Hindi Antakshari of Tantia High School

Caveat : Grammar mistakes... first cut only

Antakshari has been one of the most popular inter house competitions in Tantia High School. We all knew that serious efforts are bestowed by house teachers, students, Principal and other teachers to make the event successful and useful. 

Antakshari was played once in a year somewhere between first term and second term of examinations. We enjoyed 6 Hindi Antakshari competition in our school during class V to Class X. We used to get notice of Antakshari a month before the competition date post which the preparations for the competition got kicked off. 

Some memoirs ---  to the extent I remember ---

Selection Process

• The first step was selection of good candidates. This was not a tough task for house teachers. They know which boy was a good orator and a good learner of Hindi poems. There were a few methods to select best candidates : Top rankers from all the classes from class V to X. Some good examples were Om Prakash Damani, Rabindra Agarwal, Manish Didwania, Dinesh Vyas,Ramakant Holani, Vinod Singh Rathore, Ajay Singhi, Nigmanand Ojha, etc. ... those were bright students hence they were quite obvious choices. Secondly, those candidates who used to be great singer in the class , they were also picked up. Teachers used to listen films songs and Bhajan in the classes provided I D Singh was not expected on school rounds. So they knew exactly which boy could earn more points. Thirdly, the boy who could memorize and orate as many as poems. So it was a fair selection process The group was a great mix of students... class V to X -- boys great in studies and good singers but not good in studies. But one thing was common , everybody used to be determined to play his role at best.
• Eight to Nine boys were selected to prepare for learning of poems. however only 4 boys from each house could make it to final 4 on the stage. Hence we could see 16 students on the dice for reciting the poems. 
• For Shivaji House, S K Bhattacharya was very tough in selection. He always invited candidates from class V to VII but always interested to give chance mostly to students from class  VIII to X. Every year he used to say non selected students that you will recite poems in the next year but he always had a good back up team if somebody does not come up on the final day. However, S P Pandey of Vidyasagar House , A Pandey of Raman House and R Singh First of Pratap House were quite liberal in the final selection. They always preferred junior candidates of class VI to VIII who can attract judges and entire school. 
• R Singh First was always adamant ... whatever be the competition (except sports) Manish Didwania was his obvious choice... and Manish never let him down. S P Pandey preferred to select candidates with good memories and speaking abilities. So his candidates during 1986 to 1982 could not do miracles much. However, story was a bit different for Raman House. A Pandey was not very serious in inter house affairs... he used to rely more on senior boys but luckily he had good orators like Pawan Bhatia and Dheeraj Khattry. 
• Dheeraj Khattry was a great choice. The boy was short heighted , very captivative, naughty features but most importantly ... he is a good speaker and reciter of poems. He was a surprise package in the year 1988 and the boy got famous in the first year of his secondary school years. His elder brother Vikash was our batchmate. Dheeraj always participated in the events of Antakshari, Debates and other competitions. 
• Pawan Bhatia was the permanent member of the Raman House team. Fate played a vital role in making him famous. The story is very interesting. During 1987, a Hindi Debate competition was held in our school. Extra speakers and mikes were taken on rent from outside vendors. Some 4 to 5 speakers deliberated their speech and suddenly there was a load shedding, mikes were dead, no light no clear sound and eventually everybody in the assembly hall lost interest in the debate due to lack of light and rising temperature. But the competition was not stopped, boys were coming and speaking... suddenly Pawan Bhatia came and started to deliver his speech without mike at the loudest of his voices and everybody in the hall got silenced and started to listen his speech. The boy became hero and got first prize in that competition. There were better speakers but they were not louder. A clear case of blessings in disguise... but Pawan Bhatia was the right choice. Pawan joined me in the daily prayer team at stage. 

Antakshari day ... 

• The last four periods post tiffin time were reserved for Antakshari. Everybody were supposed to sit on the mattress in the assembly hall. Class V students always got first rows followed by class V... and class X students in the last of the rows. Class VIII and IX students used to give harder times to prefects , captains of the houses. Most of the annoying students were ex-classmates of prefects and captains ... they were of same age but due to their failures they lagged behind to clear class X. Some teachers used to enter in to halls with thin sticks and such boys were beaten up by teachers after that they could be silenced. 

I am writing now in present tense ... 

• All 16 students come on the stage. They sit on the benches on the stage behind special invitees on the stage. 
• The proceedings are always started by S K Mishra... such a thankless job... Always he was the first and last to speak in all the programmes. He was the first and the last choice of our principal to play the role of 'sutradhar' 
• First of all he invites our principal , then Mr. K N Singh First ... one of the senior most History teacher of our school on the stage. 
• Then two judges were invited to take their seat . The seats of judges were always set up in the hall so that they can see the poem reciters. Those two judges were our great Hindi teachers.. N  N Mishra and KP Mishras. They ruled over our school in teaching Hindi for a number of years. They were best...but not very useful for our students. They made Hindi non interesting and fearsome for students. They could make Hindi easier and interesting but perhaps they assumed it to be against their ego. 
• Finally, every year... S K Mishra always invited an ex teacher of our School to be an additional judge on the stage. His name was Mr. K Pandey. We were told that he remembered hundreds of poems in his life time. We always listened some great stories about him.... he was a great teacher of Mathematics and Physics. So he was a permanent invitee for the competition. It was his love for his school and employer who attracted him always to play some role during his retirement.
• Rules : Maximum four can participate from each house and one boy cannot recite more than 4 poems... some 3 to 4 minutes time limit was set up for a poem. Film songs were restricted. The boys has to speak his name and house... then he can recite. S K Mishra always requested students not to clap after the poem but who cares. Those who recites well they were rewarded with clappings. 

Fun 

• Funniest part was .. some boys always forgot their poems due to which they were indivially penalized and their house got lesser marks
• Objections from other houses was also a regular feature.... say for example if a boy finishes his poem at a particular letter Say 'S'.. The next boy has to start the poem from the letter 'S' ... that was an area of manipulations. There was a story.....Raman House got the word 'G' to speak ... Dheeraj Khatri came and started to orate...' Gadhe Hi Gadhe Hain, Udhar Bhi Gadhe hain.....' the poem was funny and everybody aimed to orate the poem.... but actually the poem was supposed to be started by 'Idhar Bhi Gadhe hain.. Udhar Bhi Gadhe hain..' .... Dheeraj was stopped and not allowed to complete the poem... somebody else from Raman House came and orated a poem starting from the letter 'G'. But next year ... Dheeraj came and completed this poem. Our judges were never impressed by junior candidates ...they were pukka Hindi Bhakt... so they used to give marks only on the pronunciation, oratory skills and good poems. 
• N N Mishra was always happy with Ajay Singhi...... as the later knew N  N Mishra likes modern Hindi Poems... which cannot be sung rather they are spoken like speeches... i.e. Gadyatmak Kavya. He got individual first prize in the year 1991 and Shivaji house won. 
• Anshuman Singh was the boy from Pratap House... he orated a poem... Ranbhir Chaukri Bhar Bhar ke Chetak Ban Gaya Nirala Tha... Rana Pratap Ke Ghode Se  Pal Gaya Hawa Ka Pala tha .... The boy became famous and we came to know we have one more good singer around us. The boy was taken in the team of daily prayer team within a week by Pawan Bhatia. Good choice. 
• Om Prakash Damani ... one of the most brilliant students of our school .... he was great in orating poems and he never forgot what he remembered.. 
• Rabindra Agarwal, Vinod Singh Rathore , Damani etc were favourites of S K Mishra and N  N Mishra..Rabindra and Vinod won many prizes for Shivaji House and Damani for Raman House. 
• Vidya Sagar House could not give much impact in Antakshari competition. In the Antakshari of 1990... one of the contestant, Nigmanand Ojha,  got fever in between the competition so he was replaced by Krishna Bihari Ojha. That year was bad for Vidya Sagar House. 
• Some of the important poems which always used to be listened .... ' Himalay ' of Dinkar ... Kalam aur Talwar by Dinkar.... Din Jaldi Jaldi Dhalta Hai.. by Harivansh Rai Bachhan... etc. 
• Now once everybody finishes their part... it was time to listen the score. The scores were announced within half an hour... but we had to listen our principal and Mr. K Pandey on the importance of poems. By that time students used to lose their patience.... and everybody just started to cry for results. ... S K Mishra never got opportunity to speak full length Bhasan during any programme. He just played the role of connector. I am sure he could give lights a lot on every topic. But he always knew that students lost interest to listen anything by anybody except results.
• The score sheets prepared by K P Mishra, N N Mishra and K Pandey were always given to the permanent Auditors... D N Jha and Y Singh. Probably they were honest in counting marks... we never felt any preferential markings to student. 
• Results were announced by S K Mishra only .... He used to announce Third, Second and then First.. The house which won the competition... every member of the house felt pride on the same day and on the next day. We used to talk a lot about speakers and prizes.. 

Antakshari had a clear objective .... students should know what are the good poems and interest of boys should be created..There were a lot of good memories attached to such competitions. will write..

I D Singh - The person who left impact on us !! - Part 1

Whenever I think about a headmaster or the Principal of a school of my kids or we see a principal in movies, talking about teachers... its quite natural that I do remember our very own headmaster Mr. I D Singh of Tantia High School. The baton of the school was transferred from Mr. H S Sharma Ji to Mr. I D Singh during late 70s (correction required). We all heard that , Mr. H S Sharma was very popular in non Bengali schools of Kolkata. He was a personality with a good speaking ability, an idol of discipline and one of the best education guide. When he retired, it was a tough decision to transfer the burden to a person who could run the show and get fit in to the shoes of Mr. Sharma. But, what we heard and experienced, I D Singh was proved to be a person of different league and he created his own shoe and his retirement has filled up a vacuum which could never be filled up and till now the school is suffering. Forget about post I D Singh era, we may discuss some other time, but currently I am motivated to write something about our great principal. I dont know his current status but I am using past tense to glorify him :

• Full name of I D Singh is "Indra Dev Singh" but how could he be an exception ... school boys gave him another name ...Idli Dosa Sambar... but nobody dared to call him by this name.
• We heard that he was an ex serviceman and had a military background. A tall and handsome man. Always used to be the first person to arrive at school and the last person to leave the school. But there were great students like Sanjay Chamaria and Prakash Das of section C who sometimes used to reach school prior to ID Singh. Those students had different objectives to arrive school at first. Will discuss later...
• I D Singh never came to school in chappals. He was the teacher with least absence on account of bad health or any other reasons. His best outfit was cream Safari and it suited him most.His shoes were always polished. 
• During H S Sharma ji's reign, he used to teach History but later on he confided himself to Hindi Sahitya Ka Itihas. Our senior boys used to be his students. From class V to X , I never saw him taking any class or setting any paper for exams. He was a full time headmaster and left teaching for his last 10 to 15 years of service. 
• He was a voracious reader and a regular subscriber of Dharmyug. He used to sit in the second floor and his entire office was visible from staircases. Either he used to read a book , magazine , talking to teachers, guardians or used to prepare for a lecture. 
• I D Singh was a great orator. Monday morning was fixed for him to speak in the assembly hall after the prayer. His speech was always long and I could never understand the inner meaning of his lecutres. Only our teachers could understand the gravity but those were also least interested to listen but they were forced to be present in the hall and listen to Headmaster. Although I could not understand the meaning of his speeches in Hindi but yes... there was a feel that our principal was a great speaker. He used to speak on current issues like "Kaveri Jal Vivad" , " Kashmir Conflict" , " Saddam Hossain" , "Gulf War -1 " , some great noble persons, Disciplines..etc etc. etc. 
• I was one of the team members of the morning prayer team. Only we could see, that our Headmaster also used to sing all the prayers with us with no exception. His lips always used to sing " War De Vinavadini", "Watan ki Raah me" , "Himadri Tung Shring Se" , "Saare Jahan Se Acha" , "Chisti ne jis Jami ko" and on Saturday .... our National Anthem. Prior to these poems we used to chant 7 Sanskrit Slokas .... and those were also sung by I D Singh. May be some ex students do not believe.. but it was an established fact.My fellow team members are witness.

• Our school was Hindi medium but the rules, regulations, discipline were not lesser than a convent school. Every year school used to visit a hill station or somewhere else. It was the period of I D Singh during which the school visited Kashmir. He took school's students and teachers to the residence of the then chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir , Dr. Farooq Abdullah. We saw the picture in annual magazine "UDAY". In that picture, Rajeev Khandelwal was also visible ... hope he remembers. I would be glad if Rajeev can bring such picture. 
• He used to start his speech by saying "Pyare Bachoon" ... he always believed on his students like his family members. He knew the internal abilities of his children. His most loved students, what I saw, were Ram Gopal Verma ( our Head Boy of 1986) , Rama Kant Holani, Rabindra Agarwal, Pawan Bhatia, Vinod Singh Rathore, Vineet and Vikash Khaitan, Manish Didwania, etc etc. 
• His favourite teachers were S K Mishra, D N Jha, Y Singh, P Tripathi, K Singh, B Pandey , N N Mishra, K P Mishra. We could see :) nobody liked him.. I D Singh could play with anybody at any point of time. He could burst out at any student or any teacher. He was a shrewd leader and a perfectionist, never compromising character but most caring person in Tantia. I remember sometimes water supply could be suspended by corporation due to repairing of pipes or any other reasons, But it was the respect of I D Singh .. our senior boys used to bring drums and buckets of water from nearby buildings like 3 No. or street tube wells. All senior boys used to bring water for junior students and we used to drink from Jugs without touching lips. I think most of my friends could have forgotten such stories. 

I D Singh's story cannot be finished in one page... I shall write the blog in parts... Enjoy this one , Refresh your memory , Do remember your Principal ..... till next blog page..

Mr. J K Singh

Full name of J K Singh was "Jhar Khande Singh".. it was a peculiar name. When I heard the name,  I could not believe that its his name as every body had given him a name "Jalebi Kachodi Singhara". Now I can correlate "Jharkhand" with his name

When I came to Secondary section i.e. class V , J K Singh was the class teacher of 6B. A man of very short height , always smiling, used to wear Dhoti Kurta and clean by heart. He used to teach English in that class. His core competence was History but he also used to teach English in junior classes. On one day, our 6C and 6A sat together in 6A (first floor) as most of our teachers went to Victoria ground for Annual School Sports preparation. He was teaching History and topic was "Pharaoh" i.e. King of Egypt ( Chapter was under "Misr Ki Sabhyata" ). For the first time in class 6 , somebody was teaching History in his own words. In our 6C , R S Rai used to teach history and he used to read the book as it is without value addition. Quite possible, R S Rai used to think that a lecture may not be useful for a class 6 boy. But on the contrary, in other section i.e. class 6A , a teacher was giving lecture on Egypt and Pharaohs. I still remember, he told that Pyramids were built up before Christ and Pharaos had different god. They were not Christians. It was his lecture which created a spirit in me to visit Egypt and see Pyramids. Finally , I managed to visit  Pyramids twice in the year of 2008 and spent time in Egypt. Tantia High School was very fortunate to have such a hard work teachers who used to teach students full syllabus. 

J K Singh , no doubt, was pure from heart. Sometimes, he used to beat student without fear but ultimately he loved students of the school. We always used to Pranaam him and senior students used to create mockery of him due to his short height, bald face but no students criticized him. I do not think he had any enemy.

I do remember that J K Singh delivered his speech on the next day of the death of General Zia Ul Haq of Pakistan. We all were not sad and even he was not sad.. but he was bound to express his condolence on the death of General Zia. But just after his expressing condolences, we students reacted with smile and laugh... he accepted that Indians are least concerned on the death but he had to speak on it for one minute as a gesture of gentleman. Then he continued on his speech on other topic.

http://tantiahighschool.blogspot.in/2015/09/whats-app-groups-of-tantia-high-school.html

Whats App Groups of Tantia High School - 1992 batch

The batch of 1992 are still in touch. Regularly boys are exchanging messages and enjoy. Sometimes they just create fun of each other and sometimes they just keep on writing anything. Sometimes quiz then sometimes messages touching heart. Recently , a unique thing was observed... Dr. Siddhartha's son is studying in Miranda House Kankurgachi. There was an informal competition that which student gets highest number of likes at facebook. Siddharth appealed ...and we group members took it as a mission.... it was amazing to see that people were taking interest religiously and their spirit was telling that we need to make Siddhartha's son the winner. Interesting Sanjay Kulthia advertised it as his own son and got some hilarious comments from his friend circle :) :) There were a few serious member who were updating us with the latest numbering ... like Vikash ... he was religiously updating. I smelt that we all would be happy if Mayank wins.


In that group the lively members are Sunil Chapparia who ensures that nobody should forget that we all are men !! He keeps on sending messages and photos .... some of them are the best collections .. award winning collections.....


The main promoters of both the groups are Vikash Khattry and Pawan Gupta..... the group talks a lot but nobody talks about school... no hassles  atleast boys are still in touch. Even after more than an year.. we could not manage to add everybody .. there was a talk to amalgamate both the groups but could not be possible .. the reason is still to explore.


The khinchtani of Sunil Saraogi and Sunil Chapparia have lessened these days. There are many drink lovers and they just keep on sending photos of their images with bottles and glasses... their eyes tell they are enjoying drinks with old buddies....

Friends post their vacation pics, share proud moments when their children do something good, we send RIP messages if a member loses any family member. We sometimes work together to vote at facebook for a competition , then we sell extra IPL matches tickets .... these are good things of our group.


Sometimes , we see Ego clash also. Recently there were sharp arguments between Amit Sharma and Vikash Khattry.

With the passing of years.. our friends have developed habits to consume Alcohol and they just praise each other for posting pics with Rum , Whisky, Wine.

Keep the groups alive and keep on sending comments boss..

http://tantiahighschool.blogspot.in/2017/05/mr-j-k-singh.html

Top five exciting events of Tantia High School

Our school was very much successful in organising events. Students were trained to a great extent in participating and organising small to big events. Principal also takes active participation in small to big events. Top five events of our school were


1 Annual School Sports
2. Annual function
3. Independence Day / Republic Day
4. Saraswati Puja
5. Antakshari


Great events !! Still refreshed in our memories !!

Diary of Meeting on 15 August 2014 - Batch of 92

Rendezvous with old friends on 15 August 2014 was quite exciting. I met , Sunil Saraogi , Chapparia & Ginoria, Prakash, Pawan, Anish, Ashok, Manish Choudhary, Didwania & Thakkar, Sanjay, Rahul, Jitender, Alok, Anand, Ajay, Sandeep, Dr. Sid, Vikash Modi and Khattry, etc etc etc. Thanks for Vikash Khattry to invite me as I was not on  Watsapp !!

We met just outside Bhikharam Kankurgachi and waited for more frenz. Our meeting was quite good and as usual typical Tantia type conversation were being listened from people. In nutshell , all are still same.

• Jain brought Roses for everybody. Thanks bhai... 
• Anish maintained his weight :) neither put on more  nor lost 
• Didwania &  Alok have maintained their charming face. They are still in their twenties
• Dr. Sid was not showing his clinical abilities during our meeting, he looked to be an Alumni of good old Tantia
• Jitender and Ashok - host of the party. Big heart they have and that's good !!
• 
  
• Manish Thakkar , the person whose appearance completely changed. 
• Anand was lost in his dark googles but looked smart
• Sanjay Jain appeared to be more civilised than his school days .....
• Manish Chaudhary ..... as expected .... did not change and perhaps never change. 
• Pawan doing PR.... he left after kachori meeting
• Samir Saraogi -- we need some more guys like him who bind everybody in a chain 
• Sunil Chapparia ... the guy does not speak like he appears to be on Whats app... looked good and still has boyish look. Congrats buddy
• Sunil Ginoria .......fantastic face... he did not recognise me ....also did not put on weight. I beat him in gaining weight 
• Sandeep Bhansali still holds the same smile on his face as it used to be during school days. His smile said he was very happy to meet all of us. 
• Rahul Sonthalia .... his neck was in bad shape.. I hope he is completely fine. 
• Ajay Chaudhary - hhhhhhh , he should leave his beard. Otherwise everything else was good. 
• Vikash -  came late .........Boss leave Pan Parag or Rajni Sajni Gandha ( Ganda ) , it kills your communication skill and interrupts in your speaking abilities ( that means, Public Chutia nahi banegi ). Now he is very matured and gained lots of experience , it appears :)
• Prakash -- I reminded him that we had a fight in school but he forgot me so how could he remember the fight. His face did not change much
• Manish Jalan - Still he has the same lambai and patli kamar !! 
• Vikash Modi - Looked good and Same

Boss not writing for others ......forgot names ..........hope after one or two meetings I shall update this page with the memories of 15 Aug 2014

Manish Didwania and others proposed to go to "NASHTA" in gully behind Bhikahram to have Kachori and Jalebi as it appeared to impossible to enjoy in closely confined Bhikharam. We were not able to abuse each other, cannot talk in our Tantia Style .... So decided to eat Kachori Sabzi and Jalebi in Nastha. The plan was good

Went to Nastha and others joined... Good hot club Kachories with Alu Ka Saag and Garma Garam Jalebis. Jitender , Ashok pl.ayed the role of host. We enjoyed round after round of Jalebi and Kachoris !! 

People were talking about the changed appearance of Manish Thakkar and  Youth of Anand Sancheti. We witnessed forgettable talks between Manish Didwania and Manish Chaudhry. 

Friends appeared to be more inclined on having liquor and they were talking about the evening liquor / cocktail party at Salt lake. 

Enter Khattry ...... he was given a fresh plate of Kachori and we all listened him

Nastha was blessed on that day !! 

Then we all went to have tea at Haryana Sweets near Phool Bagan. There every body on the road were staring at us as some of us came in old form. The voice of us was so loud that it was attracting the attention of people passing. 

People were talking about their common colleagues in previous and current jobs, sharing info about each other. Frenz enjoyed a small argument on Shuddh Hindi sentences between me and Manish. We all reminded Manish that he was once a head boy of Tantia High School. The only headboy who became headboy in the mid of the year after the forced expulsion of a bad working headboy. Manish was not happy to be reminded about those story..

We took some phtographs and departed........photos now on Facebook ....... 

Perhaps some more meetings like this........in near future..........

Incorporation of an Alumni association of Tantia High School

Dear Frenz,

Please send your ideas to incorporate an alumni association of Tantia High School . You all must be associated with good and reputed organisation. Kindly share your thoughts to establish a good association for we alumni.

The ideas shall be around :

1. Objectives
2. Name of the organisation
3. Governing Body - name of the members , Chairman , president, VP.
4. Forms
5. Fees
6. Activities
7. Development of School
8. Meetings
9. Scholarships and schemes
10. Ideas to attract more students
11. Honour of our old beloved teachers
12. Help to old teachers in case of need
13. Help to our old freinds in case of need
14. Periodical meetings in our school
15. Events of Alumni
16. Web site
17. Accounts, audit, election , programmes, etc.

etc . etc .etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

The most important thing.......... huge number of members and their presence........

Please send your all valuable suggestions...........

You may keep on sending good ideas. at this blog or at the email ID of Vikash Khatry ..which shall be posted in facebook in coming days.......


:)

Yours Bhaskar