A few years ago, Kaneti Banymandhub walked into Royal College Curepipe. It certainly wasn?t his first visit there; some 60 years ago, Kaneti had been a student at the illustrious institution founded in 1715 and, later on in 1912, built as a replica of London?s Buckingham Palace. Kaneti, an Old Royal and a former permanent secretary at the Prime Minister?s Office (PMO) and former acting Head of Civil Service who served under the prime ministership of Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, wanted to know if the motto of the college had remained the same.

When Kaneti asked someone (he wouldn?t say who) the question, the person replied that it had indeed but that it was in Latin and that it needed to be translated. Kaneti Banymandhub nearly had a heart attack. ?What?? he thought, one had to translate Terrae Quis Fructus Apertae to students of Royal College? Does this mean that current RCC students do not know that the motto means, ?To whom it belongs, the fruit of a well-tilled soil?? This realisation - that the RCC is not what it used to be anymore, led to a long and rich trip down memory lane and a lot of musings.

The musings gave birth to a book, The Ubiquitous Royal and how those lucky enough to have been part of this select group of Royals since 1791, have been and continue to be omnipresent in the shaping and development of the country. How those now Old Royals all have something in common: ?This culture, I cannot explain it any other way,? says the author. So he proceeds to give an example of what he means by the Royal culture. Armand Maudave, (also an Old Royal) at the time he was first secretary at the Mauritian Embassy in France, used to write poetry, which he regularly used to send to his friend Kaneti Banymandhub. At the end of his poetry, the current president of the board of La Sentinelle wrote, in 1977, to the attention of his friend, ?I am sorry for this my lousy rhyme. I cannot be a genius all the time!?

Reading this extract from his book, Kaneti bursts out laughing. ?This, he adds, is the culture one gained at Royal College.? The book to be launched by the British Coun-cil on 28th May talks about some 250 Old Royals, says the author. ?At least, that?s what I recall but my editor reckons there are some 500 names in there?, he adds.

Kaneti Banymandhub writes about his friends and contemporaries but also about his teachers who have become his friends over the years. Among those whose stories are told, is that of Dr Phillippe Forget, former editor in chief of l?express, ?whose idyll with his wife is the longest idyll of all times that was engendered in a train in 1947 and is still going strong.? Kaneti also devotes an entire chapter to Robert d?Unienville, former rector at RCC, Goinsamy Venkatasamy, Amedée Maingard and Sir Raman Osman, first Mauritian Governor General of independent Mauritius.

Old Royals like Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, Sir Gaetan Duval, Leckraj Teeluck, Kaleck Kathrada, Raymond Chasle, Jean Delaitre, Ramsoondur Goburdhun, Dr Darné, Ramparsad Neerunjun, Dr Avrillon, André Glover, René Lagesse, Pierre Louis Besson, as well as lesser-known ones figure prominently in the book.

?Among those whose stories are told, is that of Dr Phillippe Forget, former editor in chief of l?express, whose idyll with his wife is the longest idyll of all times that is still going strong?

All these people who have been immersed in the Royal culture, says Kaneti, ?have belonged to an organisation where the respect teachers had from pupils was fantastic. It was a time when the teacher was a guide and a philosopher. It was not a matter of tuition but a matter of affection.? He recalls the time when as the pupils would walk into the college, ?the rector would be standing outside his office in his gown and wig and would smile at us all?.

The book, currently under print is also a witty narrative about the life of the author. After his studies at Edinburgh University, Kaneti returned to the country in 1958, as the Westminster pattern of administration was being established in the then colony. He was then, one of the first four officers recruited by an Independent Public Service Commission. In July 1982, after the general elections, the new government forced the author into early retirement.