Columbus resident Deepti Vijaykumar recently presented a TEDx Talk in Bloomington.
In a small, cosmopolitan city such as Columbus that for years has been so big on the importance and positive impact of cultural diversity, Deepti Vijaykumar sounds an understandable alarm.
The local resident and native of Pune, India, recently highlighted her concerns in a Bloomington-based TEDx Talk via a warning-oriented presentation titled “Are You Contributing to Extinction of Cultural Diversity?”
And she hopes to continue educating others in future forums with a such a message that the world is far too diverse to accept one way as precisely the right way to approach a broad spectrum of topics from fashion to dining.
In her talk, she recalled as a teen having peers to her house in India for dinner. She quickly noticed one friend visibly awkward and uncomfortable with her silverware, since her rural household was fairly unfamiliar with Western ways.
Her other guests began laughing at the uninitiated young person.
So Vijaykumar put down her utensils and began eating with her hands as is the Indian custom. Her awkward-but-relieved friend followed suit.
Other guests’ laughter stopped.
Vijaykumar, a full-time business consultant, leadership coach and professional speaker, is spreading a message of equality and inclusion, and a celebration of a myriad of cultures — right here in the United States and in the Midwest. She pushes against the notion that a Western approach always and automatically is “a better, superior way,” as she calls it.
She sees that reminder as especially significant in Columbus, with international employers such as Cummins Inc., her husband Pushkar Agashe’s work place, or Faurecia. Her perspective does sound important here — in a city in which Asians are among the fastest-growing population segment and in a city where more than 2,500 transplants from India live, according to the Hindu Society of Southern Indiana.
City leaders such as Mayor Jim Lienhoop and Mary Ferdon, executive director of administration and community development, have repeatedly stressed in recent years the high-priority emphasis in Columbus on the positive impact of diversity culturally, spiritually and otherwise.
One of Lienhoop’s strongest statements came in April after incidents of white supremacy-themed graffiti were discovered downtown.
“In Columbus, we welcome people of all colors, nationalities and ethnicities, who bring with them a rich culture and diversity that benefits us all,” Lienhoop said. “These contributions have not only enriched our community, but have allowed our community to flourish economically, enabling us to continue to bring in a dynamic workforce to support local, regional, national, and international companies. Columbus celebrates this diversity, and this is what makes it the ‘Unexpected and Unforgettable’ community we are proud to call home.”
Vijaykumar believes strongly in cultural coexistence over cultural assimilation.
“What I am trying to do is simply to open people’s eyes,” she said. “I think that one of my main agendas is to ensure that the cultural system that we’re in creates an environment for diverse people to feel proud of their particular culture.”
She mentioned that even someone’s odd or negative expression when someone in native Japanese dress walks into a room can affect a person’s sense of being accepted and appreciated — or made to feel that only Western ways are acceptable in today’s social or business climate.
She used the word extinction in her presentation title partly because she regularly sees people pushing against elements of non-Western culture. But some people merely are surprised where she displays elements of her culture, such as her choice to wear bright, traditional Indian attire for her speech.
Many others from India now working in the United States related to her talk and told her so. Other Americans, to her surprise, connected to a segment of her presentation in which she told of being singled out negatively for her accent while leading a recent, online workshop.
“I didn’t know that there is apparently a kind of discrimination in America toward people with a Southern accent,” she said, emphasizing that she, too, is learning.
Vijaykumar loves Columbus “and all the wonderful people I know here and all the people who have mentored me.” She said she just wants to affect positive change, and already is doing such through her involvement in the local Toastmasters, Exhibit Columbus and more.
She is optimistic about people making room for change in cultural attitudes.
“I feel that America is more open to change to take hold and blossom than are many other parts of the world,” she said. “And that (openness) is especially true in Columbus.”
Columbus resident Deepti Vijaykumar recently presented a TEDx Talk in Bloomington.
Columbus resident Deepti Vijaykumar speaks during a recent TEDx Talk in Bloomington.
Columbus resident Deepti Vijaykumar speaks during a recent TEDx Talk in Bloomington.
