Anurag Kashyap reveals geeky past at alumni meet
Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap spoke of his childhood ambition of becoming a zoologist at the alumni meet of the 10 leading public schools of India held here, which saw the gathering of the ''creme de la creme'' of the Indian-American community.
"It's a really innovative idea. Its interesting meeting all these people. I was a geek in school and used to spend all my time in the library. My favorite subject was biology and I wanted to be a zoologist," Kashyap said.
The Pan Public School Alumni Networking Event included Scindia School, Gwalior, Mayo College, Ajmer, Doon School, Dehradun, Lawrence School, Sanawar, Lawrence School, Lovedale, Daly College, Indore, SKV, Gwalior MGD, Jaipur and Rajkumar College, Rajkot.
The Chief Guest, Counsel General Prabhu Dayal described the gathering as the creme of the Indian-American community who were "building bridges of friendship" between India and the United States.
The event had alumni from over a span of 50 years with the youngest attendee being a 2003 pass out. Past reunions have been organised in different cities in US, but bringing all of them under one roof is novel with one enthusiast coming down from Thailand for the event.
Kashyap, in the past, has spoken of his negative experiences at his alma mater.
"But Scindia was hell for me. The sexual abuse continued there for years. I hated myself. I couldn't understand why it was happening to me. I was often picked out, beaten, then taken to the toilets. To save myself from the beatings, I'd give in to the abuse," he wrote in Tehelka in 2005.
A Scindian and aspiring screenwriter, Dhirendra Tiwari said that he recognized several impressions from their old school reflected in Kashyap's movies including the song 'Aarambh' from Gulaal, which was sung in their school assembly.
"You stay in a place for 8 or 9 years it obviously influences your life in a big way. No matter how much you hate it, you always have an underlying love for the place where you spent so many years," he said.
Alumni from nine States of USA, Canada, India were present at the event, which was hosted by Moses & Singer, a law firm based in New York.
