The suspended IPL chief sees opportunity in adversity, says his mate from Bishop Cotton School, Shimla
The suspended IPL chief sees opportunity in adversity, says his mate from Bishop Cotton School, Shimla
Lalit Modi is back in the ring.u00a0 In fact, he never left it in the first place.
Janartha, Deputy Mayor of Shimla Municipal Corporation and a leading Himachal Pradesh politician, told MiD DAY that though no incident is fresh in his memory, he remembers that Modi was never afraid of picking up fights even with seniors. "He would never leave a friend in the lurch. He remained my roommate for all the years that he spent at Bishop Cotton."
Modi joined Bishop Cotton School, Asia's first boarding school, in 1971. He studied there till class VI after which his parents withdrew him from the school.
"There were threats that he could be kidnapped, as he belonged to a leading business family," Janartha said. When asked about his interactions with Modi as his roommate, the Deputy Mayor said, "We all used to feel homesick and thus talked very little."
Janartha and Modi started with the "Lilit Gow" dome in the Bishop Cotton boarding in Class I and stayed together in "Remove A" and later shifted to "Remove B" at the school hostel.
However, his links to one of the richest families in India always proved a boon to his friends, Janartha recalled. "He would get the best 'tucks' (term used to define gifts from family and friends to boarders) in the school," the Deputy Mayor said sitting in a huge chair in his office in the heritage building on the Mall Road that houses the office of Shimla Municipal Corporation.
"Though even seniors tried to take away the lion's share of the booty, Modi ensured that he would keep the best for his friends," Janartha said.
He also shared how Modi, even then, maintained a lifestyle that was the envy of his ilk. "We heard that he used to go shopping on a chopper. He would have nothing but the best for himself."
Modi was a brilliant sportsperson and used to play a number of sports, including cricket. "He had a full cricket gear, a rarity in those days for students of his age," said Janartha.
"Whenever he used to return from vacations he was flanked by five or six security guards," said another close friend who wished not to be identified.
His exit from the school was a hush-hush affair, as the school's prestige was at stake. "His parents had received some kidnap threat. I remember one day police had also come to school and enquired about his room and security in the school. Though Modi remained silent over the issue, we came to know later that he had been withdrawn from the school over threat to his life," said another schoolmate of Modi, requesting anonymity. Yet another recalled how Modi was given the nickname of "Kaalu" for his dark complexion. "But, he never felt offended. He was a real sport."
| Dosti unlimited |
| Even with Modi being in the thick of controversies, his schoolmates in Shimla are with him in the hour of crisis. "We are proud that he was part of the BCS where we studied. He created a great brand (IPL). As far as the controversy is concerned, the law should be allowed to take its own course and people should not sit in judgement over him" said Ravindra Makhaik, a local journalist who was senior to Modi at the Bishop Cotton School. |
For the school teachers, the matter is "too old" to be recounted. Nobody from the present batch of teachers could recall anything about Modi's days at school.
In fact, very few of them even knew that he was an alumnus of the school. "We heard it from himu00a0 when he talked about it during the IPL match in Dharamshala," a senior Bishop Cotton School teacher told MiD DAY.
School Headmaster Christopher Roy Robinson confirmed that Lalit Modi remained a student of the school for some time. However, he refused to comment on the ongoing controversy over the IPL. "I would not like to comment anything about his being IPL administrator or the controversy related to it."
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