Loyola School, Jamshedpur - My association with Loyola School

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My association with Loyola School

Wednesday, 18 December 1996

Amit Chatterjee

I was born in Calcutta but came to Jamshedpur as a two-month old baby. I distinctly recall how my father took me from Contractors’ Area where we used to stay in a private house, to Sacred Heart Convent School (yes, in those days, Sacred Heart School was a co-education school) which was housed in a small bungalow opposite to what is now the Loyola School play ground. I did not know much about Loyola School and spent 1948 to 1952 in SHC by which time they had moved to their wonderful building at its present location. In 1952 I was transferred to Loyola.

Mrs. Kirwan with her boys (1951)

I recall Mrs. Kirwan, who was an institution in herself, teaching us in the second standard in what is today the Fasy Auditorium. Many classes used to be simultaneously held in this auditorium space so that you had to be particularly attentive to hear only your class teacher and not get diverted by the other classes. Fr. McGinley was the Principal and he had a fiery temperament — he always carried a cane with him. Space was so restricted that Fr. Dineen, who unfortunately passed away a couple of years ago, used to take sOme senior classes comprising one or two students, in the Loyola bus after the bus had brought some students to school.

The fantastic Loyola building came up some time in 1954 and then, we moved in to the main building. The auditorium became a real auditorium where every Saturday, the American priests would show us a Hollywood film after we had practised drill and march past for a couple of hours. As a result, during my tenure in Loyola, I had the privilege of watching most of the well known western films. The hall was also the place where we would have the Elocution contest — I recall how scared we used to be of Fr. Power when he used to train us for these contests. Once in a while, we would also have an Inter Jesuit Elocution contest in the same hall. “Glimpses of India” was a programme we used to look forward to which used to depict diverse facets of Indian culture.

Atad Deboo

I completed my Sr. Cambridge in 1960. During this entire period, Fr. G. A. Hess was the Principal. This period really saw Loyola School blossoming into one of the finest schools for boys in India. The third floor was added on three sides of the building, a lovely rock garden was developed in the central quadrangle, cleanliness of the class rooms became the responsibility of the students and Fr. Hess himself was the weekly judge of the best kept class room, the Boys Scout movement was fully implemented and Loyola Scouts became some of the best in India, games were regularly played in the two grounds in front of the school, 4 types of uniforms for various classes were introduced, etc. With all these, Loyola became a fun school to be in and what was really creditable was that discipline was at its height. It is to Fr. Hess’s credit that at no time was there any caning or shouting from any of the staff — purely the sense of pride in being a Loyolean was instilled into all students. In fact, Fr. Hess used to speak so softly that when he took our Scripture classes in Std. IX and X, he used to stand at the centre of the class and even then, hearing him was difficult. It was a pleasure being taught by Jesuit priests like Fr. Dineen (Maths & Addl. Maths), Fr. Kirsch (Phy. & Chem.), Fr. Power (English), Fr. Roberts, Fr. Dietrich, Fr. Judge and many others. In fact, while we were in school, Jesuit priests took most of the classes — the lone exception was Mr. Pandey (an institution within Loyola) who took Hindi and Sanskrit. The painstaking efforts put in by the teaching staff resulted in top class performance at the Sr. Cambridge level and Loyola students became well known throughout the country.

Construction of third storey

Amongst students during my time, those who have really made a name for themselves in various fields include Sobi Mazumdar who graduated around 1956 and is today one of the bosses of IBM (USA), Astaad Debu (1964-65) who is an international class dancer and learnt all his dancing during his tenure at Loyola in the United Club, Anil Ratna who was a superb debater and elocutionist, Barun Roy who was a Shakespearean theatre specialist, and so on. Today Loyoleans are in every aspect of professional life much of which is due to the sound all-round training that we all had in school.

From games to elocution, from march past to scouting, from dramatics to western movies, from scouting to playing base ball, we Loyoleans were exposed to the entire gamut of acitivities. And how we loved it. Even today, we look back with nostalgia. As Loyoleans, when we all reminisce about our stay in this wonderful school, all we can say is ‘Thank You’ to every one who made us what we are. I am sure I speak on behalf of all Loyoleans, past and present, that we are privileged to have been students of this unique institution which grew up in front of my own eyes.

Class of 1960. Can you spot the author?

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