St Xavier’s Collegiate School

The 1986 batch of St Xavier’s Collegiate School, Calcutta, has raised nearly Rs 2 crore for their teachers, championing the spirit of giving back in the 150th year of the institution.

The old boys will distribute the money to all those who taught them from Class I to Class X on the Park Street campus this Children’s Day.

“We will felicitate 87 teachers in the presence of the current headmaster, Father Jerome,” said Jishnu Sen, the chief operating officer of Grey Worldwide.

He and his batchmates in the Class of ’86 said though most of them had settled down outside Calcutta, small groups of them had always been in touch with each other.

The idea of raising money for their teachers, some of whom were struggling to make ends meet, came up at an adda of one such group and was enthusiastically followed up by the rest of the batch. Fund collection is still on for the felicitation.

“We are who we are because of the way our teachers taught us and the values they instilled in us. We felt we had to give something back to our teachers, and quickly, because many of those who had taught us had passed away. Some others are not doing well financially after retirement,” said Ritankar Pal, the managing director of a leading global investment bank.

The school alumni association has lauded the initiative of the batch. “Alsoc (Alumnorum Societas) is all about giving back. Jesuit principles say the same thing. The batch of 1986 is living up to the motto,” said Noomi Mehta, the honorary secretary of the old boys’ association.

To reach out to the teachers, Pal visited the school while he was in Calcutta last year. “The school calendars carry the names of the staff. I compiled a list of our teachers from the old calendars. I then visited Chitta Roy, who used to teach us chemistry and is a member of a teachers’ group, and got most of the addresses from him,” he said.

Recalling teachers like Desmond Reden who helped him conquer fears of public speaking, Sen said: “What I learnt then helps me even now when I make a presentation. There were teachers like U. Bose who taught us the importance of reading and speaking clearly and Sebastian Pinto who gave us books to inculcate the habit of reading.”

Ashish Dhawan, who has named his firm ChrysCapital after Chrysalis, the Class IX and X fest that the batch had started, spoke about Thomas Vienna, who first drew their attention to detail. “If there was a comma missing, he would point it out. He was our class teacher and taught us mathematics. Students struggled to crack the selection test but passed with flying colours in the ICSE.”