Full Text of the Excerpt

ANDREW JILANI:

Okay. Uh-huh. You told me that when you came, you didn't like-, you felt prejudiced—.

CHANDRIKA DALAL:

That's it.

ANDREW JILANI:

Prejudism. Yeah. How do you feel now?

CHANDRIKA DALAL:

It is same.

ANDREW JILANI:

It's same?

CHANDRIKA DALAL:

It is same.

ANDREW JILANI:

It is same. Okay.

CHANDRIKA DALAL:

Yeah.

ANDREW JILANI:

Okay. People—.

CHANDRIKA DALAL:

I have a-, I have a restaurant—.

ANDREW JILANI:

People-, the Americans still make fun of-, er…. Indian speaking, and—.

CHANDRIKA DALAL:

That is-, I-, there is—. I'm not speaking.

ANDREW JILANI:

Uh-huh.

CHANDRIKA DALAL:

They don't talk with me, or speak with me. But-, if you-, if you work somewhere-, some people just don't talk with you, say "hello", or "how are you", or something like that. Or just-, turn the face, you know! I have a neighbor—they are Mexican family—every time I see in the store, or bank, or somewhere, she just don't say "hello" in all these twenty years! You know-, Mexican-, you know. But-, she never talk!

ANDREW JILANI:

She never talks.

CHANDRIKA DALAL:

My- my daughter's parents-, or their friend's-, they talk with me, but-, other people don't talk.

ANDREW JILANI:

You mean your daughter's friends' parents-, they talk with you?

CHANDRIKA DALAL:

Yeah. They talk with me. But-, other people, no! One day I go in the church-, in-, ahm…. Only two people talk with me!

ANDREW JILANI:

Hmm…. Which-, which church was that?

CHANDRIKA DALAL:

It's in downtown. There is a [unclear] church, so I don't care what church, and whatever. They-, ask me to come in the church to change my religion, and I don't want to change it.

ANDREW JILANI:

Uh-huh.

CHANDRIKA DALAL:

Whatever I believe, it is best for me.

ANDREW JILANI:

Okay.

CHANDRIKA DALAL:

So, they just try to change me, you know. (That) come in the church, and—. But, I never go in the church in my life, and I am not going. If I don't go-, in Hillsboro-, my Hare-Krishna temple, or Hindu-Bhavan in Raleigh, I stay home and pray myself in my house, but-, I'm not going in church, because I believe my religious (religion) is best, and my culture is best. I don't want to be changed. I am still vegetarian—.

ANDREW JILANI:

Uh-huh.

CHANDRIKA DALAL:

And I respect my culture, my tradition(s), whatever I have-, I respect—.