Bangalore girl to capture untold tales of the American dream

BANGALORE: It's not only high-flying careers and streets paved with gold: Indian immigrants who land up in the US with grand American dreams also have to deal with the harsh realities of life on foreign shores, especially those who are not highly educated.
This painful reality has moved Lakshmi Gopalakrishnan, a Bangalorean on a Fulbright fellowship in University of North Carolina, to capture the travails of Indian immigrants in the US.Lakshmi, 30, during her stay in America, has witnessed "how her lesser fortunate compatriots live" in their guest country, and has voluntarily taken up the initiative 'Millennial Trains Project'.
Lakshmi will be travelling to 10 US cities by train, covering the breadth of the US from the West Coast to the East Coast, documenting their woes. These people face health issues as they are deprived of insurance. Women, in particular, face psychological issues due to isolation from familiar surroundings.
"I've been in the US for almost a year now, and on multiple occasions, have had the opportunity to have candid conversations with restaurant waiters, managers and taxi drivers. These conversations made me think about these people. Before I came to the US, I was given orientation and cultural competency training, though I'd spent a year in London for education. I thought about the immigrants who come here typically through an agent, and get no orientation to American culture. For many of these immigrants, even English is an everyday battle, at least initially," says Lakshmi, whose journey by train begins in August.
Citing the example of a cabbie's wife, Lakshmi says: "She lived in the same city as I did for eight years, but had never stepped out, except to buy groceries. She told me about her persistent back pain for which she couldn't seek medical help because her family couldn't afford health insurance. Her husband has erratic work schedules as a taxi driver and feeds a family of five with his meagre income, making it very difficult for him to address her health needs."
The cabbie's wife, ironically, is already a US citizen with no visa curbs. But she is barely conversant in English. With only basic school education, her chances of getting employment are very bleak. "She may also have been coping with social isolation, with limited access to her parents and extended family," explains Lakshmi. Her study includes stories of intimate partner violence and subjugation of women in such families.
Lakshmi is hopeful her journey will also be an opportunity for the Indian-American community to bring about a larger dialogue for social transformation and create institutional change.
"We've all heard about so many success stories of celebrated Indian-Americans, immigrants who came to the US and achieved their dreams and made it big. But how often have we read about the lives of these less fortunate immigrants?" asks Lakshmi.