The camera only came out after we had all drunk a few beers so the ones who left early aren't included in this set. Around 25 people showed up at this month's get-together on Oxford Street near the "Bonds" street tube station in central London. The bar was loud and it is fair to say everyone had a great time. All in all a fun evening. Click for more photographs, comment on them and if you have dosco photographs send them to us.

Posted at 5:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the Hindustan Times - They say there’s nothing more cruel than schoolboys. They’re wrong. Far worse are those you were at school with — even after thirty years! My class of ’71 at Doon had a re-union this weekend and I met up with several old friends I haven’t seen for decades.

They say there’s nothing more cruel than schoolboys. They’re wrong. Far worse are those you were at school with — even after thirty years! My class of ’71 at Doon had a re-union this weekend and I met up with several old friends I haven’t seen for decades. But if anyone thought age, experience and wisdom would have curbed our penchant for laughter at someone else’s expense — what I call digging it in — they couldn’t have been more surprised.

“KT, just look at you!” was how I was greeted when I walked into the gathering. I soon discovered that the old school sobriquet was not used out of affection so much as to emphasise the comment that was to follow. “If your teeth are as white as your hair you could advertise Colgate!”

Less obvious, though no less pointed, was the second greeting with which I was accosted a short while later. This time, however, I required the full recall of my literary memory to understand!

“Hey!” said a familiar voice not heard since the early 1970s. I swivelled in its direction to find a group beckoning me. They were clearly enjoying themselves. “Do you think you’re Mary’s little lamb?”

“What?” I spluttered, perplexed by the simile.

“Well, its fleece was white as snow and so is yours!”

Fortunately they tired of my hair fairly quickly. Unfortunately that created the opening for jokes about my loquacity. To be honest, I don’t think of myself as garrulous. But others do. Worse, my old school friends have also held firmly to the belief that I can’t keep a secret. “Telephone, telegram, tell Thapar” was the saying when we were fifteen. As far as this lot is concerned, it holds good even today.

After a series of comments such as ‘who thought Tota would join the Navy!’ and ‘yaar, I can’t believe monkey’s become such a hot shot’, attention turned to me. I knew I was in for another ribbing.

“KT, you chose the right profession.”

“Why?” I foolishly asked, falling into an obvious trap.

“Because you never let anyone talk in school. Now, as an anchor, you can keep on interrupting and claim you’re doing your job!”

“In fact, why do you bother to have guests?” someone else butted in. He was smiling but his tone was pure stiletto. “The poor chaps don’t get a word in edgeways. Why don’t you call it ‘interview with self’? You know you’d love that.”

To be honest I would have been disappointed — actually upset — if our conversations hadn’t started this way. Schoolboy affection is always disguised behind barbs and innuendo. It’s less obvious but far sturdier than what you later encounter. In fact, I would add that you can always rely on someone whose leg you can pull. But can you equally trust a man you are formal with? Humour dissolves more than differences — it eliminates reserve, eradicates pomposity and obliterates the need for silly white lies.

I’m not sure if day school students can meet up after three decades with similar camaraderie, but I suspect not. On the other hand the gruelling experience of a boarding school — and, of course, our capacity to romanticise memories, forgetting the dreadful whilst exaggerating the comic and peculiar — ensures that a friendship is never forgotten. Whilst you may not meet for years — even decades — and that was true of many of the class of ’71 — when you do you can strike a chord instantaneously. And even if the rekindled old flame may start to flicker and fade after a bit, it will certainly shine brightly for the duration of a re-union.

Wellington was only slightly incorrect when he claimed that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. I suspect the roots of that victory more accurately stretch back to the pranks played in the dormitories, the punishments inflicted by prefects and the homework hastily completed with a little help from the class egghead minutes before submission. Such incidents may or may not have put iron in the Duke but, for the rest of us, they’ve promoted self reliance, self confidence and an ability to see the funny side of any predicament. What’s more, they’ve forged bonds that have survived the test of time.

So even if school days are not the best in your life — and, actually, it would be rather sad if they were — the boarding school experience is undoubtedly special. But you have to know it to truly understand why.

Karan Thapar (238-JA '71)

Posted at 5:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the Indian Express- He’s cute and very straightforward. Meet Aditya Kumar (428-TA '00), 23, whose credentials are much more than just being the son of well-known Income Tax Chartered Accountant, Ashwani Kumar.

Aditya’s casual demeanour, his innocent smile and an understated attitude belie his plump position as a consultant with the much-acclaimed Price Waterhouse Cooper Chartered Accountants’ company. At an age when most of the guys his age are chilling out, vying for admissions or jobs , this one has already got the right kickstart and has a bagful of goodies to make guys his age go greeneyed.

Adi , as he likes to be called, had his eyes set right from the beginning on his dad’s profession. “After having studied from Sanawar and The Doon School , I got the right kind of exposure and confidence to take on life head,” he says matter-of-factly. Talking of sincerity in work , Adi says that he has seen days as a trainee at Price Waterhouse Cooper, when his day would start at 8 am and he wouldn’t be back till the wee hours of the next morning, only to be back for work again at 8! “With just four hours to be called my own ,I had to eat ,sleep, bathe and study in that squeezed time period,” he smiles. The result is there for all to see.

His Granny’s baby, Adi loves to spend time with his family whenever he is in town. “We are a close knit family and my family values keep me on terra firma despite so many temptations,” says Adi with a cheeky grin. He loves to holiday with daadi maa in Switzerland. Goa is a fun spot when Adi just lets go with his school time buddies. And when the buddies are the likes of Jyotirao Scindia , Chandrachur Singh and Abhinav Bindra, its easy to lose ground, he agrees. “But the values grilled into me by my school and family have always kept me focused and level-headed,” he confides. No wonder then, that Adi is ahead of all his Dosco batchmates in many ways.

This singleton is as comfortable in a khadi kurta-pyjama at a snooty Delhi party, as he is while flaunting his Rado watch purchased from his own earnings, or for that matter the Armani aviators that glisten on his frame. “I can land up at a five star hotel pillion-riding on a bike and still not care a heck, as is the case with my city pals who are obsessed with cars and seem to be on an outnumbering mission,” says Adi . He drives his own Skoda, and feels there is much more in life than just partying and living it up, or being seen in top-of-the-model sedans or pajeros. It’s hard to believe him, but these sentences come so naturally to Adi, who also does his bit of charity.

And yes, here is this 23 year old who has started saving as well from his earnings. Talk of marriage and this eligible bachelor shies away from shouldering a responsibility for which he feels is not ready. As for now, Adi has his eyes set on having his own consultancy firm and eventually wants to conglomerate with his dad. Long way to go, he tells us, before he calls it a day!!. Its important to face the various challenges in life, as they give you endurance and a reason to go on. And at the end of the day, its important that our lives have a reason, says Adi as he takes leave. You are a winner indeed, young man.

Posted at 4:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

NEW DELHI: The Prannoy Roy (66-J '66) promoted NDTV Ltd, which today reported a 27 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth in revenues for the quarter ending September 30, announced formation of NDTV Ventures to start a slew of TV channels, including a Hindi general entertainment channel.

Unveiling the future course of expansion, top honchos of NDTV said it is to take the company revenue up to $ 500 million in five years; focus on triple play and make NDTV a global Indian media brand.

NDTV Ventures, a 100 per cent subsidiary, has been formed to undertake major expansion in non-news segments as well as aggressively push new media propositions.

“Every three to four years we take a leap, consolidate our position and then again move ahead,” is how NDTV chairman Prannoy Roy explained the philosophy behind the latest expansion model during an interaction with journalists today evening after a company board meeting.

“The new model is based on an entrepreneurial management structure aimed at attracting and rewarding the best global talent in the business, including the large talent bank within NDTV. The model will help streamline existing operations and make them more cost efficient,” Roy said in a year when quite a few media companies like Television Eighteen and Zee Telefilms have undertaken corporate restructuring to chart out new expansion plans.

Though no time frame was given, Roy also said that the company plans to start “soon” four city-centric English infotainment channels called NDTV Metro Nation.

The new model envisages having NDTV LTD as the parent entity with news and non-news operations under it as separate subsidiaries. Each of the subsidiaries will have a number of verticals, NDTV’s chief executive for growth and strategy Vikram Chandra said.

The non-news forays would be undertaken by NDTV Ventures (in the process of being formally incorporated) and will have under it the entertainment and new media divisions.

NDTV New Media, in turn, will have NDTV Convergence (Internet initiatives), NGen (media process outsourcing) and NDTV Labs under its umbrella. According to Chandra, NDTV Labs, which will develop in-house broadcast technologies for sale to proposed clients, has already closed its first deal.

The corporate model for NDTV Ventures, which will incubate and operate focused verticals, will permit investments by strategic and financial partners in individual verticals apart from NDTV Ventures itself.

If that was not enough, NDTV has also acquired for the rights of Indian boxing fixtures for the next 10 years.

This, in a nutshell, marks out the route the Roys and associates are taking to expand regionally as well as globally. The new growth model would enable NDTV to raise funds for its future businesses beyond news, Roy said, adding that an IPO of NDTV Ventures is “one of the options before us.”

NDTV MAINTAINS OPTIMISTIC OUTLOOK

The company’s board, which approved the new growth plans, also approved the Q2 financial results.

The company declared net profit at Rs 37 million on revenues of Rs 545 million. Revenues in the previous corresponding quarter stood at Rs 430 million.

The company added 78 new clients and 172 new brands to its advertiser base this quarter.

The current quarter’s expenses include the costs attributable to certain initiatives for generating new income streams in the future. Some of the operating loss of Rs 33 million has been incurred in building new businesses.

On the revenue front, the company said the second half of the year is expected to be far more buoyant with revenues in the news business expected to grow at a robust 30-35 per cent.

Going forward, the company expects top line growth to accelerate, with substantial contribution from new business initiatives.

Posted at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Read the latest Doon School Weekly (PDF). The issue includes an interview with Mr. M Sayeed who is leaving school after 40 years of service.

Posted at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Manmeet Singh (45-OA '96) completed his MBA from the Melbourne Business School in 2004. He had earlier completed his undergrad from Central Queensland University in 2000. He is currently a brand/marketing manager for all Hasbro/Megabloks/Newboy lines in Indonesia and is getting married on November 5th, 2006 his fiancee Munmun Gupta. Manmeet can be reached at mnm.singh@gmail.com.

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Founders Day was held this weekend. Did you attend? If so, send us your thoughts and photographs of this year's celebrations. We'll publish them on Doon Online for the dosco community around the world.

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Singapore Dosco get-together June 2006

The following are photos taken in Singapore June 2006 at a Doon School old boys get together at Uday Singh's (T-90) residence. Uday Bawa (488-JB '94)sent Doon Online these photographs.

Send us your photographs or simply upload them to the new Doon Online/Doon School Flickr Group.

Posted at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lt General Adi Sethna (191-K '41), a member of the Minorities Commission, who was active in many walks of life, died today in Delhi after a brief illness. Sethna, who was 81, is survived by his wife, Khorshed and four daughters — Nilofer, Roxana, Shernaz and Shirene. He was buried today at the Parsi burial ground with the Army conducting the requiem. Doon Online extends its condolences to his family and friends.

Sethna, who retired as Vice-Chief of the Army, had a long and distinguished career in the Armed Forces and continued to play a major role in many voluntary organisations after his retirement. He received numerous citations, including the Padma Bhushan, the AVSM and the PVSM medals.

One of the high points of his career was his role in organising the ninth Asian Games in Delhi in 1982. He was in charge of both the opening and closing ceremonies at the Games and received the Padma Bhushan for managing the spectacular show which incorporated elephants from Kerala, 850 bandsmen of the services and Ravi Shankar’s music at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

After Doon school and Allahabad University, Sethna joined the Army. He began his military career fighting in Malaysia during the Second World War. He was one of the few Indians to attend both Imperial Defence College and Camberly. He was ADC to the first Governor-General C Rajagopalachari. Sethna also played an active role in the strategy for the Bangladesh campaign. He who was universally respected for his organising skills and integrity. Sethna joined the boards of numerous committees and corporations, including ITDC and the Spinal Injuries Centre after his retirement.

He was leading light of the small Delhi Parsi community and was for years president of the Delhi Parsi Anjuman, considered the most liberal Parsi anjuman in the country in contrast to the more traditional anjumans, which disbarred all Parsis who married outside the community. Sethna was also founder president of the Parzor UNESCO foundation, a world wide movement for the revival of the Zorastrian heritage. He was thrice nominated to the Minorities Commission as a representative of the Zorastrian community.

Source: Express News Service

Posted at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Old Boys interested in playing the Holdsworth Memorial Cricket Match at Founders Day (October 29th, 2006) should contact Uday Bawa (ph: 98688-88854, email: udaybawa@hotmail.com ) or Nalin Khanna (ph: 98100-28127, email:nalink@vsnl.com). A practice match is being played in Delhi on October 22, 2006.

Posted at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mumbai-born renowned sculptor Anish Kapoor (259-K '70) has emerged as one of the 100 most powerful people in the contemporary art scene in the world.

Fifty-two-year old Kapoor, who moved to Britain in 1972 and lived here since then, is listed 94 among the 100-strong list brought out on Saturday by Art Review magazine. The full article is reproduced from the Financial Express here.

Kapoor, whose soon to be completed works included a memorial to the British victims of 9/11 in New York, was awarded the Premio Duemilla at the 1990 Venice biennale and a year later he won the prestigious Turner prize.

Solo exhibitions of his work have been held in the Tate and Hayward gallery in London, Kunsthalle Basel in Switzerland, Reina Sofia in Madrid, the national gallery in Ottawa, Musee Des Arts Contemporains (Grand-Bornu) in Belgium and the Capc Museum of Contemporary Art in Bordeaux.

His work is collected worldwide, notably by the museum of modern art in New York, the Tate Modern in London, Fondazione Prada in Milan, the De Pont Foundation in the Netherlands and the 21st century museum of contemporary art in Kanazawa, Japan.

French tycoon Francois Pinault, owner of Gucci, fashion house and leading auctioneer Christies, heads the art power list while Larry Gagosian dealer, who owns five galleries around the world is second. Sir Nicholas Serota, director of Tate Modern, leading art museum in London is third.

Anita and Poji Zabludowicz, London-based private collectors, are listed 84.

The annual list of 100 most powerful in the contemporary art scene features collectors, museum directors, artists and Google, leading internet search engine.

After his early studies in Doon school in Dehra Dun, Anish Kapoor, shifted here 34 years ago.

He studied art, first at the Hornsey College of art and later, at the Chelsea School of art design. He currently works in London, although he frequently visits India and has acknowledged that his art is inspired by both western and eastern cultures.

In the early 1980s, Kapoor emerged as one of a number of British sculptors working in a new style and gaining international recognition for their work. His pieces are frequently simple, curved forms, usually monochromatic and brightly coloured.

His early pieces rely on powder pigment to cover the works and the floor around them. This practice was inspired by the mounds of brightly coloured pigment in the markets and temples of India. His later works are made of solid, quarried stone, many of which have carved apertures and cavities , often alluding to, and playing with, dualities (earth-sky, lightness-darkness, conscious-unconscious, male-female and body-mind).

His most recent works are mirror-like, reflecting or distorting the viewer and surroundings.

Since the end of the 1990s, Kapoor has produced a number of large works, including Taratantara (1999), a 35 metre-tall piece installed in the Baltic flour mills in Gateshead.

A stone arch by Kapoor is permanently placed at the shore of a lake in Lodingen in northern Norway. In 2000, one of Kapoor`s works, parabolic waters, consisting of rapidly rotating coloured water, was shown outside the millennium dome in London.

Bureau Report

Posted at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Read the latest Doon School Weekly (PDF). The issue includes a report on the football season, a mid-term break account of a trek to Vasuki Tal (above Kedarnath) and the social service project in Fatehpur village.

Posted at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

He is working for Fidelity Investments as an Associate – Fixed Income Research, in the Asset Allocation Division. He has recently moved to Fidelity’s Fixed Income Campus in Merrimack, New Hampshire. He can be reached at karansingh@gmail.com or 1-603-424-8100 and is currently residing at the following address Marriot Residence Inn, 246, Daniel Webster Highway, Merrimack, NH 03054, USA.

Posted at 8:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Many of you probably remember studying Village by the Sea by Anita Desai in the 1990s for your ICSE exams. Well as it turns out, for her writing is nearly like a family business. Yesterday her daughter Kiran Desai was awarded the Man Booker Prize for "The Inheritance of Loss." Desai, 35, is the youngest female winner of the prize. The Inheritance of Loss is her second novel. We're confident that this book is just as brilliant as Village by the Sea While other Indians like Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy have won the Booker Prize, none of our Dosco writers have as yet. Amitav Ghosh was nominated for his book The Hungry Tide last year but he did not win.

Posted at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Outlook Magazine is 11 years old this year and to celebrate that event, Vinod Mehta is highlighting 11 people that matter in modern India. The list includes among others Sonia Gandhi, Pavan K. Varma, Amitabh Bachchan, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Aruna Roy, Sunil Bharti Mittal and our very own Amitav Ghosh (246-H '72). The profile on Amitav Ghosh is reproduced on Doon Online and is also available at Outlook magazine.

And in the same issue in a section about 11 things that made it big, Kanti Bajpai (264-T '72) discusses "Fission And No Fizz - N-power status put India back a notch on all counts. What saved us from the hole: theconomy." Read the article at Outlook magazine.

The past 11 years have been good to fiction written in English by Indians, including non-resident ones. One can think of many writers who have published important novels and collections of stories in the period, building on the groundwork laid by older generations—by Raja Rao, R.K. Narayan and Attia Hosain, by Khushwant Singh, Shashi Deshpande and Anita Desai.

However, it can be argued that some—like Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth—published their (as yet) most significant books before 1995. And some—like Arundhati Roy, Upamanyu Chatterjee or Pankaj Mishra—have published interesting works of fiction, but far too few.

"Calcutta Chromosome performed the rare feat of being a page-turner without becoming intellectually toothless."

On the other hand, Amitav Ghosh, while he started publishing before 1995, has not only been prolific but has also gone from strength to strength. It is this—not the literary awards and honours (or the controversy when he turned down a nomination for the prestigious Commonwealth
prize in 2001)—that makes me choose Ghosh as my candidate for the most significant writer of the past 11 years.

What is fascinating about Ghosh's oeuvre is how it has developed over the past decade or so without losing sight of its main concerns. Published in 1986, The Circle of Reason introduced some of these historical, political and thematic concerns. This first novel was more subtle than it appeared to be at first reading. Even its use of the British Raj had little to do with Raj nostalgia in England and the success of Rushdie's Midnight's Children: The Circle of Reason was not concerned with the Raj but with the effects of the Raj across time in post-colonial India; it attempted to narrate complex cultural imbrications of which the Raj was only one component; it looked into the relationship between science, religion, technology and nationalism in India. And it did so by providing an interesting Bildungsromanesque journey, that of Alu, a Bengali orphan, from India to Algeria.

Many of these concerns would be taken up—at greater depth and with more fluency—in later works by Ghosh, of which The Shadow Lines and In an Antique Land were published before 1995, our cut-off year. The Calcutta Chromosome, published in 1996, performed the rare feat of being highly entertaining without becoming politically or intellectually toothless. Like Ghosh's earlier work, it was a mixture of genres: science fiction, the colonial adventure, the whodunit, the schoolboy adventure story (a la Hardy Boys et al), the ghost story etc. Like Ghosh's earlier work, it was concerned with narrating history at a tangent—not by overlooking facts but by fixing on them the gaze of an unrelenting questioner—and with overturning binary oppositions, such as that which equates science with the West and religion with the East.

However, The Calcutta Chromosome was both bolder and more subtle in its approach to these matters. It had a honed narrative drive, so that serious readers could cull a few PhD theses from it and the railway journey reader could cuddle down simply for an excellent thrill. It appeared that with The Calcutta Chromosome, Ghosh had arrived not just as a redoubtable thinker—which he has been from the beginning—but also as a highly polished novelist.

This was borne out by the reception of the two novels he published after that—The Glass Palace (2000) and The Hungry Tide (2005)—both of which were on the bestseller list for months. The Hungry Tide, which many critics consider Ghosh's most accomplished novel, is still on the bestseller list in India. Apart from these books, Ghosh published at least one collection of essays, an excellent meditation on India and Pakistan's nuclear aspirations and a travelogue (containing two long essays) during the period.

Critics based in India can assume a rather brusque manner with Indian writers who live abroad.It is a measure of Ghosh's accomplishment as a writer and his complexity as a thinker that he continues to evoke admiration—and sometimes even serious criticism—by critics based in India, while he also remains a highly visible writer internationally. Soft-spoken in person, more inclined to listen than talk, Ghosh seldom startles with a flashy phrase or image, but he leaves the reader with much to think about and re-examine.

To learn more about Amitav view the Dosco spotlight on him.

Posted at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the Indian Express - Doon School is known as the alma mater of many a celebrity and counted among the best residential schools of the country but villagers of Fatehgram will remember its students and teachers for entirely different reasons. Fatehgram has been their classroom where their rural development initiatives have borne fruit, making the once remote village self-sufficient in its energy and livelihood needs.

Doon School, in association with Dr Anil Parkash Joshi, a social scientist, has been working in Fatehgram to provide better roads, living conditions and basic rural technology for self-reliance. ‘‘We had worked hard to establish 80 schools in many under-developed areas in the past as part of the community service exercise which is considered part of the extension of the classroom.”

“But this is the first time that a rural development initiative has been taken up,’’ said Dr Mohan Joshi, Dean of Activities of the school.

It all began during Independence Day celebrations in the school last year where Dr Anil Joshi, a Padma Shri awardee, was invited as a guest. He asked the school to help in his mission of making villages self-sufficient. It was then decided that the school and Himalayan Environment Studies and Conservation Organisation (HESCO) would work together in Fatehgram in Vikasnagar Tehsil (37 km from Dehra Dun), a village of 65 people of nine families which had no road, electricity or potable drinking water.

The students then got down to doing their homework. What emerged was a step-by-step plan of action:

• Students went to the village on weekends and vacations and after an initial survey, prioritised the needs of the villagers. Electricity was decided on first, so work on the upgrade of the two watermills (gharats) began.

Earlier, these watermills were only used for grinding wheat and cereals. The students put in turbines. The watermills generated three kilowatts of power each, enough to light up homes of all nine families. ‘‘The efficiency of my watermill has increased and now I want to buy more wheat for grinding,’’ said Rangi Lal (35), one of the watermill owners.

• None of the houses had toilets. The students drew up a plan and each house now has a toilet.

• A half-kilometre approach road to the village was built while a 400-m irrigation channel was repaired.

• Each family living below the poverty line, in consultation with students and HESCO, has now chosen several income generating activities. One of the families wanted a fish pond while another wanted to start a plant nursery. Students pitched in for both ventures, helping them out while the school provided funds. One of the families has been trained in bee-keeping and thus has been provided with two boxes of bees.

• The HESCO team and students taught another family to make cement blocks. Soon, the two ramshackle watermill huts were replaced by rooms. ‘‘We are now encouraging them to prepare and sell these blocks,’’ said Arvind Chalsani, a teacher associated with the project.

Till now Doon School has invested more than Rs.1.5 lakh in the project. ‘‘We are going to be around for another five years till the villagers are self-sufficient,’’ said Mohan Joshi.

By S M A Kazmi for the Indian Express

Editor's note - do you know of any other dosco/alumni SUPW initiatives that we should be highlighting here?

Posted at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We're looking for a dosco to send us a brief write and maybe with photographs of the dosco fundraising event that was held in NY recently. If you attended and can spare a few minutes to jot down your impressions of the event we'd be grateful. We can't promise you fame or fortune, but definitely a hearty vote of thanks.

Posted at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the latest Rose Bowl, Sati Pur (49-K '52) offered an explanation of the differences between the DSOBS and IPSS. He asked us to publish it online here too. Read the article and tell us what you think. Do you think the IPSS is representative of the school? Do you know the members? Is each class fairly represented?

And likewise, do you think that the DSOBS represents you as an old boy? Do you know your class representatives and the executive committee? Are you fairly represented? As reference at the end of the article we have published the official aims and objectives of the DSOBS.

The IPSS and DSOBS: What’s the Difference?

At meetings in India and abroad over the past eighteen months in connection with the Doon School Fund Raising initiative, questions have been asked frequently regarding the functions, constitution and the difference between the Indian Public Schools’ Society (IPSS) and the Doon School Old Boys’ Society (DSOBS).

All Doscos who complete a minimum of three years study at the school are eligible to become members of the Doon School Old Boy’s Society. There are currently roughly 5000 Old Boys. The Society’s aim, in a nutshell, is to further the cause of Old Boys and to foster a sprit of camaraderie amongst fellow Doscos. The Society is headed by an elected President, Vice-President, and committee members with regional representatives of Old Boys in India and abroad. Regular sporting and social get-togethers are organised to keep the Dosco spirit alive. Funds are collected from Old Boys and corporates to defray the cost of social get-togethers, sporting activities and help towards bursaries for Old Boys sons. The DSOBS also makes generous donations for ongoing projects at the school and to increase the corpus of the scholarship/bursaries funds.

In recent years, the Society has raised substantial monies by promoting the Doon School choir to play in cities in India and abroad. The art auction recently held in Delhi was a resounding success resulting in the President, DSOBS, sending an initial cheque for Rs. 35 lacs to the Headmaster towards the reconstruction of the new art school.

The Society organised a most successful and enjoyable “Dosco Summit” in Dubai in December last year. This was the first time in its history that a Dosco get-together was organised overseas. Congratulations to Anoop Bishnoi and his executive committee for a job well done.

The Doon School is set up under the management of the Indian Public Schools’ Society which was founded in 1929. The Society is a joint stock company registered under Section 26 of the Indian Companies Act 1913 and is a charitable and non-profit organization.

The objectives of the Society, amongst others, are to establish educational institutions in India; to impart education; to inculcate an atmosphere of Indian tradition and culture; to promote education, etc.

The IPSS is the governing Board of the Doon School. It elects the Chairman of the Board, the Board members and has a vision statement for the school. The IPSS has constituted various sub committees, which assist the Headmaster, but the day-to-day running of the school is solely in his hands and the members of his faculty.

The Board of Governors of the IPSS in consultation with the Headmaster of the School have set up subcommittees to help with the following:

∑ Education Initiative – Introduction of the International Baccalaureate at the school.
∑ Audit Control- Internal and External both financial and process control
∑ Oversee the treasury function.
∑ Administration of the scholarship fund.
∑ Provide guidelines on strategic issues.
∑ IT initiative to improve internet connections.
∑ Overseeing capital expenditure by a committee for the construction of buildings at the school and the preparation of a Master Plan.
∑ Introduction of Human Resource systems and laying down HR policies including the personal appraisal of the faculty.
∑ Fundraising Committee

The prime objective of the Doon School Old Boy’s Society is to further the cause of Old Boys whilst the objective of the Indian Public Schools’ Society is to manage the Doon School for the present boys at the school, future generations of boys, and the faculty of the school. As a matter of historical interest, the IPSS set up the School which in turn, at the instance of A.E. Foot, the first Headmaster, helped set up the Old Boys’ Society. The Old Boys’ Society is, in legal terms, a separate institution, with its own constitution, procedures and officials. Naturally, however, the IPSS and DSOBS work closely together on a range of issues related to the School.

All Old Boys are eligible to join the IPSS, but under its constitution the maximum number of members is two hundred of which presently about one hundred and seventy five vacancies have been filled.

The IPSS has laid down the following criteria of eligibility for membership of the Society:

1. The membership of the IPSS should primarily be restricted to Doscos, with non-Doscos comprising a maximum of 25 percent of the total membership.

2. The membership of the IPSS should not exceed 200, as presently stipulated.

3. The filling of vacancies should not be in excess of five percent of the total strength of 200 in any given year.

The filling of vacancies caused by resignation/death will not be included in the five percent mentioned above.

4. The Society looks for persons from all walks of life who personify integrity, ability, and vision. They should be capable of contributing to the school’s development and progress in keeping with the challenges of the times and of ensuring that the school provides an environment that stimulates the mind and raises the level of endeavour in all fields at the Doon School.

These potential IPSS members should have the capacity to be on the Board of Governors and chair and/or be members of committees formed to examine various aspects of the school’s functioning. While discharging these duties, they should be able to ensure that the school operates at a level at which all its facilities (educational, sporting or extra- curricular) allow boys and masters to realize their full potential.

5. New members should be from different walks of life/professions and from different age groups and regions in India. They should have a proven interest in the school or in education and/or associated activities. They could include educationists, engineers, doctors, journalists, accountants, members of the defence services, the central administrative services (e.g. the IAS, IFS, police), businessmen, sportsmen, and professionals in diverse fields (advertising, film, IT, etc.)

Procedures and Guidelines for the Selection of IPSS Members

a) Members are apprised of vacancies during the AGM. They may then confidentially recommend potential new members. Their recommendation should consist of a brief profile of the person they are recommending and their views on the nature of the contribution he or she will make to the IPSS.

b) The person invited to apply for membership of the IPSS needs a proposer and a seconder who have known the proposed person for five years. The proposer and the seconder should also have been members of the IPSS for at least five years. It is for the proposer to recommend in writing, as part of this application, why the person recommended should be made a member and how the person proposed can contribute to the mission of the IPSS.

c) All recommendations should reach the Chairman by 31 March of the year in question.

d) The complete list of proposed new members, along with a list of those recommended by the Committee for membership, will be forwarded to the Board for its final decision. The Board will then decide upon these applications at its next meeting.

e) As the Society’s membership is limited, it is desirable that there shall not be more than two members from the same immediate family (father, mother, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters).

f) There should be an attempt to get members of the IPSS from different regions of India.

g) The minimum age for membership should be 25, except in the case of exceptional individuals.

h) An attempt should be made to have one person from each graduating class of the Doon School.

Please feel free to contact me at the under noted address or email id if you have any queries.
Sati Puri

49-K, 19481 522
The Doon School (IPSS) - Fundraising Committee
The Doon School,
Mall Road, Dehradun- 248001
Ph. 0135-2751931, 2526550 (O); 2734660,3203080 (R) ; 9358134123 (M)
Fax: 0135-2759198, 2757275

DSOBS Aims & Objectives
: To further camaraderie between the Old Boys of the School and with the Doon School itself.

b: To assist each other in furthering the aims and objects of the institution.

c: To encourage the Old Boys to take an active and abiding interest in the work and success of the Doon School in keeping with the ideals of the School.

d: To promote friendly relations between the Old Boys, the present boys and the staff of the School.

e: To endeavour to live up to the motto of the Doon School i.e. "Knowledge is Light".

f: To establish a bond of union among Old Boys and between them and The Doon School, to foster a spirit of comradeship, to promote co-operation and to extend mutual help to the Old Boys of the School.

g: To organize and develop activities in areas of cultural, social, economic and educational fields, to keep alive the spirit of devotion to the pursuit of excellence in all the above areas and more particularly towards education and human resource development.

h: To help encourage and assist the spread of education and to render assistance, award scholarships/bursaries to deserving students and for this purpose to take all steps as may be necessary.

Posted at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

As you may have noticed we've added some Wikipedia links down the left hand column below the news navigation of Doon Online. These links take you to pages on Wikipedia that list famous doscos. Why use these pages instead of publishing them on Doon Online itself? Because you can edit Wikipedia yourself and add names of doscos who are missing from the list.

Saadi Chowdhury and Govind Dhar have also created a list of commonly used dosco terms - a dosco glossary you could say. We've published this list on Wikipedia too so that you can edit and contribute more terms to the list. So choke up, take a look and add your own terms! The list is also in the resources navigation on the left below the news navigation.

Posted at 11:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

After finishing his MBA from INSEAD in July 2006, Rajat Khanna moved to London permanently. He is now working with Credit Suisse as a trader on the Equity Derivatives desk. Doscos can reach him at rkhanna85@yahoo.com.

Posted at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wondering what The Doon School faculty looks like today? Take a look at this faculty photograph from the Doon School website. This photograph was probably taken a year or two ago. Click on the image to see an enlarged version of it.

Posted at 8:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Thinking of attending the Founder's Day Programme? If so, definitely take a look at the programme. You'll find it worth your time. Founder's Day will be held between October 27th and Monday, October 30th, 2006.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2006
9.00 a.m. - 12.45 p.m.
Parent - Teacher Meeting
Main Building

10.00 a.m. - 11.15 a.m.
Meeting of Parents of Boys of S & SC forms with the Headmaster
M.P. Hall

11.30 a.m. – 12.45 p.m.
Meeting of Parents of Boys of A & B forms with the Headmaster
M.P. Hall

1.00 p.m.
Lunch for Board of Governors with Staff
Triangular Park

3.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m.
Parent - Teacher Meeting
Main Building

6.00 p.m.
Play in English
Rose Bowl

8.30 p.m.
Diamond Jubilee Dinner – Class of 1946
Headmaster’s Residence

Golden Jubilee Dinner – Class of 1956
MDR

35th Year Dinner – Class of 1971
Tennis Courts

Silver Jubilee Dinner – Class of 1981
Tennis Courts

DSOBS Dinner & Dance for old boys and parents
Tennis Courts

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2006

10.00 a.m.
Prize Distribution of the Art School
Sunken Garden

10.30 a.m.
Inauguration of School Exhibitions by the Chief Guest
Main Building

11.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m.
School Exhibitions
Main Building

11.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m.
Parent-Teacher Meeting – by invitation
Main Building

11.00 a.m.
76th AGM of the IPSS
Kilachand Library

12.15 p.m. to 1.00 p.m.
Interaction of the Chief Guest with boys
M.P. Hall

1.00 p.m.
Founder’s Lunch, by invitation
Triangular Park

5.30 p.m.-6.30 p.m.
Founder’s Day Speeches
Main Field

6.45 p.m.-7.30 p.m.
Music School Programme
Main Field

7.45 p.m.- 9.00 p.m.
At-Home for Board of Governors and Guests by invitation
Headmaster’s Residence

At-Home – Parents, Old Boys & Staff
Housemasters' Residence

7.45 p.m.
Founder's Day Dinner commences
Tennis Courts

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2006

9.00 a.m.-12.00 noon
Pagal Gymkhana by Tata House
(Stalls will remain open up to 2.30 p.m.)
Skinners

10.00 a.m.
RLH Cricket Match
Main Field

11.00 a.m.
DSOBS – AGM
M.P. Hall

1.00 p.m.

1.00 p.m.
Old Boys' Lunch
Triangular Park

Boys are permitted to go out with parents or guardians for day out or night out

8.30 p.m.
Boys return from a day out

MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2006
6.30 p.m.
Boys return from night outing

Posted at 8:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had the opportunity to attend a Dosco Friday in London two days ago. Hats of to Rishab Sharma (553-JA '94), Premjit Chopra (440-TB '93), Vivek Thadani (532-OB '95) and the rest of the crew for organizing these. They are highly enjoyable evenings growing with each month and are made all the more interesting by the presence of wives, girlfriends and Welhamites!

Most impressive is that these London events have become a monthly fixture. The group is planning to try a new pub time in a different part of the city. Doscos attend when they can and there's always enough new people to make a fun evening.

Here's a challenge - Can DSOBS city representatives (or other doscos) in cities with large dosco populations like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Singapore, London and New York organize monthly get togethers? There used to be monthly get-togethers in Delhi at a Nirulas bar but nothing since to the best of my knowledge. These events take little effort, do an immense amount to bring us all together and nicely complement the more formal get-togethers.

Do you think we're up for this?

Posted at 8:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Read the latest Doon School Weekly (PDF). The issue includes a report of a flute recital and articles on making strong choices and being hopeful.

Posted at 8:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)