A scholar retires from ISB

Manama : A scholar in Sanskrit and Hindi and the only Sanskrit teacher in the GCC countries, Om  Prakash Bhoopnath Thakur (O.P Singh) has retired  from the Indian School Bahrain(ISB) after 30 years of meritorious service. Mr Singh who is a postgraduate in three languages(Sanskrit,English and Hindi) is well-versed in  Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita and Ramcharitmanas, one of the greatest works of Hindi literature.  The 60-year-old scholar is not going to relax and idle away his retired life. ‘I am going to start a Gita Pariwar in Bahrain in order to impart the profound wisdom of Gita. Anyone thirsty of spiritual knowledge can join my class,’  Mr Singh told DT News.   Mr Singh joined the Indian school as a senior postgraduate teacher (PGT) on October 15,1985. Always wearing white, he has been a center of attention because of his dress sense for decades. Regarding his shift to white attire, O.P Singh says: “I started  wearing only white dress in the 1980s  when my professor Shukla suggested me to use   white which is more matching and suitable than the colourful dress for a teacher.” Mr Singh has published a collection of poems titled Antardwand (inner conflict) in 2008 with the help of a former student, who provided financial support to release the book. Before coming to Bahrain he was working in Sarvodya Vidyalaya in his hometown for seven years when he came across an advertisement in Times of India for the post of a Sanskrit teacher in Bahrain. “I was interviewed by the school chairman Atma Jashanmal . The first batch had 35 students and my students always   perform well in the exams. They always get cent percent in Sanskrit”, he says. 

Recently O.P Singh was in the news when he declared that he would sue the Indian School for not giving  proper notice before retirement. “My  contract with the school expired in last November and the school hasn’t renewed it…which means that as per the Labour Law  of the Kingdom I can continue for the next two years, Mr  Singh says. But I don’t want to fight with the school management. Allow me to stay in Bahrain, till I make alternative arrangements for getting a visa, that’s my only request to the school, he says.  “I  am thankful to the Indian school; they have given me  a memento for 30 years of service.”   

Mr Singh who  hails from Ayodhya in the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh    said that if the school demands his service he is willing to continue for another year. There are approximately ten students now studying the classical Indian language Sanskrit as part of their second language in the school and Mr Singh has been  handling both Sanskrit and Hindi.   His wife is Manju Singh and  children Manoj Thakur,Saroj Thakur,Niyati Thakur Anand Abhishek Singh Thakur and Meenakshi Singh Thakur were former students of the Indian School Bahrain.