Monthly Archives: September 2012

1972 – Benazir Bhutto with Mr R K von Goldstein

A BIT OF HISTORY
The Simla Agreement on Bilateral Relations between India and Pakistan was signed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and President of Pakistan, Z. A. Bhutto, at Simla on July 2, 1972.

Benazir Bhutto visited BCS during that time and here is a picture with the BCS Headmaster Mr R K von Goldstein

Update Mrs Coralie DeMellow – Sept 17th 2012

Dear All,
Mrs DeMellow was hospitalised in August, 2012 after a pelvic injury and was operated upon by Dr Pradeep Sharma, an eminent surgeon, at the Holy Family Hospital. She continues to make excellent progress. She is now able to stand and walk around with a bit of support.
There is now compelling pressure from the Hospital, though one must compliment them for their compassion, to effect her early discharge lest she contract a hospital infection. Mr Ishwar Bhatia, her principal care giver, family friend and guardian has been frantically trying to find an old age home for Mrs DeMellow. He is of the opinion that she can no longer live by herself even with the support of staff since she needs full time medical assistance. She needs greater support and has now finally reconciled to an idea that she had resisted for far too long.

“They don’t kiss in the movies” – chapter 1

I had written a novel “They don’t kiss in the movies“.  It talks of my first two weeks at BCS in 1948.  The book is self-published and is available only through me.

Here is chapter I. The book is a love story, set in India in the early 1950s. It was a time of innocence and the newly-independent country was young. Most of the action occurs in Solan – there is the romance and there is much discussion of God and the scriptures, both pro and con.

Some of the chapters are autobiographical, such as the 1947 riots and chapter I, and some are biographical, such as the war in Burma. The rest is fiction with a big dose
of wishful thinking. The book is a serious attempt at tackling God and atheism.

Gurdip S. Sidhu, MD

[Editor: Gurdip Sidhu (Sidhu II) was at BCS 1948-1951 in Lefroy House. A pathologist, he lives in Harrington Park USA]

1
Hoisting skis to shoulders, we walked back the five hundred odd yards to the inn. Yesterday’s storm and today’s warm sun had conjured up a skier’s dream – two tired bodies now reveled in the most desirable languor. Showered, dressed, they sat an hour later in a dimly lit, hospitable, warm dining room. Outside, the neon sign glowed in the lowering fog. “The Inn At whiteface Mountain,’ it said. Red, green, empty wine bottles shone dimly along the windows, logs crackled in the fireplace, and soft voices drifted across from other tables. Love and magic hung in the air. My gaze drifted past red liquid in wine glasses, losing itself in limpid, brown womanly eyes casting irresistible spells from across the table . . . she was an apsara, I was sure – one of those heavenly nymphs who entertain the gods – or a houri straight from Paradise. I had chased her all day down the snowy slopes and would follow her again soon to the room. But she had other plans . . . slowly, hypnotically, such are the ways of apsaras and houris and the cruel lure of the past, I was drawn ever back in time, back back back, tumbling through memories long forgotten, to a time when life was melancholy, and I was just a boy in India. Red wine, evening magic, limpid brown eyes, crackling firelogs, drifting voices, they all conspired and I yielded: memories arose from the depths, unfolding relentlessly. More wine, more eyes, more magic, and . . . I was revisiting history. Continue reading →

Mufti Abbas [Lefroy 1936] – passed on

We received the following from Iftikhar Malik, and are sad to announce the departure of a  Cottonian brother:

Mufti Muhammad Abbas Khan, passed away on 3rd August 2012 in Islamabad Pakistan.

He was a distinguished student completing his schooling in 1936 with a Senior Cambridge certificate. He then attended Aligarh University and Government College Lahore and graduated from the latter in 1941.

He joined the Civil Service of the Frontier Government and was transferred to the Foreign Service. His last posting was as Pakistan’s Ambassador to Turkey.

Mufti Abbas retired to Islamabad. His wife passed away about a decade ago and his children live in Islamabad.

He was elder to Mufti Hashim an Old Boy. One time Captain of Pakistan’s Golf team