BENGALURU: Maternal is the word an alumnus of 150-year-old Bishop Cotton Boys’ School uses to describe his relationship with his alma mater. Senior advocate Aditya Sondhi has written a book called The Order of the Crest about the alumni of the institution who made it big.
“The school seemingly adopted me when my mother passed away and I was only 11. Besides, the value systems and friends one picks up at school keep the umbilical cord intact,” he told City Express in an earlier interview.
The historic institution, which celebrated its sesquicentennial jubilee last year, had a difficult past. At the time when schools like Baldwin and St Joseph’s were gaining popularity, Bishop Cotton School struggled to stay afloat.
The school was founded in April 19, 1865 in a bungalow in High Grounds called Westward Ho By Rev Pettigrew. The library is named after him. The headmaster was brought all the way from Canterbury in England. However, his tenure, like those of his successors, was short.
The building was rented and there we no steady endowments. When Rev Pope assumed the role of the warden, the campus of today was acquired by taking a loan of Rs 47,500. When the trustees were unable to repay the amount, the property was mortgaged to the lender. Later, it was mortgaged once again to the Government of Mysore for Rs 37,000.
In 1883, the institution had 200 boys and 100 girls. Financial trouble started brewing again in 1902, as the school was surviving on a government aid of `500 a month.
One of the reasons for the fund crunch was the lack of donors due to its prestigious image. The school gave the impression of being supported by the Church of England and hence, not many came forward to donate money. During the inspection conducted by the education inspector, it was found that the school had below average attendance. This deepened the lack of interest among donors to revive the dying institution.
Bishop Cotton School was later funded by the Society for Propagation of the Gospel. Rev Pakenham Walsh initiated the move and is responsible for the revival of the school.
The school is currently under the Church of South India, under Bishop Prasanna Kumar Samuel. When President Pranab Mukherjee visted the school, he tweeted that BCBS is one of the top schools in the world.
I Rang The Bell, says Meera Iyer of INTACH
Meera Iyer, former Cottonian and co-convenor of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), is currently doing research on the history of the institution. “I studied there for five years from 8th to 12th standard. My fondest memories are at the Senior Quad as all our classrooms were there,” she says.
The tradition of ringing the bell in Bishop Cotton Girls’ School goes back generations. “I was a class prefect and I had to do it often,” she shares.
Some of Iyer’s teachers left a lasting impact on her. “My English teacher Molly Joseph is the reason I am able to string two sentences together. She inculcated a sense of discipline in us. She made us feel disappointed in ourselves without saying a word.”
“Mrs Collisson taught me mathematics and a lot of grace. My biology teacher is the reason I decided to do a PhD in Forest Ecology,” she adds.
Almost 20 years later, she is still in touch with her Cottonian friends. “I remember the camaraderie we shared in 11th and 12th standard, when we were no longer kids and the teachers treated us differently. During free periods, I remember playing a lot of table tennis,” she says. As the secretary of the Literary Society, she used to organise quizzes and other activities on language and literature. She auditioned and participated in many plays as well.
Origin of the institution Origin of the institution
Bishop George Edward Lynch Cotton, the Metropolitan of Calcutta, is credited for being the patron of the Bishop Cotton schools. It was his vision to establish institutions to educate European and Anglo Indian children. The Bishop proposed a scheme for the creation of boarding and day schools here to produce scholars for the Church of England. However, the scheme was in cold storage for a long time, as the East India Company’s only focus was trade until 1854. Lord Dalhousie, along with Sir Charles Wood, President of the Board of Control the East India Company, (education)pushed for it. As a result, education departments were set up in all provinces of the country. Under the scheme, the government was to provide land, financial aid and teachers for the institutions.
After 1830, Bengaluru became popular as the British Cantonment and eventually, a lot of military officers settled down here. St Mark’s Church was established, which brought about the mushrooming of other European schools like Sacred Heart (1854) and St Joseph’s European High School (1858).
Alumni of the institution indian CIVIL aCCOUNTS SERVICE
Chandy Andrews (1972) is second in command at the office of the Controller General of Accounts for India. As the Additional CGAI, he is one of the principal advisors to the government on its accounting matters. He belongs to the 1981 batch of the Indian Civil Accounts Service and has served the Ministry of Finance with distinction in various capacities. He was a boarder at Cottons in his middle school.
Civil SERVICES
Dinesh Gundu Rao (1987) is Minister for Food and Civil Supplies in Karnataka. An MLA for three successive terms from Gandhinagar constituency, he won the 2004 election by a massive margin of over 28,000 votes. ‘Dinny’ has earlier served as the President of the Youth Congress. An engineer by training, he is now a prominent face of the Congress Party and a popular grass-roots leader. His brothers Mahesh (1986) and Rajesh (1989) at one point belonged to the BJP and the JD(S) though Mahesh returned to his pet vocation, farming. Besides politics, Rajesh also dabbled in films till he passed away suddenly in 2013. Their father, the late R Gundu Rao, was chief minister of Karnataka from 1980-83.
ROYALTY
Bala Gopala Varma (Revati Tirunal) (1969) is from the Kulasekhara dynasty of Travencore. He went to Berkeley in California, and is a businessman based in Bengaluru. An amateur artist, he has won international acclaim for his charcoal portraiture. His mother, Lalithamba Bayi (Uthram Tirunal), is a descendent of the Travencore House that had Ravi Varma Kulasekhara, better known as Raja Ravi Varma, as one of its eminent ancestors.
MedicinE
Dr Varun Shetty (Captain of School, 2004) is executive director with Narayana Hrudayalaya and is shaping well to take over the reins from his father, Dr Devi Shetty. He is a resident cardiothoracic surgeon at the department of cardiac anaesthesia and has published his work the prevention of cerebral injury in cardiac surgery. His elder brother Viren (2002) is an alumnus of the Stanford Business School. (Excerpted from The Order of the Crest)
Science
Raja Ramanna, Padma Vibhushan (1939), went on to become India’s greatest nuclear scientist. He, however, wore his distinctions lightly, never missing a chance to play his piano at the hall or at his friend Admiral Dawson’s cottage in Richard’s Park. Dr Ramanna took charge at the Atomic Energy Commission (and) became its director in 1972. He oversaw the successful nuclear tests at Pokhran in 1974, calling the prime minister from a telephone booth and informing her in code that ‘Buddha is smiling’. He remains a torchbearer for the Cottonian community.