Ad Rem! Be still our cry,
And forward our endeavour;
To work or play with spirits high
Be this our watchword ever: -
“Ad Rem! Ad Rem! Ad Rem! Ad Rem!”
Be this our watchword ever!
Ad Rem: Latin for To the Purpose, To the Point. Ad Rem is the School motto that rings out loud and clear in the chorus of the beautiful school song composed in the early 1960s by A. M. Brinicomb and set to music by C. Greenhalgh.
Yes indeed. I am a proud alumnus (Class of 1963) of Breeks Memorial School, Ooty, located in the State of Tamilnadu, India, although I had to complete the last two years of schooling in Mysore. Breeks is an Anglo-Indian School set up in 1874 with the Senior Cambridge syllabus. Ever since I got peripherally involved in 2007 with some members of the Breeks Class of 1957 who were organizing a golden jubilee reunion, I got a bee in my bonnet about the possibility of organizing something similar in 2013 for the Class of 1963. The big question: Where does one begin? After much deliberation, I decided to use modern technology via a general blog about my recollections of that period to try and reach at least some of the members of my class.
The school song begins thus:
High in the Nilgris circled with beauty,
Breeks, --- ‘tis thy name that we honour and love,
Teach us to follow the pathway of duty,
Point us to wisdom that comes from Above.
Nilgris is a range of mountains (highest point about 8500’) in the Western Ghats of South India bordering the states of Tamilnadu and Kerala. The mountain ranges boast of over 2700 species of flowering plants, 160 species of fern and fern allies, countless types of flowerless plants, mosses, fungi, algae, and land lichens. The chief commercial products are tea, potatoes, honey and eucalyptus oil. The school itself was nestled (alas, no more) amidst a thick growth of eucalyptus and acorn bearing pine trees. One of our post-lunch, pre-class activities was to run around these trees and organize “conk fights”. The Nilgris landscape is indeed breathtaking and unforgettable, a point highlighted later when I was an undergraduate at IIT – Bombay and was meeting a senior student in the process of my taking over the campus magazine’s editorial spot that he was vacating. When he learnt that I had schooled at Breeks, his eyes wandered upwards, I suppose to the seventh heaven, and he said “how that gladdens my heart”! He had attended nearby Lawrence School, Lovedale.
There were many dedicated teachers who taught us the pathway to duty, and pointed out the wisdom that came from above. Among them were my first teacher, Mrs Chaves, followed by Mrs Ryan, Mr Donald Fox, Mrs McCloud, Mrs Peters and others. We learnt Hindi from Mr Menon, and I am ever grateful to Mrs Meenakshi for two years of Tamil as a third language, in which short period I learnt enough to hold my own in both reading and writing that wonderful language. Then there was our Principal, Mr Eric Willy, a devoted and committed administrator. He maintained order, and infractions were disciplined in prim and proper British style a la out of the pages of a Dickens novel.
The song continues:
Near and afar dwell thy sons and thy daughters,
Who in the past climbed thy well-trodden stairs,
Joining in fellowship wider than waters,
Hearing the voice of instruction and prayer.
The students certainly came from near and far. There were the Bhujanga Rao siblings….. brilliant Jayalakshmi who was the class topper and impossible to dislodge from that position, and her brother Radhakrishnan who dropped out early and went on to join the Defense Academy at Dehra Dhun. I cannot forget the “treats” that we got from Radhakrishan at their family restaurant on the way to the school’s playground. Then there was Ali Sait who was the only one who wore civilian suits to class instead of the regulatory navy blue blazer or grey pullover, with khaki trousers, white shirt and black & red striped tie; Muneer Sait whom I ran into on the streets of Mysore many years later, Jafferullah who was my anchor during “piggy-back” fights, Thomas Joseph whose father was our family dentist, and Theodore Peters whose mother taught at the school. Some of the other names that come to mind are Powquin, Rajan Pathy, Jaganathan, Jayanthi Menon, Sethuraman, Saroja Nanjan and Ramachandra Ghai.
From afar came the Gordon siblings – David and Priscilla; the Revel brothers – Anand and Arjun; the Solomon brothers – Mark and Ashley and about whom there used to be whispered comments…. they were Jewish! It took several years, history lessons, and Leon Uris novels to comprehend the significance of being Jewish, especially in the aftermath of World War II. Donald Ramble, Grenville Prosser, David Todman, Averil Bunshaw, Rosemary Best and Carlton Copley were some of the other international students in my class.
There was plenty of fellowship in the class and on the playground. We had three teams, Pentland, Stanes, and Stevens. I belonged to Pentland and got to wear its maroon shirt. Sports practice and competitions used to be fun. I recall one incident during hockey practice at the Lushington Hall grounds, when I got the ball and somehow bulldozed my way past the defenders and scored a goal. The coach (also our English teacher), Mr Brooks, came running towards me. His faint smile trying to camouflage a stern face foretold approaching trouble. Putting his arm around my shoulder saying “nice shot”, he took me aside and said, “the next time that you try a solo stunt like that and fail to pass the ball to the flanks, I’ll break your leg”, or something to that effect. Anyway, I got the message. Inter-school matches with Lawrence School – Lovedale, St Georges Homes – Ketti, and Stanes School – Coonoor were so much fun. As were movie outings to Assembly Rooms, the only theatre in Ooty screening exclusively English films. I remember vividly Disney’s “The Living Desert”, and Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” at the end of which all the handkerchiefs were out dabbing moist eyes. When we weren’t studying or playing there was always that favourite activity, sitting under a tree looking at pretty girls, and wondering who had a crush on whom. However, we had to be mindful of the not-so-amused older brothers who took a dim view of unwanted attention bestowed on their little sisters!
The school song ends thus:
Ours be the hands that will reach for the highest,
Seeking the treasures that time cannot dim,
Well knowing, Breeks, that on this thou reliest:
“God honours those who give honour to Him.”
I went on to study engineering at IIT-Bombay, and followed up with an MBA from The University of Rochester, New York. During my professional years in the US and in India I know that constantly my hands did reach for the highest. I do not know where on that scale the actual accomplishments would fall, probably not very high. However, I do know for sure that I have gathered treasures that time cannot dim. This is in no small measure due to my impressionable years at Breeks, and to its motto, Ad Rem. In return I hope I have lived up to Breeks’ ideals.
I close with the hope that at least some of my classmates would see this and respond. A Very Happy 2010 to all.
Vijay K Raghavan
Email: vkr172@gmail.com
Chennai, India
January 10, 2010
