Schooldays drawing of Danny Denzongpa

A Peacock- Danny's Love towards Nature 

Tshering Pintso Bhutia popularly known as Danny Denzongpa is a famous name in the Bollywood. We have seen him in many Indian movies as a deleterious villain and also have listened to many songs sung by him in Indian and Nepali films. I still can remember a Nepali song of my childhood days “Agi Agi Topaiko Gola...Pachi pachi machine gun Bha ra ra...Cigarette nadeu ma bedi khanelai Maya nadeu ma hedi janelai” sung by him with Asha Bhosle, a gigantic name in the Hindi music world.  His journey from the remote village of Yoksam to Mumbai is possibly the best example for all those who aspire to be a noted figure in Bollywood. Danny started his schooling from Gyalshing, the District Headquarters of West Sikkim. After getting stipend from the Ministry of  Foreign Affairs Government of India, he went to Birla Vidhya Mandir Nainital.

The original name of Danny is visible in this sketch 

I have met one of his juniors of Birla Vidhya Mandir Mr. B. B. Rai of Namchi Kazitar, from whom I have been able to secure an old school magazine Vatayan. It was a monthly magazine of Tilak House of the said school, published in July 1963.  The said magazine was published on the 107^th birth anniversary of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak by the Tilak House of Birla Vidhya Mandir Nainital. It is to be mentioned here that most of the Sikkimese students used to be in this House of the School. The Sikkimese students studying at Birla Vidhya Mandir were of great talents. Apart from their studies, our boys had astonishing calibre of writing, painting and singing. After accomplishing their education they all have served Sikkim through their distinct services. Mr. B.B Rai, alumni of Birla Vidhya Mandir has served in many Departments under Government of Sikkim before getting Voluntary Retirement as a Joint Director Planning and Development Department. He is an artist of a great reputation.

Sketch of a porter by Danny Denzongpa

In this monthly magazine, I have been able to stumble on few sketches made by our own Danny during his school days. The sketches of Danny speak more than thousand words. In one of his sketches he has portrayed about a student’s life in a hostel during a rainy night. In another drawing, he has featured the toil of a porter carrying a sack of potato towards his hostel. The practice of carrying loads on the back of a manual labour is still prevalent in Nainital. Mr. B.B Rai informed me that, frequently they had to have potato in their hostel as sabji and the potato sacks were brought to the school hostel by the porters. In his sketch Danny has featured the efforts of such meagre.  His third painting shows his love towards nature. This is a sketch of a peacock. His extraordinary talent is visible in every sketches made by Danny in his schooldays. In his arts his image of deleterious villain of Bollywood is silent rather; a great and a pious Buddhist soul is visible which could understand the pricks and pains of the meagre and nature. Apart from a gigantic figure of Bollywood and a sketcher, Danny is also a good flute player.