Doon Online - Master stroke: Back at school

By Namita Bhandare

TV’s favourite foreign affairs expert Kanti Bajpai now has a more challenging job: Headmaster of Doon School

Imagine a world-renowned expert on Indo-US and India-China relations. Imagine a published author who’s spent years in serious academia at such globally renowned think-tanks as the Brookings Institution. Imagine an expert on international relations who’s sought after by news channels and publications for his views on everything from Pakistan to the bomb.

Now place such a person in a sleepy little town called Dehradun. More specifically, place him in an all-boys school as headmaster, teaching English (perhaps) to a group of wide-eyed 11-year-olds.

That’s Kanti Bajpai for you. Dressed in pin-striped shirt, chinos and sandals in his modest office at the Jawaharlal Nehru University’s School for International Studies, he’s talking about his upcoming assignment with the sort of seriousness he might reserve for a seminar on disarmament at the India International Centre. But for Bajpai, his new assignment is a dream come true and every bit as deserving of his undivided attention.

“It’s been an ambition of mine for years that at some point I would go back to Doon,” says this former Doon School student. “When John Mason indicated that he wasn’t interested in completing a second term, the job of headmaster suddenly opened up and I thought, ‘Why not throw my hat into the ring’?”
To be precise, it was Bajpai who was actually tracked down by a headhunter and asked if he’d be interested in becoming headmaster to what is arguably one of India’s premier public schools. What followed was an interview process where over 50 candidates were interviewed.

Although he himself spent only three years at Doon (from 1970 to 1972) Bajpai says it made a huge impression. “Those were glorious years for me,” he recalls. “I was quite a shy child but Doon helped me develop and come out of my shell.”

Moreover, the school held out two more lessons for him: it brought out leadership skills in an extremely subtle and indirect way. As prefect, he was expected to lead by his own exemplary behaviour and take responsibility for the students under him. Moreover, the school also brought him closer to nature. “I had always been a bit of a city-bred boy” says this son of a career diplomat. “At Doon we would go for these mid-term expeditions that made us more understanding of our natural surroundings.” And this, of course, was before environmental studies became a fashionable term.

As the future headmaster – he takes over in July – Bajpai says he intends to continue following these traditions. And just as it’s been a tradition for the headmaster to teach the youngest class, he too intends teaching the new batch to get to know them better. “There are challenges to teaching young children,” he admits. “But I will have to learn some tricks of the trade.’’

But Bajpai isn’t losing much sleep over the transition. He’s been a Dosco and he knows the ethos and the tradition. He’s also aware of the ‘elite’ tag that goes with the school, although he does hasten to add that there are scholarships and bursaries for as many as a third of the students who attend.

“Doon has produced only one Prime Minister,” he says in response to the charge that the school is acquiring a bit of a power-elite networking air around it. “Yes, there are a fair number of politicians who are Doscos, but that’s never been held up as a flag. “Besides,” he continues, “We’ve produced quite a few interesting people in the arts, in letters, in diplomacy, in science and so on.”

So, are there any traditions he’d like to do away with? Not really, although, says Bajpai, he would like to introduce some new ideas, after discussing them with his Board and colleagues. Global studies, for one. He believes it’s important for students to know more about world affairs just as it is for them to get more involved with their local environment and history.

“Ultimately, the aim of a liberal education is to teach students to think for themselves and to be able to hold a civilised dialogue with others. You should be able to sit down with civility and observe certain protocols about how we interact with each other,” says Bajpai.

Outside his office, a group of international students are celebrating a festival of peace. The band on the stage is playing John Lennon’s Imagine. Suddenly, it is easy if you try.