How many years have you worked at Oak Grove?

Since 2019.

Why do you work at Oak Grove?

Krishnamurti’s teachings have been a part of my life since I was 4 years old and the reason I moved with my family to Ojai. Oak Grove School has a loving, supportive community, and it is a privilege to witness the flowering of our students, and adults, alike.

Where is your special spot on campus?

Pavilion Stone Risers, looking at an empty stage, envisioning the children performing, with the sound of birds in the background, and children laughing and playing.

Coffee or Tea?

Tea please!

What makes an Oak Grove education unique?

Honoring the human, directly lived experience more than anything else, giving importance to relationship, loving communication, deep listening, conscious dialog. “These are a few of my favorite things” that make an Oak Grove education unique.

How do we prepare students for their life ahead?

Students are given the space to explore their inner experience, reflect, and inquire into who they really are. They are continuously nurtured, and encouraged to be themselves, to express their truth, and confront conflicts respectfully, and intelligently. In all these immeasurable ways a student from Oak Grove is grows sensitively aware, and is prepared for their life ahead.

What outdoor experience has been most impactful for you?

My walks, hikes and ONE camping trip in the snow when I lived in Andretta (near Dharamsala), Himachal Pradesh, India, where I studied ceramics. So beautiful, peaceful, and calm!

The best live music performance/concert you ever attended is …

Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, and Ustad Zakir Hussain in Music Academy, Chennai.

Which teacher in your life affected you greatly? How?

My first theater teacher was my mother, Sushmaa Roshan. Thanks to her I experienced every aspect, and role in theater, TV, and Film, both on and off stage and camera. Later Ebrahim Alkazi with whom I had the honor of studying theater, for encouraging me to be a leader, and for seeing a budding director in me.

Name something that nobody knows about you.

At 13, I ran a door-to-door anti-terrorist campaign in my town, collecting over 350 signatures and sending a petition for peace to then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, who wrote back. He was assassinated by a suicide bomber a few years later.

Person (dead or alive, famous or not) that you’d most like to share a meal with.

My grandmother

Name a place you’ve always wanted to visit, but haven’t yet.

Maldives

Share a hilarious OGS experience.

Falling asleep listening to J. Krishnamurti giving a talk to the students at The School KFI, in Chennai, when I was in the 2nd grade. I was sitting beside him to his left. I awoke startled as he sharply turned to me and asked, “Isn’t it?”. I shook my head, yes.

What is your favorite Oak Grove expression?

“Let’s begin with a moment of silence…”