memories of my school

Even though we left Bhadravathi more than four and half decades ago, memories of that little town are fresh. Back then the town had two sections- Old town and New town. As the name goes old town is the original part. New town came into being when Karnataka government established two factories Mysore Iron & Steel Ltd. and Mysore Paper Mills Ltd. Along with the factories came two sprawling townships with amenities including gardens, schools, colleges, playgrounds and a stadium too. That's when St Charles Borromeo School, Kannada Primary School and Paper Town Schools came into being. The brain behind these developments had a vision for developing the little town. However, the government machinery failed to keep the companies profitable which lead to their demise in the mid 90s. Unbothered by the happenings the schools functioned normally especially my school St Charles Borromeo where I was a student from LKG to II standard.

I remember a few things well.. the granite block exterior of the building, my II std classroom and the cultural activities hall in the first floor. I remember the morning assembly time especially the part when a senior would read newspaper headlines. After the morning assembly we walked to our class rooms in two lines - very disciplined.  I was a last-bencher but ranked in top three in scoring marks. I even got a prize for scoring highest in moral science - it was a little book about Indian birds. My favorite lunch spot was under a bushy overhang along the fence. At the school entrance were massive eucalyptus trees. We used to pick up the top-shaped pods and spin those miniature tops on our desktops. Once a bunch of seniors playing bus tagged me and my classmate into their bus game. One other memory is the pamphlets sold to us once in a while. The pamphlets had colorful pictures of heaven, fairies, blue sky & golden sun and Christ.

At the end of II std term my father resigned his post at MPM with plans of moving New Delhi. Memories of the school and town remained. Sometime early 2000s my mum told me about the newspaper article on our school, I think. It was a joy to see the Deccan Herald article titled "School with a mission." Here's the cutout.

Below is the transcript of the article by Rajeswari Nandyal:

The missionaries of the Sisters of St Charles Borromeo have been in India since 75 years. In Bhadravathi the mission has been imparting education for the past forty seven years and has been running a full fledged hospital Nirmala hospital too. St Charles is one of the oldest schools in Bhadravathi. The Sisters of St Charles Borromeo were requested by the authorities of MISL (now VISL - Vishvesvaraya Iron and Steel Limited) to take charge of the Welfare Girls' Middle School.

Due to administrative problems the sisters had to withdraw their services after some time Realising the importance of education in this small town, MISL offered fifteen acres on lease to start an English medium school in 1959. The purpose of starting the school was to provide good education to the children of the employees of MISL.

In 1960, a master plan was prepared for the construction of the new town works and the trainee quarters were given rent free to start the school.

In 1960 the Kannada primary school was started to accommodate the poor children from the surrounding areas. In the same year an English medium school and a hotel for boys and girls was opened. The hostel was only for children from the near-by coffee estates.

As schools came up in these areas later on this hostel was closed down in 1987.

A high school for imparting education in Kannada medium was started in 1984.

Today more than three thousand students are on their rolls from nursery to pre-university.

Vigivelveinn, a small town in Belgium is the birth place of the St Charles Borromeo mission, started in 1684 AD. They came to India in 1929 and started their services by opening all school in Tamilnadu.

As per the request of the SCB Commission the sisters of St Charles were invited by Self Help Groups. Today as many as seventy SHG's are working well, in villages near Bhadravathi. The sisters of this school have also set up nursery schools for the children in these villages.

The school in its sprawling campus has a well maintained garden and looks like a sanctuary for birds. The students have become eco-conscious too. At the district level, the school has won many prizes for maintaining a good garden and ambience.

Since our return to Karnataka, I've visited Bhadravathi seven times between 1982 and 2025. One of the visits was part of the industrial tour during my engineering course. Overall the town hasn't changed much but Paper Town is virtually unchanged. The latest visit was with my brother Deepak - a trip with brother, Bhadravati and Kumathi. We did inquire about visiting the school but unfortunately the school is not entertaining visitors for security reasons. Well, taking care of children is a huge responsibility, we bowed down to the school's policy. I wish the school functions for ages to come. As the DH article's author calls it is indeed a school with a mission.

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