An Era to celebrate

I loved school so much I pretended to be well when I was sick so that I didnrsquot miss goingrdquo Not an unimaginable ploy when you realise Darshana Shilpi Rouget now an art director in London went to The New Era SchoolGuided by visionary principals the essentially childcentric and lifeaffirming ethos of this school attracted pupils even during vacations It joyfully embraced progressive thought shunning early 20thcentury authoritarian notions of educationArt teacher Dinesh Shah working on the facade mural in 1969 Pic CourtesyPaula MariwalaExemplary educators Maganbhai Vyas widely known as MT and his brother Chandulal from Rajpipla in Bharuch district were considerably impacted by Annie Besantrsquos Theosophical Society Trained in its worldview by George Arundale at Adyar they started an ashram school on the banks of the Narmada in 1922 Two years later MT attended the London School of EducationReturning MT was inspired by Gandhijirsquos Nai Talim new education Aligning its precepts with the allencompassing lessons of Shantiniketan the Vyas family established the coeducational Fellowship School in 1927 and nearby on Hughes Road New Era in 1930 MT declined the post of Deputy Director of Education till then offered only to Brits He was determined to spread schooling seeped strong in indigenously brilliant political and artistic soilTeacher Somnath Patel founder principal Maganbhai MT Vyas and music head Pinakin Trivedi from Shantiniketan Pics CourtesyThe New Era OdysseyNew Era fused the finest influences culling its philosophy from Tagorersquos tenets Gandhirsquos secular nationalism Besantrsquos reformist ideals and Maria Montessorirsquos teaching methods Fortunately Chandulalrsquos son Kantibhai and his wife Bhanuben carried forward their enlightened ancestorsrsquo legacyThe Eshaped design of the buildingmdashflanked by the green hills of Hanging Gardens and historic Gowalia Tank maidanmdashseemed to mirror the openness with which the institution nurtured thousands of young lives in a completely casual happy atmosphereCounsellor Zareen Jathar and librarian Raden Vanamali secondthird from left on Sports Day at Gowalia Tank MaidanldquoWhen the iconic mural on its facade came down so did the soul of the schoolrdquo says Paula Mariwala batch of 1981 ldquoThat collage embodied New Erarsquos commitment to producing freethinking global citizens The prestigious IB organisation of Geneva is amazed this socalled modern pedagogy was practised without pretence or fancy labels in a bilingual Gandhian school decades agordquoThe 10 am clang of its big brass bell reverberating across Gowalia Tank soon echoed an awakening clarion call ldquoQuit Indiardquo cries rang loud from that maidan hence August Kranti Maidan a turning point in the Independence struggle In its wake rose local acts of defiance Revolutionaries Usha Mehta and Rohit Dave ran a clandestine radio station from the schoolPrincipal KC Vyas with Jayaprakash NarayanRaden Vanamali 1955 belonged to the Bohra family of Sirajudin Vasi steadfast to azadi Her paternal grandmother swapped cloaking for khaddar which she wore proudly in agitation processions And her grandfather had marched with the Mahatma to Dandi after the salt satyagrahis rested awhile at their bungalowVanamalirsquos parents enrolled her in New Era against the joint familyrsquos insistence on Englishmedium schools ldquoThat decision paid rich dividend Exposure to the Gujarati language grounded my roots Parsi teachers fuelled an enjoyment of English literature Even students from business backgrounds came without the baggage of a flashy lifestylerdquo The school librarian in subsequent years 196797 Vanamali says ldquoRetrieving information took much more time then today a touch opens windows Our graded fiction was select and varied Samajik romances by Ramanlal Desai were as popular as KM Munshirsquos nationalistic worksrdquoExplaining the fascination for discovering traditional and contemporary authors Paula Mariwala observes ldquoWe take pride in reciting Kalapi and Meghani as well as Keats and Wordsworth reading Munshi and Dhoomketu along with Ayn Rand and Somerset Maughamrdquo A commendable number of firsts wove inextricably within the schoolrsquos sociocultural fabric Accepted as an associated school by UNESCO in 1957 New Era was listed among Asiarsquos best The following year MT Vyas became the countryrsquos inaugural recipient of the Padma Shri for distinguished services in educationFrom the trauma of World War II emerged efforts to propagate universal brotherhood among disparate people Kantibhai Vyas conceived Samanvay Partnering similarly sensitised schools with the ldquoWe are onerdquo motto this programme catapulted from regional journeys in Vadodara to student camps in ScotlandldquoUnitymdashthe spirit of Samanvaymdashgot firmly imprinted To think of any Indian as less than other Indians was anathemardquo says journalist Salil Tripathi 1977 ldquoKantibhai often reminded us we were Maharashtrians who spoke Gujarati The subtle distinction reinforced that we didnrsquot live in an island of Gujaratiness Sarva Dharma Prathna on Fridays saw a largely Hindu and Jain school chant prayers of every communityrdquoThe evening after the Emergency was clamped in June 1975 Tripathi and his friends walked home shouting Liberty Equality Fraternity ldquoWe mustrsquove looked foolish to many and a Parsi uncle told us to be careful But teachers had already corrupted our minds talking about the French Revolutionrdquo It was about thriving without unnecessary pressure on the academic front Shifting from the usual system of marks to grades no exams were set before Std 8 To eliminate rote learning Kantibhai introduced Open Book exams in the rsquo60s Surprise tests reduced the preparation anxiety and an honour code trusted students enough to have no invigilators supervise halls for crucial Std 10 prelimsldquoOurs was a laboratory of educational experimentsrdquo declares social studies and maths teacher Dinesh Buch ldquoNew Era was the first to follow Montessori concepts and modern maths We pioneered adopting a combined approach to social studies disregarding geographyhistorycivics as separate subjects Field excursions and picnics were intentionally conducted in the monsoon unlike most schoolsrdquo Kids complaining of the load of protective rainwear parents provided for outings were delighted to hear Kantibhai reassure ldquoNo harm carrying whorsquos compelling you to wear itrdquoMountaineer Harish Kapadia 1962 attributes his love for adventure amid nature to those trips his passion for history to Daulatbhai Desai ldquoOur teachers authentically moulded interests They handled mischief yet inculcated discipline Protest was healthy Caught chatting in class about cricket scores I could argue reasonablyrdquoHigh on antiRaj fervour the school substituted the classic Englishmanrsquos gamemdasheccentrically with an American one ldquoDismissing cricket as a fiveday wasteful craze India couldnrsquot afford Kantibhai suggested baseball bat replacementsrdquo says Tripathi ldquoMy mum agreed cricket was addictive jugaar the Brits kept us backward with Watching Gavaskar on TV my brothers and I shooshed herrdquoIn time the sports scene changed in the ldquosimple democratic secular school consciously practising gender equalityrdquo as Nandita Jhaveri 1972 viceprincipal 19942005 describes Her mother served as able wicketkeeper for the ace girlsrsquo cricket teamMellifluous morning assemblies resounded with the Rabindra sangeet of Pinakin Trivedi from Shantiniketan who composed the school anthem and shastriya sangeet by Prabhakar Joglekar Luminaries addressing assembly included activist Ravishankar Maharaj patriot poet Sarojini Naidu musician Zakir Hussain and danseuse Rukmini Devi Arundale besides renowned authors and singers Of the unique intellectual stimulation and emotional nourishment of formative years here Ami Kantawala 1988 Adjunct Associate Professor at Teachers College Columbia University says ldquoNew Era instilled the principles of cultural assimilation and inclusivity Art was integrated in every subject That sparked our curiosity encouraging deep thinking while making connections across different areas Creativity rested at the centre of collaborative projects allowing students to truly make the classroom a profound place for possibilitiesrdquoParticipating in art events at Mani Bhavan on January 30 Paula Mariwala recollects ldquoOther schools called them competitions Our art teacher Dineshbhai Shah did not believe in competition in creative processes He refused to send us It had to be an lsquoart festivalrsquo or lsquoevent to celebrate Gandhirsquo New Era taught us advocacy to be outliers In a society obsessed with perfectly accented English and ranks in public examinations this school in the heart of South Mumbai did not benchmark success against such parametersrdquoHer views resonate with a shining roster of alumni among them art scholar Devangana Desai the Jhaveri sisters of Manipuri dance fame figurative painter Ila Pal musician Vanraj Bhatia broadcast hosts Hamid and Ameen Sayani actors Shammi Kapoor and Satish Shah stockbroker Hemendra Kothari Nykaa founderCEO Falguni Nayar and corporate lawyer Bijesh Thakker There were also unbroken lineages like the loyalist Mariwalas Patriarch Jaisinh Mariwala 1949 asserts ldquoAlways a Mariwala in New Era about 60 of us passed from 1932 to 1984rdquoWriter Aban Mukherji 1969 remembers her parents Dr Kaikhushru and Pareen Lalkaka being repeatedly questionedmdashWhy New Eramdashby Parsi relatives perplexed they consigned their daughter to a predominantly Gujarati school ldquoWe really lsquogained in translationrsquordquo she shared in an article for Parsiana tellingly titled End of an Era once the school shut in 2018 owing to a corporate takeover ldquoI read Jules Verne Victor Hugo and Leo Tolstoy initially in Gujarati next in abridged form English and finally unabridged versions We devoured Bengali novels and wept copiously over Sarat Chandrarsquos tragic talesrdquoPulin Bihari Dutt from Shantiniketan first headed the art department urging unbridled creative expression When Mukherji schooled Dinesh Shah had taken overmdashldquoOur drawings burst beyond boundaries of large sheets of paper meandering on the floor No restraining hand stopped usrdquoAs outspoken the trenchant bimonthly magazine Pratyancha permitted criticism and debate on any issue students wantedto discussYears since stepping into the premises generations of alumni and faculty members confess they never pass Hughes Road without a wistful sigh Each inwardly exulting Dhanya New EraAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay You can reach her at mehermarfatiamiddaycomwwwmeher marfatiacom