Chief guest Gopalkrishna Gandhi, on his first visit to town since his term as governor ended, felicitates Aparna Sen at Modern High. (Anindya Shankar Ray)

Schools don’t age, only buildings do, feels former Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

So when Modern High School for Girls kicked off its year-long diamond jubilee celebrations at Ice Skating Rink on Wednesday, chief guest Gandhi said it was an occasion to salute the institution’s inner youth rather than its 60 years.

“Buildings do age but not the schools and colleges inside…. Even when your school is 160 or 260, it will still remain young,” said the former Raj Bhavan resident, who is five years older than Modern High.

Principal Devi Kar had set the tone for the celebration by saying that a birthday or an anniversary was always special, and a landmark even more so.

“Sixty years in the life of a school is nothing but it does give us an opportunity to rejoice. Today, we won’t be self-critical but focus on all that we are grateful for,” said Kar, watched by students past and present of a school that calls itself “a happy blend of tradition and modernity”.

Founded by Rukmani Birla in 1952 with Violet Clarke as its first principal, Modern High has spun success stories in every field, four of which found special mention on Wednesday.

Actor-director Aparna Sen, the director of CIMA Gallery, Rakhi Sarkar, Biotique founder Vinita Jain and professor Ananya Roy of the University of California, Berkeley, joined an illustrious group of Modern alumni to have been felicitated by their alma mater over the years.

“I am always dazzled by the galaxy of brilliant women — teachers, doctors, scientists, even a magician — that Modern High has produced. Many of them have won national and international awards. As for our current batch, they have this uncanny knack for being noisy and boisterous in school but perfect ladies outside, especially in programmes like this,” Kar said, lauding two generations together.

Invitee Ananya Roy missed the function — mother Supriya represented her — but the other three guests on the felicitation list regaled the audience with their memories of Modern High, which celebrates January 3 as its foundation day.

Filmmaker Sen peppered her speech with anecdotes about the day principal Clarke caught her reading comics in class and how she went from scoring 36 to 96 in Sanskrit.

“It (Sanskrit) was the bane of my life until I found Miss (S) Das. She told me to look at the declensions and I spent a month doing so. I scored 96,” she recalled.

Sarkar, her batchmate from the Class of ’64, said she was “overwhelmed” at being felicitated by her alma mater. “When recognition comes from your alma mater, it is more precious. I dedicate this honour to my teachers, parents and grandparents,” she added.

Sarkar also remembered with fondness her teacher Miss Benny, who she only recently learned was the mother of Jessica Lal, as well as her meeting with principal Clarke in London some years back.

Entrepreneur Jain said she owed much of her success to her schooling at Modern High.

But in a gathering where more than 60 per cent were women, it was chief guest Gandhi who had the last word.

“Each girl in a school should be seen as a potentially self-reliant woman who may happen to be a wife and mother, but not a wife and mother who happens to have a profession,” he said to thunderous applause.