What links Nandan Nilekeni, co-founder of one of India’s largest IT service companies, Nikhil Chinappa, MTV video jockey, and singer-composer Lucky Ali? All of them have attended the Bishop Cotton Boy’s School, Bangalore.
Considered as one of India’s most premier schools from the Anglo-Victorian era, with a rich heritage and a futuristic outlook, Bishop Cotton Boys’ School was formerly started in the year 1865 by Rev. S T Pettigrew, the then chaplain of St. Mark’s Church in Bangalore. Named in honour of Bishop Cotton of Calcutta, one of the earliest stewards of missionary schools in India under the Anglican Churches, the school originally admitted children of European and Anglo-Indian families settled in India.
Starting from a small set up in High Grounds, Bangalore, the school eventually moved into its current location on St Mark’s Road in 1871. Today, 148 years later, Cottons has 6,000 students, a well-qualified faculty, and excellent academic infrastructure for day scholars as well as the boarders, most advanced sporting facilities and a well-rounded curriculum to produce young men who can live their dreams.
Known as the “Eton of the East,” the school has maintained its numero uno status not only in academics but also in overall development of its students. It provides opportunities for students to participate in various extra-curricular and co-curricular activities through intra-school and inter-school meets and competitions. The school organises various competitions like swimming, debate, elocution, dramatics, music, spelling bee and quizes.
It also plays host to a number of inter-school competitions like Exquizite, a quizzing event for schools from across India, Cotton’s INXS, which is an annual music competition in western rock and pop music, Synchronise, an IT fest, CMUN, a debate competition modeled on the UN general assembly meet, among others.
When it comes to mind-games, Cottonians are way ahead of others. This has been proved over the years with the numerous accolades that the students have won for the school in academics and other co-curricular activities. That however does not make an average Cottonian a laggard when it comes to physical fitness and games played outdoors. The school strongly believes in the adage, “a healthy body houses a healthy mind.”
As a testimony of this the school promotes different forms of outdoor games and sporting facilities. Apart from the three giant playgrounds in the school premises, the school also houses an ultra modern sports complex, which has a 5-lane Olympic size swimming pool, indoor badminton and squash courts, tennis courts and a multi-gymnasium.
Among the various unique means of promoting talent on campus, the school, over the past three years, has started an in-house literary magazine called Prathibimb (Reflections). The uniqueness of this initiative lies in the fact that through inter-house competitions among the five school houses, student representatives pen down various articles, reports on current affairs and analyse national and international issues, all with professional skill and dexterity. The content is judged by eminent personalities from the literary world.
