Report of the 17th Annual Old Sanawarian Lunch
in London on Sunday 21 May 2017
By Harbans Nagpal – Nilagiri [BD] 1964.
As you drive to central London for the annual Sanawar lunch, your mood quietens. You may be passing through the English countryside, the suburbs or the streets of London, but in your mind you are already on the dry, hilly road up to Sanawar.
You arrive outside the London restaurant, at 21 Mortimer Street. In another frame, you are at the Bakery quad, on top of Sergeant Tilley's hill. You enter the restaurant with some trepidation. You are about to revisit your childhood.
On this 21st of May 2017 the smart Indian restaurant was already pretty full at 12.30 pm and the remaining guests arrived shortly thereafter. It made hectic work for Anu Mongia (née Sharma NGD 1967) General Secretary of the London OS chapter and organiser of these lunches for the last 17 years. She was being helped this year by her soon to be replacement, Richa Pathania Ranawat (HGD 2000). They collected your 25 £ and gave you your typed label, with your name, house and year of passing out. Already you felt a little better.
The restaurant, the same as last year, was bright from the sunshine outside and colourful from the sensuous paintings on the walls. Despite some last minute changes and cancellations, there were 53 OS and guests, quite a throng. As usual the gathering was well dressed, often in school blazers and school ties. There were happy Sanawarians of all ages, shapes and sizes. Yes, the Old Timers were there. Yes, the Usual Suspects of the Middle Timers were there. And yes, there were many New Timers and their guests.
For first time readers of these reports, a ready reckoner: Old Timers are OS who passed out approximately before 1950 and so mostly the old English crowd. Middle Timers are OS from 1950 to 2000 roughly. And New Timers are the millennials, who passed out after 2000.
Out of respect, let us start with the Old Timers who come faithfully to these lunches every year and have been doing so for the last 70 years at least. Many cannot come to these lunches any more but follow events from home, many in far flung corners of this world. There is a photo of these same lunches on Derek Boddingtons's (Roberts BD 1947) website of an OS lunch in 1950. See photo 82/110 at:
http://freepages.school-alumni.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~derekboddington/OS/slides/067.1-reunion_1950.html
And the caption under it (by Hindi speaking Derek) reads: Another view of the Reunion Lunch in the London and Scottish Regiment HQ Mess, London, in October 1950. As you can see, they were "bahut bara tamashas" in those days.
I counted 150 fresh faced Sanawarians in the photograph. Today, on this 21st of May of 2017, they were down to half a dozen: the unbeatable attrition of time. Or maybe this was just an unlucky year, because in other years their numbers have been much higher. Historian and Keeper of the Record, Derek Boddington, to whom we owe much for preserving all this information, was present in good shape and spirits. With him was his charming, soft-spoken and modest daughter Coral, who takes good care of him. David and Mrs Pott were there. David (Roberts BD 1945) took time to explain patiently the house system before and after 1950. Ron Bailey (Nicholson BD 1945) was present but not his green eyed guest who comes every year. Army general Tony Cook (Hodson BD 1945) was with his son and lovely blond daughter in law, both of whom had not yet visited Sanawar. Present and full of news and prices of hotels in Kasauli and Chandigarh was James Coombes (Nicholson 1954). James seems to go often to Sanawar even now. We missed flamboyant, Hindi speaking Bob Massingham. We are told he was well and just could not make it this year. One new Old Timer we were pleased to see was Timothy Carter, the son of the last English Headmaster, Mr E G Carter 1947 - 1956. But Timothy, tall, dapper, with cane, was here in his own right as an OS, having passed out from Himalaya in 1951.
Once everyone was in, Anu (Aruna Sharma Mongia) called us to order, welcomed us and made some announcements, the most important of which was that after 17 years of service she was going to stand down and hand over to young Richa Ranawat Pathania. Heartfelt thanks were offered to Anu (by your reporter) for her long and dedicated service. Mention was also made of her patient and generous husband, Max Mongia. One is always touched by non-Sanawarian spouses who participate in our Sanawar mania. Finally, we stood in one minute of silence for OS who had fallen in the last year. We remembered Harshvardhan Sharma (NBD 1965), older brother of our own Anu Mongia. Harsh was young, in fine form, a regular visitor to these lunches. His death was most sudden and unexpected. We also remembered Gora Lal (SBD 1964), a great sportsman and jovial personality, who succumbed in 2017 after a long coma.
After these words, we were invited to take our seats for the first course which was served to us at our tables. So groups coalesced, mostly according to our batches, at the large and small tables available.
The senior Middle Timers, also called the Usual Suspects (because they are always to be seen plotting away at these lunches) had a long and grand table, commensurate with their importance. At the head, with Headboy bearing, was Kamal Katoch NBD 1962. With him were the Kadan brothers, senior Kadan (SBD 1957) of genial girth and junior Kadan (SBD 1962) of imposing height. Making up their gang of four was calm and collected Arvind Sikand (HBD 1962). Arvind was joined this year by his equally serene OS sister Pinky Sikand. Pinky (HGD 1969) is based in Bombay and was in London on this important day and joined us. Another London based Middle Timer, but first time attendee was Jasse Gill (NBD 1962) with his wife Kamlesh. Your reporter remembered Jasse as a tall, clever Sikh boy who amazed us with scientific tricks. He once recharged our old used Eveready batteries (by boiling them!)
On your reporter's table this year was a new Middle Timer: Tom Burns, a VSO from England. Tom served as a junior master in Nilgiri from 1964 to 65, just after finishing his A levels (Higher Secondary) in Birmingham. He taught us biology. Being just two years ahead of us and of friendly disposition, we were able to relate to him easily. We learned a lot from this close encounter with a young Englishman in the 1960s: swinging Britain, the Beatles, modern science, modern drama. As a teacher he went to dinners with the likes of Major Som Dutt, the Headmaster, Mr and Mrs Kemp, Miss Chatterjee and others. So he plied us with gossip from the staff room. And we plied him with tasty mangoes and dirty Hindi swear words. As a result of our help he went on to Cambridge to read medicine and finished as Professor of Psychiatry at Oxford. We were pleased to welcome him and hope he will come regularly.
By now it was time to get our main course from the small self service counter. The food was simple and thankfully limited in choice: dal, palak paneer, chicken curry, raita, with chapattis and rice. That was it. No need to scratch your head, no need to invoke the school motto to resist temptation, no need to fret about your bulges. Serve yourself and go back to the real feast, which was in the hall and not at the food table.
And there were indeed many delicious conversations to be had. We were able to catch up on each other's news, exchange gossip about old friends, especially old flames (strange how these flames burn so long!). One nice thing about Sanawar life in your reporter's time was the school photographer (Indra Studios, Kasauli) who would snap photos of all the main events of the calendar (plays, matches, prizes...) and these would be posted up in the Corridors, from which you could chose the ones you wanted by their number. And you could send these home. As a result of which we all had, some still have, all their Sanawar life in these old black and white photos. These lunches are a chance to look at your Sanawar album in your mind's eye, refresh your memory of names and events and share a story or two with friends.
But now, best of all, let us meet some of the many New Timers present. There is first of all our new General Secretary and future organiser of these lunches, Richa Pathania Ranawat. She has a long connexion with the school because your reporter remembers her father was also at Sanawar. Richa is a 30 something working mother. She dresses in smart western clothes. This year she was in a shocking pink, close-fitting dress with a broad white belt, cutting a fine figure (pun intended). She was accompanied by her equally good-looking husband Abhimanu, generously supporting his wife in her Sanawar duties and taking care of their lovely 8 year old daughter, Bhavya. Bhavya was dressed in a white party frock and was impressively confident and uncomplaining. She had come with pencils, a drawing book and her ipad to pass this (for her boring) afternoon. So this little team will be looking after us from now on. We hope some others will give them a hand, and together they will make the London Old Sanawarian lunches once again a "bahut bara tamasha". There are many possibilities, including a direct connexion with the new Headmaster, Mr Vinay Pande, linking up with other Indian public school associations in London….
Next, meet three other young ladies. First, tall and slim Komal Dhillon, (Siwalik GD 2000), dressed this year in a flowery blue dress and not her usual yellow. Looking at her you would never guess Komal was a high flying banker, an equities analyst with JP Morgan bank. Unpretentious people command double your respect, once for their skills and a second time for their modesty. Another highly qualified and modest lady New Timer was Nanki Mann Dhanoa (Vindhya GD1998), in a pink top, jeans and a colourful jacket. You would not have guessed she was a climate engineer. A third lady in this trio was slim Preneet Pannu (Vindhya GD 1998), dressed in smart, light polka dot pants and a white jacket. Preneet designs children's clothes and bed linen for her company based in Chandigarh and south London.
In these four ladies, and there were many more like them in the hall, you got a glimpse of the future. OS men have long been generals, admirals, Chief Ministers, bankers, lawyers, doctors etc, but now watch the ladies come on! They are just going to walk all over, or should one say, march all over the opposition, in NCC parade ground style. Three cheers to our Sanawar ladies, for their sharp turnout and sharp minds. They too did PT every morning, marched up and down the school, played hard at sports and excelled in class. Rudyard Kippling forgot to mention them in his famous quote, although they were around even then.
At around 3 pm, suddenly there were strums of music and then a male voice singing, accompanied by a banjo. You looked to see what this was about and found your Founder's ancestor and Chief Guest, Sir Henry Lawrence, singing gaily away - a ditty about the adventures of the Kohinoor diamond. There was loud applause and we were glad for the 'chota sa tamasha', from this bohemian, modern ancestor of our illustrious Founder. We missed his stylish daughter, Isabelle, away at the Cannes Film Festival.
By now we were at dessert - as bare in choice as the main meal: just one counted gulab jamun per person. Some early comers had taken more than their share! So that when your reporter arrived they were all gone! And there were some more guests still to come, including Timothy Carter, the headmaster's son. Your reporter was glad for the calories unwittingly saved but poor Timothy was visibly annoyed. "What, no gulab jamuns!" said the voice that must have had many a one at Charlie's shop at the bakery in his days at school. Your reporter scolded the waiters and asked for more dessert for Carter Sahib, but it is not sure that he got his gulab jamun.
Because suddenly something else very bad was happening: people were leaving! The restaurant was soon going to close. Yes, perhaps from memory of last year or because they had long distances to cover, many guests began to leave. This created a bit of panic. One rushed to catch people you would not see for a year, to at least say hello, or get an email or a phone number. Such was this commotion that it was hard to call the meeting to order, to sing the ceremonial school song. This required decorum, which was now hard to muster. And so it ended, our 17th annual London OS Sanawar lunch, in a hurried rendition of the first verse of the school song and wanting in gulab jamuns.
As you left Sanawar and the restaurant, from the Bakery down Sergeant Tilley's hill, back into central London, your heart seemed heavy, if not bursting - a kind of end of term sadness at leaving our sweet hill-top castle.
You arrive outside the London restaurant, at 21 Mortimer Street. In another frame, you are at the Bakery quad, on top of Sergeant Tilley's hill. You enter the restaurant with some trepidation. You are about to revisit your childhood.
On this 21st of May 2017 the smart Indian restaurant was already pretty full at 12.30 pm and the remaining guests arrived shortly thereafter. It made hectic work for Anu Mongia (née Sharma NGD 1967) General Secretary of the London OS chapter and organiser of these lunches for the last 17 years. She was being helped this year by her soon to be replacement, Richa Pathania Ranawat (HGD 2000). They collected your 25 £ and gave you your typed label, with your name, house and year of passing out. Already you felt a little better.
The restaurant, the same as last year, was bright from the sunshine outside and colourful from the sensuous paintings on the walls. Despite some last minute changes and cancellations, there were 53 OS and guests, quite a throng. As usual the gathering was well dressed, often in school blazers and school ties. There were happy Sanawarians of all ages, shapes and sizes. Yes, the Old Timers were there. Yes, the Usual Suspects of the Middle Timers were there. And yes, there were many New Timers and their guests.
For first time readers of these reports, a ready reckoner: Old Timers are OS who passed out approximately before 1950 and so mostly the old English crowd. Middle Timers are OS from 1950 to 2000 roughly. And New Timers are the millennials, who passed out after 2000.
Out of respect, let us start with the Old Timers who come faithfully to these lunches every year and have been doing so for the last 70 years at least. Many cannot come to these lunches any more but follow events from home, many in far flung corners of this world. There is a photo of these same lunches on Derek Boddingtons's (Roberts BD 1947) website of an OS lunch in 1950. See photo 82/110 at:
http://freepages.school-alumni.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~derekboddington/OS/slides/067.1-reunion_1950.html
And the caption under it (by Hindi speaking Derek) reads: Another view of the Reunion Lunch in the London and Scottish Regiment HQ Mess, London, in October 1950. As you can see, they were "bahut bara tamashas" in those days.
I counted 150 fresh faced Sanawarians in the photograph. Today, on this 21st of May of 2017, they were down to half a dozen: the unbeatable attrition of time. Or maybe this was just an unlucky year, because in other years their numbers have been much higher. Historian and Keeper of the Record, Derek Boddington, to whom we owe much for preserving all this information, was present in good shape and spirits. With him was his charming, soft-spoken and modest daughter Coral, who takes good care of him. David and Mrs Pott were there. David (Roberts BD 1945) took time to explain patiently the house system before and after 1950. Ron Bailey (Nicholson BD 1945) was present but not his green eyed guest who comes every year. Army general Tony Cook (Hodson BD 1945) was with his son and lovely blond daughter in law, both of whom had not yet visited Sanawar. Present and full of news and prices of hotels in Kasauli and Chandigarh was James Coombes (Nicholson 1954). James seems to go often to Sanawar even now. We missed flamboyant, Hindi speaking Bob Massingham. We are told he was well and just could not make it this year. One new Old Timer we were pleased to see was Timothy Carter, the son of the last English Headmaster, Mr E G Carter 1947 - 1956. But Timothy, tall, dapper, with cane, was here in his own right as an OS, having passed out from Himalaya in 1951.
Once everyone was in, Anu (Aruna Sharma Mongia) called us to order, welcomed us and made some announcements, the most important of which was that after 17 years of service she was going to stand down and hand over to young Richa Ranawat Pathania. Heartfelt thanks were offered to Anu (by your reporter) for her long and dedicated service. Mention was also made of her patient and generous husband, Max Mongia. One is always touched by non-Sanawarian spouses who participate in our Sanawar mania. Finally, we stood in one minute of silence for OS who had fallen in the last year. We remembered Harshvardhan Sharma (NBD 1965), older brother of our own Anu Mongia. Harsh was young, in fine form, a regular visitor to these lunches. His death was most sudden and unexpected. We also remembered Gora Lal (SBD 1964), a great sportsman and jovial personality, who succumbed in 2017 after a long coma.
After these words, we were invited to take our seats for the first course which was served to us at our tables. So groups coalesced, mostly according to our batches, at the large and small tables available.
The senior Middle Timers, also called the Usual Suspects (because they are always to be seen plotting away at these lunches) had a long and grand table, commensurate with their importance. At the head, with Headboy bearing, was Kamal Katoch NBD 1962. With him were the Kadan brothers, senior Kadan (SBD 1957) of genial girth and junior Kadan (SBD 1962) of imposing height. Making up their gang of four was calm and collected Arvind Sikand (HBD 1962). Arvind was joined this year by his equally serene OS sister Pinky Sikand. Pinky (HGD 1969) is based in Bombay and was in London on this important day and joined us. Another London based Middle Timer, but first time attendee was Jasse Gill (NBD 1962) with his wife Kamlesh. Your reporter remembered Jasse as a tall, clever Sikh boy who amazed us with scientific tricks. He once recharged our old used Eveready batteries (by boiling them!)
On your reporter's table this year was a new Middle Timer: Tom Burns, a VSO from England. Tom served as a junior master in Nilgiri from 1964 to 65, just after finishing his A levels (Higher Secondary) in Birmingham. He taught us biology. Being just two years ahead of us and of friendly disposition, we were able to relate to him easily. We learned a lot from this close encounter with a young Englishman in the 1960s: swinging Britain, the Beatles, modern science, modern drama. As a teacher he went to dinners with the likes of Major Som Dutt, the Headmaster, Mr and Mrs Kemp, Miss Chatterjee and others. So he plied us with gossip from the staff room. And we plied him with tasty mangoes and dirty Hindi swear words. As a result of our help he went on to Cambridge to read medicine and finished as Professor of Psychiatry at Oxford. We were pleased to welcome him and hope he will come regularly.
By now it was time to get our main course from the small self service counter. The food was simple and thankfully limited in choice: dal, palak paneer, chicken curry, raita, with chapattis and rice. That was it. No need to scratch your head, no need to invoke the school motto to resist temptation, no need to fret about your bulges. Serve yourself and go back to the real feast, which was in the hall and not at the food table.
And there were indeed many delicious conversations to be had. We were able to catch up on each other's news, exchange gossip about old friends, especially old flames (strange how these flames burn so long!). One nice thing about Sanawar life in your reporter's time was the school photographer (Indra Studios, Kasauli) who would snap photos of all the main events of the calendar (plays, matches, prizes...) and these would be posted up in the Corridors, from which you could chose the ones you wanted by their number. And you could send these home. As a result of which we all had, some still have, all their Sanawar life in these old black and white photos. These lunches are a chance to look at your Sanawar album in your mind's eye, refresh your memory of names and events and share a story or two with friends.
But now, best of all, let us meet some of the many New Timers present. There is first of all our new General Secretary and future organiser of these lunches, Richa Pathania Ranawat. She has a long connexion with the school because your reporter remembers her father was also at Sanawar. Richa is a 30 something working mother. She dresses in smart western clothes. This year she was in a shocking pink, close-fitting dress with a broad white belt, cutting a fine figure (pun intended). She was accompanied by her equally good-looking husband Abhimanu, generously supporting his wife in her Sanawar duties and taking care of their lovely 8 year old daughter, Bhavya. Bhavya was dressed in a white party frock and was impressively confident and uncomplaining. She had come with pencils, a drawing book and her ipad to pass this (for her boring) afternoon. So this little team will be looking after us from now on. We hope some others will give them a hand, and together they will make the London Old Sanawarian lunches once again a "bahut bara tamasha". There are many possibilities, including a direct connexion with the new Headmaster, Mr Vinay Pande, linking up with other Indian public school associations in London….
Next, meet three other young ladies. First, tall and slim Komal Dhillon, (Siwalik GD 2000), dressed this year in a flowery blue dress and not her usual yellow. Looking at her you would never guess Komal was a high flying banker, an equities analyst with JP Morgan bank. Unpretentious people command double your respect, once for their skills and a second time for their modesty. Another highly qualified and modest lady New Timer was Nanki Mann Dhanoa (Vindhya GD1998), in a pink top, jeans and a colourful jacket. You would not have guessed she was a climate engineer. A third lady in this trio was slim Preneet Pannu (Vindhya GD 1998), dressed in smart, light polka dot pants and a white jacket. Preneet designs children's clothes and bed linen for her company based in Chandigarh and south London.
In these four ladies, and there were many more like them in the hall, you got a glimpse of the future. OS men have long been generals, admirals, Chief Ministers, bankers, lawyers, doctors etc, but now watch the ladies come on! They are just going to walk all over, or should one say, march all over the opposition, in NCC parade ground style. Three cheers to our Sanawar ladies, for their sharp turnout and sharp minds. They too did PT every morning, marched up and down the school, played hard at sports and excelled in class. Rudyard Kippling forgot to mention them in his famous quote, although they were around even then.
At around 3 pm, suddenly there were strums of music and then a male voice singing, accompanied by a banjo. You looked to see what this was about and found your Founder's ancestor and Chief Guest, Sir Henry Lawrence, singing gaily away - a ditty about the adventures of the Kohinoor diamond. There was loud applause and we were glad for the 'chota sa tamasha', from this bohemian, modern ancestor of our illustrious Founder. We missed his stylish daughter, Isabelle, away at the Cannes Film Festival.
By now we were at dessert - as bare in choice as the main meal: just one counted gulab jamun per person. Some early comers had taken more than their share! So that when your reporter arrived they were all gone! And there were some more guests still to come, including Timothy Carter, the headmaster's son. Your reporter was glad for the calories unwittingly saved but poor Timothy was visibly annoyed. "What, no gulab jamuns!" said the voice that must have had many a one at Charlie's shop at the bakery in his days at school. Your reporter scolded the waiters and asked for more dessert for Carter Sahib, but it is not sure that he got his gulab jamun.
Because suddenly something else very bad was happening: people were leaving! The restaurant was soon going to close. Yes, perhaps from memory of last year or because they had long distances to cover, many guests began to leave. This created a bit of panic. One rushed to catch people you would not see for a year, to at least say hello, or get an email or a phone number. Such was this commotion that it was hard to call the meeting to order, to sing the ceremonial school song. This required decorum, which was now hard to muster. And so it ended, our 17th annual London OS Sanawar lunch, in a hurried rendition of the first verse of the school song and wanting in gulab jamuns.
As you left Sanawar and the restaurant, from the Bakery down Sergeant Tilley's hill, back into central London, your heart seemed heavy, if not bursting - a kind of end of term sadness at leaving our sweet hill-top castle.
Harbans Nagpal – NBD 64.
(Email: hrsnagpal@hotmail.com)
**
LINKS::
Photos:
http://freepages.school-alumni.rootsweb.com/~derekboddington/OSRUK/default.html
Last year's report:
"http://freepages.school-alumni.rootsweb.com/~derekboddington/popups/os-uk-reunion-report-2016.html"
(Announcement: Next year's lunch will be held on 20 May 2018, the third Sunday of May. Please register early with Richa Ranawat on: