What is your review of Hartley`s High School, Kolkata?
07.06.2025 05:09
To the present teachers of Hartley’s High so far people are retorting outside school including ex-Hartlians whose wards are/were there-
10+2 has phenomenal records in St.Lawrence than Hartleys’ if you compare 2009–2024
The cornerstones of Hartley’s High-
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Every school like every product required word-of-mouth feedback like feedbacks of customers as Voice of Customers(VoC) on the Internet today. My aunt/Chhoto Pishi Mrs Deepika (Basu) Roychowdhury( she died recently on the 6th of December 2024 midnight please pray for her) , her two sons were in South Point High School- Sanjay (Basu) Roychowdhury & Sandeep (Basu) Roychowdhury. Sanju Da/ Sanjay Roychowdhury was in 1983 South Point batch from D1 section and had scored 723/900( 80.33%) in Madhyamik followed by 789(78.9%) in Higher Secondary,45th in WBJEE 1985,Jadavpur University Electronics & Telecommunication BE followed by PGDM IIM-Lucknow Finance.
A couple of years later in 1986 I was in Infant in Hartley’s High from Lower Prep to Class I /1 and those days you had no Bengali Vernacular. My mom in the mid 1980s loadshedding Communist era would impart me basic Bengali lessons for an admission test in St. Lawrence High School 1987 Class I batch Bengali-medium. St. Lawrence near Maddox Square Park was more closer to our Bhowanipore residence than Hartley‘s High and it would have saved school-bus transportation fee, the heckle and also most importantly time.However my mom’s 6Sigma approach did not work out as destiny had decided otherwise.
Vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya
Reason-The South Point High facility.Those days if you did well reaching some cut-off mark in their Pre-Madhyamik/Test Selection, your +2 seat was confirmed for +2 Stream Science does not matter you scored 80%-89% in WBSE.Without 90% or over, any student from any other school was not selected in +2 Stream Science. It was easier for their +2 Southpointian Science aspirant than a non-Southpointian topper from another school without the 90% benchmark.
Easily approachable teachers for some semi-open to open conversations-Miss Deepa Das, Maths teacher IX-X 1995–1996, Miss Mallika Ghosh( heard about her unfortunate demise please offer her your reverence, condolences) , Class teacher 1995–1996, Miss Bulbul Chakraborty Bengali I& II teacher Classes -VII-VIII & Life Science teacher VII 1993–1994.
English translation on the Web-“Just as a person gets rid of old clothing and replaces the old clothing with new ones, similarly, the soul changes from one body to a new body when its body has become old worn out and has stopped functioning.”
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Mathematics- We had couple of teachers -Miss/Mrs Deepa Das for IX standard and Miss/Mrs Ratna Krishnan for X standard ere Madhyamik or 10th. Mrs/Miss Deepa Das’ class used to be 40 minutes of relaxation as she already would appear burnt out.Her daughter was in our class and a batch-mate of the same section.She never stressed us on the subject apart from some riders. Then again when you have a daughter, in India more so West Bengal, your aspirations are less than having a son so far my perception about Bengali,Assamese or Oriya parents in West Bengal. Das/Dass is also an Oriya surname and there is sizeable Oriya population in West Bengal many of whom are assimilated and speak Bengali like Bengalis. I do not know if she was one because I never visited her apartment.The grapevine those years of mid 1990s that her apartment was a center of networking/addakhana for students to chat and intermingle I guess did not really help any efficient resource sharing.But social interaction ten years before this fakes and overemphasizing/brandishing self on Facebook at least had people with physical presence.She was this way transparent allowing room for students to speak their minds at a time when society was very regressive more so as a daughter’s mom and as a teacher of Hartley’s High.
To keep my presentation precise, would not go into the comparatively unsatisfactory and otherwise erratic school-bus service of Jagmohans. Hartley’s nowadays have own school-buses which is something very positive. At our times school-buses were a dilemma for a Hartley’s High school-goer specially afternoon sessions from classes V-X.I have spoken to an octagenarian Jagmohan presently in the US who said school-buses were not always punctual as Hartley’s preppies pantshitted many a times and they had to clean up mess. It’s true but for many of us it did not cater to the requirement as services are expected to be on-time when paid.
Schools with English & Hindi/ Bengali medium curriculum around Elgin Road & Minto Park locale say St.John‘s Diocesan for Girls , Cathedral Mission, Julien Day, Hartley‘s High, Ashok Hall, Hindi High, Khalsa and so on except La Martiniere Boys & La Martiniere Girls were not making news sensations.
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Toppers I never saw cross 90% mark at ease every year something which is 99%-100% compared to the present system of grading so far experts and data insights reveal.This is where Hartley‘s High has to improve and maintain.
My aura in Hartley’s High-
This 50–150 marks gap in the 1990s with West Bengal Board toppers was an area that had always embarrassed me seeing senior toppers of Hartley’s High. I actually thought Anirban Da/ Anirban Dutta Gupta of the previous 1996 batch could become a great contender if not in top 10 but at least in top 20.But destiny has its own destination. With Anirban Da and Bhargav Da in 1996 bringing in less than 80% in Madhyamik/WBSE, Hartley’s High fell on its own sword. I don’t know if internal politics are by large responsible.You never know who are fishing what in which waters behind you.
Our Hartley’s V-X standard teachers were not Master degree to PhD-holders mostly. PhDs & Masters do not automatically qualify anyone to be a good teacher. That’s another level of debate altogether.
People in general who philosophize marks/grades are not important and just a piece of paper, I wish if it applies everywhere or at least somewhere.Marks are as important as your money does not matter you are in Harvard Business School or a visitor in Harmandir Sahib,Golden Temple.There is actually no free lunch.
My perception that developed seeing Hartley’s High School between 1984 and 1996-
In 1994 then a newbee and our newly assigned History teacher Ishita Miss/ Ishita Halder ( Bose since 1995 and should be 30 years or 3 decade experienced if she is still there), I was the very inaugural guy to score highest in History , a subject she was teaching 8th Class students back then. I remember had scored 41.5/60 approx 70%. Scoring 80% in History used to be difficult.10th I had scored 80% and 75% in my last Test selection History paper 2 years later in Hartley’s. Here is she. Ishita Halder Bose was a hardworking teacher or maybe she was trying to prove herself in the school.After our 6th standard in 1993, History somewhat felt you the Dictation & Spelling classes vibe from 1995 onwards as she used to dictate lot of History notes and at times xerox/photocopies.
Two very big differentiating factors of any school
“Students of Hartley’s High who come to me still struggle to solve board syllabus problems where Madhyamik/West Bengal Board in you have to solve 33 sums.What will they do in Olympiad when they have a hard time altogether.You want to participate ask the Principal”
N.B- I am not any attention ho, Insta or FBs Keyboard Warriors.Expressed straight facts straight.
Cross-question a yesteryear/former/retired Hartley’s High teacher and get answers like “Ami khub shadharon teacher/ I am an ordinary teacher”. Great teachers will not escape your questions and you will learn effective strategies from them than whines like
The St.Lawrence interview and why in Hartley’s High I still remained-
Why do all the stupid people think Donald J. Trump is stupid?
Teachers know their limitations everywhere and the culture of rebuking students but otherwise wanting them in classes is the same mentality like the Taliban not allowing Afghans get outside Afghanistan from their shackles.
For the looks-quartier Hartlians here- I liked the two Indranis- Indrani Dhar , Science teacher of Class V, Sec-2 , 1991–92 & Indrani Samajpati, teacher of Class III , Sec-2 1989–90. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Their striking feature- nose. In Iran(former Persia), women spend millions for nosejobs/ noselift cosmetic surgery and yes it enhances beauty. The 2 Indranis had natural though I am not sure if they and their life‘s sweepstakes are keeping them as good they used to look back then. We owe everything back to Nature with time does not matter cosmetic surgery.
English as a language of instruction I experienced in Hartley’s High-
Towards late 90s I happened to read some „Pratidin“ newspaper interviews of West Bengal Board 10th toppers who said they jotted notes from books like Finar, Lehninger, +2 Physics HC Verma, Dutta Pal Chowdhury so on and their adequately equipped libraries helped.Shows how focused they were actually.
The Communist Marxist Party of India with its stronghold of the state of West Bengal and stranglehold of West Bengal‘s education policy did not incorporate the best things from Soviet Union/ former USSR.Their main voters were agrarian communities, refugees of Indo-Pakistani 1971 war but even in agricultural sector, post-Mao era 1976 Deng‘s China saw something different than Tripura,Kerala or West Bengal in India.If better than the present Trinamool Congress era,the Communist era West Bengal was a screeching halt in terms of industrialization and education policy.
Everything comes back to childhood and your very first school. Hartley’s High is part of my “Atman/Soul/Real-Self”. Everyone of us who had gone there at different times I believe, were somehow connected to one another differently in similar or some other culture, some other parts of the world and some other identities , some other sphere and realm of influence timed and programmed differently by God (Latin -Deus/ Devis/Devas from Sanskrit Dev/Devi/Devata). Sanskrit is a language that had always eluded us in school life in 1990s Communist Era Hartley’s.
Why is social media so anti-fee speech, and have they become total BS?
Trying from Hartley’s High to St.Lawrence High for Class I-
Yes , it is my bad as I could not write my name in the hearts of Hartley’s girls. I never liked any as their physical standards were not enough to seduce my boyhood towards becoming a man. For a 6 feet tall guy seeing 6 inches as standard difference, no girl was even 5 ft 6 in tall in my class and that too in a metropolitan middle of the city posh area where Hartley’s High was. So wrote some papers yes and some exams to satisfy myself.There were batchmate boys who tried to realize a noted singer Manna Dey’s number
The only time I think Hartley’s High students had come very close to Board rankers was 1994 when Madhuchanda Di ( Paul was her surname please correct me if am erroneous) with 800/900 almost 89% and Onomitra Da / Onomitro Ghosh probably 792/900 , some 88% were close to Board Highest 844/900( 93.77%) of Abhishek Ray, Kanchrapara Harnet High School.
Look at the way how Abhijeet Bhattacharjee Da is dancing and singing to this catchy 1994 number „Jab bhi koi ladki dekhun mera dil deewana bole Ole Ole Ole“ . This was in St Lawrence High School 1994
You know your shortcomings as an individual like anyone else. I know you were probably all not toppers as students your time. You are there to build better otherwise why you are even there? So I feel as an individual in your shoes.
No.But Yes if your parents and your fortune had brought you there for some more English than Bengali medium instructed students struggling to converse. Hartley’s is good if you compare with Jagabandhu, Tirthapati , Chakraberia, South Suburban Main/ Branch and other Bengali-medium instructed schools. Also better than National Boys/Girls as regards standards . Somewhat plus minus neutral with St John‘s Diocesan, Julien Day & Cathedral Mission nearby.Our English teachers including morning session Anglo-Indians were ok but quality of English lessons imparted were not per se with La Martiniere Boys/ Girls, Calcutta Boys, Don Bosco Park Circus, Loreto or Prat. West Bengal Board and Council had easier English ( English Group B) as second language for those having Bengali or Hindi as First Language/ Group A) . State Board I feel does not really come into picture before Class IX-X.
The very very small to almost negligible library facility in the 1990s-
Those days you had no Google/Yahoo or any Indian search engine to find names of ace mathematics teachers than it is nowadays where you still doubt even after having barrage of information.
Real-life example of partiality faced there- I was fetching highest in Bengali mid 90s .Scored 148/200 some 74% final term.Hindi was 3rd language and scored 71%(highest) that year.This same Bengali teacher was grading 93%-94% to non-Bengalee performing students when a Punjabi Hindu elderly lady was not grading likewise in all three terms. This is an example of selective grading and grading partiality where a performing Bengali candidate was falling 20–25 marks shorter in elementary Hindi than a performing non-Bengali candidate in elementary Bengali.I could have maximum afforded Cholay-Batoray, a dhaba-cooked Punjabi butter chicken and a bouquet of roses for my Hindi teacher of Punjabi ethnicity(should be 80+ if she still lives) but would still doubt if it had only worked.This way competition was never healthy there.I still fetched the house cup “Green House/Raman” that year thanks to my random group of other students who had performed well but individually was never satisfied even with books as prizes- Language,Science or General Proficiency.We were not given any full-fee waiver for the next year than books as prizes.
In British English it is interpreted as “All that has started has to come to an end.”
Another guy I heard about left Hartley’s at 5th or 6th standard for South Point High School. He had scored 948/100 and was 3rd in WBHSE 2000. Please google Priyanko Mitra. Priyanko was also their Madhyamik topper scoring 737/800 from South Point though not in top 10 WBSE enlisted. Getting the better of 800+ South Point students in 1998 as someone who was earlier topper of 30–33 students in a Hartley‘s section, I would say require anyday mammoth improvisation. His giant leap continued further so far records with 24th in WBJEE 2000 , a Jadavpur University technology graduate degree followed by postgraduation specialization from IIT-Bombay.
For the fair-complexion/ forsha rong(Bengali)/ white-chittiya-kalaiya drive-me crazy block-Miss Mandira Sarkar , our Geography teacher, Miss Piyali Banerjee, Physical Science teacher, Miss Manjulika Ghosal( she never taught senior classes). Your view could be different.
Bhargav Da / Bhargav Kumar Mitra could manage only 691/900 ( 76.33%) in his 10th something not commensurate to his height and standards. His expectations were at least 775/900. The highest of 1996 Madhyamik 749/900 ( 83.22%) in Hartley’s High that of Saikat Da/ Saikat Podder
There is a Turkish Proverb that goes "Atın üstündeki türk değilse yüktür" which translates to "If the one sitting on the horse is not a Turk it will only be a burden for the horse".
You are some politician’s or some important person‘s son/daughter.
My library experience in Hartley’s High 1995 after registration with the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education-
You are born non-Bengali from a business family for whom grades are not important.
Brand Concept & Hartley’s High as a brand-
“Ebarer batch-ta bhalo chhilo na gotobarer ta bhalo chhilo/ This year’s batch was not that good compared to last year”, this exposes that there is no collective improvement mechanism in the school.
Anyani samyati navani dehi
The best teacher publicly voted on Orkut (7/9 or 77.77%) in 2006 and 80% or 8/10 on other online Platforms was Miss Nandita Roy Chowdhury( She had retired in 2015 after some 32 years of service and is still teaching in some school vicinal to her house), who was teaching Chemistry and Physical Science Classes-8th to 10th.She said she had a BSc pass course for qualification, never said anything regarding competitive exams as she had her limitations .I heard later from her she had established a Joint Entrance Exam training cell in Hartley’s High .I do not know if it is in the new Garcha Road campus and most importantly if it is delivering results.One great thing I did like about her was engaging even students with less or no interest with quizzes in classroom sessions when time was there but she had lot to organize checking our answer sheets, classwork assignments and most importantly make sure the class did not get noisy beyond control.This art of managing lot of people quality is in her DNA owing to her father who she said was/ is a doctor.A doctor is expected to never get impatient and rude handling complexities of sizeable number of patients.
I never saw Abhijeet Bhattacharjee dancing and singing Ole Ole at any of our Hartley’s High School fests. This exposes our financial calculus actually.
Money is always a reason as I have seen teachers of Hartley’s High in Schematic Coaching Center in Gariahat Singhi Park area that included Nandita Roychowdhury (Chemistry and Physical Science) and Ishita Bose nee Halder, our History teacher.I do not know if they were then proud of the school.The euphoria of private tuitions was at peak in the 1990s as we had no Internet and many things beyond classes used to be remain obscural.Obviously if your parents could afford.I never took private tuitions from any Hartley’s High teachers. My scepticism about them had made me more of the overthinker than joining tuitions for some self-gratification.My batchmates several did and still could not fetch highest in subjects I tried to deliver performance those days.
We were not burden for the horse called Hartley’s High at 11/4 Sarat Bose Road. It was historically during the tenure of British East India Company Bengal Governor Warren Hastings’s stable.We were the Turks whom Communists called Torun Turki/Young Turks in the roaring 1990s of Communist Era West Bengal.
Hartley’s High ex-student here -My journey started as Hartley‘s High Lower Prep kid for the 1984–85 Session. My class teacher was Miss Margaret.
Two of our earlier toppers had by 1994 left Hartley’s High. Shouvik Roychowdhury joined junior South Point classes probably before Hartley‘s High V standard .Another was topper of Section 2 in my batch Snigdhadeb Paul.I do not know how Snigdhadeb Paul got admission in Class VIII in South Point High with his 80% from Hartley’s High when in higher classes for 10+2 they were not taking in external students below 90%.I would say he was fortunate enough to get there in South Point High as he would have never been able to study +2 Science Stream with even his 87% in 10th from Hartley’s High.
As someone born on a Moon’s day, I tried to become the Moon but then the Moon has his dark side.11/4 is ground zero as numerologically they are not compatible. “Moonlight Sonata” to those students of that decade 1990–1999 , the white shirt, white pant and white „S“ inscribed in a white „H“ inside a white rhombus on a navyblue tie we wore as the last batch 1996–1997.
We had only 11/4 Sarat Bose Road campus in between Elgin Road and Minto Park bus stop. In 2024 so far ex-students showed me photos, it is demolished to ground zero. Zero is a very important number that make us Indians proud Bharatiya in the face of the world.Zero is invented in ancient India/Bharat.It clearly shows our school era or cycle of time has long had ended. As someone who had long left India to compete the world, I wish all the very best to the new building and new students of Hartley’s High. I was not a stern or staunch believer of numerology then. 11 as a number corresponds to 2 or Moon/Chandra and 4 -Uranus/Rahu. They are arch-felons. Chandradeb had shown Lord Shri Krsna in the latter’s Mohini avatar after Samudramanthan/ Necture Churning incident that it was an Asura/Demon Senapati Swarabhanu under the garb of Deva who did drink Amrita/ Nectar of Immortality and whose severed head by Lord Shri Krsna’s Sudarshana Chakra had become Rahu/Uranus and the remaining torso Ketu/Neptune.
The scoring crisis with Miss Gouri Ghosh, our Hartley’s High Bengali teacher IX-X 1995–1996
English Grammar & Comprehension-100 marks paper
Hartley’s High School has not over a dormant period of time upgraded their standards. I personally did not like competing with the same section of students every year. Hartley’s did not do performance-wise mix and match sections that you compete with the best, a practice which South Point High used to do those days with D1 and C as best sections of performers 10th and 10+2.Imagine if you are scoring overall 70% and you compete with 29 other 70%-ers in a class strength of 30, the cut-throat competition will motivate you to score 80% and over.Your psychology as well.But it is sad that way Hartley’s teachers are gonna lose interest in their daily jobs as teachers want it easy and interactive in imparting lessons. Weaker sections that way would have posed problems.Schools remain lively places and innovation is essential if institutions and the people in them are to keep abreast of changes in the world.
Any school is judged prima facie by its yearly 10th and 10+2 academic performance and board hall-of-fame achievements which in my 12–13 years of Hartleys’ High from mid 1980s to mid 1990s I had never observed.The weakest performance of any school becomes the benchmark. In performing schools like for instance Ramakrishna Mission Narendrapur 2024 the highest percentage is over 99% and the lowest is 84%.So some student who has come last in RKM Narendrapur has scored 84%. This same 84% if you are scoring in Hartley’s High , South Point High,Patha Bhavan, St.Lawrence and St.Xavier’s, its perception and reception defines you as a student .If you are still in doubt about standards and reputation, ask a St.Lawrence student ( I have opted St.Lawrence as it was within walking distance of Hartley’s High those days) who has scored 84% in 10th in 2024 and if he would consider studying Commerce in Hartley’s High .And ask a Hartley’s High student who has scored 84% in 10th to opt between Hartley’s High and St.Lawrence. As far game theory and my personal guesses, a competitive student would opt for St.Lawrence than Hartley’s High 9 out of 10 times.
Academics in Hartley’s High and drawing some realistic comparisons-
Sanskrit in Latin transliteration-
School Library- If it is spacious, students can avoid the evening rush hour of Kolkata traffic and spend couple of hours there.
I still remember their Father, most probably Roman Catholic how he dressed.
Coming back to our Hartley’s High- 1990s
Nevertheless, ended up pariah. I do not know if the then St.Lawrence High‘s morn session Father would have asked a difficult Bengali word to write had I had written correctly পাখি, পাখী (Bengali for Bird).In 1986 Hartley’s High, no student could write Bengali as 6 year old kids.Hartley’s High 6 year old kid at present blessed with the Internet I guess can write difficult Bengali words asked in an interview say প্রতিদ্বন্দ্বী(Bengali for Competitor).
As an ace actor Shah Rukh Khan once said to the ace journalist Arnab Goswami “Ghurbaat (Turkish- Gurbet) m creativity nahin hoti/Philosophy does not happen in austerity.First get rich and then become a philosopher”.And yes money speaks as marks do.Money and marks/grades are a boy’s marksmanship to qualify as man.
It is not about tuition fees in schools. That time in the South of Calcutta, a high tuition fee school was La Martiniere for Boys and Girls. They are a French Catholic establishment but none of their ex-students of my time could converse anything in French forget Latin. Their overrated hovercraft was full of eels.
Elitism in Hartley’s High was actually needed and it lacked in academics , thereover the academic culture and scope to constantly excel.
Bengali Vernacular I -100 marks paper
High quality teachers and professors in the best schools and best of universities do not put lot of efforts on your studies so far I have personally and professionally had come across.But they chalk out a strategy and give you high quality materials where you have got to put your time and effort to excel and excel better.
Hindi- जैसे मनुष्य पुराने वस्त्रों को त्यागकर दूसरे नये वस्त्रों को ग्रहण करता है, वैसे ही जीवात्मा पुराने शरीरों को त्यागकर दूसरे नये शरीरों को प्राप्त होता है ।। २२ ।।
The roots of both the languages Bengali and English emanate from Sanskrit, Greek and Latin/Grecolatin, two areas that were much needed essentials.Sanskrit and Latin from a very early school life not only build your confidence in diction but also your flair and better grasp of grammar.
There were teachers who used to complain Hartley‘s High had no buildings. I remember this woman Miss Tapti Ghosh, our English Grammar & Literature-Sherlock Holmes teacher of English I & II in VIII who used to arrive at school with a Maruti 1000, then a luxury brand in mid 90s. Managing Calcutta‘s hot summer classrooms and obstreperous junior classes V standard adjacent to us was an uphill task for her eyebrows.
The 1:10 ratio of fees you pay nowadays in Hartley’s High some 1500 INR per month in 2024 to La Martiniere Boys/Girls 15000 INR per month, was approximately the same 30 years back when we had paid 150 INR and they 1500 INR. That time La Martiniere Boys/ Girls had really wards of city and nation‘s who‘s who than it is nowadays where an 8th pass small retail grocery shopwallah‘s grandson from Kasba is going to La Martiniere for the so-called „English Medium“ and „Brandname“ fever. La Marts be it nowadays or 30 years back are and were not amongst India‘s best in Delhi Board ICSE/ISC exams. Not better than Don Bosco Park Circus’s average head-to-head in ICSE/ ISC within the city. I am deviating away and out of the topic but wants to connote if you pay more fees, it does not automatically guarantee standards. Individualism matters like student as an individual and teacher as an individual. As an aspiring student, I stressed on this quest for individualism as the conundrum did not end in Hartley’s High in point of academic excellence. And that way Hartley‘s High did not become the launchpad or that apex of a mountain wherefrom your eagle can take flight. I always loved eagle as a child and sketched many eagles at times in my drawing book. Eagle is the symbol of big Empire and you will find it everywhere from Casa Romana ( House of Romans) to Rajputana, from Russia to United States, Germany and where not. I left aspiring as an Eagle with what little Hartley‘s High had to offer than being a crow in Calcutta‘s cacophony.
If a teacher or the present Principal/headmistress is saying
Hartley’s High through the metaphysical lens -
“Life is a race. My own son had applied thrice but got rejected every-time”
It is not and was not any Grammar School.The Brits are by large responsible as they had established pre-partition grammar school in Lahore,West Punjab but not any of that ilk in undivided Bengal. Students saw facing problems in grammar and effective communication in English.Inside class apart from a Tamil Brahmin girl(she was not in my section though), hardly anyone was finding it important to communicate in English. We were a cosmopolitan bazaar of languages which apart from Hindi and Bengali did not really matter in point of exams.
Grades and partiality. It’s everywhere in the world and Hartley’s High was no exception
Felt really cornered when a D1 section South Point student more so a girl once told me in 1996 „Where are your question papers in All Bengal Teachers‘ Association (ABTA) Test paper collections?“.We used to solve test papers of various schools prior to 10th/Madhyamik/School Final/Secondary School Certificate exam. Of the two 1995–1996 and 1996–1997 ABTA test papers we were practising with to assess the quantum of our preparations, none of them had Hartley‘s High question papers.
Question if Hartley’s High is a good bet for an English-medium ?
My time in 1997, South Point were admitting 90% + candidates that too in their 3rd 4th enlistments. This shows South Point High was racing ahead of all and owing to their phenomenal +2 results in the early 1990s, it was South Kolkata‘s most desired school ahead of St.Lawrence High in Ballygunge.
I wasted those days lot of time searching for books in College Street.A bookseller there I often visited used to laugh telling “Ekhaneyi bichhana lagiye nao/ Make your bed here”. Sellers more so booksellers would normally not want buyers to look and read through pages after pages those days.Nowadays present Hartley’s High students can get lot of reference books and articles freely available online.Even in paid versions you have the option to read through at least the first 50–150 pages.
Imagine the year 2100 and another birth as someone not from that part of the world coming outside of a flying taxi amid high-rise buildings and telling a 70-year old man there at Elgin Road “Yonder was my school”.Time-traveling and virtual reality will become possible though we may not find the same faces at the same positions always. “Prarabdh Karma/Action that begun” exists and change is the law of life.God is the best coder/programmer this way.
We actually deserved a better and a very very competitive Principal like the character of Veeru Sahastrabuddhe in the 2009 flick “3 Idiots”. Some of his dialogues were somewhat like this
Of the duo-Mrs/Miss Deepa Das and Mrs/Miss Ratna Krishnan as mathematics teachers, students specially some Bengali and several non-Bengali block students spoke highly about the latter.For me such accords appeared to be very precarious.Students without the slightest scruple relayed what they heard from other students than actually researching about it.I had always this researching incumbency as a teenage student. Neither of them were any mathematics wizardess like Shakuntala Devi.Had they been one with premier degrees, they would have at least not joined Hartley’s High. We did not know in our limited space and scope how premier was actually premier though I personally felt we were way way behind many schools many ways.
Myself -
I personally have come across 2 really brilliant Hartley’s students. One had left Hartley’s at IV for RKM Narendrapur V , cleared in the 2nd attempt and went on to grab limelight with 5th Position in WBSE 1995 and 18th in WBHSE 1997 , ranked 300+ in IIT-JEE , alumnus of IIT-Madras ( Please google Abhijay Dutta).
The Afghan guy Ibrahim Lodi had 6–8 times more the size of army that of Uzbek Babur in the Battle of Panipat 1526.You already know who had won the war owing to strategy.
I do not find Hartley Higher Secondary School’s results in 10+2 Science and Commerce on the Web.If you are not publishing your results, then it is honestly not that worth publishing.I feel the present teaching staffs of Hartley Higher Secondary School are not working hard to add momentum to the overall performance.
I liked what majority of my batchmates plausibly did not.Endless exams as block tests starting from VII-VIII standard onward making us autodidacts.You otherwise did not develop any sense of self sans block tests.Your individual resilience was contingent upon how good,medium,bad you performed in those exams.You were your own gaffer to throw light into your school performances.We had no space for group studies/studying as there were no study rooms .I did not know if batchmates were doing that outside school as had no telephone those days in house.Your garish clothes and perfume and your parents’ charity of a Maruti 800 or Ambassador driving you to a batchmate’s place did not gear your exams up.That way you would probably have ended up rescheduling another session discussing canapés. Block tests every week were a way of constantly upping your ante with 90-100 students of 3 sections.
There is this popular Deutsche Redewendung / Deutsches Idiom or German idiom/maxim
Science Department (PLM- Physical Science , Life Science and Mathematics) for IX-X West Bengal Board Exams/Madhyamik
The intransigence as a Hartley’s High School student stemmed more from trying to find out reality of some overrated teachers like for instance the then mathematics teacher South Indian probably Tamil Brahmin Ratna Krishnan ( heard she had died of late). In mid 1990s mid year 1995 there was this bizarre incident of Lord Ganesha drinking milk in the hot summer of Calcutta. Mrs Ratna Krishnan (our last class teacher of 10th standard) if not overhyped that way, always raised kinda fragile unanimity.She was neither IIT-Madras Masters in Pure Mathematics nor Chennai Mathematical Institute’s Applied Mathematics. Our class teacher of 9th standard Miss/Mrs Mallika Ghosh’s( heard she had died too in 2023) daughter was going to Miss/Mrs Ratna Krishnan for private tuition in Madhyamik Mathematics. I had asked Miss/Mrs Krishnan if she had coached Olympiad participants in Mathematics for the national and international level to which she then answered her style
In the South of Calcutta as early as the winter of November 1983 more so in Bhowanipore & Ballygunge,South Point High School followed by St.Lawrence High School and thereafter Ballygunge Government High School were top seeds as English-medium , Bengali & English medium and fully Bengali medium instructed schools.
Nowadays getting 100/100 in History is creating new history than our history in Hartley’s with the very subject.We were not blessed with eminent historians and researchers coming on YouTube Podcasts as a big plus nowadays.
The St.Lawrence High School episode and my mom’s endeavor trying to put me in a better-ranked school with the 10+2 Higher Secondary facility does not matter medium of instruction-
Hartley’s High boys and girls from 1994–1996 in my class and other sections-
My personal favorite is the David Mann and Red Evans’ 1947 jazz „No Moon at all” after seeing it is all over there.You will like the remastered version by the noted American singer and actress Late Julie London
Why grades/marks are as important as your money and why performers choose to abandon Hartley’s High even if they came/come first in section/overall?
Imagine me a 14 year old boy fetching highest consistently in Physical Science, Bengali I and II, Hindi, History,Geography and at times even other subjects like Mathematics and Life Science.And everytime teachers were announcing my name, burst of feminine laughter for the fatboy who had over years not slimmed. As a plump kid often bullied even by female batchmates as “Motu”, I could not derive inspiration from lean slapsticks and slim-to-consider-fit boys of our batch who if not called names, were not liked either. I individually have no grudge of not attending any such marriage where a Hartley’s boy and a Hartley’s girl had tied the knot.Have seen this in other coeducational schools including South Point High and even when in gender-segregated schools like La Martiniere Boys and Girls, St Thomas Boys and Girls wherefrom students have later married.
Navani grhnati naro 'parani
Languages were a decisive area for your overall improvement. We used to have some 5 papers on Languages
In 1990s, no academic year was any holiday with Hartley’s High results as that great in 10th/ Madhyamik including our batch. In the 1980s however, there was a year when school had given holiday owing to excellent results in Madhyamik/10th/Secondary School Certificate.I forgot the year probably any between 1983 and 1986.Miss Mukherjee’s wrinkled-face and tensed eyebrows and everytime grumpy mood this way reneged on Hartley’s High’s deal to come out with gala success.But this was the same woman whose all questions were answered correctly by me for the Hartley’s High admission 40 years back.She was already in her 40+ as regards age by 1983–1984 in Hartley’s High.She might have had her heydays in Hartley’s High most probably 1970s to mid 1980s unbeknown to me.
In our class at our time, no student was discussing futuristic ambitious things like how to crack IITs/ IIMs/ WBCS/UPSC/JEE/CDS/SSC, both Bengali & non-Bengali block students including Gujaratis & Marwari blocks did not find discussing stocks and shares than discussing about petty things daysing life, holidays, schoolgirls and their oops moments ,how transparent their dresses had become at times that boys could see the backside of their bras, bold Bollywood film actresses , Indian cricket but world soccer. If one should stick to such conversation in spite of knowing it would eventually lead to nowhere,I could not laugh more at some batchmates discussing women. Most of them are married by now and their reality in terms of women earned as wife so far my observations are way below expectations. Well that‘s how reality bites.
I missed Chiranjib Sir( Maths and Physical Science teacher of Class VI 1992–93) who would throw chalks at loquacious students and his brilliant strategy of putting one boy next to one girl bench by bench to keep pindrop silence in the class.Alas! he has bade Earth farewell ( heard 2009 what people said) and his strategy could have helped classes VIII-X specially our boys.
I liked St.Lawrence High School more as a local senior Bhowanipore Lawrencian guy was playing cricket for them and representing them in the „Thums Up“ Cup championship. They have a proper playground unlike the space shortage in Hartley’s High.Hartley’s High had not proper resources where children growing up could play and the Assembly Hall where in Hartley’s High we used to attend drills of Dutta Sir( Late Giridharlal Dutta) were not any proper physical training really. Dutta Sir himself never looked like the trained gym guy and of course not trainer of the Armed Forces. Three guys of my batch Shouvik Roychowdhury, Shivaji Dutta and Bilas Chowdhury had left Hartley’s midway as Hartley’s High did not provide them any enthusiasm and material in Table Tennis( Shouvik & Shivaji played that). Bilas, an ex- Officer in the Signal Intelligence of Indian Army had revealed Sports was the main reason to leave Hartley‘s. I was not playing training any sport beyond locality in Bhowanipore. So stayed in Hartley‘s High.
St.Lawrence and St.Xaviers so far saw fellow students were amongst coveted for Commerce and Eco-Stats-Maths combi. Very less 1–2 students I saw could get in 10+2 Science streams in Xaviers.Toppers used to fetch anything between 83% -89% in 10th exams in the 1990s. Those days even West Bengal Board and Council toppers did not secure 160 out of 200 or an 80% in Bengali A and/or English A. Marking students is nowadays very lenient as I could see board toppers fetching 100/100 in History,Geography,Bengali and even English that was kinda next to impossible those days.Nowadays 100 has become the new 90.Coming back to our time, some 2/3rd or 67% of appearing students had passed 10th overall in the whole of West Bengal.Nowadays Madhyamik or 10th passing rate are over 87% as per newsletters online.
Board and Council rankers that brought reputation to St. Lawrence than toppers of Hartley’s High
Finance matters but academic-minded individuals matter more-
No study reference books say you wanted to learn more about a chemical reaction mechanism from say Lehninger’s Biochemistry, there was not any. More than half of fellow students in our batch probably had never heard about those books at our 9th-10th standards.You had to pay penalty 25–50 INR if you had lost any book or otherwise your final report card got withheld.I tried to search Geometry Rider books for reference but there was not any 1994. Amazon Kindle is successful because our searches had limitations then. I felt glad for our fellow students specially boys then watching geometry of 14–16 year old girls with budding breasts and trying to mentally solve some different geometric riders without which life seemed pointless.
One positive thing about the elderly octagenarian80+ Jagmohan guy living in the USA is that he said he had married his wife from Hartley’s High.
Post-liberalization era- Our Indian markets opened to the West in 1992.Competition increased and books from USSR in STEM subjects started vanishing from College Street
I was in top 1% of this school from VII standard onwards three decade back.Passed out 10th out of there towards the later end of 1990s. School has no contribution in my topping exams than myself and my prerogatives.That time 10+2 was not there which is on trends since 2009. Standardwise I don’t personally think it can compete 10+2 Commerce and Science with the 3Ss of our time-South Point,St.Lawrence and St.Xaviers.
Quality-wise not upto the level of C1-C2 Cambridge courses at the vicinal Camac Street( that time British Council was near Hartley’s walking distance). The idioms, poetries, philosophies,proses,folktales and fables of Radiant Readers we had come across were ok but does not hone your skills up for English in GRE,GMAT, honors in Presidency College(then under CU), Jadavpur University or even Calcutta University’s bests. Our High School grammar started with IIIrd standard with a book called “Wren and Martin’s” and until Xth, it is the same book to reconcile with the complexities. Unlike high funda British and Queen’s English, which has writing styles, methodologies et al, creative writing was never any modeling tool to assess the quantum of preparations.
St.Lawrence those days had Bengali and also English as languages of instruction-
I do not know what is coming up there.Probably or probably not a new building of Hartley’s High. If you are a 14-year old Hartley’s High student who has never seen and will never see me, just visit a Saturday or Sunday that vacated demolished place that was our 11/4.Nothing is permanent. Echelon of moments remain if you try to feel.
I somehow managed to score 113(56 & 57 in respectively 1st and 2nd Bengali papers) as highest in Test selection.I never saw any school student going to her for private tuitions coasting 160 or at least 155 out of 200 in Bengali I & II, very decisive papers for your overall percentage aggregate those days. For the new Bengali block Hartlians who had not faced Miss Gouri Ghosh, please make merry you have not faced Siachen glacier. Any other guy who has ever scored 70–75 or over or 140+ out of 200 in both her papers is either liked by her or really deserves standing ovation.
Competitiveness-
Culture , Infrastructure & Facility-The academic culture, strategy and innovation and then resources offline and online -what kinda books are readable and borrowable as print materials and how many of those really cater to the requirement of students . I am revisiting the time frame 1983 to 1996.There was no Internet( Internet is itself since 1995 in the USA as service) and library facility in Hartley‘s was a Russian chastushka. I don’t know how is Hartley’s High School library in the new Garcha Road school premises nowadays. Expectedly better than 40 minutes of precious lifetime wasted in gossiping what we used to do those days.The library was laughable with a very small room where maximum 3–4 persons could properly stand. It was next to that round drinking water reservoir diagonal to teaching staff room and adjacent to lower preppies’s children playground.
I think most Bengali-block students whose ancestry is from East Bengal have faced this same crisis differently.For such students, school can be and could have rather been their biggest pride and immunity. They expect something from school but there once again too many expectations at the wrong place and wrong time with none to deliver ends up ambitions futile.Hartley’s High School was not and is still not the launchpad for ambitious students aiming at least Jadavpur University‘s BE /BSc if not IITs, IIMs, ISIs & NITs.
How Hartley’s High had and have probably failed to be a fraternity for the majority Bengali block-
The Catch-22 Situation I faced as 80s kid and 90s teenager during Hartley’s High
In 1994, the topper Abhishek Ray from Kanchrapara Harnett High School who stood 1st in Madhyamik/WBSE remember had scored 74/100 in History with overall 844/900(93.77%).
“Ja oder kachhe ja bhalo bhalo notes pabi/ Go to them (expert teachers) and get good notes”. Period.
History-
The only Indian Bengali Hindu girl I am apprised of was a batchmate Mr.Arnab Mazumder whose younger sister, a junior also in Hartley’s had later tied the knot with a Hartley’s High passout boy.
Pallav Da in Hartley’s High was a topper through and through though the neighboring Julien Day School topper had scored 810/900(90%) that year.Shows our results were not up to the microcosm as better schools always will evaluate seeing marks obtained as betterlooking bigger full-figured girls-the money you earn.Pallab/ Pallav Da so far heard that 1995 was in St.Xavier‘s for +2 Science, a time when the Collegiate school was affiliated to WBHSE(West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education). Don’t know if they still are.
Later outside Hartley‘s High towards higher studies, I had come across toppers as interim teachers/ tutors from Calcutta University,Jadavpur University,University of London, London Business School, Harvard Business School, Insead of France, Stanford,MIT-Sloan, TU9s of Germany , IITs & IIMs so on that include plethora of people from India and yes Kolkata from schools like Hindu School, Jodhpur Park Boys, Nava Nalanda, Bidhan Chandra Boys & Jadavpur Bidyapith, RKMs, the 3Ss I had mentioned about and even district schools like Kanailal Vidyamandir, Chandannagore, another school in Durgapur. Somehow I felt and feel they are more proud about their school they had long left. This is a vacuum where present Hartley‘s teachers and Hartley‘s students can do their very best to change year to year. As an individual I would say in Hindi „Yeh malal hamesha reh gaya“/ This crisis always remain ingrained in mind whenever I arrive at the Dum Dum airport from abroad and drive towards Bhowanipore & Ballygunge in the southern part of the city of Calcutta or Kolkata.
You are say this woman I saw even in my class sometimes in 1994- Ashita / Asrita Shah by name. Gujrati very obvious and did see her with ex-teachers and Hartley‘s teachers in photos. Looks probably from a business family where lot of people are there to vouch for her. If you are one such and living near school, Hartley’s can be your choicest cafetaria.I saw her stand tall and proud on photos with mostly retired Hartley’s teachers. You can try that as our teachers were neither Neeta & Tina Ambanis,nor Tatas/Adanis and yes their physical appearences now aged anywhere between 50 nd 90 years so far my recollections were not like this elite art connoisseur Delhiite Shalini Passi making quite a sensation nowadays.
Teachers ours were mostly partial in grading students specially non-Bengalees , a practice that is not in vogue in any other parts of India where Bengalees are in minority say Assam, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bengaluru and Delhi.This selection bias, favoritism and nepotism sadly exists and existed then as well. It did not create Social Media frenzy as people were reluctant to speak about it owing to the absence of Facebook & Twitter and other ones like Google’s Orkut between 2006 & 2010.
Sanskrit & Latin could have really helped Hartley’s as couple of 100 marks paper as workloads when you already had the burden of 500 marks of languages rather 700 marks including History & Geography as subjects.
I personally think buildings and amenities do matter but most importantly what matters is what you offer to students and how you set yourself as an example. A few yards from Hartley‘s High School those days was La Martiniere Boys & La Martiniere Girls. This Kingfisher absconding guy Mr. Vijay Maliya is an ex-La Martiniere Boys guy backed by Pappuvian Congress. ( As of Late 2024 he still smokes in London GBP 9 to GBP 100 cigars so far estimated seeing his videos but cannot pay wages to workers who believed in the Company and had worked for his private Airlines). Failed entrepreneurship from a school with big buildings,lush green playgrounds, financially solvent families sending their wards and what not ?
The then selected Vice-Principal 1995 ( she was a regular Physical Science teacher in VII standard) of Hartley’s Miss Piyali Banerjee wielded no less authority.She always seemed to be focused somewhere else.Compared to some elder teachers than her say Miss Bulbul Chakraborty in VII Life Science, she had limited blackboard work for her age then in mid 40s( I do not know her age but looked 43–44 then) with a daughter then in Gokhale Memorial Girls, and senior to us and a son in Hartley’s High almost as old as us or a year junior.
Difficult to negotiate- The Principal Miss Ela Mukherjee
The rich school versus middleclass school versus poor school thing-
Hartley’s High as a school is a very good timepass experience in terms of happy-chappy school life if
Physical Science- Apart from Mrs/Miss Nandita Roychowdhury who was teaching us Chemistry(Physical Science had Physics & Chemistry combined syllabus), the Vice-Principal Mrs/Miss Piyali Banerjee and the very Principal Miss Ela Mukherjee had hard time managing two pivotal positions . 40 minutes of Physics class was cumbersome to either.
You think beyond reality and result statistics something great and unforeseen can happen academically come hell or high water.
You are reared up Marwadi , Gujarati, Parsi, Punjabi or religious minority business family for whom grades are somewhat important but not most important thing in the long run.
Salvaging some Hartlian pride-
Sober and congenial personality- Miss Rina Ganguly, Maths Arithmetic teacher VII standard, Miss Madhumita Dasgupta,English Literature teacher V-VI standard,Miss Paromita Banerjee , History teacher VII Standard Timeline-1991–1993.
You have say a gas station/ petrol pump in the heart of the city. I personally don’t know if this Sikh senior guy from 1987 or earlier batch whom I have seen at this petrol pump at Lansdowne-Hazra crossing opposite to Lansdowne Bus Stop an owner family heir.
Those 3 guys clearly show there were great and yes state-level ranker potentials in Hartley’s High students writing 10th and 10+2 from competitively and comparatively better schools like Ramakrishna Mission Narendrapur, South Point High , Patha Bhavan or St. Lawrence & St.Xavier‘s than doing the same from Hartley‘s High.
2nd one Anirban Dutta Gupta( please google him) , day all-school Hartley’s topper but could manage just under 80% in 10th in 1996 scoring 719/900. This is the same guy who stood 12th in state WBHSE scoring 909/1000 from Patha Bhavan 1998 and had secured 149th rank in WBJEE 1998. He is an alumnus of IIEST Shibpur then BESU Shibpur, Howrah & VGSOM, IIT Kharagpur.
was not even that much. The board topper was a Bankura Zilla/District School guy Shaubhik Bagchi 861/900( 95.66%).
Our Principal Miss Ela Mukherjee I remember did not turn up a final exam day in 1994 March inside Hartley’s High School premises.We had Life Science Final term exam VII standard scheduled that day which got postponed.I don’t know if students had enjoyed. But this exposed how authoritarian a person could rather be.This was an instance of somehow a leadership lacuna. I remember when we wrote Madhyamik/10th in National High School for Boys( our seats used to be in that school and for Hartley’s girls in National High School Girls), 1997 March I remember their National High School Boys invigilators were laughing at her, at her dressing sense.The way you dress so far have seen the corporate world, it does matter.More it counts how you carry yourself and your personality depending upon challenges you face or accept.
Me as Hartley’s High student who tried to perform and deliver- was happy yet unhappy as I could not see the reality that there were so many other schools with so many other students like me.The only way you outperform them was marks obtained which toppers of Hartley’s High were not able to obtain. Kinda oxymoron if you adjudge someone to be good only with his/her Hartley’s High School performances. Forget West Bengal, we were not even in top 1% schools Ballygunge & Bhowanipore in the South of the then Calcutta. I am telling you so far I saw data of other schools year to year in the southern part of the city. When I passed 10th/School Final/Madhyamik in 1997 from Hartley‘s High, out of some 70 students that had appeared that year, only 25 had fetched 75% or over as star marks. The highest was some 87.8%. In South Point High School, 808 candidates had appeared in 1997 as per data I saw on Ananda Bazar Patrika(ABP) and 490 students had scored 75% or over. The teacher-student ratio in Hartley’s High and South Point High were almost same but see the difference where 61% plus appearing students scored 75% and over. Their highest was 93.375% (747/800) and their topper stood 9th in WBSE 1997 that year. Coming back to Hartley‘s High, not even 40% students were able to score 75% + in Madhyamik. Most of us come from middleclass backgrounds and I believe marks are Javelin missile of middleclasses that you defend and shield yourself for some better school/ college.The endeavor of continuous improvement I did not see in our teachers. In a performing school as hinted earlier with RKM Narendrapur also RKM Purulia as examples to reckon with, their teachers work to reduce the gap between first boy and last boy. This push you can see as well in some G7 nations trying to make both ends meet with taxation system say Denmark 60% plus & Germany 42%-53%.School is much smaller an entity and seeing performing schools, I always felt why was I getting ready everyday for Hartley‘s High.
My parents never pushed for results as they knew their financial shortcomings. The starting salary of a Jadavpur University engineering graduate in 1994 was between 3000 INR max 6000 INR. Experienced engineers used to earn 10000 INR to 30000 INR so far my observations. Indian economy was not Bengaluru what it is nowadays where non-IIT and non-JU guys are earning 12 lakhs INR to 1–2 crores INR per annum. IITs accounted for 8–10 lakhs INR and there was not great loan facilities. My dad who worked as a senior architect designer in a midsize company had clarified me that he could never afford my IIT-Delhi and IIM-Ahmedabad as ambitions. And then unlike Bengali Ghotis( people whose ancestors are from West Bengal), we as immigrant Bangals owing to 1947 Partition of Bengal had not millions worth immovables to suffice for security in Indian banks. Before 1994 in the 80s, there was not even this HDFC loan facility for housing loan forget education.Liquid cash/ Liquidity of having 4–5 lakhs INR really mattered in the late 1980s to early 1990s.
Life Science- The one and only Ganguly Sir/Mr Ashok Ganguly-Very patiently managing both Life Science and Additional Biology(optional subject) classes.We used to get typewrited notes at times jotted what he had to deliver.Meticulousness one could find in his way of using the blackboard with white,blue and red chalks drawing “Nephron” and the “Heart”. He had his motivation as well to join a better school St.Xavier’s Park Street.
Getting inside St.Xavier’s College for BSc. (Stat) or B.Com(Hons)-Accountancy is as per word of mouth and also practically is easier from St.Lawrence .Church associations are similar.
How dreams got shattered in Hartley’s High in spite of sincere efforts. Bhargav Kumar Mitra as a case study-
In fine/ Conclusion-
“Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei”
The vocabulary / diction you learn in all 12–13 years cannot single-handedly qualify your Duolingo/TOEFL /IELTS. You will find it easier to score 6.5/7.0 band but 8.5 -9.0 will still require consistent efforts. Most English-medium educated bright students end up even after lot of practice 7.5–8.0. If you are dubious, just ask 8–10 standard students to describe an IPL / ODI/Test /T20I cricket match they had watched and you can still mark quality differences with say the commentary of ESPN set as standard even in the era of Internet. At our times, Statesman, Telegraph, Times of India and other print media were source of information. We had no access to British or American tabloids, newspapers those days that could have largely helped.
Difficult to score then 60%- 70% or over average in the two Bengali papers - Miss Gouri Ghosh.
The only teacher whose activities showed she was proud of herself was a veteran Miss Mandira Sarkar.She used to enjoy her circadian or perhaps beyond sleep cycles in all our Geography classes, zero to almost negligible hands on the blackboard with the chalk, zero notes dictated to us in half a decade of Geography from VI to X standard but was proud of her son ( her son was not in Hartley’s) who she bragged was studying Computer Science 30 years back.Studying Computer Science used to be a matter of honor those days than it is nowadays.Her compensating side was instructing important questions to prepare before the finals each year. This helped me score maximum 92 in higher classes IX-X but Geography in any performing or ranking school should obviously be anytime better. In our entire 100 strength batch, there was an Additional Geography teacher Miss Arpita Dasgupta( heard she had died late 1990s) and only one student took Geography as an additional subject.
The leadership crisis I saw in Hartley’s High-
I liked our Cyril Sir ( Late Cyril Sir ) trying to copy the hairstyle of Elvis Priesley. The only piano he would play was „Rudolf the rednosed reindeer“. Most of my batchmates the boys corner hardly listened. I listened though could not connect dots why was it that important. Reindeer, Rednose, Rudolf in the era of red red Communism in Calcutta did not create any stir as Communism starts with Atheism. I could only feel he liked the number very much.
I believe we are all born actors.We change many dresses and play many roles in one life before we leave our mortal remains.
The leadership or the head teacher/Principal was an elderly Brahmin Hindu lady Miss Ela Mukherjee( deceased 2012) who had interviewed my three and half year old self way back early half of 1980s. In mid 1990s, then already towards her retirement, she had rejected my agenda of training students for the olympiads.I was interested in mathematics olympiad.She had told me it was all upto me if I had intended for national and international contests.School is not the right place to train for such olympiads. An area where I personally feel schools like South Point had supported so far my feedbacks from students who would participate those days.
My mom, an earlier insurance manager in the private sector was a housewife in 1983–84 as I was kid. She saw the limitations in spite of good feedback from my aunt about Hartley‘s High topper getting admitted to South Point +2 as Hartley’s High had no 10+2 that time and there again one swallow does not make a summer. As a kid I never knew if 80.33% of my elder cousin brother in 10th in 1983 got better traction in performance gauging as in the 1990s I never saw Hartley‘s toppers getting admitted for +2 Science Stream in South Point High School. May be 80.33% in 1983 was great and may be not. Depend on how many students scored statewide 80% or over.
Teachers as they appeared-
I remember this 1992 flick, my favorite Bollywood flick by Mansoor Khan “Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander”.Let’s assume Aamer Khan’s character Sanju/Sanjaylal Sharma’s school “Model School” as our Hartley’s High. St.Xavier’s Collegiate,St.Lawrence , South Point ,others in the middle as per the sequence of events in that film and La Martiniere Boys & Girls as Rajput & Queen’s.The cycle race in the crescendo showed that a guy from any ordinary school can get the better of the best school’s winners if resources and trainings are apart from individual motivation good.But that’s sports. I always believed Hartley’s High could have done much better.We wanted to do way better from there.
The forward push to turn your perseverence into smartwork was not there.I feel she knew about the median performance in Hartley’s High with her years of experience . By mid-1996, a year and half before her retirement, she had nothing new to explore.
During my time in the mid 1990s, the passing rate of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education was 65% to 67%.Now that 85% to 90% students pass Secondary and Higher Secondary examinations, brand initiative is needed to survive or otherwise you will vanish also from Garcha Road one day. It has happened to many private and even government schools and colleges in Britain,European Union and United States like anywhere else.
English Dictation & Spelling- 100 marks paper
Collective Strategy of Teachers lacked overall and Pupils/ Students majority saw struggled with the two languages during my time in Hartley’s High School-
The Life Science teacher Mr Ashok Ganguly at times revealed he was trying for some better school St Xaviers Collegiate or so.
In Hartley’s High School this two ends of a sausage were Bengali and English as languages ( Cannot say about Hindi as I had studied only 2 year Hindi there Classes -VII & VIII).
Hartley’s High School & Jagmohans who operated private transports for school kids & teenagers-
Unlike USA where a teammate from my present company can go into some remote village in Maine to find an old school first kiss for his midlife crisis, Hartley’s High cannot unfortunately cater something similar.The catharsis was lacking as middle-class girls’ parents had taught them us schoolboys does not matter topper or cropper are not choicest future husband or partner material.Some other school’s boy with better financial means and background was better as per middle-class ethos of mid 1990s. The melodrama had failed if not for me but for others who had tried and was not paid heed to like Shahrukh Khan’s 1994 flick “Darr”.I do not consider it any immaturity as maturity with time is not our real self.Thanks to SRK and his 1994 version for delivering our emotions.
In India for a girl/woman/daughter it is always easier that you marry a groom and Indian laws are more than available at your doorstep to help you gain financially if things do not work out.A daughter’s mom this way does not matter school teacher is less burdened as girls/women irrespective of their looks,physical standards,socioeconomic statuses more often get partners than boys/men as far as the real world is concerned.
Why upgrading standards is very important for Hartley’s High -
As a coeducational English-medium instructed school, Hartley’s High in all my 12–13 years was a lackluster from boys to boys networking as also boys to girls then teenagers in mid 90s.Girls had clear boundaries and were sitting in girl-groups separately as we started wearing full-pant come class VIII. As growing up boys towards adolescence , you could hardly speak openly with them.Not talking about physical intimacy. So far I saw Hartley’s High, no girl was even 5 ft 9. They were not models.Our only interaction with them were in off-period “Antaksharis” though us boys felt coy in eye-contact. This feeling shy shows society was not really patriarchal within the economic block of pupils in Hartley’s High School. The zeitgeist of our time- school is not the place where such things happen than a college.That killed the spontaneity.
English Literature- 100 marks paper
Bengali Vernacular II- 100 marks paper
Why I am telling this is because the feedback what my aunt provided in 1983–84 , I did not see as reality. In 1995, Hartley‘s High topper Pallav Da/ Pallav Dutta had scored 777/900(86.3%) compared to West Bengal Board topper Sanjeev Basak 835/900( 92.77%) and so far sources from his batch said, he still could not make it to South Point 10+2 Science.
That was a very honest answer in an era when Internet was not there and teachers were cashing out of students struggling in subjects through private tuition classes outside school hours.Those days if you had argued or negotiate for anything, teachers would usually skip passing the buck, at times get angry or cock a snook at your ambitions/pleas.
What I liked while in Hartley’s High School-
Her daughter she had married off to some St Lawrence High School educated Indian Bengali Kayastha guy. This actually shows our teachers were not wanting us to be the best.Most teachers were only physically present there using students as cash cows and school as a steppingstone to jump to some better paying school.
How destiny landed me up in Hartley’s High although it was not parents’ choicest-
Memories do stay in the databases of our soul and only “Jatiswaran”/ Reincarnation in next birth can remember every sequence of events of past life/lives. We tend to forget even what we wore and ate a year back nowadays.
Literal translation – Everything has an end; only the sausage(Wurst) has two
My elder cousin brothers now in their late 50s were as disclosed earlier in South Point High and they had had married South Pointian brides . The most recent talk of the town Nobel Laureate in Economics Dr. Abhijeet Bandopadhyay who married later a French American is an ex-South Pointian and his very first wife now ex is also from South Point High School.
Source of this photo- Internet
For the height-quarter Hartlians- Our drawing teacher Miss Krishna Mukherjee appeared to be tallest of all teachers of that time from classes V-X though I could be wrong. Please correct me.
“28 was nationwide the position of Imperial College of Engineering I made it the numero uno”
“Jodi kagoje lekho naam , kagoj khoye jabe……….hridoye lekho naam shunam roye jabe(won’t translate it is upto you)” but had miserably failed to cater me feedback.
Some 2–3 vending machines like this for some evening refreshments inside the present Hartley’s High School library can really help inquisitive students who are voracious readers. The money you amass this way can help festive occasions like “Saraswati Puja”. It is better than couple of senior guys coming every Monday to your class to collect potatoes(Aloo) and onions(Piyaz/Peyaj).
My then Hartley‘s High School Class teacher of VII standard Miss Sharbani Banerjee ( PhD from Jadavpur University & 1993–1994 Hartley’s High was her first job as teacher) was in St. Thomas Girls School and her husband is as well from St. Thomas Boys School from Kidderpore/ Khidirpore Kolkata-23.
Our Science teachers including the former Principal Miss Ela Mukherjee, the worst to impart 40 minutes of loose talks in the name of Physics were not Karatsuba’s Algorithm to improve our time complexity that you gained some after losing some.The leadership was herself not going great guns. Leadership really matter everywhere in any sphere.When Pakistan won their only 50-over Benson & Hedges World Cup Final outplaying England that too in the neutral venue of Australia, their captain was Imran Khan and vice-captain Javed Mianded.
The younger one Pinku Da/Sandeep (Basu) Roychowdhury scored 730/900(81.1%) in 1990 Madhyamik followed by 805/1000(80.5%) in WBHSE , graduated out of Roorkee Engg College ( 1992–1996 Roorkee was not IIT-Roorkee) and of late Masters from University of Texas,Austin, USA. In 1983 my aunt as per my mom provided feedback that a topper of Hartley’s High School had joined South Point High School. In 1983, my parents were running helter skeleter to admit me in a school and had opted for South Point High School. But that year they had set a filter- only Calcutta 700029 resident students. I was staying in Bhowanipore Calcutta 700025. In 1983, my Boro Pishi/elder aunt was staying near Singhi Park Gariahat and provided her Calcutta 700029 address but then it still did not work out as electric or phone bills, identity proofs were required to be parents‘s name for the residence verification. Those days insiders who could help your admission process in exchange of money due to such complications were not easily available or at least my parents could not find one due to their stipulated budget. I eventually answered all questions correctly that had been asked by Miss Ela Mukherjee ( between 1991–1997 she was our V-X day school Principal) and got admitted as regular student. This is how Hartley‘s High happened.
My previous senior batch guy Bhargav Da/ Bhargav Kumar Mitra, class topper had scored 114(54 & 60) in Miss Gouri Ghosh’s papers from IX to X. Please google him he is so far sources said in the field of research in University of Sussex , England, Britain.
The Interviewer Father- He asked in Bengali which school I was in ? Answered Hartley‘s High.Started with English- poems, Basic Arithmetic , English fill-up-the-blank questions. Then randomly Bengali alphabets. At 6, I could write few Bengali words including my name, parents‘s name. The interviewer Father ( I don’t know his name as he did not introduce himself) said „Shobi to parchho! / You are answering everything!“.Then came the catch. He asked me to write „Bird“ in Bengali. I wrote „Paki“ in Roman as we in Hartley’s High from Lower Prep to Infant were completely innocent of the Bengali language. I still don’t know if this was the only reason I was not accepted in St. Lawrence High School as because I saw answer sheets many where students interviewed could not answer all or most questions correctly. People told me later that St.Lawrence High accept New Horizon students but not Hartley‘s High. I don’t know about internal church politics and beyond what people had to say, this was my very first failure. I otherwise don’t know if had written correctly that very word, my interviewer would accept. In 1986–87, I did not know the word „Paki“ is a slang in Britain. This was a consequence of first not knowing enough Bengali, secondly not knowing how to connect vowels and consonants in a language that is way harder than English and costs lot of ink to print( ABP newspaper used to cost 3 times more than Telegraph).
In the 2009 flick „3 Idiots“, the Head of the Institution character Veeru Sahasrabuddhe( thanks to Mr Boman Irani for delivering the role) was at least proud of his own college/ school of engineering. Our teachers especially Principal Mukherjee followed by Vice Principal Banerjee, both Brahmin surnames were not proud individuals themselves and us products ourselves, I personally never felt that great pride being with them.They were both most occasions rude to students imparting zero quality of teaching in Physical Science which showed they had very less patience for leadership positions which I personally feel was cumbersome only because they had to sign hundreds of report cards than improving the school‘s standards. The Vice-Principal‘s son Prithviraj Banerjee is a 1998 passout who people told is trying his luck in the Tollygunge film industry infested with Brahmins since its inception. You wouldn‘t find as many Brahmins in Hartley’s High as there in the Tollygunge film industry. It could have built a better narrative for us Hartley‘s High School passouts to see ex-Vice Principal‘s daughter marrying a Hartley‘s High School passout senior guy than St. Lawrence High School.And that at least a teacher in leadership position believed in Hartley’s and loved the school.
School is our very first club for networking and I have recently watched a Podcast where this founder member of the company “Policy Bazaar” , Mr Yashish Dahiya, a senior IIT-Delhi graduate to the very YouTube podcaster Mr Chetan Bhagat (yes the writer who inspired the movie 3 Idiots and ex-IIT-Delhi & ex-IIM-Ahmedabad) said the school he was in Lawrence Sanawar,Himachal Pradesh and Delhi Public School in Delhi, 8th standard students discussed about clearing IITs.Calcutta this way was a far lagging behind.
As the Holy Bhagavad Geeta says in Chapter 2 Shloka 22 -( I have chosen this Shloka as 2 corresponds to 11(1+1) and 22=4(2+2) numerologically for Hartley’s at 11/4 Sarat Bose Road) now that Hartley’s High School is physically non-existent at 11/4 Sarat Bose Road
Tatha sarirani vihaya jirnany
Say you are scoring in the range of 85% to 95% from Hartley’s High School as toppers in 10th and 12th WBSE(West Bengal Board of Secondary Education) and WBHSE(West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education) with respect to present syllabi and marking patterns and most importantly the passing rate.And someone from East or West Midnapore , Cooch Behar fetching the same as district candidate.Who has won the brand war ? Obviously the student living in the districts where cost of living is much lower than in Kolkata.Herein loses Hartley’s as a brand where present teachers and present students have to focus in delving into intimate details.
The time-Positive feedback does not always materialize into positive reality.India and Calcutta before 1991 and after Soviet secession in 1991.