Friday 25 October 2013

Bishop Cotton Boys' School. 1865-present. Then and Now.



The first thing that comes to mind when one walks in to the massive campus, WOW.
The walkway that brings us right up till the auditorium flanked on the sides by massive grounds, left us trying hard to close our ajar mouths.

A fountain spewing crystal white water. The bust of The Founder surrounded by foliage that encompassed us as well. On the right, we saw – a sit out in a school?!


Another fountain encircled by benches shaded by huge Peepal trees. Further on, a beautiful landscape with a solitary waterfall.


 The massive steps that led to the large auditorium filled with joyous Cottonians.
On the right stands the Tower Block, tall and proud.  




A Clock on the Tower Block stamped with the Emblem of the School, signifying the oldest building on Campus. 














Established all the way back in April 1865 by Reverend Samuel Thomas Pettigrew, BCBS has come a long way since. 




Throngs of students have walked through these halls and continue to do so. George Edward Lynch Cotton from Calcutta envisioned the building of schools in the Hilly areas for children of the Europeans and Eurasians of limited means, and this became an order that got sanctioned.

Since its inception, the school has grown from being a humble campus to one that now sprawls in the heart of Bangalore.

The school now has a strength of nearly 6000 students. The school has survived through the vagaries of war, even having their own food strike in the past due to bad quality of food.

BCBS has 5 houses – Pettigrew, Pope, Pakenham-Walsh, Elphick and Thomas. Each of these houses have their own colours and their own values and even their own House songs. Each of the houses hold a separate cabinet in the conference room where the trophies won by each of these houses is displayed with pride.

Pettigrew house with is colors of green and black, preaches honour. Pope with colours of yellow and white are supposed to be head-strong. Pakenham-Walsh with purple and red boasts of team spirit. Elphick house with blue and grey colours are loyal and honest. Finally, Thomas holds in high regard faithfulness and proudly sports the colours of green and red.




The school song that starts with “Up….” rendered by an ex-Cottonian, Shloke Chaudhuri, who now is in our school was well, bad. Not the song itself, but his rendition sort of killed it. We’re awaiting a good rendition of the School hymn.
While working on this blogging site, we were outside sitting on the steps leading up to the auditorium and we found the Cottonians to be very chivalrous. 















Though it may have been the keypad that intrigued them, the little boys sat by us and watched us type intently and even brought one of our team members a few stalks of flowers. 


The Cottonians are extremely proud of their school. We see why. 




A little Cottonian was bargaining for an Anonymous badge and id which were priced at Rs. 150 and Rs. 50 respectively.













The teachers at Cottons are extremely cordial to the students. We saw a teacher walking around with a Tom & Jerry tie; must be a huge hit with the kindergarteners. 




They even have pets for the kindergartners in their block - little ducks, parrots and lovebirds.








The Chefs of the school, Mr.Babu and Mr.Madhavan said that they were extremely happy with the school, their salaries and they received regular bonuses. They also said that “The boys are our gods.”
How could we leave out the famed rivalry between the Cottonians, Josephites? We’ve heard of the huge Hockey fight in 2012, we’ve heard all the comments passed, about one another. We went on a small quest of our own to find out where exactly the rivalry stemmed from, and we found the answer. Apparently, a long time ago, Cotton’s didn’t have funds to employ a principal and this resulted in a rivalry that has spanned decades and continues to prevail.
This huge campus has a whole number of buildings that are used to educate and house students, here. 




The Cannon William-Elphick building is under construction. The Elphick Research centre that houses the Senior school and the Physics, Biology, Chemistry and Computer classrooms where Gadget Garage, Bloodwork, Quest and Technocrat are underway. The older buildings include G U Pope Block which has the 11th and 12th grades and the AV Room where Console Gaming is happening.

The magnificent school celebrates its 150th anniversary, next year.


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