SPOTLIGHT: SAAZ AGGARWAL, CLASS OF 1977

SPOTLIGHT: SAAZ AGGARWAL, CLASS OF 1977 

Starting with this blog post, we begin a series titled, "Spotlight" where we focus on Old Lawrencians who are in the news! 

The first OL to be in our spotlight is Saaz Aggarwal of the Class of 1977. 

The XI Bangalore Literature Festival held on December 3 and 4, 2022 featured a galaxy of authors who spoke about their work. I was happy to see Saaz amongst them. In her session she  spoke about her latest book, "Losing Home, Finding Home" a moving account of people displaced from Sindh, following the Partition of India and thereafter. 

Conversing with her was another OL, the renowned  business journalist Senthil Chengalvarayan, Class of 1981. He was the founding editor of CNBC TV 18 and Editor in Chief of Network 18's Business news room. 

 I met Saaz for the first time in 2012, when Mathew Anthony, Class of 1965, brought a few of us OL authors together in the first OL Book Reading at Founders. 

From left to right: OL authors, N.D. Badrinath, 1974, Prem Rao, 1967, Saaz Aggarwal 1977 and Lakshmanan Solayappan, 1982 with Mr. Someswara Rao who co-ordinated the event on behalf of School. 

We recently shot off a few questions to Saaz about School and her times there. 

1. When were you at School? From 1971 to 1977. Which House were you in? Pankaj

2. Was there any particular reason your parents/you chose Lovedale?

Yes - my father was a tea planter so we had to be in a boarding school. And we were lucky that our parents wanted to send us - my brother, Ravi Savur, 1980 and me  - to the best school in India 😊 
3. What are your main memories of life at School:  Use 5 words that come to mind … (not sentences)

homesick

tuck

Founders

CT (*cheap thrill)

scrounging (*looking for food in the kitchen after mealtime – not like we were deprived, just always hungry!)

 

4. Which member of the staff, if any, had a strong influence on you, and why? 
Ma Baloo, that's Mrs CY Balakrishnan, Pankaj Housemistress and Maths teacher. I wrote an obituary for her when she died, and putting it together all those years later gave me a sense of how many different ways she had influenced me … 

There were also others like our headmaster LA Vyas and our librarian Mr V Mohanraj whom I am so grateful to for encouraging me to write and convincing me that I was a writer!

5. Are you in touch with your old school friends? Whom have you known for the longest period? What do you like best about this association? 
Very much in touch. 

The longest period .... Rachel Varugis (Chakola), Chitra Rajan (Gopinath) ... they were already in school when I joined, and were in my house ... 

Senthil and Abhirami Sinniah were younger but our parents were close friends and we knew them practically since they were born, long before we joined schools ... 

Also all my classmates ... 

 

 

Standing: M.S. Anitha, Kanchana Chandy (Sunderarajan), Rachel Varugis (Chakola), Solai Alagappan, Claire Pereira, Latha K.K. (Sabikhi)

Sitting: Jyothi Sumukadas (Gopalan), Nita Chopra (Joshi), Chitra Rajan (Gopinath), Semanti Sinha Ray (Mehra), Pamela Sarin (Bakshani), Saaz Savur (Aggarwal)

And many from other batches, some really dear friends (like Mathew Anthony and Niloufer Kapadia both 1965, Dayal Mirchandani 1970 and others) whom I never knew in school …

Apart from the feeling of comfort in being connected to people whom you have 'always' known, there's also a strong sense of belonging together because of the shared experience ... nobody else can really understand that peculiar space we once inhabited!

6. What are some learnings from School that have helped you later in your life?

- The ability to quickly adapt outside one's comfort zone without a fuss ...

- The 3-minute bath - a truly priceless asset, ah how I wish my kids had been to boarding school too ...

- Never Give In!

7.  Is there any incident that you will remember for ever? 

Hahaha, many, but here’s one. This Science experiment photo was on the notice board and someone added a moustache to my face. 

The others in the Physics lab are: Uma Maheshwaran, Joseph Michael, Ashok Kumar, Claire Pereira, Nita Chopra (Joshi),  Saaz Savur (Aggarwal)  Pamela Sarin (Bakshani) 

I don’t know how I got this copy, perhaps I pinched it to save myself embarrassment! Or maybe I asked Mr Balaram, our Physics teacher who also ran the Photo Lab, for it. (Writing this, it occurs to me that when my photo was defaced he could have just taken it off the notice board himself but didn’t.)

But then, Mr Balaram was the one who had entered the annals of School's history by slapping me! I was reading a Barbara Cartland, holding it under the desk and trying to multitask – absorb Physics principles while also absorbed in the romance. Balaram called me to the front of the class, made me hold the book up, and let loose. As far as I know, it was the first time in School’s history that a male teacher had raised a hand on a girl student, hopefully it was the last. In our time, corporal punishment still had a place in education. 

8. What are the writing/other projects that you are currently working on?

- I'm presently working hard to promote my new book, Losing Home, Finding Home!

- Also working on a family history project 

- Planning to start a podcast along with one of my contributors to Sindhi Tapestry

- During lockdown, I did some 'lockdown' art and one series incorporated keys ... someone saw it and commissioned me to work on a keys installation for a mainstream lock-and-key company ... I'm in the process of figuring out what size it should be, what media to use, and so on.

 

Are there any links you would like to share with our OL audience which elaborate on your writing /work?

https://www.saazaggarwal.com/

https://thesongbirdonmyshoulder.blogspot.com/

https://sindhstories.wordpress.com/

http://blackandwhitefountain.com/

 

Thank you, Saaz for speaking with us and for providing the accompanying photographs!