July 2026 Posts

July 2026 is here! The monsoon has hit the country in most areas, global football fever is at its absolute peak, and we celebrate monumental milestones tracing back through our elite alumni families.

🌧️ Current Monsoon Prediction for India

According to the official predictive frames from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the monsoon footprint across India features varied intensities for July 2026. Standard active spells are moving consistently through central zones, northwest belts, and the northeast, bringing welcome relief alongside typical seasonal cloud magic across our home regions.

⚽ Football World Cup Fever

Football fever has completely gripped the global stage! The historic, expanded 48-team FIFA World Cup 2026 is in full throttle. This July, the competition charges directly into the highly anticipated knockout stages and action-packed Round of 32 matches, building incredible momentum ahead of the final world championship match on July 19th.

🎖️ Grand Alumni Milestones: The Seth Family Legacy

It is an extraordinary moment of pride for our broader Nilgiris community as General Dhiraj Seth has officially assumed his role as the Chief of the Indian Army Staff (COAS)! An illustrious alumnus of the neighboring Lawrence School, Lovedale, General Seth has scaled to the very apex of military leadership. He is the First Alumni of this institution to scale the highest position in the indian army.

This immense tradition of national service traces a proud lineage from his father, Lieutenant General (Retd.) Krishna Mohan Seth. Lt Gen K.M. Seth is a highly decorated veteran of the Indian Army who has close ties to our hills; as a Brigadier, he was prominently posted at the Defence Services Staff College (DSSC), Wellington. Retiring from the military in 1997 as the Adjutant General of the Indian Army, he went on to serve with great distinction in governance as the state Governor of Tripura, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh.

The family's deep, beloved roots within our own campus are fondly remembered: General Seth's mother, Mrs Veena Seth  served with incredible dedication for years as the chemistry teacher and the housemaster in charge of David House at Stanes High School, Coonoor.

This spectacular dedication to the defense of the nation extends beautifully to his younger brother, Rear Admiral Ravnish Seth. A proud alumnus of Stanes High School, Coonoor, Rear Admiral Ravnish Seth is actively steering critical maritime defense operations, presently holding his strategic command appointment as the Admiral Superintendent of the Naval Ship Repair Yard at the Karwar Naval Base.

Some names identified using alumni knowledge

*Group Picture 1956?*

Sitting on Floor 1. To 30

Front row seated( L to R):  1 Mr. Ramalingam(Hindi master), 2 Mrs Clay Warden, 3-Mrs. Hyacinth Bird, 4.  5-Mrs.Pell, 6. Miss.Noronha 7-Miss A. Cherian, 8. Mrs Smith ( Board member), 9. Mrs. Fox. 10. Mr. Fox ( Pastor Union Church), 11.  Mrs.N.Barnard ( Principal), 12 Mr McLaughlin ( Chairman of the School board)  13. Mrs McLaughlin 14. Miss Uma Paul, 15. Mrs Harriet Matthew's. 16. Name Awaited 17. Miss. Martelli 18-Miss Rozario, 19- Mr. Matthews, Accountant.

Girls Standing First Row 1. Name Awaited  2. Name Awaited      3.  Name Awaited       4. Name Awaited     5. Valsa Eapen 6. Hemalatha John 7. Banumathi Margabandhu 8. Gwen Saunders, 9. Maureen Archer,10. Louisa Hart ,11. Margaret Sundara, 12. Joyce Poole Archer 13. Name Awaited   14. Kumudini Christine, 15. Joan Saunders 16 Maureen McFarland, 17 Kamala Nair,18 Mabel Dudley,19. Agnes Yu, 20. Padma Natarajan, 21. Anne Cole craft, 22. Lillian Archer, 23. Deidre Fegin,24. Esther Dawson 25.  Gita Samuel, 26. Name Awaited   27. Tandy John

Girls Standing Second row:1.  2.  3.   4.   5.    6.    7.     8.      9.     10.    11.to  32. Shrimathi Seshadri. 33. Shanthi Ranganathan. 34. Grace Watts 35. Rohna McFarland 36. Meera Pillai 37. Hema Varadachari 38. Averil Boesinger

Boys Standing 3^rd  Row

Boys Standing 4^th Row1. 2.    3.    4.     5.  Shantilal Jaithmull 6.      7.        8. Ishwar Subramani 13. Patturangam

Boys Standing 5^th Row 1-17

Boys Standing 6^th Row  1.    2.      3      Malcolm Archer. 4.       5.       6.    7.    David Rao. 8-13

Another fantastic year is moving along, and we have some more alumni joining the ranks and our WhatsApp group!

PLEASE POST YOUR COMMENTS FOR July 2026 HERE.
Pictures are available for viewing at http://stanescoonoorphotoalbums.blogspot.com/ , Catch up with stories and memoirs on http://stanescoonoorstories.blogspot.com/ , that site is waiting for your attention too!! Bring out the poet in you at http://stanescoonoorpoems.blogspot.com/

FOR POSTING PICTURES AND STORIES PLEASE CLICK ONTO THE RESPECTIVE LINKS.

Pictures are available for viewing at http://stanescoonoorphotoalbums.blogspot.com/ ,

Catch up with stories and memoirs on http://stanescoonoorstories.blogspot.com/ ,

that site is waiting for your attention too!! Bring out the poet in you at http://stanescoonoorpoems.blogspot.com/
We, Stanes Coonoor Alumni have created a google group, 

stanescoonooralumini@googlegroups.com   

  those of you wishing to join this group may send a mail on stanescoonooralumini@googlegroups.com giving your name, year of entry into Stanes, year of leaving, class upto which studied and email id,we shall add you to the group. http://stanescoonoorblog.blogspot.in/p/blog-page.html
also the School's Official Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/StanesSchoolCoonoor?ref=br_tf

The web site of our school is available at http://www.stanesschoolcoonoor.com/

The updated web site of our school is available at http://www.stanesschoolcoonoor.com/

For those wanting to remit contributions to the school Alumni Fund, here are some details

 Send in contributions to the Alumni Corpus as under

By Cheque to:

 President/Treasurer, Stanes Alumni Association,
Stanes Anglo-Indian Higher Secondary School,COONOOR 643 101 Nilgiris, Tamilnadu
On line transfer:
Stanes Alumni Association, Coonoor A/c No.10490100005508
Name of Bank: Bank of Baroda, Coonoor Branch.
IFSC CODE : BARB0COONOO {(BARB0(Zero)COONOO (OH)}
SWIFT CODE: BARBINBBCOI (BANK OF BARODA, COONOOR) 

MICR Code: 643012002 

👉 Click Here to Connect and Join our Alumni WhatsApp Network 👈

June 2026 Blogs

The School From St Josephs Convent

View of School From YMCA Corner

View From the Assembly Hall

 discovered and golden treasures being unearthed. Here are some pictures.

1975 4th Std

Seated 1st row Left to right: Ravi Lakshmanan, Satyanarayanan, Stanny Siluvaimuthu, Charles, Sylvester, N. Kumar

Seated 2nd row: Asha Chellarani, Banita Mohan, Florencia, Vinita Priya, Mrs. Rajan (Principal), Mrs. Cornelius, Shoba Menon, Crystal Lobo, Aruna, Suhasini Repuri

3rd Row: Marjorie Greig, Preeta Srinivas, Amulyajit Kaur, Shaheen Patel, Vasanthi Munu, Mary 4th Row: G. A. Vikram, Ravishankar, xxx ,Issac ,Rajan David ,Ashok Joghee, Vetriselvan, xxx Manoj Srinivasan, Zeno Philip, Vicky, Sriram

5th Row: Vijayakumar, Carlton Benny, Mubeen Patel, Ramakrishnan, Rocky Swain, Ali Zakhi, Ramesh, Tashi Dondhup, Jerald, Johnson, Brian James, Jayaprakash

   

Std Vl of 1960

Back Row (Standing)  1. Ninan Zachariah, 2. Vijayakumar Kanniah (Joshua),3.  Ralph Swasbrook, 4. Justifus Paul, 5. Denzil Furnell, 6. Nanak Berumal, 7. Kalyanaraman, 8. George Rowland, 9. Ramprasad Ramachandran, 10. Jacob Kunenkeril,

Third Row (Standing) 1. Audrey John, 2. Maureen King, 3. Iris Walsh, 4. Gilda Ignatio, 5. Wilcy Wilson, 6. Delphine Carter

Second Row (Seated) 1. Geetha Vaidyanathan, 2. Saraswati Tinatti, 3. Katherine Stewart, 4. Jennifer Godfrey, 5. Mrs. N. Bernard (Principal), 6. Miss. Gwen Sanders (Class Teacher) , 7. Susheela Jaithmull, 8. Nargis Narayandas, 9. Indu Panicker , 10. Jeane Furnell.

Front Row ( Ground)  1. K. C. Venugopal Nair , 2. Richard Greene, 3. Archibald Hutton,  4. Eric Sopher, 5. Venkatesh Raju, 6. Gopal Vaidyanathan, 7 Jacob Mani.

Stanes Block under construction

L to R: Amy Sheeran, Mary Joseph, Jackie  Suganchand, Usha Suri, Mr. Wills

5th of 1959

Standing Last Row- 1 Ramkumar Ramachandran 2 Sherry Lukose 3 Trevor 4 Joseph Franklin  5 Eustace Johnson  7 Peter Swain 8 Surendran 9 Jitendra 10 Edwin Rajarathnam 11 D Venkatesh

Tall Boy- Arif Sait

Standing middle row 1 Dorothy  2  Rani  3  name awaited 4 Maureen 5  Annie  6  Jennifer  

Sitting1 Suguna Pathudian   2 Subadhra  Narayanan 3 Mercy Samuel George (Ragland)  4  Uma Panch 5. Mrs Bernard 6 Teacher name awaited 7 Colleen Archer 8 Preethi Sridharan 9 Geetha Margabandu 10 Reena Hutton 

Sitting Floor 1 Dorothy Martin 2 Sushima 3 Usha Suri  4 Phoebe Victor (Chakravarti) 5 name awaited 6 Phyllis Godfrey (Mrs Brian Wintle) 7 name awaited 8 name awaited

Sheiger,  Leon, Dayanand. Vijay Kumar. Denzil & Sundaram at fruit show

1960 Std 4

Standing Rear Row 1. name awaited 2 name awaited 3. name awaited 4. name awaited. 5. name awaited. 6. name awaited 7. name awaited 8. name awaited 9. name awaited 10. name awaited 11 Peter Greene

Standing Middle Row 1. name awaited 2. name awaited 3. name awaited 4. name awaited 5. name awaited 6. name awaited 7. name awaited 8. name awaited 9. name awaited

Sitting Chair  1. name awaited  2. name awaited  3. name awaited  4. name awaited 5. Principal Mrs.N. Bernard. 6. Teacher Miss Blanche Noronha 7. name awaited 8. name awaited 9. name awaited

Another month. None of our regulars surfaced for long and we plod along

June is here, the Monsoon arrived early creating havoc in Nilgiris and most hill areas in the south with red alerts being sounded in the last week of May. Kerala has started getting rains in abundance, Bangalore has been treated to some unprecedented showers and development woes...

✨ Major Updates – May & June 2026 ✨

🏆 Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) created history by winning the Tata IPL 2026 on 31 May 2026, lifting their first-ever IPL trophy and sending fans across the world into celebration.

🏛️ Political Updates

Tamil Nadu
Chief Minister: C. Joseph Vijay
Party: TVK (Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam)
Assumed office: Sunday, 10 May 2026 (Oath at Nehru Indoor Stadium, Chennai)

Kerala
Chief Minister: V. D. Satheesan
Party: Indian National Congress (UDF)
Assumed office: 17 May 2026

West Bengal
Chief Minister: Suvendu Adhikari
Party: BJP
Assumed office: Saturday, 9 May 2026 (Oath at Brigade Parade Ground, Kolkata)

Puducherry
Chief Minister: N Rangaswamy
Party: AINRC & BJP
Assumed office: Wednesday, 13 May 2026

We, Stanes Coonoor Alumni have created a google group, stanescoonooralumini@googlegroups.com ; those of you wishing to join this group may send a mail on stanescoonooralumini@googlegroups.com giving your name, year of entry into Stanes, year of leaving, class upto which studied and email id,we shall add you to the group. http://stanescoonoorblog.blogspot.in/p/blog-page.html

PLEASE POST YOUR COMMENTS FOR June 2026 HERE. Pictures are available for viewing at http://stanescoonoorphotoalbums.blogspot.com/ , Catch up with stories and memoirs on http://stanescoonoorstories.blogspot.com/ , that site is waiting for your attention too!! Bring out the poet in you at http://stanescoonoorpoems.blogspot.com/

A group mail id exists, Do subscribe and be a part of it
stanescoonooralumini@gmail.com;

Stanes as a group is available on facebook http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=2214025179; also the School's Official Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/StanesSchoolCoonoor?ref=br_tf

The updated web site of our school is available at http://www.stanesschoolcoonoor.com/

For those wanting to remit contributions to the school Alumni Fund, here are some details

 Send in contributions to the Alumni Corpus as under

By Cheque to:

 President/Treasurer, Stanes Alumni Association,
Stanes Anglo-Indian Higher Secondary School,COONOOR 643 101 Nilgiris, Tamilnadu
On line transfer:
Stanes Alumni Association, Coonoor A/c No.10490100005508
Name of Bank: Bank of Baroda, Coonoor Branch.
IFSC CODE : BARB0COONOO {(BARB0(Zero)COONOO (OH)}
SWIFT CODE: BARBINBBCOI (BANK OF BARODA, COONOOR) 

MICR Code: 643012002 

May 2026 Posts

The Climate this year till now is varying from very dry to dry and wet, the rain gods have been kind fairly good rains.  However, Water crisis looms and some areas in Namma Bengaluru have started depending on water tankers to quench the peoples thirst/ Where are our regular Bloggers are they listening. The Nilgiris gears up for the month long Summer festival 

With the festival the traffic restrictions also come in

one of our Oldest Alumni , Averil Haidar Ali Boesinger passed away in April

She completed school in 1960

STD 11 1960

Standing: 1. Margaret Sundara; 2. Louisa Hart

Sitting 1.Philomena 2. Hema Samuel; 3. Averil Boesinger ; 4. Mrs Barnard Principal 5. Janet Dowley 6. Sreemathi Seshadri 7. Bhanumathi Magrabandhu

Her article in TOI

*Group Picture 1956?*

Sitting on Floor 1. To 30

Front row seated( L to R):  1 Mr. Ramalingam(Hindi master), 2 Mrs Clay Warden, 3-Mrs. Hyacinth Bird, 4.  5-Mrs.Pell, 6. Miss.Noronha 7-Miss A. Cherian, 8. Mrs Smith ( Board member), 9. Mrs. Fox. 10. Mr. Fox ( Pastor Union Church), 11.  Mrs.N.Barnard ( Principal), 12 Mr McLaughlin ( Chairman of the School board)  13. Mrs McLaughlin 14. Miss Uma Paul, 15. Mrs Harriet Matthew's. 16. Name Awaited 17. Miss. Martelli 18-Miss Rozario, 19- Mr. Matthews, Accountant.

Girls Standing First Row 1. Name Awaited  2. Name Awaited      3.  Name Awaited       4. Name Awaited     5. Valsa Eapen 6. Hemalatha John 7. Banumathi Margabandhu 8. Gwen Saunders, 9. Maureen Archer,10. Louisa Hart ,11. Margaret Sundara, 12. Joyce Poole Archer 13. Name Awaited   14. Kumudini Christine, 15. Joan Saunders 16 Maureen McFarland, 17 Kamala Nair,18 Mabel Dudley,19. Agnes Yu, 20. Padma Natarajan, 21. Anne Cole craft, 22. Lillian Archer, 23. Deidre Fegin,24. Esther Dawson 25.  Gita Samuel, 26. Name Awaited   27. Tandy John

Girls Standing Second row:1.  2.  3.   4.   5.    6.    7.     8.      9.     10.    11.to  32. Shrimathi Seshadri. 33. Shanthi Ranganathan. 34. Grace Watts 35. Rohna McFarland 36. Meera Pillai 37. Hema Varadachari 38. Averil Boesinger

Boys Standing 3^rd  Row

Boys Standing 4^th Row1. 2.    3.    4.     5.  Shantilal Jaithmull 6.      7.        8. Ishwar Subramani 13. Patturangam

Boys Standing 5^th Row 1-17

Boys Standing 6^th Row  1.    2.      3      Malcolm Archer. 4.       5.       6.    7.    David Rao. 8-13

Group Photo of 1956 copy presented to school a couple of years back by Averil during her last visit to Coonoor. She fell ill shortly after this 

PLEASE POST YOUR COMMENTS FOR May 2026 HERE. Pictures are available for viewing at http://stanescoonoorphotoalbums.blogspot.com/ , Catch up with stories and memoirs on http://stanescoonoorstories.blogspot.com/ , that site is waiting for your attention too!! Bring out the poet in you at http://stanescoonoorpoems.blogspot.com/

We, Stanes Coonoor Alumni have created a google group, 

stanescoonooralumini@googlegroups.com   

  those of you wishing to join this group may send a mail on stanescoonooralumini@googlegroups.com giving your name, year of entry into Stanes, year of leaving, class upto which studied and email id,we shall add you to the group. http://stanescoonoorblog.blogspot.in/p/blog-page.html

also the School's Official Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/StanesSchoolCoonoor?ref=br_tf

The web site of our school is available at http://www.stanesschoolcoonoor.com/

For those wanting to remit contributions to the school Alumni Fund, here are some details

 Send in contributions to the Alumni Corpus as under

By Cheque to:

 President/Treasurer, Stanes Alumni Association,
Stanes Anglo-Indian Higher Secondary School,COONOOR 643 101 Nilgiris, Tamilnadu
On line transfer:
Stanes Alumni Association, Coonoor A/c No.10490100005508
Name of Bank: Bank of Baroda, Coonoor Branch.
IFSC CODE : BARB0COONOO {(BARB0(Zero)COONOO (OH)}
SWIFT CODE: BARBINBBCOI (BANK OF BARODA, COONOOR) 

MICR Code: 643012002 

April 2026 posts with the world at tenterhooks due to the turmoil in the Middle East, Iran etc and the build up for assembly Elections in some states in India

World View: April 2026

As we mark our 20th year since starting in Feb 2006, our thoughts are with our alumni in the Gulf and Iran. With the current conflict causing massive disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and reports of drone activity affecting cities like Kuwait and Dubai, we hope for the safety of our global family.

India Decides: The 5-State Battle

The political heat is rising at home as five regions head to the polls this month:

• Assam & Kerala: Voting kicks off on April 9th. In Kerala, CM Pinarayi Vijayan faces a fierce debate over his government's report card.
• Tamil Nadu: All eyes are on April 23rd. CM M.K. Stalin has filed from Kolathur, while TVK’s Vijay makes his debut in Perambur.
• West Bengal: A high-stakes two-phase battle on April 23rd and 29th.
• Puducherry: Also heads to the booths on April 9th.

Counting for all seats is scheduled for May 4, 2026.

Since Feb 2006, we have kept this flame alive. Today, in April 2026, we are still blogging! But where is everyone? Recently, only Peter and John have been visiting. We are looking for more regular visitors to join in this month. Will you join them?

Alumni, stay connected! Update your current contact details:

CLICK HERE TO UPDATE

Featured Photographs: The Classes of 1957 & 1960

This is from 1957

Class 3 1960

Top row from L  1. Ramesh Yesuthasen 2. Missing 3. Donald Meggi 4. Jerome Balraj 5. Narayanmurthy  6.Peter Godfrey 7.Kasim 8. Richard Skully  9. Gerald John  10,  Harichand 11.KK Rajan 12. Ranjan Chacko  13. Ravi Punch  14.Nandakumar Devaraj

Middle Row standing: 1.Krishnamurthy 2. Glenn Clarke 3. William  Swasbrook  4. Sheik5. Neville Dixon 6. Richard Scully 7. Missing 8.Jenifer Swain  9. Missing 10. Hemavathy 11. Susheedi Pathodian 12.Pamela/ Colleen Jude

Sitting : 1. Shanthi 2. Mercy Samuel 3.Girija Nagarajan 4. Usha 5. Vijayalakshmi 6. Mrs.Bernard  7.  Miss Kanaga 8. Giegie George  9.Sara Bapat  10. Missing  11 Fathima  12 .Ingrid Scully

Floor :1. Balasubramaniam j.b 2. Shanker 3.Eric Cornelius 4. Missing 5. Hillary Edwin 6. Missing 7. Ralph Forgard 8. Pussy 9. P.G.Mathew 10 Gopinath

Std. 6. of 1960

Last row L to R: 1. Ninan, 2. (Joshua) Vijaykumar (Kanniah,) 3. ?, 4. Justifus Paul ( with his face torn off), 5. Denzil Fernell, 6? 7. Kalyana Raman 8-9 ?, 10. Malcolm Archer.

3rd row Standing, 1. Audrey John 2-3.? 4. Crystal Godfrey. 5.? 6. Annie Thomas.

2nd row sitting: R to L: 1-4.? 5.Mrs. N. Bernard (principal). 6. Ms Gwen Saunders (teacher), 7. ? 8. Nargis Naraindas 9. Indu Panikkar 10. Jean

Sitting ground: L to R: 1. K.C. Venugopal Nair (deceased), 2. Richard Greene (deceased), 3. Archibald Hutton, 4. Eric Sopher, 5. Venkatesh Raju, 6. Gopal. 

Class 8 of 1960?

3rd Row:1. Malcom,2. (Name) 3. Wren 4. Manmeet Chadda 5. Raghubir Singh 6.  Stephen 7.  Thomas  Manohar (from wellington, died while swimming in a river) 8. (Name)

2nd row: 1 Norma Martin,2. Gomathy Margabandu,3. (Name) 4 Doris,5. (Name) 6. (Name) 7. (Name) 8. Beryl,9. Anjela, 10. Nirmala Panikkar.

1st sitting:1. Hilda, 2. Indra Ramachandran, 3. Santa Rani Santhanam,4.  Mrs Bernard (Principal),5. Mrs Rozario Class teacher, 6. Hema Nair,7.  Crystal Godfrey, 8. Anne Thomas.

Squatting: 1. Jim Mani, 2. Shanthilal Jaithmul, 3. Ishwar Subramaniam,4. Wilfred, 5. Pattuingam

PLEASE POST YOUR COMMENTS FOR APRIL 2026 HERE.

FOR POSTING PICTURES AND STORIES PLEASE CLICK ONTO THE RESPECTIVE LINKS.

Pictures are available for viewing at http://stanescoonoorphotoalbums.blogspot.com/ ,

Catch up with stories and memoirs on http://stanescoonoorstories.blogspot.com/ ,

that site is waiting for your attention too!! Bring out the poet in you at http://stanescoonoorpoems.blogspot.com/
We, Stanes Coonoor Alumni have created a google group, 

stanescoonooralumini@googlegroups.com   

  those of you wishing to join this group may send a mail on stanescoonooralumini@googlegroups.com giving your name, year of entry into Stanes, year of leaving, class upto which studied and email id,we shall add you to the group. http://stanescoonoorblog.blogspot.in/p/blog-page.html
also the School's Official Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/StanesSchoolCoonoor?ref=br_tf

The web site of our school is available at http://www.stanesschoolcoonoor.com/

For those wanting to remit contributions to the school Alumni Fund, here are some details

 Send in contributions to the Alumni Corpus as under

By Cheque to:

 President/Treasurer, Stanes Alumni Association,
Stanes Anglo-Indian Higher Secondary School,COONOOR 643 101 Nilgiris, Tamilnadu
On line transfer:
Stanes Alumni Association, Coonoor A/c No.10490100005508
Name of Bank: Bank of Baroda, Coonoor Branch.
IFSC CODE : BARB0COONOO {(BARB0(Zero)COONOO (OH)}
SWIFT CODE: BARBINBBCOI (BANK OF BARODA, COONOOR) 

MICR Code: 643012002