Château de perfection
NURTURING TO FREEDOM
officer Naina Lal Kidwai, ace golfer Nonita Lal and former ambassador to Ireland and current secretary (east) Vijay Thakur Singh.
DAYS OF YORE
Captain Amarinder Singh, who was admitted in 1947 and attended the school for three years, reminisces, “I was enrolled at Tara Hall as a kindergartner and I have many fond memories of the place. I remember the name of all the nuns to this day. There used to be eight pianos in a room above the playground and Mother Cecelia used to play sweet melodies on them. English and drawing class with Mother Lilia also used be a lot of fun. Every Sunday, we were taken for an outing. We eagerly looked forward to the days we were taken for ice-skating as we were treated to a delicious breakfast at the rink.”
Pratibha , who studied at the school in the late ’60s, says, “In those days, there used to be about 25 children in each class and the nuns were able to pay attention to each child. Once I was feeling a little lost in math class as I had been absent the previous day, Mother Joseph Catherine, called me during recess and explained the concept to me patiently. The nuns also took us for nature walks and told us the name of each tree and plant. We would gather flowers and leaves and compress them in a book.”
Historian Raja Bhasin, who studied here till Class 1, says, “I was mercilessly teased for studying at a girls’ school. I vividly remember the beautiful flowers that grew in the garden.”
Reetu Khanna Sharma, an alumna of the school, who returned as a teacher in 1990, says, “When the Irish nuns were here, the girls marched to the tune of the piano instead of the drums as is the norm today. Earlier, handmade items were sold in the school fete and the fudge made by the nuns was a huge hit.”
BELLE OF THE BALL
“The Loreto nuns were particular about our posture, dress, table manners, handwriting and pronunciation. The sisters corrected girls’ postures by asking them to walk with books on their head. The quality of embroidery was judged by the neatness on the reverse side,” says Sharma. “I owe my prowess as an English teacher to Sister Bernadine, who taught me the nuances of oration and theatre. She always said you can judge a person by the shoes they wear and the pen they use to sign their name.”
Susan Stone Bhagra, an alumna, who has been teaching at Tara Hall for 32 years, says, “The students had to look presentable at all times. We were asked to remove our pinafores before going out of campus or while meeting visitors. Shoddy work was not tolerated at all,” says Bhagra.
She adds,“if we stomped down the staircase we were asked to go back and descend like ladies. Once Mother Padua caught me playing the forbidden ‘theme from love story’ and that too by the ear. I was banished to the dummy piano and told to practice by sight for the next three days!”
Shah-e-naaz Judge Kohli of the 1975 batch says, “The nuns often told us not to waddle like a duck. We were disciplined with hair brushes if we misbehaved.”
“They taught us waltz and ballroom dancing,” she says, adding, “Mother Padua, our music teacher, would send us off to wash our hands lest our ink-stained fingers touch the piano.”
“Boys from St Edwards were called over for socials and we went over for athletic meets. The nuns were not conservative at all,” says Bhagra.
You could tell a person had studied from Loreto by the way they dressed, spoke and conducted themselves. They always stood apart, she adds.
MUSICALS, SPORTS AND ACADEMIA
“The plays and concerts put up by Tara Hall were famous all over Shimla. Professionals from the Gaiety Theatre were invited to set up the background. Some of the plays put up were Daddy Long Legs, I Have Five Daughters (an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice) and HMS Pinafore,” says Judge.
“The girls were encouraged to take part in inter-school, and inter-house badminton, basketball and table-tennis competitions. We used to return black and blue from basketball matches against Chelsea,” she adds.
Vijay Thakur says, “I learnt to be thankful for everything in life and approach everything with grace from my time at Tara Hall. Once during an assignment, we were asked to classify flags and coins from different countries, it was then that the thought of becoming a diplomat took seed in my consciousness. Years later, when I went to Ireland as an ambassador, people were amazed to note that I had been taught by the Irish Loreto sisters.”
SOME SHENANIGANS
Captain Amarinder, as a vivacious child, remembers trying to pluck fruit from a forbidden patch in the garden. He says, “We used to crawl under the chicken wire to get to the fruit. When caught by the nuns, we were told to sit at the Table of Disgrace at the dining hall and were only served bread and water the whole day.”
Major Jhingan recalls, “I used to find our math class particularly boring, so once, when I got a hold of some burrs, I made it a game of throwing them on the teacher’s back as soon as he turned towards the blackboard. He was suspicious of the titter that arose but remained none the wiser. Later Sister Brenda marched me to the principal’s office and said, ‘Here is Priya Jhingan, the naughtiest girl in the school’. Years later, I went to meet her in Lucknow decked in my army uniform and announced my arrival with the same words.”
Judge reminisces, “Each dormitory had a matron who lived in the same hall but behind a divider. The girls always used to wonder what was behind it. One day I sat on top of the divider and started describing the things in her section. She came in just when I called out ‘there are three habits in her closet’. I could never look her in the eye again.”