Kul Bhushan Kain: From cricket to education

The French Revolution, World War - I & II and other events of the past have been his favourite subjects. For over a decade, he has been teaching these to young guns, including the likes of Kapil Dev, Yograj Singh (father of Yuvraj Singh) and many more.  DPS Bopal's principal, Kul Bhushan Kain, besides being a history teacher is also an ex-Ranji player. From the 1977 batch of Hansraj College, Delhi University, Kain went on to teach in one of the colleges of DU for two years. He was known for three things - history, a long pony tail and perfect English which most of his colleagues could not keep up with.

He was born in Burma where his father practised medicine and his schooling took place in Dehradun.  Kain talks about his love for history, cricket and why being a teacher was not his cup of tea.

"With an Anglo-Indian family background, our conversations were mainly in English and that's the reason I thought, wrote and spoke only in English. This was one of the reasons for not gelling along well with my colleagues at DU. In addition, my pony tail set me apart," Kain says.

It was during his schooling at Dehradun that Kain started playing cricket. He played for his school for four years and later for the university too. "Like every young good cricketer I too wanted to play for Ranji. J&K's team was looking for a player and Mohammad Kayyum picked me. After that day till 2010, I continued to play club cricket, even when I was the principal of DPS Jaipur," he narrates.

In 1979 he joined DAV College of Men, Chandigarh as a history teacher. "I was given the second year BA class where most of the students were sportspersons - Kapil Dev, Yograj Singh, to name a few. The attendance in my class used to be generally low. When I joined the college, I was 24 and did not really know how to attract students to my class. My job was to teach the subject I loved the most." He quit DAV in a year and joined MNSS Rai School, Sonipath as a history teacher in 1980.

"But I guess I was never meant to be a teacher as after a year, I left Rai too and joined Bal Bharti Public School, Bhopal as the principal in 1991. Since then a lot has changed. I still recall my principal, Ajay Sinha's last words to me-'Kain the job is lonely and difficult, but, you will manage'," he says.

Kain's wife Sangeeta is the principal of Himjyoti School, Dehradun and son Pratique is doing economics honours at Delhi University. Kain feels that his son is more of an academician than a sportsperson.

"I love sports of any kind and over the years, I have picked up quite a few. But he is different. He is one of the modern young guns types who love to sweat it out in the gym. Looking at him, I feel youth today must balance their life with both sports and studies. As for money it will come no matter where you are."

Kain is all set to inculcate in students of DPS, Bopal an attitude which he believes comes more from sports activities than mere classroom teaching.