Woodstock School Alumni Magazine Vol CIV, 2011

94 - Quadrangle
Wedding photo! Adi Anand and Natasha Anand Class of 95
starting KG & preschool & all are well. Come
visit & stay in touch! 20 yr reunion coming up
in Fall 14 in Mussoorie! —Sarah
Class of 1995
This has been a slow news yr for the Class of
95 with a few important exceptions. PRITICA
SHAH got married in India in Dec. Since then
she’s been commuting between LA & Shanghai,
where she is helping set up a new China office
for her co. She’s enjoying learning Chinese &
the joys of living behind the Great Firewall
of China. HARBIR SINGH also was married
this past yr, in Mar. MARK BRADBY & wife
Vanessa welcomed daughter Vivienne Marie
to the world on Aug 23. Vivienne’s precocious
nature was immediately evident: she was born
on their living room floor. Mark continues to
work as a mech engineer in Minneapolis &
keeps busy taking his son Henry (1.5) on adventures.
GOURI UPPAL GUPTA also was a
recipient of a bundle of joy, in the form of son
Milo, born May 26. Nepal’s answer to Gordon
Ramsay, JONNY MENDIES is expanding his
Red Dingo restaurant into a boutique B&B, in
addition to taking over as Food & Beverage mgr
At Harbir's wedding, L to R: Alpana Singh '97, Jonathan Mendies
'95, Harbir '95, Isaac Hishey '95. Anil Singh '96
at the Hotel Himalaya. He enjoys the challenge
of running a successful business despite the difficulties
caused by the recent political instability.
A few mtns away, KESANG DORJEE is once
more hitting the road, this time running leader
workshops for Bhutanese girls & showing a
documentary on the recent Bhutanese elections.
Meanwhile, down in the plains, MANEESHA
SARIN CHAWLA continues to do important
work running Gharkamai, a portal to help women
work & gain income at home. As usual, TX
continues to provide the most faithful correspondents.
ADITYA ANAND completed 12 yrs at
Hoover’s this past May & is working part time
on the side at a local booking/promotions agency
called Transmission Entertainment. He reports
that wife Natasha is beautiful & awesome & 4
cats & 1 dog keep us busy as well. The only fly
in his ointment is the failure of India’s much
vaunted batting line-up. SAMEER GUPTA &
wife, Mitali, also live in Austin, which serves as
a respite from their jetsetting lifestyle, which this
yr included Lusaka, Hong Kong & Bangkok.
Sameer continues to battle the lions & sharks
of corporate America in his role as the Global
Powertrain Product Mgr of Freescale Semiconductor,
a spinoff from Motorola. Among the
strategic decisions he has
to consider are China’s
rise in the automobile
market & the correspondingly
reduced importance
of US markets. Sameer’s
latest corporate acquisitions
include a little 12lb
stud Maltese called Benji.
Sameer sees MAHJA-
BEEN HASAN often &
new arrival to TX, ABI-
RAL MALLA, as well.
Mahjabeen is in Dallas,
where she has completed
10 yrs as a teacher & is looking forward
to seeing her sister, FARHIN
’06, a recent graduate of TCU, join
her. To escape the TXan heat, she
travelled to Bangkok & Bangladesh.
The word on the grapevine is that New
Yorker, PEMA NORBU, is engaged.
Others in the NY area include West
Coast transplant HIROKO McVEY,
PATRICIA CUMMINGS, perennial
student JONATHAN CLEVELAND
& KIMULI KASARA. Kimuli is
considering branching out from her
job as a Columbia U prof to a sideline
running a bar in Fort Portal, Uganda. I
expect to hold a named chair at that bar.
Fellow academic, PAVEL KAPINOS
continues to plod along the tenure
track at Carleton, while keeping track
of kids, Alina & Ivan & the fortunes
of Arsenal FC. I, SAUMITRA JHA, am back
at Stanford Business School after a yr off from
teaching, spent mainly writing & perambulating
around the World Bank in Washington, DC,
where wife, Jessica, is an economist working on
human developm’t in South Asia. I was happy
to run into KEYA BANERJEE (who continues
to do amazing media design work in Bombay)
last Dec. MIRA LUTGENDORF DEBS &
husband, Alex, are spending the yr at Berkeley/
Stanford on leave from Yale, so it is nice to see
them regularly as well.—Saumitra
Class of 1996
First let me personally thank ZARINE for all
the hard work that she has put in over the last 15
yrs as sect’y. I certainly hope to emulate her as I
take the reins. ZARINE moved to Edinburgh &
loves it there. She particularly enjoys the mo of
Aug when the festival is on! Work is demanding
but the wkends are filled with beautiful Scottish
walks along the coastline. She’s looking
forward to Christmas, snow & using her new
wood burning fire stove. ARCHANA & Tim
took a yr off from running their own tourism
bus in Tasmania & with son Tariku toured
India & Ethiopia via EUR & Kenya. They will
be celebrating 10 yrs of marriage in Feb 12. In
their travels they met RADHIKA in Mumbai as
well as PRANEETA, GAURAV & wife Mudita.
They also met MANAV, JESSICA & AJAY, as
well as DEEPA, ANIL & MATT ABRAHAM
in Mussoorie. KIRSTEN is back at WS, working
as Head of Admissions & got engaged over
the summer to Ed. She visited Bhutan in Nov
& enjoyed meeting some WS alumni there,
including GAMA whom she hadn’t seen in
19 yrs. If anyone’s planning a visit to WS, let
her know! GAMA left her job at the Bhutan
Youth Dev Fund back in 09 & she’s opened a
clothing shop for women & children as well as
taking over her mom’s travel agency. If any WS