Comments on: Bon appétit – from Al [Ashok] K. Stokes

By: Jai Joshi, MD

Jai Joshi, MD — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:49:27 +0000

In reply to Dr. Santokh Singh. In response to Dr, Santok Singh: I am in Houston, TX, and Deepak and Kusum Stokes are in CA. Congratulations on being professor of surgery.

By: Arun Basak (636) Lefroy

Arun Basak (636) Lefroy — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 21:10:20 +0000

Dear Stokes,
“… If my memory is correct, the person in the second row behind the 7th person from the left in the front row (the person with eye glasses) is Bentick ( I don’t know if I am spelling the name correctly; I don’t know if that is his first or last name). ”

Your memory does NOT serve you well, for the chap with glasses is me! I wonder whether you remember the raw onions that we kept in our school desks … Do you still draw and paint? You were first in many subjects- especially Art!!!

Great to know that you are still around!

By: Dr. Santokh Singh

Dr. Santokh Singh — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:35:24 +0000

I used to wonder where Stokes has disappeared to! You were a couple of years junior (I belong to the 1957 S.C batch & was in Lefroy). Not only do I recollect your underground ventures (the upper II was made out of bounds for a few days for “repairs”I guess! We were all awed at your extra-ordinary intelligence & believed you to be genius. Your expulsion was not taken well by most of us. We felt that your talent should have been “put to more use!” Of course, we didn’t know how!
Besides talking about this episode to a few OCs that I might have met, I used to “brag” about in it my family, to my son (Who also is an OC) & now I tell my 6 year old grand-son about what brilliant boys can do.
Good to learn that you are alive & kicking, Ashok! Keep it up.
Joshi (Dr.), I didn’t know that you or Deepak are from CMC, Ludhiana Great. I was there from 1960 to 1964, when (after IInd Professional) I migrated to Amritsar Medical College, from where I graduated & later retired as Professor of Surgery.
Where are you guys these days— I mean Dr. Joshi & the Stokes brothers?
All the best, & I really feel elated to have “shot-back” into childhood!!!
SS

By: Deepak Thakur

Deepak Thakur — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:10:04 +0000

Dear Ashok Stokes,
Thanks for sharing your version of the underground labyrinth/ study below the Upper II Classs room. We were handed down the legend not only in school but in Kotgarh, too. Now I can proudly claim to have heard the primary oral testimony instead of relying on heresay.
Warmest regards,
Deepak Thakur
Rivaz 1964-1973

By: Editor

Editor — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 07:12:22 +0000

In reply to David M. Wood-Robinson.

Dear David
All such remembrances and memoirs of life at BCS make interesting reading for OCs. We would welcome yours as well. Send it in an email to webmaster@oldcottonians.org or editor@oldcottonians.org and we’ll put it online.
Cheers!

By: David M. Wood-Robinson

David M. Wood-Robinson — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 07:04:46 +0000

It was good to learn about someone’s experiences at BCS in the ’50s. I wonder if it would be interesting for me to write a short memoir of my time during the war when all the extra boys arrived from the UK? I would be happy to have a go at it but probably you already have quite enough on the subject!
David M. Wood-Robinson, 1940-44

By: Prithvi Raj Prem

Prithvi Raj Prem — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 15:09:52 +0000

Dear Mr. Stokes

The legend Of the underground labyrinth was alive & discussed till I finished school in 1971 !!!

By: Jai Joshi, MD (Rivaz 1954-1963) in Houston, TX

Jai Joshi, MD (Rivaz 1954-1963) in Houston, TX — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 14:37:20 +0000

Dear Mr. Stokes,

The story of the labyrinth you built under the floor of the Upper II class room become a legend that in my time was passed down by the elders, in my case by my brother, and I likewise passed it on to your brother (Deepak Stokes) and his classmates at Christian Medical College, Ludhiana. In the story coming down from the past; especially : one popularly regarded as historical although not verifiable , there were not only lights but a stairway, perhaps carpeted, and the schools movie projector that allowed your underground screening of such hits as “Giant” long before Mr. Advani ever got to show it to the school. In the story I now tell, Kusum was the lovely young woman who was so impressed by you, that she fell in love with and married her classmate and your brother Deepak!

From the young man in the 22nd row who sees you as something more than a BCS legend, thank you for sharing your story. I would have liked to have known you, but I was just a kid *

Jai Joshi, MD

* Adapted from Elton Johns “Candle in The Wind/ Goodbye Norma Jean”

By: Gurdeep Singh

Gurdeep Singh — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 10:53:49 +0000

Hi Stokes,
Funny you should mention Upper II. Some months back on a visit to Pune, where he is now settled, I met up with K.S. (Bunty) Dugal and the conversation came around to our school days. Although I was a year senior to you guys, Bunty and I along with Sonny Rarewala and KS Sidhu (my class) had founded the Aeromodelling Club and therefore shared a common passion. So we spoke of our Aeromodelling, and various geniuses we knew then (Bunty and Sonny were certainly very bright, in a more than theoretical sense!) and we talked of how you and Bunty had built such a labrynth under the floor of the Class-room, complete with lights etc. that when it was discovered, the staff and school electrician were scared to enter to dismantle it. I still feel that you were unfairly expelled for this, and Bunty and I repeated this. Obviously you have continued putting your genius to good use, with a useful helping of luck that allowed you to complete your formal education. I was delighted to discern the same genius spark in yoir thoughts which are not a day too late! Gurdeep Singh (Horsey) Lefroy: 1953-1960