Walking through the portals of Bishop Cottons Boys’ School is a personal stroll down memory lane. Being a product of the 150-year-old institution, it fills me with nostalgia and awe to walk down a path that thousands have tread on since the time the school was set up in 1865.
Walking in I am welcomed by the bust of Bishop George Edward Lynch Cotton, who was the Bishop of Calcutta around the 1857 period, after whom the school was named.
With a humble house on High Grounds, the Bishop Cotton School moved to its present premises on No. 1, St. Mark’s Road, in 1871 which was acquired on credit from one Mr. Puttman for the sum of Rs. 47,500 which took four years to settle.
Being a prime British establishment, the school was initially a residential abode for English noblemen’s children and partially for princely Indian children. It was after the Church of India took over the administration of the institution that its doors opened to Indian children.
The most notable aspect of the school is its obvious heritage value. With buildings still retaining their old world charm, Bishop Cottons boasts of buildings which are easily over 100 years old. The most noteworthy and oldest being the gothic stone structure called the Tower Block, where I spent a considerable amount of time during my middle school years. The towering monolith is a box-shaped structure with a clock installed on top. Atop that is the emblem of the school inscribed with the motto ‘Nec Dextrosum Nec Sinistrosum’ – a Latin extract from the book of Joshua in The Bible which translates into ‘Neither to the left, Nor to the Right’ signifying the school anthem ‘On Straight On, On Cottonians On’.
Stories of World War I and II are rife with most senior students opting to join the fight and many a martyr hailing from the school during the latter war days. Running through the corridors of the Tower Block always brings back memories of the thousands who would have touched the same cold stone walls as kids.
The administrative block is the most attractive structure with its multi-roofed tiled outlook and clock tower that gives much of the school its identity. The building houses all the admin working force and it is in front of this that we stood for years every morning for the assembly. An old bell tower that used to herald in the time for the assembly is still reminiscent in my head despite its absence today.
One cannot talk about the school without taking about the massive fields where many a times we have played and fallen and won matches. Spread over 14 acres, a large chunk of the school campus is the field area which has been modernised recently.
While a lot has changed over the years, the school is still very vintage in its outlook. A canopy of green covers the area making it one of the most valuable lung spaces in the concrete jungle surrounding the school.
Never failing to leave its mark with every visit, the school has many treasured memories – from the house colours and the Cottonian marching song to the excellent teachers and the rivalry with the Josephites - all coming back to me in waves of sentiment.
As the school steps into its sesquicentennial celebrations, it only seems fitting to say it will continue to stick to its motto and keep heading ‘On Straight On’.