Interview

When thinking of people I could possibly interview, and then deciding that most of them would not be very interesting, I decided to interview my friend's mother, Asha Kale. At first glance she seemed like any other 55 year old woman but once I got to know her, I soon realized that, it was not the case.

She was born in Pune, India and lived there for the early part of her life. She knew that Bombay University is considered one of the best universities in India. So after completing her High school in Pune, she and her sister came to Bombay to finish their Bachelors. She worked hard to get her Masters degree in Physics and Mathematics. Then she joined one of the best engineering colleges in Bombay. Her original position was "Lecturer" in science department and now with her hard work and efforts; she has become "Chair Person" of the science department.

Asha took on many roles during her lifetime: wife, mother, college student, clerk, mentor lecturer and chair person. The role of lecturer is, perhaps, the least surprising because Asha was born, on November 7, 1953, into a family of teachers. Her father, Dhruv Kale ran several schools including a boy's reformatory during his career as a teacher. He studied biology at the University of Pune, and with his own children, he never missed a "pedagogical opportunity". He was a man with a vast store of knowledge and his children thought of him as a walking encyclopedia. Asha's grandfather, Raman Kale, was also a teacher and a school principal with strong "republican views". During his days (between 1950's and 1960's) there was a rise in the educational knowledge of people in India. Education was viewed as a long-term investment for a high paying job. Asha's grandfather put his career on the line by encouraging children of peasant families to study and allowing them in the same classes with the children of the nobility.

Asha's mother, Rajani, had an enormous influence on all of her children's life. Rajani was a working parent; the headmistress of one of the Pune's best girl's schools. For a few years, the family lived in an apartment in the rear of the school, in a stately town house. Asha was born in this apartment; she was the youngest of five children. Rajani Kale (Asha's mother) often found herself overloaded with all the work of running a big household and a school. Sometimes she wished; she was still a single woman. Nevertheless, she found time to make all the children's clothes by hand. Rajani was a republican in her own way, and little Asha learnt never to look down on manual labor.

When Asha Kale finished her high school at the age of 15, she was awarded a gold medal as an outstanding student of her school. Nevertheless, the five years of intense study had taken their toll. She was under enormous pressure to do as well as her older siblings, Lata and Ajay. "It's not usual for a person to experience a mild depression or let down after they have achieved some long-sought after goal", she says. Asha was exhausted, and so her father decided to, send Asha and her other sister, to their wealthy uncle's place at their country estate, to spend a year. There Asha relaxed with some horse-back riding, fishing, swinging "hard and high," and rowing on a lake. They danced sometimes whole night at many parties. The experience gave Asha a view of life at the top and she thinks, it was a needed escape from all the pressure of exams, grades, and school.

Asha was pulled in several different directions as she tried to make important decisions about her future. She often felt guilty for leaving her father alone at home in Pune, but she and Lata