Resident Feature

Meet the Thakurs

Celebrating 25 years of Love and Family

This year Anjani and Vijaya are celebrating 25 years of marriage, and they can’t wait for another 25. Anjani (husband) met Vijaya when he was doing a fourth year away rotation in India from Georgetown University, and he says it was love at first sight. “I knew that Vijaya was the one because she had a wonderful style of conversation. When she explained how she struggled to care for neonates, Anjani knew this was the person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Vijaya’s sincerity, conviction, and compassion were her hallmarks.” Vijaya was drawn to Anjani’s simplicity and his mom’s kindness. 

The couple were engaged for seven months before they were married. “We used to speak and write letters every day to keep connected. Luckily, Anjani’s surgical program director’s assistant was touched by Anjani’s recent engagement and gave him December off to get married. We’ve been married for 25 years and I can’t wait for another 25 more,” says Vijaya. 

The couple were both born in India. Vijaya did her schooling in Africa where her parents were both successful gynecologists. Anjani was eight years old when his family moved to the United States. His dad worked at Hunt-Wesson where he was instrumental in developing Hunt-Wesson’s many flavors of Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn. Anjani grew up in Fullerton, California. 

Anjani graduated with a Bachelors of Science degree in Biochemistry from UCLA in 1992. He went on to receive an MD from Georgetown University Medical School in 1996, and Postgraduate Surgery Training (1996-2003) at UCLA along with post-doctoral research at CalTech (1998- 2000). Anjani and Vijaya are both specialized in Vascular Medicine and the care of symptomatic varicose veins. Anjani mentors and loves to teach premedical students, medical students, and physician assistants. He also works as a clinical instructor at Touro University and Stanford University. He has published 20 research papers while in training and continues to publish a few papers/abstracts annually. 

Vijaya attended medical school in India where her research was in the care of sick newborns. She did post-doctoral research on fetal alcohol syndrome and published a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences while at CalTech in 1998-2000. She completed her internal medicine training at USC from 2000-2003. She is very sought after by patients with enlarged veins, venous stasis ulcers, and painful swelling of the legs. She has a new practice locally in Pleasanton. 

A daughter and son complete the family. Their daughter, Shivani, is 22 years old and recently graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology with a minor in Global Health and Health Policy. She completed an Honors Thesis that used computational biology to understand epigenetic regulation in Acute Myeloid Leukemia. She recently presented her work at the American College of Surgeons meeting on factors that impact how patients make decisions about vaccination. She coordinates her work with the Merced County Public Health department to improve vaccination in the Central Valley. Their son, Ashish, is 18 years old. He is a second year student at Stanford University where he is studying Bioengineering. He is very interested in teaching, learning Mandarin, and coding. He loves to travel and do fun activities with his friends on the weekends. 

When not pursuing their rewarding careers, Anjani enjoys playing golf, tennis, reviewing mathematics (he has taken up review of calculus), playing Age of Empires, and running. He recently completed the Napa half-marathon in two hours and fourteen minutes. Anjani devotes 10% of his clinical time to help underserved and under insured patients with free or reduced-cost care. He is active at multiple organizations in the Central Valley and donates his time, expertise, and resources to help organizations succeed in caring for the community. Vijaya loves spending time with her children when she isn’t working. She also enjoys ladies nights with her friends, watching movies, and playing with the family dog, a 2-year-old Labrador named Onyx. She recently started playing cards with the ladies in Blackhawk, which she enjoys. Along with Anjani she is a runner as well and recently completed her second 5k race in Sonoma. Her parents live with the family, and she cherishes her time with them.

Having family close by is what drew the Thakur family to Blackhawk. “We ended up in Blackhawk due to our closeness to Anjani’s sister, Pinky, and Br o t h e r – i n – law, Kish Jha, who have lived in Blackhawk for almost 25 years. Anjani’s niece, Samta, and her husband, Akshiv Malhotra, a hematology-oncologist, also live here. Over the years, as we visited Kish and Pinky, we met really kind people who were very interested in our well being and decided we would like to call Blackhawk home also,” says Vijaya. 

They moved to the Eagle Ridge subdivision in March of last year. “We love how Blackhawk has a small-town quaintness, but there’s also energy here. Another draw for our family is the area’s diversity and Blackhawk’s sense of community. Owning a home here has impacted us emotionally — it grounded us. This community has a different feel, like we are part of a community. We’re surrounded by people who are good-hearted and good-willed, who look out for each other. We love how welcoming Blackhawk is. There was something that called us to this area, and to this house. We just had to be here. We share this home with Vijaya’s 80-year-old retired parents, Jo and Raj, and her younger sister, Priyanka. When we signed the papers and got the keys, the first thing we said to each other was, ‘This is such a magical feeling’, says Anjani. 


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By Megan Scott, Resident since 2010