Satya Vati Chopra

Satya was born in Rahon, a village in Punjab, India. Satya was married to her husband, Harbans Lal Chopra, on September 27, 1952, at the tender age of 19. As the story goes, Harbans was mesmerized by Satya’s beauty, especially her eyes, and it was “love at first sight” even though they didn’t meet until the day of their wedding day. They were married for 52 years until Harbans’ passing in 2004.

After marriage, Satya moved to Delhi to live with her husband and his mother. Satya and Harbans lived in India for the next 18 years where Harbans was the Chief of the Electrical Engineering Department in the New Delhi Railway and they had a very comfortable life.

However, at the age of 45 and 37 respectively, Harbans and Satya decided to move to the United States, to explore new opportunities for themselves and their 3 children, Neelam, Aniel and Anita. Satya lived in the US for 51 years, from 1970 until the day of her death. She missed her life in India but found so many lovely new friends who became her family in the US.

Satya made friends easily and people loved listening to her stories. She had a knack for storytelling and could captivate any audience, young or old. She was also well known for her culinary skills, her generosity and loving nature and her sense of humor.

Besides cooking, she was also an expert in knitting, crocheting and sewing…which she perfected in her younger years. She could look at a sweater and in some cases, know exactly how to knit that pattern and duplicate the sweater from memory. Same with her crochet work.

Satya had many fond memories of her childhood in Rahon, where her family owned several farms and orchards and grew a variety of crops, such as sugarcanes, mangoes, oranges, etc. Satya would often reminisce about her life in Rahon such as going for walks to the farms in the morning, peacocks landing on the rooftop patio of their home, and having a cow in their yard for milk and butter that her mother would make fresh. She also loved how her extended family of uncles and cousins would gather in the evenings just to share meals, hang out and tell stories.

In later years, she became interested in gardening and loved her “Tulsi” (holy basil) and methi (Indian plant similar to “kale”), in particular. As she got older, Satya also became more spiritual devoted many hours to prayer on a daily basis.

By the end of her life, Satya had a huge network of family and friends that she stayed connected with throughout her life. She loved gathering with people and just staying connected. Loving thoughts and prayers for her continue to pour in from family and friends in India, Canada, New Jersey, Northern California, Southern California, Texas, Atlanta, Florida, UK, etc…etc…..

Satya was a loving wife, mother, sister, daughter and friend. She is survived by her daughter, Anita (Jim), son Aniel, son-in-law Subhash, 4 grandchildren Sonia (Vijay), Naveen, Sareena (Vince), and Neesha and 6 great grandchildren, Maya, Samir, Lydia, Simon, Claudia and Maria.

She was preceded in death by her parents Jagopal Jagota and MayaVanti (Sethi) Jagota, husband, Harbans Lal Chopra, brother Ved Jagota, sister Krishna Khanna and daughter, Neelam Chandra.