Amidst the hustle and bustle of a regular working day at the CSI St. Paul’s Higher Secondary School, Vepery, people decorate the buildings with small lights, signifying that a celebration is round the corner.
On Friday, the school’s tercentennial celebrations will be inaugurated, bringing together a number of alumni members, past headmasters and faculty members as well as others who have been associated with the school over the years.
“Missionaries had started two charity schools in the 1700s in Madras, one of which was for Anglo-Indians and the other — ‘Malabar Charity School’ in Vepery — for poor children which was how the school initially was known as,” said Joseph Mohan, the school’s headmaster.
The school, founded in 1716, was initially meant for students from an underprivileged background and at present, it has students from varied social backgrounds in Classes V to XII from both the Tamil and English medium streams.
The sprawling 300-year-old campus is steeped in history and students who have passed out from there over the years recount numerous stories. The school’s history, which has been published in the student yearbooks recount an invasion into the school ground by Tippu Sultan’s cavalry.
“As students, we were all fascinated with the history of the school and used to listen in amazement about how a few buildings here had weapons and gunpowder initially,” said Robinson Thamburaj, associate professor of Maths from Madras Christian College, who passed out of the school in 1981.
An old structure still stands at the headmaster’s quarters. “This is believed to be the house where Robert Clive lived for a while,” Mr. Joseph said. The massive, yellow building which has stood the test of time is located in a separate enclosure on the school grounds. Alumni are also involved in a number of activities.
P. Ruban Samuel, a retired Class II Officer from the central government who studied in the school from 1955 to 1964, said that members of the alumni were coming together to build a library for the school as a part of the Tercentennial celebrations.
