HPY: “We have created history”

HPY (Holiday Programme for Youth) was initiated into adulthood on May 2, 2004 in the high-ceilinged hall of the Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Parsee Charitable Institution (BJPCI), the bright blossoms of the gulmohor and laburnum outside the window signifying summer, the clackety-clack of suburban trains rattling past an occasional distraction.

The inauguration began with a two-minute silence to honor one of HPY’s creators and consolidators, former Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) chief execu­tive Rustom Ankle­saria who died in December last year. "HPY is an organization of repute,” said chief coordinator Diana Marfatia. "In volume, magnitude, scope and quality we have not heard of any parallel in our com­munity. We have created history (with a continuity of 18 years).”

In a keynote address at the inaugural, preeminent surgeon and pioneer of laparascopy in India, Dr Tehemton Udwadia, narrat­ed episodes from his life. Known for his brilliance, Udwadia also spoke about his penchant for getting into trouble with his supe­riors, right from his early days! "Boys and girls, whatever advice I was to give you, speakers before me already have. So wake up, we can now have a nice, mundane conversation,” Udwadia told the sea of young heads before him, for whom speech time is sometimes snooze time with eyes wide open!

Marfatia: HPY’s pivot

"I was told to show you the path to success,” he continued. "But I’m totally incapable of doing so. I was expelled from school (St Mary’s) in my final year and did my board exams as an ex-student.” An outstanding athlete and cricketer, Udwadia’s team had reached the final stages of inter-school cricket and several boys had bunked classes to cheer the team on its passage to the finals. The principal’s dictat stated that the team was to be withdrawn as a punishment. The agitated boys requested Udwadia to represent cricket’s case, a task he did so well that the principal told him never to step into the school again. "But he had to invite me back after the exams to hand me the cheque for having stood first!” Udwadia quipped.

Convinced from childhood that he wanted to be a pilot or a surgeon, Udwadia’s achievements spanned studies and sports. "I represented my college (Wilson) in boxing and cricket, I was doing well in the National Cadet Corps, so I thought I’d walk into the Air Force,” he recounted. But good grades in theory and practicals saw him make it easily to medical college. "My wayward ways did not change much even in medical college,” he observed. When professor of physiology Kaikhusroo Batliwalla was once writing on the board and an arrow struck the back of his head, he said without turning: "Udwadia, leave my classroom.” When he turned around, he saw Udwadia was not even there, he had bunked! "Such was the reputation with which I went through college,” Udwadia observed.

At the Master of Surgery viva, "I stupidly entered into an argument with the examiner, a professor of eminence, over 6 ft tall, with a voice that shattered glass. He put an end to the exam by writing a big F (failed) and holding it up for all to see. Here I was, the blue-eyed boy of my professors, expected to win the gold medal and he fails me!” said Udwadia, adding that probably that was the best thing that happened to him. It made him determined to pass. "I did my FRCS (Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons) in six months for two reasons — I was determined and I was broke. I could not afford to fail.”

The early years of his surgical training meant living on the hospital’s salary of around Rs 220, of which the hospital took half for messing, etc. Proceeding to England with his young wife Khorshed, who came from a family which owned racehorses, Udwa­dia narrated how they were "broke, living in shabby accommodation and she would carry coal up two flights of stairs to heat the apartment.”

Describing his kind and gentle father Erach’s "mission­ary approach to medicine,” Udwadia spoke of how his father treat­ed poor patients free, healing them with his gentle talk and touch, as much as with medication. "If you want to enter the temple of medicine, do not do so with the soul of a money­changer,” he advised. "I am not a very religious person. My morning prayer may take just five minutes, but I never talk while scrubbing (hands) before an operation. Those two minutes are for myself and my patient.”

Surgeons have to take full responsibility and you have to respect the dignity of your surgical assistants, he declared, describing one of his earliest operations when he was assisting the famed Dr A. V. Baliga, "the ultimate surgeon of the 1950s and 60s.” The instrument slipped as the young Udwadia was incising and the patient started bleeding. Without showing anger or dis­quiet, Baliga packed the bleeding area and carried on. "When we were scrubbing after the operation, he quietly said: ‘Udwadia, we mustn’t make a habit out of this.’ If you have a failure, the fault is yours, if you have a success it is due to the Almighty.”

Be your own worst critic, he prescribed. "People hate to assist me during operations. I keep muttering as I work: ‘good stitch, so-so stitch, s...,b... stitch!’ You are not here to worship what you know, but to question it. So take pride in yourself — be the best pine on the hill or the best shrub in the darn valley!”

Presiding over the inaugural, BPP trustee and well-known solicitor Dadi Engineer stated that the bar is constantly being set higher in the game of life. "Today’s cutthroat competition will grow even keener in the years to come,” he cautioned.

Eruch Desai, former BPP chairman and also a well-known solicitor, recalled the time HPY was initiated during his tenure as trustee, with Marfatia and Sheroo Master, BPP’s senior executive, being associated with HPY right from inception. "I have yet to find a single institution such as the BPP which cares for its community and caters to its needs from cradle to grave and now (with the opening of the fertility clinic) even pre-cradle!” Desai averred. Decrying the community’s constant criticism of the trustees, Desai stated: "The BPP trustees are not paragons of perfection, but you cannot constantly pull their ears as though they were schoolchildren!” Added Engineer: "A lot of compliments must be paid to (BPP chairman) Minoo Shroff. I know how he has been working, solving problems after problems. I have never seen anyone work so devotedly. We stand behind him as a team.”

Presiding over the valedictory function on May 30, Shroff counseled the students: "Be amiable. The best cricketers do not necessarily make the best captains. You must be acceptable, more humble, more courageous; in short a good team player... Life is like playing a solo violin; as you go along you get better and better.”

Speaking with passion, straight from the heart, chief guest Vispy Kapadia encouraged the students to believe in them­selves. A seventh dan karate black belt, Kapadia recalled how everyone said "this guy’s gone crazy” when he wanted to take up karate as a career 30 years ago. "I took it up as a challenge. My father Bahadur was a man of modest means, a salaried man who could not afford to send me to Japan for training. Jimmy Guzder (chairman of Air Freight who were Bahadur’s employers) gave me Rs 5,000; my mother sold her diamond necklace and off I went.” Two-and-a-half decades down the line, Kapadia’s karate classes train thousands of students, including policemen, in many centers. Keep physically fit, learn to defend yourself in this world of growing unrest and violence, Kapadia stated. "You have to be mentally strong too and morally upright. Today there is total bankruptcy of values in public life... there is a price of everything, value of nothing. You see even police commissioners behind bars. Stand up to say no to any kind of temptations.”

Bemoaning the "very sad, crab mentality” of many members of the Parsi community (with individuals constantly trying to pull each other down), Kapadia proffered the example of the Bohri community and how they support and stand by each other. "Develop the attitude of gratitude. You have to give back more... People live in the Parsi baugs at such low rents, yet when the trustees seek to increase the rent by Rs 100, people who pay fees for children studying in America crib, saying they can’t afford it!” Kapadia voiced his indignation. The BPP is doing so much, he stated, all they get in return is constant criticism. "We should be quality people in a quantitative world. If the fabric of our community is strong, we can weave a beautiful tapestry in the years to come,” he noted.

"The energy and enthusiasm I have seen here (at HPY) is a source of comfort for our future,” asserted Firdose Vandre­vala, managing director of The Tata Power Company Limited. "If the program organizers want to include trekking as part of outdoor sports, Tata Power will extend every facility,” he said.

"Brand yourself. Be unique. It’s not what you do but how well you do it,” said the management man who defined character, persistence, attitude and skills as ingredients for success. Vandrevala cited the living example of Tata group chairman Ratan Tata and his single-minded persistence towards the promotion of his pet project — a made-in-India small car. "Doubting Thomases had written off the project (Indica) even before it started. But with patience and resilience, Tata has pulled the project through. He made it happen.” Vision without action is a dream, action without vision is a waste of time, but vision and action can change the world, he asserted.

Vandre­vala advocated the idea of HPY going global. "Yes, we have toyed already with the idea,” was Marfatia’s response. If youngsters from abroad cannot attend the program here in the month of May, a team of HPY organizers could go to another country and conduct it there, she said, adding that finance would be a problem, and HPY would look to the BPP, who have sponsored the pro­gram so far, for succor.

Top from left, 1st row: Zenhar Marolia and Vispy Kapadia; Tushna Marolia and Vandrevala; Mubarakai, Peshotan Kapadia and Rayomand Mistry; 2nd row: Tehemton Udwadia; Desai; Farah Mulla; Karishma Pithawalla and Gazder ; 3rd row: Marker; Ghandhi; Jambusarwala and Aibara; Below: The organizing team ; Bottom left clockwise top left: Minoo Shroff; Engineer; Shahrukh Shroff; Pearl Mistry and Behram Dastur

Felicitating the members of the organizing committee who had put in two or more consecutive years with HPY, Marfatia made special mention of Fabian Panthaki, literary-events-in-charge, whose commitment to HPY has spanned eight years in succession: "A lot of changes are due to him; the literary section would col­lapse without him... He is truly indispensable.” Marfatia also especially commended Jehangir Bhadha, in charge of social service and overall discipline, Shirzad Khory, performing-arts-in-charge and Hoshaang Gotla, sports-in-charge for their dedication and skills. Pearl Mistry, taking over from Priya Bhujwalla (now married) as master of ceremonies is "my very strong hand,” added Marfatia. "For next year’s HPY, work will start by July this year, with a meeting at my house every week. We do a detailed evaluation at the end of each year’s program. We learn, we are open to accepting our mistakes. That’s how HPY comes together,” said the chief coordinator.

"Diana carries HPY in her heart and mind. For her ‘striving for excellence’ (HPY’s motto) is an absolute fact,” said group-in-charge Raika Gazder in an effervescent vote of thanks.

"Very frankly I came to the program very reluctantly but now I am truly even more reluctant to leave... I am 100 percent sure that I will quite like to return next year to HPY as an organizer to give to someone else what HPY 2004 gave me,” participant Shireen Sheriar said to Parsiana. Concurred Rishad Modi of Baroda: "Given a chance to come back, I would.” "It was really worth coming to Bombay for HPY,” added Nagpur’s Edul Patel.

"A community which does not invest in education is doomed to mediocrity and failure,” stated Hutoxi Aibara, principal of Girton High School. "But learning has no end... And to win it does not mean that somebody has to lose. I hope every one of you is a winner.”

The importance of being earnest