Mart Crime

The Great Tuck Robbery: Pens, books, tuck, day scholar's lunch, pocket money, keds, jangs etc were normal losses suffered in a boys' school. The Mart word for small time thieves, was 'chut' from the Hindi word chutta. I guess it didn't sound as disparaging as thief. The next heist after the gong was the one committed on the morning of the fete that year (?). Mr Tuck's desk that was bursting at its seems with tin stuff, bottled jam etc all for the fete, was cleaned out. I still remember early that morning I was woken by a voice asking me whether the brown keds in the house room were mine. When I said yes, the voice from the dark said 'if anyone asks you say they are mine'. Later there was a stampede with searches of lockers in the hope of recovering the loot. No one was caught! I was never asked about the brown keds. It was the perfect theft! I never asked the owner of the voice anything because I knew he would have said: Are you f------ mad?

Melbourne Martinians

August 6, 2011.

Neville Baker and wife, Colleen and William Lyons, Stephen Quieros and
wife, Robert Jordan and partner (back), Marvin Bunting and wife (front),
Peter Quieros and wife and Gordon Bruce and partner during a
get-together in Melbourne.
Six out of the seven 'boys' are Martinians.
Photo: Courtesy Stephen Quieros

Obituary: Lt Col T Nolan

Sat, July 23, 2011.

Lt.Col Nolan was buried at the Bandaria bagh Cemetery in Lucknow.

La Martiniere College, Lucknow

I must time it so that I get the boys in to some pics. These were taken on Monday, July 11, 2011.

Slow progress and shoddy work

Saturday, July 9, 2011.

 

Half the money used has been wasted with the poor quality work. The craftsmen and labour, perhaps, overworked have left stones broken and chipped. This will be filled in with some form of paste which will not survive the harsh weather conditions for long. The work has been going on rather haphazardly, ignoring the drainage from on top of the embankment resulting in water seepage. This will increase as the soil beneath is washed out (see pic) and the problem will increase

Calcutta Today!

Calcutta is growing outward and up!

Oh Calcutta!

 The Assembly of God church gate. A cousin, Noreen Vincent lived at 19 Royd St. (See top pic where the man is walking). Also Pam Crain lived there through an archway that led to the side of the old building. Royd St becomes Eliot Rd (middle pic) and below is a lane branching off from Ripon St. that looked as bad 40 years ago.

Over the years I'd always wanted to visit Calcutta again. Walk down
Royd St., Eliot Rd., Ripon St. And finally it's over! I had to see for
myself what others had said about it not being the same anymore.
Nothing remains the same, true, but here the place has literally gone
down, lost its vibrancy. It's become more crowded, some of the old buildings have been replace with ugly blocks, leaving little space for movement. Some of the open spaces have also been occupied resulting in narrow passageways between the buildings. Little oxygen and almost no sunlight at ground level.
I looked out for this visit and at the end I was depressed and now, should I visit Calcutta again, I don't think I'll go back to the area without a good reason.