Culture Shock

            My parents are from Sri Lanka and we speak Tamil as our native language. I am also of the Hindu religion and our culture can also be similarly tied in with the Indian culture.  I’ll point out some of my experiences with my culture exposed to the American people as well a few things about my culture that may seem unusual to others.  One of the main things we are taught in our culture is respect. Respect for everyone but more importantly respect for elders.  One way we respect our elders that I don’t see in anything other culture is we would bend down and touch the feet of the elder.  This is a way of showing respect to our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and even our teachers.  It shows how highly we think of them and how grateful we are for having them in our lives.  If I were to touch the feet of my professors at college their reactions would probably consist of being confused and disturbed.  Another custom which we have is at my home as soon as we enter the house we take off our shoes.  Walking in the house with shoes is considered disrespect in a way.  Whenever we have guests over they would know to take their shoes off before coming in or we’d kindly tell them to do so.   Another thing that I have noticed about my culture is the food.  All my friends who have come over to my house and tried Sri Lankan food find it to be very spicy.  I find it to be just fine, probably because I’m used to it but people who have never tried it find it to be extremely spicy.  In one instance one of my friends had even shed some tears due to the spicy nature of the food.  Here were a few examples of the customs we follow in my culture.  Though it may seem out of the norm to many others it is quite normal to me. 

A little about me

Hello all. My name is Anojan Rudra and I'm currently a student at Baruch College in my third year. I'm a finance major with a minor in mathematics.  I do have interest in the field of actuarial sciences and hope to pursue a career as an actuary one day.  I do work with a couple of non profit organizations right now, the Hindu Community Outreach(HCO) and The Immigrant Center of Empowerment Training(ICET).  I feel that giving back to your community and helping others is essential to a more prosperous society.  As for my hobbies I love to dance.  I am part of an independent collegiate Bollywood fusion dance team.  We have made a great name for ourselves in the past couple years as one the nations best Bollywood Fusion dance teams placing first in seven out of eight competitions.  I look forward to learning more about management this year and hope the new things I learn will give me a better understanding of what it takes to be an ideal manager.