Events

• August 5, 2011:  The Princeton Club of India held its annual admissions reception at the home of PCI President Ranjan Pal in Gurgaon. By all accounts it was the best one we have had so far – mainly because of the large numbers of young people who were present! The energy and the excitement in the room was amazing as Tiger alum, old and new bonded with the new admits and a host of current students who were in India for the summer working on a variety of projects and internships.

Six of the eight new UG admits showed up including Saumya from Patna and Julu from Cochin – a laudable effort. There were three graduate admits as well in Computer Science, History and Physics and they were advised by Ranjan to hang out with the UGs if they wanted to have a good time at Princeton! Ranjan also remarked on the growing numbers and changing composition of this annual feature of the PCI calendar. Five years ago one could look around the room and only see grey-haired graduate alum, now the undergrads were beginning to show up in force.

There were a record 42 people at the party, of which about half were current students and UG alum. Many of the young tigers were working at NGOs for the summer including places as diverse as the Naz Foundation, Udayan Care and the Pusa Institute of Water Management. Alice Easton ‘09, current ASC India Co-chair and senior research analyst at the Center for Disease, Dynamics, Economics and Policy came in proudly leading her flock of three interns. It is indeed heartening to see so many young Princeton kids coming to work on socially useful causes in India – and what a valuable learning experience it is for them.

Ranjan also took the opportunity to formally present the Penick Award which was awarded to the PCI by the Alumni Schools Committee to Alice who was one of the named recipients (along with her Co-Chair Rahul Mehra ’07 who unfortunately could not make it for the party). Many thanks are also due to the young brigade of Nikhil Seth (currently taking a year out) and Sukrit Silas ’11 for rendering yeoman service in handling all the registrations and follow-up and taking the photos and, last but not least, Ranjan’s wife Saroj for organizing all the great food and drink. The party wound up around 10:30 pm so the young stragglers could catch the last train home from HUDA Central. Thank you also to all the incoming freshmen who wrote back later and said what a great time they had – that makes all the difference – and the PCI wishes them a really fun and fulfilling year ahead at Princeton!

Welcome Reception for new admits, New Delhi

April 16, 2011:  The Princeton Club of India organized a welcome event for the Princeton Bridge students at the beautiful home of fellow alum Donald Lu on Amrita Shergil Marg in New Delhi.

Julia Bentley from the Class of 1981 very kindly hosted a reception for the Princeton new admits at her lovely home in Delhi.
Currently Julia is Counsellor and Head of the Political and Economic Program at the Canadian High Commission and one of our seniormost undergraduate alum in India. She is about to transfer in the same job to the Canadian High Commission in Beijing so this was a really nice way of saying Thank You and Goodbye.

Ranjan Pal, President of the PCI says, “We were delighted that five of the eleven India-based admits were able to make it to the reception along with their parents. They spent a great time interacting with the undergraduate and graduate alum who were present and shared their experiences of the wonderful place that Princeton is. Particularly one should mention Alice Easton ‘09, our hard-working ASC Co-Chair ably supported by Aishwarya Sridhar ‘09, Don Lu ‘88, Neeraj Bhat ‘99 and James Kuczmarski ’08. Both the young students and their parents were very favourably impressed by the bonding and commitment of Tiger alum judging by the comments that we heard. We are looking to close out our admissions efforts with a 100% conversion rate and many thanks to all who came and made the event such a success !”

Princeton Bridge Reception, New Delhi

 

• January 7, 2011:  The Princeton Club of India organized a welcome event for the Princeton Bridge students at the beautiful home of fellow alum Donald Lu on Amrita Shergil Marg in New Delhi. They were accompanied by staff from Where There Be Dragons who are responsible for organizing and running Bridge programs in India and elsewhere. Don moved to India as Deputy Chief of Mission in the US Embassy early last year - he is a dyed-in-the-wool Tiger having graduated with an undergraduate degree from the Woodrow Wilson School in 1988 and then loved it so much that he went back for his MPA graduating in 1991!

The party was a wonderful occasion held in a palatial bungalow (the former home of the US Ambassador in pre-Independence days) and Don and his wife Ariel Ahart were most gracious and charming hosts. The Bridge girls had dressed up for the occasion in gorgeous saris and looked quite stunning. A good sprinkling of Delhi-based alum also showed up and we drank and ate and chatted until well past the official closing time of 9 pm. So much so that one wondered whether the Bridge students may be considering taking yet another year off before submitting to the rigours of Princeton.

 

Princeton Bridge Students Welcome Event

The Bridge Year Program

The Bridge Year Program allows a select number of Princeton students to delay the start of their freshman year in order to engage in nine months of University-sponsored service at one of four international locations. In addition to supporting community-based initiatives at each program site, Bridge Year aims to provide participants with greater international perspective and intercultural skills, an opportunity for personal growth and reflection, and a deeper appreciation of service in both a local and international context.

Program Location: Bridge Year students in India spend nine months of service based primarily in the city of Varanasi, also known locally as Banaras, located on the banks of the Ganges River in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. In a number of ways, Varanasi represents so many of the hopes and needs of India. It is a thriving and dynamic city, extremely rich in cultural, religious and historical significance. At the same time, many of its 1.1 million residents struggle daily with the challenges of discrimination, poverty, insufficient health care, and limited access to education.


Where There Be Dragons

Program Partner: In India, Princeton University is partnering with Where There Be Dragons. Founded in 1993, Dragons is dedicated to inspiring youth leadership and responsible global citizenship though community-based service projects and cultural exchange. Over the last 15 years, Dragons has managed hundreds of unique small-group service learning programs in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Service Opportunities: Dragons has well-established relationships with a number of service institutions operating in Varanasi. These include orphanages, literacy programs, schools for the economically disadvantaged, programs for children with special needs, a program working with the children of prostitutes, leper colonies, the Mother Theresa Center for the Indigent, and organizations with vocational training and micro-finance projects. Bridge Year participants are introduced to a variety of project types in addition to being assigned a primary project. By mid-December, participants are typically fully engaged in their primary project work and have gained greater expertise and responsibility in their defined project area. Around this same time, Bridge Year participants in Varanasi have the opportunity to work with local staff and mentors to develop and execute an independent field project to be completed prior to the program’s conclusion.



• October 25, 2010:  The Princeton Club of India, in association with HarperCollins Publishers and the Astoria Hotel, hosted the launch of Prof. Gyan Prakash’s book Mumbai Fables. Prof. Gyan Prakash is the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University. Rahul Mehra ’07 was the host for the evening at the Astoria.

The event was an enormous success. The room was packed and over a hundred people attended – a first for a PCI event! The crowd included a few Princetonians, but also celebrities from the media, literature and Bollywood world such as Rohan Sippy and Vidhu Vinod Chopra (producer of Munnabhai and 3 Idiots). Driving the crowds was the excellent reception the book had received in the weeks leading up to the formal launch. Mumbai Fables is a culmination of many years of Gyan’s research into the cultural and social history of Mumbai.

The illustrious panel that discussed the book included the eminent film-maker Anurag Kashyap (maker of Dev.D) and Naresh Fernandes, former editor of Time Out Mumbai magazine. Naresh moderated the discussion with Gyan and evoked a sense of history in the location by pointing out that the venue of the event was the former Venice – the jazz and cabaret haunt of the 1960s. To add to the ambience the audience heard some jazz recordings from that era!

Launch of Prof. Gyan Prakash's Mumbai Fables

After the formal book-launch and introduction the crowd mingled over Pinot Grigio and Chianti wines with Gyan, who autographed dozens of books – pen in one hand, glass of red wine in the other! For a day, he gave up his Ivy-League-looking tweed for a Nehru-gala jacket! The Astoria served up an excellent spread of starters such as prawn tempura, smoked salmon and chicken satay.

Gyan was asked an important question about how he came to write a book on Mumbai history, since he grew up in Bihar and currently resides in the ivory tower of Princeton. Gyan replied that his fascination and imagery of Bombay developed while growing up in Bihar when he saw Bombay and Bollywood’s pervasive influence in other parts of the country. And Princeton, with its wonderful resources enabled him to write this work.

We at the PCI are delighted at the reception this event received and the manner in which working with our partners had helped us to reach out to a wider audience and make them aware of Princeton’s place in the intellectual landscape of Mumbai and India at large. We highly recommend Mumbai Fables to be added to your reading list!


• August 17, 2010: It was a bumper day for Tigers in the Mumbai area and beyond, as the Princeton Club of India hosted two of its most successful events yet, back-to-back – a panel discussion featuring eminent Princeton alums Prof. Tarun Khanna and Sumir Chadha and other business leaders at the Bombay Stock Exchange (co-sponsored with the Harvard Business School and the Aspen Institute), followed by an informal dinner party for Princeton alums hosted by Sumir himself.

The panel discussion, titled “Emerging Market Multinationals: Growing Indian Firms in India & Beyond”, featured an eminent cast that included our own alums Professor Tarun Khanna ’88 of Harvard Business School and Sumir Chadha ‘93, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India, as well as Goldman Sachs (India) CEO Brooks Entwistle and S. Ramadorai, Vice Chairman, TCS and Chairman, BSE.

Ranjan Pal *84, Antonia Stroeh ’98, Sejal Shah Gulati ’95 & Shiv Siddhant Kaul *03	Ranjan Pal *84, Rahul Mehra ’07, Antonia Stroeh ’98, Sejal Shah Gulati ’95 & Shiv Siddhant Kaul *03
Shiv Siddhant Kaul *03, Dilip Timblo ’73, Sudeep Doshi ’10, Rusik Mundhe ’06	Shiv Siddhant Kaul *03, Dilip Timblo ’73, Sudeep Doshi ’10, Rusik Mundhe ’06

Hosted at the iconic BSE building (the converted auditorium having previously been the exchange’s trading pit!), the panel kicked off with Tarun’s opening address. Sharing the insights from his latest book, he laid out a new framework for thinking about “winning” in emerging markets, skillfully using examples ranging from India’s home-grown software industry to Brazil’s biofuels market. The address was followed by an open discussion between the panel and audience, where each panelist shared their own experiences in building competitive, world-class businesses in India.

Following the panel, a huddle of Princeton alums and our event partners at the BSE, Aspen, Asia Society, and HBS India Center headed to the Taj Wellington Mews for cocktails and dinner, generously hosted by Sumir. Ranjan Pal *84, President of the PCI, welcomed the attendees, reflecting on the high quality of discussion earlier that evening, excellent turnout, and the PCI’s steady march from strength to strength both in terms of membership and quality of its events.

	PCI Vice-President Rahul Mehra ’07 & PCI President Ranjan Pal *84
Eric Czervionke ’05, Rusik Mundhe ’06	PCI President Ranjan Pal *84 with our host Sumir Chadha ’93

 The dinner was a relaxed and gregarious affair, and a great chance for alums - young and old - to interact with stalwarts such as Tarun and Sumir as well as our event partners. For our Mumbai tigers it was a terrific opportunity to bond as a community as well as meet several alums who had made the trek from cities such as Bangalore, Calcutta, Delhi and Goa to be there that night. Conversation flowed freely through the evening and – rumour has it – through to the wee hours of the morning in the glorious tradition of all Princeton reunions!

• July 22, 2010: The Princeton Club of India organized its annual reception to welcome incoming students on July 22nd.  Hosted by Victoria Whitford MPP ’07 and her journalist husband Jeremy Kahn, a Penn graduate, at her lovely apartment in the British High Commission, the event was a great way for the new recruits to interact with their seniors and an eclectic and diverse alumni group.

Of the eight students admitted from Indian schools to Princeton for undergraduate studies, we got an excellent turn out of all seven Indian students attending.  The lone absentee is actually a Chinese citizen who is back in his home country.  In addition two incoming graduate students, Aman Dhesi ’12 (Masters in computer science) and Rohan Mukherjee (MPA ’09 and incoming PhD student in politics) also came for the party.

 

Sashank Rishyasringa ’06 & Ritu Kamal ’07	Pallavi Govil MPP *04, Rajul Awasthi MPA *97, Manoj Govil MPP *04, PhD *09
Back Row: Rohan Mukherjee MPA *09 (Incoming PhD student in Politics), Aman Dhesi *12 (incoming Masters student in Computer Science), Dhruv Shah ’14, Farhan Abrol ’14. Front Row: Sarthak Gupta ’14, Sukriti Chadha ’14, Prerna Ramachandra ’14, Asawari Sodhi ’15 & Radha Sarkar ’14.	Back Row: Shiv Siddhant Kaul *03, Rohan Mukherjee MPA *09 (Incoming PhD student in Politics), Aman Dhesi *12 (incoming Masters student in Computer Science), Dhruv Shah ’14, Farhan Abrol ’14, Ranjan Pal *84. Front Row: Rahul Mehra ’07, Sarthak Gupta ’14, Sukriti Chadha ’14, Prerna Ramachandra ’14, Asawari Sodhi ’15, Radha Sarkar ’14, Alice Easton ’09, Victoria Whitford *07.

Ranjan Pal *84, President of the PCI welcomed the new students – observing that for yet another year, the intake was dominated by students from just one school – DPS R.K. Puram – he wondered aloud if the school had totally cracked the Princeton code ! This was followed by a round of introductions for the new students who were also asked to mention the one fun thing they would do while on campus.  Rahul Mehra ’07, Co-Chair of Princeton Alumni Schools Committee, who along with Alice Easton ’09 did an outstanding job in making sure that every single applicant from India was interviewed, pointed out that this year India had an unprecedentedly large candidate pool of 318 students.  When averaged out, the acceptance rate for Indian students was one out of 35 – even lower than the IITs! Truly Princeton can be said to attract the best and the brightest.

ASC Co-Chairs for 2010 – Alice Easton ’09 & Rahul Mehra ’07	Our generous hosts for the evening – Victoria Whitford MPP ’07 and her husband Jeremy Kahn.
PCI Officers – Ranjan Pal *84 (President), Alice Easton ’09 (ASC Co-Chair), Rahul Mehra (ASC Co-Chair and VP of PCI) & Shiv Siddhant Kaul *03 (Treasurer)	Ranjan Pal *84, Alice Easton ’09, Rahul Mehra ’07, Victoria Whitford *07 & Shiv Siddhant Kaul *03

The turnout of about 40 people was really excellent for a weekday night and Ranjan, who has been organising these receptions since 2006, thinks it was the best ever party ! We had a great mix of undergraduate and graduate alumni from various class years and degrees represented and the spirit, energy and passion of all present for Princeton was quite palpable. Even Victoria’s husband Jeremy, a Penn graduate, threw himself into the spirit of the party, casting aside all thoughts of Quaker-Tiger rivalry. Thank you Victoria and Jeremy for an outstanding evening! 

• April 23, 2010: Princeton Club of India presented its annual book event “An Evening with Gurcharan Das” in association with the Wharton Club of Delhi. The event took place on the evening of April 23 at the IILM campus in Delhi – once again we were generously hosted by Penn alum Anand Rai whose family are the founders of the IILM institute. This event, which was our second collaboration with Wharton, built on our previous success with Nandan Nilekani and his book Imagining India .

Over 40 alum from Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Chicago, INSEAD and other top international schools turned out to hear Gurcharan, one of India’s most celebrated public intellectuals and the author of The Difficulty of Being Good: The Subtle Art of Dharma, discuss his new book. Gurcharan made an entertaining and absorbing presentation on the Mahabharata and what lessons it contains for us in contemporary Indian life. A number of good questions followed from the audience - the evening ended with Mr. Das signing copies of his book and engaging informally with all of us over a delicious vegetarian dinner also sponsored by Anand Rai.

An evening with Gurcharan Das at IILM, New Delhi

We were thrilled to see that in terms of the feedback that we received on the event, an amazing 96% of all respondents rated it as a 4 or more (on a 1 to 5 scale) in terms of meeting their expectations – that is a fantastic achievement for a voluntary event of this nature.  PCI President Ranjan Pal expressed a grateful thanks to Alice Easton ’09 and Princeton-in-Asia fellow Sareeta Shah who worked so hard to make it a success. Almost everybody who came responded with a 4 or more to a question asking whether they were interested in participating in future alumni events so that is considerable encouragement for us.
More photos from the event can be found here.

• March 18-20, 2010:  20th Asian Corporate Conference



The Princeton Club of India was invited by the Asia Society, a leading global and pan-Asian organisation to be an Outreach and Delegation Partner for their 20th Annual Corporate Conference which took place in New Delhi. The Corporate Conference is the Asia Society's premier annual forum which rotates through different Asian Cities every year.  The panels and lectures featured an impressive list of speakers from the Indian political, corporate and financial communities. 

 

Some of the notable speakers and panelists at the conference were: Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of India; L. Brooks Entwistle, CEO of Goldman Sachs India; Vishakha Desai, President of The Asia Society; Harold McGraw III, President and CEO, The McGraw-Hill Companies; Kamal Nath, Minister for Road Transport and Highways; Sheila Dixit, Chief Minister of Delhi; and Timothy Roemer, US Ambassador to India.

PCI sent a delegation of seven alumni who participated in the three day long conference at the Taj Palace Hotel.  As a major feather in our cap Princeton was the only educational institution  that was a partner with the Asia Society for the conference which was attended by over 600 delegates. Our delegation was well represented across graduating years and cities of origin with alumni joining us from Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Mumbai and even Pondicherry.  The seven-person delegation comprised: Eric Czervionke '05,  Sejal Shah Gulati '95, Dilip Kapur '70, PCI's newly appointed Treasurer Shiv Siddhant Kaul *03, Alice Easton '09 and Rahul Mehra '07, Princeton Alumni Schools Committee (ASC) Co-chairs and PCI President Ranjan Pal *84.

The conference provided a great opportunity for the Tigers in India to reunite and meet each other in person.  Alice and Rahul were especially grateful for being able to put faces to the names of the alumni they had been hounding for the previous two months for the ASC interviews for undergraduate applicants, and to thank them alumni in person  Some alum were a little wary that Rahul might ask them to interview at least three more candidates each on the phone between panels but they were relieved to hear  that the deadlines for interviews had already passed two weeks earlier!

Led by the fearless and aptly-named Shiv, the PCI delegation peppered the panel with interesting and provocative questions – some of which found no answer . For Ranjan literally the high point was the presence of mountaineering legend (five times to the top of Everest !)  David Breashears who presented a frighteningly graphic slide show of the Himalayan glaciers in retreat as part of a  panel on climate change. Later he met with David separately to discuss the possibility of his addressing a PCI audience on his next visit to India.

It was not all lectures and panels though - we did have two gala dinners to indulge in.  The first  was at the Taj Palace itself while the second on the following night was hosted by the Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dixit, at her residence.  Mrs Dixit was an extremely gracious host and was seen greeting and shaking hands with every attendee and posing for photographs with the PCI delegation.

Between sessions and lectures there was ample opportunity to network, connect and meet other conference delegates.  The desi gang took the young goras Alice and Eric for a true Indian culinary adventure to the award-winning Bukhara restaurant in the neighbouring Maurya Sheraton Hotel where we were seated at Bill Clinton's favourite table- so what if he went to that other school in New Haven!.  Alice, the sole vegetarian among us had to manfully endure the seriously non-vegetarian nature of the cuisine, whereas Rahul and Eric overindulged and had to battle the food-coma that followed the meal.

And finally, the true show-stoppers were the stylish Princeton 2010 Year of the Tiger buttons which we all sported proudly on our dress lapels. They attracted so much interest and curiosity – many even thought we were part of Aircel’s Save The Tiger campaign – that we ended up giving away a considerable number !

The PCI believes that this conference is a major stepping stone towards strengthening our relationship with the Asia Society for future events and activities with the Indian Tigers.  It was wonderful to have this opportunity for all of us to meet up in Delhi and we will continue to work towards future events which give Princetonians the opportunity to meet each other more often in an intellectually stimulating environment. 

Asian Corporate Conference at New Delhi

• November 6, 2009: Deputy Director of Princeton in Asia (PiA) Leslie Medema (MPA '04), who is based in Singapore, was hosted for dinner by Sumir Chadha '93 in Bombay. Although PiA has numerous programs and fellowships in various Asian countries, there have been no fellowships in India since the 1970s.

PiA reopened its India programs in 2007 after a thirty year hiatus thanks to the vision of Ritu Kamal '07 and Sanhita Sen '07 and the support of our dedicated alumni, including Sumir. Thus far thirteen fellows have spent a year or more serving in India. For over a hundred years PiA has aimed to give recent college graduates an opportunity to serve in and learn from communities all over Asia with the belief that cross cultural bridge building through engagement improves lives and relationships across communities. The PiA fellowships have been expanded to include graduates of other universities so access to them are no longer confined to Princeton alumni, although the programs are administered and sponsored through Princeton.

Sumir, who has a long association with PiA, has recently moved to Bombay from California and the dinner was an opportunity to connect with the PiA fellows in India and the other members of the Princeton community in Bombay. There was a good turnout as four PiA fellows in India from Gujarat and Delhi showed up at the Taj Wellington Mews in Colaba where they caught up for snacks, drinks and dinner with other PU alum.

The PiA fellows in India who were present are:

• Cat Biddle, a graduate of Brown University '06 who worked at the Kadod High School near Surat in Gujarat last year and is staying for a second year to manage the new teachers that PiA sends;
• Kathryn Sheriff, a graduate of Carleton College '09, who is currently a PiA teacher in Kadod High School;
• Sareeta Shah, Rutgers '09, a PiA fellow with the Naz orphanage in Delhi; and 
• Sophie Van Horne, a recent high school graduate that PiA has developed a "Bridge Year" in India for. Thus far she has worked in Kadod High School and the Naz orphanage in New Delhi. She is now studying Hindi at the Landour Language school and will tutor music next semester at Kodaikanal International School, which former Princeton President (1957 to 1972) and US Ambassador to India (1977 to 1980), Robert F. Goheen '40, '47, '48, attended in the 1930s.
  

Sareeta Shah presented Sumir with a series of art works made by the young artists at the Naz orphanage as a gift especially for him.

Over drinks the group was entertained by the stories of the original Amul-Butter Man, Sylvester DaCunha '65, who attended the Woodrow Wilson school over four decades ago. Upon his return from Princeton Sylvester created the pioneering ad-campaign of the 'utterly-butterly' Amul Girl who is still found on billboards around the country in her red-polka-dot dress.

Among the more recent alumni Peter DeYoung '00, Akanksha Hazari '05, Rusik Mundhe '06 and Rahul Mehra '07 were in attendance.

PiA Dinner at Bombay

Rusik Mundhe '06 engaged in conversation with Leslie Medema '04, the Director of Princeton in Asia	Leslie Medema '04 and Peter DeYoung '00, with wife Nandini Piramal
Sylvester DaCunha '65 and Rahul Mehra '07	Princeton in Asia Fellows in India: Sareeta Shah, Cat Biddle and Sophie Van Horne
Rusik Mundhe '06 and Rahul Mehra '07	Princeton in Asia Fellows in India: Cat Biddle, Kathryn Sheriff and Sophie Van Horne

• November 14, 2009: Princeton University hosted its official celebration of the Hindu festival of Diwali at the University Chapel. The Diwali celebration was organized by the University’s Office of Religious Life (ORL) and spearheaded by the University’s recently created Hindu Life Program. The program was launched last year as a pilot. This fall, Princeton made the program a permanent part of the ORL and hired Vineet Chander to be a full-time Coordinator for Hindu Life. The unique appointment makes Chander the first Hindu chaplain in the more than two hundred year history of the prestigious University.

This year’s celebration built on last year’s observance, which was the first of its kind at Princeton, and featured devotional music, sacred readings, classical Indian dance, and a traditional Hindu worship service. The celebration this time also allowed Princeton’s Hindu students and faculty members to share their talents as a devotional offering. The event included performances by Swaranjali, a student group dedicated to Indian classical music, and Kalaa, the University’s classical Indian dance company. Professor Manjul Bhargava (Mathematics) played the tabla (an Indian drum) and Professor Mekhala Natavar (Anthropology) performed a dance in Kathak style.

The worship service included a mix of students, faculty, and staff; residents of Princeton; and members of the broader Hindu community in Central New Jersey.

Diwali at the Chapel 2009

• August 7, 2009: PCI organized a successful "Delhi Reception 2009" for incoming Princeton students. The event took was held at the home of Dr. Prabhu Ghate, a distinguished alumnus who has both an MPA (1976) and a Ph.D (1983) from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

	PCI President Ranjan Pal expressed that it was very gratifying to see so many new and young faces. For the first time in the history of a Princeton gathering in India, it was dominated by undergrads - both current and young alum. About 20 people showed up including all six of the new UG admits from Delhi, one of whom, Mohit Manohar, traveled all the way from Patna to make it! Most impressive was the fact that DPS had made a clean sweep of admissions from North India this year, the only exception being Akarshan Kumar from Modern School. The grad turnout was dominated (as usual) by WWS alum including the lone grad admit to attend Karan Malik.
	Despite the oppressive humidity on Prabhu’s lovely terrace (which soon drove everybody downstairs to the air-conditioned comfort of his living room), everybody had a great time, and much spirited interaction could be seen among the enthusiastic young freshmen and their more laid-back seniors. Prabhu gave a short but heartfelt speech about the need for young people privileged enough to attend Princeton to remember always to give back to India. This, of course, was based on his own considerable years of public service both inside and outside the government and was attentively heard by his young audience. The evening wound up around 10 pm.

All photos from the event can be found here.

• August 1, 2009: Alumni from Bombay were hosted by Namita Devidayal '91 in her house on Saturday, August 1 to meet and welcome the two incoming students who will be joining the Princeton community this year. The two admits from Bombay, Shloka Mehta '13 and Anjali Mehrotra '13 are both recent graduates of the Dhirubhai Ambani International School located in the Bandra-Kurla complex of Bombay. Joining Namita were recent graduates Saahill Desai '06 and Rahul Mehra '07, who also helped in organizing the event. Bhupendra Oza '69 was present as was current student from Pune, Sreedev Basu '12. Professor of History at Princeton, Gyan Prakash, who has incidentally been in Bombay for a year on sabbatical from teaching, was present to talk to the new admits. Prof. Prakash recently completed working on a book on Bombay history and talked to the students and alumni about his work and about Princeton. The new admits were pleased at interacting with others associated with Princeton and are looking forward to starting their academic careers there. It was a nice opportunity for the small alumni body in Bombay to come together. Congratulations once again to Shloka and Anjali on getting into Princeton and good luck for their futures there!

Mumbai Reception 2009

Prof. Gyan Prakash of the History Dept. and Namita Devidayal '91	Incoming students Anjali Mehrotra '13 and Shloka Mehta '13
Recent alumnus Saahill Desai '06 and Prof. Gyan Prakash	Saahill Desai '06 and rising sophomore Sreedev Basu '12

• April 16, 2009: PCI presented "An Evening with Nandan Nilekani" in association with the Penn Club of India. The event took place on the evening of April 16 at the IILM campus in Delhi.
PCI was generously hosted by a Penn alum Anand Rai whose family are the founders of the IILM institute.

	The event saw almost 70 alum from Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Chicago, Yale and other top US schools turn up to hear Nandan Nilekani, currently Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Infosys and the author of "Imagining India: Ideas for a New Century" talk about his new book. More can be found on Nandan and his book here
	There was a panel discussion with Mr Nilekani, Dr. Surjit Bhalla '72 '77 (a widely-known commentator on public affairs and economics and current CEO of Oxus Investments) and PCI President Ranjan Pal. Mr. Nilekani also signed copies of his book. The event ended with dinner discussions between Mr Nilekani and the members of PCI and Penn Club of India.

PCI President Ranjan Pal said "I’m delighted to say that this has been a first in terms of inter-Club collaboration in India and a big success !" The feedback from the event was strongly positive with over two-thirds of respondents rating it very highly in terms of meeting their expectations. Almost everyone who came also expressed keen interest in participating in future alumni events.
Thanks to our Treasurer Rishi Jaitly ’04 and our young Princeton-in-Asia fellows Jevon Harding ’07 and Nienke Boer ’08 for working so hard for organizing this event.
All photos from the event can be found here

• September 2, 2008: PCI hosted Karen McGuinness (MPA '85), Assistant Deam for Graduate Education at the Woodrow Wilson School, at the India Habitat Center. The event was attended by ~30 alums and friends, as well as potential WWS applicants. Karen is also a thesis advisor for WWS undergraduates. Thanks to Ranjan and Shiv Dutt (C '11) for arranging this event at short notice.

• December 6, 2007: PCI, together with sponsor Bahri Infrastructure Ltd., hosted an evening to discuss "The Dilemma of India's Growth: Can Micro-Finance lift Bharat?". Dr. Prabhu Ghate (WWS Ph.D '83) and Rajul Awasthi (MPA '97), currently serving as special assistant to Finance Minister Chidambaram, served as panelists, which was moderated by PCI President Ranjan Pal. The interactive session, followed by cocktails and dinner, was held at the India Habitat Center in Delhi.

• August 12, 2007:

The Delhi send-off for the Class of 2011 and GS admittees was held at the home of Sarla Sachdev '92, the incoming ASC India Chair. Dhanyawad, gracias, domo arigato gozaimasu to Sarla and spouse Hemant for hosting the event. Go to the Media section for more photos from both events.

• July 14, 2007:

A reception for the incoming Class of 2011 and GS students was held in Bombay, and hosted by Michael Owen (WWS MPA '75), the US Consul General, at his residence. Approximately 30 people attended the event [An interloper, Rasesh Mohan, Yale C'11, was unmasked during the event. Bulldogs, fret not, the creature was captured and released unharmed into the wild]. Many thanks to Michael and his wife Annerieke for being such gracious hosts, and to their son Brendan (C '09) for taking the pictures (and for finding a camera with which to do so!). Thanks also to Madhur Kotharay *90 and Namita Devidayal '91 for coordinating the event. Michael was US Consul General for Western India from 2005 to 2008, and has been with the US State Department since 1987.

• January 5th, 2007:

Princeton Club of India presents a lecture by Princeton History Prof. Gyan Prakash, Director of the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies, on the study of India at Princeton against the backdrop of the history of South Asian studies in the United States. Event Summary: Professor Prakash addressed PCI at the India International Center in New Delhi. South Asian studies remains in its infancy at Princeton, particularly compared to the well-established field of East Asian studies, and Gyan talked about the efforts of him and others to change that. He noted the university's approval of a South Asian Studies program, which will allow students to earn a certificate in the field. Princeton also has hired a Hindi instructor, who teaches Urdu as well. And Gyan, who has been the lone South Asian specialist in his department since he joined in 1988, will soon have a colleague to keep him company (a 100 percent increase, noted PCI Secretary Ranjan Pal, who moderated the event). The Q&A period saw a spirited debate on the Nehruvian legacy in India, with Gyan arguing that India's economic growth today would not have been possible without the IITs. Some in the audience begged to differ. The gathering also heard from Sanhita Sen '07, who talked about Princeton-in-India (PI), an exciting initiative she is helping to launch, to be modeled on the 100-year old Princeton-in-Asia program. PI will place Princeton graduates at NGOs and companies in India for one year. Click here for a profile of Prof. Prakash, including his current research interests.

• December 7th, 2006: For Woodrow Wilson alumni in New Delhi - a unique videoconference, to be held live simultaneously in Delhi, Shanghai, and Princeton, "Movement of Global Talent: The Impact of High Skill Labor Flows from India and China". Sponsored by: The Policy Research Institute for the Region (PRIOR) at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School; The World Bank; The Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program; The Center for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania; The Global Development Learning Network (GDLN). To better understand the growing role of internationally mobile human capital on local and global politics and economies, this symposium will bring leading scholars, policymakers and business leaders from around the world to examine the circulation of high-skilled ("knowledge") workers from India and China to and from the New Jersey-Pennsylvania-New York region, and its impact on the source countries and the receiving region. The symposium will be held at Princeton University and composed of two sessions (the first of which will be the trans-continental videoconference). SESSION 1 (6:30 to 10 am, EST on Thursday, December 7) will examine how the flow of knowledge workers affects India and China, primary source countries for the migration. The focus will be on the impact of the Indian and Chinese Diaspora and returnees on the economies of India and China. The research presentations will be at Princeton and the discussion about them will be held live, via videoconference, with leading figures in the field in both New Delhi, India and Shanghai, China. India Details for the videoconference: New Delhi Time: 5:30 - 8:30 p.m. Location: The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) - Darbari Seth Block, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road New Delhi Contact: Col Vinod Bhargava Tel: 9811009263 or 2468 2100 (Extn 2403), E-mail: bhargava@teri.res.in . For more information on both sessions of the event and a list of confirmed speakers, visit http://region.princeton.edu/conference_40.html.

• December 1st, 2006: The Centre for Philosophy and Foundations of Science in Delhi is organizing a public lecture by Prof. Arnold Levine (from the Simons Center for Systems Biology, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) on December 1st. Arnie Levine taught at Princeton University from 1968 to 1979 in the Biochemistry department,and founded the Molecular Biology department at Princeton where he was from 1984 to 1998. In Delhi, he will speak on the topic "Reading the Book of Life for Clues to the Origins of Cancer". The lecture is scheduled to begin at 6.30 p.m. at Somany Hall, Assocham House, 47, Prithviraj Road (opposite Safdarjung Tomb) and will be preceded by a high tea at 5:30 pm. All members of the PCI are cordially invited to attend the tea and the lecture and show their support for Professor Levine.

• August 7th, 2006: Princeton Club of India Inaugral Reception – New Delhi. The inaugural reception of the recently established PCI was held at the Delhi Gymkhana and was attended by ~25 Princetonians and friends, including both Class of 2010 admittees (Aman Kumar and Arjun Arora). A lively time was had by all (next time, we promise the open bar will stay open longer). Kudos to Shyamal, Ranjan, and Rajul for organizing the event at short notice. View photos of the event!

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