THE 174th COMMEMORATIVE SERVICE OF THE FOUNDER MAJOR GENERAL CLAUDE MARTIN

by Brig SK RAYCHAUDHURI, VSM (Retd)

La Martiniere Kolkata

The Founder’s Day was held on 12 September this year, 13 September being a Sunday.

It is a warm feeling to see the School always whitewashed throughout the year and not resembling the historical and ancient Hampi ruins as it used to some years back. The field are also lush and well maintained, though this time of the year, the edges were muddy because of the rains. I mention this since the invitees move at such a leisurely gait that one could have a siesta and still not realise the difference in time and space and because of the mud, none can overtake!

My wife and I reached early, earlier than the Vice Principal (VP), so that we could get a ringside view of events. Alas, I was nearly sent to the rear of the hall since I was in my mess cap, blazer and medals in salute to entering the 175th year!! They must have thought I was some Black Cat Commando dressed so to blend with the environment; more so since this year I was sporting a huge military moustache! Civilians will be civilians; so much so, one nice lady congratulated me for the medals and said I must have been a good sportsman in school! It is great feeling to be congratulated for things one has not done, even though it is a tad embarrassing!

Being an early bird, I had a chance to oversee the scene. The only chap who was not properly attired was a fellow with a T Shirt, (photo attached), though I believe that it was a School T Shirt, Now, what if an ex boy became a fakir and landed up in loin cloth with school colours on? Food for thought! Nonetheless, there was otherwise an air of decorum and as also festivity. Improvement seems to have become catchy!

The School has two Music teachers, Ms Mercy Saldhana and Mr Vachagan Tadevosyan, the latter very enthusiastically conducted the Orchestra and the Choir (54 boys), while Ms Saldhana was at her best with the synthesiser. A great combination along with the Orchestra and the Choir!

The VP arrived and put the house in order. An efficient sort of a person and quite a jolly fellow! Whenever I have visited him, I found his office full of boys, chaprasis, and teachers, all being given instructions in crisp military manner. And I have also seen errant schoolboys requesting him to intercede before they are marched over to the Principal. I have also seen the Principal in action. He is a no nonsense man and has no qualms speaking his mind out, be it to school boys, teachers or even parents and is beyond political correctness – a trait (of being straight) that is vanishing in the world with alacrity! My daughter loves attending his PTA (my grandson is in the School) in spite of her busy schedule, since the Principal puts everyone in their place with all politeness. She chides me that why did I not have the polite firmness of the Principal! She does not realise that the Principal is a hill boy (Kurseong) charged with rarefied air! And I am the earthy chap!

At 12 Noon, the Procession trooped in to Mendelssohn’s ‘Lift Thine Eyes’. The School banner, House Banners, Teachers, the Principals of the Boys and Girls School, members of the Acting Board of Governors, Lt Gen John Mukherjee, PVSM, AVSM, VSM (Retd), the Chief Guest and an Alumnus of the School. Rt Revd Ashoke Biswas, the Bishop of Kolkata brought up the rear. The Bishop was resplendent in purple and looked majestic. Not a crease, not a drop of dal as it used to be the case with the last one! He does elicit respect and reverence of all!

The School Orchestra played Mozart’s ‘Duet’ and then Lt Gen John Mukherjee laid the wreath. The School bugles blew the calls. I must compliment Mr T Pitts that he has been able to train the boys to blow the bugle, which is not an easy instrument to master and requires lungs powered like bellows. A great job done, the School and Mr Pitts!

The Canticle, Let us Now Praise Famous Men by R Vaughan William was sung by the School Choir as lustily as ever and the Special Prayer for La Matiniere was delivered by Mr Chakravarthi, the Principal. The Prayers included a Prayer for Thanksgiving for our Founder, a Prayer for Founder’s Day, a prayer for La Martiniere Schools, Kolkata, Lucknow and Lyons and a Prayer for Old Martinians. The Prayers was concluded with the Lord’s Prayer.

The Scripture reading from Mark7: Verses 31 – 37 done, the Anthem ‘Mighty to Save’ was sung by the Boys’ School Choir. It was a real catchy tune and Mr Vachagan conducted the anthem with a high animated zeal! He was a pleasure to watch. Even the Hymn, ‘There shall be showers of blessing’ which followed the School Prayer and the Sermon by the Bishop, was real catchy. An irreverent chap later commented that we have graduated from country, blues, jazz to ‘disco pop’ and next time, we shall have rap! Notwithstanding, it was very refreshing and brought some liveliness into the blue illuminated hall.

In his Sermon, the Bishop of Kolkata emphasised on the art of listening and reminded us that we were gifted with the sense of hearing, but we are spiritually deaf and we don’t even listen to each other. He laid stress that one must be aware of hearing one’s own conscience! It was high in Morals. Anyone listening? Hopefully so!

After the Hymn was sung, the Blessing was given by the Bishop.

This was followed by the Presentation of the Founder’s Medals. Mercifully, the medals for all and sundry activities have been pruned to the old days wherein the Founder’s Gold Medal and the Good Conduct Medals are only given. However, there being the ICSE examination and ISC examination (three streams), four Gold Medals are given and so more than what was in our times.

The Chief Guest presented the medals to:

Subir Roy (Founder’s Gold Medal for ICSE)

Anirudh Mohta (Founder’s Gold Medal for ISC [Science])

Abishek Marwaha (Founder’s Gold Medal for ISC [Commerce])

Sourya Sengupta (Founder’s Gold Medal for ISC [Humanities])

Rishiraj Goenka (Founder’s Good Conduct Medal)

Harshveer Singh (The Best Sportsman Award for 2009)

(details given courtesy the Vice Principal, Mr Francis)

Mr S Chakravarthi, the Principal, also informed the audience that an Old Boys Association of Kolkata had presented a new bust of the Founder and the old one was now ensconced in the Round Chapel. He also announced with great pride that Mrs Peacock, the Girls School Principal, had been conferred with a National Award for Teachers by the President of India met with thunderous applause. Well done, Mrs Peacock! It does justice to your name and us! We are proud of you as peacocks!! There is a Hindi film song – Jungle men More nachhe – we are still dancing. It is all on the web, believe it or not!! You have done us proud!

Lt Gen John Mukherjee, in his address, highlighted the importance of character and the value system. He exhorted all to have ambition, faith in oneself which will help conquer world and a will to win. The General wove these issues with interesting details from Maj Gen Claude Martin’s own life as also from his own experience in school and army career. He spoke of how in this time there was a cosmopolitan and healthy fabric in our school, where there were 150 foreigners, 200 Anglo Indians, many Armenians, Parsis, Bengalis and other Indian denominations et al. He spoke of the days when there were not only boarders and day scholars but also day boarders. He reiterated that apart from academic excellence, it was paramount to play games and indulge in adventure activities since that went a long way to character building. His address was well received with prolonged applause. He emphasised that the Army required officers from La Martiniere! I concur!

Rev A Simick gave the vote of thanks.

The School Song and the National Anthem followed and was sung with great gusto and reverence

The Service being over, the guest trooped to the Round Chapel where the Heritage Club of the Boys School had put up a grand exhibition! Old boys like Leander Paes had sent his Olympic and other medals for display, while others sent memorabilia of their times (Photos enclosed). There were also write up by old boys of the life in their respective time. It was an exciting and haunting travel down memory lane. A very good exhibition and the Heritage Club deserve congratulations for a novel idea and hard work in contacting old boys and getting them to contribute for the show!

The Founder’s Dinner was held in the Girls School. The Staff and the senior old boys were served in the Millennium Hall, the recent old boys in the Lawrence Hall and Class XII in the foyer. This is the first time when Class XII boys were feted to a sit down dinner. The aim was to teach them the basic customs and etiquettes that govern eating at a banquet.

A person wondered as to why Lunch was called a Dinner. The answer is – a dinner is the chief meal of the day, either at midday or in the evening. The food that the School serves compared to the starving millions is more than dinner! It is a feast! The Americans eat a beggarly salad for lunch and that is hardly a chief meal! With that type of a meal, one would be Big Chief, with no something!!

Every year I partake in the Toast to the Founder and drink it. It tastes, every year without fail, like vinegar. This year, I raised the toast and gulped it in one shot. Lo and behold! It tasted like wine! I was so taken aback that I went up to the Vice Principal and congratulated him. He ran hotfoot and brought a lady teacher to me, Mr D’Silva who had organised it from Goa!! Thank you all; more so Mrs D’Silva for making my day.

I am a small eater and so I just nibble and 0130 hours is too early a meal time for me, since in the Army, it was never before 1500 hours or near-about. My wife, who is a moderate eater, informs me that the lunch served by the School is fantastic (could it be the reason why she attends our Founder’s Days?)! I have appended a photo of the lunch given. You be the judge! There was soup, chicken roast, pilaf, bread, Russian salad, potato salad, fish fry, brownie and ice cream. My wife, who is a Loreto girl, always feels that we La Martiniere chaps (the ‘ iere’ pronounced ‘air’) are full of air ! Yet, she is the first to admit that it is when she sees such elaborate ‘rituals’ at the Founder’s Day (not the food alone!), she has to admit, that there is class and good reasons to be full of ‘air’!

Every year, I decide that with the traffic getting chaotic annually I will no longer attend and yet this ‘air’ blows me to the School’s way and how can I disappoint you all in the UK and Australia by not giving you a blow by blow account of the proceedings, which I am sure you would love to attend, but for the distance.

As an aside, in the La Martiniere Calcutta vs Lucknow meet, Calcutta won hands down every event!

Vive La Martiniere!!