cricket

Subhash Mathur is a resident of Jaipur, after his superannuation from the Indian Revenue Service in 2007. Presently, Subhash is engaged in social and charitable work in rural areas. Subhash is also Editor of http://www.inourdays.org/, an online portal for preserving work-related memories.

My earliest memory of International cricket goes back to 1956. At that point of time, I was living in Bikaner, where my father, Shri Khemchand, was posted as Collector & District Magistrate upon transfer from Jhalawar.

List of Bikaner Collectors, starting November 1949. My father was the fifth Collector of Bikaner, from February 1954 to September 1957.

We used to live in the huge bungalow earmarked for the Collector of the District. The same bungalow is being used by the Collector at present also.

Collector’s Residence, Bikaner. Photo is recent but looked the same in the 1950s.

Ashok Sarkar (born 1929) retired as an Air Commodore from the Indian Air Force. He was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal (VSM) by the Indian government. His career included commanding a number of Air Force field units, and a diplomatic posting at the Indian Embassy in Moscow during the 1960s. He was an outstanding student and sportsman in his youth, and after his retirement, he was an inspiration for young sports talent in Agra, his hometown. He continues to run a play-school for young children, a labour of love he founded with his late wife, Chitra, and enjoys a quiet life nurturing the prize-winning flower garden at his ancestral home in Agra.

I was a student in Agra College, Agra over 1944-50. At that time, Agra College was one of India’s leading educational institutions.

Agra College was established in 1823 by Gangadhar Shastri, a noted Sanskrit scholar of his time. In the beginning, the College had two large hostels, namely, Hewett and Thompson. Agra College soon attracted students from many parts of India. A number of communities came forward to build hostels for students of their own community, such as Bhargava Hostel, Chaubey Hostel, Kayastha Hostel, and Vaish Boarding House. Each hostel had a cemented tennis court, apart from volleyball and basketball courts, as well as a large recreation hall, where functions were held from time to time.

Chittur Veer Vaidyanathan was born in Churu (Rajasthan) in 1948, and grew up in Jaipur. After a successful corporate career, during which his work with his company led to an Export Promotion Award from the Indian Ministry of Textiles, he is now a developer of real estate near Mumbai http://www.universalbuilder.co.in/.  He lives in Mumbai with his wife Hemlatha\; his son and daughter, both married, live in the U.S. His hobbies are swimming and traveling.

Subhash Mathur is a resident of Jaipur after superannuation from Indian Revenue Service in 2007. Presently, Subhash is engaged in social and charitable work in rural areas. Subhash is also Editor of http://www.inourdays.org/, an online portal for preserving work related memories.

Editor's note: This is adapted and expanded from an exchange on social media in August 2016. C V Vaidyanathan (older brother of one of my classmates) and Subhash (one of my older brothers) lived close to each other in C-Scheme, Jaipur in the early 1960s, and attended St. Xavier's School. They had not been in contact for more than 50 years when they came in touch in 2016.

Subhash Mathur is a resident of Jaipur after superannuation from Indian Revenue Service in 2007. Presently, Subhash is engaged in social and charitable work in rural areas. Subhash is also Editor of http://www.inourdays.org/, an online portal for preserving work related memories.

After finishing high school, in July 1965 I joined Rajasthan Arts College, Jaipur for my BA degree.

College days were expected to be exciting.

Freedom from school discipline is something to cherish.

No uniform.

No fixed timings.

No overbearing Principal lurking around the corners.

No homework.

Its joy personified.

But it's never roses all the way.

Within a month of starting College, a notice on the Board informed the Freshers that it was compulsory for them to collect the NCC application form.

Fill up the form. Get a token.

Go across to the NCC office.

Collect your uniform.

Turn up for Familiarisation on 1^st Sunday of September at the Parade Ground, College campus. 7.30 a.m.

No exceptions.

Selecting one's uniform turned out to be an exercise involving scratching your head vigorously, tears rolling down the countenance and frustration welling up.

The uniform room was a huge rectangular room.  Khaki uniforms were strewn around the room.

Pants, Shirts, Socks, Shoes, Belts.

Many freshers were frantically searching through the pile.

For that perfect fit.

Chittur Veer Vaidyanathan was born in Churu (Rajasthan) in 1948, and grew up in Jaipur. After a successful corporate career, during which his work with his company led to an Export Promotion Award from the Indian Ministry of Textiles, he is now a developer of real estate near Mumbai http://www.universalbuilder.co.in/.  He lives in Mumbai with his wife Hemlatha; his son and daughter, both married, live in the U.S. His hobbies are swimming and traveling.

Editor's note: This is adapted from http://vaidyanathancv.blogspot.com/.

Dicky Rutnagar,known as D.J. and Dicky, passed away  yesterday the 20th June (2013) in London. Dicky was an Indian sports Journalist for the Hindustan Times during 1960's. Later on, he covered cricket as a commentator cum sports journalist for the Daily Telegraph,U.K.

In 1961-62, Dicky covered the tour of the English cricket team, which was called the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) team, to India. MCC was led by Ted Dexter.

MCC played a 3-day match against Rajasthan in Jaipur on November 22-24, 1961. (Ed. note: The details of the match are available at http://static.espncricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1960S/1961-62/ENG_IN_IND/MCC_RAJ_22-24NOV1961.html)