Tiger Tales….Of Love!

23 Feb Tiger Tales….Of Love!

Met at Woodstock? Married at Woodstock? Found a kindred spirit in another Woodstocker years later? We celebrate Woodstock love this month in recognition of Valentine’s Day and the recent Indian wedding season. We reached out to some of our alumni for their Love Stories with a Woodstock connection – read about some of them below!

What is your Woodstock connection?

Married at Woodstock

Anything you would like to share about how you met or how you got together?

We met two years before we joined Woodstock as staff but were married within the first month of our joining Woodstock! The support and welcome given to us by the Woodstock community helped us make a very smooth transition to married life and to Woodstock.

What is the best thing about being in a relationship with another Woodstocker?

You can relate to and share the unique experiences which Woodstock offers. We’ve realized that many of these experiences are distinctive to working at Woodstock.

What is the most challenging thing about being in a relationship with another Woodstocker?

Sometimes the complete involvement with school gets a bit overwhelming. 😊

What is your favorite memory of “having a Woodstock moment” together – whether physically on campus or while having a conversation about it?

A reunion with the Class of 1989 outside our home in Palisades. The evening was just like any other class night that we enjoyed with the class while they were students here – lots of chatter, laughter, good food, dancing (mainly bhangra!), and endless stories of our times together. Memories of other social gatherings with students and colleagues also make our hearts smile!

Anything else you would like to share with the Woodstock community about your family, your travels, your work, etc? And any advice for current Woodstock students who are dating each other?

Until now we’ve spent our entire married life at Woodstock. This has been our first and only home. Our daughters, Ayesha (Class of 2002) and Serena (class of 2005), were born and brought up at Woodstock, which contributed hugely into equipping them for life and for molding them into the lovely human beings they are today.

 

Jeff Rollins ’76 & Sue Swain ‘77

Worked 2003-2013

What is your Woodstock connection?

Met at Woodstock 

Anything you would like to share about how you met or how you got together?

We didn’t actually do much together at Woodstock as students, but I vividly remember meeting Jeff once on the train station platform (we were both on the Punjab Party) and trying to strike up a conversation. He was busy at that time trying to sort out his next train and had at that time little to say. We were also in band and orchestra and choir together. It wasn’t until our senior year in college that things really got rolling. I was going to school at he University of Wisconsin in Madison and had landed a job in Wyoming for the summer. In looking at bus routes I found I could go two different ways via Iowa or Minnesota. I chose Minnesota and decided to visit Myron and Ricky Schrag. Myron was the Woodstock Chaplain, and I had babysat their kids over the years. While there they suggested inviting Jeff over for a chat as he was in university there. He came, and that’s where it all started. We talked for a whole weekend about so many things, but I think it was tales of his time hunting in the jungle and interest in adventure that caught me. We drove out to Wyoming together and talked more. That was the beginning of a life together and many adventures!

What is the best thing about being in a relationship with another Woodstocker?

Similar background lends itself to similar interests. We have similar memories of places in India and culture. It’s so much easier to talk together, and you don’t have to put so much effort into explaining things or worse – avoiding explaining things because the other person wouldn’t be able to relate to what you were saying.

What is the most challenging thing about being in a relationship with another Woodstocker?

I don’t know that it has been challenging, although perhaps it is a bit of a challenge to both be rootless and homeless. But it has been lovely just to be able to share and know that the other person understands. We so enjoyed learning together what it means to be Third Culture Kids, as painful as that was at times. But at least there wasn’t the strain of one person thinking you had gone completely mad! We could be odd together.

What is your favorite memory of “having a Woodstock moment” together – whether physically on campus or while having a conversation about it?

See above …

Anything else you would like to share with the Woodstock community about your family, your travels, your work, etc? Any advice for current Woodstock students who are dating each other?

We’ve enjoyed raising our children overseas in Nepal and India (in Mussoorie). We have a daughter and her family there now. It has been a real joy to have the background that we did and to share that together. It most certainly enhanced the work that we have done. We worked for years overseas with the church. Jeff is an engineer and did rural development for some years helping to design things that would make village life a little easier. He also helped with hospital maintenance in the mission hospitals in Nepal, which was an interest of his since high school. He then moved into working with technology, as this became a new thing and was obviously a field where people would be needing help. I am a teacher by trade and enjoyed teaching K-8 grade students at Woodstock, helping them to appreciate their surroundings. I then went into mentoring teachers in village schools which taught me much about the Indian culture and sparked a keen interest in culture in general. I am now helping to run a cultural orientation program for a mission organization here in Colorado. 

 

Jonathan Abraham ’01  & Sharon John ’99

What is your Woodstock connection?

Met at Woodstock

Anything you would like to share about how you met or how you got together?

We didn’t know each other well at Woodstock. I (Jonathan) was two years younger than Sharon (and still am), so she just remembers me being dramatic in a few plays I performed in. After Woodstock I kept in touch with Sharon’s brother, Josh ’98, who I had played drums with in jazz band. After an 11-year gap of not seeing Sharon, I missed my flight in Delhi and needed a place to stay for the night. Sharon’s parents were family friends who lived close to the airport, and they hosted me that night while I rebooked my flight. Sharon was staying with her parents at that time. I see that missed flight as divine providence, as it was through that reconnection *sparks*sparks* that we became friends. Six months later we were engaged.

What is the best thing about being in a relationship with another Woodstocker?

We often reminisce together about our days at Woodstock. We’ve found how much of an effect the school had on us in our eating preferences. Korean food is our go-to comfort food, which we can directly relate to the influence of our many Korean friends at Woodstock. We will still laugh about some of the eccentricities of our teachers there. In the 90’s, as many can attest, Woodstock had a basket full of eccentric teachers; they were lovely and made the experience so unique for us.

I have an apocryphal story I tell our daughters about Woodstock: That I knew Sharon was going to be my wife, and I used to leave chocolates in her locker with a note that said, “From your future husband xxx.” It’s not true, but I wish it were. The kids love it, but they never fell for it.

What is the most challenging thing about being in a relationship with another Woodstocker?

Once you start the chorus: “Woodstock, known over all the land …,” it gets stuck in our collective brain for a few days.

Anything else you would like to share with the Woodstock community about your family, your travels, your work, etc? Any advice for current Woodstock students who are dating each other?

For us, more than having gone to the same school, our faith (we are both committed followers of Jesus) has been our binding glue. Our faith journeys were nurtured through many staff and students at Woodstock both directly and indirectly. When the feelings come and go in a relationship, and they can, it’s real love we look to: the commitment and sacrifice of God for his children (us) which anchors us both.

 

Prakruti Golechha & Shubhankar Aggarwal, Class of ’13

What is your Woodstock connection?

Met at Woodstock

What is the best thing about being in a relationship with another Woodstocker?

It’s nice to have so many common friends!

What is the most challenging thing about being in a relationship with another Woodstocker?

You can’t lie about how cool you were in high school!

What is your favorite memory of “having a Woodstock moment” together – whether physically on campus or while having a conversation about it?

Eating Baikrapao and Shaptak whenever we get the chance!

Anything else you would like to share with the Woodstock community about your family, your travels, your work, etc? Any advice for current Woodstock students who are dating each other?

It’s okay to chase after your high school crush! It worked out for him!

 

Isaac Gergan ’06 & Sirawon Khathing Gergan, Class of ’06

What is your Woodstock connection?

Met at Woodstock

Anything you would like to share about how you met or how you got together?

This was one special day. Although long before that unexpected day, we met at Woodstock in 7th grade (2001) and through our academic choices later in high school had classes together, especially art and design related. Our friendship and conversation on art and life continued.

After finishing our colleges almost 7 years after school graduation, we attended a design conference together and found much affinity and just a comfort in the friendship. From there on out one thing led to another, and we have been happily married for 2 years now.

What is the best thing about being in a relationship with another Woodstocker?

I think it is the memories we share of the hillside, the communities and friends we know so well, not having to over explain a memory, or just being able to share and relate to a story, funny or not. A best aspect is also made and possible because of the foundation of affinity, acknowledgement of instilled values, and the overall experience of growing up in the Himalayan, international, and outdoor context of Mussoorie and Woodstock.

What is the most challenging thing about being in a relationship with another Woodstocker?

I am really not sure as it hasn’t been a problem. But thinking out loud, it is perhaps how we approach the world, friendships, work, and life. I would assume that a non-Woodstocker brings in different perspectives to things along with different approaches, solutions, and ideas.

While it’s not a challenge as such, we can sometimes find ourselves very in the middle of the Woodstock bubble. While this is great always, it can inadvertently isolate those around us.

What is your favorite memory of “having a Woodstock moment” together – whether physically on campus or while having a conversation about it?

I think these are perhaps all the times we have been in Mussoorie together, on a walk or a hike, perhaps doing nothing, or having a favorite snack at Chardukan or one of the cafes, and for a string of nano seconds it feels like nothing has changed.

Many great Woodstock moments have also been made with classmates and friends at reunions, weddings, and other celebrations – in reminiscing or in just doing something very “Woodstock.”

But also I think so much of it happens daily, like not forgetting to make the bed, being punctual, or the speed of eating a meal perhaps owed to the rushed lunches at quad.

Anything else you would like to share with the Woodstock community about your family, your travels, your work, etc? Any advice for current Woodstock students who are dating each other?

Sirawon and I are happy to have found each other. Eight years into our relationship we still find it amazing how in the wide world we found each other, Woodstock being the catalyst for the making.

We are from different parts of the country, but our love for art and design and our values brought us together.

To not overshare, a few flowing thoughts.

Love is one amazing aspect of life – constant, changing, flowing and yet firm, rooted, and pleasantly persistent. Always/every day new ways to love or show love. I don’t think we reach a destination where we fully know love; it’s simply  flowing, constant. You never know, your life partner would be sitting next to you in art class or behind nerdy glasses, under bad haircuts, or sartorially unfashionable.

Watching those winter line sunsets, or cozied up on rainy monsoon days to the sunlit paths, all where love can grow exponentially. Love is so much more than the physicality of it. So if any advice to those treading lovers lane – try not to hurt the other person, and even in the ages of youth be responsible, so much more, with love. It amazing, it’s wild, and it can be what you make it, strong as it may be always something that requires gentle care. I suppose, love responsibly.

Try to get to know everybody in your classes and dorms. School friends make some of the best and lifelong friendships and a boarding school even more so.

 

Krisha Rajkarnikar & Mikhail Anand, Class of ’08

What is your Woodstock connection?

Met at Woodstock

Anything you would like to share about how you met or how you got together?

We were classmates – she only started flirting with me when I stopped wearing glasses and grew a few inches taller.

What is the best thing about being in a relationship with another Woodstocker?

They don’t question you when you eat wai wai raw.

What is the most challenging thing about being in a relationship with another Woodstocker?

One of them is bound to like hiking.

What is your favorite memory of “having a Woodstock moment” together – whether physically on campus or while having a conversation about it?

Going to Midlands to ask her out! And then subsequently every weekend to spend time together.

Anything else you would like to share with the Woodstock community about your family, your travels, your work, etc? Any advice for current Woodstock students who are dating each other?

We just got married a month ago! As for advice – you will never make friends like your WS friends ever again in life so cherish them!