{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/kh0dv1f91q/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Reddy, Avn [and] Swaroop"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/252/original/HPL_ArchiveBannerCDM2.jpg?1738348845","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Publisher"]},"value":{"en":["Foundation for Indian Studies"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://rightsstatements.org/page/CNE/1.0/?language=en\"\u003eCopyright Not Evaluated \u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePermission to publish or reproduce must be obtained from the Foundation for India Studies, Houston, Texas.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Source"]},"value":{"en":["Houston Public Library Special Collections"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Avn and Dr. Swaroop Reddy (interviewee)","Sitya Mutyala (interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2015-06-19 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["eng (primary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["Avn and Dr. Swaroop Reddy interviewed about culture, family, and educational background, as well as migration, contributions to the community, and work experiences."]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["digital recording, sound"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject"]},"value":{"en":["Houston (Tex.) (geographic term)","Doctors (topical term)","Oral histories (topical term)","Immigrants (topical term)","Emigration and immigration (topical term)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Keyword"]},"value":{"en":["indoamerican"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type"]},"value":{"en":["Moving Image"]}}],"summary":{"en":["Avn and Dr. Swaroop Reddy interviewed about culture, family, and educational background, as well as migration, contributions to the community, and work experiences."]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://rightsstatements.org/page/CNE/1.0/?language=en\"\u003eCopyright Not Evaluated \u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePermission to publish or reproduce must be obtained from the Foundation for India Studies, Houston, Texas.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Houston Public Library"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Houston Public Library"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/252/original/HPL_ArchiveBannerCDM2.jpg?1738348845","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/210/361/small/open-uri20231027-1243258-cyf7dz_1698433223.jpg?1698418823","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - FIS-OH0038.mp4"]},"duration":3088.49067,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/210/361/small/open-uri20231027-1243258-cyf7dz_1698433223.jpg?1698418823","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-houstonlibrary.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/210/361/original/FIS-OH0038.mp4?1698418819","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":3088.49067,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361/transcript/60435","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361/transcript/60435/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\nAnd of course, I used to work on the campus for minimum wages, $1.30 an hour, but it was a different world, and after moving all the places then I moved to Houston in 1981, and that’s when of course, when we first moved, still there were lot of Indians, lot of Telugu people, not as many as we have now. And since then Houston grew a lot, but when we came in it was a little different I mean.\nSM: Yes, yes. I know, we have good friends even in Alabama and in Houston too. Now I want to ask you, you were instrumental in bringing three or more multimillion Telugu conventions to Houston. Those large-scale conventions definitely contributed to Houston community. Please comment or express your experience during these conventions.\nAVN: Yeah. I mean, actually Swarupa and I, somehow we have a lot of passion for this -- to work in the organization, Telugu organizations, or temple, and religious organizations, and then fortunately I was given the opportunity to serve in different capacities; President, Convener. But my first experience really, I will never forget that, as the Convener for 1996 ATA Convention, and before that of course 1989 also we did the TANA Convention and I was the advisor. That time we did it at the University of Houston, and it went really well. That was my first experience actually, and Vinta Janardhan Reddy was the Convener. So that was a great opportunity; learned a lot. \nAnd then I became myself Convener in 1996; that was American Telugu Association Convention at George R. Brown Convention Center. It was an overwhelming experience. I mean, the whole Telugu community of Houston came together. We worked together for, I don’t know, almost a year, meetings after meetings. That itself was a lot of fun. I mean, coming together, the whole community coming together and helping. \nAnd it was, still people talk, as one of the best conventions, because it went like a family type kind of thing. Everybody came together and people really enjoyed. We had lot of fun with that convention. \nOf course, always Swarupa -- they always say in our organization, if we elect one or get one, we get one for two, so that’s the way it has been. She has always -- whatever I do she helps. She was a big help in that convention.\nSM: We have several beautiful temples in Houston. One of them is Sri Meenakshi Temple in Greater Houston, actually in Pearland. This temple is a big tourist attraction in our State of Texas. Over the years you raised millions of dollars for this temple, in addition to volunteering lots of your time; of course, two for one. We would like to hear your valuable experience in this multicultural environment. Can you let us know how rewarding this experience is and what you may have learned along the way?\nAVN: You used the right word, rewarding. That is, I work in lot of nonprofit organizations, but always tell, just going to the temple and serving the temple gives me lot more really. It’s a very rewarding experience. I have been associated with the temple since 1981, ever since I came to the United States -- I mean Houston, not United States. But I learned a lot; the way of life and how to deal with the people. \nI served in several Boards, six Boards, and they gave me plenty of opportunity, as a Pooja Community Coordinator, and we have separated the first Kumbabishekam. Kumbabishekam, they do in all our Indian temples every 12 years after the installation. So in 1985 we did this Kumbabishekam. So 1995, I have to correct it. So that time almost like 10,000, 15,000 people attended these Kumbabishekam activities, and we had a helicopter going up and showering the flowers and all that. So I was the Pooja Community Coordinator, that was really I mean experience for the lifetime really and I enjoyed thoroughly with that. \nAnd then later of course they asked me to be the fundraising, like you are saying, for the Kalyana Mandapam. We built a beautiful Kalyana Mandapam. We went around and asked for money from the Houston community and they were so generous, and not only Houston, we even got money from out of town, like Lufkin, McAllen, different towns. So that was the first project. \n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361#t=292.0,608.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361/transcript/60435/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\nAnd then I became the Chairman later, and that’s when we built The Youth Center. So yeah, it's a very pleasant experience, and it's a lifetime thing. I mean, once you are a member there, once you work, throughout life you want to do something in the temple. \nSR: This is not just Telugu; it’s multi-language people move there.\n\nSM: Yeah, Swarupa, you are always very helpful in all of AVN’s endeavors and also volunteered for Meenakshi Temple several times and in multiple ways; Board members and all, in different positions too. I remember one time you climbed up all the way to the top of the Meenakshi Temple Gopuram to put lights on it for Deepawali, the festival of lights. What made you do that and how do you get so much energy to do so many things like that and also tell us your experience in this area?\n\nSR: I like to do challenging things, different things, and new -- to do some new things. Until then they were not putting any lights or anything. Deepawali means lights, and I wanted to put all over the Gopuram; nobody was volunteering. So they brought a lift and nobody was experienced, but I got a chance, and I started. Then it continued and it was","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361#t=608.0,703.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361/transcript/60435/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"over the years. \nSM: I remember AVN, at that time AVN was saying something, my heart was going all the way up there. \nAVN: Yeah, she was in a little bucket and they lifted the whole thing. \n\nSM: That was quite interesting. \n\nAVN: Interesting you remember that. \nSM: Yeah. Congratulations on several of your awards, and you recently received in 2014 an award too. Please tell us about it and also other significant awards.\n\nAVN: When you serve in these different organizations and all that, people do award. And this one, Akkineni Award; I mean, I am a big fan of this great actor, I mean, who has done so much to the Telugu film industry, but not only Telugu film industry as a person, he was a great person. I mean, there is so much to learn from him, and he lived a good life and he lived up to 95. So getting an Akkineni Award that was so special to me; I mean it meant a lot. I was very appreciative that and that was a good experience for me to receive that award.\n\nSM: Excellent!","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361#t=703.0,789.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361/transcript/60435/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"? Excellent! Swarupa, you are a successful physician, and not only that, you are so talented and creative. First, can you tell us how many children and grandchildren you both have and where they are and what fields they are in? \n\nSR: We have two children; one girl, one boy, Chandana and Suraj. And Chandana has two kids; she got married in 2000. And the next one is Suraj and he has three sons; one set of twins, and a total of five grandchildren we have. And Chandana is a physician herself and specialized in family practice, and Suraj is a radiologist. And we have good time with our grandchildren. And they are in Dallas, both of them. Soon we are planning to move to Dallas. \nAVN: Son-in-law is also a physician; his name is Harry. Our daughter-in-law is Mitali. Her hands are full taking care of three grandchildren and husband so she stays home. But we have been really fortunate, they have found good partners, good spouses, so they are happy. They have been happily married for almost 15 years, my daughter, and 14 years son. That's the best part of the life, I mean.\n\n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361#t=789.0,900.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361/transcript/60435/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\n\nSM: Can you tell us the grandchildren's names?\n\nSR: First one is Tara, and next one is Sean, the other one is Neil. Then the set of twins, they are Rohan and Rishi.\n\nSM: Beautiful! So how do you feel about taking your whole life from Houston to Dallas? \nSR: I don’t know how it will be, but our goal is to be with the grandchildren for the next few years until they go to high school at least. We have done everything so far, now I think it is time to spend with the grandchildren.\n\nSM: I totally understand. I totally understand. AVN garu, you also served as the Board of Director to Indo-American Charity Foundation, please tell us about your part and experience during that time.\n\nAVN: A lot of Indian organizations, what we have is we serve our community and also serve the community back home, but this particular organization, I was so impressed when they asked me to serve on the Board. This is something to give back where we live, so that was a novel idea, because this is the best country in the world. I mean, I don’t think anyplace you get this kind of opportunities, where a person with -- I came with $8 in my pocket, because that’s all it was allowed, and there is no limit, sky is the limit in this country, and we have some very successful people who have become billionaires.\n\nSo in that country when giving something back to the local community and that was that main objective of this organization, so I really enjoyed. I did my two terms with them and enjoyed collecting the money and participating in the local community activities and donating money for the local people and all that. So it’s still continuing and they are doing an excellent job.\n\nSM: Excellent! You touched on some of your service projects in India, do you want to elaborate on this?\nAVN: Right! With organizations, especially the second organization we formed, because lot of like-minded people, they wanted to more serving back home and also serving the people who are in need here, and with that intention we formed this organization in 2011 called North American Telugu Association and I was the first President for that organization.\n\nSo in that we came up with an idea of Seva. Seva means serving. Seva days in India. So in that one, two weeks we travel all over Andhra Pradesh; that time it was Andhra Pradesh and we conducted this health camps, five major -- not major, but the small towns actually in different parts of Andhra Pradesh and actually Swarupa also helped as a physician.\n\nAnd it was such an overwhelming experience again there, treating people there who are in need, and it was like hundreds, even thousands came in, so that was one of the things we did. \nAnd then we also awarded scholarships for the merit students, high school graduates going into college. We picked up like five students from each district of Andhra Pradesh; there were 21 districts, so we picked up, but there were some extra, so about 125 scholarships we awarded going to the college. \nThen another interesting project we did was drinking water. There are a lot of villages, they really, even now, they don’t have safe drinking water. It’s very affordable and lot of people came forward to do this project, and with the local rotary organization, with the collaboration with them we have done in 25 villages. These are projects where you get the safe drinking water from the well, they purify it. It’s a very good project and they are still continuing doing, but at our time we did 25 projects as a pilot project and that was a very good thing.\n\nThere are a lot of things back home you could do, especially with US dollars, with little dollars back home you can spend money. So yeah, I wish -- I mean, I am hoping that they continue.\n\nSR: Many villages and schools, they don’t have restrooms for girls, so they are doing some of them.\n\n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361#t=900.0,1204.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361/transcript/60435/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\n\nSM: Excellent! Shri Krishna Janmashtami is celebrated in a big way in George Brown Convention Center in Houston. I see in your bio that you had coordinated in 1997 and 1998, we would like to hear about that.\n\nAVN: That’s when all Indian communities come together. I mean, it’s such a joyful celebration. And Lord Krishna, I know everybody knows, and it’s not just a religious part, but actually it is like a social, where small children come and dance and they dress like little Krishnas. So it’s really lot of fun. And then there is dandiya, garba and dance and all that, and good Indian food; lot of restaurants come and serve the Indian food.\n\nSo coordinating that is another good experience I had, because there it’s not just from Andhra Pradesh, the whole Indian community come together, and it’s at the George R. Brown Convention Center. It’s almost like starts at 4 o’clock and goes until midnight.\n\nSM: Yeah, midnight, because that’s when Krishna is born.\n\nAVN: Right. It’s lot of fun. And that’s the one really attended by 10,000, 12,000 people. So that was another nice experience I had with that. I miss a lot of those people, and a couple of them recently passed away. So it was nice. I mean, when we moved into Houston, these were all different experiences, we went through that.\n\nSM: Very good! Now, Houston is a very cosmopolitan city; we have so many different, like you are talking about, different Indian communities in our city, like Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Gujarati, Marwari, Punjabi, Marathi, Kerala, et cetera, what are your feelings on the future of these communities; will they all slowly unite as one big Indian community or maintain unity in diversity?\nAVN: I think maintain unity in diversity, because India is special in that respect that different districts have different kinds of culture, but when it comes to overall, there are a lot of common things among all of us; in terms of Indian weddings, how we treat our parents, we take care of the children, that common culture is there as Indians. And of course, India is thousands of years tradition, cultures is there, even though it was ruled by Muslims and ruled by Britishers for 200 years, but we never lost that, that bond, that kind of traditions we have, and that’s common among all different communities, different places of India.\n\nSo I would say yeah, we still have lot of common things, but again, each region has their own organizations, associations, and there is nothing wrong in that, to preserve our heritage and culture. That’s what I tell our children, you have to take the best of the two worlds. I mean, India has lot of values, like our culture, tradition and here we have lot of values like discipline and values of giving, so you can learn from both and really become a best person.\n\nSM: Best person, yes.\n\nAVN: So it’s good to have all these various organizations, and everybody is now doing these annual events where thousands of people get together, so I hope it will continue. And we should never forget where we came from, and that’s what we always tell, that’s the only way you will be recognized, otherwise you will be just one of the people with no recognition. And you see lot of the communities, like Jews community, they maintain there, and like that I think we have to always remember where we came from, I mean.\n\nSM: Okay, I want to ask you this, what do you think and how Houston contributed to your professional and personal growth, you both can tell?\n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361#t=1204.0,1487.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361/transcript/60435/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\n\nAVN: I mean, before coming to Houston I worked in South Carolina as a consulting company and then in Alabama, but because we both, after she completed residency and she was looking for a job, and she found at VA Hospital, and that’s when I looked at Houston, and Houston is a center for engineering and there are plenty of opportunities in Houston. There are big -- almost all named big companies are in Houston. So I thought, yeah, that’s the best place to move for both of us. \nSo we made a decision to move, and as I said, there were so many opportunities. I worked in two, three different consulting companies. But it’s a very good experience working in big companies, like right now I work for Jacobs, and we travel all over the country, all over the world with the company work and all that, and it’s a great opportunity to work for big companies like that, and wife can tell about her.\n\nSR: I worked for VA Hospital; it’s a federal government hospital since 1981 till 2006. I retired in 2006, and after that also I have been working part-time outside, and it was good experience as a physician. I loved it.\n\nSM: All right! So now, I would like to hear how -- all your contributions to Houston, I know you contributed to Houston in so many ways, please tell us some of those contributions that we have not covered yet?\n\nAVN: Well, I think you covered pretty much, but like you remember, you are a part of that, our Telugu Association, that’s how we started. There is a Houston TCA, they call it Telugu Cultural Association, that’s where our children grew, with all the other Telugu children. \nSee, that kind of opportunity is not there in other cities, but here that togetherness, bringing our children, along with other children, and they even learned this Telugu language from this; we used to have this Telugu school and then Telugu picnics and going to this cultural program. We have our kids dance. So those memories, we will never forget that. \nAnd in that we have participated. And Swarupa used to teach dancing and all that for the children. And we used to go to Huntsville Park for the picnics and spend a night there. So that was a great thing. \nAnd then of course, as I said before, serving in the temple, that’s another great opportunity for me. Having a temple for the religious needs, having that temple and serving there is the best thing Houston can provide. I mean, in Houston, of course we have so many temples. I mean, I always tell this is -- for anybody who -- if they want to see the temple, come to Houston. You have different temples and all that. So serving in the temple, serving in the organization and serving in the Indo-American Charity and Janmashthami, all that really made our life better in the sense. \nAnd our children also became better children because of that. And surprisingly, our children, at that time there was little resistance to learn and to do all this; now exactly, my daughter does the same thing to her children. She wants to put her in the dance school, put her in the music school. So I always tease her, I said you used to be a little resistant at that time, now you are doing the same thing, and she said, dad, you know. But they became very good person from living in Houston, so that is one great opportunity we had living here in Houston.\n\nSM: Would you like to add anything else?\n\nSR: Not really.\n\nSM: Okay. Now, even though this is a sensitive subject I like to ask, have you experienced, witnessed, or noticed any discrimination, personally or distantly?\n\n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361#t=1487.0,1786.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361/transcript/60435/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\n\nAVN: Oh! I mean, people talk about that and I read a lot, and people who are in Alabama, I think some people experienced that, they went to a restaurant and some people came and said, what you guys are doing here, things like that, and so they got up and left. But fortunately, I never had that experience, really. \nI mean, I always look on the positive side, and I always compare back home, I mean, within our own community you discriminate among people coming from other state, other region, and compared to that here, I mean, it’s open. I mean, they are -- there is so much of freedom for your religion, for the way you speak. It may be there, but at least personally I never noticed any discrimination. Maybe I was fortunate like that, having associated with the people where they treated me equally in the school and where I work. I mean, I get a lot of respect, along with my colleagues and all that.\n\nSo like I said, I know what you are talking about, but personally I never felt it. So I really felt good. I mean, Swarupa may have a different experience.\nSR: No, no, I didn’t have any ill experiences. Even at work, if you do you get rewarded.\n\nSM: Exactly! Since we are first immigrants I just wanted to capture your experiences. Now, how integrated your family and you are in the Houston mainstream community?\n\nAVN: Well, I mean, we are part of the Houston community, but among our own family also, we are kind of a very close-knit family ourselves. My brother came first, then I came, and then at one time we had -- we tried to put together our family get together in North Carolina Mountains, and that was a big task. Swarupa and I thought about that and we wanted to do it. Then we started counting how many people we have in this country. At that time it was like 108 or 110, something; now more people are added since then. \nSo we wanted to bring everybody together like that, but we were successful in bringing about 65 or 70 of us. And yeah, that was a -- we thought that was the best thing to do. But we stay together and still, when it comes to the Houston community, we will always be part of it, and we wanted to be obviously a part of it. So we consider, of course our children as a small family, and then big family, and then bigger family, that’s how we treat ourselves, part of the whole community.\n\nSM: Any involvement in any political organizations?\n\nAVN: No, that’s one thing. I mean, I like politics, I like sports, so I participate quite a bit. I follow during the elections and all that. I mean, I sit in front of the TV for hours and hours watch the returns, and I follow very closely. But I mean I supported people who have contested for different positions, like we have two Governors, when they came for campaigning, so we always do that, but personally, I never had that interest going into politics.\n\nSM: Okay. Either one of you founded any organizations; I know you may be founding member of some organizations, some associations, or any particular --\nAVN: Yeah. This is one thing good that -- I mean, some people say why different organizations? I always say, why not? As long as this organization work in a healthy competition and doing a good job and there is nothing wrong, because our community is growing so big now; we used to be in hundreds, now it’s in thousands. \nSo yeah, I had an opportunity to be a founding member of American Telugu Association in 1991. And before that, the first Telugu organization was ATA and I was a member, and also Regional Vice President for that organization. And in ATA I served as a Convener and the President. But in all organizations, same objectives, to serve the people here and serve the people back home. \n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361#t=1786.0,2092.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361/transcript/60435/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\n\nAnd then what happened the organization took a different direction, and that’s when a lot of our people wanted to do more community services that’s when we formed this other organization called ATA, and then I was the Founding President for that organization, and right now I am at the Advisory Council served as a President for two years. We had a convention here and the next -- the second convention was in Atlanta, and third one is going to be in Dallas.\n\nSo it’s good again. This is where we can pass on our rich culture and heritage to our children, grand-children, and we want to encourage youth to come and participate so that they can learn and all that. So yeah, I mean, I participated in some of the organizations like that.\n\nSM: Swarupa, would you like to tell us about your interest, hobbies and other talents? I know you have several?\n\nSR: I am more interested in dance, various types, and now lately I am doing some yoga also and then exercise. That’s how I used to enjoy stitching also but nowadays I am not doing much. Cooking is another one.\n\nSM: Are you going to the yoga?\n\nSM: Yeah, I must.\n\nAVN: Yeah.\n\nAVN: Tomorrow, yeah tomorrow.\n\nSR: Day after.\n\nSM: Day after tomorrow.\n\nSR: Yes.\n\nSM: But she put together -- I mean she is not telling all that but she put together all functions she wants to make it special. When it comes to birthdays or our 25th anniversary and our both children’s weddings, and she is a very good planner and she wants to always make any function, something special.\n\nSR: I plan and he executes.\n\nSM: You plan and he executes. Perfect combination. So did you learn dance, classical dance when you were young?\n\nSR: Yes, I did learn Bharatanatyam for five years.\n\nSM: Did you do Arangetram?\n\nSR: I couldn’t do that, Arangetram at that time, but I finished all the course though.\n\nSM: I remember all your dance work, not only both of you but other kids training, other kids for --\n\nSR: Yeah, whatever I know, whenever there were cultural programs I used to train people.\n\nSM: Exactly, I remember our Telugu school –\n\nAVN: Right.\n\nSM: -- camps and functions as well too. So, okay, what do you think about the future generations of Indian background in Houston? Will they maintain their identity as Indians for a long time or will they be mixed in the melting pot zone? Each one of you?\n\nAVN: See initially we used to think -- at least I used to think that maybe and after us our children may or may not follow our religion and traditions and all that but at least now I had to change that thinking, looking at my children and they are following all those traditions and they are passing out to their children. So I think somehow we don’t have any like a rigid kind of things in our religion, a religion is like a way of life and as long as our children they like what we do, the way we treat among ourselves and all that, if those values are there, religion is -- half of it is like I said, how we live and how we, you know the values --\n\nSM: Way of life.\n\nAVN: Way of life, and so that is not going to change. I think it will continue for generations at least I hope it will continue because this has something good and they practice, when they practice they want to tell their children and then hopefully their children will tell another children. So it should continue but it may not be at the same level, but I think it will continue.\n\nSM: What do you think, Swarupa?\n\nSR: Every generation they lose some and eventually after several generations it will get mixed into the body.\n\nSM: Mixed into.\n\nSR: Yeah.\n\nSM: I am curious what you think about the temples? Do you think they will survive with our children, grand-children and great grand-children? What do you think?\n\nAVN: I think they will survive because just looking at the history in India how they -- all the temples got survived with hundreds of years of ruling by other religion and still the temples were intact and people’s believes were intact.\n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361#t=2092.0,2413.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361/transcript/60435/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\nSo same way now I see, every Saturday, Sunday when you go to the Meenakshi Temple, or any temple in fact, you see hundreds of hundreds of youngsters coming to the temple and when I started serving the temple, like several years back, 30 years back, I used to think, I don’t know after 30 years what happened, but now I can see that actually more people, more youngsters are coming to the temple.\n\nSo I think it will continue and definitely, but that’s good that everywhere they’re building nice temples, and that’s one thing I want to mention, Meenakshi Temple was built 30 years back and we are in expansion now, a beautiful expansion, and I think this will be enjoyed by -- because at the time when we built -- we thought, I mean, of course money was also a point. So the place at that time that was enough, but now the growing devotee population, so with that we should increase the size of the temple and add several other features into that. So this is a $1.4 million expansion project, we started few months back and planning to complete by November. There is a big event","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361#t=2413.0,2493.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361/transcript/60435/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"event. So this will be something everybody will enjoy, we are really looking forward to complete this project. So yeah, it will be enjoyed.\n\nSM: I see several times you do a wonderful job of fund-raising. Now tell us and enlighten us some of the important things that how the fund-raising should be done or how we should not shy away from fund-raising?\n\nAVN: You know, fund-raising is one thing you have to learn, you are asking money not for yourself, I mean, that’s always very tough, but when you are asking for some good cause you should feel bad if somebody says, no, I mean, that’s the first fundamental thing because if we ask people maybe only half of them will come forward and happily give, others may say something or another may even criticize you.\n\nSo you have to be ready for that, but as long as you are doing it for a good cause that should bother, that is the basic principle of fund-raising, but we have a great community everywhere, I mean, because I do raise funds for Telugu organization and for the temples and when you go ask people, they come out and give generously, and repeatedly I go there and still it won’t bother them and they can joke and fun and all that, but still people do give money, but that’s the basic principle, you should feel bad if somebody says no.\n\nSM: All right! That’s something we have to remember and I always keep that in mind. Swarupa, what professional organizations are involved as a physician or as Swarupa Reddy?\n\nSR: I was part of AMA (American Medical Association) and Texas Medical Association and Houston Medical Association.\n\nSM: Okay.\n\nSR: And --\n\nAVN: API you were also, yeah.\n\nSR: Yeah, I am a member of API also, American Indian Association, and I am part of whatever he is all the organizations.\n\nSM: All right! So tell us anything that we have not covered and any comments you would like to give?\n\nAVN: Well, I think we covered most of it what we wanted to say, but now as Swarupa said, we feel like that we served the community and now we want to go into a different phase, just be with our children and grandchildren, but of course we will never forget this Houston community, so we are always part of this. Our plan is that every month we still become – I haven’t left it, it will be another close to a year before I leave Houston.\n\nSM: It really happened.\n\n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361#t=2493.0,2699.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361/transcript/60435/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\nAVN: I don’t know.\n\nSM: I won’t believe it when I see it.\n\nAVN: I don’t know that.\n\nSR: But we initiated","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361#t=2699.0,2704.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361/transcript/60435/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"and we are building the house.\nSM: You were telling me about this.\n\nAVN: Yeah, but children have been asking, why dad, why don’t you retire? But every time I talk about retirement our office people say, no, no, you have to do one more project before leaving that. So it’s been going up for last 4-5 years. I haven’t told my office people yet, but we still, both of us love to travel, we travel all over the world with groups, we always go big groups like 40-45 people. Sometimes there’s groups among the friends and sometimes it’s family -- family group, we went to like Alaska at one time on a cruise with 45 family members.\n\nSR: We went to China.\n\nAVN: Yeah, and we went to China, Australia, and then with the families we went to Europe and Japan and South East Asia and things like that.\n\nSo we love to travel and every time we go to India. See, when we were there -- I left India when I was 20 and so at that time of course I didn’t have that much money and busy with education and all that, so never had a chance to see places in India. So this time and for last 15 years we made a point that every time we go to India see something, there are so much places to see in India wonderful, beautiful places.\n\nSo every time we go there, we travel. We went to see Himalayas, how beautiful mountains, we went to Sri Lanka this last time. So from top to bottom we just want to travel different places and cover all those things.\n\nAnd so the next time, we want to enjoy with our -- take our grand-kids and go there. So that’s our plan but we have to see how it goes. But our children are really looking forward for us to go there and join them and so we have a planning to build a house between my son and daughter’s place. My grandson, son of my son was asking, dada, where are you going to build the house? So he was trying to find out whether I am close to him or close to -- so I had to --\nSM: So a rivalry already.\nAVN: Yeah, so I had to be diplomatic, I told him it’s somewhere in between.\nSM: Yeah. That’s very good actually. You have several skills, good skills. Politically correct. Good mediator and a good diplomat. Excellent! So I wonder Swarupa you are looking forward to spending more time with your grandchildren and -- children and grandchildren?\nSR: Yes. I have my sister also there.\n\nAVN: That’s right.\n\nSR: He has his sister in Houston, I have my brother in Houston, his brother-in-law also lives in Houston. We have family here and we have a family there.\n\nSM: So you will be coming to Houston very often like you said maybe once a month for sure.\n\nAVN: Oh yeah, for sure, because I am still an associate of the temple and I like, like I said that’s a lifetime thing, once you commit you commit for life. So yeah I will be regularly coming to Houston. It’s only four and-a-half hours drive from Houston and now we have been doing it last several years, visiting our children there. So it’s not bad driving just coming to Houston and all that. And for last over 35 years we made so many friends here, we don’t want to forget them and actually they don’t want to forget us either.\nSM: We have been very good friends with you even from Alabama.\nAVN: I know, I know.\nSM: And we both moved to Houston around the same time too from Alabama --\n\nAVN: Right, right.\n\nSM: -- again, and your kids, our kids, everybody is such close friends.\n\nAVN: Yeah, this is a nice project I saw that when Krishna’s interview over the channel 13 and very good objective, this is something people who came 30-40 years back, came to this country and talking about their experience as how they came in and how they settled and those kind of things, a valuable thing for grandchildren, children to watch and know, and I mean, whoever thought about, it is one of the real good project.\n\n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361#t=2704.0,2998.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361/transcript/60435/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\nSM: Yeah, definitely I agree with you and it’s very important one since we are the first immigrants and then to capture first immigrant’s experiences before and after coming here, their impressions here and how their life has both benefitted and how they contributed to the community, and this is -- we are living a permanent gathering or capturing them permanently in Houston Public Library and archives in Houston Community College, that’s why I also feel I agree with you 100%.\n\nSo, we thank you AVN Garu, Reddy Garu and Swarupa for giving us this great opportunity to interview --\n\nSR: It’s our pleasure.\n\nSM: -- both of you and listen to all your wonderful life and experiences. You both are long time friends to us of course like I said, and also we want to thank Foundation for India Studies, Houston Public Library and Houston Community College for this great work in this Indo-American Oral History Project and giving us the opportunity. Thank you, thank you and thank you.\n\nAVN: Thank you!\n\nSR: Thank you!","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108916/file/210361#t=2998.0,3088.49067"}]}]}]}