I think the real value of having Veronica come was not so much in what she said, but that she was invited to our class to say it. She was important for Rajan’s sake alone; he really perked up and became engaged talking about issues with her after class. It’s important to see everyone worthy of respect on campus, because there doesn’t seem to be much respect in the community at large. And if that worthy person is a woman, so much the better because there needs to be more Tamil women around STM; about the only ones seen around campus are maids. I always say hi to them, but it ends there with the language barrier. Sometimes I give them old clothes or little odds and ends because I doubt they earn much. My maid in KL is an Indian; she is about my age. Her life has been pretty rough. For one thing, she can’t read or write. She can’t even recognize her name in print- which is such a shame because she is really smart with so much practical know how.
It’s funny how we chose to sit in class; it’s pretty much along ethnic lines. I don’t sit with the girls for instance, even though I really like every girl in that class. Leeyng is so talented, funny and smart. Pheung is so good- quiet and sweet the way I wish I was… Sharon is so cultured and intellectual. Yet I sit with Jeremy, Sharon sits with Rajan and Oliver, and Pheung sits with Leeyng. I am trying to remember who I sat with in the US… no particular pattern comes to mind; I think I just slunk in and sat in the back somewherer, never with my best friend at SMU- the father of one of my students, who is black. For lunch, the black girls went to one restaurant, while the white girls went to another. The white guys went off by themselves and so did the black guys. It is strange to me that it shook out like that because I didn’t think the color barrier was a big deal in Houston; my best friend from my old neighborhood friend was from Jamaica. But I guess in class we acted on it unconsciously.