The Girgaon school that has churned out CJIs, litterateurs

Girgaon's Shirolkar High School is rooted in nationalistic pride and is a much sought out Marathi-medium school today

- Niraj Pandit

On Sunday, a special visitor will walk the halls of Shirolkar High School in Girgaon. As he strolls through the assembly hall and classrooms, memories of his school days will likely come rushing back - like the time his teacher scolded him and his classmate Vinayak Joshi (who became a CA later) for “never drawing beyond the triangular mountain and right-angle tree” in art class.

That visitor will be Bhushan Gavai, Chief Justice of India, who will become a schoolboy again — just for a day-when he returns to his alma mater.

Gavai - among a long list of remarkable alumni — studied at Shirolkar High School for five formative years, from Class 5 to Class 8, before he moved on in 1973. The school, run by the Chikitsak Samuh trust, was established in 1908 and was one of only a handful of premium Marathi schools in Mumbai at the time.

Apart from Gavai, the school was alma mater to another former Chief Justice of India, UU Lalit, who completed his matriculation here in 1974, and visited the school a few years ago. Other notable alumni include writer Jaywant Dalvi, music director Yashwant Deo, actor Milind Soman, journalist and Nava-Kal founder Neelkanth Khadilkar, Arjuna Award-winning cueist Anuja Thakur, and senior bureaucrats such as DM Sukhtankar, who is former chief secretary of Maharashtra.

Early Days

The school was established by a physician, Dr Vitthal Sukhtankar, a social worker Jagannath Pilgaonkar, and local journalist Bal Kabadi. The mission was to offer quality education in Marathi during a period of sweeping intellectual and social reform across India. The partition of Bengal had just taken place and national pride was running high. Social reformers and nationalist leaders saw education as a powerful tool to encourage young minds to take pride in their roots and aspire to serve the nation.