By Feroze Dhanoa(VGD ‘10) 

OS East Coast Chapter Gets New Leadership, Direction At Colorful Manhattan Reunion 

About 100 people, 71 of whom were Old Sanawarians of all ages, came together to start something new and reminisce about the old school days. 

Just under two weeks before Sanawar celebrated its 171st Founder’s Day, Old Sanawarians from across the east coast gathered in midtown Manhattan for a reunion that saw the solidifying of the region’s official chapter. 

The mood was energetic as over 100 people — Old Sanawarians and their family members — gathered at the Delhi Art Gallery located inside Manhattan’s Fuller Building. The OS represented all generations of the school’s history but were united by a desire to bond with their fellow school alumni, give back to the best school of all and share in the good old memories that even tapped into taste buds. 

Food for the event was catered by Navjot Arora (HBD ‘86), who owns three restaurants in the tri-state area (two in Westchester County and one in New York City). Part of the food spread at the event was bun-sums, a Sanawar classic. 

“The one thing that they really wanted to have was the bun samosas and the bun tikkis,” Arora said. 

New Chapter Head Chosen 

Among the high energy and nostalgic food, people connected with their batchmates, even with those older and younger than them and appreciated the good that can come out of the formation of this new chapter. 

Anupma Sethi (HGD ‘59) said the revival of the east coast unit was “absolutely great” and “wonderful.” 

Vasant Dhar (NBD ‘72), who teaches at New York University, said there isn’t really much of an OS scene in the tri-state area but he was pleased to see the turnout at the Manhattan event. 

“I can see that the new OS society leadership is trying to create a community,” Dhar said, adding that it was a good thing. The senior most Old Sanawarian in attendance, Gurdev S. Purewal (NBD ‘55), who has lived in the Pittsburgh-area for 43 years and works as an orthopedic surgeon, said it was his first time attending a OS get-together in the area. 

“I met some of my friends over here and some of the children of my friends and that was really nice to talk to them,” Purewal said.

 Purewal said the older O.S. settled in the region could help the younger generation find their feet. He also said he spoke to the headmaster, Mr. Vinay Pande, about forming an endowment fund for the school. 

At the event, it was announced that KumKum Bhasin (HGD 67) would be the new head of the OS east coast chapter. Bhasin will be working closely with Sunil Verma (HBD ‘80) and Bhanu Virmani (VBD ‘82) to organize the chapter. 

In a prepared speech accepting the nomination, Bhasin said she had three requests: that a specific day be chosen to have a yearly reunion on the east coast, that people respond to emails that will be sent out on mentoring and collaboration efforts and that the attendees continue to reminisce about school days. “We are all Alums but we are also strangers- however dynamic information that encourages mentoring and collaborating will make us a live community with an understanding of loyalty to each other and respect for each other’s time,” Bhasin wrote in her speech. “We will mentor juniors, children, family members of OS.” 

Headmaster’s Speech 

Pande, who attended the Manhattan event after engagements in Montreal and Toronto, gave a speech that left attendees hopeful about the direction the school was taking. Pande said he is a firm believer of traditions but also acknowledged that things need to change and academic results cannot just be ignored. 

“Those things which identify Sanawar, which one feels is necessary for a person to inculcate good values, I think they’ll never change,” Pande said. The headmaster cited some of the changes he has brought about at the school; moving the 15th of August celebration from Birdwood to Peacestead, moving the girls’ squad at the Founder’s Day NCC parade from the fourth to the second position among the four squads (part of his push to bring girls and boys at par across all fields) and introducing an annual Holi celebration.

 “I am a risk-taker but a calculated risk-taker,” Pande said of his decision to the move the Independence Day celebration to Peacestead. 

Pande also said he had secured the school board’s approval to bring the girl-boy ratio at the school to 50-50. As it currently stands, the ratio is 65-35 in favor of boys, he said. To accommodate the larger number of girls, Pande said a new girls dormitory has to be built and the school will need funding to realize the project. 

Pande said he had been under the impression that old Sanawarians don’t want to give back to the school but he said he now knows that isn’t the case. Rather, it’s that there had been a disconnect between the school and the OS community. 

But he said that it wasn’t just monetary donations the school was looking for but help in any form that OS could offer. 

“I am just asking all of you to be with the school in whichever way you think you can help,” he said.