The Wonder Years

PPS Nabha has an eminent alumni line-up,including top military officers,industrialists,businessmen,doctors,civil servants and professors. One of its former students has become an Army commander,and as Commodore (Retd) IL Syal,the Headmaster,points out,the school has come a long way and established itself as among the best residential schools of the country. Upholding the best of values and traditions,the school has lived up to its motto: Onward and Upward.

General Sureshwar Tiwary,who joined the school in 1963 and belonged to the first batch of students,is all praise about the fact that the school had an ideal mix of students from the rural and urban background,and the heterogeneous group learnt a lot from each other. “It was an ideal mix,we stayed and studied together and there was no discrimination. I feel fortunate that I was part of the school and the school committee as well. It is such a great honour that the President of the country will be a part of the festivity.”

For Air Vice Marshal RS Sidhu,coming back to Nabha is a dream come true and a visit that has been long overdue. “I haven’t been in touch and coming back now makes me very emotional,” he says.

Agrees Lt Gen TK Sapru,who too joined in 1963 and appreciates the way the school blends modern thoughts with traditional value systems. “The school works on the overall development of your personality. It provides not just good education,but excellent facilities for extra-curricular activities. The school needs to be known outside Punjab too so that people from all walks of life can be a part of it,” he says. Among the various events planned,the highlights of the celebration will be a spectacular horse rising and band display by the students of the school and a release of the coffee table book Onward And Upward — The Punjab Public School Nabha (1960-2010) by Col Harjit Singh.