20091211: Cyril to Maxie - data and memorablia

Dear Maxie
Thanks a lot for your kind letter. I am very glad to know that you are still in touch with Andrew and Susheela. As a matter of fact both of them speak highly of you. I still recall the time when you suddenly landed up in Tokyo. On that occasion I was so surprised that I was in a sort of a daze for a few minutes. Sometime when you are in Delhi it would be nice if you could meet my cousin, RADHIKA DORAISWAMY. She is a top-ranking official in the Indian postal department, and I am sure you would enjoy talking to her. In accordance with your request I have sent you a brief write-up of my past fifty years, and about 15 photographs. Please don't feel obliged to use every photograph that I have sent you. Use only what you need and throw away the rest. I have sent the photographs is a single folder, and I have included in the folder that write-up about myself. However, just in case you have a problem opening that write-up, I have also pasted it below for you.

Take care, and God bless.
Cyril
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Friday, December 11, 2009
Dear Maxie

As per your instructions I typed out a few lines about my life, from the time I left school until today.

As you know, after leaving school I joined the Karnataka Regional College of Engineering (KREC), but within a year I realized that it was a bad choice. Yet I struggled on there for seven years, before finally quitting and joining the Jesuits. In the past I felt bitter about those lost years, thinking that God had been unjust to me through no fault of mine. Now however I see it as a part of some mysterious plan, because after joining the Jesuits life has by and large been smooth-sailing for me.

I joined the Jesuits in 1968, and after 2 years of training in Jesuit spirituality in Bangalore, I studied Indian and Western philosophy for 3 years in Pune.

Then, after teaching a year at St. Joseph's in Bangalore I went to Japan, and there, after two years of Japanese language study in the city of Kamakura, I taught English at Sophia University in Tokyo. While teaching at Sophia, I simultaneously studied Indian Philosophy at Tokyo University, as a Research Student.

In 1979 I returned in Pune, and in 8 years I finished my theological studies, and also my doctoral studies in Indian Philosophy.

In 1982 I was ordained a priest, and in 1987 I returned to Tokyo to work at Sophia University. Since that time I have lived in Tokyo, and currently I am professor of Indian Studies in the Department of Asian Cultures of Sophia University.

Well Maxie, life these past 50 years has not been perfect for me, but in all honesty I must say that things have gone on relatively well. I pray that God gives each of us the strength to accept what has occurred in the past, and what is likely to come in the future. By the way, if ever any of our guys happen to come to Tokyo, tell them to contact me. Please remember however that Sophia University is always referred to by its Japanese name of JOOCHI DAIGAKU. If you ask for Sophia University no one will know the place, but if you say JOOCHI DAIGAKU every Japanese will know it.

I shall now give a brief explanation of the snaps I have sent you.

(1) My priestly ordination. I am the guy with the big Afro hairdo standing at the extreme right, at the altar.

(2) This too is my ordination. I am receiving a chalice from Bishop Arulappa of Bangalore.

(3) This was taken at De Nobili College in Pune in 1970. The person seated in the middle is Walter Andrade, and the person seated next to Walter and wearing spectacles is Aveline D'souza. Aveline was also of our batch, but he belonged to one of the Kannada divisions. His name was on the role of honor at School. The person standing at the extreme left is myself.

(4) This is at a wedding anniversary party of some Manglorean friends in Tokyo in 1976. I am seated at the extreme right. The couple that celebrated the anniversary were Julian and Cecy Fernandes, of Santa Cruz West in Bombay. Julian is now dead, and Cecy is in the USA.

(5) This is a picture of my wild student days in Tokyo in 1976.

(6) This is a photograph taken in the house of a Japanese family, who are friends of mine.

(7) This is myself with some University professors, taken in 2001.

(8) The little daughter of a friend is trying to teach me some Japanese.

(9) I am with some researchers at Angkor Wat in Cambodia in 2003. I am the person standing second from the right.

(10) This snap was taken at the reception party of a wedding that I had blessed. The bride was a student of mine. The snap was taken in 2006.

(11) This is myself with my graduate students (MA and PhD), in 2006.

(12) This snap was taken in 2007. I am talking to a newly wedded couple. The bride was my student.

(13) This snap was taken in 2004. I am with a little Japanese friend.

(14) This is myself with my five brothers. The person second from the right is Basil, and third from the right is myself. The names from the left are: Andrew, George, Dominic, Cyril, Basil, and John.

(15) This is a wedding snap of one of our classmates who left the school after the third form, namely DR. ALEXANDER MATHAI. His wife was called Esmie. Alexander died in that terrible Air India disaster of 1885, where a plane from Canada, the Emperor Kanishka, was blown up by terrorists.

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On 2009/12/09, at 11:01, Maxwell Pereira wrote:
Thanks Cyril,
But do send me also a short self-profile on you - covering the last
fifty years, not everything one would for one's CV, but in gist, yes.
I would like to put it on the Blog I intend to start for everyone to
interact with each other, where it would be nice to hace a seperate
frame each each of our fifty numbers with information, oersonal
memorablia, anecdoles, and most importantly photographs ols & new.
Met Andrew and Sushila a couple of months back when I was in Pondicherry.
Hope life's treating you well..
With warm regards,
Maxie
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2009/12/9 Cyril Veliath <c-veliat@sophia.ac.jp>:
Dear Maxie
As per your request I have included some information about myself and sent
it over to you.
Thanks for the good work.
Cyril Veliath