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Dr. Arvind Menon (At Risk Stories)
Arvind Menon is one of the pioneers of the Indian community in Chicago; being a very successful physician who came to the US when there was high demand for doctors from abroad in the late...
Ms. Eshara Mondal (Broadening Narratives)
Eshara Mondal, 32, is a cloud engineering manager for a nonprofit and has a background in neuroscience and education policy. Born in Adena, Minnesota, and raised in Palatine, Illinois, she grew up balancing her Bengali heritage with American life. She participated in the Bengali Association...
Mr. Dipankar Mukhopadhyay (At Risk Stories)
Dipankar Mukhopadhyay, 82, is a pediatrician . The interview includes discussion of his family's roots on both sides, his community in Katwa, his enduring interest in politics. He has a very sharp memory for details of his experiences, such as the town he went to...
Mr. Nisar Niami (Broadening Narratives)
Nisar Naimi, 41, is an event planner in Chicago’s South Asian and LGBTQ communities. Born and raised in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, Nisar grew up in a large family and deeply values his parents’ sacrifices and community-building efforts. His father, a mechanical engineer from India...
Dr. Upendranath Nimmagadda (At Risk Stories)
Upendranath Nimmagadda, 79, is a retired surgeon and active administrator of a medical school he co-founded in his home state in India. The interview includes discussion of his early life during which his father died and his family was supported by the local village, his...
Ms. Mohini Pai (Masala Chat Project)
Mohini Pai, 83, is a retired investment manager and non-profit leader. The interview includes detailed discussion of her early and young adult life in India and Kenya with her parents and six younger siblings. She...
Ms. Sunita Parikh (Broadening Narratives)
Sunita Parikh, 86, born in Dohad village in Gujarat, is a retired schoolteacher who reflects on her childhood in a financially modest joint family and her early commitment to education. The interview includes discussion of her father’s work as a mill clerk, her schooling in...
Mr. Harshad Patel (Broadening Narratives)
Harshad Patel, 64, is a Chicago-area small-business owner and active temple board member. Guided by a family ethic of care and generosity, he offers a pragmatic story that centers around on work, mutual aid, and resilience in U.S., a place for opportunity, independence,...
Mr. Ashok Patel (Masala Chat Project)
Ashok Patel is a retired physician who was Chief of Hematology at Cook County Hospital for more than thirty years. The interview includes discussion of his young life in India and Fiji and life as...
Ms. Daksha Patel (Masala Chat Project)
Daksha Patel, 76, is a pioneering neonatal physician who now consults for the Department of Social Security. The interview includes discussion of her average day as a child and how she charted an uncommon path...
Mr. Mafat Patel (Masala Chat Project)
Mafat Patel, 72, is an entrepreneur and the owner of two businesses catering to the Indian community in Chicago. The interview includes discussion of his frequent desire to return to India after he came to...
Ms. Tilat Rais (Masala Chat Project)
Tilat Rais is a devoted caretaker who strongly identifies with the duty to help others that her faith, Islam, teaches. The interview includes discussion of her faith and desire to be successful through serving others....
Ms. Hema Rajagopalan (At Risk Stories)
Hema Rajagopalan, 70, is an award-winning classical Indian dancer who became famous at age 6 for her talent. The interview includes discussion of her approach to dance as a physical form of moral education and...
Mr. Parthasarathy Rajagopalan (Masala Chat Project)
Parthasarathy Rajagopalan, 77, is a financial advisor and former railway circuit engineer. The interview includes discussion of the fifteen people who founded of the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago in 1977, in which he played...
Ms. Padma Rangaswamy (At Risk Stories)
Padma Rangaswamy, 75, is an historian of Indian immigration to the United States and a dedicated advocate for the preservation and transmission of her heritage.
Ms. Sudha Rapp (Masala Chat Project)
Sudha Rapp, 73, is a world traveler and a luxury retail salesperson. The interview includes discussion of the fact that her family lived in the Middle East during her early life, but moved to India...
Mr. Rohinton and Ms. Roshan Rivetna (Masala Chat Project)
Roshan, 77, and Rohinton, 82, Rivetna, are pioneers of the Zoroastrian community in the US, having arrived in the mid-1960s. The interview begins with Roshan alone, and her husband Rohinton joins approximately halfway through. The...
Ms. Sujaya Rupani (At Risk Stories)
Sujaya Rupani, 66, is an ophthalmologist and active member of the Indian community in Chicago. The interview includes discussion of her successful work life and moments of culture shock as she adapted to the US....
Ms. Usha Sanghavi (Broadening Narratives)
Usha Sanghavi, 77, is a retired Dunkin’ Donuts employee born in Bombay, and longtime member of the Gujarati Indian community in the Chicago suburbs. In this interview, she reflects on her childhood in South Bombay, her father’s sari business and early death, and the pivotal...
Mr. Navinchanvra Sanghavi (Masala Chat Project)
Navinchanvra Sanghavi is a mechanical engineer who was among the first Indian Americans in Chicago, having arrived in the early 1960s. The interview includes discussion of his devotion to the Pushtimargiya religious practice and his...
Mr. Zakir Seedat (Broadening Narratives)
Zakir Ibrahim Seedat, 66, is a Gujarati Muslim immigrant, former accountant and long-time retail worker, and a front-of-house administrator at the National Indo-American Museum. The interview includes discussion of his childhood in Bombay/Mumbai, the hardships imposed by the death of his father at a young...
Ms. Mridu Sekhar (Masala Chat Project)
Mridu Sekhar, 69, is a retired owner of a successful healthcare technology consultancy and active participant in Democratic politics. The interview includes discussion of how geopolitical history during the Cold War and the Indo-Pakistani war...
Mr. Gopal Shah (Broadening Narratives)
Gopal Shah, 44, is a Chicago-based percussionist, music educator, and former healthcare administrator originally from Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The interview includes discussion of his childhood in India, growing up in a household centered on music, and his close but strict relationship with his father, a professional...
Ms. Tina Shah (Masala Chat Project)
Tina Shah, 39, is a designer and software developer who is working hard to ensure she keeps her Indian heritage alive for herself and the next generation. The interview includes discussion of her family's search...
Ms. Prem Sharma (At Risk Stories)
Prem Sharma, 77, is a pioneer member of Chicago’s Indian American community, the founder of Apna Ghar, a domestic violence support service for immigrant women, and has played a leading role in the Indian women’s community since the late 1970s. The interview includes discussion of...
Dr. Umesh Sharma (At Risk Stories)
Umesh Sharma, 81, is a general surgeon who retired as chief of staff at Silver Cross Hospital in Joliet, Illinois. The interview includes discussion of his childhood and decision to go to medical school, his...
Mr. Prabhakant Sinha (Masala Chat Project)
Prabhakant Sinha, industrial engineer, discusses the differences between Indian and academic culture. He reflects on how much more open conversation was for students at University of Massachusetts compared to his previous educational experiences. He enjoys...
Mr. Sunder and Ms. Mangala Subramaniam (Broadening Narratives)
Mr. Sunder Subramaniam, 81, and Ms. Mangala Sunder Subramaniam, 72, are a retired couple living with their daughter and her family in Chicago and are active members of the Senior Center in Naperville. Both are originally from Kerala, though Mr. Subramanian moved frequently throughout north ...
Mr. Pratyush Swarup (Broadening Narratives)
Prathyush Swarup, 28, is an award-winning independent photographer and videographer who focuses on using his art to capture joy. In the interview he recalls an unconventional, well-traveled childhood—-an international/IB boarding school in the hills outside Delhi, annual trips abroad, and a home overflowing with animals...
Mr. K.T. (Broadening Narratives)
K.T., 34, also known as DJ Cash, is a physician practicing physical medicine and rehabilitation and music producer invested in blending South Asian and African American sounds and cultures. Born in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, he immigrated to the U.S. at age four with his parents...