Across the ocean with 50 dollars
Congratulations on your editorial and the two articles
on Indian-American archives and returning expatriates
(February issue).
Please allow me to share my own story on how I first
came to the USA in 1958 to teach at N.C. State and then to
Atlanta in 1959. Along with three other gentlemen called
Ashoke, Sumitra Bhattacharyya and Jayanta Bhattacharyya,
I was the fourth owner of the very first Indian restaurant
in Atlanta—the Calcutta Restaurant. In the early seventies
I started two businesses at Peachtree Center in downtown
Atlanta: SENGUPTA’S (a high-end international boutique)
and an architectural practice, Sengupta-Gruber & Associates,
built a number of buildings, and was a consultant to
ARC for MARTA. Earlier, I had also worked as an associate
with TAW, the then-premier architectural practice here, and
designed many major buildings, here and elsewhere. Following
a personal tragedy I closed down my two businesses
and left Atlanta soon after.
After 26 years in the USA, Canada, and Saudi Arabia, I
returned with my family to India and spent 14 most wonderful
years in Chennai where I was a professor at Anna
University, had my own practice as an architect, and designed
over 50 major projects all over India.
We visited Atlanta many times and returned in 1998,
since our two sons and grandchildren live here. I do projects
occasionally in other places, too, but I have recently started
paying attention to imparting my humble knowledge and
experience of 80 years through books. I published through
Amazon a book titled Stranger in Shangri-La—A Vision of a
Gentler World, and expect to publish a sequel soon.
Thank you for letting me sum up the greater part of
80 years in three short paragraphs. If there is reader interest
I shall be happy to tell how I made my ocean voyage in 1958
from Mumbai to Montreal with $50 in my pocket and other
real-life stories.
A.N. “Shen” Sengupta
Smyrna, Georgia
The inspirational Swami Vivekananda
Special thanks to Khabar for the fine article titled
“The Godfather of Indian Spiritualism in America” by Rev.Victor M. Parachin in the February issue. When I read in
my college days the book Barrows Lectures, a collection of
lectures delivered at the first world parliament of religions
in 1893, one caught my attention and registered in my
brain instantly.
“I do not believe in a God or religion which cannot wipe
the widow’s tears or bring a piece of bread to the orphan’s
mouth,” said Swami Vivekananda in his lecture. The foremost
book of the New Testament was written by Apostle
James, and he has written, “Religion that God our Father accepts
as pure and faultless is this: to look after the orphans
and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being
polluted by the world.” James 1:27.
Swami Vivekananda lived a very simple life of faith,
slept wherever he could, and lived by donations given by
strangers. He kept two books with him: the Bhagavad Gita
and Imitation of Christ, written by Thomas à Kempis, a German
Catholic priest of the 15th century.
When I read the quotation in the article, “I am here (in
America) amongst the children of the Son of Mary and the
Lord Jesus will help me,” I was deeply touched by his faith
and trust in God. When he served food to his disciples and
they objected to being served by their guru, he answered,
“Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, let me at least serve
you some food.”
We live in an age when we discover hoards of diamonds
and bundles of currency stashed away in god-men’s
abodes when they die. Swami Vivekananda’s
humble and simple life, his compassion for the suffering
world, and his faith and and nobility tell a different
story. The young generation who are simply chasing
after materialism must learn from this great godfather of
Indian spiritualism.
A. S. Mathew
Ringgold, Georgia
Distorting history, the Wikipedia way
Chai Time’s “Don’t Re-Lie on Wikipedia” in the February
issue hits the nail right on the head. Not only is Wikipedia an
open book with no control over what someone posts in the
disguise of history, it allows anybody to edit the postings of
others and further distort the truth.
There is a Wikipedia article on my ancestral village in
West Bengal. My ancestors had been one of the earliest families
to move in there around the 14th century, acquire extensive
real estate in that area, and establish a well-known
and respected zamindari there. A fellow-descendant of
mine had written a Wikipedia page on the village, and had
included some brief paragraphs on the history and a few anecdotes
related to my ancestors. I have a copy of an old book
on my family that mostly validates the original article.
Several weeks back I happened to re-visit this Wikipedia
page, and to my great dismay I noticed that someone
had recently edited the text to replace every single occurrence
of my family’s last name with presumably his or her
own, changing some of the first names, but retaining all
the anecdotes.
When I complained to Wikipedia, they suggested that I
edit the text back to what it was.
What a farce Wikipedia is!
Hem (Dutta) Chaudhuri
Cumming, Georgia
A collective statement decrying violence against women
After the brutal attack on Jyoti Singh Pandey, and after
the numerous memorial vigils and the resolutions sent to
the Indian government by individuals and organizations,
both women and men all over the world wanted to begin
action to voice loudly their opposition to violence against
women (VAW), to spread the discussion, and to promote
change. One of the actions was organizing “flash mobs”
around the world on Valentine’s Day, a global event called
“One Billion Rising” that demonstrated both the size and the
energy and determination of the opposition to VAW.
The next day a statement was released by the National
Coalition of South Asian Organizations (NCSO), from South
Asian women’s organizations and allies, as follows.
The horror of what one woman on a bus in Delhi endured
is something that goes beyond our imagination. In her senseless
death, we confront not just her story, but also the stories of countless
women and girls who, on a daily basis, endure some aspect
of her pain. We also see the place of women in our world—how
we are all at risk of harassment and sexual assault and systemic
injustices that lead to silence and inaction. We recognize that there
are women and girls who have similar experiences with no one to
fight for their lives.
We know that these tragedies are not isolated to India alone.
They happen throughout the South Asian subcontinent, and the
rest of the world, including the United States of America. One in
four women in the U.S. will experience domestic violence and one
in six will experience sexual violence. One in three women experienced
child sexual abuse. Girls who do not follow strict gender
norms are three times as likely as their heterosexual and heteronormative
counterparts of being sexually assaulted in their lives.
We will also not forget the absent, the silenced, and the missing.
The girls who grow up ignored, neglected and passed over because
of their gender. The human beings who have no story and
no champion in much of our work to end violence against women
because we think of gender as two distinct realities, rather than
a spectrum of realities. The ones who endure silently, who die unmourned,
who struggle every day of their lives in order to build
better ones for their families.
What happened on a bus in Delhi was beyond our imagination.
We can, however, imagine how to change ourselves and our communities.
We can work hard to make changes in how we view one
other, and how we value every member in our society so that this
does not, cannot, happen again.
What can we do?
We can value our girls, and support them to become vibrant
members of our community.
We can value our boys and raise them to respect women and
girls.
We can do more to be inclusive to the LGBT members of our
families and community.
We can make sure not to turn a blind eye, a deaf ear, or a cold
shoulder to violence in our community.
We can provide safe spaces and support for survivors of violence.
We can build our capacity to prevent and respond to violence.
We can say, “We’re not going to tolerate this anymore. We are
not going to endure the catcalls, the leers, the unwanted language,
touching, contact of any kind.”
We can build spaces to talk about that which is silenced.
We can pass stronger laws and enact policies that will protect
women, and ensure that victims of crime can access safe, culturally
sensitive services.
We can draw strength from our community to know we are
not doing this work alone.
We can build bridges between our community and others to
stand united against violence and hate.
We are a collective of South Asian Women’s Organizations,
and their allies. We work in the U.S. with South
Asian survivors of domestic and sexual violence and strive
to strengthen our larger community and end gender-based
violence. We stand in solidarity with our allies in India, the
U.S. and all across the globe who work towards strong communities
and families, human rights for all and a world in
which every life is valued.
API Chaya
Apna Ghar, Inc. (Our Home)
ASHA for Women
Daya, Inc.
MAI Family Services
Maitri
Manavi, Inc.
Raksha
Sakhi for South Asian Women
Sneha, Inc.
South Asian Network (SAN)
Turning Point for Women and Families
We are allies of these South Asian women’s organizations and we stand in solidarity with their work to end gender-based violence and with our shared goals of promoting and protecting the rights and safety of the South Asian community in the US.
Counselors Helping (South) Asians / Indians, Inc. (CHAI)
Chhaya CDC
Indo-American Center
Saathi of Rochester, NY
South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!)
South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT)
South Asian American Policy & Research Institute (SAAPRI)
South Asian Council for Social Services (SACSS)
The Sikh Coalition
UNITED SIKHS
[For further information on NCSO, see http://saalt.org/the-coalition/meet-the-ncso/]
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