RSK Higher Secondary School

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Last Month Web Poll Result
We can do the following (for starters we can start with just one of the below): The one with the highest vote will be executed first followed by no.2 and so on... (of 317 respondents) 41% Simplest of all, We can expand our school library. 31% Arrange regular lecture/interaction series by some eminent personalities who can inspire students 14% Scholarship for students for higher studies. 11% BHEL has donated Rs.10L to RSK Teachers welfare fund. We can contribute/sponsor the health program 3% We can arrange/sponsor for higher study/training programs for teachers. Thanks for voting

RSK Stories: Greatness

Not every school in a town is great.
Not every school in BHEL townships across the country is great.
Not every institution run by Montfort brothers achieves the greatness that RSK is.
There are thousands of school in a city like Chennai, only a handful of them will come in the reckoning of greatness.

RSK is great. RSK is a great institution. Montfort brothers and the leaders in BHEL made this greatness possible. We are all the results of this greatness.

A institution reaching a position of greatness and being there for a long time, is not a common occurrence. Many a factor have to come together for greatness to happen. Management, teachers, students , parents, in all their diversity , have to come together and a ecosystem , a culture has to come about where such greatness becomes a possibility and a norm. This happened at RSK and remained there for a very long time too.
For those of you who are not familiar with happenings at Trichy, Even today if you happen to ask a general person, who is aware of the education scenario in Trichy, for the best school in town, the answer happens, to be RSK.( It is another matter that general standards of excellence is not the same as in earlier times, in almost all institutions, which is a bane of our present times. Quite a lot of old students of RSK, who stay in Trichy town, who can put their wards in 'any' school of 'their' choice, have chosen to put them in RSK)

Every great instituition or person will have its own cycles of greatness and lows too. Greatness has to be nurtured in spite of the failings due to the low ebbs, of the institution or the persons presently handling the day today matters, and seen through the difficult times. Great institutions take a long time and very many great people to build it. Breaking it is quite easy. Building requires a lot of attention and involvement from great minds. Breaking requires lack of attention and negligence from impersonal ordinary souls who happen to be in responsible positions of the day.

BHEL has nurtured the school, giving it attention, priority and the personal involvement by the great minds that donned the leadership at BHEL. I am sure RSK is very close and dear to their hearts. I am also sure that RSK is very close to the hearts of the many great brothers who built RSK to this position of greatness.

Every problem is solvable. Reckon that we are not talking about ordinary people. Montfort brothers as a institution has great people in it. BHEL as a institution has great minds . In times of difficult relationships, we should be the ones to show to them that "it was and it is" worth their while for them to have accorded the kind of attention the BHEL leaders and Montfort brothers bestowed on RSK. We should use whatever personal access we have with both of them, for both them to put in personal attention and care, to get to the table and resolve all matters, however irksome and thorny they are.

We as RSKites should look beyond and do the needful to put the institution back on the tracks. We, each one of us, in whatever small or big way, take that extra step, walk that extra mile , to get BHEL and Montfort brothers to get back to working together and make them both take ownership for the heritage and legacy of RSK.

The step could be as simple and varied as calling up a school time friend of yours and talking about RSK, writing in this newsgroup, speaking to the present parents of RSKites, speaking to BHEL leadership, past and present, speaking to Brothers. I am sure, out of this consciuosness will evolve the way. Though we are all away in terms of physical distance from Trichy, giving a certain mind share in this critical times, outside of our routine can make a 'big' difference to the outcome. This consciousness can lead to a critical mass of RSKites to come together physically and make things happen.

Though not a contributor to all the good things that has been happening in this newsgroup, I have been a passive reader, read the postings with avid interest and a sense of identity with a lot of expressions, over the years in this forum.

With all the warmth of being a RSKite,
balakrishnan.k 1983
bks(at)vsnl.com Please replace (at) with @ when e-mailing

RSK Stories: To Sir,With Love

Instinct is a human trait. It manifests more so during childhood when you react instinctively to people and situations. Prominent among these instincts are likes and dislikes.Its so strong that it remains etched in memory and is carried like a piece of luggage as your metamorphosis from child to adult takes place.

It happened to me as a child of 11 at RSK schol in Class 6th F. A noisy class with naughty boys. It was indeed one of the noisiest on that day when it happened. Vikram was mimicking the noises at a railway station. Santosh was showing some of the latest steps in break dance to an admiring audience. K.Suresh Babu who used to be called Kay; to distinguish between hem and P.Suresh Babu was attending to Deepak, who received a punch on the nose from Jeshin; for munching on his pencil. Only Rajeev was there; quiet and reserved who surveyed the scene from a position of strength. I was the monitor and cursed myself for being one. I had to pretend to not like all these pranks and yet watch and enjoy everything; I also had to control the class, lest I receive a thorough dressing down from the class teacher. All of a sudden a hush descended on the class. Surprised, I looked back to see a tall,imposing figure standing at the door. His cassock was spotless white; his hair was black and slickly combed; his stiff upper lip depicted authority. It was perhaps for the first time that 6th F capitulated to authority. It was also for the first time that I saw and met Bro.Augustine Novello.

A more mature me in the Main School observed and admired his style of functioning. He had a thumb-nail picture of each student in school and knew about their strengths and weaknesses. He was indeed a strict disciplinarian and stoked and imbibed it in the staff and students alike. His innumerable visits to Class 9th F of which I was the monitor used to give me the jitters. He could not tolerate things lying about, desks not in order, tie and belt missing, shoes not polished, and above all murmers in the class. During his tenure, RSK's stature increased year after year. He believed in allround development of students and gave equal importance to sports and extra-curricular activities. RSKs achievements in the APSC meets and innumerable cultural festivals made it a household name. Any achievement, any milestone, he was always there to support and encourage.

His parting words to RSK when he left in 1991 was 'Stick to sound principles and values even if it means going on the path alone'. He students would fondly remember him as an able administrator, a firm teacher; yet gentle, intelligent and a great human being.

by sudhir gv

RSK Stories: When There Was Nothing Good In Saying Bye.....

March, during schooldays, used to be a month of pleasant expectations. Expectations of two full months of blissful holidays; a break, not a small one; from the daily mechanics of books and the board and the pen and the chalk pieces and the bag and the homeworks and the tests and the assignments. More than that the exquisite freedom to play, to roam, to travel ; without having that gnawing feeling of an unfinished homework or an approaching exam or the thought of parental interference in the world of pranks which was exclusively mine. Above all that; like a savoury incentive; the anticipation of spending the holidays in my native place, Kerala, under loving avuncular and grandparental care.

It was a charmed March morning in the year 1992. As I donned the colours of khakhi and white and green as I had always done for the past 14 years, and cycled merrily to school, I suddenly had that gnawing feeling of having missed some detail. It just came awash and disappeared like a wayward fish washed ashore. Then it came back again; this time it persisted; ruthlessly; as a grim reminder; it was not an unfinished homework or an approaching exam; it was a feeling of emptiness; 14 years converged into one solemn moment; it told me that it would be my last day; in a home which I called RSK School.

The mind flashed back; fondly; to a day 14 years back but still vivid in memory. Small and innocent with tears streaming down my cherubic cheeks; I pleaded with mother not to leave me alone in school. At that time; the feeling was the same; of leaving a familiar home; and standing on the threshold of a new life so unfamiliar. It again browsed through a film of more recent memories; memories of studies, of games, of events, of sports, of LDAs, of Final LDAs, of the innumerable cricket matches under the hot sun, of prizes, of disappointments at losing, the simple boyish joys of winning, of naughty male classmates, of gentle female ones. It dwiddled between awe and respect and admiration and gratitude to those teachers, the jewels of RSK, who made my metamorphosis happen. It finally clouded at a solemn feeling that this world would soon be snatched away from me by time, the unstoppable tyrant.

When I reached school, even routine and trivial actions seemed to remind me of the mortality of my life in RSK. It struck me when I entered school, when I sat at my desk, when I joined the choir to sing "...let's sing with joy together...our school to us so dear...", when I wished Mr.Rex - our class teacher good morning, when I drank water from the taps, even during my P.T. period. Five minutes to 4:00 P.M. Mr.Devaraj said a short prayer for our well being.The prayer was punctuated with muffled sobs from the class. When the bell rang after the prayer, we hugged each other and wept. We all sat in our classes huddled together, having a feel of the school for the last time.

It was well past 6:00 PM when we left school. Once outside the gate, we all turned to have a last look at our beloved alma mater. It stood silent and empty. The sun was setting a crimson red in the horizon. The watchman was locking the gate. And outside a different world waited.

Presently in a corporate life of cut-throat competition and stress, I sometimes unwind by allowing my mind to go back to those halcyon days, which, sadly, would never come back. I think of the life in school and the faces of the teachers. "When you go out to the world", they seem to tell me,"tell them of us, tell them that we shaped your tomorrow, that we taught you to walk tall, that if it were not for us you would not be what you are today". I do; with no second thoughts.

by sudhir gv