Parent Rajeev Gupta recalls a very different school in the 1980s

Class of 1988 alumnus Rajeev Gupta remembers challenging a fellow student, Carrie Steinseifer, to a friendly 4 by 100 freestyle swimming race one day. He started with a two and half lap head start and finished breathless, not seeing her and thinking he had won.

Then he looked up. She was already out of the pool, standing over him.

As a high school student, Steinseifer won gold medals in the 1984 Olympics and the 1985 Pan Pacific Games. Looking back at the boldness of his challenge, Gupta wondered: “What was I thinking?”

Gupta’s four years at SHS were filled with memorable experiences. During one Homecoming at Los Gatos High School’s track, his class made a float in tribute to the Challenger space shuttle, which had exploded midair in 1986, killing all aboard. The students were surprised to see when a full U.S. military color guard stood at the turn of track’s oval and saluted the float as it passed by.

Even 30 years ago, Gupta and other students were attempting to go out for lunch and make it back to class in time. Tardies were cool when someone got a ticket on the way back, he said.

What has changed significantly at SHS, according to Gupta, is the racial composition of the students. At the time, the school was almost all white and had yet to go through the immigration wave that brought families from countries like Taiwan, South Korea, India and China to the area.

“When I was there you could count on one hand the amount of kids in each class considered traditionally non-Caucasian,” Gupta said.

As an Indian American, Gupta often felt excluded from “just about every social clique.” He eventually learned to adapt and believes the experience may have contributed to his outgoing personality.

“In a weird way, it actually made me stronger, but really a more effective communicator,” Gupta said. “By practicing approaching and penetrating social groups, the experience of a wide variety of the student body was gold.”

The bonds Gupta has formed have lasted a lifetime. He works in hospitality administration at Northwest Group Inc. and sends two children, senior Shazia Gupta and sophomore Maya Gupta, to the school today.

“Saratoga has been my family home for almost 40 years,” Gupta said. “[Moving] was never really an option. When all is said and done, we will be a two-generation, four-Falcon family.”