Obituary — Bangaru Zamindar (BZ) High School, Chittoor (1883–2021)
Shakespeare famously said, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances” …this is not only true for human beings but also true for institutions! There is birth, youth, consolidation, decay and then the eventual death! Since its inception in the year 1883, BZHS had gone through the full natural cycle. It had its heydays as the best high school the town could offer! The decay was evident for anyone who had followed the school affairs in the recent years. Finally, the doors are shut forever!
I have had the opportunity to be a student of BZ High School for three years, 1979–82 (8th to 10th). I believe it was a golden period for the institution. There were 6 sections in each class with three mediums of instruction. Section A was Telugu Medium, B was Tamil, C was English, D, E were Telugu and F was English. There were the stalwart teachers from English Ramamoorthy, Sciences JK, Nagarajan and many more luminaries (my sincere apologies for not mentioning all the names!). However, the standout department was Mathematics! It had Sadasivam, DSP, Sundaresan and KSP. I would term it as the best Math department in the district of Chittoor. The department had a unique arrangement. A Math teacher who starts with 8th grade would teach the same class till the 10th. The Composite Math classes of the times were a joy to be in. It was humbling at times but looking back the analytical foundation that was laid during those years is coming handy to this day! Many of BZHS alumni living around the globe will not forget the Math quartet. They were great teachers!
I believe having been a private managed and government aided institution had its advantages. The tenured teachers spent all their working life in one institution. There were the guiding hands of the successive Headmasters. We had Chalapathi Sharma, who would inspect the classes of many of the young teachers of the time. There was Drama, Crafts, Drawing and myriad competitions from Elocution to Music. It had an active PE department. NCC was popular for the times. It wasn’t rote learning as seen in recent years. Means were limited but the institution had the vision to offer a well-rounded education it could afford!
BZ High literally and metaphorically was at the center of the town! It was a shining star next to an equally famous landmark, the CSI Church of Chittoor. We can look at Oxford University and it’s 1000-year history. We have many great institutions around the world which spanned over multiple centuries. We can question why we could not save a once shining star. It is a difficult question to answer. There are very few institutions in India which stayed in the limelight for decades, leave alone centuries. I guess we are a society in constant flux. The priorities, values and interests are changing quite rapidly. Collectively we do not have the time or patience to reflect on maintaining the legacy of institutions. Like all death it is sad to see an institution we were fondly associated with fade away into pages of history. For a strange reason I do not want to shed a tear! BZHS did its duty to the best of its abilities for 138 years. There is solace in the fact that its legacy will not fade away!
GP