Q&A: Indian American Tennis Champion Rajeev Ram

Rajeev Ram with his 2009 Hall of Fame Tennis Championships trophy.

Indian American tennis player Rajeev Ram visited Washington D.C. last week for the Citi Open tournament.  His trophy from the 2009 Hall of Fame Tennis Championships will be featured in the upcoming exhibition Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation.

Interview conducted by Summer 2013 intern Nimita Uberoi

Do you see yourself as a role model to young Indian American tennis players?

For sure, if there are young people who can take something from what I’ve done or if I can be helpful to them, I think that’s important.  Even if young people don’t end up playing professionally, but play in high school and college, it’s a great sport and great for learning life lessons.

Did you receive support from your parents for this non-conventional career?

My parents had an open mind, especially about me trying something different. This allowed me to pursue what I was good at and very passionate about. They pushed me to do as well as I could.  Their support has been the biggest key for me to be able to be on tour for 10 years.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your career?

Given that the level of the game is so high these days and the margins are so small, it’s a big challenge just to compete on a daily basis.  I’m always looking for ways to improve. Also, it’s not easy to travel as much as we do and be away from family and friends; it can get exhausting.

Rajeev Ram’s trophy, artifact image for the “Beyond Bollywood” exhibition. Photo by Sandra Vuong, Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.

Have you ever faced any discrimination on tour?

I don’t personally feel like I’ve faced discrimination.  If anything, I’ve been lucky to get some support from fans in the United States as an American and from Indians in the United States and from India.  It’s an advantage to come from two places – I get double the support.

Do you have any advice for young people – athletes and otherwise?

It’s so important to have a passion, to enjoy it and be as good as you can at it.  To like something and do your best at it is very satisfying and fulfilling. Don’t just conform to what you think you are supposed to do; if you really do like something, it’s definitely possible to become really good at it, and then the sky’s the limit.

More about the author
A tennis player herself, APAC Summer 2013 intern Nimita Uberoi is a rising junior at Brown University studying Political Science and Environmental Studies.

 

Beyond Bollywood: 5 Most Frequently Asked Questions

Click to download PDF flyer

A Message from Curator Masum Momaya

Warm summer greetings! One year into my role as Curator of the Indian American Heritage Project and less than five months away from the opening of Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation exhibition, I wanted to share the five questions most frequently asked of me.

1. Will this exhibition contain art and artifacts from India?

Beyond Bollywood focuses on the experience of Indian immigrants and Indian Americans in the United States; all of the art and artifacts represent life here. The exhibition will contain art works by a dozen artists of Indian origin living and working here in America and artifacts which are significant to our history as Indian Americans, including the turban of Balbir Singh Sodhi, a doctor bag used by Abraham Verghese and the Olympic silver medal of Mohini Bhardwaj.

2. Is [fill in the name of a person] in the exhibition?

Maybe – but as part of a larger story of our communities.  I, as curator, have chosen to tell our larger story of the diverse contributions of Indian immigrants and Indian Americans to shaping American history – culturally, politically and professionally. Our contributions here are larger than any one individual, and I feel a responsibility to use the amazing platform that the Smithsonian is to tell this story in a nuanced, visually compelling way.

3. I have this precious and rare [fill in the name of an object] in my basement.  Can this be in the exhibition?

We are finished collecting items for the exhibition.  In fact, both the script and design for the exhibition are complete; all the components are being fabricated.  If you have something precious and rare that you would like the Smithsonian to consider including in its collection or future exhibitions, please email me at IndianAmerican@si.edu, and I will try to put you in touch with the appropriate person.

4. How much does the Indian American Heritage Project cost and who is paying for this?

The total cost of the Project’s Phase 1 (research, the exhibition, public programs, a traveling exhibition, a curriculum and a website) is $1 million.  The revenue sources for this Project are derived from a public-private partnership which includes a significant amount of leadership and support from the Smithsonian Institution.

Earlier this summer we announced there was $200,000 left to raise by the end of 2013.  Readers like you heard the call and we raised $99,000 or roughly 50% of our remaining goal.

Help us raise the last $101,000! Gifts of $2,500 and up made by September 30^th will be recognized as Founder’s Circle Members. To make your tax-deductible gift, please visit: http://bit.ly/DonateIAHP.

5. What if I cannot come to Washington DC to see the exhibition?

Don’t worry!  In addition to showing at the Smithsonian, a version of Beyond Bollywood will be traveling around the country from 2015-2020, hopefully to your city.  If you would like more information or to help us identify a venue in your locality to host it, please email me at IndianAmerican@si.edu.

 

Designing Beyond Bollywood

Beyond Bollywood postcards. Click to enlarge.

By Masum Momaya, Curator

As I write this, Smithsonian exhibition designers are putting the finishing touches on the gallery design for Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation.  Come December, the 5000-square-foot exhibition on the second floor of the National Museum of Natural History will be adorned with artifacts, images, and works of art showcasing Indian American history.  Contextualizing these items with visual elements to transform the gallery into an Indian American space has been a yearlong undertaking.

Last summer, I chose paint colors for the exhibition walls, deciding on marigold yellow, deep purple, and bright magenta to convey the vibrancy of material elements of Indian American culture, such as our garments and spices. Smithsonian designer Lynn Kawaratani and I visited an Indian clothing shop, grocery store, and my very own closet to identify visual elements to include in the gallery design. We photographed textile patterns, matched colors with a very large book of Pantone swatches, identified recurring motifs (such as paisleys), and chose the trusty, ever-present stainless steel thali as a frame to be used throughout the exhibition.

New York-based designer Minjal Dharia gave an Indian-inspired treatment to the exhibition title, which will be carried in all the exhibition text panels, and designed various postcards to help us spread the word using a few of photographer Preston Merchant’s images.  Recently, we put out a call to the community to collect both Indian and American shoes, many of which will grace the exhibition entrance.

Colors, patterns, motifs, fonts, and commonplace items such as the thali will merge to create the backdrop for  telling our history.  We look forward to sharing both the educational and aesthetic experience of Indian America with you later this year.

Click to enlarge and view more photos.

 

Donate Shoes to the “Beyond Bollywood” Exhibition

Donate a pair of shoes to the exhibition Beyond Bollywood: Indian American Shape the Nation.

Want to be part of Beyond Bollywood? Donate a pair of new or gently worn shoes. They can be for any season, style, age, and gender. But please do not mail us your shoes, first send us photos of the shoes to indianamerican@si.edu. You will be contacted via email if your shoes are selected.

Please note that submissions are not guaranteed in the exhibition. There is no compensation for the donation and shoes will not be returned if they are chosen.

 

Call for Art Submissions

The Indian American Heritage Project of Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American Center is looking for artists to create works that use the visual of the H1-B visa as a motif or inspiration and comment upon the experience of temporary and tenuous immigration status for Indian immigrants in the United States. Themes such as migration, transnational identity, diaspora, economy, outsourcing and the role and reach of technology can also be explored.

Final works should be no larger than 6’ by 6’ and must mount on a gallery wall. All media are welcome, including:

• Graphic Design
• Painting
• Drawing
• Printing
• Collage
• Photography
• Mixed Media

Interested artists should submit a concept, including a detailed written description and sketches/images by midnight EST on Sunday, March 31, 2013 to Curator Masum Momaya at MomayaM@si.edu with the subject line “H1-B”.

Upon review of concept submissions by Smithsonian curatorial staff, a small number of artists will be asked to create the final work and submit digital representations of it by 5pm EST on Friday, May 31,2013.

Digital representations will be displayed by Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American Center in an online gallery, and the winning work will be featured in an upcoming exhibition, Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation at the National Museum of Natural History from December 2013 through January 2015.

 

Press Release: TV Asia Network Named Media Sponsor for Beyond Bollywood

Official Press Release

TV Asia Network Named Media Sponsor for Exhibit on Indian American History and Culture

TV Asia network has teamed up with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center as the media sponsor for the upcoming exhibition, “Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation.” This exhibition for the center will bring to life the rich history of immigrants from India and Indian Americans in the United States and detail their many contributions to America. Through a collection of photographs, artifacts, videos, interactive stations and stories, visitors will learn about the Indian American experience and the many dynamic roles they have played in shaping American society and culture.

“The Indian American story has yet to be fully told,” said Konrad Ng, director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. “Visitors of all ages will leave the exhibition with a deeper understanding of this vibrant community as they strive to realize life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in America. This exhibition is about celebrating a community that embodies the American spirit.”

“Beyond Bollywood” is scheduled to open in late 2013, and it will occupy more than 5,000 square feet of space at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Over a two-year period the exhibition is expected to draw more than 7 million visitors before embarking on a national tour in 2015. “Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation” is the largest project undertaken by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in its 15-year history, and the first to focus on Indian American culture.

“The success of this initiative relies greatly on our ability to engage the public in the months leading up to the exhibition opening,” said Ng. “By partnering with TV Asia, we have taken an important step in increasing the public’s knowledge and understanding of this exhibition.”

“Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation” is a project of monumental significance to our community and TV Asia,” said H.R. Shah, chairman and CEO of TV Asia. “As a media sponsor we are honored and excited to be a part of this program.”

TV Asia is celebrating its 20th year in United States with a headquarters in New Jersey, and it is a part of the growth of the Indian American community. The “Beyond Bollywood” exhibition supplements TV Asia’s mission to promote and celebrate the community and its achievements in the United States.

“There is still some public perception that we as Indian Americans are foreigners or outsiders in the United States,” said Masum Momaya, curator of the exhibition. “But history shows the opposite is true. We’ve been here since the earliest days of the nation and had our hands in building it to what it is today—politically, professionally and culturally. TV Asia connects to the Indian American community day in and day out.”

About Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center

Established in 1997, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center produces programs and exhibitions about the Asian Pacific American experience and works in partnership with organizations across the Smithsonian and beyond to enrich collections and activities about the Asian Pacific American experience. It shares the challenges and stories of America’s fastest-growing communities. It connects treasures and scholars with the public, celebrates long-lived traditions and explores contemporary expressions. The stories it tells are vital to a deeper understanding of the nation and a richer appreciation of Asian Pacific cultures.

For information about the center, visit http://apa.si.edu. For general Smithsonian information, the public may call (202) 633-1000.

About TV Asia

TV Asia is an Edison, New Jersey based Pay TV Channel serving over South Asians across the United States and Canada on Dish Satellite & IPTV Platforms and on major Cable systems such as Time Warner, Comcast Xfinity, Cablevision, Cox, Charter, on Telco providers Verizon FIOS and AT&T U Verse and on Rogers Cable and Bell IPTV in Toronto Canada. TV Asia’s mission is to highlight South Asian Talent in the U.S. and Canada and promote our rich heritage in the arts, religion, sports and culture and inspire the current generation to uphold and carry forward the rich and ancient ideals of our glorious past. Visit www.tvasiausa.com for more information.

 

A Tour of Her Stories

By Masum Momaya, Indian American Heritage Project Curator

Masum Momaya (far left) presenting at Her Stories at the Queens Museum of Art, New York.

In my quest for visual art to incorporate in Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation, I traveled to the Queens Museum of Art in New York on Saturday. There, Curator Jaishri Abichandani gave me a tour of Her Stories, a group exhibition celebrating 15 years of work by the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective.  The exhibition includes paintings, drawings, photography, sculpture and video installations.

After the tour, I spoke on a panel featuring artists whose work appears in Her Stories, highlighting themes that cut across their creations and also emerge in Beyond Bollywood.  One includes taking a closer look at the objects, such as teacups, that we take for granted as part of our everyday lives but house complex stories of migration, identity and belonging.  Another involves invoking mythical and iconic South Asian female figures to explore and challenge gender stereotypes.

Seeing the visual art in person and conversing with the artists allowed me new insight into their work – and my own. I hope to feature a number of items I saw there in Beyond Bollywood, including a series of portrait photographs titled UnSuitable Girls. The women featured in the portraits participated in defining and staging their ‘unsuitability.’ Artist Swati Khurana made customized trophies for them, and Anjali Bhargava photographed the portraits. I’m excited for some elements from Her Stories to become part of the larger Indian American story that we tell here at the Smithsonian beginning in 2013.

An installation view of “Her Stories: Fifteen Years of the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective,” at the Queens Museum of Art. Photo by Jaishri Abichandani/Queens Museum of Art, August 2012.

 

Taxi Cab Artifacts

Christine Chou at the National Museum of American History

By Christine Chou, Spring 2012 Intern

What is more synonymous with New York City than the yellow taxi cab? The Big Apple is home to the country’s largest concentration of taxi drivers – about 60% of whom are of South Asian descent. Their presence in the industry is so strong that the South Asian taxi driver has now become a common figure in popular culture and an inescapable part of metropolitan life.

The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program along with the National Museum of American History’s recent acquisition of New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) artifacts for the HomeSpun Project will help showcase the working lives of Indian Americans, whose experiences and struggles form an important part of this country’s social and economic history. These items will also be used to address the broader topic of workers’ rights and labor movements in the United States.

Established in 1998 by Bhairavi Desai, NYTWA is currently the nation’s largest taxi driver union, with over 15,000 multi-ethnic members. The organization’s mission is to improve the working conditions of taxi drivers in New York City, who work 12-hour shifts with no health insurance, retirement benefits, or paid time off. According to the Department of Labor, taxi driving is the most dangerous occupation in the country. The fatality rate is 30 times higher than in any other profession, and taxi drivers are also 80 times more likely to be robbed on the job.

NYTWA provides its members with access to healthcare and legal services, and also fights to overcome harsh regulations, police discrimination, and industry exploitation through political advocacy, media campaigns, and democratic organization.

The collection of artifacts, donated by NYTWA member Javaid Tariq, tells the often unseen side of life as a taxi driver. Some highlights include:

• Trip sheets, which drivers use to record every instance of where and when they have taken passengers. The sheets are a representation of how drivers work both day and night, even during times when the rest of the world is sleeping or taking a much-needed holiday. This is most vividly illustrated on one such sheet, dated January 1, 1996.

• A taxi meter, a key symbol of the economic situation facing taxi drivers, who begin each morning in debt. The red color of the meter display is a reminder of the daily debt owed to their leasers, which can average around $120 per 12-hour shift. In fact, taxi driving is one of the few jobs where one can work a full day and still lose money.

• A Citizens’ Band radio used during the successful New York taxi drivers strike on May 13, 1998 in protest of severe new regulations proposed by then Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. With almost 40,000 participating drivers, the city was emptied of yellow cabs that day. Because cell phones were still uncommon, drivers would instead use CB radios to coordinate with their fellow drivers and the executive director of NYTWA during the strike.

These objects and many more may be included in the HomeSpun Project as a part of the Speaking Up! exhibition opening next year. Mr. Tariq’s generous donations have been successfully added to the National Museum of American History’s Work & Industry Collection.

Related Links:

• NYTWA Website

 

…And that’s the Beauty of the Open Mic

by Priya Chhaya

It is a chilly Monday evening and I step inside a room on the second floor of a building along U Street in Washington, DC.  I am, as usual, casually late, thirty minutes to be specific which is really on time, if you think about Indian Standard Time (IST). As I walk up the stage the strumming of the guitar fills the air and I realize that the audience inside is rapt and at attention. The silent observance is for a few seconds a tad unnerving. Where am I? I am at my very first Subcontinental Drift, an open mic event directed towards South Asians of every persuasion.
 

In the next two hours I heard a cross-section of a very creative group. Some sang, some spoke–some made me laugh, and others made me (if it wasn’t a public place) want to cry.  At one point a flautist played a melody in a minor key that resonated, vibrations giving me that awesome creepy crawly feeling from a song that, while sung in English, felt like a haunting foreign language.

There was one performer who sang Tagore (the infamous Bengali poet) in Bengali–and I couldn’t help be impressed. Open mics take guts, they take gumption–and to stand up in front of a bunch of your peers and sing in a different language–that is courage. I’m a bit handicapped in this area–while I understand Hindi and Gujarati, I don’t speak either fluently (one of my yearly resolutions that is never fully realized), and so I am always really proud and impressed when someone else shows mastery beyond a conversation.

The mission of Sub Drift on their webpage is “to foster and provide a supportive and collaborative South Asian American community for creative expression, encourage the sharing and involvement of community events, and expose ourselves to new mind food.” And everyone is beyond encouraging–at one point, one performer named Sundeep gave us a little spoken word that included call and response–  the response being, of course “and that’s the beauty of the open mic.”

…and it’s true. The beauty of the open mic, especially at Subcontinental Drift, is to bring together a community who has so much in common to listen, to hear, to see, and to feel the myriad of opinions that make up our South Asian cultural mosaic. Since every piece counts, we’ll see if I can find a way to add to the conversation.

Check out the link above for information on Subcontinental Drift.

 

The Peabody Essex Museum and the Indian American Community: A Case Study on Community Consultation

by Rajshree Solanki

I had gone up to Salem, Mass., for work and was lucky enough to have some time to stroll around the Peabody Essex Museum’s India Gallery.

Upon entry to the exhibition Faces of Devotion: Indian Sculpture from the Figiel Collection, I was greeted by bronze sculptures of Shiva and Durga dressed in the Hindu custom. I was struck by the care of the dressing, the ornate garlands draped around the figures’ necks, and tikkas adorned on their foreheads. The placement of the vestments was something I’ve not seen in a museum space since Puja: Expressions of Hindu Devotion. (Check out the online version of this exhibition from Freer-Sackler). It evoked a feeling of entering a temple. Flanking on either side of the Shiva Linga were two signs indicating that a Hindu Priest did the dressings.

This piqued my curiosity.

The idea of community consultation is not a new one in the museum world. But it is a progressive one. It creates an opportunity for curators, conservators, other museum professionals to gain insider knowledge to objects.

Dr. Susan Bean, curator of Indian and Korean art for over 20 years at the Peabody Essex Museum, and guest curator Cathleen Cummings wanted to focus the exhibition on a recently acquired collection of ritual bronzes from Karnataka, India. The bronzes are of the ritualistic folk-art tradition of western and southern India between the 1500s and 1800s. Dr. Bean wanted to focus on the regional aspect of Hindu religious art and to present the ritual bronzes within the context they would normally be seen.

Understanding the sensitive and religious nature of these bronzes, Dr. Bean sought help from the local Hindu community and found a priest who happened to be from Karnataka. She also worked with a Hindu member of museum board overseers. Whatever information passed on from the priest was captured through video and handwritten notes. Dr. Bean may know how to wrap a sari, but she had never seen a priest wrap a sari around an image before. She said they were “[…] not trying to make the gallery a temple, but fill out the aesthetic concept.”

I was so impressed by the tikkas on the foreheads of the images. As a not-so-practicing Hindu, it strikes a religious cord within me and gave authenticity to objects. As a museum professional who works with collections, I freaked out. Tikkas on museum objects. YIKES. So, I asked her about the tikkas on the foreheads of the images. Were they done by the priest? What would the conservator say or do about this request?

She said, “The tikkas were applied by our conservator (!). We hadn’t thought about tikkas at all, but once the images were ‘dressed,’ both our Hindu advisers and helpers thought they didn’t look quite right and really needed tikkas. So, Cathleen Cummings, the guest curator, provided some photographs of enshrined images with tikkas. We had to have the conservator do it, because, as you well know, we had to be really careful that the substances applied would not damage the surface of the metal.”

From this experience, I asked if she would do this again. Dr. Bean stressed that she “endeavor to make that happen.”

If you’re in Salem and tired of looking at witches and broomsticks, check out the Faces of Devotion: Indian Sculpture from the Figiel Collection. The exhibition is open till January 2012.

Also if you happen to be in Salem in April, the Peabody Essex Museum celebrates the arts and culture of India in a weekend-long festival called Sensational India! It brings local groups to do demonstrations, performances and lectures by Mira Nair, James Ivory, and more recently, Madhur Jaffery.

Thanks to Dr. Susan Bean and Karen Karmer Russell from the Peabody Essex Museum.