“When at home, I forget that my parents are immigrants unless I stop to think about it. This is surprising considering how much of our daily interaction is influenced by our heritage: we eat rice with our hands, yell random phrases in Tamil (between English sentences). Every so often my mom will smack her lips at dinner to do her impression of a cow chewing on the remnants of a mango seed back at her family's yard in Sri Lanka. When I think about why these feel so natural to me in the U.S., it's probably because there's so much diversity here already; it doesn't feel out of place to be a bit different, just like everyone else.” - A. Alvappillai
This is Arun Alvappillai.
When I asked him to take part in this collection, I knew him as a younger colleague passionate about basketball.
He’s a UCLA graduate loyal to the Lakers.
He is stoic and one of the most genuine people I know.
His parents traveled here from Jaffna, Sri Lanka to escape a country embroiled in discrimination, corruption, and violence all due to a civil war.
“As a kid, I naively thought I could empathize by overhearing the adults discuss the latest political elections or military raids. Having only lived in the U.S., the equality and opportunity I've become accustomed to here made me realize that I could only address this disconnect by visiting my parent's homeland in person. I hope to travel to Sri Lanka in the near future to develop my own unique perspective.
....I doubt I will ever be able to fully comprehend the suffering and loss my parents left behind.” - A. Alvappillai
Arun is a Sri Lankan American engineer working at one of the top companies in the world.
He is successful and a proud son of immigrants.
This is but a glimpse of his American Perspective.
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