09/29/2026
S O N A L ✨ Some people arrive in your life through someone you love.
And then, just like that, they become your own.
I know Sonal through her marriage to Gaurav, my dear friend of thirty years. Yet the two of us clicked the very first time we met, on one of her early visits to New York in 2017.
She began where so many of us did: in hospitality school, which is also where she met Gaurav. A few years in India’s hotels followed, before she stepped in to lead her family’s pharmaceutical business.
She will tell you hospitality taught her the lessons that shaped her success. The greatest of them all? People. Sonal has a rare gift for building relationships and nurturing them over time, and her circle now stretches across the globe. And yet, for a woman who so loves being among people, she treasures her own company just as deeply. She has wandered the world on solo journeys, discovering new places entirely on her own terms.
Today, she moves through the world as an accomplished entrepreneur.
Yet her truest devotion is reserved for one role above every other.
Mother.
Her twin boys, now teenagers, are gifted athletes and gifted students. This year brought a new city and a new school, and she is walking beside them through every step, with the quiet strength only a mother knows.
And Gaurav. We grew up together, through college and far beyond, and he has never once failed to show up when I needed him. A chef by passion, he has built a remarkable name with one of India’s finest hotel companies. Still, he remains wonderfully generous with his secret recipes, at least with me. This intimate portrait session was a tribute to them both, as they celebrated Gaurav’s 50th birthday here in New York.
In our home.
P.S. Secretly, I felt it was a celebration of our friendship, too. Sonal Vaid Kumra
Milestones Birthdays 50thbirthday celebrate life
