Distinguished Alumni
Industry
Anuradha Das
Batch of 1973
ANURADHA DAS holds a post doctoral degree in High Energy Nuclear Physics from Jadavpur University. She has almost 30 years of experience as a teacher, principal and director. This includes teaching Physics to senior students at Modern High School. She was Head of the Senior School and Principal of Calcutta International School and at present she is the Director of the school, a post she has held since August 2009.
Alka Yagnik
Batch of 1978
Alka Yagnik is ranked among the best Hindi playback singers of all times. She is a seven time winner of the Filmfare Best Female Playback Singer Award and has sung for over 700 Hindi films with a total of over 20,000 songs in various Indian languages. Some of her well known songs include Ek Do Teen, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehena, Bole Chudiyan, Jaane Kyun and Taal Se Taal Mila.
Vinita Saraf
Batch of 1982
In a career of 20 years Vinita Saraf has moved from Interior Design to Travel Business and Social Work. She successfully runs a small travel concern for women only tours called Chickworld. She is the Co-founder and Managing Trustee of the NGO Apne Aap Women Worldwide, a grassroots anti-trafficking organization to end sex- trafficking. Apne Aap has won the Bharat Nirmaan Awards for its work in children trapped in, or at risk to, prostitution.
Ananya Roy
Batch of 1988
Ananya Roy is a Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley. She also serves as Education Director of the Blum Center for Developing Economies and as Co Director of the Global Metropolitan Studies Center. She is the author of City Requiem, Calcutta: Gender and the Politics of Poverty. In 2006, she was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award, the highest teaching honour University of California, Berkeley, bestows on its faculty. Most recently, she was named 2009 California Professor of the Year by CASE/ Carnegie Foundation.
Vinita Jain
Batch of 1979
Vinita Jain orchestrates a team of scientists, dermatologists, ayurvedic doctors and biotechnologists to treat and preserve health and beauty through her Biotique range of skin and hair care products and food supplements. After graduating from Delhi University, Vinita studied Biotechnology in Switzerland and then attended the management programme at the Stanford Graduate Business School. She has made Biotique synonymous with serious skin and hair care, embodying ancient systems passed on through generations, mingling with contemporary science and beauty treatment requirements.
Rakhi Sarkar
Batch of 1964
Rakhi Sarkar established the Centre of International Modern Art (CIMA) in 1993 and is the moving force behind the upcoming Kolkata Museum of Modern Art (KMOMA). CIMA has held curated shows abroad and has implemented several projects in association with national and international museums and educational institutions. In 2000, she curated a landmark exhibition, Art of Bengal: Past and Present (1850-2000), which dealt with the history of colonial and modern art in bengal. She is one of India’s most significant art collectors and her collection includes both traditional and contemporary art.
Aparna Sen
Batch of 1964
Aparna Sen, critically acclaimed script writer and actress, has won three National Film Awards and eight International Film Festival Awards. She made her acting debut at 16, playing the role of Mrinmoyee in Satyajit Ray’s Teen Kanya. In 1981, she made her debut as a film director with 36 Chowringhee Lane which won National and International Awards. From 1985 to 2005, she was editor of the popular Bengali women’s magazine, Sananda. She has received several lifetime achievement awards and served on juries like the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. In 1986, she was honoured with the Padma Shri in recognition of her contribution to Indian cinema.
Madhushree Mukherjee
Batch of 1978
Madhushree Mukherjee is a writer, science journalist and former physicist. She won the prestigious National Talent Search Scholarship, an initiative to nurture talented students. A Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Chicago, she served on the Board of Editors of the Scientific American for seven years. A Guggenheim fellowship helped her to write her first book, The Land of Naked people: Encounters with Stone Age Islanders, an account of the hunter-gatherers of the Andaman Islands. Her latest book is Churchill’s Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging on India during World War II.
Abanti Gopan
Batch of 1971
Abanti Gopan is the Founder President of the Asian Association of Cardiac Nurses. She started the Asian Journal of Cardiac Nursing, serving as its first editor for 13 years. She has initiated several International Conferences through the association in Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Malaysia and represented the country as guest speaker at conferences in Singapore, Malaysia and South Africa.
Tapati Guha Thakurta
Batch of 1974
Tapati Guha Thakurta is a Professor of History at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. She is a Researcher of art and history of modern India. She is the author of many books on art and history such as Visual Worlds of Modern Bengal, In Her Own Right, and Monuments Objects, Histories: Institutions of Art in Colonial and Post-colonial India.
Nandita Chatterjee
Batch of 1974
Nandita Chatterjee was the Principal Secretary, Department of School Education, Government of West Bengal, India. A senior member of the Indian Administrative Service, she is the Director of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. Having specialised in Development Economics and Medical Sociology, she has held a number of key positions at national and international levels such as Principal Secretary Urban Development, District Magistrate, Hooghly ( 24 Parganas) and International Resource Person in areas of Preventive Health and Urban Planning.
Priti Patel
Batch of 1979
Priti Patel is a Manipuri Dancer well versed in different aspects of Manipuri dance, music and martial art traditions. With comprehensive training and a performing experience of almost two decades, Priti Patel has established herself as a dancer of accomplishment and commitment. Through her organization, Anjika, in Calcutta, she has been engaged in training and promotion of the art. She has performed at major festivals including the Khajuraho Dance Festival, Bhagyachandra Dance Festival and the Festival of India in France and Russia.
Ruchira Gupta
Batch of 1982
Ruchira Gupta has worked as a journalist, activist and policy maker on issues related to violence against women and children.she has won an Emmy for “Outstanding Investigative Journalism.†Ruchira has founded Apne Aap, grassroots organization of over 5,000 women and children trapped in,or at risk to, prostitution. She has provided policy support to the Governments of India, Thailand and Kosovo, UN Agencies in Nepal and New York and Usaid in Washington DC, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Philippines. She recently received the Abolitionist Award at the House of Lords in the UK and the Global Clinton Award.
Vijaya Mukherjee
Batch of 1964
Vijaya Mukherjee has made an outstanding contribution in the field of social and philanthropic work. Her main work and passion is an organization, Hitaishini, the only breast cancer support network in Eastern India. It is a Voluntary Non Profit Organization run by breast cancer survivors and socially committed women and conducts awareness camps, seminars and workshops to propagate awareness about breast cancer among the masses. She is also on the committee of All Lovers of Animals Society, Society for the Preservation of Monuments and Woodlands Hospitals and Research Institute.
Chandralekha Poddar
Batch of 1965
CHANDRALEKHA PODDAR is a philanthropist, business woman and an art collector. She supports a number of charities such as Jeevashram: for the care of injured and sick animals, Vishwas: for physically challenged children and Sumaitri: a help group for the mentally challenged. In 1997 she established Textile Arts of India, a society to promote the excellence of traditional handloom crafts of the country. She was the founding member of the first hotel restoration project in India, Neemrana Fort Palace Hotel, Rajasthan and has spearheaded the restoration of Devigarh, an 18th century fort palace, now a famed hotel which has gone on to win much acclaim and awards for its balanced use of the traditional elements within contemporary design. In addition to these initiatives, she has been a serious art collector since the mid 70s. She is on the Asian Advisory Board of the Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA since 2008. She is the recipient of the International Collect Prize, and also won an award at ARCO, Madrid in 2009.
Kavita Poddar
Batch of 1966
Kavita Poddar has made her career out of her passion and hobby – Floral Art. The society she belongs to, The Pushpa Bitan Friendship Society (PBFS) is the only society from India to be invited to become a member of WAFA (World Association of Flower Arrangers). Kavita won the first prize in the Writers category at the WAFA competition, Boston 2011. She has attended several international seminars and represented India in many world shows. Additionally she has also held classes in floral art in Kolkata and other cities in India, UK and the Middle East.
Anuradha Lohia
Batch of 1972
Anuradha Lohia, renowned Bio-Scientist, has set up and runs her own laboratory at Bose Institute, Kolkata. Her research interests are in the area of cell cycle regulation of Entamoeba Histolytica. Professor Lohia is a recipient of several prestigious awards, notably the Rockfeller Foundation Biotechnology Career Fellowship and National Woman Bioscientist Award. She is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, currently leading the India Alliance, an independent, public charitable trust which supports and nurtures biomedical research in India.
Dr Kanika Mitra
Batch of 1967
DR. KANIKA MITRA with over two and a half decades of experience, started off as a teacher in 1982 in Calcutta Medical College in the Psychiatry Department. After serving for 10 years she shifted to Asia’s oldest Mental Hospital, Lumbini Park Hospital, where she worked for another 10 years. After retiring voluntarily she became a full time consultant. Her expertise lies in cases of depression, Alzheimer’s disease, anxiety disorder and OCD.
Maneka Sorcar
Batch of 1998
MANEKA SORCAR is one of the few women magicians in the world and the first from India to have performed at an international magic convention. She has won a series of national and international prizes. She has been honoured with the highest certification, the Best Lady Magician of the Year 2002 at Hyderabad. She has also won the Best Magician Award from the Red Cross Society in North Bengal and the silver trophy, proclaiming her as the Best Foreign Magician by the Magicians in New Zealand. Her father awarded her the Swarna Makta, the crown of magic heritage of the Sorcar Dynasty in 1993. Fellow magicians have honoured her. Her graceful and easy movements between the real world and the world of make believe and her stunning performances of magic all around the world have already made her a new icon of modern magic within a remarkable short span of time. Winner of numerous awards and accolades, she has earned a large band of admirers which includes several heads of states and monarchs like the late king of Nepal.
Srilekha Majumdar
Batch of 1969
SRILEKHA MAJUMDAR holds a doctorate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. A consultant in educational management and human resource development, Srilekha specializes in organizational behaviour and organizational issues in education, with particular focus on institutional effectiveness and total quality management. She is a trained counsellor for youth in emotional distress. At present she is taking care of academic planning and development of school division of Maharashtra Academy of Educational Research and Engineering, Pune.
Dr Rosina Ahmed
Batch of 1981
Dr. Rosina Ahmed is a specialist in the areas of Laparoscopic and Breast Surgery. She has many papers and abstracts to her credit. Her work on In Vitro Mobility of the Human Gallbladder won her distinction in thesis for MD. She is one of the founder members of Jubilant First Trust Healthcare Limited and held the post of Clinical Administrator till recently. She is also one of the founding doctors of Westbank Hospital.
Sreeradha Datta
Batch of 1984
Sreeradha Dutta is a Director of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata. She has been editor of South Asia Watch. Besides her three books she has published research articles in reputed international and national journals in addition to appearing in various print and visual media interviews including Voice of America and BBC.
Sohini Roy Chowdhury
Batch of 1987
Sohini Roy Chowdhury is a world renowned Classical Indian Tanjore Dancer. She has introduced three new Bharatanatyam classical style routines. During the times of India Kolkata Festival, Sohini was described as the second most important dancer alive today.
Nayantara Pal Chaudhuri
Batch of 1980
Nayantara Pal Chaudhuri is the first Lady President of BNCCI – The Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry. She is also a member of the National Executive Committe of FICCI – the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Nayantara was also the first lady District Governor of Rotary International (3291). In addition, she is the Honorary Consul of Norway. She is one of the first lady members of Calcutta Club.
Alokananda Roy
Batch of 1969
ALOKANANDA ROY is an Odissi dancer of worldwide fame. An "A" category artist of Doordarshan since 1976,her dancing and choreography skills have won her many notable awards including the Michael Madhusudan Award, the Sanskrit Parishad Award and Honorary Citizenship of the city of Clarksville, USA. Some of her famous creations are Shyama, Chitrangada, Vandemataram, Meghdoot, Vasavdatta, Savitri,Dharitri and her magnum opus Amrapali. She trained the convicts of Alipore Jail to perform a dance drama, based on Tagore’s composition, Valmiki Pratibha. She also went on to set up Touch World, a home for ex-women convicts and their children, in Narendrapur.
Kavita Panjabi
Batch of 1979
Kavita Panjabi is a professor of Comparative Literature and Women’s Studies at Jadavpur University. Professor Panjabi has edited numerous books on Sufi Culture and is the author of “Old Maps and New Legacies of the Partitionâ€. She has also been the convenor of the gender group for the NCERT curriculum. She received her Ph.D. degree in Comparative Literature from Cornell University, and has been a recipient of the Mellon Fellowship, USA; The Sephis Post-Doctoral Fellowship, the Netherlands; and the South Asia Writing Fellowship of the Social Science Research Council, New York. She was part of the three member team that visited Gujarat in 2002 and wrote The Next Generation:In the Wake of the Genocide: A Report on the impact of the Gujarat Pogrom on Children and the Young. She is currently on a yearlong sabbatical, doing research at the Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla.
Vasundhara Mantri
Batch of 2000
VASUNDHARA MANTRI, professional jewellery designer is one of the very few professional bench jewellers in Kolkata who are qualified to create jewellery with their own hands. She has undergone training at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), New York and has also done a course at the American Inter Continental University, London, in basic principles of design and colour therapy. Her jewellery creations bring together the trends of fashion of different worlds, synchronizing Indian, European and American ideas.
Maitreyi Kandoi
Batch of 1999
Graduated in 2002 and went on to complete her M.Sc. Finance with ICFAI .She dabbled for a few years in the Stock Market before going on to co-found Kindle Magazine, a magazine which addressed youth issues . Always being a sportsperson, Maitreyi took the opportunity to bring The Little Gym franchise to Kolkata. The Little Gym is a child development program for kids between 0-12 years of age. Till date, thousands of children in the city have benefitted from The Little Gym program by enhanced motor skills and confidence .
Mukta Nain
Batch of 1975
She was appointed the Headmistress of the Junior Boys School and in 2001 she became the first lady Principal of Birla High Boys School. Felicitated in 2008