English instructor hails from India
By Anni Moore
IV Leader Staff
India – the world’s second most populous country that
brings to mind sweet smelling spices, women in colorful clothes and shining
jewelry. India, that is geographically and ethnically so diverse – how can one
tell about it in 500 words? But of course, one doesn’t have to eat the whole pie
to see how good it is.
It might come as a surprise how much America is connected to
India. One needs only to look in the closet and find items made there, or think
about different computer related jobs and partnerships with American companies.
Jobs are leaving to India because of the availability highly
skilled workers who do not require the same high salary as their U.S.
colleagues.
Partnerships are formed because India lies in a time zone 12 hours ahead of the
United States and that makes it easy to arrange a 24-hour workday.
But for many people at IVCC, India is represented by Koshu
Jagasia, the English professor who has been living here for 14 years.
She says it’s destiny that brought her here. Jagasia first
came as a student, desiring to study in the US. Although she already received
master’s degree in India, she started as an ordinary student at IVCC, and earned
an associate’s degree in arts. Later she decided to apply for a job opening at
the college and has been teaching here ever since.
Jagasia grew up in Bombay, India’s second largest city and
its most important commercial and industrial center. Since it was part of
Portuguese colony for 450 years, it features gothic and renaissance style
buildings, and surprisingly enough, a long shoreline street that much resembles
Lakeshore Drive in Chicago.
Her family owned a clothing store in town, but besides being
a businessman, her father was also a poet and philosopher. That made Jagasia
fall in love with literature.
Although India in most part (with the exception of mountain
areas) enjoys climate that rarely has temperatures below 70 F, children do not
celebrate that by eternal summer vacation. Instead, they go to school 11 months
of the year.
Because good jobs are scarce, Indian schools are very competitive from early on.
Only those who study hard and do well can think of a decent future and well
paying jobs. People without education can continue in trades that have run in
their families for centuries. That is well in country, but hard in big towns
where life is more expensive.
Indian geography is very diverse. It varies from high
Himalayan Mountains to deserts to jungles to seashore.
Indian people are as diverse, both in ethnic backgrounds as
well as languages that are spoken.
At least 225 regional dialects are spoken there that
represent 16 major languages. Hindi language that comes from Sanskrit is spoken
by 40 percent of Indians; Tamil, a southern language that has been spoken long
before Indo-European settlers came, is one of the oldest languages of the world.
English is spoken in big cities. Jagasia speaks Hindi,
Sindhi, Marathi and Gujarati, and also understands Punjabi and other dialects.
India is so diverse and flavorful – and Indian food represents all these aspects
well. Ranging from sweet to spicy, vegetarian to lamb curry, everyone can find
something that they like. And this is the way one should think of the whole
country.
Jagasia says that country should not be judged by just few
famous things or places. In the country that is home for world’s largest
democracy side by side with thousands of years old traditions, there is
something for every interest.