It was St. Pat's Day, March 17, 1969, late afternoon and time for Jungle War. The 4 school teams were split into two bigger teams. One group went off into School Valley and hid. About 30 minutes later the second group came down and the war began — notching a kill by calling and collecting the numbered card everyone wore tied around their heads.

That year, Class VIII, I was in the first group that went down to School Valley. Somehow I was by myself and starting to panic thinking about the second group coming down soon. So I decided to climb a tree to hide out and ambush the opposing team. As I made my way up the tree I heard some noise higher up and crapped my pants thinking it was a bear, monkey or other such critter. It turned out to be Frank John Dias ... and that's how we became pals.

Later that year he got malaria and Dineen was on his case to get cured quickly to sit for the ISC exam ... and it was only July!!

FJ finished from SMS and got into IIT Madras. That was the last I knew of him for a while.

Many years passed and it was in the mid-90s when I found out about the Alumni Oriole website and the Student Directory. It had Frank John listed in Toronto. Since I went to Toronto about 4 times a year those years when my nephews were growing, I decided to look up FJ and was able to get in touch with him. He told me he worked at Nortel in Brampton, the same town my sister Sylvia lives in. So we made plans to meet one day during his lunch break.

I got to Nortel about 10 minutes ahead of schedule and asked reception to let him know I had arrived. While I was sitting in the lobby, I wondered whether I would recognize FJ. For some reason I pictured him bald but remembered his one leg spring gait. And sure enough, the elevator door opened and FJ walked out exactly as I'd imagined he would look after 30some years! We had a long lunch in the Nortel cafeteria and reminisced.

Over the years we were in contact by email but never met again. One of those emails was help in getting the names I had forgotten of the sms-mtabu.com - Photographs - 1968 - SMS Hockey XI team in which he was the goalie.

Another good guy gone! RIP

—Ashley D'Souza (1972)