THE INCOMPARABLE LOYOLA HIGH SCHOOL AND THE CLASS OF 1966

SCHOOLDAY MEMORIES

EARLY DAYS

Loyola High School and Junior College is a Jesuit school situated in Pashan, Pune, India. The school opened in June 1961, offering primary, secondary, and pre-college education. Its name comes from St. Ignatius of Loyola, a sixteenth-century saint who was recognised for his devotion to education and is best known for founding the Society of Jesus (SJ). Loyola High School is run by Jesuit priests and welcomes students from all ethnic, cultural, and economic backgrounds. 

All priests are Indian, since priests from overseas aged below 65 were asked to leave when unfounded charges of proselytisation were levelled against them by stupid and paranoid local and central government agencies. This was a colossal loss to students in general and selfless education as a whole. Absorbing this setback, the school was upgraded to a Junior College in the 90s.  

Loyola High School and Junior College is an English medium institution but requires Marathi and Hindi as compulsory languages up to the Class VIII. High school students have the option of taking German in lieu of Marathi. The institution prepares students for the Maharashtra State Secondary School Certificate (SSC, Class X) and the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC, Class XII) examinations.

1968

Work on the school started in early 1960. Rev. Rudolf J Schoch, S.J., had dreamed of the site where the school now is and requested the National Chemical Laboratory (whose land it was) to set up the school. Land was provided on lease. The establishment of the school had become necessary to take the load off the highly popular St. Vincent's High School, Pune Camp, and all students not living in Pune Camp and Pune City (up to Lakdipul, i.e., the wooden bridge across the River Mutha linking Pune City with Deccan Gymkhana) were asked to shift to Loyola's. The same logic was applied to the overcrowded St Anne's School opposite St. Vincent's and the affected girls were shifted to The Convent of Jesus & Mary at St. Joseph's High School, located directly in front of and between Loyola's and Pashan Road.

Another compelling reason was that children of Faculty and Staff at the National Defence Academy (NDA), some 25 km from Pune Camp, did not have school facilities beyond Class VI. The junior school at NDA was run by Jesuits, the Principal being the imposing figure of the cigar-toting Rev. Anton Rehm, from Switzerland. This entire school and staff was merged with Loyola and all children of residents in the NDA would come to Loyola's/St Joseph's, a 15-km trip by bus. This cost them 40 minutes each day, but was actually a 30 minute saving each way compared to schooling at St. Vincent's/St. Mary's. Rev. Anton Rehm was the first Principal of Loyola, when the school became operational, guiding its establishment from 1961-63, handing over next to Rev. A.E.Oesch.

The girl's school building was not yet complete, so girls in Classes X and XI were moved to Loyola's till 1963. Loyola's had an interesting faculty amongst the Jesuit Priests. Rev. Bernadetti, an Italian, taught German, followed by Rev. J. Toscano, another Italian, followed thereafter by Mrs Mani and Mrs Sahasrabudhe. Rev. D'Costa, a Portuguese priest, taught English. In classes 10 and 11, Rev.Oesch, an Austrian, took over German Poetry, English and Higher English. Rev. Gregory taught up to nine subjects-Algebra, Geometry, Arithmetic, Higher Arithmetic, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Botany and Zoology - assisted by Mr. Contractor. Mr. Mahamuni spent half his time as a Hindi teacher teaching ambidextrous Drawing; the Drawing teacher, Mr Khataukar, a raconteur of sorts, taught us Maharashtrian History and folklore, a vastly entertaining and sought-after class. We called all priests using the prefix 'Father'. Fr. Toscano was to return as Principal between 1979-83.

The Class of 1966

        

Seated L-R: Mr Contractor, Rev Gregory, Rev Oesch, Rev D'Costa, Mr Teranikar, Mr VG Mahamuni

Standing 1st Row L-R: Ashok Limaye, Abraham Matthew, Harish Karkera, Narendra Puri, Shyam Borawake, Jolly Chacko, Vijay Shirke, Ravi Shankar, Dilip Bhat

2nd Row: Sunil Bhonsle, Harinder Kandhari, Prabhat Shandilya, Dhanvinder Singh, Aloke Chowdhary, Tarun Datta, V Raju, Deepak Malhotra, Prabhakar Avvari, Vinayak More

Top Row: Amit Mitra, Raj Kapoor, Mohan Dewan, Vijay Karandikar, R Chandrashekhar, M Pant, Gurinder Chohan, Suresh Raina, Noel Moitra, Madan Chopra

In 1965-66, 29 boys appeared for their Matriculate (Class XI) and all 29 got a First Division, with seven Distinctions. One lad, Chandrashekhar Ratnaswamy came first in the state, but was relegated to 2nd for an unknown reason. The prominent industrialist and race-horse owner, Mr. Vijay Shirke was among the seven distinctions. A good sportsman, one quirk that he had was that he wore only 'Chappals' (leather slippers) throughout the five years he was in School, except on Graduation Night! Interestingly, only Vijay Shirke and I had parents who owned cars, Vijay's maroon humpback Dodge and my dark green Vauxhall.

Rev. Oesch, Principal 1963-66, had represented Austria in the 1936 Olympics- famous for Jesse Owens' performance in Hitler's presence- in both soccer and javelin throw. Thanks to his efforts in one year thereafter, Loyola won every possible inter-school athletics or sports meet. To cite an example, in 1966 Loyola was 0-5 down in goals vs Modern School at the halfway stage in an inter-school soccer match, when Rev. Oesch arrived. He spoke to his demoralised boys at the interval. They equalised in the next 45 minutes, reaching 5-5, winning the replay the next day 6-5, with the goalkeeper, a certain Dilip Doshi, caught on camera in a Superman dive to save a penalty! Suresh Raina would represent the State in Field Events in Athletics (Jrs.), in the Discus Throw, the Shot Put and the Javelin Throw.

The school had 474 boys and 27 girls registered in 1961. The Ground floor had class rooms, the Principal’s office, the admin section, the bookshop, the watering hole and Physics laboratories. The first floor had classrooms and Chemistry laboratories. There were no Biology or Zoology labs. The 2^nd/top floor was only partly constructed and housed the Jesuit priests. It took two years for the completion of Phase 1 of the school and the girls returned to their school as that edifice had also been completed.

I did not spend even one day under the tutelage of the right revered Rev. Schoch when in Loyola, though he was the brain behind establishing the school. I did have him as my Principal when I was in St. Vincents in Poona Camp, 1959-61. Our first Principal was Rev. Rehm, the genial but imposing cigar-smoking giant, but he did not teach us anything. In my own case, I, along with my classmates from NDA, had spent time under him as he was Principal of the mini-school at NDA from 1954-61. My father was posted there 1956-59 and I had many classmates, including some who decided to duck one year, like Makhanlal Talwar and that athlete supreme, Vinod Bakshi. 

School uniform for all boys from class 1 to class 11 was half-sleeved beige shirts and dark beige shorts, with the school logo on the shirt pocket. There was no ruling on footwear.

A sight we never saw: the top floor complete

Excellent long-range snap of where we studied: note the three schoolbuses

We studied under Rev. Alphonse Ernst Oesch, our Principal from 1963-66; he taught us Higher English and German; German from Class 10 onwards and Higher English in the 11th. It was he who drove us up the hill every evening when we had to wait for the buses to return from their 1st trip with the junior kids. He devoted time to athletes and soccer players, having the invaluable experience of representing his country at the global level of the Olympics. Our character and ethos was shaped in the main by Fr. Oesch, helped along the way by the Revs Toscano, Bernadetti, D'Costa and Gregory. To borrow Madan G Chopra’s quote, Fr. Oesch said one day, “I am an Austrian German and I am teaching you English as well. Why can’t you boys learn German just as a language. No one is asking you to teach at this stage”. 

Fr. Girgut Gregory worked the hardest to educate us, teaching us Arithmetic, Higher Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Trigonometry and Moral Science. He would write every single word he taught and we copied those words from the blackboard-actually green board. Conty Contractor filled in the blanks in lower Maths. Rev. Otto looked after the bookshop.

Greenery which was only brown mud and rocks

If I were to write for RD about The Most Unforgettable Person. . . I would choose Fr. Oesch 100 times out of 100. Late Mr Teranikar, VG Mahamuni, Khataukar, Contractor, Mrs Mani, Mrs Sahasrabudhe, Peter Akey, Ms Lucy Borges of the alluring bottoms, Ms Garcia and others, if any, were simply clouds that dispersed after blessing us with sporadic showers. Ravishankar has cause to remember the menacing but harmless Mr Teranikar one PT session. In the five years we were at school, his elder brother Rajamani was the only boy to get injured while at school. He was assisted by Rev. Oesch when he fractured his elbow during the lunch break one day.

        

1. THE SWIMMING POOL- A POST 1966 ADDITION

2. THE FOOTBALL FIELD-IT HAS CHANGED ORIENTATION BY 90°

3. LOYOLA AS IT STANDS TODAY

The remaining classmates, each a byword in his own field,  are planning to contribute a certain sum of money in memory of late Fr. Oesch towards improving facilities in the School that could be upgraded. The event will be hosted at the school to mark 50 years since we passed out of this magnificent institution that shaped our lives and future.

                                  IN MEMORIAM: STUDENTS

Prabhat Shandilya

Aloke Choudhary

Deepak Malhotra

Prabhakar Avvari

Amit Mitra

Vijay Karandikar

                                  IN MEMORIAM: FACULTY

Rev AE Oesch

Rev Toscano

Rev Bernaditti

Rev D’Costa

Rev Gregory

Mr Teranikar

Mr Mahamuni

Mr Contractor

Mr Peter Akey

Mrs Mani

Mrs Sahasrabudhe

Mr Swamy

           

Photos 1,2,3 courtesy ELAN

Prabhat Shandilya

Aloke Choudhary

Deepak Malhotra

Prabhakar Avvari

Amit Mitra

Vijay Karandikar 

Rev AE Oesch

Rev Toscano

Rev Bernaditti

Rev D’Costa

Rev Gregory

Mr Teranikar

Mr Mahamuni

Mr Contractor

Mr Peter Akey

Mrs Mani

Mrs Sahasrabudhe

Mr Swamy

Prabhat Shandilya

Aloke Choudhary

Deepak Malhotra

Prabhakar Avvari

Amit Mitra

Vijay Karandikar 

Rev AE Oesch

Rev Toscano

Rev Bernaditti

Rev D’Costa

Rev Gregory

Mr Teranikar

Mr Mahamuni

Mr Contractor

Mr Peter Akey

Mrs Mani

Mrs Sahasrabudhe

Mr Swamy