Page 21 - Demo

THE REVIEW
JANUARY’19-JUNE’19 21
Church of South India and included Rev. Noel Jackson from Madurai and Rev. Brent Howitt Otto SJ from California.
After the church service,
people made their way across
the school grounds towards
a colourful covered tent,
the venue for the Meet and
Greet. The MC who did a
fabulous job was the very
versatile Felix Daly. The
welcome address was made
by Dr. Geoffrey K. Francis,
President of the Anglo-
Indian Association (and
Schools) of Southern India.
Several other dignitaries
also spoke. The chief guest,
the Governor of Tamil Nadu
Thiru Banwarilal Purohit,
truly wowed the audience,
as he spoke in glowing terms of his own upbringing in an Anglo-Indian school and reminded everybody of the outstanding contributions made by Anglo-Indians
over the years – a superb history lesson, thoroughly appreciated by all.
A delicious lunch was served after the speeches and this was followed by dancing to a live band. The event was scheduled to continue through to 6:30 p.m., however the NRIs (showing their age) started to get antsy by 3:30 p.m. and this pretty much wrapped up a long but memorable day and a fabulous start to the Reunion.
Day 2 - Tuesday – 8th January 2019 ANGLO-INDIAN BOOKS & AUTHORS / PHOTO EXHIBITION
Another bright and early start to the day and by 9 a.m., along with a much smaller group of attendees, we were on our way to the beautifully maintained Loyola College campus. The workshop was a bit slow getting started; however, once underway, the talented moderator Petula Thomas kept things moving. Petula
is the daughter of Mr. Noel Thomas, author of the popular nostalgic book about Anglo-Indians on the Indian Railways entitled Footprints on the Track. Noel’s career on the Railways remarkably mirrored my dad’s (Jossy Lovery). Both worked their way up the ranks and with sheer drive, determination and hard work, were promoted to senior gazetted officer positions. Through the morning, several authors shared their personal
stories including excerpts from their books, most of which are published by Harry MacLure’s ‘Anglo- Ink’ publishing arm. I was committed to another AI
an excellent entertainment extravaganza!
Day 3 - Wednesday – 9th January 2019
CITY BUS TOUR / HOUSIE AFTERNOON
We met in the hotel lobby at 9 a.m. for our bus tour. After people from surrounding hotels congregated, we departed after 10 a.m. We followed a scenic route along the coast, which was very beautiful and after an hour’s drive, arrived at the Fort Museum. We were then re-directed to the St. Mary’s Anglican Church which is on the same campus. We did our own walk about around this historic and beautiful
Church, which was built in 1680. Back on
the bus, we headed straight to the famous Marina Beach, the second longest beach
in the world. From there and after another hour’s drive, we arrived at the scenic St. Thomas Mount Church, which as the name suggests, is on a hill and offers a beautiful panoramic view of Chennai. We spent an hour at this site visiting the church, the adjacent chapel and enjoying the views. We then set out for St. George’s School which was a good 11⁄2 hour drive away – probably fair to say most people were pretty tired at that point. When we got to St George’s, a boxed lunch and drink was provided to the weary crowd. Some people participated in the afternoon Housie/Bingo session, but most of us caught the buses back to the hotel and reached by 5 p.m.!
Day 4 - Thursday – 10th January 2019 SYMPOSIUM
Consistent with other “meeting of the minds” events, we had a relatively smaller group of about 100, that made it to Stella
Maris College for the Symposium. Once again Richard O’Connor did a stellar job of moderating the session.
There was an excellent group of speakers that included
Mr. Gopalkrishna Gandhi (grandson of the Mahatma), Mr. Gordon Maher (President, International Federation of Anglo-Indian Associations), Mr. Barry O’Brien (President-in-
Chief, The All-India Anglo- Indian Association) and
Mr. Allan Sealy (renowned author) — all discussing current thought-provoking community issues. For lunch we had a typical Sunday afternoon AI meal of yellow
Federation meeting at St. George’s School, so was unable to attend the afternoon Photo Exhibition, which I understand was also very engaging. We were served the customary delicious lunch and made our way back to the hotel by early evening.
VARIETY CONCERT
A quick change and we were back on the
bus by 5:30 p.m. and headed to the Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Concert Hall for the Variety Concert. I was thoroughly impressed with the state-of-the-art auditorium which was almost full. Our MCs for the evening were the suave Richard O’Connor and
the delightful Leeza Harris; both did an excellent job all night. The talent included phenomenal performances by local Anglo- Indian artistes and several Australians as well, including the very popular Vanny Bourne from Melbourne. Special recognition goes to the very professional and talented band lead by Bruce Lee, that accompanied all the performers. At the intermission we were served a scrumptious dinner and the show had a hard stop at 10 p.m.. To sum it up,