Date: Fri, 10 Nov 1995 07:42:41 -0500 (EST)
From: Radhika Gajjala <rxgst6+-AT-pitt.edu>
Subject: Intro (fwd)
To: seminar-13-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 7 Nov 1995 16:22:53 -0800 (PST)
From: Marian Josephine Gracias <marianjg+-AT-unixg.ubc.ca>
To: +dist+~gajjala/coprod.dl-AT-pitt.edu
Subject: Intro

 
Name: baptised into the Roman Catholic religion after birth as Marian 
Josephine Gracias....emphasis by parents placed on incorporating Mary, 
Ann (mother of Mary) and Joseph into my name....and on sounding Goan but 
not Anglo-Indian Family History says that we were converted several 
generations ago into Catholicism by the Portuguese in Goa from Hinduism
	Struggles to know the correct "pronunciation" of my last 
name...in Bombay and Goa we accepted "gracious" ...my father says  
actually the stress is on "c" and here in Vancouver people often stress 
the "a" ...I myself hestitate using my last name...language of which 
has been both Anglicized and Indianized...I go by my first name "marian"  

Location/s : Born in Bombay 18 March 1969...lived in Goa briefly and have 
visited it a couple times....been to Delhi and certain areas in the State 
of Maharashtra....did not get a chance to "travel" outside India and 
through many areas in India as parents were concerned about my safety as 
a woman...and were overly concerned about not "troubling" our 
relatives.....father breadwinner in a tyre industry as a middle-level 
service field manager...and couple times un-employed so that finances 
were rigorously "saved" for the rainy day and implicitly for health and 
education. 

 Presently I'm studying at the University of 
British Columbia in the English Department...doing my PhD and at this 
point trying to compose a thesis proposal...reading right now mostly in 
the area of postcolonial/cultural theory...Indian women writers and 
writers of the indian diaspora (again mainly women)...I have been living 
in Vancouver now for four years...visited Toronto, Seattle and Vancouver 
Island...
Status here: "Student visa" also known as "foreign student" or 
"international student"....bound by "student authorization"  and 
"employment atuhorization" (authorization acceptances come with 
application fees and rules that limit employment to on-campus only and 
also define time-limits for period of validity)
..privelege of paying same fees as a graduate "Canadian" student..
and the privelege of provincial medicare as other British Columbians...
both these privelges maybe withdrawn anytime in the future, especially 
given the federal and provincial concern with deficit reduction...
currently on a Teaching assistantship ( which in this university) does not 
come with a tuition waiver)

Dilemmas:* "Indianness" within India..."
*third world students" in "First World Academies" ....visas, passports, 
national currencies and  "exchange" inequities... the notion/nation of 
"travel" as mobility...the economic transnational viabilties of  "Non-resident
Indian" and  "Indians" whether or not I can immigrate to Canada and why 
and whether the state will accept me...given immigration 
these days is also not whether you want, but whether they want you... 
*whether I should go back to India...what is at stake...relevence of 
the English Department in India to Indian contexts...teaching Englsih 
literature in India...the politics of the English language in India...
*Goan Christian Indians and their relationship to "Westernization,"
colonization, "Indianness,"... "Canadiannness" and its relationship to 
"U.S.ness"
*cyberspace and its accessibility/inaccessibilty/relevence/irrelevence to 
the general arts education in India.
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I've received some introductions already and am glad to be able to "meet" 
you all in this group.