Srini

=Srini=

Podcast
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BIOGRAPHICAL/GEOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Srini Ramini was originally from India, he immigrated to America by himself in the year 1996, and has been here ever since. It took him an astounding 13 years to come here. He came here to give himself and his family a better life, and he believes that he has found what he came for here. Srini was originally an engineer when he first came here but later on turned to business. He has two children named Bharath and Vyshu. India is located in Southeast Asia and surrounded by the Indian Ocean. It is ranked 7th in the world for highest total area of land, and has terrains ranging from Himalayas in the north, to the deserts in the West, the Ganges in the east and, and upland plain in the south. The climate also ranges from tropical monsoons in the south, to temperate monsoons in the north. India has a huge population of 1,173,108,018 people, and is ranked 2nd in the world. It is also ranked the as one of the fastest growing in the world in terms of economy, it is developing at a very rapid pace.

=Creative Writing=

By: Bharath Ramini
I am bored with this routine. As I shuffle home alone from work in the bustling city of Hyderabad, I think about my life. Every day, I wake up, brush my teeth, eat my idli and sambar, and head to work at the bank with my 2 brothers, Chiranjivi and Bhikshapati. I only work 33 hours a week and don’t make much money, the government will not let me start my own business up. How will my future children live comfortably and become doctors? How can I be a proud father if I cannot even give my family a comfortable life? I want to change this. I have decided it, I don’t care if I have to work my tail of for the rest of my life, I will go to America, the land of opportunity. Over there, I can be a successful man. The next day, I am still thinking about America. It seems as if it’s a great idea and nothing can go wrong. As I sit down next to my brothers, on the gray barren, floor made of stone, I hear the oldest who I call padanna of them, Chiranjvii and my other older brother anna, talking about work the from other day. “Why do have to speak in that annoying English language all day when our mother tongue is Telugu? Nah talkie nustadi ooka than goorinchi annkunta! Chirianjvii said.“It hurts my head just thinking about it!” he says as he eats his chapati that my sister-in law cooked for us. She was a slim young woman who was about 5’6 and was fair-skinned. My brother’s conversation makes me think about America once again. “I have decided I am going to America.” I announce to my family members, rather suddenly. All heads turn to me. “What?” My brothers and sister in-law have a bewildered look in their eyes. “How can you even think of doing that?” my padanna asks. I see their stern and worried gazes. My brothers and I look very much alike; our jet-black hair curls around each one of our foreheads. My padanna and anna both have little freckles above their nose, but all of us are fair-skinned, especially padanna. I am the tallest being 5’11 but they are both tall themselves. We have big sturdy arms and rough hands with calluses on them from working on the trains and helping at the nearby construction site to help my father. None of us arrogant, but my padanna tends to act too much like a parent sometimes. “I don’t like this life. I want make my future children to become doctors and have a great life, instead of working everyday from the age of 5 like us.” “Bah! Times are changing! Kids these days are nothing like us 10 years ago! And why couldn’t your children have a good life here, your life is perfect here is it not? You have a good job, good family, good health, and no financial problems. Why couldn’t your children become doctors? My children never complain!” “ I don’t think the same as you padanna, I want my children to never experience the hardships I did.” My brothers were getting very upset but I do not think I will make a mistake when I go to America. “Let’s talk after we work.” Padanna shuts the conversation down, looking a little aggravated. “We will talk when mother and father return from their friends at dinner time. Understand?” “Fine” I reply, I didn’t want to make my patina think I was being disrespectful so I stopped. Everyone gathered at the dinner table, it seemed as if the life had been drained out everyone as I told them my news. Padanna, anna, sister in-law mother and father stared at me strangely. My father and mother especially looked upset, they already had one child in America, but it was as if they thought they would never see me again. My sister was the first one in our family to go to America in our family and she only visits for 4-5 weeks every two years. I stand there awkwardly, what going through everyone’s minds, I wonder. “Why has this come up so suddenly without thought?” my parents say at once. I felt kind of ashamed for making my family worry about me so much, but this was something I had to do. “I have given this a lot of thought father, please understand. I want my children to have a comfortable life.” My parents seem to understand a little bit now. Father gazes at his hands. He understands how I feel, He was forced to work from the age of eleven to support his mother because his father died, and we were too poor to have books for school when we were children. I felt bad for upsetting my parents. “I understand son, but why don’t you think you can give your children a good life here? If you don’t think you have enough money, why don’t you just become a computer engineer?” “It’s not just about the money, father, even if I did have a decent amount of money, I don’t want my future children to just live their childhood studying without end and constantly thinking about exam results. I want them to be children and also have fun.” “I, suppose I understand.” Admits father. “Father!” both my brothers start spouting reasons why I shouldn’t go. “Stop your whining, you just don’t want him to go because you’ll miss him and won’t have help with sorting out all the bills and taxes.” Father scolds jokingly. I laugh, as my brother’s turn sheepishly red, even though it was a joke, I did help my brothers with their math sometimes. I look at my mother and ask her if she will accept me going, she looks long and hard at me, as if contemplating if I can go or not. Her blue gray eyes search me up and down. Finally, she says “yes.” “Besides, we don’t even know how long it’s going to take me to get there. Remember it took akka 5 years to get the visa letter?” I say. “We don’t know how much longer it’s going to take for me!” “Of course! ” My brothers say, in unison, knowing now that they could still see me for a few years even if I passed the interview for a chance to get a visa. “You being an engineer and all, we thought you would have no trouble with the interview.” “Don’t worry Anna, we still have a lot of time before I go.” I assure them.

A few weeks later and I am waiting In line for a interview with Vikram Chakravurm, a person who interviews people and too see if they qualify for attempting to go to America, In Madras. I am in a room with a hundred other people waiting for my interview. There are 10 people before me who are waiting for an interview with Mr.Chakravarm, so I have to wait. Once I get to the desk, a lady hands me a card and tells me to wait and call my number. She rudely pushes me aside and calls “next!” As, I sit in the large corridor, I notice that people from all parts of India came here. I hear people speaking in Bengali, Guajarati, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Panjabi, and a lot of other languages I did not understand. I am slightly intimidated by the pressure of having so much competition ahead of me, I knew a lot of people came for immigration but I never expected it to be so many people from so many places. As I waited for my number to get announced, I decided to get to know the people next to me better. “So, where did you come from?” I ask the man next to me who looks nicer than the one on the other side. He is wearing a blue suit and brown cakey pants. He looks like an educated man who knows a bit more about the interview than me. “I am from Bombay, this is my 4th time coming for an interview. You look like this is your first time, well, trust me these guys are real jerks. They just pick whoever looks really rich and educated just because it’s convenient for them. I hate talking in a respectful manner to these blockheads.” “Wow, “your 4th time! I will keep that in mind. Thank you for that information sir.” I reply. I am usually a very gregarious person, but this person just seemed downright upset so I left him alone to do his mumbling. About two-and half hours later, I finally hear number 11 being announced and jump up from my seat. I walk up to the lady at the counter that says “HELP DESK” and ask her where I can find Mr.Chakravurn. “That door next to the restrooms, where else!” The woman replies looking rather annoyed with me. I say “Thank You” and run off. I knock on the door timidly and hear “Come in!” Once I walk in the room, I feel much braver than I was an hour ago. Mr.Chakravurn smiled when he saw me. He wore a black plaid suit and had black pants on. He was stout and looked like nice enough man for me to have a good conversation with. “Hello! Who may you be?” He asks me in a timid voice. “Hi Mr.Chakravurn sir, my name is Srini Ramini and I came here for the 3:30 interview. How are you today?” I reply with impeccable English. I think about what the man who came from Bombay said and decide it wouldn’t hurt to follow his advice and show this man I was smart. ` “Oh, I remember you, you sent me letter last week about our interview.” “Yes sir.” I don’t really understand why the man was so peppy, but I didn’t mind. “Well, I saw your papers and I think you can qualify.” the man said. “Wait, what?” I said forgetting to have good English, “I am happy that I got qualified so quickly, but why couldn’t you just tell me sooner sir? I thought I was supposed to have an interview with you? That’s why I came here all the way to Madras!” The man seemed a little surprised at my sudden change of tone. He regained his poster and said “Oh, that’s just a formality. Interviews don’t take more than 5 minutes. I was just having a little break while you were waiting. Now please get out of my way sir, you are very lucky to have been qualified on your first try, now goodbye.” He motions his hands towards the door. I walk out without saying a word. No wonder the man who sat next me seemed so upset, he knew the interviewers would immediately judge him. I didn’t like the fact I had just take a train for 24 hours to get here just for that, but I was glad I got qualified. I could just jump for joy right now! I can’t wait till I tell everyone the good news! Even though getting qualified was just the first step to me going to America, I felt like I had a huge weight lifted off me. I did it! I was going to America, the land of opportunity!

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Bharath: Hi, my name is Bharath Ramini, and I’m interviewing my dad Srini Ramini, about immigration. So, dad, for my first question, I want to know which city/country you immigrated from.

Srini: Bharath, I immigrated from Hyderabad, India. It is in the southern part of India.

Bharath: The southern part of India? How was life there compared to here?

Srini: The life was much relaxed and slow paced life there. I used to work in a small bank. We used to open the bank at 10:30, I mean, the business hours were from 10:30 to 2:30, but we worked from 10:30 to 5:30. We (my brothers and I) used to work 33 hours a week.

Bharath: Oh, so you didn’t to work too much. So, that was your job, just doing that.

Srini: Yes, not too much.

Bharath: Oh, so why’d you decide to come to the U.S then?

Srini: I had a vision towards my kid’s education. It is tough to get into good schools in India, that’s the reason I came here.

Bharath: Do you feel that many immigrants experienced the same things as you? (Come for the same reasons and have the same circumstances as you when you came here)

Srini: Lot of immigrants come for their education, but I came because even though, I had a job and a house in India, I just came for my kids’ education. And I had a sister (In America), I thought that I could help her and she could help me. That’s another reason why I came to America.

Bharath: Do you think your decision would have been different if your sister didn’t live in America?

Srini: If she did not live in America, I would not have come here.

Bharath: Where would you have gone?

Srini: I would have gone to either Canada or Australia.

Bharath: Oh, so you would have gone somewhere anyway.

Srini: Ya. Bharath: How did your transition from India to America feel?

Srini: It was not tough at all.

Bharath: Emotionally either?

Srini: Oh emotionally, it was tough leaving my parents and brothers and sisters, but I wanted to spend some time with my oldest sister. So, that’s the transition went smoothly. (My sister helped me and told me what to at the airports. It was tough for me to leave my family. )

Bharath: Family is really important in India right?

Srini: Ya

Bharath: Ya, you guys like live with each other in huge conjoined families right? (Families where all immediate family is together in one house.)

Srini: Ya

Bharath: Did you feel like it was hard adjusting to being by yourself and not having a big family to take care of you here?

Srini: Ya it was little bit tough because I missed all my nephews and nieces, but I still had some family members here so it was not that tough. But leaving everyone in India was really, really tough.

Bharath: Ya.

Srini: nod’s yes

Bharath: Besides that, did you have any other kinds of difficulties when you first came here? Like adjusting to American culture?

Srini: No, I did not have much difficulties, the only thing I had difficulties with was Learning,

Bharath: Language barrier?

Srini: No, the thing is I used to work in a bank (had to speak English in banks) so it was not tough. The only tough thing was transportation. The transportation system here, it is totally different from India, I did not have a car, I did not have car for first few years. So it was tough, I had to ask somebody to drop me or pick me up when I had to go somewhere else.

Bharath: Oh, so life over here was hard when you first came here. Srini: No, it was little bit tough, not too much.

Bharath: Oh, is that what you expected?

Srini: Ya.

Bharath: Did you think you were going to work like, super hard when you came here, or did you not think you had to work very hard at all?

Srini: No, I thought, here you had to plan very good, and hardly use your brain a lot, rather than doing physical. I thought I had to work a little bit harder because I had to start from scratch. So ya, you’re right. I thought I had to work a little bit harder when I came here.

Bharath: Did it meet your expectations, or did it overwhelm you?

Srini: It’s yes and no. Overall, I did good.

Bharath: What do you think you did bad in?

Srini: What did I do bad in?

Bharath: Like your planning.

Srini: In planning, I did not finish my business management degree. If I had finished it, the business management degree could have helped a lot.

Srini: I want to finish grad school when I was young I want to finish it, but now I don’t have enough time to go to grad school.

Bharath: In India, was education all that important like it is here?

Srini: It’s very important. In education you have to work hard and getting in to good schools which is very very tough in India, But ya, Education is one of the important factors.

Bharath: For my next question, we are going back a bit. About when you first came to America, when you first came to America, Did you ever feel like you were discriminated against because you were an immigrant?

Srini: No, I did not feel like that, never.

Bharath: Did you expect anything like that?

Srini: No I didn’t because I knew it was tough for Americans to understand my English, but I was able to understand them. The slang was different so it was little tough for people to understand. But I never was discriminated.

Bharath: When you came here, did you feel like you accomplished anything?

Srini: Once, I was was excited to start my new life on “newfound land”, but the thing is like, I did not had any problem.

Bharath: You didn’t have any problem?

Srini: Settling in and getting a job. It was very easy.

Bharath: It was?

Srini: Ya, it only took 5 weeks for me to get a job.

Bharath: Did you work with your sister’s husband or-

Srini: No, I used to work in a bank in India, so I joined the bank here in America. I used to work for City Bank as a representative. That was my first job.

Bharath: How long did you have that job?

Srini: I had almost for 11 months.

Bharath: That’s not too long.

Srini: Ya. ( I moved to Boston after I quit.)

Bharath: So dad, how was adjusting to the “American lifestyle”?

Srini: It was not that tough. The toughest part was when I came here, eating vegetarian food, finding vegetarian food was very hard. ( many Indians are vegeterians.) It was tough to find food in the restaurants.

Bharath: Did you anticipate that?

Srini: No it was tough I did not expect that would be a challenge.

Bharath: Oh. When you first came here, did you live in an apartment?

Srini: No I used to live with my sister and go outside and work if I want to eat, and every restaurant had only one item in the menu vegetarian food.

Bharath: Wow!

Srini: Ya, that’s all.

Bharath: Did anyone come with you to the U.S?

Srini: No, I came all by myself at first.

Bharath: Did you want to come by yourself first or was it just that you had to?

Srini: No, at that time I was not married. I was only by myself at that time.

Bharath: So you planned ahead even before you were married?

Srini: Ya

Bharath: How long has it been since you came over here?

Srini: 16 years

Bharath: What’s one thing that’s better about this country than India, and vice versa?

Srini: There are more opportunities in America than in India at that time.

Bharath: Ya.

Srini: And in India, you had to get lot of permissions for business, you have to go through lot of paperwork.

Bharath: Ya, and you were a businessman so that annoyed you.

Srini: Ya.

Bharath: What’s better about India than America?

Srini: It’s easy for me because I was born and brought up, I can get advantage to those conditions in India. Right now in India, there are more opportunities.

Bharath: Ya, I was studying a bit about India for my Social Studies class before I interviewed you and I learned that India’s economy has been going up by about 7% every year.

Srini: Ya that’s right you got it right.

Bharath: Has India changed in the past 16 years?

Srini: Yup it’s started in 1990 when more businesses started to come and develop there so India is doing lot better.

Bharath: Do you think you would ever go back?

Srini: It’s very tough for me. I’ll go and do some business there, but I’ll not go back to live. Because, I have to wait for my kids to go to college and once they finish college, I might go back but not right now.

Bharath: Do you think you made the right choice in moving to America?

Srini: Ya.

Bharath: Do you think we have a better life here than we would in India?

Srini: Yes, the reason, the main reason I moved here was to be closer to my sister and for my kids’ education. So, it is very easy for my kids to go to college here compared to India.

Bharath: Ya, I was studying that. I read that kids go to school for like 13 years or something and they had to take a very hard test at the end of the year in every grade and school started from age 3.

Srini: Yup, you got it right.

Bharath: Did you finish school in India?

Srini: Ya, I finished my college in India.

Bharath: College over here’s a lot different over there right?

Srini: Here, they will teach more how to live in this country but in India it is only whatever’s in the books. You read math, physics, chemistry, etc. which you will only use in your career. They give hands on experience here, In India they don’t give that kind of hands on experience.

Bharath: Ok, now that we have all the serious questions done with, what’s your favorite American food?

Srini: My favorite American food is pizza.

Bharath: Did you like it when you first came here?

Srini: Not when I first moved here, but gradually, I got used to it.

Bharath: What was your favorite food in your country?

Srini: Idli, wada, sambar( Grinded lentils, rice, and a spicy soup)

Bharath: What kind of fun things did you do in your home country?

Srini: We used to play cricket outside, we used to play Indian wrestling game called Kabadi, and we used to play cards. And we had lot of festivals in India.

Bharath: Do you still celebrate those festivals these days?

Srini: We celebrate some of the festivals.

Bharath: When you guys celebrate, what do you do?

Srini: Our most important festival is a festival called Diwali the festival of lights, We save all our fireworks and we bring our friends and we burn the fireworks. During Navratri (another festival) we go to the temple. In the Hindu temple, for 9 days, we have people bring all different kinds of Indian food. It’s fun.

Bharath: In America, do you guys have “Indian Communities” that organize festivals or anything?

Srini: Yes, in Dayton we have a temple called Hindu temple of Dayton and we celebrate all Indian festivals there.

Bharath: Did your community contribute to that?

Srini: Yes.

Bharath: Is it rare to have an ethnic community?

Srini: No, it's quite common. When you come to other country, you have very few people, and you want to get along one place and enjoy your culture and talk to each other about your problems, and you can find somebody who can give you the solution.

Bharath: Do only Indians do that or do other immigrants do that too?

Srini: All the other communities do that.

Bharath: How did you come in to this group? Did you have a hard time finding one?

Srini: My sister took me into their temple. When I come here, I came on an Indian festival day, so she took me to the temple and I saw lot of people there in Chicago.

Bharath: Did you expect that?

Srini: No, when my sister came to India, she explained so I had an idea how life in America was.

Bharath: For my next question, how long has it been since you went to your old country?

Srini: I went to India 4 months ago.

Bharath: How was it there? Has it changed alot?

Srini: The life is becoming fast, and people are spending more than what they used to spend.

Bharath: For my next question, do you have family back home?

Srini: Yes, I have 2 brothers, and 2 sisters.

Bharath:Well dad, for my last question, is there anything you would like to say about immigration?

Srini: Immigration is one of the good things about this country. The reason America is growing because of immigration. Lot of people who come here wants to work hard and grow.

Bharath: Well, thank you for your time dad. (Camera turns off)

ANALYSIS
Overall, my dad didn’t experience most of the things we learned in class. In class we learned that many immigrants went through many hardships just to get here, whereas my dad said, “Coming here was very easy.” Also, in class, we learned that once immigrants arrive in America, the have a very hard time supporting themselves and work a low-wage job. My dad said “Getting settled in was very easy, I found a job in a bank within 5 weeks.” He had it much easier than compared to the immigrants we learned about in class. In class, I learned that some immigrants went through discrimination because of the fact they were immigrants, but my dad said, “ Nope, I never experienced discrimination because I was an immigrant.” My dad also shared some similar experiences with what I learned in though, in class I learned that many immigrants come here for a better life and to support their family, my dad said “I came here to give my kids a better education so they could get in to good college. All in all though, my dad experienced a much more comfortable immigration experience than other immigrants I learned about in class. I think I learned a lot more about the “modern immigrant” through this project.