A group of seniors gathered at Indian American Center in Chicago have questioned the direction in which this premiere organization for seniors, especially those hailing from India, is going.
The consensus was that for the past many years it has been going from bad to worse in matter of service, celebration of festivals and the food that is being served. Many coming from India are not highly educated and lack good command over English and hence are wary of communicating their feelings or views to higher ups. A great many others feel that the top level guy now being non-Indian with poor knowledge of any Indian language, he would be virtually inapproachable. They turn out to be silent sufferers.
The Center was started by several Indian Community leaders including Mafat Patel with the good intention of providing support and services to new Indian immigrants coming to the USA. One of the prime objectives was to get the new immigrants to get familiarized with the language, custom, the political system, the job market and the mainstream society.
And those at the helm of affairs in the past sought to create an amiable ambience through celebrations of Indian festivals, organizing interesting seminars conducting classes, offering variety of services, including health care, , ensuring easy accessibility with the top most management and importantly good vegetarian food.
This was a place where major Indian festivals used to get celebrated with seniors greeting each other, exchanging gifts and enjoying good meal.
Over the years, there has been a huge change in the way that the Center functions and in no small measure this is due to the fact that there has been a frequent change at the top. Today it is headed by a non-Indian James Lemonides as the executive director and sadly he is poorly acquainted with Indian culture, language and likes/dislikes. Since he does not know the language, he cannot even converse with the Indians who come to the center, many of whom are conversant mostly with Hindi and other Indian languages.
The attendees are mostly seniors. They form their own group, speak their own language and come to enjoy the “Golden Diners” lunch (under city’s contribution) and share their sorrows as well as pleasures like music, discussions, news or chit chat etc as a social club.
I went there on the Mother’s Day celebration which was also attended by over 100 people who again included mostly seniors. Amongst Keynote speakers Sher M Rajput, Nand Kapoor and Ms Sudaksha Kapoor also agreed with my observation. Many present approached us with their feel of the Center and I requested them to come forward and let the administration know their needs and suggestions to improve the performance of the Center as it is a village hall for the community.
Well, as expected the general consensus was that who listens? I was surprised and shocked to see the food menu for such an important occasion. It was Mothers’ Day and the food was a joke or an insult to the mothers of all cultures. The food that day was Dal, Roti, Kheer and a banana.
No Subji (vegetable) or any special dish. A dignitary friend from Nepal Dr Ramkrishna Shah had come on that day and he was also depressed while talking with some seniors.
Who deserves the “credit” or the blame for the state of affair? The present chef or administrator or the Board? The buck stops at the CEO or the Board
If a captain of the ship does not know the direction or the course due to language barrier and also he is unable to communicate with the staff, how can he navigate the ship successfully causing minimum discomfort? How a CEO unfamiliar (with the cultures, foods and the language of the members or customers) can run any company; especially a Senior Center which requires motherly love, care & attention?
Discussing with some people, we learnt that center was run somewhat better under previous CEO Mr Luthra or even Mr Chris Zala. And of course, there was wholesome praise for previous Gujarati lady chef who was replaced. Why!
More and more people are retiring now and it is high time for the board of the IAC to wake up! Most of the funds for the center are raised from the Indian community. It is time that the IAC is restored to where it rightfully belongs – to the members of Indian community at large.
The call of the time is to preserve and promote the needs, languages and culture of the community that is its big supporter. Lack of leadership also leads to the hijacking of the Center by others who have narrow view of the society and are insensitive to the feelings of communities other than their own.
We must also appoint a new director who is Indian and who can easily communicate as well, with Indians, besides the chefs, who know what is right and well balanced menu for the seniors.
They also need to be familiar with the Jains’ and Vaishnavas’ needs. The crying need of the time is to have a meeting place where in members come and enjoy the food, talk and celebrate their festivals.
Communication! Communication! Communication! Is very vital!
Madhu Patel
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