Cambay platinum

The multilingual souvenir brought out by The Cambay Institute of Commerce on the occasion of its platinum jubilee is replete with messages of goodwill from eminent personalities, well-wishers, staff and students, both current and of yesteryear, penned in English, Gujarati and Hindi. The celebrations, which commenced with a rally on October 2, 2007, concluded with a picnic in December of that year with a number of events, including a mehendi competition, inter-college sports event, inter-school and inter-college essay and elocution competitions, a blood donation camp and the staging of a play, Ghar ghungroo ané ghotalo, as a fund raiser. The play was produced, acted and directed by the Karanjia family which runs the Institute in Surat.

Clockwise from top: Yezdi Karanjia (seated, center) with family and staff of Cambay Institute at platinum jubilee; at the rally; a play to raise funds; S. R. Katpitia, former principal

Established 76 years ago by Naoshirwan Bapuji Karanjia, the Institute is now managed by his sons Yezdi, Rohin and Mahernosh, ably supported by their spouses and children. When Naoshirwan enrolled his first student in 1931, he himself was just 19 years of age. But his ability to teach shorthand and typing earned him goodwill and brought in more students and soon he was teaching book-keeping as well. Within a short time the number of students rose to over 60. In 1942 a fire destroyed the Institute, rendering all the typewriters unserviceable. With true grit on the part of its founder, the Institute rose from its ashes and in 1943 the education department awarded it official recognition and began sending up students for various commercial examinations conducted by the Department of Public Instruction, Bombay State, Poona. Excellent results at these examinations caused the number of enrolments at the Institute to swell. When the founder passed away in 1966, his son Yezdi was inducted as principal, a post which he holds to this day. This information is provided in an article by Yezdi in the souvenir.

He has also written to inform Parsiana that the Yazdi Karanjia Group will be celebrating its golden jubilee in 2009 on a grand scale by performing charity shows.