Students in costume performing on the Oriental Academy stage

Moments That Lit the Flame · since 1960

A living archive of Oriental Academy.

Old photographs fade and albums get lost, and the people who remember what is in them will not always be here to tell us. So we are collecting sixty-six years of Oriental Academy photographs, one at a time.

Share a photograph See the archive

Generations of Oriental

Through the same gate, one generation after another.

For more than six decades, generations of children have walked through this gate. Their children came through it after them, and some former students came back years later as parents, and some as grandparents.

A Class III group photograph from 1962-63, the children in four rows with their teacher seated at the centre — **Class III · 1962-63**Photographed by Swarn Photo Service. One of the school's earliest classes.

Glimpses from the archive

School life across the decades.

Photographs from 1959 to the Golden Jubilee in 2011. If you have photographs from your own years at the school, we would love to add them here.

1959-1969Where it began

The founder's evening college, 1959 — 1959Before the AcademyThe founder's evening college in 1959, a year before the school began.

The Oriental Academy staff group photograph of the 1960s — 1960sThe staffMaster Sansar Chand Baru, who painted the school's Saraswati, stands in the second row, third from the right.

Boys singing into a microphone at the 1969 annual day — 1969Annual day: boys at the microphone, mid-song

The school gate of Oriental Academy on Afghan Street — **The school gate · Afghan Street, Kacchi Chawni**

The Oriental Academy nameplate in English and Hindi above the Afghan Street entrance — 1960sThe first nameplateThe Oriental Academy board in English and Hindi over the Afghan Street entrance.

A man in a Gandhi cap speaking at a microphone at a school function — 1960sAt the microphoneA school function in the early years.

Children in costume seated on stage for a tableau at an early annual function — 1960sA tableau on stageChildren in costume seated for a tableau, from the school’s first decade.

1970s-1980sThe stage decades

The staff group of the 1970s before a hand-painted map of India — 1970sThe staffBefore a hand-painted map of India.

Girls performing a folk dance with veils held aloft at the annual function, 1970s-80s — 1970s-80sThe veil danceDupattas held aloft under the annual-function lights.

The whole school gathered in the courtyard for a function: children seated on the ground, parents on benches behind, the old building and its verandah around them — 1980sThe whole school, in the courtyardA function in the old school: children on the ground, parents on the benches behind, the verandah full.

A school play in period costume on the annual-day stage, 1970s-80s — 1970s-80sThe annual play

A folk-music act: girls in Kashmiri dress with tabla and harmonium, 1970s-80s — 1970s-80s‘Chann Munn Qawwal & Party’

A costumed dance troupe in Kashmiri and Dogra dress at the annual function, 1970s-80s — 1970s-80sIn Kashmiri and Dogra dress

1990s-2011The same stage, in colour

A 1990s class of Oriental Academy with their teacher, gathered in the courtyard outside the principal's office — 1990sA class and its teacher

A folk dance on stage under the Golden Jubilee Year banner, 2011 — 2011The Golden Jubilee

The youngest children performing at the 2011 annual function — 2011The little ones, on stage

Guests lighting a brass ceremonial lamp to open the annual function — 1990sLighting the lampThe lamp lit to open the annual function, a gesture the school has kept for decades.

Children performing on stage beneath the Celebrating Golden Jubilee Year banner — 2011Fifty years on stage

Children in Dogri folk costume lined up on stage under a school banner — 2000sIn Dogri dress

A student wearing an Oriental Academy sash receiving an award at the prize distribution — 2000sThe prize distributionA student in the Oriental Academy sash receiving his award.

Were you at Oriental Academy in the years after the Golden Jubilee? We would love to add your photographs from those years to this wall.

See the class photographs, many with every name, in Through the Years →

What we're collecting

You probably remember one of these.

Send us a photograph, or just a memory. If one of these reminds you of something, we would be glad to add it to the archive.

A Matric class group photograph, 1997-98

Class photographs

Do you still have your batch photograph?

Teachers & staff

Who was the teacher you never forgot?

Children in fancy dress at the annual function

Annual functions

Which performance did you take part in?

A Scouts and Guides group of Oriental Academy in uniform

Scouts & Guides

Do you remember your first camp?

Campus memories

Which corner do you remember most?

School trips

Where did Oriental take you?

Excursions, tours and picnics are the days families remember best. If you have a photograph from one, please send it to us.

A memory from the archive

Girls in white performing the Saraswati pooja before the framed painting of the Goddess on the annual-day stage, 1964 — Saraswati Pooja · Annual Day, 1964

Annual Day · 1964

The Saraswati, worshipped on stage.

The Goddess Saraswati was painted by Master Sansar Chand Baru and gifted to the founder. At every annual day she was carried onto the stage and worshipped, as here, in 1964.

The same painting still hangs in the principal's office. You can see it again behind the Class XII of 2014-15, fifty years later.

Contribute to the archive

Share a photograph.

If you have an old Oriental Academy photograph in a drawer or album at home, it may be the only copy left. Share it with us and we will keep it safe in the school's archive.

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Thank you for adding to the school archive.

We've received your contribution and we'll contact you before we put anything on the website. Each photograph fills in a little more of the school's past.