The invitation to the reunion day celebrations has set my thoughts working in the old grooves! I am carried back to 1890, when impelled either by the Spirit or by the fickleness of boyish nature, I left the Sanskrit School, all of a sudden, a few months before the Entrance Examination. I can distinctly and realistically picture to myself my father going up to Master Janaki Nath, head master of the Mission High School, and asking him to enrol me, and his curt reply that it could not be done at the fag end of the term! Mr. Allnutt coming up later, my father appealed to his kindness and did not appeal in vain I was not only enrolled but nobody asked for a discharge certificate of the Head Master, Sanskrit High School! I cannot call to mind the faces of other teachers of the Mission High School, except that of Dr. Kelly, whose white whiskers, ruddy face and deep blue eyes yet peep at me from the abysm of time! When I took some lessons with Messrs Kelly and Allnutt I thought wisdom was justified of its children and I was not sorry to have turned my back on the Sanskrit School I drank heavy draughts from the founts of `pure English undefiled. I yet remember Mr. Allnutts explanation of the word "bagatelle", and a very humorous discussion as to the exact word which represented it in Urdu! Dear old days, never to be forgotten, when correct translation of words was more important than drafting of the Acts of the Legislative Assembly!
I passed the matriculation exam and entered St. Stephens in 1890 and felt like a demi-god, for was I not an under-graduate? Here I found an altogether different atmosphere -- all at once I found myself shot into manhood, and the considerate treatment accorded to the students accorded by the Professors kept up the illusion. We were treated like responsible men, "looking before and after", possessing ideas and allowed full scope for their expression.

Professors Allnutt, Wright, Maitland, Lefroy, Rudra, Dutt, Mookerjee, Martin and Sandford formed as fine a galaxy of teachers as a student could wish. Mr. Allnutt with his towering stature and bespectacled kindly eyes and smiling lips had always something kind to say to the student who crossed his path. Wright was the bete noire of the students he was haughty and stand-offish, at least so the students thought because he was rather emphatic in the expression of his opinions. It was after passing the B. A. that I found he had a heart of gold. He was a strict disciplinarian and did not want to weaken his authority. Perhaps, old students will call to mind that it was he who instituted the weekly meetings of students at his residence to encourage and draw them out. It was in these informal meetings that I discovered the real man, Wright. I yet preserve the letter which he wrote to me on my passing the M. A. in 1897! All the Professors allowed great latitude to students specially Professors Rudra, Martin and Allnutt, as they desired the students to learn to express their ideas, but Professor Wright was a great stickler for respect due to a teacher and put down haughtily any impertinent remark let fall by a student more in ignorance than by intention. Being very much irritated once he ejaculated, "If I were a Magistrate, I would have sent you to Jail". His bark was worse than his bite!

Maitland was an aristocrat. People thought that he was the son of a millionaire - and this was a sufficient reason for his being respected. He was quiet, kindly and unassuming and always beamed with smiles. He never said anything unkind and never hurt anyone.

Lefroy of 1890 was a handsome Irishman, very witty and kindly, having the reputation among the students of being very intellectual, a very high claim for distinction in their eyes. He seemed to be very busy and seldom came to the lower (F.A.) classes possibly coming events cast their shadows before, he became the Metropolitan of India later.

Mr. Rudra what can I say of Rudra that the present generation of Delhi does not know? In 1890 my class fellows considered him a greenhorn, a new fledgling from college. That was Bashir Ahmad and that coxcomb Rahmat Ullah always badgered him and Balkishan Unkhal did not fail to peck him whenever he got an opportunity, but Mr. Rudra continued imperturbably and succeeded in winning the regard of his students. When Mr. Wright became Principal in 1894 and Mr. Rudra was made his Deputy, Kaiser Wright issued a Firman to the effect that as the students did not show proper respect to the Professors, while waiting in the Hall for prayer, the Hall was no longer to be used as a waiting room. The students were to enter it 10 minutes before the prayer and to remain standing till it was over! This was regarded as a very high-handed and uncalled for order and the dignity of the M.A. and B.A. students was ruffled. An ultimatum was drawn up and the Principal was given the option of withdrawing the order or the "self-respecting" students would "rusticate" the College! Mr. Rudra got an inkling of this and sent for the leaders Mr. Wright would have called them "ring-leaders" asked them to withdraw the obnoxious letter and promised to settle the matter more peacefully: and settled it was the ukase was cancelled a great testimony to Mr. Rudras tact, for Wright seldom went back on his word. I must strike a personal note here; my relations with Mr. Rudra have been of the utmost intimacy and cordiality from the very beginning and he has ever shown himself to be my guide, philosopher and friend.

Mr. Dutt was a cold scholar, caustic and sombre, a man of few words. Students stood rather in awe of him.
Mr. Mookerjee was the beau ideal of the students principally because he always controverted the arguments of Mr. Wright. Mr. Wright tried to be severe and put down Mr. Mookerjee but he would always get up with battle in his eye and fire away, right or wrong!

Professors Martin and Sandford flit across my memory as formless shadows they did not make history!
The Professor of Sanskrit, an old Pandit, I forget his name, was a Mahamahopadhaya, but he did not possess more intelligence than a dormouse! May his shade rest in peace!

Maulavi Shahjahan, the Persian Professor, was a learned man but he was a chronic victim of ennui! Nothing seemed to move or interest him!

Professor Abdulrahman, the Arabic teacher, was an apology for a Professor. I had the doubtful fortune of "sitting at his feet" for Arabic, which then formed a corollary of Persian! The extent of the efficiency of the Professors teaching me Arabic can be gauged from this that I have not yet forgotten a saying in Arabic:- i.e. if you are sleeping get awakened!!! I cannot wish him eternal rest for it is quite possible he may be living. I can however, record for him a prayer; may he enter paradise and drink "Kausar"* in the company of houris when he gathers to his fathers!! Amen!+

I must own to a partiality for my Alma Mater, which not only gave me a grounding in Arts and Literature, but its moral teaching has formed the groundwork on which I have built my character, and from which my whole life has taken its colouring. The question is often mooted, have Missions in India failed? A reply to this question can only be attempted, after we are agreed as to what constitutes success or failure? If proselytism is the sole criterion of success then the Missions have failed woefully, but if the function of the Missions is, in Miltons words, to point out the ways of god to men and justify eternal Providence, i.e. build up the moral and spiritual fibre of the students, then the Missions, specially the S.P.G. Mission, stands supremely justified. The students of the Mission have a moral basis which entirely changes their outlook on the world. I cannot conceive of a Stephanian behaving otherwise than as a gentleman; He carries a moral atmosphere about him which marks him out as a Stephanian!

As regards secular studies, the teachers never laid any stress on memorising but tried to draw out what was the best inside the student. Professor Wrights lectures used to be very illuminating. He always started with a text from the books and dilated on it from every conceivable standpoint but never stopped to explain the meanings of words or phrases. He used to say sententiously that he was not a dictionary! I have no doubt that the present generation of the students is in as competent hands, and the traditions set up by Allnutt, Wright and Rudra are being kept alive; and now that Delhi boasts of a University, in course of time St. Stephens College will become the University College and become as well equipped, up to date and famous as the Muir C. College, Allahabad, Presidency College of Calcutta and why not? Oxford and Cambridge! It is at present starved for funds. Once the University undertakes to supply its necessities the dear old Alma Mater will go jogging along. May she prosper and inspire the ideals of its young folk, for these very young folk will be the City Fathers and the administrators of the coming generation!
(Reprinted from an article in the Stephanian (March 1924))

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