Patha Bhavan(Kolkata)
8/2, Gariahat Road (Merlin Park),
Calcutta
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The school had been an experimental one and still makes a mark as an institution with difference.
Rabindranath's idea of education had been adopted carefully in the backdrop of urban society and changing time. Patha Bhavan used to project the personalities of children from all sides. Examination results are not considered as the sole criterion to judge a child. Creative faculties of the children are nurtured and encoured. Special stress is given on music, drama, literature and other creative persuits.
Patha bhavan believes in inculcating sense of history and building scientific attitude among students to make them a complete person. Various project oriented work are taken up and series of lectures by eminent personalities in different fields of knowledge are arranged to extend the mental horizon of the students.
Some of the great personalities like Satyajit Ray,Sushovan Sarkar,Mira Duttagupta , Ajit Kumar Dutta, Dr.Ajit Basu, Justice Tarun Bose, Santosh Bhattacharya and many others extended their hands to build the institution. Eminent personalities in the fields of art,literature,drama,music and other creative faculties such as Shambhu Mitra, Kumar Roy, Pradosh Dasgupta, Ranen Ayan Dutta, Sumit Madhab Sen, Raghunath Goswami, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyaya, Mrinal Sen, Tapas Sen, Chinmohan Snehanobis, Subhash Mukhopadhaya and others helped in many ways to build the reputation of the school.
Students got the opportunity to listen to Bhakatram Talwar's adventurous experience on the great escape of Netaji Subhas Chandra from Afgan border or lectures of Prof. Sushil Mukhopadhaya on science and society. Chinmohan Snehanobis delivered series of lectures on national movement. Shambhu Mitra recited Jyotirindra Moitra's 'Madhu Bangshir Goli'and Shirshendu Mukhopadhaya read out number of stories written by himself.
Kumar Roy directed Rabindranath's 'Rather Rashi' acted by the students and Raghunath Goswami organised workshop on puppetry and modern advertisement.
Batukda (Jyotirindra Moitra) used to take classes on creative music and composed the school's theme music 'Amader PathaBhavan -------'.
Satyajit Ray himself composed the signature music for 'Sukumar Mela' organised by the school to celebrate the centenary of the legend (Sukamar Ray). The 'Bharatratna' formally inaugurated the fair and opened it for public viewing.
Patha Bhavan in its early days organised the first ever film festival of Satyajit Ray to collect fund for the school .Satyajit Ray generously helped to make it a grand success. He also designed the logo for the school.
Patha Bhavan had the privilege to arrange a preview of Satyajit Ray's 'Joy Baba Phelunath' for the students. It had been the premier show of the film.
Patha Bhavan also organised 'Satyajit Mela' in a large scale to pay a tribute to the versatile genius and the guiding star of the school.
In 1967 , Patha Bhavan organised a Shishu Mela in Deshopriyo Park ,first of its kind organised by any school in the city. Ranen Ayan Dutta designed the pavilion and the fair arena.
In the early days of the school Prof. N. Vishwanathan and Shamik Bandopadhaya , a founder of the school used to take special classes on dramatics other than the usual literature classes. Srimati Bijaya Ray also took English classes and helped in many ways to build the reputation of the school. Teachers like Haraprasad De , Gautam Chattopadhaya, Niranjan Sengupta ,Nandita Mitra, Sutapa Bhattacharya, Partha Basu and a host of brilliant teachers paved the path for the school to march ahead and set an example of best kind of teaching.
Patha Bhavan still tries its best to fulfill the mission of the dedicated teachers who founded the school with a vision. It is not just producing students for corporate houses , but something more than that - A COMPLETE PERSON.