Ms. Padma Chandwaney (Masala Chat Project)

Description

Padma Chandwaney, 73, is a proud Sindhi community leader, one of the first Indian Americans in Chicago, and an insurance professional. The interview includes discussion of how she had to raise her younger siblings at age 19 when her mother died and her arranged marriage. In the US, she undertook efforts to build community and guide newcomers to Chicago because she and her husband were very much on their own when they first arrived in 1963 and moved to the north side. They founded the Sindhi Association of Metropolitan Chicago for this reason in 1965, when there were only 30 of them. Padma discusses the first two businesses on the now thriving Devon Avenue Indian district, relying on public transportation, and raising her two chidlren. Other topics discussed include: the partition of India, the experience of being a minority within a minority group, and passing the baton onto the next generation of Sindhis.