At 66, she is still a giant holding the pillars of her life with her sturdy hands. She still says she has not done enough. “That's easy. All you have to do is never notice what has been done and only see what remains to be done,” she smiles.
Bhanumathi Neelakantan admits that she no longer sleeps for only four hours like she used to. "At that time, I was young and better prepared for life's challenges. You know, Jawaharlal Nehru had once reiterated that four and half hours of sleep is enough for survival. I think I had started to believe in it."
At 17, when Bhanumati married and arrived at Jamshedpur, she had no clue she would prove to be one of the most beautiful gifts to this city. Founder and chairman of DBMS Schools, from the lonesome two L-6 houses at Road No. 2, Farm area to gradual shift to eight small rooms and first batch of twelve little girls to the majestic grandeur association of six schools and unparalleled success, she has been there through each arduous step of the long journey.
"When we had started with the Hindi Medium Girls" Higher Secondary School in 1961 for Kadma and Sonari area's labour income group, the Nagpur society had at the same time come up with Tamil curriculum books in Devanagri script. We decided to introduce Tamil as a third language for the girls," she reminisces. "Four years later, we started kindergarten classes in English in the basement of the same rooms."
The first major challenge came when DBMS started getting flooded with requests for starting a complete school. "The task was daunting and nobody was forthcoming to take the risk or the responsibility for it. That was when I thought its time to square our shoulders and live up to the demands."
In 1965, the DBMS school was founded, the funds coming from donations and various cultural shows organised by Bhanumati and her group of women in Dakshina Bharatha Mahila Samaj, Jamshedpur. Since then, the institution has punctuated its success with many milestones. The takeover of Kadma Girls? High School, start of CBSE English School, a school for tribal children and servants, the National Open School (NOS) and the DBMS career academy.
Things were never easy. Bhanumati remembers the reasons for opening NOS. "The so-called 'problem children' were often thrown out of schools. It pained my heart to see them wander aimlessly, wasting themselves. Incidentally, I heard about NOS, Delhi, a school that follows CBSE pattern of teaching but at a pace that is easy on students. When I proposed inculcating the same for our school, resistance came from all quarters," she states. "Teachers felt this would give other students an impetus not to work. Nobody really wanted to work with these 'problem children'", she reveals. "I can tell why, for I still am reminded of all those days when NOS had just started. I used to find broken switch boards and fan blades and desks all around me. There was so much frustration in these children that they found outlet only in violence. It was a long time before things started to change and children and teachers began to accept and believe in each other," she says.
Every time she has agreed to accept a change, she has met with the same hostility and resistance. "When I took up the task to convert the almost-defunct Bengali medium school in New Baridih to an English medium one, the staff members and parents were naturally outraged," she remembers. "Once, when I was sitting inside the car the enraged crowd started pelting it with stones. I knew why they were doing it. I realised they were losing their means of living, I realised it was wrong, but I also realised this had to happen for the greater good," she explains. "The school, as it was running, would not have been able to sustain itself for long"
"No matter what path you are on, people will not criticise you," she adds, ?question is, are you strong enough to handle the critics'"
She was. For this founder and patron of School of Hope, a school for the mentally-challenged, has braved the indifference and callous attitude of the people. As an organiser of the Jamshedpur blood bank, when she went around the town asking people to donate blood, all she met with was distrustful glances. And for three times a year, every single year till the time she turned 45, she herself donated blood, not to prove a point but for her principles.
A passionate exponent of clear-cut thinking and uncompromising convictions, Bhanumati has had her hands full even after she left Jamshedpur in 1994, when her husband retired from service. In Chennai she is involved with Unicef in a project with fourteen corporation schools and slums for environment awareness.
Her career listings are long ? secretary of All-India Women's Conference, organiser of the Family Planning Clinic, secretary of Jamshedpur Council for Social Welfare and Nehru Balvikas, vice-president of Jamshedpur Quiz Society, organiser of Jamshedpur Blood Bank, Jamshedpur chapter of Red Cross Society and Jamshedpur Citizen Council, visiting member at A.D, Dalal TB hospital and TMH and founder-secretary of Music Circle for twelve years.
At 57, she and her husband became the eldest couple to climb the Himalayan peaks with Bachendri Pal. At 66, she can walk eight km on the Madras beach. Bhanumati says the only thing that has kept her going is her faith in herself. "I believe there is something inside me superior to circumstances. I do not give up or give in easily"