Caning regular feature in my school: Big B

Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan says caning was a 'regular feature' in his school, but he strongly opposes the practice.

'I must admit that caning was a regular feature during our stay in the school...As students, we did not resist or fight against it. It was part of our curriculum in a sense and I think we were better off with it than without. Indeed, there were occasions when we opted for it as against, when given the choice of an alternative,' Amitabh posted on his blog bigb.bigadda.com.

The 67-year-old, who studied at the Sherwood College in Nainital, says caning was considered acceptable in his school and students used to take it in a sporting way, with some even making fun of their bruised posteriors.

'The whole procedure was to me and I would like to believe for others too, a very fair and formal affair, this business of caning. We knew what the punishment would be if there was infringement, so it wasn't as though you were suddenly caught forcibly and beaten black and blue in front of the entire school,' he added.

Amitabh's remarks come on the heels of a class 8 student of Kolkata's La Martiniere School, Rouvanjit Rawla, committing suicide apparently because he was caned by the principal, Sunirmal Chakravarthi.

The actor says corporal punishment should be discouraged in schools now.

'That was 1956! It is 2010 now. If now, Abhishek or Shweta (his daughter) or Agastya and Navya-Naveli (his grandchildren) were to be even spoken loudly against, it would incense me. Times have changed and so have circumstances. I would strongly oppose corporal punishment in schools now,' he posted.

What I would like to add:

I studied in Calcutta Boys' School (CBS) when Mr. Clifford Hicks was the Principal. He had been a living legend those days when his name had been associated in making CBS one of the best schools in our country. What Big-B has written takes me down memory lane to those years when "cane" and Mr. Hicks were synonyms in our campus. I would like to recollect my experiences one day. I would appreciate if our readers would share their experiences at school with us.