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I entered sixth grade with grade with Miss Lidell in 1959 but half way through the year Kodai changed its tradition of having the term begin in January and had everyone moving classes after the May holiday instead, so I found myself in seventh grade with Mr Shaw and Mr Fisher. We also moved house again in 1958 or 59 to Lo-Ben, The house was a semi detached long bungalow . We lived in one half and the Finley family ( Les was the school Pastor) lived in the other . We used to play a lot with Christine, Carol, Cathy and Colleen Finley though the youngest, Lester was still a toddler. I was even allowed to borrow Carol's(9) bike and learned to ride it. We used to put on plays using the garden swing as the backdrop of the stage. Lo- Ben was so called because it was next to Lower Bendeloch, which was next to upper Bendeloch. Upper Bendeloch was where the annual Field Day took place and was the school athletics track and soccer field.Lower Bendeloch was used for baseball .Both fields were used for fourth of July celebrations when fireworks were let off and next day there were spent fireworks all over the field and a scent of cordite.Living in Lo ben we could play in the field after school anad at weekends and we used to collect grasshoppers and put them in clear plastic boxes, then let them excape. There were hundreds of them and they were very visible. 
Lo- Ben was next to the lake. The Finley girls, myself and other friends used to catch minnows from the lake. On one occasion I remember us producing "cakes" made of mud, decorated with toothpaste ( as if applied with an icing syringe in little stripes) and topping them up with four little fishes. The lake was an elegant feature of Kodai. It had a big boathouse where it was possible to hire boats and there was also a bright pink boathouse owned by the Rajah of Mysore , though we never saw him either in or out of a boat. During our last summer holiday in May 1959, we had several cousins visiting, and staying somewhere called Sunnybrook.We had all arranged to go boating on the lake and had hired a few boats.I got impatient waitng for the grownups to be ready so got into a boat and rowed twenty yars or so from the shore. My father was convinced I would drown but I was eleven and a half years old and the day was calm and the boat quite lake-worthy.Anyway I rowed back and didnt get a chance to row a boat by myself for a long time.
Our house at Lo-ben was very modern and up to date compared to our previous homes. In Calcutta, we had modern plumbing but in the first two houses in Kodai we had had toilets which were emptied by hand, and pour baths! All cooking was done on wood burnning stoves and we had open wood burning fires, which were lovely to sit and stare into. In our last days at Kodai John, David and I burned our school notebooks in the fireplace though I wish I had them now. At Lo Ben we had flush toilets and running water but no water heating.We ran the cold tap into the bath and then the cook would carry steaming kerosene tins full of boiling water to add to the cold. 
The school had three gates. The front gate was in front of a place called Chafing Cross where several roads met. Another one led down to the "dishpan" or dispensary where we used to got for minor cuts , bruises and ailments and where we had the dreaded annual cholera and typhoid shots. 
The third gate, a little side gate, down some steps led to the road that went towards the lake, Lo Ben and the Carlton Hotel. Near this was Spencers a store selling luxury goods like the hula-hoops we all flocked to buy during the craze of 1957 or imported food stuff like Kelloggs Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies 
We left Kodai in October and spent a few weeks in Calcutta packing to return to England. We were left with our aunt Elsie while my parents toured India visiting the Taj Mahal for the first time and New Delhi. Meanwhile, Auntie Elsie coached us in maths so that we would be ready to cope with English schools 
The years went by and I grew up and married but my father wanted me to return to India and introduce Gordon to it and promised if he won a premium bond, he would pay for us to go. He won one in 1974 and so we went to India in October, visiting Kodaikanal before the school broke up for Christmas. Much had changed, there were some new buildings, including an extremely ugly concrete one near the lake,The Bazaar was the same and the waterfalls and streams were still there. One major change at the school was that 100% of the girls were in jeans or trousers- unheard of in my time! The above picture shows me seated in front of Fairy Falls.At the bottom of the page is Gordon on Coaker's walk. 
This photo shows some of the posters in the bazaar. One on the top states "Merry-makers behold! The Rover's Cafe beckons you.Its Snacks, ice-creams and biryani packets will sustain you through.European and Indian dishes Veg and non-veg. We enjoyed visiting the school and even met a few old friends, such as Mrs Hewitt who had been a house mother in Boyer.We started our visit in Bombay and Kodai came after Bombay, Kerala and the Periyar wild life reserve and before Madras, Agra and Delhi.My eldest daughter Elizabeth visited India two years ago and so has my nephew Jey. We hope to visit again , maybe with our younger two, or maybe when we are ancient.Kodai despite becoming much more touristified can never lose its charm 
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We said goodbye to Kodai after enjoying the Christmas festivities in October 1959 including the Christans Banquet which i was old enough to attend for the first time. Everybody donated a wrapped present before hand and everone the receieved one of them. My mother got back the ugly brooch that she had given away the year before!I wish I could remember more detail about my childhood at Kodai and would welcome any Kodai-ites reading this to jog my memory.