A Pakistani delegation of over 12 people will participate in the 150th foundation day celebration of Bishop Cotton School (BCS) Shimla during the first week of October.
Sixty-two years after they left a prestigious school here following the Partition, a group of Pakistanis will walk the corridors of their alma mater and relive the memories.
A Pakistani delegation of over 12 people will participate in the 150th foundation day celebration of Bishop Cotton School (BCS) Shimla during the first week of October, school officials say. On October 22, 1947, 42 Muslim boys left BCS Shimla for the newly-created Pakistan.
That was the last time central doors of the historic Irwin hall of the school were opened for the boys, who walked out never to return amid painful silence. The students were given a warm send off by their schoolmates at that time.
Over 10 BCS alumni, led by Humanyun Khan, former Ambassador and Foreign secretary of Pakistan, would be attending the sesquicentennial jubilee of the school from October 1-6, K C Anand, an old Cottonian and a prominent member of the organising committee of the function, told PTI.
Hasan Aga, then school captain, would be part of the Pakistani contingent who would walk into the Irwin hall from same central doors to relive history, headmaster of BCS, Christopher Robinson said.
Besides Pakistan, Cottonians from US, UK, Thailand, Middle-East and host India would attend the function, Anand said. Union steel minister Virbhadra Singh, novelist Ruskin Bond, legal expert Fali S Nariman, golfer Jeev Milkha Singh and Nakul Anand, head of ITC hotels, all alumni of the BCS, would be present, Robinson said. The function will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on October one.
BCS was founded by Bishop George Lynch Cotton in 1859, realising the need for a school for the European and Anglo-Indian community, according to the old literature on the school. Events planned for the occasion include a ride on Kalka-Shimla heritage train for over 120 old Cottonians from Kalka to Kiarighat in Shimla on October 2, Anand said.
A goodwill cricket and football match between Aitchson college Lahore and the BCS, and music programme by Adnan Sami are other delights of the celebration, he said.
A coffee table book and a commemorative stamp to cover 150 years of history of BCS would be released on the occasion by the ministry of telecommunications, Robinson said.
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