MRC Student of the Month - November 2004

Joe Antony

(Senior - Biotechnology)

"The Best of Both Worlds"

Cultural identity means so many different things to different people. Having grown up as an Indian-American I have always questioned where I stand. Am I the American, who had been born and brought up in a majority white area of Chicago? Or am I the Indian, with ancestral and cultural roots in a land half way around the world? I have always felt as though my dual backgrounds were tearing me in one direction or another. I remember learning Indian religion from my mom after coming home from Catholic school. I remember going from my school of nearly all whites to fully Indian Tamil Sangam. I remember listening to the latest rap song on the radio before putting in a CD of Bollywood favorites. I remember eating burgers and fries for lunch and rassam and puri for dinner. This was my life of constant contradictions and constant confusion.

However, I came to an important realization last summer. I decided to spend the entire summer in India working to help manage a new bioinformatics division of an IT company. When I took on the job, I knew it would be a great career opportunity; what I didn’t realize was how it would allow me to redefine myself in the Indian-American dynamic. While working in India, I dealt with many multinational companies. Some were American, trying to get a part of the Indian market share; others were Indian companies trying to build off of American resources and financing. Either way, both realized that they could optimize their opportunities by operating between the two and exploiting the strengths of one another.

It was then when I understood the true meaning of multiculturalism. Like the relations of the multicultural corporations, it was not a malicious battle between two ideals; rather it is a benevolent cooperation of cultures. I no longer felt like a walking contradiction. I realized that I am in the unique position of having immersed myself within two totally different cultures and have the choice to take the best from each. This was my place in the world, and it was a great one. I have decided that after graduation I plan on joining an Indo-American company and take advantage of my dichotomous position, acting as a link between the two countries that I can now comfortably call my own.

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