A Pandey and his comments !!

A Pandey is currently the Headmaster of Tantia High School. To some extent he is successful to carry the legacy of I D Singh. I am afraid , there may be or may not be a right successor. After I D Singh , the managing committee brought Mr. Upadhyay as a prinicipal , however he could neither win the hearts of students nor his colleagues. It was him who brought lady teachers into secondary section for a brief period. He changed the colour of uniform , never talked in right way with ex-students . However after his death , A Pandey took over. It was the effort of A Pandey and one of my best freinds R P Choudhary who brought Higher Secondary Section in the school which was a pipe dream during I D Singh days. The file was ready at West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education but there was no positive effort from our school otherwise we could have enjoyed our school for two more years.  Lets talk about A Pandey !!
A Pandey Joined Tantia Circa 1984.... he was young , his cheeks was like " Tamatar" , he has good voice and is a man of respect. He was M.A in English , but during our class 10 , he passed his M A in Hindi as a non collegiate student from University of Calcutta. He shared his experience of Hindi MA exams , his way of talking is mixed of puns and funs.
One of the unique dialogues  " Solah Janam ka Awara " - told to my classmate Jitendra Jain.
Once a boy was caught red handed standing in the line to buy an adult movie ticket by one of our teachers. He told other teachers including A Pandey on the next day .......... he started the topic in the class .......... "Munna Hamari bhi kabhi kabhi yeh sab picture dekhne ki iccha hoti hai ......per kya karein .... ticket lene ke liye jaise hi line me khade ho .. aap log pranaam karne wahan bhi pahuch jate ho"

Whenever somebody asks about Kashmir problem ....... he gets excited. He always blame Nehru for this.

will continue !!

Our Secondary Teachers : Initial Impact

One of the most scary days used to be the first day in the secondary section i.e Class V.  Kids of Tantia are promoted from Class IV to Class V i.e from Primary Section to Secondary . A complete different type of world. In other words , transition of Kids from the soft voices of Ms. Mitali, Ms. Mukkerji, Ms. Ghosh , Ms. Banerjee...........................to the rough rowdies of (UP and Bihar)'s great Pandey, Tiwari, Mishra , Singh, Choubey and Jha ji.  Some of the teachers were expert to engrave life long impact on new students of secondary. They used to be successfull in their very first week !! S K Bhattacharya was the first one to impact , his favourite words were

" yeh primary nahi , secondary hai "
" ab hum apna ghadi khol diya hai , es taraf ka koi ladka aaj maar kha jayega"
"Yooooooo , Yoooooooooo"
" ab dekho hum paanch ginega , aur kishori aake bolega , sir time ho gaya hai ..... " literally..... after counting five , kishori came on the first day and told ..... Sir, chod dijiye......... now what will be impact on the first day .

Second expert was K K Mishra ........I think he was the best to do private tuitions between class 5 and 6. His favourite dialogue was ..... " Wey bacche jo angreji ki kitaab nahi laye hain , wo khade ho jayen ... stand up". " Natak Karta hai " " Nautanki karta hai " . He always picked up one boy and throught out the year he would harrass him until he takes private tuitions from him. He was the first teacher who always objected to eat supari. " Pacchis baras taq supari nahi khani chahiye... jheebh moti ho jati hai , pacchis ke baad kha sakte hain "

The third one was " S N Pathak " what a personality ...........too tall for class V students... on the very first day he orated the story of Ramayana in Shudddh Hindi. On murmering in the class , his best dialogue I still remember " Jab Taq aapka aur hamara sambandh , madhurata ko chod , kathorta me parvivartit na ho , mere vichar se aap nahi sudhrenge" .

But they were genius ....... S  N Pathak was the most honest person to teach. He always completed his syllabus within time , with perfection and taking care of all the students without expectations. He always used to orate good moral stories before students and never praised himself like others. Even the least important things of the syllabus was taught by him with equal importance. Whenever I remember his teachings , I always praise him within myself.

UDAY : OUR ANNUAL SCHOOL MAGAZINE

Most of our frenz remember , our school used to publish an yearly magazine " Uday" in which only students could contribute Jokes, Stories, Articles , Poems or any sort of light literatuture. It had contents in English ,Hindi and Bengali. Two editors ( school's students of class X ) for each languages were selected as teh editors. However, most of the task was performed by our teacher Shri S K Mishra. He was very respected among teachers and students. Our Headmaster used to believe him a lot. He was not our vice principal but we always thought him as our vice principal.

If somebody's article was selected , he would feel himself at the top of the world. I don't know if it is published during the reign of Shri A Pandey , the current principal  or not. However ,it was beautifully designed and contained a lot of things. For months ,we used to read various things ( obviously nothing in english and Bengali ). The magazine was distributed among students from class I to Class X. Do any body have any copy .... please scan it and mail me at    bhaskarchoumal@yahoo.in or bhaskarchoumal@gmail.com , I shall send it to everybody who will ask for it. If we form an alumni association , we may ask the school to provide a copy from the archives.

The main contents of Uday were :
1. Photgraphs of Annual school function
2. Annual school sports photographs
3. I D Singh addressing to the mass on all occassion
4. Kya aap jante hain ?
5. Hasna Mana Hai
6. Photographs of tours organised by Tantia
7. Stories in all the three languages, poems ,
8. Story of some Mahapurush ....

If anybody has that book , pls share with us!!

Events Celebrated @ Tantia

Perhaps it's in the preamble of our school to create spirit of competition among students. The house teachers were always in the search of talent. Whoever had talent to speak , they just promoted them to speak in various competitions. A fifth standard boys may compete senior boys of class 10 in competitions like Antakshari. Students of different classes used to go in the assembly hall to learn the speeches and poems mostly in Seventh and Eighth period. Even they were directed to extend their timings even after school timings. R.Singh Ist , A Pandey and S P Pandey always tried for young talent , however S K B was very conservative and he always involved boys from class V to X however just before the day of final competition he used to sent only the senior boys. I do remember , Shivaji house , in many competition won between 1986 to 1990 , however , in 1991 due to his conservative policy it collapsed and stood at fourth place in various competition as one of the victims from 1987 to `1990 refused to appear on the day of Antakshari.  After that Shivaji house never stood first for next three years in many inter house competitions.

Various Events which we celebrated :

1. 26 th January - Republic Day - Both in Assembly and in Classes ( V to VIII- Class IX and X were exempted)
2. Saraswati Puja
3. Annual School Sports - Greatest Event of the year
4. Annual School Function either @ Mahajati Sadan or University Institute Hall ( College Square)
5. Tulsi Jayanti
6. Premchand Jayanti
7. Teachers' day
8. Boys' own day ( on the last day before Summer Vacation)
9. Adhoc Function - on 100 th anniversary of some freedom fighter
10 Independence day same as republic day
Inter House Competition @ Assembly hall

1. Hindi Debate -- Different speeches each house one in favour and one against ( Paksh aur Vipaksh)
2. English Debate - One issue  for and against
3. One Hindi Poem - Two candidates from each house
4. One English Poem - Two Candidates from each house
5. Antakshari - Four candidates from each house - House winner and Individual Winners too

Some good memories from these events I will try to write.... keep reading and please contribute on the blog itself !!

The Spirit of Morning Prayers at Tantia

Our school was truly rich in its daily prayers conducted in the assembly hall. I consider myself one of the luckiest students, as I was among the few who regularly sang prayers on the microphone (mike). There were usually four or five of us who had the privilege of standing close enough to see I. D. Singh Sir quietly praying along with the students.

He never sang loudly, but he would softly recite every prayer while standing in the middle of the houses. This itself reflected his deep love for poetry, prayer, and the nation. At least once or twice, he would call all the prayer singers together to discuss issues related to singing—such as problems faced during prayers, the ragas of specific songs, who would sing which prayer on the microphone, who would provide support, and even how to stand properly while reciting “Jana Gana Mana,” our National Anthem.

Although he was he Head Master, only he used to sing prayers while other teachers never. 

We had a strong, disciplined, and committed team that sang prayers every single day. Honestly, it was a matter of great pride to be part of the prayer‑singing group during the assembly. Interestingly, no other teacher—except our Principal (though very strict)—ever sang prayers during the assembly.

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Daily Prayers and Weekly Hymns

Every day, we would begin with a common prayer composed of seven shlokas from the Rigveda, ending with the Gayatri Mantra. In addition to this daily Sanskrit prayer, one special prayer was fixed for each day of the week.

The day‑wise prayers in the Secondary Section were as follows:

1. Monday – Var De, Vinavadini Var De
   (A prayer dedicated to Goddess Saraswati)

2. Tuesday – Watan Ki Raah Mein Watan Ke Naujawan Shaheed Ho
   (A patriotic song from a Hindi film)

3. Wednesday – Himadri Tung Shring Se, Prabuddh Shuddh Bharati
   (A poem by Jaishankar Prasad, from his play Skandagupta)

4. Thursday – Sare Jahan Se Achha, Hindustan Hamara
   (A poem by Allama Iqbal)

5. Friday – Chishti Ne Jis Zameen Par Paighaam‑e‑Haq Diya Tha
   (Another poem by Allama Iqbal)

6. Saturday – National Anthem – Jana Gana Mana
   (Written by Rabindranath Tagore)

Still I do remember all the prayers :)

Houses of Tantia High School

When we were students at Tantia, the school was officially a Hindi‑medium institution. However, thanks to the efforts of the trustees and our former Headmaster, the great H. S. Sharma Ji, the school always followed the convent school pattern in discipline and conduct. I will write more about H. S. Sharma Ji later, based on what I heard from our teachers, ex‑students, and even outsiders. He was truly an icon of discipline.

To encourage healthy competition among students in sports, debates, and other activities, the school was divided into four houses.

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Primary Morning Section – Houses

The Primary Morning section was divided into four houses, each with its own house teachers:

1. Alok House
2. Jyoti House
3. Kiran House
4. Prabhat House

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Primary Day & Secondary Section – Houses

The Primary Day and Secondary sections also had four houses, and their names were common across sections:

1. Pratap House – (R. Singh – First)
2. Vidyasagar House – (S. P. Pandey)
3. Raman House – (A. Pandey)
4. Shivaji House – (S. K. Bhattacharya)

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House Periods and Discipline

From Class V to Class VIII, every student had to report to their respective houses during the last period of the day in the assembly hall on the ground floor. Usually, three of the house teachers would motivate students to perform better in inter‑house competitions and daily activities.

Students were allowed to tell jokes and stories. Some teachers even permitted film songs during these sessions. However, life was quite different in the fourth house.

Mr. S. K. Bhattacharya was extremely strict about discipline and performance. Any student responsible for a reduction in house marks was punished severely by SKB Sir. If a student came late to school, wore a thread of any colour other than white, or had shoes that were not strictly black and white, the house captain or prefect would deduct marks. The student’s name would then be entered into an old‑fashioned house register that was brought to every house session.

After punishing students, SKB Sir would ask English poems or questions related only to studies.

In contrast, the other house teachers were far more liberal in their attitude. For many, the house period became a time to relax. The best example of this was Shri A. Pandey, whose sessions were the most peaceful.

I will write more about our teachers and the house system later…
Wait 🙂

On Demand --- Names of Students 1992 from Section A and B

Section A was a great section. Most of the boys were padaku ...

1. Manish Didwania ( CA)
2. Nitin Sethia
3. Ajay Chachan

4. S . M .Roshan Bhati
5. S M Rafi Bhati
6. Jitendar Sharma
7. Sanjay Sharma
8. Pawan Agarwal
9. Rahul Sonthalia
10. Sunil Gupta ( Lambu )
11. Manish jain
12. .......Choudhary
13. Anish..... ( the fattest boy of our school )
14. ---------- Maheshwari
15. --------- Bagla
16. Siddharth Sharma ( now a doctor I suppose)
17. Manish Choudhary
18. Avinash Khattry ( Very Naughty ...but my friend)
19. Navin Thirani - Now in Mumbai
20. Vikash Saraogi
21. Umesh Poddar
22. Sanjay Poddar
23. Naushad
24. Vikrant Singh

25. Sunil Gupta

26.Hemant Bagla

27. Hemant Agarwal


I will add.... once i remember ..........

Gems of our School - 1986 to 1994

Many students during 1986 to 1994 were brilliant and extraoridnary. They were pampered by our teachers , they were experts in school sports, education and other extra curricular activities. I was not a Gem , however I remember many of them. Please forgive me If I forget some names :

1. Ram Gopal Bajaj - Headbody when Iwas in class V - personality.
2. Ravindra Agarwal- Good orator and good student - Starmarks
3. Vinod Singh Rathore - Good student and good orator
4. Anand Singh Rathore - Good Orator and student - Brother of Vinod Singh
5. Om Prakash Damani - One of the most Brilliant - Professor in one of the IITs
6. Vishal Sharma - School Cricket team captain
7. Jitendra singh - Two centuries in Inter School cricket competition - CAB
8. Ajay Singhi - Good orator and good Student
9. Sumit Lakhotia - One of the best in Maths
10. Manish Didwania - my batchmate , 1992 batch topper , best in extra curricular acts and Headboy
11. Binay Pathak - Natural Mathematician
12. Nitin Gami- Good Orator and student
13. Sawrab Nayak - Good student
14. Dheeraj Khatri - Good orator and good student.
15. Vineet Khaitan
16. Vikash Khaitan
17  Ramakant Holani - Good speaker and Student
18 Hanuman Agarwal - Head boy of 1987
19. Vinay Kariwal

As and when I remember ... I will update the list ...please contribute with years...

Remembering our Batchmates - 1992

Our batchmates are now scattered across different places. I remember almost everyone, but I do not know much about their present whereabouts or professions. I sincerely hope that through this platform, many of them will reconnect and come forward.

I was in Section C, but we had good friends in Sections A and B as well. Below are the names of my classmates as I remember them:

1. Anand Sharma
2. Amit Sharma
3. Ashish Jain
4. Bharat Gupta
5. Binay Pathak
6. Bhaskar Choumal
7. Chandan Jaiswal
8. Chandan Singh
9. Hare Ram Singh
10. Sanjay Chamaria
11. Vijay Agarwal
12. Vikash Patodia
13. Sumit Agarwal
14. Pawan Kumar Gupta
15. Manish Choudhary
16. Mukesh Dugar
17. Vikash Asthana
18. Jitendra Jain
19. Vikash Kariwal
20. Navin Minda
21. Ashish Agarwal
22. Surendra Ginoria (deceased now :( )
23. Sunil Ginoria
24. Rajeev Khandelwal
25. Pawan Ginoria
26. Shashi Prakash Yadav
27. Subhash Daruka
28. Navin Rungta
29. Amit Mishra
30. Rishi Handa (deceased now :( )
31. Subir Sehgal (deceased now :( )
32. Chirag Shah

Three more classmates were part of our batch. I will update their names as soon as I remember them.

Other friends who once were our classmates 

1. Vishnu Goel

2. Rajiv Khattry

3. Sandeep Jain 

4. Gopal Koiry

5. Rajesh Shah

6. Mukesh Gupta 

7. Parvinder Singh (deceased now) 

8. Anand Kajaria

9. Sanjeev 

10. Rajesh Chomal

Our Good Old Secondary Teachers -- Riders of our life

What a Remarkable Team of Teachers

What a remarkable team they were—each one a true specialist in his subject. As students, we never fully realised that we were being taught by experts in their respective fields. But when I look back today, I can only salute their commitment and the depth of knowledge they shared with us.

I am mentioning only their names here, because I truly believe that each of them deserves a separate page of appreciation. Before that, let us take a moment to remember their names. I would also like to request everyone—if anyone has old photographs of our school or our teachers, please share them on this platform.

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Teachers at the Time of Madhyamik Result (1992)

1. J. K. Singh
2. K. N. Singh (Second)
3. Y. Singh
4. V. K. Singh
5. P. Tripathi
6. S. K. Bhattacharya
7. N. L. Raha
8. S. N. Pathak
9. R. Singh (First)
10. R. Singh (Second)
11. R. C. Choudhary
12. R. S. Rai
13. S. K. Mishra
14. K. K. Mishra
15. S. P. Pandey
16. S. D. Dwivedi
17. R. P. Singh
18. B. Pandey
19. K. Singh
20. D. N. Jha
21. H. R. Jha
22. K. P. Mishra
23. N. N. Mishra
24. Dr. A. Jha
25. L. N. Singh
26. A. Pandey
27. J. P. Singh
28. R. S. Singh

Headmaster
Shri I. D. Singh

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Teachers Who Retired During Our Time

1. K. N. Singh (First)
2. G. S. Pandey
3. Rambabu (S. S. Ram)
4. K. Pandey
5. S. K. Mukherjee

Our Beloved Primary Teachers – Morning Section

I still clearly remember the faces of our beloved teachers from the Primary (Morning) section—and of course, I remember their names too. As for the Day section, I did try to recall their names, though I know some of you may not be very interested in them. Still, remembering these names is my way of paying respect to those wonderful ladies.

Somewhere, the children of these great teachers must feel proud to see their mothers’ names remembered by their old students. We used to address all our teachers as “Miss”, irrespective of their age or marital status.

Let me see how many names I can recall:

1. Mrs. Ganguli – The teacher I admired the most. She taught us singing and Bengali in Class IV. She was just like a mother to us. She was also our Music Teacher. We really miss her a lot. 
2. Mrs. Anjaria – A Parsi lady. She retired soon after I passed the Infant class.
3. Suman Didi – The in‑charge of the Morning section. A sweet lady with a big heart, loved by all students.
4. Prabha Didi – Sister of Suman Didi, short height, very strict and our class teacher in Class I.
5. Aruna Didi – Our class teacher in the Infant class. She loved me very much and once introduced me to her son during a school picnic after our Class III final examinations.
6. Sunita Didi – My goodness… what a voice! I will explain more about her later.
7. Verma Didi – She left the school after I completed Class II.
8. Khanna Didi – A cheerful and lively teacher. I still remember her dance performance on Teachers’ Day.
9. Usha Didi – A very, very strict teacher. She taught us Hindi in Class III.
10. Mitali Ghosh – Soft‑spoken and kind‑hearted. She replaced Verma Didi.
11. Rekha Didi – Our Life Science teacher in Class III. She was also very good at drawing.
12. Nisha Didi – A new teacher who joined when I was in Class IV.
13. Chhaya Didi – A pleasant and gentle lady. She was our class teacher in Class IV and taught us History.
14. Another Verma Didi – Sister of Nisha Didi. Her daughter was also a student, junior to us. We always had great respect for teachers’ children.

And then… the most frightening name of all:

Gambhir Didi — We were always terrified of her. Students were never comfortable in her class. She defined the extreme limits of strictness.

If I have forgotten any names, please remind me—I shall be truly grateful.

A Walk Down Memory Lane: Our Good Old School

Let us take a moment to refresh our memories of our good old school through a few small but memorable incidents.

Every student’s journey begins in the Primary section, then moves on to Secondary, and finally to Higher Secondary. At the time of admission, one could choose either the Primary Morning section or the Primary Day section. I was in the Primary Morning section, and we had to report to school by 6:30 in the morning.

I was admitted directly to the Infant class in the year 1980. On my very first day at school, I forgot my aluminium box containing my books there. Later, my sister and I went back to school to collect it. And so, my student life began on a rather funny and unforgettable note.

One of the unique features of our school was that the Primary section was managed entirely by lady teachers, while the Secondary section was dominated by many “Sir‑jis” (male teachers). Another interesting peculiarity was that the school was co‑educational only up to the Primary section. After the fourth standard—the last class of Primary—our girl friends had to take vidai (transfer) to other schools.

In a way, girls from Tantia learned their first lessons of Vidai Samaroh right in their own school. During our time, the first preference for most girls was Ram Mandir 🙂🙂—not the temple, but the school whose actual name was Seth Surajmal Jalan Balika Vidyalaya. The second preference was Shree Sikhshayatan, followed by Marwari Balika Vidyalaya. I wonder what the preferences are today—I’ll have to ask a few people! You may update this in the comments.

Just when we boys had started to understand the chemistry of friendships with girls, we were shifted to the Secondary section—without any girls. However, we gained new friends, as boys from both the Morning and Day Primary sections were merged into one class. After a few initial clashes, many of us went on to become lifelong friends.

Now comes the worst peculiarity of all. Suddenly, we students from the English‑medium Primary section became part of a Hindi‑medium Secondary school. This created many difficulties, and even today, some of us still struggle with Hindi spellings. At the same time, the English we had learned during our Primary years slowly faded away in the hardcore Hindi‑medium environment.

During our time, the school offered classes only up to Class X (Madhyamik). Today, it proudly provides education up to Class XII. One of my close friends assist Tantia High School for obtaining persmission from West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education (WBCHSE) to start Class 11 and Class 12. 

Tantia High School : Our Golden Years (टांटिया हाई स्कूल: हमारे स्वर्णिम वर्ष )

यह ब्लॉग मेरे टांटिया हाई स्कूल के पुराने दोस्तों, इसके पुराने और नए शिक्षकों,  वर्तमान और पूर्व छात्रों को समर्पित है। मैं काफी भाग्यशाली हूं कि अधिकांश महत्वपूर्ण घटनाएं, स्कूल शिक्षकों के नाम और उनके चेहरे आज भी मेरी स्मृति में हैं। मैं टांटिया हाई स्कूल यानी अपने स्कूल के गलियारों और क्लास रूम में बिताए अपने बचपन के सुनहरे वर्षों के कुछ अविस्मरणीय क्षणों के बारे में लिखने की कोशिश कर रहा हूं। मुझे विश्वास है आप सभी को यह पसंद आएगा 

मैं भास्कर चौमल हूं , मैंने 1992 में माध्यमिक परीक्षा उत्तीर्ण की थी। मुझे अपने स्वर्णिम साल में टांटिया हाई स्कूल का पूर्व छात्र होने पर गर्व है | उन वर्षों में, हमारे स्कूल ने कक्षा 10 के लिए 100% उत्तीर्ण परिणाम प्राप्त करना शुरू कर दिया

1986 से 1995 के दौरान अधिकांश छात्रों ने हमारे महान पुराने अच्छे शिक्षकों के साथ बहुत अच्छा समय बिताया। 1996 के बाद मैं ज्यादा ट्रैक नहीं रख सका, हालाँकि मैं अक्सर स्कूल जाता था। यह अफ़सोस की बात है कि, मुझे पिछले कुछ वर्ष स्कूल जाने का अवसर नहीं मिला

खोज इंजनों में, मुझे हमारे स्कूलों, शिक्षकों और छात्रों के बारे में वर्तमान गतिविधियों और अतीत के बारे में बहुत कुछ नहीं मिला। यह हमारे स्कूल को वेब पर डालने का एक छोटा कदम है।

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