Pareen Lalkaka

By Aban Mukherji, Mumbai 

Mrs. Pareen Lalkaka nee Nanavutty was born on 31 August 1916 in Bareilly, U.P. Her childhood and youth were spent in Faizabad and Lucknow where her father, Erach Nanavutty served as a judge.

In her youth she was an ardent Girl Guide. Later she studied the Montessori Method under Madam Montessori herself when she was interned in Adyar, Madras during World War II. Incidentally they both shared the same birth date August 31. Pareen later opened her own little Montessori school in her premises at Nepean Sea Rd. Mumbai.

She married Dr. K.A.J. Lalkaka in 1948. In 1956 she travelled extensively across Europe and America with her husband who had been invited as a guest of the State of Maryland to visit many of the State Mental Hospitals there. In Europe she was fortunate to meet Dr Carl Jung. She kept up a correspondence with him for many years.

Both Dr Lalkaka and Pareen did a lot to help Mrs. Jai Vakil set up her school in Sewree. Pareen helped train many of the staff in the Montessori Method.

Dr. Maneckji Cooper wanted her to join his school at Juhu, as its principal; but as it was to be an English medium school she refused as she felt that children should be taught in their mother tongue first.

Pareen lalkaka joined the Greenlawns school as a teacher when it was first founded, and later, in the 1960s joined the New Era School as a teacher of English and French. She was convinced that children picked up a foreign language with ease if it was introduced through games and music. To this end, she started an English Club in the New Era School which was very popular with the children. Many of her pupils still remember her as a diminutive but commanding presence, playing the accordion. She also encouraged the New Era children to participate in elocution competitions organized on the premises of the Cama Oriental Institute where the children had to compete with students from the best English schools. (She herself had been trained in elocution in England.)

Pareen Lalkaka loved music and had studied the piano. She was equally fond of both Indian and Western classical dance and was also an expert ballroom dancer. She also studied Bharat Natyam and Kathakali under teachers like Shri Raghavan Nair, Ritadevi and Kanak Rele. She had also learnt Manipuri. (A few years ago she donated all her three sets of dance costumes together with all the accessories to the C.S.M.V.S., formerly the Prince of Wales Museum.)

When her father retired from the ICS and returned to Mumbai in the 1930s, Pareen joined Wilson College to study Science. She studied till Inter Science. Later when she was in her 50s, encouraged by her husband, the late Dr. K.A.J. Lalkaka, she again went back to College to complete her higher education. At that time, she was teaching at the New Era School and had to join morning college at Jai Hind. Later she joined the K.C. College and studied Psychology under teachers like Dr. Sujan and Prof. Hiranandani (?) After completing her B.A. in Psychology she studied further and did her Masters in Psychology from Bombay University.

Pareen Lalkaka also did her B. Ed from the Xavier’s Institute and her Diploma V. G. too under Dr. Mehroo Bengali. She was instrumental in setting up the Vocational Guidance Dept. at the New Era School. She joined the Sophia College as a lecturer in Psychology in the 1970s and was also instrumental in helping set up its Vocational Guidance Dept. Later she joined the Anjuman-i-Islam institution and worked to bring up their Vocational Guidance Dept. As part of her work she travelled to many towns and villages of Gujarat.

Pareen Lalkaka was very fond of trekking and in her 70’s was trekking in the Himalayas. She joined the Explorers and Adventurers Club and was their president for a brief spell. Right through her 80s she could be seen climbing up the steep slopes of Nepean and Mt. Pleasant roads. One of her former New Era pupils, Kaushik Laijawalla, himself an expert runner, christened her "My Road Runner" after encountering her one morning briskly climbing the slope.

She was a keen student of Zoroastrianism and even took up the study of Avesta. She wrote Zarathushtra the Golden Star, an illustrated life of the Prophet of Iran, for children. Her beautiful translations of some of the Zoroastrian daily prayers were compiled in A Garland of Prayers.

In the 1950s and ‘60s, she ran classes on Zoroastrianism for children at the Kharegat Colony Hall.

When she was in her 80’s, she took up the study of Persian and Urdu’ and continued till Alzheimer’s set in when she was in her 90’s. (She is at present in her 98’th year.)

She passed away on 13.08.2016.