OCA UK luncheon reminder

1 Reply

Dear OCs,
We hope this message finds you in good health and high spirits.

As the date approaches, we would like to remind you of the upcoming OCA UK reunion lunch that is taking place on June 24th. At the last head count we have almost 40 OC, confirmed . Thank you for the ones confirmed, I would encourage others to confirm asap asap. We are hoping the director Simon Weale and his wife to be there.
The reunion lunch is always a delightful affair as we get a chance to catch up with old friends, share stories, and create new memories together but this reunion promises to be even more special as we catch up after a 4 year break. So with much anticipation we are looking forward to reconnecting and reminiscing about our cherished school days with our fraternity.

The details for the event are as follows:

Date: June 24th, 2023

Time: 12 noon – 4pm

Venue: Bombay Palace, 50 Connaught Street, London, W2 2AA

Dress Code: Formal suit

We have planned an enjoyable afternoon with a scrumptious buffet featuring an array of dishes and look forward to welcoming you along with your partners.
To ensure a smooth and successful event, we kindly request you to RSVP as soon as possible. This will help us finalize the arrangements, including catering.

The cost per guest is GBP50 and you can transfer the funds directly to the OCA UK account

Name: Old Cottonian Association UK
Account number: 00126972
Sort Code: 309384
Reference: Name plus number of guests;
Or send a cheque (with your name and number of guests on the back of it) to our Treasurer, Puneet Singh (OC – 1999 (C)) to the following address:
Puneet Singh
1 Frognal
London
NW3 6AL

If you have any dietary restrictions or special requirements, please let us know in advance so that we can accommodate them accordingly.

Lastly, we encourage you to spread the word among our OC fraternity. It would be wonderful to see as many familiar and new faces as possible, and make this reunion truly memorable.
Looking forward to seeing you on June 24th and reliving the camaraderie of our school days.

Warm regards,
OCA UK Committee
Vijay Bhalaik – President
T: 07985 060 156
E: vijaybhalaik@nhs.net

Gursant Sandhu – Secretary
T: 07788 716 525
E: gursant@yahoo.com

Puneet Singh – Treasurer
T: 07841 590 990
E: puneetsingh932@hotmail.com

Rajat Mukarji [Ibbetson 1969 batch] passed on

3 Replies

We sadly announce the sudden passing-away of Old Cottonian Rajat Mukarji [Ibbetson 1969 batch], today who suffered a  massive cardiac attack.

An alumni of Bishop Cotton School (1967-69) and St. Stephen’s College, Rajat worked as a general manager at Birla AT&T from 1996 to 2002. He joined UK-based Vodafone (now Vodafone Idea) in 2002.
During his nearly 17-year stint at Vodafone Idea, Mukarji represented the telecom company at many national and international forums, and helped in several strategic initiatives.
Later, he also briefly served Chinese telecom gear maker ZTE as a corporate affairs officer from July 2019 to February 2020.
In 2020, he joined Broadband India Forum (BIF) as a director general at Gurgaon till date.

Rest in Peace dear OC.Our Deepest condolences to the bereaved family.

Happy birthday, Mr Goss – 94th 

May 3rd 2023

My dear Mr Goss,

Warm and sincere wishes on this your 94th (Ninety Fourth) birthday. My friends, I and our respective families wish you a wonderful day. May the years ahead, and may there be many, many more, continue to bring you good health, great happiness and tons of laughter.

Looking back and from my collection, I am sending as attachments to this mail a few photographs of the way we still remember you. The change, which has surely occurred over these long years, does not register in our mind’s eye. You are still the spritely young man we knew who walked in briskly into the class and went about the assignment without much ado. What was enormously enjoyable was your introducing us to Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. Those class sessions were inevitably the most enjoyable and certainly the most remembered. It certainly did inculcate the reading habit in so many of us. Sometimes I wish we had started with P G Wodehouse though Conan Doyle is a class apart in an entirely different genre. In those mostly quiet corridors, peals of laughter generated by a Jeeves incident may have had other consequences, I suspect !!

I will not recount your fearful and stern marking record but I think it was all well-meant. No blemishes ever attached to us but it was a good inkling, a warning lesson, perhaps, of how tough life can be. It all began with red ink in the classroom !!

Thank you, Mr Goss.

With great warmth and affectionate wishes from us all, once again

Vijay

Vijay Khurana

My dear Mr Goss,

A very Happy Birthday to you.
I recall our Geography lessons, 39 Steps,  and your being our Housemaster !
Many Happy Returns !
Our best regards to your family.

Govinder Singh
Ibbetson 1952-1963

Hi Mr Goss: I wish you a very happy birthday. May all your wishes come true. Best regards also to your charming wife.
Joe Joshi 1
Rivaz 1954 – 1963
Commercial airline / combat pilot and war correspondent in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
Senior editor of print and broadcast news with worldwide experience.

Joe Joshi

Dear Mr. Goss,
Wishing you a most wonderful and a very happy birthday with all my heart.
Respectfully yours,
NP Pawa

Dear Mr.Goss
Wishing you a very Happy Birthday.
May God give you good health and happiness.Warm regards to Mrs Goss.
With lots of love.
K.Vijay Singh
Lefroy.1958-’66.

The new OCA India Committee 2023-25

The new OLD COTTONIANS ASSOCIATION India Committee has been formed for the next 2 yrs i.e from 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2025.

Mr.Jaspal Sawhney – Ibbetson 1963, has taken over as the next PRESIDENT of this Association.

Mr.Neel Kamal Mehra – bbetson 1962, has been appointed the TREASURER.

Mr.K.Vijay Singh – Lefroy 1966, was elected the GENERAL SECRETARY.

It’s our endeavour to make our Association more interactive and inclusive with your help and new ideas.

All suggestions are most welcome.

K Vijay Singh
General Secretary
OCA India.

Upholding data privacy and filtering out content not meeting socially acceptable guidelines.

Dear Cottonians [old, new, and yet to be]:

This website has been in place, maintained, and kept alive since May 2002. We upheld and will continue to uphold Privacy of personal data submitted by you regardless those who opted to allow “sharing” of data submitted by way of contact details or any personal info. Your personal data remains safe and unshared. All data submitted will remain anonymous, regardless if  this website continues or goes redundant. The content / stories / photos will remain intact until when the entire can be archived and digitised for posterity.

All those who contributed content to assist this project are gratefully thanked. It is almost impossible to name and thank each and everyone who did.

A quick review of all content thus far posted at this website will be undertaken asap [using AI software] and any material thats reported  “abusive”, “offensive”, “racist” or “sexist” will be removed or deleted by the software. We believe that due diligence was observed prior to any content being published, but we’ll let this program look for the ones that were missed, off chance,  or anything that previously went unnoticed or “under the radar”. We’d appreciate do point out anything such, that AI, or we, might miss. Thanks!

[The OCA web-team]