Pigeons take flight from the heart-shaped garden, bordered by a hedge and gnarled trees. On Vidyodaya’s verdant campus in T Nagar, the garden that faces a bust of the founder holds centre-stage, both on campus and in the hearts of its alumni.
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It is the happy hour before lunch at the campus that houses three schools — Vidyodaya Girls School, Vidyodaya Matriculation Academy and Vidyodaya Pre-Primary — and the air is filled with the chorus of time-tables being recited and the soft strains of music wafting down from classrooms that house 2,700 students.
The first permanent block at the T Nagar campus of Vidyodaya | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
“Vidyodaya came into being on February 24, 1924, the fruition of the visionary Elizabeth Sornam Appasamy’s dream. The schools are administered by the Vidyodaya Schools Society comprising 15 members, three from the founder’s family,” says Sharadha Balasubramanian, correspondent and alumna of the class of 1972.
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One of the earliest pictures of student life at Vidyodaya | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Established with donations from the citizens of Madras and support from leading women of the times such as Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy and Ammu Swaminadhan, the school first functioned from a bungalow in Pallavaram with three boarders and three day scholars. It was Kamala Sathianathan, its first principal, who named the school Vidyodaya. By 1926, the school moved to Santhome and dug deeper into its mission – a school wholly Indian in outlook, inter-faith, and with due emphasis on academics, fine arts and culture.
The choir | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Located today at the bend of the busy Thirumalaipillai Road, the campus, where the school moved in 1938, retains an old-world charm, filled with trees and bird-song. “Amidst this 13.5 acre campus is what we fondly call the mango thope (grove). Lunch break then was about climbing trees, breaking a few arms,” laughs Sharadha, adding, “it’s where the Home Science students drew kolams, cooked food as part of their curriculum and served it to staff. It was also our changing room — we wore long skirts and half-saris then and changed into divided skirts and blouses for games. The uniform of light cream and green came later. ”
Students at the school library | Photo Credit: Velankanni Raj B
Outside the building inaugurated by the then Vice President of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, a teacher holds classes. The shady path leads to the red-brick library where hangs an illustrated chart on the Kabuliwalla, Rabindranath Tagore’s short story. Tagore has another connect with the school — the poet and Nobel laureate inaugurated Vidyodaya’s Parents-Teachers’ Association in 1934. Further afield are the sports grounds where many a Vidyodayan has made a mark following the credo, ‘she who sweats, wins’.
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Correspondent Sharadha Balasubramanian (left), and alumni Madhumitha Prema Ramanathan (in white) and Jency J (in blue) occupy the seats they once sat in while in school | Photo Credit: Velankanni Raj B
Time collapses into a giant sinkhole and decades disappear when alumni from across the years walk in to share their experiences. Most of these memories revolve around Vidyodaya’s Sarvodaya day observed every Thursday with readings from the Bible, Upanishads and the Koran along with the spinning of the charkha and the singing of patriotic songs. “Some families have ties for generations. We have not swerved from our focus of affordable quality education to all. We’ve changed to accommodate a changing world but believe that Sarvodaya teaches more about Gandhian principles than any textbook could,” says Sharadha. “We end with ‘Raghupathi Raghava…’.”
Charkha spinning as part of Sarvodaya day | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Latha Kumaraswami, managing trustee, Tanker Foundation, who passed out in 1975 as the last ISC batch affiliated to Senior-Cambridge says, “the ethos has remained the same. Students came from all walks but melded beautifully. The houses — Premalaya, Thyagalaya, Sevalaya and Sathyalaya — helped emulate the virtues they represented. It was one of the reasons I enrolled my daughter here. I danced for the 50th year,was a parent for the 75th and look forward to the year ahead celebrating the 100th.”
Ringing the brass bell and arriving in school as early as 5.30am when the campus was shrouded in mist counts as Madhumitha Prema Ramanathan’s favourite memory. Now the chief strategy officer and a director at Experian, Madhumitha was a star athlete and school pupil leader in 2003. She stepped away from the basketball court to sometimes rescue dogs and squirrels.
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UN Club members of 1967 after a performance of ‘Three Little Maids from School’ from the operetta The Mikado | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
“Most kids helped rear little creatures that were found on campus. It helped learn empathy,” says Madhumitha, counting among her favourites, PT teacher Victoria Chandran. “In contrast to the corporate world where mentors are few, Victoria miss arrived early for our training sessions, often carrying protein-rich foods to help us tide the day.”
As librarian Sylvia D pulls out albums rich with black-and-white photographs and the visitor’s book that trace the evolution of the school and the people who visited and inspired its students, dentist Christina Samuel from the class of 2017 adds her version to the story.
“My mother is the Physics teacher. So, in many ways, coming here is like coming home. This is where I fell in love with the stage, thanks to Victor Philip our music master,” says Christina, who now sings with Chennai-based Bella Voce and plays a plethora of instruments, including the trumpet.
School culturals | Photo Credit: Christina Samuel
As we walk out, Jency J, an engineer-turned-teacher from the class of 2010, says, “The candle-lit valedictory is an abiding memory. In that quiet dusk, you realised why it has always been held at that heart-shaped garden.”