Alma mater pays tributes to Gen Rawat, holds prayer meet
SHIMLA: St Edward’s School in Shimla paid glowing tributes to its most proficient alumnus General Bipin Rawat, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), who died in the Indian Air Force’s Mi-17V5 chopper crash along with his wife Madhulika Rawat and 11 others near Tamil Nadu’s Coonoor.
The school remembered Rawat as it’s one of the most brilliant students. The school organised special prayers meeting which was attended by students, teachers and old students of the school. School principal Anil Wilson Sequeira reminisced Gen Rawat’s promise to be the chief guest at the school annual function. He studied in Edward’s from 1971 to 1973 when his father was posted in Shimla. Gen Rawat had visited his alma mater in 2019 along with his wife Madhulika Rawat. He motivated students to join the Army.
Principal of St Edward’s Anil Wilson Sequeira while addressing the prayer meeting said the school had planned interaction with General Rawat on March 9, 2022, which is the founder’s day of the school. “This void will never be filled and the school will miss the motivation of General Rawat. We will miss him forever,” he said.
“During his visit in 2019, he visited here and without any care for protocol, he went to the canteen and met the support staff that shows how down-to-earth he was. I will remember this incident of humility forever,” Sequeira said
General Rawat had planned a get-together with his old batch mates, but he could not turn up for the event due to some professional reasons. “All students of the 1973 batch had planned a get together to relive their old days that they spent together in British-era schools,” said Brij Mohan Chauhan, Rawat’s school friend and a childhood friend. He recalls him as a simple and brilliant student.
Raja Bhasin, a historian who accompanied Gen Rawat for a ‘heritage walk’ in Shimla, remembers him as somebody who had an interest in knowing the history of Shimla and its heritage building.
“General Rawat, his wife Madhulika and I walked across the town for two hours in 2019. He was a down-to-earth person. He was curious to know everything about Shimla,” he added.