| Career Moves by Lavina Melwani
Veering off the career path.
Would
you buy your groceries from an engineer or take cooking
lessons from an architect?
Would you hail a lawyer and yell “Taxi!”
Would you buy a painting from an economics professor?
Well, in America you could — and you would. In this
Land of the Free, people are free to remake their identity,
free to reinvent their life story. In this fluid, ever-changing
place, earth-bound accountants, doctors and engineers
can learn to fly without wings, achieving closet passions
that would have been just a dream in India.
Indian immigrants often break existing moulds and age-old
traditions when they decide to emigrate, leaving terra
firma for unseen destinations and new experiences. But
here out-of-the-box thinking can take them into new,
uncharted territory as they test out new career choices
and leave the safety and security of familiar, well-trodden
paths.
Some immigrants veer off the traditional career path
and head out in new directions, into places they might
never have dreamed of when they were growing up in India.
The IITs in India churn out a few hundred engineers
who head off the the United States every year — and
yet it’s a safe bet that many of these brilliant professionals
are doing something far removed from engineering in
the New Land. As are a number of lawyers, physicians
and computer programmers
Om Dutta Sharma, a lawyer turned taxi-driver
from India, was featured in the documentary Taxi Dreams
on PBS.
Sometimes, the move has prompted by a passion for another
vocation — and sometimes it is driven by necessity.
Some astounding success stories have as a result. Farooq
Kathwari, who is from Kashmir, graduated with an MBA
from New York University in 1968, and worked with Rothschild
Inc. on Wall Street, rising to the rank of vice president.
Yet all along he had been importing artifacts and textiles
from Kashmir and supplying them to Ethan Allen, a noted
furnishing store. Giving up his job, he established
a company called KEA (Kathwari Ethan Allen) and set
up a small factory in a bowling alley making lamps.
Later the partnership venture merged with Ethan Allen,
and Kathwari rose through the ranks to become CEO. When
company founder Nathan Ancell retired, Kathwari took
over as president and chairman. In 1989 he acquired
the company in a leveraged buyout, and revitalized it,
making it one of the most successful furniture companies,
with hundreds of retail outlets in the United States
and abroad.
The famous Bose Speakers are the result of a professor
not being quite satisfied with the quality of the speakers
available in the market — and deciding to do something
about it. Not only did he invent a better speaker, he
created a multimillion-dollar corporation in the bargain!
Philadelphia-born Amar Bose was an assistant professor
of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology in 1956 when his groundbreaking research
in psychoacoustics led to an innovative speaker design
and the formation of the Bose Corporation.
Today it is the world’s largest manufacturer of component
quality loudspeakers, with multimillion-dollar annual
sales and thousands of workers. Even as his research
driven company serves up cutting edge products, Bose
continues to teach at MIT, deriving enormous pleasure
from sharing his knowledge.
If Ismail Merchant had followed his MBA from New York
University to its logical conclusion, we might never
have had Merchant Ivory Films and his 40-year award-winning
collaboration with director James Ivory. The result
has been such classics as Shakespearewallah, Heat and
Dust, A Room with a View and Remains of the Day. Raising
funds for an unknown company are always hard, but Merchant
was savvy enough to shoot his first film The Householder
in India, financing it with funds from frozen rupee
accounts of major American distributors, which in those
days could not be repatriated, but could be utilized
to make films in India.
That MBA probably came in very handy in creating Oscar
winning films on a budget, although his cooking talents
surely helped in luring big stars to the Merchant-Ivory
films. He’s also had a successful career as chef and
author of several cookbooks. In recent years Merchant
has also turned film director, making films, including
In Custody, The Proprietor, Cotton Mary and now, his
latest film The Mystic Masseur, which is to be released
this month.
If Ismail Merchant had followed his MBA from New
York University to its logical conclusion, we might
never have had Merchant Ivory Films.
It’s hard to believe, but Julie Sahni, cooking teacher
extraordinaire, was an architect with city planning
before she took to the cooking pots. She recalls her
mother’s initial disappointment when she abandoned architecture
to take up cooking — a career that had a housewifely
ring to it. Now of course, there is great pride, for
Sahni has become an international culinary star as the
author of several best-selling books, including the
definitive Classical Indian Cooking, which is now in
its 38th printing and is the No. 1 Indian cookbook on
Amazon.com.
Sahni was selected last year as one of the three best
teachers in the world by International Association of
Cooking Professionals from 11,000 contestants, and her
highly regarded cooking classes are reputed to be the
most expensive in New York. Her new book Savoring India
(Time Life) was released simultaneously in 16 countries.
The remarkable Raji Jallepalli, who died recently, was
renowned for her fusion cuisine and for the Restaurant
Raji in Memphis. Yet few knew that for many years she
was a microbiologist. In her book, Raji Cuisine she
tried to explain the change of careers: “Perhaps the
only answer is kismet; even as I was standing in the
laboratory, incubating tissue, fate had framed my future,
and it was not under my control at all. It is as good
an answer as any I have been able to formulate.”
A self-taught cook, she slowly segued toward experimentation
in fusion cuisine and opening her own restaurant in
Memphis, Tenn. As she explained it, “The artistry of
the kitchen appealed to me as much as the alchemy. It
would take me many years to recognize that the science
and art of the culinary world were much more satisfying
to me than was the well-ordered laboratory of a microbiologist
who happened to also love the fine arts.” Jallepalli
had just opened an innovative bed and breakfast place,
Maison Raji and was executive chef at Tamarind Restaurant
in New York.
Julie Sahni, cooking teacher extraordinaire, was
an architect with city planning before she took to the
cooking pots.
New York artist Rina Banerjee, whose work was featured
in the prestigious 2000 Biennial at the Whitney Museum
of American Art, was actually an engineer before she
gave up the safe world for the unpredictable one of
an artist. Asked about the consequences of the career
move, she noted.
“There’s still very little value or respect for artists.
You don’t get the same reception as you do when you
say you’re an engineer.” The art world has, however,
recognized her talent and her thought-provoking mixed
media installations have been featured in several galleries
and museums in the United States and abroad.
Sometimes the reasons for changing careers are prosaic
and out of pure necessity. Dilip Raj is that rare commodity
— a bashful, publicity shy CEO! He did not even want
his name used in the story, so the name that you see
is not his real name. But his acumen has led this engineer
to create a multimillion-dollar packaging company over
the past 26 years. When Raj first came to the United
States, he was a civil engineer, specializing in earthen
dams!
“When I went to look for a job in the same field, I
was told that the only people who make earthen dams
are the U.S. Army corps of engineers,” he recalls.”“
I went there and they said I had the expertise but I
had to be a citizen of the U.S. to get that job.” Raj
had to settle for mechanical engineering and got a job
making bellows. He wasn’t too happy with that and took
a job as a manager overseeing the manufacturing of bottle
caps. He rose through the ranks over the years and eventually
bought out the company. Raj says of the challenge of
entrepreneurship, “It’s a great feeling and I really
enjoy it. I’m glad I was given the opportunity.” He’s
made it into a very successful company packaging components
for pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, and has no regrets
that he’s not building dams across America.
Sunil Hali of Cinemaya..
Then there’s Gordhan Soni, who has masters in civil
engineering and worked with the city for 18 years. Yet
he is the man responsible for getting the chappati atta
and the pickles on your table! What started out as a
side business has ballooned into a multimillion-dollar
grocery business called the House of Spices. It is today
one of the biggest food businesses in the Indian American
community and turns out thousands of pounds of groceries
a day in its manufacturing facilities, including 35,000
lbs of Laxmi besan every day. He says, “I guarantee
that the“besan is never more than 48 hours old“— even
people in India don’t get it so fresh.”
From an expert in engineering Soni has become the kingpin
in the”daal and atta business. Even his brother, who
has a master’s degree in chemical engineering, has left
the profession to be a part of the House of Spices business.
Any regrets about leaving engineering? Says Soni, “None
at all. But that does not mean that I don’t appreciate
the value of the learning. The scientific background
comes in very useful in any business, helping us to
analyze things and ask, ‘What’s happening?’” In all
these career moves, it was a matter of serendipity,
of opportunities just waiting to be tapped. In others
it’s been a matter of economic viability and talents
being tapped in diverse fields. The motel industry probably
has more than its share of engineers and accountants
who all saw the motel route as a way to independence
and quick success in a new country. The Rama brothers,
whose company JHM Enterprises in Greenville, South Carolina,
owns several hotels and motels across the United States,
were once practicing engineers and architects. As they
acquired hotels, the brothers brought their varied talents
to the business and became full-time hoteliers.
Namaste — Say Hello to Love is a film by NRIs who
all happen to have other professions.
Others have had to change careers and shift gears out
of sheer necessity and to survive in America. Om Dutta
Sharma, a lawyer in India, was unable to practice in
the Unitde States since he was not eligible for the
bar exams. He turned to driving a cab to support his
family and has been a taxi driver in New York for 22
years. This remarkable man has managed to save 15 percent
of his earnings to start a fund for the education of
the girls of his village. He says, “Girls are left behind
in the villages in every walk of life except producing
children and education can play a part in changing this.”
When Sharma inherited the family house and a mango orchard,
he started a school for girls in this house in his village
of Dhubhar, Kishanpur in Saharanpur. The Ram Kali Kanniya
Pathshala for the primary education of girls is recognized
by the Uttar Pradesh Government and the school has 238
students, who get regular health checkups besides the
education. Sharma has received funding from many supporters
for his trust and plans to build three middle schools
in nearby villages and even a high school in his village.
Sharma is probably the only philanthropist-driver riding
a yellow cab in New York.
Indeed, who knows how many college educated taxi drivers
are plying passengers in the streets of New York? The
dotcom meltdown, the recession and the events following
9/11 have caused their own chain of career moves where
people have compelled to try new fields as they see
their jobs disappear. Giving up a profession, especially
if it’s one that is highly regarded and brings in big
bucks, is always hard because it’s so much a part of
your persona, your very identity.
What many immigrants do is stay with their day job and
pursue their other interests on the side, and sometimes
these take over and become the main course. Sunil Hali
is an engineer who came to the United States in 1987,
after graduating from the University of Roorkee, with
double masters in civil engineering and bagging gold
medals in both his bachelor and masters. He worked for
several years as an engineer in the United States and
even now consults in engineering management in New York,
managing large size projects. Yet his passion for media
has led him to don several more hats from filmmaker
to event presenter and publisher.
Amar Bose’s dissatisfaction with his speakers led
to the world’s largest manufacturer of component quality
speakers.
Hali got together with like-minded professionals and
started out making serials such as Mausam, using local
talent. This first NRI –produced soap opera was shown
on Doordarshan as well as ZEE TV. He then founded Cinemaya
Media, a company that develops and promotes entertainment
and performance events.
The company has produced several programs for television
including the soap opera Dollar Bahu and N-R-Eyes, a
biography series featuring non-resident Indians that
was shown in India as well as on Zee TV. Hali also presented
the Music Festival of India, and filmed events like
the Miss India Worldwide, Bollywood Awards and the Double
Wicket Cricket Championship for television.
He has also launched the North American edition of The
Indian Express through a franchise agreement with the
parent company in Mumbai, and is a consultant to EBC,
the first South Asian 24 hour radio station in the U.S.
“My effort is to make a media space which offers Indians
serious recognition in the U.S.,” he says. “We are not
featured in the media for our capabilities and contribution
and if my company can provide that additional strength
through print, radio, events or television programs,
I will feel I made some difference.”
Interestingly, the people in Hali’s team at CineMaya
have also come from other professions: Nayan Padrai,
who is the COO of the company also happens to be a screenwriter
and actor, and his award-winning script When Harry Tries
to Marry is being made into a film; Arvind Agrawal,
who launched EBC Radio, is a computer professional.
Dhiraj Parekh, who joined CineMaya as a film and video
producer, is an engineer. He has himself produced several
films including Bawandar, Wings of Hope and Aaghat in
the last three years.
Parekh’s film Wings of Hope is directed by a computer
programmer, Raj Basu. The engineer/computer programmer
combo seems to have worked well for the film won the
Best Screenplay award at the Rhode Island International
Film Festival. The film, which was made on a tight budget
and was shot in the Washington D.C. area, addresses
issues of drugs, alcohol abuse and teen pregnancy as
Indian Americans undergo the generational clashes. It
was shown in the Calcutta and Mumbai International Festivals
and won the Best Picture Award at the Cinevue International
Film Festival in New York.
Cinema is always in the blood of Indians — especially
engineers, it seems! After all, Nagesh Kukunoor, the
acclaimed filmmaker of Hyderabad Blues and Bollywood
Calling was an engineer in Atlanta before he became
a filmmaker in Mumbai! In fact, NRIs who are not filmmakers
by profession seem to be getting into the act, be they
motel-owners, engineers or financiers.
Ethan Allen’s Farooq Kathwari started out as a small
time importer.
Namaste – Say Hello to Love is a film conceived, written,
produced, directed, acted —and most importantly funded
— by NRIs who all happen to have other professions.
Except for the two lead roles, all the actors are local
talents and everything from costumes to music is a local
endeavor. The film is financed by Dax Patel of the Riya
Entertainment Group, directed by Viral Lakhia, a one-time
chemical engineer, and produced by his brother Shyamal
Lakhia.
The art world also has its share of high-flying professionals
who are holding on to two worlds. The Bose Pacia Gallery
in Chelsea was co-founded by two physicians, Arani Bose
and Steve Pacia. Their partners and wives, Sumita and
Sheri, are both computer specialists. The IndoCenter
of Art and Culture, a non-profit gallery in Chelsea
is founded by Rajiv Chaudheri who worked for 13 years
at Goldman Sachs and now runs a technology hedge fund.
Arts India Gallery which opened last month in New York
is founded by the Dutta brothers : Prajit is an economics
professor at Columbia University and Projjal is an architect
who’s done his Masters at MIT. The other partners are
Mamta Prakash, an architect and urban planner and Prajit’s
wife Susan who is a classical pianist. The passion for
art led the four to start artsindia.com, an online gallery
and then the brick and mortar gallery on Fifth Avenue.
While many of the second generation Indians are following
their own star, be it films or journalism, others are
multi-tasking and keeping their options open. After
all, the talented Purva Bedi got an MBA and worked on
Wall Street before she took to acting full time.
Born in a family of physicians, Bharath Guntupalli is
turning to Kuchipudi dance. You’d expect an all American
high school student to be taking on baseball or ice
hockey, but Guntupalli of Houston, Texas, has been bold
enough to tie bells on his feet and pursue a dying art
— Kuchipudi dance. In fact, Kuchipudi, which originally
started as an all male performance centuries ago, now
has very few male dancers, even in India. 17-year-old
Guntupalli becomes the first male dancer to perform
his Rangapravesam, or debut, in the American South West,
and over 1,000 people turned up for the event in downtown
Houston. Guntupalli is the first male student to graduate
from Anjali Center for Indian Performing Arts in 25
years under Guru Rathna Kumar. So does he propose to
amke a career of it? He says: "I am surrounded by medical
pofessionals at home and in social circles. I feel I
can make an informed choice about the medical profession
comfortably but, being in America, many career choices
are open to me. But whatever profession I may enter,
I'm pretty sure I'll still be dancing. Dance is an art
form, and like all art forms, it provides spiritual
relaxation in some way. I think that no matter what
I end up doing, that spiritual relaxation will always
be necessary."
There’s nothing like trying different paths for who
knows where the less-traveled path may lead? Having
passion with your morning bowl of cereal is a good way
of ensuring that life is full of satisfaction — and
surprises.
So as people put on multiple hats, juggle their identities
and reshape their workplace, we are going to see Indian
Americans take on many different roles. Gordhan Soni
smiles as he sits in his foodstuffs and condiments empire,
churning out thousands of pounds of mithai and chevda
and pickle. “When I started this business without a
dollar in my pocket and without any knowledge of tuvar
daal and atta, everyone told me I was crazy. But this
is America! Here you can create anything and everything
is possible.”
..-
End Of Article.....
|
