HYDERABAD: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s book Hit Refresh made waves globally on the first day of its release for the grand themes it addresses, but for people from his alma mater in Hyderabad there was one curious if incidental, observation that caused an errr moment.
"Shantanu Narayen, the CEO of Adobe; Ajay Singh Banga, the CEO of MasterCard; Syed B Ali, head of Cavium Networks; Prem Watsa, founder of Fairfax Financial Holdings in Toronto; parliament leaders, film stars, athletes, academics, and writers -- all came from this small, out-of-the-way school," the Microsoft CEO writes in the book.
Those not in the know would be forgiven for believing that the Telugu-speaker is referring to some underfunded government-run school in, say, Tadipatri, Anantapur, from whence such luminaries sprang. Hyderabadis, on the other hand, would probably do a spit-take to learn that Nadella is speaking of the Hyderabad Public School, an institution of sorts in the city.
Maybe it was a fact-check oversight, but that description of the old school is quite incorrect. HPS is not small, being an expanse of more than 150 acres, and certainly not out-of-the-way, being where Hyderabad and Secunderabad meet.
Set up as Jagirdar College in 1932 on the lines of Eton College in England by the Seventh Nizam of Hyderabad Mir Osman Ali Khan for the sons of jaigirdars and other feudal princelings, it was renamed Hyderabad Public School after the jaigirdar system was abolished in 1950.
If Rajiv Gandhi and his northern cronies flocked to snooty Doon School in Dehradun, in the south HPS was the favoured destination for the spawn of the wealthy and the elite. Its alumni include, apart from the aforementioned worthies, Union civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Babu, former Andhra Pradesh CM Kiran Kumar Reddy, India’s permanent rep to the UN Syed Akbaruddin, cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle, UK beer billionaire Karan Billimoria.
Appropriate then that the colours of the HPS flag should mirror those of Oxford and Cambridge universities, its alumni forming as exclusive and incestuous a club of citizenry and power as those hoary varsities are known to nurture.
What might have caused Satya Nadella’s oversight? HPS continues to be the most sought-after school in Hyderabad, more than the many Johnny-come-latelies dotting the outskirts – out-of-the-way – of Hyderabad. Today, ranked among the top 10 schools in the country, the school is the cradle of the offspring of Hyderabad’s realtors on the make, wealthy contractors, Plan millionaires and virtually all of Tollywood’s chote babus. Not ‘small’ and ‘out-of-the-way’.