My 1978 SSC (Xth standard) school class pic and related stuff

Last updated on 5th Nov. 2019

https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2577467012469860, dated 26th Aug. 2019 shares my Cardinal Gracias High School, Bandra East, Mumbai - SSC - 1977-1978 Batch class picture Facebook post of a classmate. [Original Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1303074752985&set=a.1303074712984, dated 25th Feb. 2011].

Note that SSC stood (and perhaps continues to stand) for Secondary School Certificate (Exam). It corresponded to the tenth (X) class and was the last class in the school system (from 1st class to Xth class). We would be leaving the school after passing this exam with most of us moving on to (junior) college (different institution as our school then did not offer junior college education). The Xth class SSC exam was a state education board held exam and evaluation whereas all previous classes were school held exam and evaluation.

I have given below a slightly cropped and rotated pic of it. Note that the resolution of the pic and/or the clarity of the original pic is low. The original pic would have been taken sometime in April 1978 in all probability. I was 15 years old then running 16.

Given below is my post content (slightly edited):

My Cardinal Gracias school & class mate, --Name-snipped--, had shared our class pic of 1978 (SSC passing out batch) in 2011. I found it recently while searching on Facebook, if I recall correctly, for Cardinal Gracias related search terms.

I guess I should be in this pic somewhere but I am not able to identify myself. The faces are not so clear.

Update: --Name-snipped-- says I am the chap in the 3rd row (row of boys just above row of girls), 3rd from left of the row. I think that face seems to be the closest (among all other guys pics) to what I may have been looking then. But I am still not hundred per cent sure as the face is not clear.

Further Update: My elder sister (elder by nearly 10 years) confirms that I am the above 3rd row chap. That seals it for me!

The full school name is Cardinal Gracias High School and is located in Bandra East, Mumbai.
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Readers may want to read the comments on the post, for slightly more information about the class pic.

Here's the school website, https://cardinalgraciashighschool.org/ and wiki page:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_Gracias_High_School.

The pic below is a cut-out from the class pic of the boy identified as me (very low resolution and so not clear):

Given below is an autograph I had signed for my class mate then (April 1978, in all probability). Please excuse my scrawly handwriting. The pic has been edited to whiten out my class mate's name. Even today, usually my handwriting is a scrawl. If I compose myself and (hand)write slowly, the handwriting can be better but I do that rarely. Anyway, nowadays most of my writing is by using the computer keyboard (like writing this post). The pic is courtesy my classmate and his Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/ramesh.iyer.1694/posts/10206154638860983, dated 26th Aug. 2019.

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Some additional info. about Indian education system then (and which is largely the same now, I think):

The marks obtained in the SSC exam would play a vital role in which junior college one could join, and which stream one could take - Science, Arts or Commerce stream. Junior college was for 2 years culminating in another state level board exam and evaluation. After that one joined degree college or institution, with science students branching into medicine (MBBS/dental surgeon), engineering (B.E./B.Tech.) and science (B.Sc.) streams which were for either 4 years or 3 years (B.Sc. was for 3 years).

I have also attached below my SSC passing certificate from the Maharashtra State Education Board (some personal data in it is elided/whitened). The certificate is dated 1st. Dec. 1978 and states that the examination was held in May 1978.

[To open pic in larger resolution, right-click on pic followed by open link (NOT image) in new tab/window. In new tab/window you may have to click on pic to zoom in.]

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Update on 2nd Sept. 2019

Sharpened the class pic using online tool: https://raw.pics.io/sharp-image

1st level of sharpening pic is given below:

2nd level of sharpening goes too far, I think, resulting in easily visible distortion. Given below is the 2nd level sharpened pic:

Given below is my individual pic sharpened (1st level) separately:

Given below is my individual pic cut out from class  pic sharpened (1st level):

Given below are some of my comments from Facebook post,  https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2577467012469860, associated with this blog post:

In response to a comment, I (Ravi) wrote (slightly edited):
Thanks for your input. Actually, I think scanning the pic, at 300 DPI or higher, may give the best results. But then he has to find the original pic, and then go to the scanner guy. I think that's the issue here. I think this pic that he shared was taken many years ago on his mobile phone and is available for him easily to share. The original class pic may be stored in some corner somewhere. He will have to spend time to search for it. That, I think, is the issue. ... Meanwhile, I am happy with what he has shared and the image sharpening software does improve the pic a bit. I am able to better identify, though not fully certain about it even now, my Sikh friend Inderjit Singh (last row, fourth from right). Inderjit was a fun guy. I have some fun memories of him :-), from slightly over forty years back!
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In response to a comment about the person not having last year school pic, I wrote (slightly edited):
Oh! That's a pity! It is quite fun going down memory lane around school farewell and then class pic.
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Actually, more than fun, it is happy and pleasant.
...
Kind of mature pleasure that perhaps only oldies can get.
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In response to a comment, I wrote (slightly edited):
Interesting comment --name-snipped--. I tend to agree (I also did a little bit of calculus :-) ). I have a patchy memory. Some things I remember well from the past decades and in some cases, I draw an absolute blank. That blank can be embarrassing at times like in one case, when I could not recognize a boyhood friend (from my Dadar Railway Officers colony days where I was till 1974 i.e. around 12 years of age). He recognized me and remembered me well, when he joined my team in USA, while I was on foreign assignment to USA (we were seeing each other after a gap of 15 to 20 years). He actually took over my part of the software project (Backup utility for Banyan Vines port to Wang VS - I say that as I recall your Banyan Vines connection).

I drew a complete blank! I could not tell him that and I did not handle that situation well. Now I think he is somewhere in the US and if I do reconnect with him (I tried to locate him but failed), I will explain to him my strange behaviour when he recalled me and I drew a blank! .... When I told my mother about it after I came back to India (after finishing the assignment), she remembered him well! Even today, I don't recall him as a boyhood friend! But I recall some other boyhood friends (till I was around 12 years old).

I have given up trying to understand what my mind remembers and what it doesn't. My mind is quite a strange creature :-). I try to live with it :-), knowing its strange features. Ha! Ha!
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In response to a comment, I wrote:
I think a famous Russian author (was it Tolstoy or was it Dostoyevsky?) had written that no family is a perfect family. We all have our weird issues. Family life is not easy, given the many human pushes and pulls family members, including us, have.
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In response to a comment, I wrote (slightly edited):

Yes, in some families there is great damage to some individuals. Some slip into alcoholism, drug abuse etc. to cope with it, and get sucked into dark recesses of life.

But then now I think these are middle class and rich class family issues. I don't mean to downplay them but for me individually, they seem small problems in front of the brutality of prolonged poverty including indebtedness that I have seen in and around Puttaparthi. So they are not some articles that I have read somewhere but actual people who I know.

I bow down my head to single mothers that I know who are poor and have children to raise with ****zero**** support from their husbands. If I was in their place, I just don't think I would have been able to face life. They have also endured very harsh words and sometimes beatings from their husbands when they were with their husbands.

How do I pay my monthly rent? Where will I send my children to school given that I have very limited money to pay as fees? Oh! My child is crying as it wants new clothes like everybody else on some festival day! What shall I do? I don't have the money to buy new clothes for my children!

The above are not my imagination. From around mid 2012, I started asking some poor Puttaparthi locals about their lives and so came to know of such situations.

When I could (and when I can even now), I paid (pay) them some small amount. That makes them so grateful!

And I tell them that I will pray that God should help them, which I do, and which they appreciate very much. What more can I do for them?

I do not get deeply involved in their problems as if I do that I will get completely drained, and which will be of no use to them at all.

Now I am much much more appreciative of social welfare programs that state and central governments have for the poor. It is the very lifeline of many of the poor in our country!

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5th Nov. 2019 Update:
Got a better sharpened image of class pic. Courtesy: Raghu Iyer and Pravin.

Me mainly from above pic: