R.S.Rai - Tough man History teacher

Our one of the History teachers Mr. R.S.Rai ( Ram Sapath Rai) was on the toughest teachers of our school. He never shared with us a single moment of his life. He was never informal with any student and never asked tuitions !! He was a true and royal rai Saheb. He possessed good rapport with colleagues specially with H.R.Jha and D.N.Jha. But he was very cruel with students. His favourite weapon was " Duster" , once he started , it was impossible to stop him. Once he beat a boy , he could not sleep in the night. But it did not change him. In section B of class IX and X , he used to teach history. He used to bring an old history book and used to read fastly. Students named him " 80 word / minute". Once he fell down from his chair and a student laughed ( he was his relatives , though) but he was not merciful on him and he had to pay for his smile.
His way of delivering speech in the assembly hall was very unique. From his right hand , he holds the mike and never lefts till the completion of speech. From class V to X , we were fortunate to listen him atleast ten times , but he always used to pick one revolutionery patriot of pre independance India , whose description was not available in our text books. Always, he was very agressive while speaking ...... he starts with .....Pyaare bacchon , tumne Vinayak chapekar ka naam suna hoga, wo ek mahan krantikari thaa............................. log jel jaane lage, rail ki patriyaan ukhadi jaane lagin, videshi kapade jalaye jaane lage, sarkari daftaron me aag lagayi jaane lagi.......... were common in all of his speeches. We enjoyed a lot. Once , one of the teachers told to my freind, jab bhi ham log ko nasta karna hota hai, hum Rai sahab ko hi to khojte hain ,sabse pahle nastha karenge, paisa denge aur taxi pakdenge........
In class V he was our english Grammar teacher and taught only 50 % of his times, but syllabus was completed. His way of taking attendence was also unique.... he used to get excited while taking attendence .......one , twoooo, threeeeee, for,fiveee, six,sebun, at, nine , ten, elebun, tuwelve, thirty, forty, fifty,sixty,seventy,eighty,ninety, tuwenty, ...............and so on......with a lot of pressure in his voice. In class VI .. he was our history teacher, .. the best teacher to put signature .. he never saw the last page .... just put corrections and sign.......never read the copy ... not even in examinations.......... One of my class mate... Jitendra Jain ....wrote about Maharana Pratap in the question of Shivaji in Pre test examinations , he got maximum marks for that question and he shew us , as we could see our Pre Test copies.......... God bless our teachers...... one thing was clear , he loved school and he loved India.

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.