Our Community Has Come A Long Way

With the recent arrest of Raj Ragaratnam, a Sri Lankan, by Preet Bharara, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York who was born in India and raised in the US, it made me stop and think about how far the South Asian community has come in this country. We went from the stereotypes of taxi drivers and convenience store owners like Apu in the Simpsons to some of the most wealthy and influential businessmen and women in this country.

After recently reading a Wall Street Journal I was amazed to see how prominent South Asians now are in the country. We are not just doctors and engineers. We are IT professionals, lawyers, financial services professionals, professors at distinguished universities and executives at top corporations.

In addition to Preet Bharara, here are just a few other notable South Asians in this country:

• PepsiCo Inc. Chief Executive Indra Nooyi
• Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal
• Silicon Valley financier Vinod Khosla
• Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan

There is an even a South Asian liaison in the White House, Kalpen Modi, whom we all know as Kal Penn or Kumar in the hilarious comedies “Harold and Kumar”. The current administration has definitely engaged the South Asian community. President Barack Obama recently signed an Executive Order that will create an Advisory Commission and a White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

I am a member of the North American South Asian Bar Association who, along with the South Asian Bar Association of DC recently honored 40 South Asian individuals who have been appointed to various positions within the Obama Administration. Wow. We have definitely come a long way.