By Justice Markandey Katju
Bill Tammeus is my American friend, who lives in Kansas City, Missouri. USA with his wife Marcia.
He had come to Allahabad with his parents and 3 sisters in 1957. Bill's father was an agriculture expert from Illinois University who had come for 2 years to India to teach modern methods of agriculture in the Allahabad Agriculture Institute.
Bill was admitted to Boys High School, Allahabad (where the famous Indian filmstar Amitabh Bachchan had also studied), and we were classmates from 1957-1958. He was then about 12 years old.
Later, he went back with his parents to America and became a journalist in the Kansas City Star (where the great writer Ernest Hemingway had once worked). However, we remained in touch since then, through letters which would take 10 days or more to reach (there was no such thing as email then).
Thus, we have been friends for about 66 years, quite a record!
Bill has since retired, and does social work, including serving as a part time preacher in his Presbyterian Church (for which reason I call him 'Reverend').
I had requested Bill to be one of the speakers in the recent Christmas special global online webinar of the organisation Ibaadatkhana, which promotes inter-faith harmony. I am the patron of this organisation, Tasawar Jalali, who lives in San Jose, California is its Chairman, Irfan Ali, who lives in Princeton, New Jersey is its Vice Chairman, Naren Singh, who lives in California is its Gen Secy, and Ritu Jha who lives in California, and is the editor of indicanews.com, is the head of publicity and public relations.
The video recording of the webinar can be seen on my facebook page.
Bill had to decline my invitation due to prior commitments. He explained that this is the holiday season in America, and everyone's calendar, including his own, is jampacked well in advance.
However, he sent this video recorded Christmas and New Year greetings.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JQD0apNzzAgEXMjQPAltPG_QFVWlCRaF/view?usp=drive_web
You can email Bill on wtammeus@gmail.com, and I am sure he would be happy to reply
Below is a pic of Bill and I (we are both about 78 now) when we met in Fremont, California in 2019, after a gap of over 60 years.
(Justice Katju is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. These are his personal views.)
