Satikanta Guha was born in Sunamganj, Sylhet (now in Bangladesh). He was educated at Dhaka Collegiate School, Dhaka, and Hare School and Presidency College, Kolkata. He stood first in First Class in the LLB Examination of Calcutta University.
Though his subject of formal study was history, his real love from childhood was literature. From the age of 15 he started editing journals for children: first ‘Benu’, and then ‘Chitra’. This brought him into close personal contact with Abanindranath Thakur and Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumdar. Later he also edited ‘Rangmashal’ for some time. He set up several publishing houses, publishing books that included Abanindranath’s Rajkahini, Dakshinaranjan’s First Boy and Last Boy, and Shibram Chakraborty’s Baadi Thekey Paliye. In 1954, in association with his wife Prity Lata he founded South Point.
South Point attracted many talented and gifted personalities as teachers: Utpal Dutt, Kamal Kumar Majumdar, N. Viswanathan, and Gita Ghatak among others. In a little over two decades, South Point came to be acknowledged as the world’s largest school in terms of the number of pupils enrolled for an academic year. It enjoyed that distinction for many years. South Point also became synonymous with academic excellence, for year after year its pupils secured ranks among the first ten in all public examinations at the school level. During his lifetime South Point was a home to many organizations, like the Little Theatre Group, Ali Akbar College of Music, Ballygunge Cultural Seminar, and Guru Thankmani Kutty’s school of dance.
In literature, he received the Mouchak Award for his contribution to children’s literature, and the Rabindra Puraskar for his novel, Natyakar.
Satikanta Guha Foundation is headed by Mr Indranath Guha. A graduate of the Universities of Calcutta and Oxford, he was a faculty at Jadavpur University before serving as a Principal of South Point for more than 22 years. He was also a Trustee of The South Point Education Society from the day of its inception till his resignation in 1992. An academician par excellence he has taught English at secondary, higher secondary, undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
He is currently the Rector of the Garden High School.
Pro-Rector
Mrs Kavita Guha is an English Hons. graduate from Loreto College, Kolkata. She has considerable experience as a teacher in various schools, including South Point High School. She was the Vice-Principal of South Point School and is currently the Pro-Rector of Garden High School. With Mr Indranath Guha she has co-authored many school books published by the Oxford University Press.
Secretary
Mrs Mahua Dasgupta was a teacher of South Point School for more than 21 years. She was the Teacher- in-Charge of Class I and a Controller of Examinations of South Point for several years. Since 1995, she has been running a nursery school independently and is the Secretary of Garden High School. She assists Mrs Kavita Guha in academic matters.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Mr T. K. Gopalan has worked closely with the late Satikanta Guha and Mr Indranath Guha in South Point. He is the Chief Executive Officer of the Satikanta Guha Foundation and the Garden High School since their inception. Mr Gopalan is in charge of general administration, accounts and finance, legal and labour matters, etc.
