The Other Side
Los Angeles Student Film Festival in El Portal Theatre North Hollywood
Anika, my daughter, walked like a star on the “red carpet� when attending the Los Angeles student film festival; she had made a short film California Horror Stories and it was selected for Los Angeles student film festival at El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood. I was delighted to see her like a mini celebrity and tears rolled down my eyes due to joy and happiness. It was such a nice event to encourage kids for filmmaking. After watching these short films we were speechless to see the talent of these young filmmakers. Ever since I moved to USA over 20 years ago, I have always made comparisons between the lifestyle of two countries, India v/s US. All these years, I missed the things I have enjoyed living in India but lately, I have started to feel and see the other side. Going back to my daughter Anika’s story of making a film, it has an interesting beginning just like a movie. Four years ago when it was time for her to go from middle school to high school, I, like a typical Indian parent, was after her to take science and math or medical major. She has been a bright kid and was admitted to the Gifted Magnet program. She very firmly refused the science and math discipline,
causing some heated debates between us. A series of meetings with her mentors were held in our home, her school offered three disciplines: Science and Math, Medical magnet and Performing Arts. She unilaterally decided and firmly declared that she did not want to become a doctor; and rather apprehensively, we as parents accepted her wish, but we asked her to take science and math instead of performing arts, but she graciously refused and chose performing arts. No choice for us as parents but to accept her decision. In her performing arts classes, she learnt all about film making, acting, directing and producing. I did not give up and still wanted her to pursue science and math, so I called her counselors about changing the discipline, they told me that her grades are good and she could change her major. Now my job was to convince her one more time. This did not happen and topic was closed, we as parents accepted this fact one more time. She finished her 9th grade and all of a sudden she announced “Mom I am changing the discipline from performing arts to science and math� Well, that’s it! I was very happy and did not even dare to ask why and how. She found out that her school offers electives and she can choose filmmaking with her science and math program. She took this elective and enjoyed learning filmmaking. Now I started thinking of the opportunities these NRI kids get in this country, is a big plus. Anika is graduating from high school and going to college this year. Going through the whole process of selecting a college and admissions, one thing I realized is my daughter has a huge selection of disciplines she can chose, she can change her majors at any time, start a whole new subject , pick a career at any time in her student life. This is a big advantage of the education system in USA! I was talking to my brother back home last week who has the same age kids as mine; he expressed his stress about his son who is now attending 10th grade [Board exam]. The kids have to obtain certain % of marks in order to get into a science and math major in high school, so the whole career of the student is decided by the marks obtained by an Indian student in the 10th grade; and I feel the pain and stress of these parents and children. Parents enroll their child to after school tutoring, very highly priced coaching institutes for getting high scores in this exam, just to get the major they want to. A 14 year old kid who attends 10 th grade, does not even know what he wants to be or do in his life. There is no option but to follow the direction of his parents, in terms of meeting standards to get in to right high school. Our Indian American children have a big advantage: lots of majors, plenty of opportunities, involved parents and a desi culture that honors education - both science and arts. Aishwarya Kokatay Managing Editor www.marathicultureandfestivals.com
Anika Kokatay on Red carpet talking about her short film “California Horror Stories�