, peaMr. R. C. Shekhar joined The Mother’s International School as the Mathematics teacher on November 1, 1969. ‘The School was not in this form at that time. It is only in 1978 that the primary section was made and it took about five years for the senior block to come up. By 1985 we were ready with the main block. ”

SCHOOL IN THE INITIAL YEARS

‘In the early days, the school was so spread out that there were times when people would come and ask if the school was on. The area was scarcely inhabited. The only colony nearby was Malviya Nagar and then we had Hauz Khas. There were two buses that used to do double shifts one for older children and the other for the younger ones. But the spirit of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo was always there with us. The atmosphere was serene and there was complete sincerity in the efforts put in by everyone involved.’

STUDENTS

With a strength of just 700 students in the school, Mr. Shekhar knew every single child by name. ‘I guess that is why they were more scared of me.’

He very fondly remembers his first batch of students. ‘I can name all 25 of them. There was Suryanarayan, Madhoo, Adil,…I can go on. There was Raj Kumar, Sunil, and lots of others who still just drop in to say hello.’

AS VICE PRINCIPAL

Mr. Shekhar became the Vice-Principal in 1978 and says he missed being a class teacher after that.

‘You lose out on the special relation one shares with the students when you are the class teacher.’ On being asked how he managed to be so strict in school, he said, ‘My students used to wonder about that as well. They wanted to know how I could be joking with them in class and suddenly change the moment I stepped out. And I told them that the Shekhar that taught them was different from the Shekhar who was the Vice-Principal.’

He said he used to be asked how he would always reach the spot where there was trouble going on. Mr Shekhar responds that somehow he always knew instinctively. ‘Something told me to get up and go in that direction and I always found something happening there.’

Mr. Shekhar left MIS in 1994 to join Gyan Bharti School, New Delhi as Principal. He carried with him The Mother’s vision and completely revamped the school. Here, he brought about a shift ‘from teaching to learning.’ From the morning assembly, which he calls ‘the learning stage’, to the campus walk, the interactive sessions with students, the parent counseling sessions, everything there has a familiar feel.

This man whose voice would make us shudder says he is grateful to MIS for making him what he is today. ‘I was fresh out of college when I joined MIS and I am sure that I must have made a lot of mistakes but the love and support of people there kept me going.’

He went on to add that a lot of students must have disliked him at that time but the respect and love he receives from his ex-students now makes him feel that he was on the right track all along.

It is not every day that one comes across someone who shows you how to live life with dignity and principles and I am glad we were able to spend time with and talk to such a person.

Interviewed by Sujata Suri (Batch of 1989) and Gautam Dhawan (Batch of 1991)