Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet
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1) What makes Hyderabad Public School, with alumni like Satya Nadella, Prem Watsa tick?
By Ishani Duttagupta, Shelley Singh ET Bureau | 2 Feb, 2014
2) Hyderabad Public School plans mega anniversary blast
DC | 19th Dec 2013
The early years
From five boys and six teachers in 1923 to 2,812 boys and girls in 2013, one of the oldest and most prestigious public school in the city, the Hyderabad Public School-Begumpet, has come a long way.
Established in 1923 as Jagirdars Colleges, the school is situated in the heart of the city on a lush 150 acre campus at Begumpet.
The heritage buildings of the school were awarded the Intach Heritage Award in 2000 and 2013. The school currently has a strength of 2,800 students from Class I to XII and is affiliated to the Council for the Indian School Certification Examinations (CISCE).
It has a vintage World War 2 aeroplane called Chipmunk lodged on the campus.
Famous alumni
Prominent alumni of the school include Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, Union HRD minister Pallam Raju, member of House of Lords (England) Lord Karan Billimoria, Canadian business tycoon Prem Watsa, Abode System CEO Shantanu Narayen, Microsoft president Satya Nadella, popular sports personality Harsha Bhogle, Tollywood star Akkineni Nagarjuna, MPs G. Vivekanand and Asaduddin Owaisi. Former President Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was the first president of the HPS Society.
The Real Eagles Over the decades, a host of HPS alumni have gone on to soar to great heights like eagles, the school's emblem. Consider, for instance, Karan Bilimoria, chairman of the UK-based Cobra Beer Partnership, who has fond memories of the school, its grand buildings, and vast playing fields. Bilimoria, who founded Cobra Beer in 1989 in the UK, also fondly recalls the city of Hyderabad — "where I was born" — and his contemporaries at HPS.
One of them, who is also a close friend, is the Nawab of Pataudi's nephew, Saad Bin Jung, a brilliant cricketer who scored a century against the touring West Indies team when he was only 16, recalls Bilimoria. And Andhra CM Kiran Kumar Reddy "very kindly honoured me in Hyderabad after I became the first Hyderabadi to be appointed to the House of Lords and to become a parliamentarian in Westminster."
Bilimoria also counts another HPS contemporary, cabinet minister for HRD Pallam Raju as a close friend. "I am in touch with him and last month we were both together at the Prime Minister of India's Global Advisory Council, of which I am a founding member."
Hyderabad-based entrepreneur Shaaz Mehmood, joint secretary of the HPS alumni association and one of the younger members of the alumni who passed from the school a decade back, is part of the team that is active in connecting the current students with their alumni. "We have many prominent alumni members who are in leadership roles in government and we also have senior corporate leaders such as Prem Watsa and Satya Nadella. Last December HPS celebrated 90 years through many big events and we hope that such efforts will help our alumni to reconnect with their alma mater and give back to it," says Mehmood.
Freedom of thought, strict discipline
Free Birds
So what makes HPS tick? Alumnus K Hari Prasad, CEO, central region, of Apollo Hospitals, reckons it is the environment at the school that promotes overall growth. "It's not just academics; the school gave us freedom of thought in every way. Students are at liberty to focus on sports and other activities as well," says Prasad.
Adds cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle, from HPS' class of 1978: "The school did a lot to shape up kids. It gave plenty of room to hone your talent, be it in cricket or chemistry. In fact, students [like me] would often go to school seven days a week as they just loved it. The school offered everything — from great teachers to great sports facilities."
G Vivekanand, an MP, alumnus of HPS and a member of the governing board, believes it's the rare combination of strict discipline — "we had to wake up at 5.45 am" — and the freedom of thought and expression that the young minds had that made the HPS culture special.
Class of 1984
The class of 1984 of the Hyderabad Public School Begumpet was special — even by the school's uncanny ability to serve as a nursery for some of the biggest names in sports, music, public life, business and entrepreneurship. Shailesh Jejurikar, vice-president of Procter & Gamble's north American home care portfolio, belonged to that class. As did Satya Nadella, the man tipped to be crowned Microsoft CEO in the days ahead.
Faiz Khan, general secretary of HPS Society and another member of the alumni batch of 1984, has stayed in touch with Nadella ever since he moved to the US to bag a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milawaukee and after that an MBA from the University of the Chicago Booth School of Business. As a result, he played a key role in persuading Nadella to reconnect with his alma mater in 2009 for a reunion. Nadella also supported the school by helping launch Microsoft's iSpark robotics programme at HPS
"It was very good to bring him to the school and talk to our students who have been deeply inspired not just by his achievements but also by his modest and humble ways.," says Khan.
Allegations of elitism
Hyderabad Public School bends rules to favour rich kids
School management charged with violation of stipulation of annual family income for admission under SC quota
All public schools [as defined in Britain and India] are elitist. Non-elites resent them, often unjustly, out of envy. That is why elites the world over practice noblesse oblige, instead of bragging.
In the case of HPS some alumni have spared no effort to invite people to hate them, with statements like, “It is tough to be modest if your school was big, historical and had active alumni... Modesty would be out of the window with a big grin on its face...There is hardly one person you could come across who wouldn't know a child who is in HPS. That may sound like a bad exaggeration, but you wouldn't be surprised if you asked the Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills [where the old-rich lived and nouveau riche have moved in] crowd the same question.
“HPS will continue to remain THE Public School of our state.” Ramakant D S / fullhyd.com
In 2013 Narsing Rao, a painter from Begumpet and A. Ramu, an autorickshaw driver from Tukaram Gate, accused Hyderabad Public School (HPS) Begumpet, of unfairness in deciding admissions under the quota for Scheduled Castes.
They alleged that the stipulation of annual family income for admission under the SC quota had been violated in at least three or four cases. While the annual income should not exceed Rs.18,000 per annum, there was evidence to prove that quite a few parents were richer than they claimed. One parent whose son did his pre-primary schooling in a private school before HPS, had paid Rs.32,200 as tuition fee, and Rs.12,100 for transport per annum.
What Mr. Narsing Rao and Mr. Ramu did not mention was that some parents had gone to court challenging the selection of their [Mr Rao and Mr Ramu’s] children on the grounds that they had not produced Nativity Certificates.
