Shomie Das (1935–2024): An educator par excellence

My former headmaster, Shomie Ranjan Das, affectionately known as Heady, handed away on the 9 September 2024, quickly after his 89th birthday. He had the excellence of being the one individual to have headed three main boarding colleges in India, specifically, Mayo School, Ajmer, The Lawrence College, Sanawar, and The Doon College, Dehradun.

His longest stint as headmaster was in Sanawar. As his daughter Shiraz wrote in her publish on Fb, he believed these have been the very best days of his life.

Das was not the stereotypical headmaster—the archetypal feared head. Relatively, he was twinkle-eyed, with a déshabillé method and a wry sense of humour. His appears to be like and manner have been misleading—he was a eager observer with a razor-sharp mind and was conscious of precisely what was occurring at any given time.

Sanawar, my old fashioned, was populated with youngsters who got here from North India, mainly Punjab, however by the point Shomie Das left the college, it had seen a transformational change in its scholar physique. As a believer in Nehruvian Secularism, in addition to having been introduced up within the Brahmo custom, he ensured that there was each regional and spiritual illustration within the scholar physique.

An completed orator, he had the entire faculty enthralled every time he spoke. I’ve vivid reminiscences of his descriptions. After a visit he took to the US, talking of the plight of the homeless sleeping in cardboard packing containers in New York Metropolis.

A agency believer in social justice and that adage ‘study by doing,’ he instituted that every one college students undertake some type of bodily work. There have been drives to scrub up the campus, there was tree planting, which concerned us utilizing spades and pickaxes to dig holes for saplings, and college students served within the eating corridor, together with the job of cleansing the tables of all soiled tableware, cutlery and meals particles.

Not that he was moralistic or a puritan. Shomie Das inspired college students to combine freely and have friendships with one another no matter their gender. He was essentially the most enthusiastic dancer on the dances. He had a way of enjoyable!

There’s a quote doing the rounds of social media attributed to him: “If there’s one factor I might change, I’d change the system of confining the youngsters to inside the 4 partitions of a classroom. Youngsters want motion—it’s important for studying and retention in addition to psychological well being.” After each class that was held, slightly than lecturers strolling to lecture rooms, college students would stroll to the lecturers’ designated lecture rooms. It gave us an opportunity to stretch our legs.

Earlier than mission work turned a buzzword, a complete hour as soon as per week was instituted to allow college students to pursue some sort of mission. This was not a graded exercise, nor a part of the curriculum. He inspired exploration and arrange programs which might allow youngsters to determine for themselves what them.

Shomie Das believed in pastoral care. Small teams of 5-10 youngsters would have a tutor who they met as soon as per week casually on the tutor’s residence, sat with throughout meals within the eating corridor and went on an annual 7-10 day hike/trek. The lecturers thus bought to know the scholars of their group intimately and have been alert to any indicators of bother and served as a primary port of name.

He himself led by instance and his ‘tute group’ comprised the top boy and lady in addition to senior prefects. He sat along with his group throughout lunch and made certain that everybody rotated from the far finish to the entrance in order that he had equal time with every.

He was instrumental in hiring lecturers with various pursuits, a few of whom have been just a little older than the senior college students themselves. One such instructor, I recall, once I was in Prep College, determined to stage an adaptation of Orwell’s Animal Farm. This resulted in all the Prep College (Grades 4-6) deciding to go on a starvation strike to protest the standard and amount of the meals they have been being given.

The top of Prep College was apoplectic with rage and needed the instructor sacked. Heady, nevertheless, would have none of it and was amused by the entire episode, even assembly with a scholar delegation to take heed to their grievances. The strike quickly petered out, as we little uns, who in any case had simply gone together with our seniors on their say-so, quickly gave strategy to our starvation!

Das was supportive of his workers, as one recounted, “Have been it not for him, I’d by no means have survived within the faculty. He actively inspired open disagreements and discussions among the many school, he thrived on this openness.”

Beneath Shomie Das, Sanawar reworked from a parochial faculty to one of many main establishments within the nation, imparting an all-round training There aren’t many who stand as tall as he did—an educator within the truest sense of the phrase. We have been privileged to have been educated underneath his watchful eye and mild steerage.

The creator sometimes writes on socio-cultural and improvement points.