Implementación del Sistema de Gestión de Seguridad y Salud Ocupacional

the first time during this stage of Pradina’s story. She makes sense of her first-time, early

experience in the U.S. in the context of the people she encounters and relationships she is able to establish with them. Having even a very small community of Indian immigrants there to slowly become part of and come to rely on protects her from feeling overwhelmed, isolated, lonely, and homesick. Not only do these relationships provide guidance and help with day-to-day activities such as grocery shopping, child-care, and laundry, but also a sense of belonging and family:

“Only four…all four were in the same hospital…None of them were Gujaratis; one was a

Maharashtrian, one was a Sheikh…but they were all really nice. And all of us wives were at (staying) home so we would take turns to do lunch at someone’s home. That way even the kids could play together. So, it was not like that hard that, ‘what will we do now, what will we do?’ We were all together. Just as we are sitting here right now at about 10-11 am in the morning, once everyone is ready after their baths and breakfast, we would meet up with each other at about 10-11 am in the morning, once everyone is ready after their baths and breakfast. And we spent the whole day together at home; we cooked together and we ate together. We would all be together until 4-5 pm until (our/my) husband would come home. So, it was not like, shocking, shocking. Since you have friends now, you don’t constantly feel, ‘Let’s go back (home), let’s go back.’”

Although Pradina acknowledged some difficulty in having access to Indian groceries on a regular basis, cooking with her neighbors helped to share “tips and ideas” about how to cook with locally available vegetables and spices. She continues to use those “tips” to this day:

“The rest you had to buy from here. (For example), you did not get our daal here, so we used to eat that ‘yellow split’ (lentil); we did not get (wheat) flour like today, so roti used

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to be red. It was different things, like vegetables, if you don’t get green chilies and cilantro, then you use dry, red chilies to make Kadhi. I mean, you make it by adopting. It’s not that big thing. At least, you can eat everything, whatever is available. If you don’t find our vegetables, then it is from here (in the U.S.). Even now, we don’t go to buy Indian (vegetables), patara, and Indian beans every day. We buy cabbage, cauliflower, beans whatever is available in the grocery store.”

If her Indian neighbors helped to reduce her isolation and homesickness, Pradina’s American neighbor encouraged her to use her free time and work outside the home. She credits this relationship for giving her confidence and for opening up the possibility that she could work outside the home in the U.S.,

“Next place we went my neighbor was very good. She pushed me even, saying, ‘Why are you sitting (at) home? Go to work. If you go to work, I will take care of your child.’ Because she was not married or anything. She was very good so I took a course for 3-4 months. (First two years) it was not miserable or anything, ok. I was happy because I had very good neighbors. She was just like my older sister. She take care of me if I need it. She took care of my son also. I went for the classes and I went for the job.”

As a reader it was possible to see how these early relationships, both with Indian immigrants and with Americans, provided a fundamentally positive sense making template to Pradina to

cohesively understand those early experiences in a completely new culture. She explicitly denied experiencing any racism or discrimination during this time as a result of being/appearing

different or “foreign.” When trying to understand her experience with getting used to

communicating in English, she once again credited her positive interactions and relationship with American nurses and colleagues at work to give her confidence. It was the same with her

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decision to continue to wear sari at work rather than change to wearing pant and shirt, the more common way of dressing in the U.S. Language and dress code, two markers through which first- time immigrants are frequently perceived by others and experience themselves as ‘outsiders,’ did not become experiences of otherness for Pradina,

“No, no, I mean, you feel inside that…When you come, you feel that, ‘How am I going to say?’ Because we are not talking in English in India. But it didn’t bother anything

because that nurse and the dietician, I can say that she used to come to our houses also and she take us outside too and she wanted to learn Indian things too so she can make for all these doctors in the hospital when she is…the Indian things. So, she come to our house sometime and she says, ‘show me this one thing—how to make pulao, how to make upma or something. So, I can make one dish for doctors. So they can get Indian dish.’ So, we talk to her and I never felt that I couldn’t speak anything…or she would not understand me or anything… I can wear my saris also. I never had to buy anything American also. They allowed to because there is one Indian Bengali girl was working there and she was wearing saris all the time.”

Journey of Finding Home

After finishing his residency in Buffalo, New York, Pradina moved to Boston where S. had decided to pursue a one year fellowship. They lived in Boston for a year. Here, as before, Pradina and S. found a community of friends that helped them to facilitate their transition. She particularly highlighted the unexpected and exceptional help she received from an American neighbor who was the care-taker of her apartment building and had a son the same age as hers. Both boys went to the same school nearby. Pradina was able to find a job similar to the one she had in Buffalo and wanted to work, but she did not have anyone to look after her son after

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school. The care-taker neighbor, just as her previous neighbor in Buffalo, encouraged Pradina to work by offering to take and bring back her son from school with his own son. He explained that he and his wife were happy as now their children had a friend,

“…again I was looking in the 4th of July paper for the, like offers, what they have here, at least to see. And there was an opening one place. I said, ‘Ok, let me go for interview. What happens, let me see at least.’ And they said, ‘you can come today, right away if you want to.’ I said, ‘No, because I have to find somebody who take care of my son. His school I have to see and school starts in September. So, I will let you know if I am coming or not.’ Then, our super who take care of the apartments who lives next door and he had one boy, my son’s age and one daughter. They didn’t have any kids around to play so he was very happy. That’s why he gave us apartment too. So, he used to take his son to school and bring him back from school. So, he took my son to school and bring him back. So that was the thing that he would do for me, everything. Wherever I went, I found people who can take care of me and I am sure I will be as good as them, but I cannot tell that for myself. But any place I went, I got good neighbors. So, it went for the whole year.”

During this time, Pradina’s sister-in-law arrived in the U.S. after her marriage. When Pradina went to meet her in New York, her sister-in-law suggested to her that if she would leave her son in New York, then he would be able to help her (sister-in-law) with learning to speak English and she could look after him. This would allow Pradina to work. She seemed hesitant in the beginning as her son was only seven years old at the time, but described with immense pride in him that he stayed with his aunt without any “fuss or trouble.”

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As their year in Boston was coming to an end in 1971, the United States government passed a law that made it very easy and quick for physicians and their families to acquire green cards and set these immigrants on the path to citizenship. Pradina and S. decided to apply and received them. Now, S. had completed a residency and a fellowship in the U.S. and was legally free to work as a licensed physician. He secured a job at a hospital in Syracuse, New York upon a suggestion from another Indian physician friend. She worked in the same hospital. Pradina lived with her family in Syracuse for the next seven years. Pradina described her time in Syracuse extremely fondly as she “gained a whole family” in the form of the same physician friend of her husband’s and her family,

“So, we went there and they were very good friends, like three sisters, both married, one is not married, mother is living with them, so it’s like I got my family. They were not

Gujarati, they were Christians, from southern India. I felt that this is my family. I go

there from morning to night, even. I eat there. I bring tiffin for my husband (from there)

also when he is working late and I ….They cook, I never cook with them, but I always

ate there. My son also come from school there…They play…because both (sisters) who are married, they both have a kid, same age as my son. So, it was so much good that they play together. I have like, three sisters, mother. Sundays also I go to their house, we are there and all the time we are there.”

In addition, Pradina became active in the small, fifteen-family, first-generation Indian immigrant community in Syracuse by organizing and celebrating various festivals such as Diwali and other social activities,

“so…it was good and one or two neighbor were just walking distance (from my house) so we used to get in the afternoons also. Eat lunches together, go shopping together. So,

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changes came, but we never had any problems and he got a friend too everywhere we went.”

Making Home, Feeling at Home

After living in Syracuse for seven years with his family, S. received a good job offer in

Pittsburgh in a private practice. They moved to Pittsburgh in 1979 with their son and now also a daughter. Pradina and S. raised their family in Pittsburgh and have lived there for the past 30 years. During this time, other members of her family from India—her two brothers-in-laws, have also moved to the U.S. with the help of S. and Pradina. Later her mother-in-law also moved here and lived with Pradina for sixteen years:

“Here again in Pgh we are for thirty years. The Jain community here is just like a whole family. Everybody is for another; know what’s going on. Even my neighbors (right now) are all Americans. I never had any Indian neighbors, but they are like my own brothers (and) sisters. I have never had any problems with anybody.”