Question :

Q : When we were student of Tantia , there was no Higher Secondary section . Suppose if there would be class XI and XII , would you take admsission to Shree Jain, Maheshwari, Xavier's, Shree Digamber jain , lawrence.......etc etc.....

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 🙂