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« May 2006 | Blog Home | July 2006 » June 15, 2006May 2006 Rose Bowl
Ajay Panjwani (282-TA '85) blessed with daughterAjay Panjwani (282-TA '85) and his wife Resham were blessed with a second daughter on May 30th, 2006. The baby has been named Somaya. Ajay can be reached at panjwani5281@yahoo.com. Gaurav Jayal (487-TA '94) marries Pooja NautiyalGaurav Jayal married Pooja Nautiyal on April 15th, 2006. He is currently working at Induslogic India, as a quality analyst and is based in Delhi. He can be reached at gaurav_jayal@yahoo.com. Saadi Chowdhury (426-KA '00) helps with Dosco Glossary!Cultures are defined by their languages so it is important that we don't lose ours! Saadi Chowdhury (426-KA '00) has volunteered to compile a "dosco glossary" which would include dosco slang that we used while in school. This glossary will be a public reference for all doscos. If you have suggestions for the glossary please email Saadi at saadichowdhury@yahoo.co.uk You can also add words to the comments section of this post though please refrain from using foul language. Gaurav Kishore Bahri (258-OB '98) at American ExpressGaurav Kishore Bahri (258-OB '98) has been working with American Express for the past four years. He is currently working at their Gurgaon office as Manager - Analytics for Asia Servicing. He can be reached at gaurav.k.bahri@gmail.com Ayush Gupta (613-HA '01) at Melbourne UniversityAyush Gupta is pursuing an advanced diploma in hospitality from Melbourne University. He is keen to get in touch with doscos in the area and can be reached at ayush11613@hotmail.com Kanishk Jaiswal (447-HA '00) graduates from Temple UniversityKanishk Jaiswal (447-HA '00) has graduated Temple University and is currently unemployed in New York, looking for a career in the modelling industry. Anyone with valuable leads should please contact him at kanishk.jaiswal@gmail.com June 11, 2006ISC & ICSE Results - Doscos Excel
Doon Online Notice Regarding Email CorrespondenceIf you have sent us an email about a news item or to request a Dosco Finder password over the last two weeks and have not heard from us, please email us again. Our mail was migrated this weekend and as a result, some emails were lost. June 10, 2006The Andover of India? WSJ Asian & European Edition version
A couple of doscos sent us the Doon alumni article from the Asian and European editions of the Wall Street Journals'. This article has a few more details than the US edition which was published earlier on Doon Online. Most interesting is the quote below, "Three to four years ago, between 30% and 35% of Doon graduates went overseas for college, according to Dr. Bajpai, with most going to the U.S. and the U.K. Last year, the number rose to 50%; this year he predicts it will hit 70%." With so many doscos leaving the country, does that mean Doon is becoming an "export" school? DEHRA DUN, India -- At the Doon School, near the foothills of the Himalayas, life is spartan. The 500 boys enrolled here bathe together in communal showers. In winter, they pore over textbooks in rooms with no heat. Cellphones are forbidden and parental visits are kept to a minimum. For 71 years, Doon has supplied India with business leaders and well-known writers such as Vikram Seth. Even Rajiv Gandhi, the late prime minister, suffered the school's famously bad food. Now Doon is taking its uniformed students in a new direction: up the U.S. corporate ladder. The head of Citigroup Inc.'s North American credit-card business is a Doon alumnus. So too is a Merrill Lynch & Co. senior currency executive. From Raytheon Co. to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Doon is supplying a new old boys' network in an increasingly international business world. Many of the Doon alumni say they are still driven by the school's humbling culture. Vikram Malhotra, head of McKinsey & Co.'s New York office, recalls the pain of failing to earn one of the school's coveted blazers, awarded for excellence. "Imagine 500 boys, homogenous in what they wear, and the only way you could stand out is if you wore a blue blazer if you were good in sports and a black blazer if you were good in academics," says Mr. Malhotra, 46 years old. "I fell a point short on each one and to this day it rankles me." Even as Doon graduates penetrate the upper ranks of corporate America, the school draws criticism that it is out of step with the times. The headmaster is pushing for reforms -- such as heating the study rooms -- but he faces some opposition from alumni. And proposed national legislation may mandate that private schools set aside a quarter of their places for underprivileged students -- including the country's "Dalit" or "untouchable" caste, which has largely been absent at high-tuition Doon. "There is a debate now whether Doon's elitism is required and whether it works in a changed world," says alumnus Bhaskar Menon, the former chief executive of EMI Music Worldwide. Founded in 1935, Doon once drew the sons of prominent Indian industrialists and politicians. Today scholarships, partly covering the annual tuition of about $4,000, assist one in four students. About half of the students' parents own small businesses. To be admitted, boys must pass a tough entrance exam. Each morning except Sunday, boys rise at 6:15 and down a small snack to fuel them for 20 minutes of military-style exercises. Two classes precede breakfast, with another five crammed in before lunch. Academics are leavened with music, poetry and drama. Every April, the boys vie in a calisthenics contest in which judges award points for clean, pressed clothes as well as team coordination. On a recent Saturday morning, in a room lit by fluorescent lights, more than a dozen 17-year-olds sat at old wooden tables as fans whirred overhead. The work at hand: CPA-level accounting problems. "Is depreciation on a delivery van part of selling overhead?" asked one student. (Answer: yes.) To help blur class lines, boys perform menial tasks such as pruning plants or window-cleaning -- unthinkable chores for those of high social standing. The school's de-emphasis of wealth explains why many material goods, including fancy cars and designer clothes, are not allowed on campus. Unless parceled out by the school, money, or "home dough," as boys call it, is also forbidden. Those found with unauthorized cash are stripped of their precious few privileges, such as Sunday forays into town. 'Article of Faith' On occasion, the lessons are more physical, and not sanctioned by the school. Among them: "putting" -- beating boys' rear ends with field hockey sticks or cricket bats -- often for poor performance in sports. Although such bullying was once fairly common, Dr. Bajpai says that it is "the exception rather than the rule today." The rigor endears Doon to some parents. Many of the world's top private schools are "too privileged," says Indian-born Vinit Khanna, a Doon alumnus who runs an outsourcing business in Bala Cynwyd, Pa. In January, he pulled his son Vihan out of a local school and sent him to study at Doon. Three to four years ago, between 30% and 35% of Doon graduates went overseas for college, according to Dr. Bajpai, with most going to the U.S. and the U.K. Last year, the number rose to 50%; this year he predicts it will hit 70%. The rise of Doon alums underscores a broader phenomenon dating back about two decades: the success of first-generation Indians in America. That was largely due to India's strong education system, as well as wider availability of U.S. visas and college scholarships.
"The average Indian in the U.S. is 30,000 times more likely to have an advanced degree than the average Indian in India," says Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco, a professor and co-director of immigration studies at New York University. "So we are really skimming the cream of the crop." When Doon graduate Deepak Thakran looked for a job in the late 1990s, he got an introduction to consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton from Kabir Sethi, another alum. After helping him get a foot in the door, Mr. Sethi picked him to work on his team -- setting strategy for an institutional bank in Sydney, Australia. Rajiv Dutta, president of Skype Technologies, the newly-acquired Internet telephone-calling unit of eBay Inc. says that Doon boys get a natural head start in business. Once, during a trip through the Himalayas, he and four others emerged from a stream to find their legs covered in leeches. Some of the boys wanted to head back to school. But after putting their heads together, they threw salt on the leeches, forcing them to recoil. The boys pressed on. "It is tremendously uplifting when you make a decision like that, when you run into an obstacle and you overcome that obstacle," Mr. Dutta says. Changing Focus He's done away with some formalities. Dr. Bajpai is the first headmaster not to don a traditional black robe and he urges instructors to drop the honorific "sir" when addressing him. Consensus isn't easy. Doon currently admits the daughters of a few teachers, but the issue of coeducation has been divisive, with many alumni and students against the idea. At a recent school-council meeting, boys asked administrators to boost the allowance they get each time they go on a private outing, to $8 from about $6. The boys scored a minor victory: They got an increase of a little more than a dollar. "Let me tell you -- we are getting soft," Philip Burrett, Doon's deputy headmaster told the students at a recent council meeting. "Next thing you'll want to go in a taxi." Vinit Rishi (856-TB '82) joins LogispringVinit Rishi has just joint Logispring as their CFO. Logisspring is a transatlantic venture capital firm which is focused on supply chain and logistics businesses. He is always interested in talking to investors as well as companies seeking funding. Vinit can be reached at vinit.rishi@gmail.com. Shantanu Sood (108-JA '96) at Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck in Washington DCShantanu Sood finished a Master's In Law (LL.M) from Georgetown University in Washington DC and passed the New York Bar exam in July 2005. He is currently an Associate with Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck, an Intellectual Property Law Firm in Washington DC. Shantanu can be reached at shantanusood@gmail.com. Karthik Jayashankar (285-OA '98) moves to SeattleKarthik Jayashankar has recently moved to the US for 4-5 months. He is advising some clients on IPR issues and patents. He will also be doing a month's course on IPR at University of Washington, Seattle and is interested in meeting friends in the Seattle / Washington State area. He can be reached at karthik@alcindia.com. Mrs.Prakashvati Gupta, wife of Mr. K.C Gupta Passes AwayMrs.Prakashvati Gupta (wife of MR. K.C. Gupta, ex. Head of the Chemistry Department, Housmaster Jaipur A) passed away peacefully on May 31st, 2006 in Los Altos Hills, California. She leaves beind daughter, Neerja Gupta Raman (99-J '64) and family; daughter Kalpana Gupta Shyam (186-JA '72) and family; and grandson Mayank Jain (573-JB '88), Son of Late Anjana Gupta Jain (284-J '63) and family. Mrs. Gupta was a cheerful presence on the school campus from the late '50s through 1980 as many old boys from those times will remember. She was an active member of the Doon school Ladies club which was involved in community service and an annual fete at the school. She spent her golden years happily with her children and grandchildren with many fond memories of Doon School. June 6, 2006Is Doon still capable of fostering Social Change?Mohit Chandra (365-JA '86), sent me an interesting email in response to the Wall Street Journal article on Doon. His comments made me re-read the WSJ article again. With permission, I've posted Mohit's comments below. " I read the article in the WSJ with misgivings. All it does is define 'success' by giving examples of Doscos in high corporate positions - in profit making, capitalistic, enterprises. I too am guilty of that (senior executive at KPMG in New York). But the ideals of Doon go way beyond that. Are we to feel proud that all our Alumni are good at, is making a lot of money? Where are the examples of statesmen, of artists, of humanitarians, or people inducing social change...that are the essence of our value based Dosco education? I would not jump for joy at this uni-dimensional and shallow article." Do you agree with Mohit? Succeeding in Corporate America is important, but is it everything? Do we place too high a value on financial success? Has the Wall Street Journal missed the point of The Doon School? Or rather, have we forgotten what Doon School is supposed to be about ourselves? June 4, 2006The Andover of India? Graduates From Doon Score Top U.S. Jobs, Wall Street JournalThe much awaited article on The Doon School and its alumni appeared in this Saturday's Wall Street Journal on the front page. Doscos Vikram Malhotra, Ravi Sinha, Vinit Khanna, Deepak Thakran, Kabir Sethi, Rajiv Dutta and of course Dr. Kanti Bajpai were mentioned in it. Read the article, which was written by Anita Raghavanand for the Wall Street Journal, and tell us what you think of it. DEHRA DUN, India -- At the Doon School, near the foothills of the Himalayas, life is spartan. The 500 boys enrolled here bathe together in communal showers. In winter, they pore over textbooks in rooms with no heat. Cellphones are forbidden and parental visits are kept to a minimum. For 71 years, Doon has supplied India with business leaders and well-known writers such as Vikram Seth. Even Rajiv Gandhi, the late prime minister, suffered the school's famously bad food. Now Doon is taking its uniformed students in a new direction: up the U.S. corporate ladder. The head of Citigroup Inc.'s North American credit-card business is a Doon alumnus. So too is a Merrill Lynch & Co. senior currency executive. From Raytheon Co. toGoldman Sachs Group Inc., Doon is supplying a new old boys' network in an increasingly international business world.
Many of the Doon alumni say they are still driven by the school's humbling culture. Vikram Malhotra, head of McKinsey & Co.'s New York office, recalls the pain of failing to earn one of the school's coveted blazers, awarded for excellence. "Imagine 500 boys, homogenous in what they wear, and the only way you could stand out is if youwore a blue blazer if you were good in sports and a black blazer if you were good in academics," says Mr. Malhotra, 46 years old. "I fell a point short on each one and to this day it rankles me." Even as Doon graduates penetrate the upper ranks of corporate America, the school draws criticism that it is out of step with the times. The headmaster is pushing for reforms -- such as heating the study rooms --but he faces some opposition from alumni. And proposed national legislation may mandate that private schools set aside a quarter of their places for underprivileged students -- including the country's "Dalit" or "untouchable" caste, which has largely been absent at high-tuition Doon. "There is a debate now whether Doon's elitism is required and whether it works in a changed world," says alumnus Bhaskar Menon, the former chief executive of EMI Music Worldwide. Founded in 1935, Doon once drew the sons of prominent Indian industrialists and politicians. Today scholarships, partly covering the annual tuition of about $4,000, assist one in four students. About half of the students' parents own small businesses. To be admitted, boys must pass a tough entrance exam. Located on the site of the former Imperial Forest College & Research Institute, Doon is an oasis in Dehra Dun, a dusty town of about 700,000, 140 miles northeast of New Delhi. Thousands of trees shade the 70-acre grounds,where 55 teachers lead classes six days a week. Each morning except Sunday, boys rise at 6:15 and down a small snack to fuel them for 20 minutes of military-style exercises. Two classes precede breakfast, with another five crammed in before lunch. Academics are leavened with music, poetry and drama. Every April, the boys vie in a calisthenics contest in which judges award points for clean, pressed clothes as well as team coordination. On a recent Saturday morning, in a room lit by fluorescent lights, more than a dozen 17-year-olds sat at old wooden tables as fans whirred overhead. The work at hand: CPA-level accounting problems. "Is depreciation on a delivery van part of selling overhead?" asked one student. (Answer: yes.) Some graduates, like Ravi Sinha, say they got their first primers on deal-making at Doon. As a 13- year-old student, he bartered breakfast goods with the other boys. Milk and bread "had no trading value" because they were ubiquitous, recalls Mr. Sinha, now a 43-year-old partner at Goldman Sachs. But the less-available "butter and eggs were tradable," he says. To help blur class lines, boys perform menial tasks such as pruning plants or window-cleaning -- unthinkable chores for those of high social standing. The school's de-emphasis of wealth explains why many material goods, including fancy cars and designer clothes, are not allowed on campus. Unless parceled out by the school, money, or "home dough," as boys call it, is also forbidden. Those found with unauthorized cash are stripped of their precious few privileges, such as Sunday forays into town. Article of Faith One common penance is a "change in break." That's when a student must run to his room and change into sports clothes from the school uniform -- gray blazer and slacks -- and return and get a chit signed by a prefect. On occasion, the lessons are more physical, and not sanctioned by the school. Among them: "putting" -- beating boys' rear ends with field hockey sticks or cricket bats -- often for poor performance in sports. Although such bullying was once fairly common, Dr. Bajpai says that it is "the exception rather than the rule today." The rigor endears Doon to some parents. Many of the world's top private schools are "too privileged," says Indian-born Vinit Khanna, a Doon alumnus who runs an outsourcing business in Bala Cynwyd, Pa. In January, he pulled his son Vihan out of a local school and sent him to study at Doon. Three to four years ago, between 30% and 35% of Doon graduates went overseas for college, according to Dr. Bajpai, with most going to the U.S. and the U.K. Last year, the number rose to 50%; this year he predicts it will hit 70%. The rise of Doon alums underscores a broader phenomenon dating back about two decades: the success of first-generation Indians in America. That was largely due to India's strong education system, as well as wider availability of U.S. visas and college scholarships. "The average Indian in the U.S. is 30,000 times more likely to have an advanced degree than the average Indian in India," says Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco, a professor and co-director of immigration studies at New York University. "So we are really skimming the cream of the crop." When Doon graduate Deepak Thakran looked for a job in the late 1990s, he got an introduction to consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton from Kabir Sethi, another alum. After helping him get a foot in the door, Mr. Sethi picked him to work on his team -- setting strategy for an institutional bank in Sydney, Australia. Rajiv Dutta, president of Skype Technologies, the newly-acquired Internet telephone-calling unit of eBay Inc. says that Doon boys get a natural head start in business. Once, during a trip through the Himalayas, he and four others emerged from a stream to find their legs covered in leeches. Some of the boys wanted to head back to school. But after putting their heads together, they threw salt on the leeches, forcing them to recoil. The boys pressed on. "It is tremendously uplifting when you make a decision like that, when you run into an obstacle and you overcome that obstacle," Mr. Dutta says. In recent years, Doon has faced challenges of its own. When Dr. Bajpai, a former university professor, arrived at Doon in 2003, "the school was quite inward-looking, consumed with its own competition and awards." Since then, he has tried to bring a greater focus on the world outside, encouraging more discussion of public affairs and topics like bullying and substance abuse. He's done away with some formalities. Dr. Bajpai is the first headmaster not to don a traditional black robe and he urges instructors to drop the honorific "sir" when addressing him. Consensus isn't easy. Doon currently admits the daughters of a few teachers, but the issue of coeducation has been divisive, with many alumni and students against the idea. At a recent school-council meeting, boys asked administrators to boost the allowance they get each time they go on a private outing, to $8 from about $6. The boys scored a minor victory: They got an increase of a little more than a dollar. "Let me tell you -- we are getting soft," Philip Burrett, Doon's deputy headmaster told the students at a recent council meeting. "Next thing you'll want to go in a taxi." UK Chapter organizing Get-togethersThe UK chapter is planning a serious of get-togethers beginning mid June and would like to request all Doscos to send their contact details to the UK Chapter Rep - Vijay Thapar - vkthapar@aol.com with a cc to Rishabh Sharma - rishabh.sharma@citigroup.com. Also, don't forget to update your contact details. Kaustubh Johri (548-HA '01) at Analog DevicesKaustubh Johri (548-HA '01) recently graduated from Georgia Tech with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He is working for Analog Devices, a semiconductor company at Greensboro, North Carolina. He can be contacted at 817 308 5784 or kjohri@gmail.com and would like to meet other ex-doscos in the area. Abhimanyu Bhattacharya (504-KA '00) joins law firm in MumbaiAbhimanyu Bhattacharya recently graduated with a LLM (Corporate and Financial Services) from the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore where he was a Faculty Graduate Scholar. He will be working with the law firm of Amarchand & Mangaldas in their Capital Markets practice group in Mumbai from July. He can be contacted at abhimanyub@rediffmail.com. Kapil Bansal (403-TB '99) at Inter Public GroupKapil Bansal (403-TB '99) is currently working with Inter Public Group (www.interpublic.com) in New York, USA. He can be reached at 651-399-1540 or via email at kapil403@hotmail.com. Racchit Thapliyal (64-KA '02) joining University of GeorgiaRacchit Thapliyal graduated from Case Western Reserve University, where he majored in Economics and minored in Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology. He has been accepted into the MA/PhD program in Economics at the University of Georgia on a Graduate Assistantship and will head there this Fall. He will be studying Financial Economics and Econometrics and is interested in getting in touch with doscos in the area. Racchit can be reached at vc64ka@yahoo.com. Abhinav Bhushan (116-TA '02)Abhinav Bhushan is doing law from Government Law College, Mumbai. He can be contacted at bhushan.abhinav@gmail.com and is currently in london interning in a law firm . Ashish Desai (538-JA '94) pursuing Masters DegreeAshish Desai is pursuing his Masters Degree in Finance at Boston College, Boston, MA. This is a one year program that he started in January 2006. He can be reached at ashish_103@hotmail.com Site Info Disclaimer Privacy Policy |
