following the bright bright star finally arrived. Sorry Folks! I’ll try to make sure schedules are maintained from today.
So much happened in 2009. The sesquicentennial created a New Planet in the sky…..The Bishop Cotton Planet, safely positioned above the 2nd flat with the sun’s powerful brilliance bouncing off the surface and ricocheting down to the roof of the Chapel; making the bright glow of the Good Shepherd, even brighter.
It was the 28th of December 2009 when David Deane gave me a call from Bangalore; the Capitano was in Karlstad Sweden, where the freeze maintained a strong grip.
–20C ! Pure White. It felt good to pin prick my index finger and feel the drop of blood hit the snow and turn into my favourite colour: Pink! And as I glanced at the Cathedral of Karlstad the bell chimed 1000 hrs……1430 hrs in the Garden City. David spoke at length even as my mind kept spinning away to even farther distant shores…like Puerto Eden…. in the English Narrows, Southern Chile (where I had anchored my ship waiting for high tide to take her through) he told me how another stalwart from Curzon, entered School Chapel…. (After so many years, the pride of Lions had come home…back to BCS…back to School). The sons of BCS were home.
Its fact; amongst us Cottonians were born the good, the do goods, the ne’er do so goods, the smartest, the righteous brothers, the bankers, the musicians, the actors, the politicians, the sea captains, the major generals, industrialists, jokers…who joked through life… ‘Where are you today? What are you doing this very minute? What is in your mind?’ Answers to questions, questions to answers. Regardless, for the sons of BCS our one common source of comfort has always been the School Chapel.
You change; the world will change; your eyebrows will change, your gait will change, your feelings may change…everything will change. For the good, for the better….
If all of you, right now strain your senses and fly back your souls to school, THIS VERY MINUTE…what would you see?……the boys are at home. Its cold and dark. The dorms are empty and if you creep through the quite corridors and look over the fountain, the first flat, the second, the third …you may just see the Ghost of Goldstein. He never left for home from the hills. He came down for Dinner at The Claridges organised by Dimpy Mehra and then returned home. His home… The Lodge…..The Irwin Hall, The First Flat…staring across Tara Devi…straining his ears to hear the shouts of the Boys…the sons of BCS…wintering holidays. He said he could hear them…their sounds of laughter and joy sent mixed signals as they bounced from the plains through 103 tunnels, Green Garages, First Bridge, Boundary Stone and through the school gates. He always waited for them to return. And so they did……
…and as he opened the doors and walked in to Chapel, their sounds broke out in unison. His congregation was Complete.
David Deane told me so.
You told me so.
I told you so.
Further information [venue/time/agenda/etc] yet awaited from OCA India, so please do keep a look-out at this page for further announcements.
