I joined Bethany High school, Langford Town, Bangalore as a full-time Physical Education and Music teacher on the 6th March 1974 when there were about 120 students and 12 teachers. I received my appointment letter from Mr Mark David, the Headmaster cum Secretary, Bethany Education Board and from the Founder & Vice President BEB, Mrs Mignon David and I was offered a salary of 130 rupees a month. I have preserved this first appointment letter carefully to remind me of the humble beginning in my teaching career at Bethany school, the school where I had my initial education and where I received the love and care of the Founder, Mrs Mignon David and she was the one who offered me a job in the school when I was waiting to complete my second year PUC in a supplementary exam in Hindi.

My first appointment letter issued by the BETHANY EDUCATION BOARD 

Took up the responsibility as a class teacher for Class IX  

I began my teaching career with great enthusiasm as a young person bubbling with energy and full of ideas in the area of Physical Education and Music. I started teaching the children new and popular songs during music classes.  During the PE classes, I  taught the children how to march and engaged them in different exercises and drills keeping the students fit and prepared for the Annual Sports Meet and some of the inter-school sports and Music events. The school has never taken part in any Interschool Sports or Musical competitions before that. I was determined to form a school choir and a football team to participate in different events outside the school.

Started the inter-house music competition – Leonard house & Darrel house  (Constituted in the memory of the Founder’s 2 sons Leonard & Darell )

During the music classes, I also took time to grade the voices of the students in order to form a school choir and the choir for the Leonard and Darell houses.  We had only two houses then which was named in memory of the Founder’s two sons Leonard and Darell.  I maintained a record of the students and their grades so that it was easy to form the different groups that I wanted.

FORMING THE BETHANY SCHOOL CHOIR:  The first thing that I did when I joined Bethany was to form a school choir and so from the experience that I learnt from my music teacher in Bethany Mrs C.N. Weston and from Mr Bruce Gabriel in Bishop Cottons Boys school, I put it all to practice by grading the students’ voices and then teaching them how to sing in harmony by grouping them into Sopranos (the melody) and Altos (the low harmony).

The first Bethany school choir- Proudly conducting the kids on this special occasion of the Carol service.

 I was thrilled to get the required number of students to form the school choir and this was the first Bethany school choir. Since I was able to identify so many students who could sing, we planned on having Inter-house music competitions and the first one was held in Stevens’ Hall of the Richmond Town Methodist Church. The event went off well and I remember Mrs Mignon David congratulating me and told me that I had done wonders with the kids in being able to bring out their talents and making them sing so well. 

The next thing that I did was to let the students have an opportunity and an exposure in musical programmes and competitions outside the school and so I entered our school choir for an Inter-school music competition that was conducted by the St Mark’s Cathedral, M. G. Road.  This was the school’s first inter-school competition. We did not expect to win any prize and would have been satisfied with just taking part, as we were still a very small school and not so well known in the city. The opportunity to participate in an Inter-school event itself was an achievement for the school.  The choir sang two songs and I remember that one of them was “How Great Thou Art”.  We were thrilled when the judges announced that Bethany Home School tied for the FIRST place with Bishop Cotton Boys school in the Competition. Bishop Cottons choir was conducted by none other than my music master Mr Bruce Gabriel. He was really proud of me and was telling everyone that I was his student at Bishop Cotton Boys school. Having formed a choir, Inter-House music competitions and Carol service then became Annual events of the school.

 Akash Ryall ( now Dr Akash Ryall, Director, Bethany Institutions ) playing the trumpet at the age of 8. Proud to have been his teacher

Formed the first Bethany students Jazz Band.

GAMES & SPORTS

Since I was also appointed as the Games Master, I began looking into the area of games and sports and started training the students in different drill displays and taught the children how to march at every PE class.  This was preparing them for the Annual Sports Meet and other school events.

In the evening after school, I used to take the students to the Corporation ground in Richmond town, train them in the different Athletic events and conduct selections also to form the school’s football team.  I was keen that the school should at least have a team in football and so after the selection, I used to spend time training them in the skills of the game in the Corporation field. None of the boys had really played football earlier, but slowly and steadily, they picked up the game and finally I was able to form an Under -14 boys team, and although there were only a few students,  being a Co-Ed school, I was able to get 15 boys for the Bethany school team.  Parents were cooperative in letting their wards stay after school for practice, thus making it easier for me to work with them even till 6.00 in the evening.

 We entered our team for the Inter-school football tournament hosted by Baldwin Boys High school that year and even though our boys lost the match in their first game, they played a good game and gave the opponent a tough fight. I was proud of them. They combined well on the field and their turnout was impressive in their school colours of Green and Black. 

Pyramid Display on the Sports Day

ANNUAL SPORTS DAY:

The Annual Sports Day was an event that the students and the staff looked forward to, and we did our best to organise it on a grand scale even though we did not have our own field and had no support staff to help us in transporting equipment and other sports’ items to the field which was about two kilometres away from the school. We had no one to help us in getting the field ready as there were no support staff during those years. The only vehicle we had those days was a wooden cart on which we used to load up the sports items like the Victory stand, flag poles, flag stands etc., and I used to push this cart with the help of the students to the corporation ground and have it all installed. We swept and cleaned the field to lay the running tracks and here again with only the help of senior students, I was able to get things done.  Parents at that time did not mind letting their wards stay back late in the evening to help in the preparation of the field and the students were also happy to help.

Trained the students in different drill displays – The Pyramid formation done by the girls & boys

The school did not have any security personnel or support staff to take care of all the arrangements that were set up on the public ground in the night and so I would sleep on the field myself and see that no one tampered with the set up made on the field till the next morning.  Realising that I had to spend the whole night on the field and get up early the next morning to see to all the arrangements, Aunty Ryall (Mrs. E.H. Ryall) used to send breakfast for me to the field. Mr Adhimoolum, an experienced sports track marker used to come and lay the tracks for us.  I used to get him every year to lay our tracks as I knew him as a staff who used to mark the tracks for Bishop Cotton Boys school.

After seeing that all these arrangements were done, I rushed off to my room to change and come back to start the Sports in the afternoon. I was lucky to be able to use an old school’s cycle to do all my running around.

Since we did not have a marching band of our own, I used to go and request the Karnataka State Police Band to come and play for our sports and the Commandant of the Reserve Police was kind enough to send the band a day before the sports to have a rehearsal with the students and get familiarised with the marching tempo, the drill displays and the order of events.

One year, for our sports day, we wanted a Police officer to be our chief guest and I suggested that we invite the Inspector of Police (IGP) of Karnataka, Mr Albert Manoraj, IPS, as the chief guest.  The Headmaster Mr Mark David and the teachers were quite apprehensive about inviting such a high ranking police officer as they would normally not waste their time spending two to three hours at a Sports meet of a small school.  But I said that there was nothing like trying and went to the IGP’s office on a cycle and was lucky to meet Mr Albert Manoraj, IGP in his office, and he consented to be the chief guest that year. He came for our sports and was quite impressed with the marching and turnout of our students and in his closing address mentioned that the marching of the students was as good as the police force. He stayed for the entire Sports Meet.

ICSE SCHOOLS’ SPORTS MEET: The ICSE (AHAIS – Association Heads of Anglo Indian Schools, Karnataka)  schools of Bangalore had organised an Inter-school Sports event in the year 1975 which was held in the Kanteeriva Sports stadium, Bangalore. This mega sports event was initiated by the late Brig. Mullineaux, a former Principal of Cathedral High school.  He wanted the Sports meet to be on a grand scale with all the Anglo Indian ICSE schools taking part.  He had formed subcommittees of Physical Education teachers to look into the different arrangements for the event.  Although there were so many senior PE teachers, Brig. Mullineaux asked me to head the subcommittee for the Marching Competition and the Drill Display by different schools. Being a very young PE teacher from a small school, I was quite apprehensive if I could get the support and cooperation of other well-established schools.  I took up the challenge and did get a good response from all the schools to participate in the marching competition which was the first event of the Sports Meet. 

Students getting ready for their march past on the Sports Day

There were about 25 contingents, schools that took part in the Marching competition, and the boys and the girl’s contingents were judged separately.  Brig. Mullineaux had arranged for three senior Army officers to judge the march past.  When the results of the Marching competition were declared, all of us at Bethany school were thrilled when an announcement was made that the Bethany girls contingent stood first and our boys contingent stood second. 

Towards the end of the sports our school also presented a breathtaking TORCH DRILL or FIRE DRILL where an actual fire was lit at the end of a stick. This drew the applause of the audience and Bethany school made a mark to the public on that day. 

ROAD SAFETY PROGRAMME (SARS) Bethany also enrolled for the SARS (Students’ Association for Road Safety ) programme which was a programme initiated by the Karnataka police department. As the PE master, I was put in charge to coordinate with the Traffic police and train the students in various aspects of controlling the traffic.  We were placed under the Shoolay Traffic police station, Brigade road and the Police Inspector in charge of Bethany was Mr Bernard. This inspector was very impressed with the discipline and turnout of our Bethany students and he used to cite Bethany as an example to other schools.  I remember with pride when our students were selected to regulate and control the traffic during the visit of the then Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi to Bangalore.  Bethany was given the prominent positions at different vital points right from the HAL Airport to the Kanteerava Stadium. The police even arranged for a special police jeep for me to move around and take care of my students during this important occasion of a VIP’s visit. I was told later by the police Inspectors that the Prime minister Smt. Indira Gandhi took notice of our students as she was driven from the Airport to the venue where she was to address the gathering. The PM was impressed with the smartness and turnout of our students.

MUSICAL COCKTAIL & MUSICAL RENDEAVOUR: These were two special musical events that I had thought of as a fundraiser for the school where we would be inviting leading musicians and bands of Bangalore city to perform to raise funds for the school.  This was quite an ambitious plan and I knew that it needed a lot of hard work organising such an event, but I was willing to put in all my effort to make the show happen.  With the nod of the Board and the Headmaster, I went around listening to different groups and musicians and requesting them to perform for our Musical show.  Most of them obliged and even did it free for us when they learnt that it was for a noble cause.

The first musical show was the MUSICAL COCKTAIL and Baldwin Boys High school was kind enough to let us use their Lincoln Hall auditorium to have the event. It was a lot of hard work and running around that I had to do and the conveyance at my disposal was an old school’s cycle, but thanks to this cycle, I was able to organise the event successfully.  I’m thankful to the teachers and some of my friends who gave me the support to get up the show.  Special thanks to the late Eugene Titus and his father Mr Titus, Mrs Lillian Nathaniel, Mr Nevelle Wittiker, late Mr Johnny Thomas and others.

With the success of the Musical Cocktail,  I had the confidence to organise another show the following year, the MUSICAL RENDEAVOUR, again as a fundraiser for the school.  Baldwin Boys High school was gracious to let us use their auditorium for this show too. Grateful to Rev. Fred Gokavi, the Principal then, who extended all support for these events.

CONTINUING MY HIGHER STUDIES:   While working with Bethany as a full-time staff, I also wanted to continue my education and acquire a degree and therefore enrolled as a student in the St. Josephs’ Evening College to do my BA. Since I was working, I could now pay for my college fees.

Working the full day and attending class from 6 PM to 9 PM each day was quite a challenge but I knew that a Bachelor’s degree was a ‘must’ if I was going to continue pursuing a career in Education.  Three years of working and studying were not going to be easy but by now I realised that nothing of value in life comes easy.  One has to be consistent and work hard for it.  Quite often I use to be late for the first period of class since I use to finish training and coaching the students in games and sports only by 5.00 or 5.30 in the evening. I couldn’t attend classes at times when we had functions and events in the school.

Second language Hindi was quite a problem for me in college too and missing these classes now and then made it worse.  I had somehow managed to clear all my subjects for all the three years course but only Hindi of the 1st and 2nd year was remaining.  I had to approach a Hindi teacher of Baldwin Boys school, Mr Sanaulla to help me with special coaching in Hindi, and thanks to him, I was able to clear the Hindi examination of both the first & second year to get my degree from Bangalore University. 

As a staff member of Bethany High School, Langford Town, Bangalore

STATE’S REGISTRATION & ICSE AFFILIATION:   For the affiliation of the school from the Council for Indian schools Certificate Examination (CISCE), New Delhi, the school had to be registered by the State Government of Karnataka.  In the year 1974, the authorities of the Karnataka Education Department visited and inspected the school and one of the requirements was to see that teachers were trained. As a PE master, I had to give a demo class in PE and the Inspectors were quite impressed with my class but since I did have the required training, they recommended that the school send me for a certified course in Physical education.

However, since the school met most of the requirements of the Education department of the State, it was given the recognition and a NOC (No Objection Certificate) was also given which enabled the school to apply for affiliation to the CISCE, New Delhi.

The next stage for the affiliation to the ICSE Council was an inspection by the Officers of the Council and this too was passed and the school was affiliated in 1975.

PASSING AWAY OF THE FOUNDER, MRS MIGNON DAVID:  It was a sad moment in the life of Bethany when the Founder Mrs Mignon David passed away on 15th April 1976.  Personally, I had lost someone who was precious to me as she had brought me up like her own son and had great aspirations for me to grow and do well in life.  Fortunately, she had given sufficient momentum for Bethany to carry on and the Beacon of her wonderful life still throws its beams, far and wide, constantly reminding us of the awareness she always possessed for humanity.  The saying by Etienne de Grellet, a Quaker missionary embodied the life and work of Mrs.Mignon David – “ I shall pass this way but once; any good that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being; let me do it now.  Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

PLANS OF RETURNING TO THE ANDAMAN ISLANDS:   I loved what I was doing at Bethany school and it was so fulfilling and gratifying to see the fruits of my hard work, especially in the areas of Games, Sports and Music. I was honoured to be offered a job as Physical Instructor in 1976 by the Principal of Bishop Cottons Boys School, Mr A.T. Balraj and the Principal of Cathedral High school, Brig. C.W. Mulleneux, but I had to politely turn down their offer as I  felt obliged to give back my services to the school that had done so much for me.

Brig. C.W. Mulleneux  – Principal Cathedrals High School Bangalore

Mr A.T Balraj – Principal – Bishop Cottons Boys High School 

                        

 I also had plans of going back to the Andamans that year as Rev. George David needed me to help in the school that he was running in my village, Webi, Mayabunder.  For these reasons, I could not take up the offer of Mr Balraj and neither that of Brig. Mullineaux, although they were going to give me a better pay packet and send me for training in Physical Education.

1976 was my last year in Bethany as I had decided to return to the Andamans to work amongst my people.  After spending 13 years in Bangalore and with different opportunities of growth and exposure in the city, it was difficult for me to leave and go back to the village, but  I was not going to say ‘No’ to Rev. George David for what he had done for me in bringing me to Bangalore and because of this, I was able to get a good education. 

So, with much gratitude to the Bethany family, I bade farewell to this Institution that nurtured me and provided the experience that was needed to start life and work afresh in the Andaman Islands.

Along with few staff members & students of Class X

I end this article with a verse from the Bible:  “ For I know the plans I have for you”, declares the Lord.  Plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you hope and a future.”