Every trip to Jaipur brings on loads of nostalgia, since I spent my adolescent years there. A recent one was to attend the wedding of the grandson of an old classmate from school, where the floodgates of memories burst open.

The Senior Cambridge class of 1954 in St Xavier Jaipur had a total of nine students. One is no more and of the remaining eight, four were present at the wedding, making it 50 per cent of the class. Unbelievable!

The school at that time was, and I believe still is, one of the best educational institutions of India. This was entirely due to the total commitment and devotion of the Jesuit fathers of that time. There was our principal, Father Mann, a larger than life figure who was omnipresent — a martinet but with a heart of gold.

Then there was Father Mackessack whose passions were cricket and music. He had built up a first-rate cricket team and the best visiting cricketers used to come to practise on our pitch. In 1953, I remember mingling with Vijay Hazare, Vinoo Mankad and Polly Umrigar, who were in town to play against a Commonwealth team.

Other notable figures of the 1950s were Father Birney who introduced basketball in Jaipur, Father Batman who was a baseball icon, Father Cosgrove who showed us 8/16mm western and cartoon films on weekends and Father Willmes with his camera shutter always open for the millions of photos he must have taken.

The strong foundations laid by these and others of their times have resulted in the school turning out a fine crop of alumni who have reached the top of their chosen profession. State chief secretaries and senior police officials, secretaries at the Centre, the best doctors, engineers and architects, have come from the school. Jewellers have always been the school’s biggest patrons — Rashmi Durlabhji, a renowned figure of Jaipur, who passed away recently, was in the class of 1953, and was in the forefront of all school activities right till the end.

... contd.