Loreto House Alumnae Association pays tribute to 'Uma Aunty' with the perfect bun
Telegraph | 3 March 2025
Loreto House was being painted when a teacher stopped the work on one wall of a Class IV classroom.
Uma Ahmad wanted her students to paint the wall, and they did so with scenes from Indian and world history.
That was in the early 1970s. A lesson that teachers emulate to this day.
“After this project, we had it all printed in our minds,” said a former student, now a businesswoman based in Hull, the UK, Debjani Mitra.
Her students across generations and countries, colleagues and family remembered her on Saturday in an evening of memories, music and dance.
The online programme was attended by former students and colleagues from across time zones — Vietnam, the US, the UK and India.
A teacher who worked for child rights, education and equality, Ahmad died on February 2 at her home in Queen’s Park. She was 93.
Loreto House Alumnae Association paid tribute to their “Uma Aunty”, remembered by many for her crisp starch saris, the jangling of the keys as she walked, the perfect bun and a flower on her head as “radiant” as she was.
“There was a request from alumna across continents to have an online event because they wanted to join,” said Oindrilla Dutt, member, executive committee, Loreto House Alumnae Association.
Ahmad started as a young teacher at Loreto House, teaching girls in primary and junior schools.
One of the founders of Teachers Training Centre, she inspired generations of teachers through her work. She was also a member of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission and a long-standing chairperson of Loreto House Alumnae Association and the Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy.
Sister Sabrina, provincial, Loreto India, spoke about the student, teacher and a “a great friend” of Loreto.
“She was an institution in herself embodying and living the values of excellence, compassion and innovation....Her legacy lives on in the many students she taught and nurtured as well as the countless lives she touched with her kindness and humanity,” Sister Sabrina said.
Some of the former students paid tribute during the programme. Like Priyadarshini Ghosh (Class X, 1978) and Alisha Alexander (Class XII, 2012).
Filmmaker Shonali Bose and fashion designer Kiram Uttam Ghosh were among those who had a message for their late teacher.
Hotelier Priya Paul was her student in Class V.
“I know I speak for so many of my classmates when I am talking today. She exemplified beauty and intelligence in one dynamic package that hurtled around the corridors of Loreto House with very high heels,” said Paul in a video message.
Values that have stood many in good stead and followed her footsteps like her younger daughter Ayesha Sheriff, who went on to become a teacher.
“She (Uma Ahmad) believed in educating children no matter where they came from,” said Ayesha.
Eldest of Ahmad’s three children, Anjum Katyal, who is a writer-editor and translator, said they grew up with values of not discriminating.