Keeping Alive Telugu Traditions in Uncle Sam’s Country

Strengthening Cultural Moorings

Padmaja Sonti – Board of Director, Tri-State Telugu Association shares her thoughts with Sulekha.com

One casualty affecting people living away from their homeland is losing their cultural moorings. The role of cultural organizations becomes important, because they help maintain continuity of traditions cultivated from generations past and present.

The Tri-State Telugu Association serving the Telugu community in the three states of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin is doing yeomen’s service. It helps the community maintain cultural bonds to its ancestry.

Padmaja Sonti, the culture savvy charismatic administrator of the 500 member Tri-State Telugu Association shares her views with Sulekha.com, touching upon interesting topics ranging from culture to childhood memories about India.

# Education – School, University

I did my elementary education in Vijayawada and then did part of my High School in Chicago, IL.  I have a degree in Liberal Arts from University of New Hampshire.

# Homemaker or Career Oriented

I was in Insurance sales for 7 years before joining our 25 year old family business with my father. I'm now a partner of Shanthi Sai Travels, Inc.

# Things that you feel nostalgic about your childhood, school, college & festivals celebrated in the country of your birth.

For the longest time I used be to very nostalgic about my elementary school in Vijayawada, I used to miss my friends, teachers and even the vendors who would sell seasonal items by the school. To this day I really miss the Mango vendor at the school. Those were the best times of my childhood. As far as festivals I really missed the Telugu New Year - "Ugaadi" and Diwali the most because of the fun and festive atmosphere in our home and also our neighborhood. The smell of fresh raw Mango’s and sweet fruit during Ugaadi was amazing and can't get it out of my head. Then Diwali was the time of the year when it was all about sweets and fireworks. My parents would buy us plenty of fireworks and kids in the neighborhood would all hang out playing them till the wee hours of the night.

# Reminiscing about food you may have eaten at a roadside eatery, or at a decrepit restaurant in India.

Like I said my favorite was the street vendors at the school and lunch break or after school we used to go as a group of friends and eat the Tangy Mangoes, Amla and so many other amazing seasonal fruits that were only available in South India. There was also this amazing vendor by my grandparent’s home who used to sell these delicious spicy mirchi bajji and fritters and I could not get enough of them. To my great surprise the vendor is still there to this day except- the size of the Bajjji's and fritters has reduced and the prices have gone up. There was also this Sweet Kharkhana near my grand parents place and everyday at around 4 pm the air in the neighborhood would be filled with the sweet smell of fresh hot mithai and my goodness it was delicious. Sadly its not there anymore but I still crave for their yummy sweets today.

# What is it, that you miss the most about India and would love to get it in US.

Indian community in the US has come a long way in recreating the tastes and smells of home cooking in India but to this day there are only two things that cannot be matched in the US. The amazing Mangoes of South India and the Amla fruit that we used to eat with a mixture of salt and chili powder. We have some really amazing restaurants stores that cater to all our nostalgic tastes.

# If you are US born, how were you acquainted with the culture of your parents?

I was born in a town called Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh and moved to the US when I was 15. So I think I was very acquainted with my own culture and traditions by the time we moved to the US.

# How often do you travel to India?

I like to travel to India to visit my extended family and friends about once every 3 years and at the same time we have our family visit us from India as well.

# Were you able to see progress & change in India?

Progress is subjective - to me progress is gaining better understanding of our culture, better life style, better education and in general a better way of life. Unfortunately - I noticed that in India a better life style with higher paying jobs had lead to complete and utter loss of our culture. During my last visit I realized people there have no time to enjoy the simpler things in life. Everyone is in such a rush making money and spending money. I feel that the culture that I grew up with in India till I was 15 years old is almost lost and there is still a huge gap in the way men and women are treated in most of the country.

# What are the things that you did not like about India?

The only thing that makes me sad about India was the lack of respect for our traditions. Just to give you an example: During one of our visits there I was so excited about the festival of Diwali. We were all dressed in our new traditional clothes and did our prayers and prepared a feast for the family.  Then we went to visit all our family that lives in the same city and exchange sweets and got blessings from the elders in the family. Both kids and adults in the family were busy selecting fireworks for the evening.  Believe it or not that is the way we still celebrate Diwali in Chicago with our friends and family. Then I realized the people who were our neighbors and extended family that live there were not nearly half as excited as we were. The families were dressed in western clothing, food was being catered from outside no one had time or interest to visit their relatives and celebrate together. This really shocked me and made me realize that I was stuck in 1993; the year I left India for US and to this day I celebrate every single festival with the same zeal and traditions of 1993.

# What are the changes according to you needed in India, for it to become a developed country on par with US.

The only thing I would like to see change in India is people learn to slow down a little and enjoy the life. Everyone seems to be in a rush to make more money and spend it but no one is actually looking at how their new life style in affecting their families because they don't have time for each other. It is my honest belief that India does not need to compete with US or any other country. India has the capacity to stand tall and proud and make other countries follow its lead be it in technology, education and economic progress.

# Do you see that happening in the near future?

There is a new wave of thinkers in India in every single field who are headed in that direction and I hope people realize that nothing is worth sacrificing our culture, traditions and family values.

# What does culture mean to you?

Culture to me is something that is ingrained in my DNA. It's in the way I celebrate my family, our values, traditions and enjoying the little things in life. It’s not about how you dress everyday or how you see your own religion. I feel that matters of religion and God are completely private to each individual and culture and religion are two separate matters.

# Will you enforce cultural bindings on your children?

No one has ever enforced cultural bindings on me when I was growing up. We where shown by example. When a certain way of life is shown to kids in a consistent manner, it becomes second nature to them and then there won't be any need to enforce it. For example, my children know that when we go to the temple, we all wear our traditional clothes, when we meet our families and friends for festivals we celebrate our culture with great vigor. They understand that certain art forms are very important to our culture and ask us to take classes to learn them.

# Are cultural organizations based on their language affinity needed in a foreign country?

It is an absolute must to have cultural organizations based on language affinity in foreign country because as much as we are all of Indian origin, we need to understand that we all come from various cultural and religious backgrounds. There is no way we can possibly do justice to any one culture under a single Indian organization. These affinity organizations bring people of similar back grounds together and give them an avenue to celebrate their uniqueness.

# Wouldn’t it be nice to project a unified India organization, without a language tag?

On paper it is a nice idea but in reality it would not work out as there will be a lot of confusion. The unified India organization might be a great concept from a social awareness and social up-liftmen perspective but if it is cultural and religious awareness affinity organizations are the only successful ways to go.