Shimla: The more than half a century old Bishop Cotton School (BCS), which boasts of famous alumni like writer Ruskin Bond and golfer Arjun Atwal, has a trendy new room on campus - not for students but for their parents.

Parents of this leading boys boarding school used to remain standing in sun, rain or snow while visiting their wards. But now the construction of a swanky Parents' Room will make it convenient for them to meet their children.

The nearly Rs.250,000 Parents' Room, which can accommodate up to 40 people, was gifted by a 1985 batch of boys to their alma mater.

Punjab-based industrialist Navneet Behl, who first conceptualized the idea of a Parents' Room and got his batchmates together, for the project is elated that the project has come through.

Behl told the sources, "We feel proud to have given this gift to our school. This institution has given so much to us."

The room, designed with a modern look and amenities, was inaugurated last week by actor and old Cottonian (OC) Kumar Gaurav.

"We had seen our parents visiting us and meeting in the open or wherever one could find a place on campus. Even as parents ourselves, we found that a meeting room for parents was a necessity," Aninderjit Singh, an OC of the 1985 batch said.

Golfers Jeev Milkha Singh and Atwal, union minister and former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh and writer Raaja Bhasin are some of the other prominent names of the school.

Established in 1859, the Bishop Cotton School is now ranked second among the boys boarding schools, after the Doon School and fourth among all boarding schools in the country.

"It is a great gesture on the part of the batch of 1985 to have thought of the idea of having a Parents' Room. This will immensely help visiting parents," Headmaster Roy Christopher Robinson told the sources.

Robinson, who has been ranked among the 30 best principals in the country by the magazine 'Education World', allowed the batch of 1985 to convert an old storeroom of the school, located near the main building of the school adjoining the school museum, into the new Parents' Room.

Students of the school too are happy about this room.

"The room is a great idea. Parents can now come and meet their sons comfortably," school captain Uday Vir Punta said.

The opening of the Parents' Room has come at a time when the school's former captain, Bhanu Pratap, has set a record in the institution's 151-year history, scoring 100 out 100 marks in mathematics and an overall percentage of over 96 percent in Class 10 boards. IANS