By
Kalpana Mohan
The
Valley’s Indo-American Parents Foster Culture and
Spirituality
By
9
a.m.
every Sunday morning, Indian women draped in saris glide
up San
Jose’s
Park
Avenue,
young children in tow, slipping into a building named
‘Sandeepany.’ Sandeepany is a Sanskrit word meaning
something which (or someone who) can illuminate
others.
Inside
this stark white colonial edifice sandwiched between
auto mechanic shops and taquerias, you can see Sanskrit
professors, Hindu religious heads and parent volunteers
who are helping Bay Area Indo-American children chant
devotional hymns, learn about mythological Hindu heroes
and understand the significance of the Bhagavad Gita,
the fundamental Hindu scripture. “Back in
India,
children learn about our values through osmosis,” says
teacher Ravi Parameswaraiyer at Sandeepany. “Here, we
try to inculcate a sense of who
I am
and also teach our kids to stand up, speak up and
correct misconceptions about Indian culture.”
During
the past 30 years, the Asian Indian population in the
Bay Area – 125,000 and growing – has carved a niche for
itself as an economically successful and tight-knit
community. In the process of creating a home away from
home in the Silicon
Valley,
Indian families have created a dynamic infrastructure
that nourishes and supports its
youth.
Indo-American
families are not merely exposing their children to
Indian fine arts and culture. In many cases, they are
nurturing spiritual growth, keeping children grounded
from the Western pressures posed by peers, school
competitiveness and a fast-paced life in permissive
times.
“By
involving my daughters, Nandita and Sukanya, in
everything Indian, by attending Hindu spiritual classes
and by choosing ethnically diverse schools, we have
managed to create a little India for them right here in
the Bay area,” says Prema Sriram of San Jose.
Like
Sriram, many Indian parents in the Bay Area introduce
their children to Indian classical dance, both popular
and classical Indian music and the latest Indian movies
(known as Bollywood) shown at Indian-run theater
complexes in the Silicon Valley. Many families continue
to make yearly trips to
India to visit
grandparents.
A
Personal View
In
our own family, I – who came to Silicon
Valley
in 1985 – find that my children have simultaneously
grown roots in
America
and in India.
“Isn’t it
odd, mom, how we feel right at home the minute we taxi
onto the Indian runway?” my 14-year-old U.S.-born
daughter asked me on our last summer visit to Chennai,
my hometown.
Jyotsna
Jain of Cupertino loves to
keep her kids in touch with their heritage with a grand
celebration of traditional Indian festivals. Every year
in November, her family organizes a celebration of
Diwali (the Indian festival of lights) for more than a
hundred of their friends “We’re giving our kids a feel
for our tradition, even though we left it behind many
years ago.”
A great
accessory to tradition is costume. For Indian festivals
and other social occasions, many Indian parents buy
their daughters embroidered ghagras (long flowing
skirts), ethnic jewelry and fashionable bindis. These
dots on the forehead are now so conveniently made in
sticker form that even Gwen Stefani loves wearing one.
Indian
families also regularly visit Hindu, Jain or Sikh
temples around the Bay Area and nurture relationships
with their extended families in the
United
States through
yearly family reunions.
According
to Asha Ramesh, who teaches and performs South Indian
Classical (Carnatic) music in
San
Jose,
Indo-American youth are also inspired by the excellence
of the visiting stream of performing artists from
India. The Bay
Area is now considered a stage for top brass Indian
talent. Children are often introduced to the Indian
performing arts at a young age.
“We have
extra-curricular opportunities for our kids here in the
United States that we cannot even dream of in India, yet
Indian parents often choose to commit their precious
hours to the pursuit of Indian culture,” says Anuradha
Sridhar, a music teacher in Saratoga, who hails from an
illustrious family of musicians in the Carnatic
tradition back in South India.
Sridhar
and other teachers say that it’s a challenge for
parents, given the material and other distractions in
the Valley. But they are convinced that the time
invested in Indian cultural lessons have far-reaching
implications on a child’s focus, discipline and thought.
The Perks
of Culture
Vidhya
Subramanian, artistic director of Lasya Dance Company in
Cupertino, says the
complex training for the South Indian classical dance
form (Bharathanatyam) gives her students many perks they
take into school, college and the world.
“It gives
them a strong personality, dedication, focus,
perseverance, strength, poise and grace,” she
says.
Children
who train in this art form for more than a decade
perform a solo dance debut, a formal recital which
requires intricate footwork, expressing emotion way
beyond their years and grabbing audience attention with
excellent public speaking skills throughout a three-hour
presentation.
One student says music and
dance have made her a deeper thinker.
“Being a child in America,
somewhat out of touch with language in poetic form, they
(music and dance) have allowed me to explore religion
and faith in a unique, yet accessible, way,” says Ramya
Parthasarathy, a senior at St. Francis High School in
Mountain View. She often feels torn between two
cultures, caught “between an Indian culture that heralds
tradition and a Western mindset that questions tradition
and analyzes faith.”
The
generation of Indo-Americans born in this country, like
Parthasarathy, is now spreading the word about Indian
culture to the mainstream population in many ways. Mitha
Nandagopalan, a freshman at Lynbrook High, invites her
non-Indian friends to Indian classical music and dance
concerts.
“Indian
culture has beautiful, funny, exciting, touching, and
moral stories, and it’s fun to learn about them,” says
Mitha.
On
multi-cultural days at local schools, the Indian booth
always has a henna tattoo stall with the longest line.
Indo-American children go home and pester their mothers
to participate so they can impress their friends about
their cool
customs. Indian parents say their children also seem to
take pride in ethnic food.
“My son
Rohith loves to take masala dosas
(lentil crepes stuffed with spicy potatoes) for class
parties at his school and my trays come back clean every
single time,” says Asha Ramesh.
And thanks
to the pop music industry, ethnic Indian tradition,
wrapped in Western packaging, is seeping into popular
teen culture. Britney Spears’ recent album In The Zone uses
Bhangra rhythms from North India.
Nidhi
Mehta, who has been teaching Bollywood film dance and
Bhangra workouts around the Bay Area since 2002, knows
how quickly popular Indian culture is gaining ground.
More than 20 percent of her students are Caucasian.
“The
western population is now aware that this popular Indian
dance is fun, great exercise, does not require a dance
background as a prerequisite and has exciting music,”
says Mehta.
Like
Mehta, scores of other Indian cultural ambassadors in
the Bay Area are filling in the little spaces, gradually
blotting out the homesickness that, on and off, affects
this community. This dense network of Indian services –
whether it’s a takeout food service, a video rental
store, a group of immigration lawyers or a spiritual
camp – forms the emotional axle often lacking for
immigrant families who have transplanted themselves in
the United States. Often, it becomes into a security net
for those struck by tragedy.
Vandana
Kumar, the publisher of India Currents,
a popular monthly magazine serving the Bay Area and Los
Angeles (www.indiacurrents.com), learned firsthand how a
close-knit community could coddle her family physically
and emotionally in 2001 when her husband was diagnosed
with terminal lung cancer.
“While
dealing with the anxiety and stress of chemotherapy,
radiation, a job and two young boys, I would have fallen
apart completely if my family and friends had not come
to our aid,” says Kumar whose husband eventually
succumbed to the disease that
November.
Indian parents frequently
say that, ultimately, they seek a universal value system
for their kids. Like many of us in this Valley, Indian
parents want to foster children who respect others,
value their culture, dream big, work hard, learn
self-control, cherish friends and family and, above all,
yearn to belong to a peace-loving community.
For
more than 11 years, Saratoga’s Chitra Sivaram has
ferried her daughters to Sunday morning spiritual
lessons – which take a chunk of the weekend from her
teen-agers’ hectic lives. Daughter
Anuradha Sivaram, a senior at Lynbrook High School in
Cupertino, ponders the gain: “These classes have helped
me mature as a person, fight stress at school and have
shown me how I fit into the whole scheme of things as an
Indo-American.”
Resources
Looking
for parenting resources in the Indian community? Your
best bet is the India Community Center in Milpitas where
you’ll find something for the whole family, from yoga
classes to Bollywood Aerobics to talks on spirituality.
Another option is the intersection of El Camino Real and
Lawrence Expressway in Sunnyvale. Indian restaurants,
ethnic jewelry outlets, Indian-run beauty salons,
high-end boutiques carrying Indian clothes and
accessories and Indian grocery stores line El Camino for
several blocks all the way to Wolfe Road.
Here’s
a quick overview.
Classical
Music and Dance
Chhandam
School of Kathak Dance
– Six Bay Area locations. 415-519-0805, www.kathak.org.
For comprehensive list of dance schools and styles, also
see
www.thingsindian.com/dance.htm.
Ali
Akbar College of Music –
215 West End Ave, San Rafael. 415-454 6264, office@aacm.org.
Information
on South Indian dance and music events in the Bay Area –
Best contact to reach Bay Area teachers of South Indian
fine arts. www.southindiafinearts.org.
Popular
Indian Dance
Stepz
–
650-996 5563, www.stepz.org,
nidhi@stepz.org.
School
of Indian Folk Dances
– 415-877-0134, www.indianartsandculture.com,
indianartculture@aol.com.
Indian
Languages, Arts and Wellness
workshops
– Balbharti Indo-American Cultural Academy;
510-657-6048, papiha@pacbell.net. India Community
Center, 555 Los Coches Street, Milpitas; 408-934-1130,
www.indiacc.org.
Chinmaya
Mission (for adults and kids), 1050 Park Ave., San Jose;
408-998-2793, www.chinmaya-sanjose.org/sandeepany.html.
Art
of Living Foundation
– Courses for children 8-12. 408-839-5196, www.artexcelsfba.info.
Popular
Entertainment
Naz
Theaters –
www.naz8.com
Stage
Naatak – www.naatak.com
Shrimati’s
– Indian
music and movies. 2011 University Ave, Berkeley. 510-548
6220, www.shrimatis.com.
www.amarchitrakatha.com
– Tales of Indian mythology and history are retold in
comic book form. Look for tales on the adventures of
Lord Krishna to start off.
Indian
Media in the Bay Area
India
Currents calendar and
magazine – Pick up print version at most Indian
restaurants and grocery stores. Comprehensive event
calendar and great source of information on the Indian
community. www.indiacurrents.com.
A brief overview of
festivals celebrated by the Indian community –
These
dates vary according to the lunar calendar, so consult
Web sites for more information: Harvest festival:
mid-January; Holi, festival of colors: last week of
March; New Year (for Hindus in southern India and
Sikhs): mid-April; Ganesh Chaturthi: Festival in honor
of elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesha, early September;
Navrathri: Nine-night doll festival, October; Diwali:
Festival of Lights, November. www.livermoretemple.org;
Indian
Classical Music and Dance
Lasya
Dance Company
(Bharathanatyam) – Director Vidhya Subramanian,
vidhya@lasya.org.
Tarangini
School of Kathak Dance
– Director Anuradha Nag, 408-374-7068. For comprehensive
list of dance schools and styles, also see
www.thingsindian.com/dance.htm.
Ali
Akbar College of Music
(North Indian Classical) – 215 West End Ave, San Rafael.
415-454 6264; office@aacm.org.
Trinity
Center for Music
(Vocal and Violin Carnatic) – Director Anuradha Sridhar,
anoosviolin@aol.com.
Ragamalika
School of Music
(Vocal Carnatic) – Director Asha Ramesh,
ashram_94@yahoo.com.
South
India Fine Arts
– South Indian Dance and Music events in the Bay Area.
www.southindiafinearts.org.
Diversity
in Silicon Valley
What
do you think of our new diversity series? What
cultures should we highlight? What do you want to know
about cultures other than your own? Send your ideas to
Bay Area Parent
magazine, 987 University Ave., Suite 4, Los Gatos,
CA 95032; fax 408-399-4513; e-mail: bapeditorsv@parenthood.com.
Kalpana
Mohan is a parent and freelance writer in
Saratoga.
