Right Brained Renegades
Writers & Musicians |
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Dom Moraes
(Class of 1947)
Author & Journalist
Dom penned his
first poem at the age of 12 and at 19 published his first book
of poems A Beginning, which won the
Hawthornden
Prize for the best work of the imagination in 1958. He remains
the first non-English and also the youngest person to win this
prize.
In 1960, his second book of verse became the Autumn Choice of
the Poetry Book Society.
In 1965 came his third book of verse John Nobody. In 1983, he
published a privately printed book of poems Absences and in 1987
came Collected Poems. One of his books is Mrs Gandhi, a
biography of former prime minister Indira Gandhi. He has edited
magazines in London, Hong Kong and New York, been a war
correspondent, served a United Nations body, and scripted and
partially directed over 20 television documentaries for the BBC
and ITV.
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Maxim Mazumdar
(Class of 1967)
Dramatist & Playwright
Maxim immigrated
to Canada in 1969. He studied at Loyola (now Concordia
University) in Montreal before co-founding
the Phoenix Theatre in Montreal, in 1972. While with Phoenix he
directed and acted, notably in works by Noel Coward. And in his
own one-man works especially Oscar Remembered about the
flamboyant Irish writer Oscar Wilde. It was a runaway success,
produced internationally, on television. He subsequently took
the play to the United States and across Canada, including the
Stratford Festival ).
After leaving Phoenix, he spent some time in New York City in
the late 1970s. Maxim worked extensively with the Alleyway
Theatre company in Buffalo, NY. The annual playwrighting
competition there is named in his honor. In 1979 he returned to
Canada and founded the Stephenville Festival where he continued
to direct until his death in Halifax, Nova Scotia on April 28,
1988
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Ricardo de Mello
(Class of 1968)
Musician & "Prankster"
In 1974, Ricardo participated in the
International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, and a year
later at the
International
Festival of Music in Munich. Then in 1975 he moved to Hong Kong
and joined the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra the following
year.
His chamber musician experiences began with playing alongside
his violinist father, who was also a member of the Orchestra. In
1975, the duo performed throughout Hong Kong, specialising in
Romantic and Gypsy music.
Ricardo de Mello has continued this tradition of playing
Romantic and popular music and performs with the Melody Quintet,
which he formed in 1982. The Quintet is versatile, traveling to
Japan for two consecutive summers in the 1980s for performances
at the Tokyo Hilton, augmenting the ensemble to a 30-piece group
for the Vienna Opera Ball for the Prime Minister of Austria in
1992.
The Quintet has also given a Hong Kong Arts Festival concert at
the Government House Hong Kong in 1994, and formed a 60-piece
symphony orchestra for a Ford Motor Car Company concert at the
Grand Hyatt Ballroom in 1993. American Express presented a
special feature, "Around the World in Eighty Minutes with the
Melody Quintet" at the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing
Arts.
Ricardo loves sailing, so it's natural that he has performed on
many passenger lines, including the Canberra, Fairstar,
Sagafjord, the Royal Princess during her maiden voyage, and
several times on board the QE2, in the majestic ballroom. In
February of 1994,
he was the only Asian entertainer to perform as a Cabaret Artist
on the world tour of the P&O's Sea Princess, alongside Irish
comedian Tom O'Conner. In 1997, he performed on board the
Crystal Symphony during a three-week cruise from San Francisco
to Alaska.
Two of his most memorable performances on land include
performing at the Great Hall of Moscow back in the 1970s and for the
then US President Bill Clinton in 1998, during his visit to Hong Kong.
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Derek Julien
(Class of 1963)
Musician
Was very active in athletics right throughout. That slowly but surely
took a back seat as involvement with guitar playing became the driving
force. Was serious about a career in athletics till that happened
Actually became a professional musician in 1967 at the ripe age of
seventeen. Now at the age of sixty am still with my first love.
Music has taken me to many parts of the world. In 1969 went to
play in Africa in what is now war-torn Somalia, Mogadishu, to be
precise. It was a very lovely place then, specially for someone brought
up in the city. Got to see a lot of the country as within a few months
of being there got to meet and work with a very interesting Englishman
(this in addition to fulfilling my music commitments). Apart from being
the personal pilot of the then prime minister of Somalia he was also in
partnership with two other gentlemen (one of whom was the famous actor
William Holden) in an animal export business.
Having always been into animals this was a dream come true. Got to go on
safari and catch various kinds of deer, gerenuk, waterbuck, some of the
smaller cats etc. (generally the less dangerous of the bunch). No doubt
this was profitable to someone but there was also the purpose to sustain
what was even then many dwindling species. Left the heavier beasts to
the hardcore trappers who would supply us with the cheetah, leopards and
lions.
Actually this story is a whole very entertaining section in itself, best
left for another time.
On returning to India picked up right where I left off in the
music scene here. Moved around a bit and mid ’71 joined what was to
become one of India’s legendary progressive rock bands, Waterfront. This
was a career leap musically/artistically but by no means financially.
Yet it was a life experience I would gladly do again (except this time I
would try to make more money).
Toured Europe for a year with this band (yet another story in itself)
and on return to India continued till the late ‘70’s.
Then as is with the cycle of life one slowly starts to settle down,
start a family, only to get slung into another upheaval (only kidding,
couldn’t resist that).
I
am a very happily married man with a
wife and daughter who are my whole world, well most of it anyway. I
married my onetime classmate’s sister (Maria nee Samson and our daughter
is Danielle. We have celebrated thirty one years of being married, so
far.
The end of the same year we were married we moved to Pune, which
was beautiful. We just had to escape Bombay, except Pune has become
pretty much a shithole now. (Patrick you can edit out this comment but
this is how I feel)
To cut short what could be a very long story suffice it to say my music
horizons have expanded to cover performing, programming, producing,
studio work and am now
considering
workshops on the finer aspects of guitar playing and product promotion.
Tune in for the next episode in the year 2030.
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Andre de Quadros
(Class of 1969)
Musician
André studied the violin from an early age and then studied conducting at
the Bombay School of Music under the
distinguished
German conductor, Joachim Buehler. Further postgraduate studies took place
at La Trobe University, at the University of Melbourne, at the Hochschule
fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst “Mozarteum” in Salzburg with a
prestigious DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) scholarship, and in
conducting at the Victorian College of the Arts, with the Rumanian
conductor Robert Rosen.
André has conducted almost all of the major large choral works including
Bach St Matthew Passion, Handel Messiah, Berlioz Te Deum, Bernstein
Chichester Psalms, the Requiems of Mozart, Brahms and Verdi and Orff
Carmina Burana in a special Orff centenary performance supported by the
German Orff Foundation.
In 1994 and 1997, he appeared as a guest conductor at the Japan
International Youth Music Festival and has conducted in Australia, India,
Belgium, the UK, Scandinavia, Canada, the United States of America,
Russia, Germany, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia.
He is widely regarded as an important figure in the world of multicultural
choral music. In 1993 he was made an Advisor to and in 1999 was elected as
a member of the Board of the International Federation for Choral Music. He
edits two series of intercultural choral pieces, with Earthsongs in the
USA entitled Music of Asia and the Pacific and with Warner-Chappell Music
Australia.
He is the Artistic Director of the Melbourne International Festival of
Choirs.
André is currently the Professor of Music and Chair, Department of Music
Education, Boston University, USA.
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Chris Desa
(Class of 1971)
Musician & Maritime Captain
Chis started to play
the piano at the age of 4 and then learnt
guitar at 13.
Music was always a major passion and over the years, Chris learnt
to play 14 instruments, the most recent of which is the
“autoharp”. Singing and playing guitar (6 and 12 string) during my
sailing days in the merchant marine as well as
writing his own songs has been his favorite pastime as well as performing
concerts and jamming with other like minded and talented musicians, more
particularly in the South East USA, Savannah GA where he lives since 1992.
Chris has been a regular at the Annual Savannah Folk
festival for the past 15 years or more,
as well at several local venues like the monthly talent showcase,
First Friday for Folk Music as well as for the 'Tree of Light"
celebrations.
He is also a regular on the local radio station
www.WRHQ.com where he is
featured quite often on their Second Sunday and at church functions,
masses and weddings which gives him great pleasure to share his
talent........which is appreciated by the congregation
Chris has over 37 years experience in the Maritime Industry and has held
Senior Management positions both on board merchant ships for nearly 12
years, as well as the past 25 years ashore in many diversified fields,
both Maritime and non-Marine related to Safety, Quality and
Environmental Management operations. He was Master of India’s largest
oil tanker VLCC MT. KANCHENJUNGA, which suffered an aerial missile
attack in the Iran / Iraq war while fully laden with a cargo of 270,000
tons of crude oil. Despite extensive damage to the vessel’s navigating
bridge and other vital systems disabled, as well as, a major fire in the
fore peak store, the vessel was brought to safety under his able
direction and leadership, without any salvage / external assistance
He is a “Fellow”
of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers (FICS), “Member” of the
Chartered Institute of Transport & Logistics (MCILT), the American
Society of Quality (ASQ) as well as numerous other professional bodies
in North America and abroad. Since his move to the USA in end 1992, he
has been very actively involved in the areas of Maritime Quality, Safety
and Environment Protection, Risk Management, Regulatory Compliance
issues (USA, Canada and International), ISO 9000 Quality Management
Systems, IMO’s International Safety Management Code (ISM Code) and the
Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90).
Currently Chris
has his own
independent Maritime Safety and Quality Consulting company since 1997
and provides consulting services to major industry players on a worldwide
basis
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Dr Manil Suri
(Class of 1974)
Author & Mathematics Professor 
Manil Suri grew up in Bombay, India.
He graduated with a Ph.D. in mathematics from Carnegie-Mellon
University and
is a professor in the Mathematics Department at the University
of Maryland Baltimore County. His field of research is Numerical
Analysis, and he has been an editor of the SIAM Journal on
Numerical Analysis. His research in finite elements has been
funded by the National Science Foundation and the US Air Force
Office of Scientific Research.
His first English-language fiction, The Seven Circles, was
published on Valentine's Day, 2000 in the New Yorker. The Death
of Vishnu, his first novel, was released in 2001 by W.W. Norton
in the USA, Bloomsbury in the UK and has appeared in 26
foreign-language editions. It has won several awards, including
the Barnes and Noble Discover prize (US), the McKittrick Award
(UK), and the Ralph Heyne Corrine Buchpreis (Germany).
He was named in 2000 as a "Person to Watch" by TIME magazine. He
was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship for the year 2004-2005. As
of 2006, he is at work on his second novel, The Age of Shiva
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Sohrab Homi Fracis
(Class of 1974)
Author
Sohrab Homi Fracis is the first
Indian author to win the Iowa Short Fiction Award, described by
the New York Times Book Review as "among the most prestigious
literary prizes America offers."
In
1999, he was awarded the Florida Individual Artist Fellowship in
Literature/Fiction. His collection, Ticket to Minto: Stories of
India and America, was selected as a finalist for the Flannery
O'Connor Award for Short Fiction that year. In 2001, the book
won the Iowa Short Fiction Award and was published by the
University of Iowa Press, to glowing reviews. It is now being
read in several university literature classrooms. In 2002, he
was awarded a Walter E. Dakin Fellowship in Fiction at the
Sewanee Writers' Conference.
After Campion Sohrab attended IIT, Kharagpur, and followed up
with an MCE at the University of Delaware. After several years as a
programmer-analyst contracted to Fortune 100 companies such as Ford
Motor Company in Detroit, he heard his calling to become a writer. He
studied for an MA. in English, with a concentration in creative writing,
at the University of North Florida. Since then he has taught literature
and creative writing at UNF, passing on his knowledge and experience to
aspiring writers
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Rahul Mehrotra
(Class of 1974)
Architect, Professor & Author
Rahul Mehrotra is an
architect and urban designer trained at the School of Architecture,
Ahmedabad and the Graduate
School of Design at Harvard University. He has been in private practice
since 1990, and works on architecture, urban design and conservation
projects. He has built extensively in India, and besides several single
family houses , his projects include the Laxmi Machine Works Corporate
Office in Coimbatore, an Extension to the Prince of Wales Museum in
Bombay, an Institute for Rural development in Tulzapur, the Restoration of
the Chowmahalla Palace in Hyderabad, and he is currently developing (with
the Taj Mahal Conservation Collaborative) the Master Plan for the Taj
Mahal and its surroundings. From 1994 to 2006, Professor Mehrotra was the
Executive Director of the Urban Design Research Institute, which promotes
awareness and research on the city of Bombay.He is now a Trustee of the
Institute. He has written several books on Bombay, including ‘Bombay, the
Cities Within’ and has lectured extensively on urban design, conservation
and architecture in India. He also serves on several government committees
that are responsible for historic preservation and the conservation as
well as creation of public spaces in Bombay. Rahul Mehrotra teaches at the
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he is an associate professor.
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Mark Pinto de Menezes
(Class of 1974)
Musician
Mark the Drummer Boy started his musical career in the early 80's with
Crosswinds (Ehsaan Noorani, Sanjay Divecha, Jayu Menon & Jeet Das). He
then joined the legendary Rock Machine which subsequently re-christened
itself Indus Creed. After several gigs on the international circuit Mark
decided to settle down in Hong Kong where he produces, plays and teaches
music
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Mark Selwyn
(Class of 1974)
Musician
MS (Mark Selwyn) the bassist was the co-founder of Indus Creed.
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Firdaus Kanga
(Class of 1974)
Author & Dramatist
Novelist and performer Firdaus Kanga's semi-autobiographical novel Trying
to Grow (1994) was turned into the award-winning
film Sixth Happiness for which he not only wrote the screenplay but also
played the lead role.
He has presented a number of documentaries on the themes of
disability, such as Double the Trouble, Twice the Fun a
provocative documentary drama that explored sex between gay men
and lesbians who have disabilities. The film was broadcast on 15
July 1992 as part of Channel Four's lesbian and gay series Out
(1991-94).
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Rajdeep Sardesai
(Class of 1981)
Journalist
After
completing his BA (Hons) in Economics from St Xaviers College, Mumbai
Rajdeep attended University College, Oxford where he did his MA and LLB.
On his return he joined the Times of India as City Editor and Head, News
Service.
Then in 1994 he joined New Delhi Television (NDTV) as a Political
Editor. Since 1996 he has been the Anchor for live Election coverage of
national and state polls; travelled and reported from USA, Australia,
South Africa, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh. Currently Rajdeep is the
Host and Political Commentator, NDTV. He is a member of the Population
Council; Press Club of India.
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Sanjay Maroo
(Class of 1981)
Musician
Twenty years after graduating from Campion
Sanjay has matured into a one-man-band - Percussionist, Composer, Lyricist,
Producer, and Vocalist. He has had the distinction of playing with two of
the otherwise few Indian English original music bands, the Les Boys and
later Rock Machine (Indus Creed)
In 1994 he was a member of Divya, India’s premier Indo-Jazz fusion band
and performed at major International Jazz festivals such as the 25th Tokyo
Jazz Festival, the Malaysian Jazz festival, The Jazz Club Hong Kong etc.
alongside Jazz Greats such as Giovanni Hidalgo, Dave Valentin, Ernie Watts
and Eric Marienthal.
He has composed, produced and performed in his own Pop albums “Fountain of
Love”, “Tu Hi Tu” and the self-titled “Maroo”.
Now in 2005 his latest album Chaley Jaaon an album marking Maroo’s
comeback has been acclaimed as one of the best pieces of work from Indi-Pop
artists and this album is the first of it’s kind from India to be released
on the Internet for digital downloads.
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Anuj Timblo
(Class of 1995)
Musician
While studying Music Theory at the
University of Texas at Austin and Jazz Guitar with renowned
sessions guitarist, Russell Scanlon, Anuj Timblo, guitarist,
songwriter and composer, founded one of America’s up and coming
“buzz” groups
- Pieces of East. In just one year of the group’s conception, he
co-produced their groundbreaking debut album, “Shadow Box”, with
legendary producer Mark Hallman (Carole King, Ani DiFranco)
which received both popular support and critical acclaim from
fans and press nationwide.
David Lynch of Austin’s most popular weekly, the Austin
Chronicle, hails Pieces of East as “a veritable supergroup”
while Madalyn Sklar, president of grassroots music community, Go
Girls Music says, “Pieces of East delivers the best groove/pop
I’ve ever heard.“
Notable Achievements and Performances include being presented
the Austin Music Award two years in a row at the South by
Southwest Music Festival for Best World Band in 2003 and 2004
appearing with Willie Nelson, Patty Griffin, Eric Johnson and
many other world famous artists. The group was also nominated in
several categories including Best Rock, Best Pop and Best
None-of-the-Above Band standing second to recent sensations Los
Lonely Boys
Anuj has Performed with diverse acts such as Grammy nominated
virtuoso guitarist Eric Johnson, Terry Bozzio from Frank Zappa
and the Mothers of Invention, billboard-charting
singer/songwriter Patrice Pike as well as the Tosca String
Quartet from David Byrne's 2004-05 tour.
His group has also been invited to several national music
conferences and festivals that include South Park Music Festival
(Fairplay, CO), Nemo Music Festival (Boston, MA), Northgate
Music Festival (College Station, TX), Go Girls Music Showcase
(Houston, TX), Ladyfest, TX (Austin, TX), Midwest Entertainment
Conference (Lexington, KY) and Pecan Street Festival (Austin,
TX). Pieces of East has appeared on Fox TV, WQNA The Edge, KUT,
and CBS.
Anuj and Pieces of East are currently touring the nation,
exponentially building the buzz in cities such as Chicago,
Seattle, Los Angeles, Atlanta and St. Louis.
Visit Anuj's
Official Website :
www.piecesofeast.com
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