Krishna Vavilala's Oral History Project
The Foundation for India Studies (FIS), headed by Mr Krisha Vavilala (’56, EEE) is undertaking a massive oral history project to document Houston’s transformation into a cosmopolitan and multicultural city that harbours and nourishes a large Indo-American population. While Indians constitute only 1.5% of Houston’s metropolitan population, their contributions to society are significant. Unfortunately the experiences of the first wave of immigrants have been lost to time.
In partnership with Houston Public Library, FIS aims to collect and archive the memories of the first generation of Indian immigrants in the city. Stories narrated in their voices will be digitally recorded and made publicly accessible on the Internet. Some of the questions the project will seek to answer are: what motivated them to come to America, specifically Houston? How easy was their process of immigration? How did they overcome racial cultural and language barriers? Has living conditions in Houston evolved since then? What are their contributions to politics, society , culture, religion, etc?
In the first phase of the project, a hundred life stories will be added to the Public Library’s existing Oral Histories. This project will provide a wealth of primary material for sociologists, historians, researchers, scholars and educationists. The project will be inaugurated on August 19 at Jr League.
Mr Vavilala was our BITSian in the Limelight in May, check out his profile at http://www.bitsaa.org/members/blog_view.asp?id=572273&post=125784.