Satpal Malhotra
September 8, 1940 - October 16, 2025
Satpal Malhotra, aka Palji, aka Paul, aka Malhotra Sahib, was born on September 8, 1940, in Dinga, Hindustan. He was the second of four children born to Lekh Raj and Sumitra Malhotra who survived past infancy.
Satpal’s parents fled their home on or about August 15, 1947, with only the clothes on their back, a bag of flour, and four children under the age of ten. Of their village of 1500 people, only 75 or so survived.
The Malhotras eventually resettled in West Delhi. Satpal was a first-generation college graduate with a B.Com degree. He worked at an independent literary magazine and was very fond of Indian films, making sure to catch new releases each week. At the age of eighteen, he met Satya Sethi, a nurse in training who would come to his neighborhood to visit her mother’s sister. They became friends and eventually courted. After nine years of a much-contested relationship, they married on March 12, 1967. A year later, Satya and Satpal’s eldest daughter, Sunita, was born.
In 1970, with 10 pounds sterling, Satpal, Satya, and Sunita immigrated to the UK. Satpal’s first job there was as a hospital porter. He later got a more stable and secure job in the post office. The following year, on April 17, 1971, their second child, Rekha, was born.
In 1974, Satpal went to Toronto to visit a friend, with an eye to relocating there for greater opportunity. He took a side trip to New York City and fell in love with the place. In 1975, he moved to New York. The rest of the family joined him on January 31, 1976. They first lived in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and then moved to Flushing, Queens, where they lived from 1977 to 1980. There, the Malhotras formed a vibrant community with the families of many of Satya’s former nursing students. Weekends were packed with parties full of card games, dancing, and merriment.
In New York City, Satpal began his bumpy entrepreneurial career, which included owning a women’s retail clothing boutique, importing dashikis, selling various Indian handicrafts, driving a taxi, as well as owning a taxi medallion, an Indian restaurant, an office supply and candy store, and an international courier business. In the mid-1990s, he pivoted to commercial insurance by leveraging all of his business contacts from previous endeavors.
Satpal and Satya moved to Westbury and later to East Norwich, Long Island, where they were heavily involved in various community organizations. Satpal served as the President of the Long Island Indian Association. In their 60s and 70s, Satya and Satpal traveled the world extensively. In his later years, Satpal became an avid tennis fan.
Satya, Satpal’s partner of sixty-two years, passed away on October 6, 2022, three years and ten days before his last earthly breath on October 16, 2025. Satpal is survived by his adult children, Sunita and Rekha, along with Rekha’s partner Soniya Munshi.