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May 6, 2007 Sanjeev Handa AES class of 1979 shanda1@optonline.net
I have been thinking a lot about the old school lately especially since I have just returned from a visit there with my wife, Beth and my two daughters, Jane (8) and Isabel (6). It was their first visit to India and the trip was spectacular. I was really proud of my two girls as they were great travelers enjoying whatever adventure was presented to them. The girls really enjoyed the Pink Palace in Jaipur (more the elephant ride than anything else) as well as seeing the Taj and going around Delhi and enjoying all of the sights and smells of India. One of the highlights of the trip, of course, was the morning spent in Chanakyapuri at the old school. The school is almost unrecognizable from the old days; all of the high school teachers from my era are no longer at the school. The only remaining connections are with Harish of the SU [Student Union](he says he is retiring in 4 years) and Alka Bajaj at the office. My wife and I spent a lot of time talking to Alka asking "whatever happened to…." A funny moment occurred when I asked her "whatever happened to Suresh, you know the guy who always walked around with a camera?" As my wife shook her head in disbelief at my feeble description, who walks in but Suresh, carrying a camera of course!
Alka mentioned that the high school was going to be torn down this summer which was very surprising and, of course, very sad. I walked my daughters and my wife around campus, inside the high school, down the steps, into the gym which is now a theater, then over to the SU which is now an elementary school cafeteria. I told my wife stories that she had already heard but now could picture, sort of, what happened. At first, I was kind of sad about what was happening with the school; it had changed so much, the people that I had known were gone and the high school itself was going. But unlike the last time I visited, as I left, I felt good. Maybe it was because I was able to share such a special place with the three people I love most. Or maybe it was because despite all of the changes, it remains the place where I spent two wonderful years of my life. Change is good. It is what keeps us fresh and alive. Hopefully, the changes at the school will keep it alive so that when I return, I can revisit all of these wonderful memories once more.
For the record, I graduated from the school in 1979. After graduation, I moved back to New York City and have never left except for graduate studies in Ann Arbor, MI. After a brief stint as an engineer, I moved into financial analysis and have been working at TIAA-CREF, the large investment company for some time. We moved to Westport, Conn. (we are New Yorkers who live in Connecticut) a few years ago and in my spare time, I enjoy golf and playing with my daughters. Thank you for maintaining the website. It is a wonderful connection to a wonderful time. My email addresses are shanda1@optonline.net and shanda@tiaa-cref.org. I would love to hear from people from the old days, so please drop a line. I have included pictures of me with Alka and Harish as well as a picture of me in front of the high school. Sanjeev May 9, 2007 - More from Sanjeev [How did I get to India?] Very long story. Short version is that my dad moved to the United States when I was one year old. At some point during the 1970s, he got it in his head that he wanted to go "home". So in 1977, we packed up, Chevy and all, and moved to Delhi. Of course, when we lived there, he realized that home was really in NYC, so in 1979, we packed up everything, except the Chevy, and moved back to NYC. The strange part of the whole experience was that in U.S., I always felt a little "foreign" given my name but in India, everyone thought I was American. Very interesting part of my life. When I first attended the school, Indians were no longer allowed to attend the school. The Indian teachers, especially Mr. Gupta the math teacher, treated me very specially as I was the only Indian, albeit Indian-American, in the high school. It was very nice. My father passed away in 2000. That year I went to India (and visited the school) to scatter my father's ashes in the Ganges. Later, my mother said that my dad always felt that he never had the chance to introduce my wife and, at that time, my older daughter to his relatives in India. She wanted Beth and, now, both kids to meet her family there as well. So this was the big trip where the Handa family in India got to meet the American side of the family. It was a wonderful trip. My children met my father's brother who is a spitting image of their grandfather, who they don't remember. My mother got to be the proud mother and mother in law who introduced her American daughter in law to the clan. It was a very emotional visit. That's my story, at least the AES part.
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