{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/vt1gh9cx03/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Fernandes, Parul"]},"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":["Fernandes, Parul (interviewee)","Verma, Michele (interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2015-08-03 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["eng (primary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["Parul Fernandes 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)","Oral histories (topical term)","Immigrants (topical term)","Community development (topical term)","Emigration and immigration (topical term)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Keyword"]},"value":{"en":["indoamerican"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type"]},"value":{"en":["Moving Image"]}}],"summary":{"en":["Parul Fernandes 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/000/210/365/small/open-uri20231027-1243258-50cbt7_1698433370.jpg?1698418971","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - FIS-OH0042.mp4"]},"duration":3447.47737,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/210/365/small/open-uri20231027-1243258-50cbt7_1698433370.jpg?1698418971","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-houstonlibrary.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/210/365/original/FIS-OH0042.mp4?1698418965","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":3447.47737,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\n\nAnd they were great travelers. Every vacation we traveled and we had great fun, so I think I got that traveling instinct from my dad especially. I have traveled about 45 countries by now and I want to make it 50 before I die, so that I have at least seen half the world according to me. So this is one of the reasons I am that international; I think those seeds were sown at that time. \n\nMV: And was your household a joint family household growing up or was it just with your parents and siblings? \n\nPF: No, we did have an uncle who stayed with us, but he was also my father’s partner in business and things like that. So when my father passed away he brought us up. So that was a real traditional thing. I mean, he saw to it that our education was completed, because we were in school, in high school when my father passed away suddenly with a heart attack, and he was the one who really didn’t walk out on us. He took care of us, and he sort of brought us up and saw that everybody settled down in life. So he was there till I got married, so we looked at him like an elder -- my mother called him elder brother, and we looked at him as an uncle who was very fond of us. \n\nMV: So as a girl how far did you go in your schooling? You were saying how your mother really treated you the same as your brother and encouraged and fostered your education, can you tell us about your educational path and your professional path?\n\nPF: I remember we grew up -- we went to a Protestant school and we went every Sunday to church, because of the fact that the school would want us to go to church on Sundays to learn the Christian values. And we went because nobody said no to us from home or anything. \n\nAnd then suddenly the government of India at that time, and this is way back, I am talking about in the 50s, decided that not all children have to go to church if they are in a Christian school, they can do moral science instead of learning the Bible in the school, which was one course. You could go and learn moral science, like Aesop Fables or Ramayana or Mahabharata, with stories that give values. \n\nSo my mother opted for that when she was given the choice. So every year we used to, we being twins, I am a twin, so we had two sets of books, and every year we would sell our set of books to the next class kids. And so I was going out of the house and I remember this very clearly, I had all the books, science books, math books, and I had the Bible on the top, because the Bible was no longer needed, I was not going to go through the course with the Bible, so I just put the Bible on the top and I was going. \n\nAnd my mother saw me with this pile of books and she said, where are you taking your books? I said I am going to give it for secondhand to the next group. She said, but what is on the top? I said the Bible. And I had a very, big thick Priest Bible, leather-bound Bible. And she said, don’t take that and sell it, go and put it back. That’s a religious book. You have read it, you have known the value of it, and I don’t want you to sell that book. You can sell your math book. \n\nSo that time itself, though she was an uneducated person, she knew what was right and what was wrong and she valued all those things. That’s why it was a little difficult when I married a Christian and I could not understand why she did not jump up and say, yes, good. But it was because I think she was afraid of the society, what society would say and things like that, that was a fear in her, and that was probably the reason why she didn’t say, oh, I am so happy you are marrying a Christian, because we were Hindus and you are marrying a Christian. \n\nBut these values were there, so we were very liberally bought up, but we were also told to sit back and think, sit back and not to do certain things. And she wanted us to be home by 5:30, 6, not spend the nights, evenings out or something. These are the values of the Indian traditional family that the girls are more protected when they are young, because teenage pregnancies would not take place and all those things could be avoided. \n\nBut we never understood that because we were kids and we wanted -- but I always had a companion, because I had a twin sister. So to me it was a joyous childhood. I didn’t have to even look for a friend who would play with me all daylong and nightlong and I could fight with that person all the time. \n\n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=315.0,602.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\n\nSo we were always together, and that's one of the reasons why I never feel lonely even today. I think it's the twin thing, the twin effect or something like that, that it doesn't make me feel like I am all alone for 30 years in this country. I always feel like everybody else is there for me. So I don't feel at all that I am alone and I have to do everything by myself. I don't cry over any of these things at all. It bothers me why people feel alone, and I don't feel that. This is one of the things.\n\nSo I grew up very strong parental support. And I remember that Hindi was -- I failed in Hindi, and my mother had told me that if I ever got a red mark on my report card, I would have to clean the floors. We already had five helpers in the house, but she was very strict about that red mark. \n\nSo once I did get a red mark, which is I failed in Hindi, and Hindi was supposed to be our national language, and it couldn't be that, so I got scared and I told my eldest sister to sign on my report card. Mommy is not here, she has gone out with dad. You please sign. I have got to finish up and wrap up with everything.\n\nSo she, my sister, signed it, but just to my bad luck, as soon as my sister signed it she came, and she said, what are you doing? She said I am signing her report card. Let me see she said, and she just took the report card and she said, there is a red line, there is a Hindi red line, what do you mean by failing in Hindi?\n\nSo I got scared and I told her that I can't understand the difference between che and ja, they both sound the same to me, and I get mixed up and I make my spellings because of that. So my dad said, okay, don't worry about it, I will teach you. And I was quite shocked that he said, because he was a -- he had -- we had theatres and every night my father had to go to the 9 o'clock show to collect the money and he would come home at 10,","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=602.0,630.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":", I mean, when would he have time to teach me, like I thought?\n\nSo anyway, the matter got resolved that he was going to teach me and that I would be fine. So I got out of trouble at that time. But he did take time, because after dinner, his rule was in dinner everybody has to be home for dinner, and after dinner he would sit with me and he would say, okay, ja for jungle and che for cheez; cheez means thing in Hindi. So ja and che, he would make me practice, he would make me write things with ja and che, for half an hour at least, half an hour at least. Then he would say, okay, practice it. I am going to do this collection from the theatre and come back.\n\nAnd so there was always this interaction with my parents and so I always had their support, I had their support. And he taught me never to value too much -- give too much importance to money, because he says money comes and goes. And we used to have heaps of cash on the table, which were sort of separated by the coins, like you have 10 paisa; that time there was an anna, one anna, like you have a quarter, in Hindi, and we used to help as kids to separate it, but we never got any money out of it. Only when we went to school there was one anna given to us to buy sweets or to buy fruits, only one anna. We had a Chevrolet car at that time, but we got one anna.\n\nSo it was like we were rich, but we were not rich in the sense, we only got one anna, because my mother said everybody else nearly gets one anna in your school, so you are not getting more. You are not showing off.\n\nMV: So how did this little girl make her way to America, can you tell us about your journey here?\n\nPF: Yeah. It is strange that I always taught English to international students in India also. And then my husband fell very ill, kidney failure. He had got kidney failure, though he was a footballer. I don't know what happened in his physiology, and I had to struggle trying to get him to be dialyzed in Poona, because there was no dialysis available. \n\nSo in Bombay I learned how to dialyze and I brought him to Poona. I asked the hospital to give me a doctor, and I learned how to dialyze and wash the kidney. Kidneys were not disposable kidneys that you get here, they were these huge kidneys that you had to take out and wash and then put a paper inside and then put a layer on the top. It was just totally different. If somebody were to tell me -- show that even today in America, they would say, what, this is what you did dialysis on? But they were American kidneys, but they were this huge.\n\n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=630.0,897.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\n\nSo I learned all about that and I wanted to set my -- my husband was very young, he was 35, and when he passed away he was 40, so you can imagine. I was 39 when I widowed. But the five years between that was like trying to help him live somehow, somehow make him live, make him feel, because he was doing his PhD. He did complete it during all that time in Office Management. He did his PhD in Office Management.\n\nSo we struggled in finances, we struggled in the healthy region. I set up a kidney foundation so that other people could get it. And I came in emergencies and helped people how to do the dialysis. I counseled the wives that this is what you have to give them to eat, see that they don't do this and do that. So I did my best, plus I worked, because I had to earn money, I had to go to college and teach. So I did all that. \n\nMV: What was your employment then?\n\nPF: I was a lecturer, Assistant Professor, Lecturer, Assistant Professor for English, and he was also the same in Management. We were in the same college at that time.\n\nMV: So you are fully employed, you are caring for your ailing husband?\n\nPF: Yeah.\n\nMV: You had no children?\n\nPF: No, I did have two miscarriages, and we were going to adopt a child, but he fell sick, so we decided not to do that. And then we had one transplant there, and that was a hard part, because in transplant we had to have a live donor. So strange people; I had to put an advertisement and strange people started calling me and asking me out and things like that, because they could give their kidney for my husband. \n\nNow, that was very, very, very difficult, I couldn't do that. I just couldn't do that. I said, if you want to give, give, otherwise don't give, kind of situation.\n\nSo as a woman I had to struggle with this. What am I to do, save my husband and do this or just go out with this man whom I have never seen in my life because he is promising a kidney? So those were the struggles, internal one. I never told my husband about it, but they were internal women struggles that women have to experience.\n\nBut my family was there, my mother was there, my brother was there. We had a human history story of the struggle for survival. It was really a struggle for survival, because I had to collect funds. I had to deposit $30,000 in US in order to get the operation done, which I did. I mean, I am happy that I did it because I wanted him to live.   \n\nMV: And where was the operation done?\n\nPF: It was in Brooklyn, Downtown Medical Center. \n\nMV: So it was out of a crisis, a health crisis that brought you to the States? \n\nPF: Yeah, yeah, it was this crisis that brought me to the States. I always taught about Harlem and I always taught about all these things, but I never had seen Harlem. So when I came here I especially took a bus to go to Harlem in New York in order to see Harlem, because I had taught essays about Harlem and things like that, and I wanted to. \n\nSo when he did get the transplant and through all the ups and downs; we had to export medications from Germany and things like that, and we brought him back to India fully, well enough to work, but after six months he could not survive. So then I had to think twice again as to what to do with my life. So I started again going back to college and teaching as I was teaching before. \n\nBut there was a turning point; in Christianity, because people are buried, you can go to the spot and talk. So after -- my classes started at 7:30 in the morning to","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=897.0,4290.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":", and after","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=4290.0,4290.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I used to go back to my mother's place, normally I should go back to my mom’s place and have lunch with her, so that was the plan. But between","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=4290.0,4290.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"and","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=4290.0,4350.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I used to go on my scooter and go to the grave and talk to him, as if he was there, like he was alive; today this happened, that happened. It was just like nothing had ever conspired between the two of us.\n\nSo one day when I was doing that, I was on my scooter, there was an international student whom I had taught English coming on the other side of the road. And he was injured on his knee, I could see the blood coming, and he was walking with his cycle, and his cycle was all twisted. So I stopped and I said, Bassem, what happened? He said, oh, I met with an accident. \n\nSo I said, okay, okay, where are you going? He said I don't know, I am going to some doctor, someplace. I said, wait, and I turned around and I took him to the hospital, because I knew the hospital doctors and I sat with them and saw to it that he got attended to.\n\n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=4350.0,4807.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\n\nMeanwhile, the hour got over, the","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=4807.0,7890.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"to","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=7890.0,7950.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"hour got over, and I was supposed to go home and have lunch with my mother, because I was staying with my mother; I wasn't staying alone. I thought, my God, if I don’t go at","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=7950.0,7950.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":", my mother will start worrying; I am not going to the grave to talk to Tony, but I am going to go and have lunch with mom. \n\nSo I went straight and had lunch with mom, and that night, that evening was a turning point for me again. I thought to myself, why am I holding on to the past? Why am I not thinking about the present and the future? Isn’t there something wrong? I have a whole lifetime, I don’t know how long I am going to live, I must do something about it.\n\nSo I decided that what am I good at? Okay, I am good at teaching. I am good with students, college students. I am good with international students. I love all these cultures and eating food with them, keeping them in my house, and things like that. So why not I go out of this whole scenario, make a change, total change, and learn to live life in another country or do something crazy.\n\nSo I decided. I told my mother, mother, I want to get a change, because everything reminds me of him here and I need to get a change. So she said, okay, take a world trip ticket, go around the world, just relax and come back. I said, I don’t think that’s going to work. It’s going to work only if I really go and stay somewhere. \n\nShe said, okay, then go and study. I said, yeah, that’s a good idea, I will go and study. So I started applying to all the schools, and this is within the year after my husband’s passing away.\n\nMV: And what year was that?\n\nPF: It was in 1982 he died, and 1983 I came here as a student in the School for International Training in Vermont; a very cold place. And I remember very well that I was like this, in a sleeveless blouse and a sari in the bus and Vermont is very countryside, and there were cows, the Holstein cows, the black and white cows were there. And I said, oh my God, I thought I left the cows behind in India, and everybody in the bus started laughing that, oh my God, look at her. And it was cold and it was this thing. \n\nSo that is how brought me here to a place totally different from New York or a big city and I went to this place where --\n\nMV: Can I ask, what was your perception of America before you arrived, did you have some views of what America would be?\n\nPF: Yeah, when I came in 1981 for my husband, I stayed in Staten Island, New York, so I had seen New York with the skyscrapers and I had seen New York with all its hustle and bustle. I didn’t know that a campus or a school which is up in the mountains in Rudyard Kipling’s estate that it’s going to be so countryside; I had never, never, never imagined America to be that countryside.\n\nSo it was a little shocker for me and that’s why when I saw the cows I reacted like that, I had left the cows in India, why are they here? So that kind of reaction was there. \n\nBut it was a beautiful experience, because one, the cold; I never knew the snow, because I hadn’t seen it in Poona or Bombay, and so when the first flurry came in I was like -- I had already gone and bought my snowshoes and my sweater, turtleneck sweater, so it was like really different. And I went out in the flurry and wanted to hold the snow, things like that. And everybody was saying, look at her, she has gone crazy. \n\nI stayed in the dorm. At the age of 40 when you go to study it’s like a different setup, you have young people around you and you are much elder and you are acting so crazy.\n\nMV: Was it an international population or was it a lot of American students, tell us about the student body that you first --\n\nPF:  Yeah, it was an international population, but it was still 50 American and half international, because it was a Master’s in International Development, and that led me to the next job, as I will tell you. \n\nThat international development I took because I wanted to learn about how to bring about development in an international field. Even though I was in education background person I was very much interested in like community stuff. I think because I followed my mother everywhere she went. She took us wherever she went. So we were like a little bit on that community side. \n\nSo I did my Master’s in international development there, at that time. And I learned a lot and then I was finished -- not completely finished, I had a thesis to finish, but we could do it anywhere. So I was planning. I did my OPT with teaching in College of Staten Island and Hostos Community College in New York and a consultancy for Granite Stones and things like that.\n\nSo I had this diverse felling. I don’t like to be stuck with one thing for a long time, it sort of gives boredom to me, so that’s what happens.\n\n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=7950.0,8712.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\n\nMV: So what was your first opportunity in your field of international development; did that come soon after your studies?\n\nPF: Yes, after my studies I just -- my professor Habte; he was from Ethiopia and he told the Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific, they were looking for a Country Director, and he told them that you will find this girl in New York and she will be the best candidate for you. \n\nSo they first meet for an interview, which I didn’t want to go, but when I went for the interview I found it very challenging, because it was the Republic of Kiribati; the spelling is K-I-R-I-B-A-T-I, but the T is sounding like an S in the local language.\n\nMV: So this is an Oceanic country?\n\nPF: Yes, and it’s 33 islands all like --\n\nMV: Little atolls.\n\nPF: Little, little atolls allover, and I was sent there as a Country Director, because I had to do UNICEF projects and USAID projects and Australian aid projects and Canada fund projects and all those kinds of projects, which I also helped develop them and got the funding also, but my job was to implement; the first one was the UNICEF one. \n\nAnd when I found the first one at UNICEF was on children, nutrition and children and I was monitoring and evaluating the project, I found blind children and I said why there are so many blind children, and found they had vitamin A deficiency. So I did the vitamin A survey of 4,614 children in those islands.\n\nMV: So you were living for how long in the Republic of Kiribati?\n\nPF: Four years, four years I lived there. I really was there for two years contract, they extended it for two years, and then I had to come back because I had not completed my thesis. \n\nMV: How did your family feel about you becoming this international global woman?\n\nPF: I don’t know if I ever told them. I think they just -- they were happy to see me every year, because I took round the world tickets every year, because they gave us a month’s leave, so I took the round the world ticket and visited India, my mother and said hi to everybody and went on. So as long as I was there and I was happy, they didn’t bother me. They just thought, well, she is doing her crazy stuff, whatever it was. \n\nBut it was very, very interesting, being the first Indian woman there, it was very interesting to -- but the culture is so much eastern also, but they are very --\n\nMV: So just to clarify, you were the Country Director for the People Organization?\n\nPF: It’s called Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific.\n\nMV: Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific, okay.\n\nPF: Now it’s no longer existing, but it was part of the UN system, and they always had these little -- people don’t like to go to tiny places, but they need the development there, so we did business development, we did vitamin A survey, we did prevention and control projects, we did business SEED revolving, economy SEED projects. But we had to stand in line to even get a cabbage or a cauliflower, which cost us $6, so I grew okra. \n\nI brought okra seeds from India whenever I made a trip, I brought eggplant seeds, and I made containers. I brought the oil drums from the ships that were leftover, I cut them into half and washed them, and then I used pig manure and sand, because there was nothing but sand there. And told them to look at the moon, because 15 days you turn this over; when the moon becomes full, again turn it over. And we created soil and we grew okra on sarees, cotton sarees, we layered it, and we grew okra because the okra roots go sideways and they don’t go down.\n\nSo we did all kinds of things like that, so that the nutritional part of that -- because they were so used to what came on the ship was just like rice and sugar, they would just mix rice and sugar, coconut, fish, that was what they did, and beer, because they could buy those things, so they were eating out of tins and they were eating out of --\n\nMV: So you helped tremendously to increase nutrition for the country as a whole, that’s just amazing! Was there a lot of community support in terms of fellow Indians in that Republic?\n\n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=8712.0,8991.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\n\nPF: They would come as UNDP consultants for one month, two months or something like that. I have seen some of them who came with wife, not with full families, but only with their spouses they came. People came from all countries there, but they were -- we were expats and we were like a small colony of expats. We had crabs walking all over our houses sometimes. It’s a very different scenario, totally different. Even describing it takes hard for somebody to transfer that how you lived with these things happening. But the people are so good, they are very nice, and they are Pacific Islanders so they are very peaceful people.\n\nMV: So why didn’t you become a Pacific Islander, how did you make your way back to the United States?\n\nPF: Yeah, I had to because I had to finish my thesis and my master’s. I had spent all my money trying to get here, so I wanted to come back, and the school said that they wouldn’t give me my master’s if I didn’t do it, so I had to come back.\n\nMV: And finish your thesis?\n\nPF: Yeah. And so when I came back I was in New York and I finished the thesis there. And then my niece came to Houston for her PhD with University of Houston, and she kept calling me saying, she was the only member of the family here and I was the only member who had been here so alone so why don’t I come? And meanwhile, her mother, my twin sister, came to New York from Bombay and she said, well, you are not working right now so let’s come to a holiday and go to Houston together. So when I arrived in Houston --\n\nMV: What year was that that you arrived in Houston?\n\nPF: I think I arrived in Houston in 1992, and I said, wow, I don’t have to shovel snow here, because in New York I had to shovel snow; there had been 26 snowstorms that year, and I said, oh, thank God I don’t have to do that here if I move here, because they were brainwashing me to move down here. And ultimately I did. \n\nAnd I though there would be many development sort of organizations here, so I did come here, and when I moved I found out that I had no development organizations here, the international development organizations. So I decided I would go back to teaching, because I was already having the experience of that. \n\nSo I started adjunct at UH-Downtown and an adjunct at Houston Community College. So I had the morning job at Downtown, UH-Downtown and from 5:30 to","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=8991.0,11430.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"an evening job with HCC, at the Milby Campus, it was a school which they had for the evening for the Hispanic population, for ESL and all that, so I became the Campus Director for that.\n\nMV: So did you experience any racial or religious or cultural discrimination in your search for work? How was your first experience with Houston?\n\nPF: With work, no, I think everybody was very supportive; the only thing was finding work which was satisfying to me. I was still looking for a development thing, like I wanted to do something in development, so between the times I taught, I had an afternoon spare time so I went to the Director of Community and Resource Development and I said, listen, I have done so many projects, so many things, I write grants, can I not do something for HCC? And she said, can you show me samples of what you have done? So I showed her samples and I told her that if I write a grant can I be the Director. I very clearly told her that I --\n\nMV: Took initiative.\n\nPF: Yeah, yeah, because I know how to implement what I wrote, basically that’s what it is. And I wanted to do that kind of work also. So she said -- she thought for a while of course and she said, okay. She thought I might not get a grant, but I did. \n\nSo I went out of the -- this is very funny, because I went out of the campus, the Southeast Campus, I stood on the edge of the road, and there is just a lane and then there is the 45 South Freeway and I said, look there, and I saw trucks and people sitting in the back and children sitting on the laps of their mothers right in the front seat, the driver was buckled, but the others were just free, everybody was free. And I thought to myself, here is the problem, they are not thinking about the protection for occupants, so I should look at something that will give me money to help them be protected.\n\nAnd with that idea I went to the police station, found out how many accidents had happened because of that, and went to the State Department of Transportation to see if there is money available. \n\n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=11430.0,12890.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\n\nPF: So my research helped me to put a grant together, and we just called it Buckling Up For Life and we did it for nine years. We gave 1000 free car seats to Hispanics; we went and found out in the first year, I could remember the budget was $85,000.00. I could hire part time Hispanic teacher to speak Spanish in the community and Hispanic part time secretary so that we could reach out to this thing. Though I didn’t know Spanish at all, to this day I don’t know, although my surname is Fernandes, but it’s more Portuguese. So in that way what happened was I was able to start something in the community, in the development section and I did the research and I showed what is wrong, why they think like that. And so occupant protection became a big thing. It was called “Buckling Up For Life.”\nMV: So immediately you came and you engaged in like community development because you looked and saw problem and addressed it through the Local Community College with your grant, that’s really remarkable. \n\nPF: Because teaching was a very easy thing for me, but development was challenging. \nMV: So you were teaching, what were you teaching at the time? \nPF: English.\n\nMV: You were teaching English ESL and then you were also doing this. \n\nPF: I was in-charge of the campus also, the Milby Campus which was a little administrative, but I was also teaching grammar and writing and this and that, but I was also doing, getting into this development. And when the development grants became more and more, I had to give up my teaching. So I had to give up UH-Downtown because then my staff increased to five people as my years, and I had people going into schools and telling the mothers and telling the children. We did graphic videos, we disturbed 1000 car seats, we had all the neighborhood centers coming back together, the police come with us, we made committees and we brought it up to the safe community. And the safe community is, to make the community safe, you have to have a reminder service which you see today, like Click it or Ticket, Drink, Drive, Go to Jail, all these were slogans made by young African-American police officers and I remember that --\n\nMV: And we still see those today, reminding us to buckle up.\n\nPF: Yeah. Buckle up, yeah. So we had this.\n\nMV: So a very sustainable program. You did this for what, nine or ten years?\nPF: Nine years. \n\nMV: Nine years.\n\nPF: This is the proclamation I got from Judge Eckels from the Texas Department of State which proclaims there is Buckling up for Life and it’s a safety week that he will proclaim that. So it was a great thing that happened during my time. \n\nMV: So we should thank you for making us safer here in Houston. People drive kind of crazy sometimes.\n\nPF: Yeah, they still do. But from here when I was doing that my heart was also with India. I am an Indian. When – if you are a first generation person you cannot disconnect that much. Your body is here and your soul is there, you ask any first generation person would feel that way. So I thought that India also needs development and I need to help India in some ways. \n\nAnd at that time HIV Aids was a very, very tabooed thing and it was, lots of cases in India was shown and I visited one orphanage place in Bombay where I was shown a woman who was thrown out on the streets by her family and she was pregnant because she was shown HIV Positive and there were children who were HIV Positive also. And this orphanage was taking care of them. Giving them nutritional food and this and that. So when I saw that I said you know what we should do something in this field now and in education what can I do? \nMV: That’s very progressive minded because that’s a very tabooed topic, right?\n\nPF: So I wrote a grant and I got – for the first year I didn’t get it, but the second year I again got it with Delhi University and then I got the top most colleges and universities in Delhi to come to you to -- with Houston Community College, come and write a curricular for HIV. There was no curricular on HIV and they said how will we do it? I said we will train you. So three weeks training we gave to all the presidents of the colleges because I didn’t want faculty, because faculty has to still take permission from the president. If a president does it, president doesn’t have to take permission from faculty. So I got them to revisit the whole thing. We learnt how the credit transfers take place.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=12890.0,13171.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"the circularized to be designed, we went through all the hospitals, went through all the NGOs that do HIV. For two weeks it was like from morning 8 o’clock in the morning to 8:30 in the night, they were like all the time working on HIV and what is HIV and why it is there and how it can removed and things like that. \nSo then internships for students were also designed in that and the grant actually wanted only five curriculum to be designed. They were so excited with these two weeks they did 12 and to this date it is sustainable. \n\n (","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=13171.0,13205.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\nPF: Thank God it is still working; it is still there, all right. So this is how the stuff started and I was able to go into international initiatives with the HCC, you know, like we there for them and it was there that the Vice President of the University of Houston saw me and there was a big function that Ruth Sasscer, the then Vice Chancellor, she gave it to the community to tell how this international setup partnership was done. So I took her to India to sign the MoU, it --\nMV: Memorandum of Understanding.\n\nPF: --of Understanding and in the grant itself it was written to do that and then we did it. So the Vice President of International, University of Houston Main Campus was there in the gala","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=13205.0,13262.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"or in the party that was given and there he recognized the fact that I had potential for international and I was invited to come to the University of Houston Main Campus to start the Unit of International Studies and Programs.\n\nAnd that’s how I became a Director of International Studies and Program. It’s very strange, I was telling a friend today morning Mina, that I have never applied for any jobs, I’ve just realized it’s just like people know me and what I do -- \nMV: They see your work and recognize it.\n\nPF: They just want to tell me to do something with them.\n\nMV: And you have been invited to take on responsibility.\n\nPF: And so now I retired from the University after 12 years.\n\nMV: Can you tell us more about that experience; tell us what it most rewarding from that job as Director at International Studies and Programs?\n\nPF: Yes, International Studies and Programs was more on the study abroad kind of situation and for me that was a very, very good setting for me, because I had to put the policies together, I had to put the procedures together, I had to put the whole study abroad unit together and the students -- normally people even to this day many parents asks me why do you want to send our students abroad, people come from abroad to our place. I said, but, you’re missing out on knowing about them, they are much more -- plus more, one more point higher than you because they know about you also.\n\nSo you got to know another culture in order to tolerate the way of thinking, in order to tolerate the way of eating, dressing, why do they think like that, why do they talk like that, why do they behave like that, why do you wear a sari when you can just a wear a blouse or a shirt and a pant and be comfortable. Is this uncomfortable, is my question? No, it is not. It is meant for the heat, it’s so open and the heat India is so much, you don’t feel the heat even if you’re wearing a sari and it is a comfortable thing. It’s not at all uncomfortable. But you think it’s uncomfortable because if I tell you it’s 6 yards wrapped around me, you’ll say, my God! So much of material, you know, but you don’t know how it is wrapped, you don’t know why it is wrapped, you know.\n\nSo there are dresses in India and the diversity of India and the different dresses of India, pertained to the climate of that place.\n\nMV: So did this position help you to foster, I guess, culture programs of India here in America through that position?\n\nPF: Yeah, in that position I was able to open up minds of the young people because if I did a vacation program for the Americans to go even to Mexico where they think it’s very dangerous to go. For three weeks just to learn a language stay with a family, eat with the family and see all the museums and cultures, learn the language in just $2,000.00 with the flight. That is all five things put together and if I could get such a cheap program made for students from here to go, I don’t see why they shouldn’t and that during their vacation time where they’re not missing out their regular course, plus those credits are transferred.\n\nSo I created those kinds of program so that students no matter whatever no, no, no they say, I can still send them.\n\nMV: How many students did you send annually, University of Houston has about what 33,000 students; it’s a large university --\nPF: Yeah that’s a large number because that is because they have about, 10-15 of them are international students that are coming from outside. It’s very, very -- it’s a very challenging job to send Americans abroad, let me tell you. It’s easier to get an international student to come here, because they’re self-motivated to come. They want to come and study here.\n\n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=13262.0,13502.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\n\nPF: So an Indian student is already thinking in school, well, I am going to go to America. So they are self motivated. While an American student if you ask him, will you go to India? Well, I don't want to go India, why do I want to go to India? So there is a different scenario thing here. They will go to Europe because they think it's safe. They will go to England, they will think it’s safe, because they know the language but they won't go to a place where the language is different. \n\nMV: Or what about to the Middle East, will they – did you send any student there?\nPF: Yeah. But yeah in the Middle East – yeah, when Middle East was in the crisis, there were students who wanted to go and their parents would say no, so I had to get the parents convince them that it's not the problem with the Middle East. In fact, I can show you something.\n\nHere is a student whom I sent to Jordan and this is her mother and this is me. And the mother came with her because we were discussing about the crisis situation, we discussed, we were sure that the insurance and everything was taken care of. We were sure that her safety was there. If I didn't make it -- see every child is my child, so I didn't want any child to suffer or any child to be blamed for getting anything happen to them. And at this young age what happens is they tend to think they can do anything in this world. So we have to even make them feel no, you got to be careful, you got to be safe. It's not just fun.  \n\nMV: It's an educating process, yeah. So you were in this position for four years in tremendous leadership, expanding and creating international studies at University of Houston, but you are retired now.\n\nPF: Yeah.\n\nMV: But you haven't given up your passion for international curriculum, have you?\n\nPF: No.\n\nMV: You have founded your own company.\n\nPF: Yeah.\n\nMV: Can you tell us more about your company and the name of it?\n\nPF: Yeah. Let me tell you, University of Houston was not four years but 12 years.\n\nMV: Oh! 12 years, excuse me. \n\nPF: It was 12 years.\n\nMV: Yeah, 12 years.\n\nPF: Yeah.\n\nMV: It's a long tenure.\n\nPF: Yeah, and after I retired I thought that oh, I am retired and I went for a five continent trip and I relaxed a lot and things like that. But in the back of my mind there was always this pinching thought that I must do something, I must do something. So I formed a company which is being a higher education consultant now. XPAN, it is called X and PAN. So X is Energy, P is people, A is All, and N is Nations. And XPAN International -- I want to bring the energy of the people of all nations together. That is my goal, that's my aim. There is so much energy with the young and with the people, why not we bring them together?\nSo now at this point of time in my life I feel like I must culminate this whole thing in one ball. The Earth is like a ball and I am imagining it like all the energy is coming together, and that has lead me to do free needs assessment for the Pandit Deendayal University. And they have now offering me a position where I will be their global, the Executive Global Director for global initiatives.\n\nSo in India, so I am going back like a full circle trying to help India in globalizing themselves, their campuses, like I want the food in the cafeteria to change.\n\nMV: Are you repatriating back to India?\n\nPF: Somewhat. But it's a contract. So you can go, and I will go and come back.\n\nMV: And where will you be staying?\n\nPF: I will be placed in Gandhinagar, which is very next to Ahmedabad. It's in Gujarat and I can speak Gujarati so that's one advantage. So I tell people learn languages, this is the best way to go, and I can help them realize that from every aspect they have to be global. So even here I miss -- I think here the universities feel that we must get students and be global, because of the intermingling of the students here. But we also have to be global.\n\nMV: We have to globalize ourselves, yeah.\n\nPF: Yeah. So food has to be global, people’s mindsets have to be global of accepting people. They have to grow and break those boundaries because after all the Earth was made without boundaries. God didn't create any boundaries. We created those boundaries of countries and places and all that. And we made our own world like that. For me, I have no boundaries. I personally don't have anything against anybody. I have had international students stay with me all the time. I’ve had Taiwanese, Bulgarians, and now I have got Iranian students staying with me. So I personally want to live that life also. I like that life. I don't want to live in a shell, a cocoon of my own. So my vision now is that I also joined Foundation for Indian Studies.\n\n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=13502.0,13803.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\n\nPF: because for me India needs a lot of help and I being an Indian I have that – it’s like home for me. So I feel like I must have as many Indian students as many foreign students as possible because eating with them, living with them, you don’t know how nice it feels to know that you have crossed borders and that you don’t have boundaries in life; after all life is life. That is what we should","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=13803.0,13832.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"and each human being is unique, it’s different, it’s very special and I want to feel that and I want to live that kind of concept.\n\nMV: So can you tell us more about your contribution to the Foundation for India Studies and to other community and professional organizations here in Houston?\nPF: Foundation for India Studies, I joined because Krishna Vavilala was very passionate about introducing Hindi and India Studies into the University of Houston when he first came. And I thought as an Indian I felt very attracted to the idea that it is right. If he can learn Chinese and Japanese and Spanish and everything, why can’t we learn Hindi?\nMV: Yes.\n\nPF: And India is coming up and so many global companies are moving there, why that introduction is not taking place? So it is because nobody is pushing it, nobody is trying to do it. So when he came up with the idea I was very much and with them -- with him, on that basis. We did do some work, we did collect some money and started India Studies and Hindi Studies there, but organizations like University of Houston changed hands, with Dr. Bose we had – we did the first MoU with him, and then this one came along, Renu Khator came along, and so she has her own ideas. And so we let it move, we didn’t – we let it go from our hands to her hands so that she could move it the way she wanted to move it, after all she was President of the University.\n\nBut we have also made the community realize that by having talks of like Slumdog Millionaire movie for example, did it do good to India or did it not do good to India?\nMV: To the perspective of Indian-American, like did it help her, type of the question?\nPF: Yeah, sort of question, so we wanted to sort of bring the sparks come out in the community so that then you have the lecture series and this Indo-American Project came along and we are doing that. So I think it’s great, it’s moving on its own space and it’s wonderful to have it and I did what I could do. I cannot say I did much, but I did try and contribute and now I am a trustee of ICC, Indian Culture Center. I was also awarded by them as the Professional Woman and the Indian Film Festival -- because my father and all came from entertainment, I am attracted to that.\n\nMV: The passion of that, yeah.\n\nPF: So wherever I can do something I am more supportive now. I don’t want to take lead roles but I want to be supportive, I want to show the path, I want to show the direction and from the behind give that little push, say that okay, I am here for you, just go on, that sort of thing.\n\nMV: So any regrets in coming to America?\nPF: Oh no, oh no, I love America. I think we got maximum freedom, America is a land of opportunities which is 100% true. I don’t think I would have had that many opportunities in India, because the culture is more on – there are very enterprising women there, not that they’re not, but I think in India we have a little more family structure stronger, and so people don’t -- women don’t tend to get out so much, but otherwise it’s, I think it is wonderful to be in America.\n\nI think I would like to do my job there and come back here and be part of what the world say, East or West, it is like that. Though Mark Twain said they won’t meet, I think they would do meet, if you let them meet.\n\nMV: Do you envision -- how do you envision the future for the next generation of Indian-Americans?\n\nPF: I think the Indo-Americans are very self-motivated people, and so they are very successful because of that. they tend to go toward success and be successful, because inside them there is this fire, you know, of being successful. And I think that is the positiveness of the poverty in India, because poverty in India -- none of the families want their children to be poor, so they push their children to be educated, they push their children -- and the children push themselves to go ahead.\n\n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=13832.0,14112.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\n\nMV: High expectations. Yeah.\n\nPF: Yeah. Yeah. So that is the positiveness of poverty that I have realized and I think that that push is so great that all the Indo-Americans here, I don’t think any Indo-American will come here and say, I don’t want to do anything, I’ll get money anyway. They’re not about that type. They’re very entrepreneurial even in India you will see a vegetable lady with a basket selling, a man","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=14112.0,14139.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":", so entrepreneurial spirit is there in India. Unfortunately there’s too much population that the distribution of economy doesn’t take place. Otherwise India would be a great country by now, but it is moving, it is moving in development and its basic resources are required.\n\nSo I think that if a person like Indo-Americans take both the trends, they look at India, they look at here, give back and forth, back and forth in whatever direction, but they must choose properly, not just give. They must choose properly, they must choose their passion; they must take that direction","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=14139.0,14178.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I give to everybody a little of what I earned, just a little of what I earned, because I know that this will help them in some way. That is what I feel like and I think that today people are realizing all that, though educated mass","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=14178.0,14197.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365/transcript/60439/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"are realizing that.\n\nMV: So on a final note, have you fulfilled your passion in international education and other passions that you have in life?\n\nPF: Yeah, I have two passions which are very strong, one is traveling. I love to travel and that I have done a lot. And another one is education and international education has been in two ways, one, people who are international and also telling people about the world. So I think I have fulfilled and I am going towards it still, it hasn’t yet reached the 100% thing, somewhere they are in the 90s right now, so I still have a 10% to go. But I am going towards that.\nMV: Well, it’s been such an honor to hear your life story, just to have someone --","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108920/file/210365#t=14197.0,3447.47737"}]}]}]}