Aditya Sondhi is a senior advocate practising at the High Court of Karnataka, a PhD in political science and a part-time professor of law. He graduated from Bishop Cotton Boys' School, Bangalore, as its school captain in 1993. His first book on his old school, Unfinished Symphony, was published by Penguin in 2003.
Bishop Cotton Boys' School, Bangalore, which completes 150 years in 2015, was founded in the memory of Bishop George Edward Lynch Cotton (a master at Rugby). The school has transitioned from a Victorian school conceived in Tom Brown's School Days to one that has sought to keep the public school relevant in modern India. The book encompasses profiles of the people and the times, right from the 1860s, covering spheres as varied as the armed forces, public service, police, education, academia, law, medicine, the arts and the offbeat.
Peppered with extracts from old letters, oral history and archives, the narrative features an eclectic range of prominent personalities, such as Lieutenant William 'Leefe' Robinson (the first Victoria Cross in an air operation), General K.S. Thimayya, Admiral V.S. Shekhawat, Dr Raja Ramanna, Lord Colin Cowdrey, Leslie Claudius, Lucky Ali, Sam Balsara, Feroz Khan, Nandan Nilekani, and several others. With chapters dedicated to those martyred in the World Wars as well as linking the journey of the school with the city of Bangalore, The Order of the Crest traces the alumni of Bishop Cotton over this period, profiling those old boys who have accomplished eminence or otherwise
remained unsung, but not without touching others' lives.
