Crossing Cultural Boundries

From India To California

Imagine growing up in a situation where society’s norms are the complete opposite of the rules of your home. For the majority of Americans this is not the case, but there are a significant number of instances where this occurs. An example of this comes in the form of one 24-year-old native Californian named Jamshire Lakdawala. Although he has never been a resident of anywhere but Southern California he has been raised as though he is living in India. At the age of 24 Lakdawala has had the misfortune of living his life with a strict eye monitoring his every move while many of his peers experience a life with much more freedoms.
“Believe it or not, the little differences are much harder to deal with than some of the ones that most people feel would be harder,” Lakdawala said. “The fact that my parents place an emphasis on education that few others do is much easier to get over than being the 24-year-old who is not allowed to spend time alone with his girlfriend.” As a college graduate he feels that he is capable of making his own decisions without parental supervision.
Lakdawala understands where his parents are coming from when the pass the laws onto him and his two brothers. His parents, Coshrew and Farida, grew up in India and had to deal with an even stricter childhood than their three kids do. “Even though my parents do not allow me to be alone with my girlfriend I am at least given the choice as to who I want to be with,” Lakdawala said because the marriage between his parents was an arranged one.
He grew up with such an emphases being placed on his education because that is how his parents came to America from India. His father, Coshrew, received a full scholarship to University of California, Los Angeles. After years of education Coshrew has received multiple degrees, including a doctorate in chemical engineering, and he expects the same from his three sons.
This emphasis on higher education has presented a few problems when it comes to his attempts to adjust to a normal life in Sothern California. “The hardest thing to get over was when my parents told me that I was not allowed to play soccer for U.C. Riverside,” Lakdawala said. All his life he grew up wanting to play soccer more than anything else, so that came as quite a blow to his plans. His parents supplied him with the reason that if he played soccer in college it would take him longer to receive his bachelor’s degree.
Although the importance put on education over everything else has come with its problems it does come with a reason. In their native country of India, there is a much larger importance placed on education than in the United States due to the socioeconomic situation in India. Unlike in the United States it is not at all uncommon for the poorest members of society to live right next to the nations wealthy.
In India there is no such notion as ‘the American dream,’ which is why the children of Indian immigrants grow up with an unusual emphasis on education. When an individual is born in America they are given the chance to do anything with their life from teaching in schools to running the country while those born in India are placed into a caste system with the slightest chance of upward movement. Once labeled as a member of one of the various castes on the hierarchy individuals are expected to abide by every rule of the caste they are born into.
Another difference between India and America is the notion that parents are expected to support their children through their education. No matter what caste someone is born into it is expected that an education, to one extent or another, will be funded by the student’s parents. This is far different from the American notion that children are on their own at the age of 18 and if an American child wants to achieve a higher education it is up to the student to find the means of funding the educational adventure.
Lakdawala's parents still firmly follow the cultural norms that they learned as citizens of India. This is why Lakdawala or any of his two younger brothers have never had to hold a job. It is an interesting contradiction to the American ideology that once a child becomes a man at 18 that they should get a job and begin supporting themselves. This is both good and bad. The good part is that it allows for full concentration on school resulting in a quicker completion and better grades but on the other hand there is the whole social aspect of work that is missed out on as wel as the independence that accompanies a source of self-made income.
As a result of the differing cultures between India and America Lakdawala is forced to live in two contradicting realities. The first is to maintain a seemingly normal life outside of his family and the second is to conform to what his parents expect of him. "It is a little unusual to be 24 and forced to hide beer from my parents," Lakdawala said. "As ridiculous as it is it is something that I have to do to please them."
Growing up in his family he has been forced to take a path in life that he did not choose due to his parents expectations and unwillingness to compromise. Lakdawala has done a decent job so far of pleasing his parents. He graduated high school with honors while playing varsity soccer. Fresh out of high school he attended University of California, Riverside, where he had received a scholarship for his high school soccer performances. He managed to graduate with a bachelor's degree in pre-medical studies in four years in addition to playing on the college soccer team his freshman year.
Currently, Lakdawala attends California State University, Northridge, where he is studying for his master's degree in chemistry. If he follows the path laid out for him by his counselor he will graduate with his master's degree in three years.
After graduation, he hopes to obtain a career in the either the medical or chemistry fields. "I look forward to the day that I don't have to hide a bottle of vodka under my bed or sneak out of the house to spend some time alone with my girlfriend," Lakdawala said.

Fantasy Teams

How To Manage Your Own Sports Team


Prediction: This season—if it’s anything like any previous seasons—the majority of habitual sports viewers will become frustrated with decisions made by the managers of their favorite teams. There are some ways to deal with the frustration of a management team that allow viewers to be in control. Every large sports organization now offers the option of creating a fantasy team to get its viewers more involved with the sport and to increase viewership.
The fantasy team allows its manager to control every aspect of the team he/she chooses to create. The managers pick players for their team in hopes that their team selection will outperform their competitors. Each player on the fantasy team receives points depending on their performances for their actual teams with the goal of the manager being to for the team which receives the most points. The rules for the fantasy teams are set up by the sports organization that they represent.
An example of this is the Premier League, which is the soccer league of England. For the Premier League there are 1,652,634 fantasy teams competing against each other for the number one position at the end of the season. The winner of the competition wins an all-expenses-paid trip for two to London for the Football Association final in May. Each team must have two goalies, five defenders, five midfielders and three forwards from which 11 are selected to represent the team every week.
Creating and maintaining a fantasy team for the Premier League is a simple process involving four simple steps. The first is to log onto their web page at premierleague.com/fantasy and input your personal information. Once this is done the Premier League web site will verify all of your personal information via e-mail. Along with your personal information, there are questions about your favorite team and viewing habits. The second step is to create your team name and log in password. Each manager can only create one team. Along with creating the team name, managers pick out their team colors.
The third step is where the knowledge of the game and its players come in. It is now time to put together the team that the manager feels will compete against all others. New managers are given a total of 100 points and they must purchase 15 players to complete their squad. The players range in value for 4.5 points on up to 14.5 points based on their previous performances. This can become tricky because the 100 points can disappear fast if the manager attempts to fill their roster with super stars. This is the final step in the creation of a fantasy team, now it’s time to test the manager’s knowledge of his/her team.
The final step of the fantasy team is the process of maintaining it. Managers are free to transfer players in and out depending on their performances and injuries. Although help managers learn the game quickly they do come with a small price. Once the team is created managers must watch the real-life games to check on the form and status of their players to decide if they will be kept or traded out.

Health Care

From Bad To Good

Lying on the asphalt of the parking lot of the Santa Clarita Soccer Center on a day with temperatures in triple digits Colby Singletary had one prevailing thought in her mind. Her situation was unclear to her as she saw with blurred vision a crowd of people swarming over her attempting to figure out what went wrong. When most people come back to reality with their blood everywhere the first thought is what happened but in Singletary’s case it was how much will this cost me?
In June of 2008, her Saturday started off as many others did during that point in her life. She slept in till the early afternoon waking up just in time to take a shower and head out the door to catch her boyfriend’s soccer game before heading off to work. As the game went on she felt a little off but shrugged it off thinking it had something to do with her late night out with the girls.
After the game she made her way back to her car to proceed to the bar at the Valencia Ice Station where she was scheduled to work for the next several hours. Singletary never made it to work that day because she passed out in the parking lot within a few feet of her car. Singletary said, “I just wanted to make it to my car because I knew that I needed to sit down before I fell down.”
Before she had a chance to say no, due to her being unconscious, a group of people called for an ambulance because after all they did just see a girl fall flat on her face in the middle of a
parking lot and make no effort to get up. Ryan Pursely, an EMT and friend of Singletary’s, was on the scene and did what he could to keep her awake. He said, “I thought she passed out due to dehydration and the heat.”
Within ten minutes the ambulance arrived and took her to the local hospital. Once there she was treated for dehydration with saline solution and given x-rays for her nose. After two IV’s of saline Singletary was released with a broken nose and large bill.
Singletary is among the estimated 6.5 million people in the state of California living without healthcare. Lack of healthcare is a huge problem on a national level with an estimated 47 million individuals whom are uninsured across the country.
On a local and national level the healthcare system must be reformed. Here in the United States we possess the best trained medical professionals, advanced medical technology, state of the art medical facilities and excellent medical research. In spite of all of this local and national governments allow such a large amount of people to live life uninsured.
California is among the few states that have attempted to reform their healthcare system. In 2007 Governor Schwarzeneegger attempted to reform the state’s policies by mandating that all California residents have a set minimum when it comes to health insurance.
We have seen that in other developed countries a universal healthcare system is accepted by the citizens of that country. Although universal healthcare is not without its price the benefits outweigh the negatives. On the plus side, universal healthcare provides for better preventative care and less crowded emergency rooms and county facilities. The downside to the program is the tax increase that is necessary to pay for such reforms.
The tax increase would definitely be noticed by the nation as a whole but the millions of
uninsured would be thankful. A 10 percent tax hike, or whatever it is, would come to save the masses in the end. For example, Singletary’s trip to the hospital over passing out in a parking lot ended up costing $4,200 out of her pocket. That one trip alone is enough to cover the next decade in tax hikes for medical insurance in her case.
Without medical insurance the preventative measures are not looked at nearly as much as they are for individuals with insurance. While in the hospital the blood tests showed that she is at a high risk for type two diabetes but without the proper insurance nothing can be done till something happens. It will be extremely hard for her to consult a specialist on this unless she winds up in a diabetic coma. This situation could be easily avoided but unfortunately nothing will be done.
While in the hospital the nurses were able to give her information about her condition and give recommendations about what to eat and how to take care of herself but that is where it ends. Instead of being given Insulin like most patients, she was told to avoid hot temperatures, red meat and large amounts of sugar. Since that day in June of 2008, Singletary’s life has changed quite a bit from being a carefree 22-year-old to having to watch everything she eats knowing that one wrong move could give her an extended stay at a local intensive care unit.
“Some of the changes were not too bad for me,” Singletary said. “I have been a vegetarian for a few years so the red meat didn’t faze me.” The hardest part for her is attempting to avoid the heat while living in Southern California where a 90 degree Thanks Giving is not that farfetched of an idea.
In the past couple of months Singletary has had a few experiences with what happens when she does not follow the rules. In October of 2008 she went out to a local bar where things
did not work out to well. The bartender had made the honest mistake of giving her coke rather
than diet coke with her Malibu Rum. “Before everything went bad, I could feel it coming,” she said.
“I went outside to cool off and asked for some water on my way out,” she said. The next thing she knew, she was in the shower at her boyfriend’s house attempting to cool down and avoid the possibility of a diabetic coma. That incident took her a few days to recover from. With the amount of sugar in the few cokes she had accompanied by the heat produced by the bar her pancreas stopped producing insulin.
Currently, Singletary lives a relatively normal life. The biggest difference is the constant concern about such a mistake happening again and the consequences that could follow. “Usually people don’t understand that I’m pre-diabetic and don’t think too much into what I say I can and can’t do,” she said.