India, Aug. 22 -- There was a time when Chandigarh was still learning to call itself a city. The wide roads seemed wider, the trees seemed younger, and the familiar sectors that today bustle with traffic were once dotted with open spaces and quiet stretches of land. In that young Chandigarh, St. John's High School in Sector 26 was steadily becoming much more than a school. It was becoming a memory-one that generations of Chandigarh residents would carry with them long after they left its gates.

Established in 1959, St. John's emerged when the City Beautiful itself was still taking shape. The school opened its doors to students in February 1960 under the Christian Brothers. It was a period when Chandigarh represented a bold new idea of In...