Lucknow Club

The Lucknow Club, formerly the Residency Club, has a garbage dump in front which remains closed on Sundays. So garbage is thrown on the road. But then how does it matter, the club members don't seem to notice it.

Vintage Car Rally

An old Merc, painted red, that was on show during the Lucknow Mohatsav on Sunday. The rally is a part of this annual festival held in Lucknow.



xxx

Kukrail Croc farm, Lucknow

The Kukrail crocodile farm on Saturday

Mart to lease more land

The Mart is to lease out 200 acres of land for an eco-park, according to The Hindustan Times in its Friday Nov 27 issue. The dos and don'ts have to be worked out. This is being done to stave off attempts to grab land. There are well-known grabbers some of whom are in one way or another connected with the government or a political party.
One of the important points of the agreement is that the government agency undertaking the work will not put up any concrete (permanent) structure. Mr Elton De Souza, was quoted in the report.
To clarify the 'more land' the report mentioned what lots of people don't know and that is that the Lucknow Zoo uses some Mart land.
A few years ago there was a government plan to shift the zoo and use the land for buildings. There were protests and the plan shelved.

I don't know whether the electricity going off several times a day (on some days) would be called an outage but if so outages are here to stay.

The fete

From the Residency

A few years ago the Archaeological Survey of India started digging around in the Residency exposing in the process a sewer line and at the same time collecting odd pieces of china, wine bottles, the barely recognisable remains of a couple of bayonets etc. The pic here has what I was able to find during my visits. A piece of lead that could have been a musket ball,  a piece of china (the place was strewn with shards of crockery) that had Lucknow on it, the neck of a bottle and a piece of iron probably from an exploded cannon ball.

College Fete

The College Fete on Saturday reminded me of our days when, as I recall, a target would be set at say Rs 10,000. A taxable income was about Rs 500/- so that was a huge amount. Of course then it was a clean profit as the articles for the stalls came from the students. Now the college finances it.
Last year we never came to know what the total takings were as it was put off for one reason or another. It'd be nice to know this time.

Sidney H Lewis Dead

Mr Lewis (with trophy in hand) along with the swimming team.





Nov 12, 2009.

I received the email below informing everyone of the sad passing of Mr Sidney Lewis. Mr Lewis moved to Australia with his family in 1967 (?) after working as physical training instructor and college warden. I can say he was a great warden and PTI. I recall him on more than one occasion telling us of what the standard of the college was when he first joined and we, from those years know, to what level he had raised it. I remember the hair-cutting Sundays when the boarders were lined up and one by one put onto the 'conveyor belt' to the barber shop, coming out the other side shorn of sideburns with out topi cuts. But it was smart compared with the scruff one sees around today. More later...

John Cline
Legal Practitioner
Lawyer
PO BOX 173
Neutral Bay
NSW Australia 2089
burrababa@hotmail.com


Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:09:19 +0800
From: Bruce.Abrahams@freogroup.com.au

Hello Boys,

I am sorry to have to tell you all that Sid Lewis, Junior Sergent in the Mart passed away last night. Sid came to Australia in 1968 and forged out another succesful career for himself in rural education. He was playing hockey at a senior level well into his 50's. I had the pleasure of meeting him often in a West Australian country town, Narrogin, where we spent the time recounting past glories. Sid will be buried in Narrogin next Wednesday at 10am. He was 83 and had been crook for a while including dementia for the last 3 years.Hopefully a contingent from Perth can make it to his funeral.

Jumbo, can you please let Nelson and Thea Gardner know. Tuck Sahib, please let Bob and your family know.

I understand the family is gathering in Perth/Narrogin in coming days. Junior arrives from Queensland tonight.

Regards

Bruce Abrahams


From Bob Jordan on Sid Lewis. Bob who is based in Sydney, Australia was out of the country at the time of Lewie's passing. Below is given his tributes sent to John Cline and sent to all Martinians.

Sid "Shucks" Lewis. I am sad to hear of his passing, very sad. He touched my life as he did with so many of us. His transformation of the school swim team from a talented outfit to an extraordinary one that blitzed records galore and produced national winners like Chris Doutre, Badami, BS Dhillon and Sid Jr - to name just a few - was amazing. His displays at an NCC parades and camps left the regular army wallahs for dead. What Shucks did, he did very well. And what about those faded, two toned navy blue shorts he used to wear ?!

There is much to remember about Lewie and much to thank him for. He did La Martiniere proud and was a stalwart. If anyone can forward this to Sid Jr I will be grateful.

RIP.

David Sealey is prompt!

Pic of Late David Young in the 1980s.
We were close till sometime in the early 90's when he took his mother away from Lucknow. He passed away two or three years ago. David has a son in Lko also named David and a daughter from a second wife in Bombay.

Letter from David (Lala) Sealey in Brisbane, Australia.

Hi Georgie,

Now that you mention it I vaguely remember meeting you in New Market (Chowringhi?) more probably in early ’72 as I would have been with my parents getting my stuff ready for coming to Australia. There is nothing to compare to a good old Mart bun tack, you are still in Lko do they still have a tuck shop and do they still have bun tacks and puri tacks?No I didn’t know White Young was in Brisbane. Depends on the years he was here, but I was able to get his phone number from the Martinian association in Perth. I guess I must have phoned his number about 6 times and even spoke to his son but he never bothered to return my calls, C-----(Hindi abuse) in fact he is a mega C----- considering all the times we used to hang out while we were on hols & while I lived in Jhansi. Ungrateful sod.Yeah I heard Black young died but I thought he was on one of the tin mines in Malaysia.Crafty Ahmed is a Senior Civil Servant somewhere in the Jaipur area.Peter Quieros and his younger brother Steven are in Melbourne, we exchange emails almost on a daily basis.There were 3 Hashmans they left India and came to Australia in 1965. Lou who was the eldest he joined the Railways and has been a train driver and has only just retired. He used to drive those big coal trains that had double diesel engines and were 2 km in length. Geoffrey was the middle brother, he joined the West Australian State Government and is an Accountant, although he is not in the best of health I hear. Their youngest brother Ian is in Sydney. I keep in touch with Lou by email and the occasional phone call. So what have you done about getting me the addresses of those other Shepherd (Pat & Lorraine)girls. Bye for now CheersLala

Will send you a pic soon as I can organise my wife to download a decent one, has your computer got enough memory because I have not got any smaller!!

Letter to Lala

Nov 7, 2009.

Hi there David!

OK, you've got it right about who's who. But tell me do you not remember meeting William and me outside the New Market in Cal either ending of '71 or sometime before March '72?
You were, if I remember correctly, eating a Mart tuckshop-looking-bun-tack. You know that's a corny joke! Those were the days!
David Young (white) was in Brisbane before he moved to Melbourne. You must have known that.
I don't know if you know, but David Young (the other) died about 2-3 years ago. He did fairly well in the Persian Gulf on the rigs. He had a heart attack at a hotel in the Philippines. Not long after, his sister Joyce also passed away. She was also working in the gulf.
Where is Crafty Ahmed now?
I sent Peter Q. a feeler which he didn't feel. Aren't we getting old?
I've never had any news of the Hashmans before. Ian and myself were great boat builders. I remember all the ice cream sticks and pieces of razor blade we carried around in our blazer pockets.
Oh it's getting late.
Bye

George
Send me a pic.

Hi Lala,

I'm really very happy that you responded so promptly. Your address came along with Johnny's contacts, as also several other old boys' adds, including James Shepherd's. Time changes everything so I wasn't sure you'd consider the school petname humorous. Good to know that's not the case.

OK, Pat and Lorraine were James' sisters and their father was with Time

Magazine. After leaving school we, Keith and I, came to know that we were in fact related to James. The difference between Keith and myself, probably could be compared with the Baker brothers and we were in Cornwallis House.

You might recall that William Lyons and myself met you outside the New Market, Calcutta, either end of 1971 or beginning of '72. That's when I'd spent some months in Cal.

Your comment on the lake banks means you don't know that an embankment separates the Lat from the school. The bank where we lolled around waiting for dinner or as youngsters, fished from, no longer exists.

Do you live in the Big Pond area of Adelaide, if that's the correct way to put it? I have relatives, some of whom I've never met, in that area.

Right, bye for now,

George

Oct 20, 2009.

Hi Johnny,

That's a lot you've sent me. What can I use on my blog?,

Over the years I often wondered about several of the old school boys several of whom we had had no news. So it was good to hear so much about the Wards.

The pics I've sent were taken this morning when I went to reach my son to school. The lake has water because the Gomti level is high owing to the recent rains we had.

The distance from the river to the Lat is a stone's throw i.e. someone with a good arm.

George

PS I remember Puff the Mighty Dragon. You gave up music?

The band pic was sent by John Cline in response to this email.

To Nalin

Friday, Nov 6, 2009.







Darren (LMC, Prep) and behind is Aden (my two daughters' sons)
Nalin Chandra,
Class VII
Hi Nalin,
It's good to know that you are in the Mart and your mother is an old Martinian as well.
I've not been checking for comments. I was happy that I had at least one person who had shown interest in my blog and now, of course, there are two. This is besides an old Martinian in Australia who has sent me pics from long long ago.
I started the blog just as a sort of open diary, that in fact it is, quite happy to place pics here that otherwise remain forgotten at home and of course the occasional comment.
You may take anything from my blog and the address but I'm not sure if it will interest anyone.
One piece of advice: When you grow up never say that La Martiniere College is located near Kalidas Marg.
Recently I found a blog, I don't remember the boy's name, who gave the location as Kalidas Marg.
La Martiniere is a lot more important. The people at Kalidas Marg keep changing and the road name and why it's important today came a long time after La Martiniere was built.
Bye for now,

George Shepherd

What year?