St.
Edward’s School… A Nostalgia.
Kailashnath
Sud
Nostalgia gripped me as
I went past the St. Edward’s
School, for within those
gates I had enjoyed the
best time of my life, care
free like a bird on a tree.
|
 |
Down the memory lane, day one in
school, crying and holding on to
the skirts of lower KG teachers,
Miss Stella Andrew and Miss Salima,
going through school and coming
out as a teenager. ‘Ready to take
on the world, for a career’. Wow!
What a wonderful experience it was!
‘Lumen Sequere’
(Follow the Light) on the
School Crest is the guiding motto
of the School; the students see
the light and “Follow It” while
keeping vigil in dark and difficult
times. Ex-Edwardians (some of them
ancient now) recalling school, saw
the light at their beginnings and
still ‘follow it’.
The Inception of St Edwards School
was deliberated upon by His
Excellency the Archbishop A.E.J
Kenealy, an Englishman and
two Irish Christian Brothers in
October 1924. The
School first day was 9th March 1925.
There were six teachers, four of
them Irish Christian Brothers and
a rota of 42 students. Bro. J.C.
Dohoney was the first Principal.
A fantabulous take off! Indeed a
lucky day for Simla.
The Irish Christian Brothers were
a dedicated lot, led a life of celibacy,
and were committed to upbringing
students in the best traditions
of education. St. Edward’s then
had a hostel and English boys as
boarders. Academics, and all round
integrated development was an integral
part of school education, which
was targeted and zeroed upon by
the teachers.
Deeply religious, the Brothers were
great educationists, kept an inflexible
watch on the students during the
recess hours. Keen observers, watching
from the windows of their top floor
rooms, hidden talent was spotted
and developed to an excellence.
This otherwise would have remained
untapped. Themselves sportsmen of
sorts, the brothers played hockey,
soccer, cricket, table tennis. You
name the game, they knew how to
play. Talented artists, excelling
in play of musical instruments (piano
in particular) they imparted all
they knew without fee or consideration
to their wards, within school and
outside school hours.
”Walk double file, in step; raise
your caps when you see acquaintances.
No horsing around on public roads;
and hands out of pockets” were teacher
orders, while the Edwardians walked
the streets of Simla.
Before recess, for fifteen minutes
Bro. Foran, class teacher for the
fourth standard (present seventh
class) taught table manners and
etiquette “How to eat, walk and
talk how to address your seniors
and behave in their company. To
acknowledge ladies, to sit at the
dinning table in homes or in hotels,
and other matters of general etiquette
in and out of home” were put to
serious discussion. He was deputed
by The Principal, Bro. W.I.
McKeogh so to do. “This is
the right age to learn table manners
and etiquette” said the Principal.
The impact of those fifteen minutes
is visible in all old timers. “The
old order changeth, yielding place
to the new, lest …”is a saying though.
Student competition forms procured,
processed and submitted before due
dates was hobby with some teachers.
The result was a few Lieutenant-
Generals, Indian Ambassadors, Judges,
Lawyers, Doctors, Chief Secretaries
and Commissioners, Writers, Poets,
Musicians and highly placed business
executives, all young men of sound
mind and character, discrete in
their dealings. Top Notch all of
them.
Early Nineteen fifties, there were
about twenty five candidates in
each class, the boy who stood last
in the class would invariably score
a whopping first division in the
Matriculation Examination of the
Punjab University. Such were the
teaching standards and achievements
of the school, a matter of credit
to the teachers. Students from the
St. Edwards were the blue eyed boys
of all Punjab Institutions and admitted
thereto without interviews.
Plays and Concerts staged at the
St. Edwards were par excellence,
are rituals being maintained by
the present set up. To be invited
to the Concert Hall at Edward’s
is a cherished desire of all in
Simla, even now.
“What School do you wish your son
to join” I ask mothers of my tiny
tot patients. “St. Edwards” is the
invariable answer, “That is, if
he gets selected” is an afterthought
and a far away look in the eyes.
A ex-student, now a retired chairman
of the one of the largest tea producing
company, had gone to Calcutta. Jobless
during the recession of the mid
fifties, he looked into the General
Manager’s Office which bore notice
“NO VACANCIES-DO NOT DISTURB”, asked
the man sitting behind a huge work
table in a hi-fi room “Do you really
mean what you have pasted outside
the door, sir” with a naughty look
and a small wink.
”Get the hell out of here” was a
gruff retort from the man. The young
lad looked back while receding from
the room, with a smile of having
‘done the job on him’
“Who are you, by the way?” shouted
the affronted man.
“N.N. Kaul from Simla”.
“What School”?
“St. Edward’s”
"You have guts to walk into
the GM Office. I have a Job for
you son”. Both had spoken the same
English (posh St. Edward’s). Both
were from the same Alma Mater. Both
had clicked.
The Old boys Association was founded
by Brother
Hayes in 1967. Father
Ambrose D’Souza revamped
it in 2000. Father John Bosco the
present Principal, Father Xavier
Harold the School Manager and Father
John Thadeus the Vice Principal
take keen interest in the association
and encourage all graduating students
to join the club.
The Old Boys are ‘What they are
today’ because of what the St Edward’s
did them then, a thorough grinding,
sifting and sieving, till the best
was attained.
I relive St. Edward’s through my
grandsons, two of them… little imps!
They come home and narrate me stories
about school. Within me I imagine
they must be going through the same
experience which I had sixty two
years ago, a fantastic grinding.
They are my third generation in
Edward’s… A Rare Phenomenon! A Great
Nostalgia!
Kailashnath
Sud
Dr.
Kailashnath Sud
192. Lower Bazaar.
Simla.
Thursday, March 08, 2007.
|
