Some latest photos to cheer for Tantia High School

 

Sanskrit Prayer of Tantia High School

ॐ विश्वानि देव सवितर्दुरितानि परासुव*। *यद् भद्रं तन्न आ सुव*

ॐ हिरण्यगर्भः समवर्तताग्रे भूतस्य जातः पतिरेकासीत ।
स दाधार पृथ्वीं ध्यामुतेमां कस्मै देवायहविषा विधेम ॥

य आत्मदा बलदा यस्य विश्व उपासते प्रशिषं यस्यदेवाः ।
यस्य छायामृतं यस्य मर्त्युः कस्मै देवायहविषा विधेम ॥

यः प्राणतो निमिषतो महित्वैक इद्राजा जगतो बभूव ।
य ईशे अस्य द्विपदश्चतुष्पदः कस्मै देवाय हविषाविधेम ॥

येन दयौरुग्रा पर्थिवी च दर्ळ्हा येन सव सतभितं येननाकः ।
यो अन्तरिक्षे रजसो विमानः कस्मै देवायहविषा विधेम ॥

परजापते न तवदेतान्यन्यो विश्वा जातानि परि ताबभूव ।
यत्कामास्ते जुहुमस्तन नो अस्तु वयं सयाम पतयोरयीणाम ॥

ॐ भूर्भुवः स्वः
तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यं
भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि
धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात् ॥

:)

See this Instagram photo by @ https://www.instagram.com/p/CYwibMsMARi/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Tiffin Time of Tantia High School

As mentioned earlier, we were allowed a 45 minutes tiffin break after the 4th period. Students of class 5 to 7 used to utilised the tiffin time as -  10 minutes for eating and remaining time for playing and talkings. 

Sometimes, we used to play cricket in our class keeping light bulbs and fans under switch off mode. A handkerchief was converted in to a cricket ball and a ruler (scale) was used like a cricket bat. I Can't explain, it was a great time. However, just after 45 minutes, Prefects, Captain of the houses started to enter in to classes and they were always mean especially with the boys of class 5 to 8.

Some of the Prefects were nervous from the students who used to be their classmates i.e. such classmates ( Students who failed previously) got equal weight and fighting skills. Hence prefects could manage them through their voices only or in extreme cases ..those prefects could use the intervention of Captain or Vice Head Boy. 

Headboys used to be the boss of our schools. Headboys got enormous respect in our school. I remember our head boy Ram Gopal Bajaj.... the perfect head boy ...after that no headboy could ever matched his personality. There were loopholes in selection of headboys... will tell story in some other boy.. lets concentrate on our lunch break.

So those prefects could use their striking skills on babies like me... who could neither fight with them nor could go to I D Singh Sir.... never mind....

I remember an instance that one of our prefects "Pradeep Singh" of class IX- C in 1988, came to our class during tiffin hours after receiving some allegations from one of my class mates. Some boys created super sonic voice in the class and prefects came to our class. He beaten up 7 to 8 boys ... Pradeep was my Prayer mate on the stage ...so I dared to ask.. "Bhai mera kya kasoor hai...... badmashi kisi aur ne kee aur pit gaya mai.... " then I listened a proverb for the first time from his mouth ..."Hamare U.P. me ek kahawat hai... Gehu ke sath Dhoon bhi Pisa Jata hai .... " I could not understand that meaning.. so he told that there is a bacteria inside the Wheat Grain and that bacteria is also crushed during processing of flour from wheat..... Asshole.... I could not understand it on that day.

So ... Tiffin....

we were not allowed to eat in our class or on the floors... we were allowed to eat in the Assembly Hall, or in the corridors or in the ground floor. However, when we attained seniority ..i.e. Class X ... we never went downstairs to eat except when there was a need of some Kachoris or Singharas or Moodi... otherwise Class X students of all the 3 sections used to eat in the class after closing the door.

There was one Moodiwala, One Falwala , One Idli Wala and One Kachoriwala. Kachoriwala hailed from Bikaner...he used to sell a kachori by mixing curd and masala.... I think we never got that taste back at any other places. However, never to forget .. there was an icecream seller outside the school and we could purchase those ice creams from the corner of the school mate... it was a smuggling. But that ice cream got taste.

The students of nearby localities could make an ID card and they could go to their homes to eat and comeback before closure of tiffin hour. If somebody comes late..his house marks would be deducted and he would be presented before the house master. Those things I have already mentioned in earlier blogs.

Hence, there was a process of review of attendance in the beginning of the fifth period i.e. just after the lunch. Teachers used to take attendance in their own way... specially by S N Pathak who was a Sanskrit and Hindi Teacher but always used to take attendance in English. Our life science teacher had a unique style ..... he always said... Apne Daayen aur Baayen dekh lo ..koi missing hai kya ..? (check your classmate in the right or left ..if anybody is missing, please let me know) . In my class nobody were ever dared to be absent... that means we never heard an incidence that somebody went out of the school during tiffin hours. Fifth Period attendance was strictly followed.

When we used to go down during tiffin hours ... it was Mr. S S Ram (Ram Babu) who always stood at the end of the stairs on the corridor ... we used to salute him like Army men and he was happy to see boys. It was the discipline of Tantia that we could not break lines not even on a single day. When Ram Babu Retired.... Mr. K N Singh Second ( P T Teacher) took over the responsibility from Ram Babu and he used to present when students came to take their lunch on the ground floor.

The tiffin time was 12:45 AM to 1:30 PM during 1986 to 1992... and it was same for next 10 to 12 years... so far as i know and tiffin time of Primary Section (Day) used to break at 1:15 PM ... so secondary section students and Primary Day section students used to take lunch at the same time. So why I am telling this.... ? Primary Students were taught by Ladies teachers.... Some of em were very young ..in their twenties and some were in their thirties.... some of our school teachers used to be present during Tiffin hours to watch those ladies teachers or to talk with them. I am not blaming anybody ...all were young and there was nothing wrong :) :) in it. Some teachers were quite habituated and they always tried to impress our ladies teachers of Primary Section. ..I will tell the name of those teachers... but one of them was quite smart to impress ladies.

Those students who were privileged to go home to take lunch ... students used to pay some paise or Rupees to buy some SUPARI, PAN PARAG, OR CHOCOLATES from outside... obviously with a mandatory cut.

There are some more interesting individual stories.... will tell ... enjoy .. and god bless u ..




See this Instagram photo by @ https://www.instagram.com/p/CYwibMsMARi/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Break Time of our school

During our school days we used to enjoy two small breaks and one tiffin time . The first break was after second period in the morning and second small break after the seventh period and before the eighth (final) period. The duration of such breaks were 10 minutes which were always welcome and relief providing time. The first break was quite helpful to complete homework which could be checked by the teacher in the 3rd period or 4th period. But the main attraction of such breaks were

• sharing vulgar to high level vulgar jokes among friends
• meeting friends studying in the other sections 
• reading comics against the rules of our school
• talking about our teachers , creating jokes for them 
• sneaking through windows of the class rooms
• talking to our peons and making fun of them. Our peons were Satyanarayan (a big time asshole), Pandey, Shaw ji, Suraj and Kishori Lal

In the second break ... the most important activities were 

• playing cricket or any other games in our class rooms
• taking aims with Chalk pieces to persons taking tea and eatings toasts at the shop of SHEETAL TOAST.... what an incredible test of toast. I still enjoy whenever I am around. Now a days his son is taking care of the shop and he still remembers me. 
• some times we used to abuse people arbitrarily
• dance in the class with music from mouth and class benches. One of my class mate used to dance on the songs of Madhuri Dixit of the movie Saajan and sometimes on the songs of Shilpa Shirodkar dancing rain (Kahni thee ek baat , magar mai kah nahi paati hoon..........) and somebody from our friends used to grab him like Mithun Chakrvarti
• Sometimes we used to sing together ...  4-5 boys at the same time for the songs of Jeene Ki Raah (Aaane se uske , aaye bahar..... although the song was very old for us but those were equally famous in 1980s and 1990s) 

Second break was famous for fighting and taking vendettas with school friends who complained against us to a teacher. From class V to VIII - our monitors , prefects, captains were show spoilers and started to burst the drum of discipline. Some of them were truly assholes. I still remember  their name but now those assholes look like elder brothers and now I cannot abuse them.... 

In class IX and X we got fearless. No Prefect and Captain dared to show us discipline. 

from class V to VIII , the last period belonged to additional subject ... G K and Moral Science and no teacher used to teach us as the marks were never added. However after 1994, the rules were changed and marks would be added if some body scores more than 34 in the subject. 

In Classes 9 to 10 ...the last period were important ones... like Hindi, History, Book Keeping, Additional Maths etc. So seriously we studied. 

i still miss those breaks ...... do you ??? Please write your comments below

https://advertisingpublicity.blogspot.com/

BHULE NA BHULAYE - Class VII Hindi Story Book of Tantia High School

Tantia High School always tried to impart value based education. In class V, we used to read Bal Ramayan and in class VII we had one book - भूले न भुलाये written by Shri Rameshwarlal Tantia ,  our founder of the School and a renowned social worker of Rajasthan and Kolkata. Each and every story of the book is helpful in character building of any kid.

The best part was - the book was taught by Shri S N Pathak. He taught the book with full devotion and with complete seriousness. We were asked and to answer only one question out of 15 chapters and that question was fixed from the first chapter जीवन की उपलब्धि।  but it was S N Pathak who was very much serious to teach each and every line of the complete syllabus within time and he asked hundred times about the description of main character of each and every story. However in other section the book was taught by other teachers with least importance. I remember at least 70% of the entire content.
 The book is not available in the market and not available on Google also. Believe it has one of the greatest story books for class VII. It changes heart if somebody remembers the stories.

A few pages for your lovely recollection .and on demand ... I have posted one chapter of the book

https://hindusthanproblems.blogspot.com

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..