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Description:
Jasdeep “Jazzy” Aujla was born in Barking, East London, United Kingdom, in 1990. She emigrated to Central Florida at four years old with her father. Economic difficulties prompted Jasdeep’s parents to leave the UK, while relatives already living in Central Florida facilitated their decision and transition to the Sunshine State. As an Indian immigrant, Jasdeep recalled early challenges acclimating to American culture, from language to aesthetics. She emphasized how the aftermath of 9/11 affected racial views regarding brown people, recounting a personal incident that happened to her while returning home from school. She remembered how, as a teenager, she disassociated from her Indian heritage in an attempt to fit into certain American “clichés,” a concept Jasdeep used constantly throughout her oral history. Jasdeep not only highlighted cultural identity crises throughout moments in her personal life but also connected such instances to larger racial, cultural, and social issues that most immigrants or children of immigrants face when living in America. Additionally, given that she spent her entire life in different parts of the state (resided in Central Florida, graduated college in North Florida, attended law school in South Florida), Jasdeep provided insightful and nuanced observations about Florida generally and what the state has represented for Indians and other ethnic groups since she arrived in 1994.
Transcription:
00;00;00 - 00;00;15
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: This is Sebastian Garcia interviewing Jasdeep Aujla on May 15th, 2025, at UCF for the Florida Historical Society Oral History Project. Can you please restate your name, date of birth and where you were born?
00;00;15 - 00;00;25
JASDEEP AUJLA: My name is Jasdeep Aujla. I go by “Jazzy.” June 11th, 1990 is my birthday and I was born in Barking, which is East London, United Kingdom.
00;00;25 - 00;00;30
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Can you tell me a little bit about your childhood growing up in the United Kingdom?
00;00;30 - 00;01;34
JASDEEP AUJLA: Sure. So my first memories are that I definitely did not speak English first. My parents are bilingual, so obviously I was a toddler, and I was four and under when we were there. So my primary language was Punjabi, which is our native language. And I remember public transit [was] really big. Obviously it is England. So probably one of my most clear memories is that we would get on the trains because I love trains. And we would take it into the city center. And I do not know if anybody remembers these, but back then you would sit down at Pizza Hut, and it had a buffet. Yeah, they were really popular. And, not that we were poor, but we just did not have loads of money to go out to fancy dinners. So that would be a big thing for us. I remember my mom would take me and my dad and it would just be like a family day. And then I remember, my aunts and uncles coming over to our tiny little apartment all the time, or we would go to theirs.
00;01;34 - 00;01;35
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Were you an only child?
00;01;35 - 00;01;36
JASDEEP AUJLA: I am an only child. Yeah.
00;01;38 - 00;01;40
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: What did your parents do for a living?
00;01;40 - 00;01;54
JASDEEP AUJLA: So my mom worked for, back in England, the equivalent of the Social Security office, so the Social Services office. And my dad was actually an accountant, a banker.
00;01;56 - 00;02;01
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Were there any particular challenges that your family faced during this time?
00;02;01 - 00;02;58
JASDEEP AUJLA: I guess this can explain it. So my parents are what you call a love match, which means, yes, they saw each other before they got married, but it is kind of like, “Do our families align?” My dad was already living in England, so my dad moved to England when he was a bachelor at nineteen. My mom did not leave her house till she got married, which was in her twenties. And she moved from Africa to England. So definitely the fact that this is my mom's first time away, and they are a young couple, and they are an immigrant couple and their family set them up the best they could, but definitely adapting to a whole new culture was probably a little bit difficult, just like I had a little bit of a hard time when we first moved to the States. I mean, I was lucky because I was younger, but I still had a little bit of a hard time. I would definitely say that.
00;02;58 - 00;03;02
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And we will get to that. Where was your dad from?
00;03;02 - 00;03;25
JASDEEP AUJLA: He is a little complicated. So my dad is born in Kenya, so in East Africa, but then moved back to India for basically most of his formative childhood. So technically born in Kenya, but he left young, Kind of like how I left the UK young, but he was probably about seven when they moved back to India.
00;03;25; - 00;03;26
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And then your mom?
00;03;26 - 00;03;3
JASDEEP AUJLA: My mom is born and raised in Kenya, in Nairobi, East Africa. Did not leave till she got married.
00;03;32 - 00;03;37
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And of course, your father's lineage is Indian?
00;03;37 - 00;03;44
JASDEEP AUJLA: Both my parents. Yeah, both my parents are fully Indian, Punjabi, which is like North India.
00;03;45 - 00;03;48
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: So when did you leave the UK?
00;03;48 - 00;03;51
JASDEEP AUJLA: So we left honestly right after I turned four.
00;03;51 - 00;03;53
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Okay. So in the mid-90s.
00;03;53 - 00;03;56;
JASDEEP AUJLA: Yeah. So it would be ’94.
00;03;56 - 00;03;58
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Yeah. And to Florida or somewhere else?
00;03;59 - 00;04;16
JASDEEP AUJLA: Yeah. We came directly to Central Florida. I do not know if you know anything about England back then, but it was going through a really terrible recession. And our sponsorship papers came through kind of at the perfect time. But, yeah, we move straight to Central Florida, to Longwood.
00;04;16 - 00;04;23
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: It seems like you escaped that recession or was it already happening, and that was what prompted your family to leave?
00;04;23 - 00;04;41
JASDEEP AUJLA: It was already happening. So we were sponsored by one of my dad's brothers who was already living here. And I told you my dad was in banking, so unfortunately he lost his job. But it kind of came, call it karma, divine providence, whatever you want, just kind of at the perfect time.
00;04;41 - 00;04;45
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And Orlando's specifically?
00;04;45 - 00;04;47
JASDEEP AUJLA: Longwood. So just outside Orlando.
00;04;47 - 00;04;59
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And you mentioned how you experienced some struggle even [though] you were lucky that you came at an early age, you mentioned. But just talk to me about your adjustment, what difficulties you experienced?
00;04;59 - 00;05;55
JASDEEP AUJLA: So when we first moved here, first I was without my mom for six months. Because my dad and I came first because I told you my mom worked for social services, so she had to stay behind, and she made sure everything sold all that stuff. So that was really hard. I had no mom for six months. I am four, about to turn five. You know, I turned five, and she comes maybe a month later. That was scary. Also, we suddenly went from living just the three of us to, when we first moved here, we moved in with my uncle, my cousins, which is kind of exciting because one of my cousins and I are a year older. But I told you English was not my first language, so that was a little bit of a challenge because you have to go to preschool and stuff. So that was a little bit hard, and I think I would get a little bit frustrated sometimes and feel like I just was not heard, even though I am quite loud.
00;05;55 - 00;05;57
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: What elementary school did you go to?
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JASDEEP AUJLA: So I went to Heathrow Elementary. I guess, technically that is Sanford or Lake Mary, but they call it Heathrow. Yeah.
00;06;06 - 00;06;11
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Do you recall anything notable, anything memorable about your elementary school experience?
00;06;11 - 00;06;47
JASDEEP AUJLA: Probably that when I was growing up, there were not really a lot of Indians in Central Florida, particularly if they were, they were more on this side of town than my side of town growing up. I could tell you exactly who the Indian families were at my school because they were me and my cousins. And one of the other families was actually family friends of ours. So they were about the same age as my cousins because I am the youngest. So most of my cousins are six or ten years older than me. And then there was maybe one or two other families. So you definitely got to figure out who the brown kids were.
00;06;47 - 00;06;54
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Right. So even as a child, you were hyper-aware of your uniqueness?
00;06;54 - 00;07;43
JASDEEP AUJLA: I think, yes and no. I think maybe at first, but then like your kid, you kind of get over it. I would say it definitely changed for me personally in 2001. I was in middle school and big changes and 9/11 happened and that one probably I knew I was Indian. That was never a question, but I was always I am American, like I told you, I did not speak English. And then I basically did the opposite. I forgot my own language for years and only spoke English. And then, yeah, I think I became really hyper aware of it in sixth grade when 9/11 happened. And then you think back on it, and you are like, wow, we really did not have a lot of brown kids in my school. You look at the class pictures. I think when you are young you do not necessarily feel it.
00;07;43 - 00;07;51
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Right. A hundred percent. And can you elaborate a little bit more about how 9/11 sort of influenced this?
00;07;51 - 00;10;04
JASDEEP AUJLA: Sure. So like I said I basically started school here, so I was four, right. So quickly, English replaces everything. I am doing great and living my life. I walk to school. I have my friends. I am just a normal American kid. And then 9/11 happens, and of course, terrible. And then my mom was kind of scared when I went home, there was a sadness for what happened, but there was, I [felt] [my] parents [were] scared. And I could not figure out why. And then I remember going to school, and a couple of days later we were in gym. And you pick teams for classes and someone I thought was my friend suddenly [did not] pick me. And we always picked each other first. Right. You know how it is. You pick your friends first, and then I found out later in life that their family was like, suddenly you cannot associate with brown people because we are all terrorists, and we are all terrible. And I think that was when I realized—but when I was walking home, what was really hard was it was the one year anniversary of 9/11. I was walking home, in grade seven, my best friend, who I call my brother, is in sixth grade. We were walking home and a truck just screeched into the sidewalk in front of us and [threw] a bag of McDonald's trash at me. And I am not sure I can say this word, so you might have to edit it and calls me a “Paki,” which I knew what that word was because my parents are from England, and I ran the rest of the way home crying. And it just so happened that my mom happened to be home early from work that day, and I was in tears and crying. And that was when I realized that people are not going to like me sometimes just because of my appearance, but that one really stuck out with me. I mean, over time, obviously no one is throwing trash at me, but like I am more hyper aware of it now because of things like that. I think 9/11 definitely shifted the way we get looked at in this country if you have brown skin.
00;10;04 - 00;10;23
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for sharing that. Wow. And that was in seventh grade. Continuing this thread, but also just broadly, how did your sense of belonging change in high school?
00;10;23 - 00;11;30
JASDEEP AUJLA: I think I did that identity crisis that every, maybe immigrant does, or children of immigrants where you straddle the line between I am an American and what that means, that clichés definition and I do not want to be Indian. So I did not speak the language very much compared to my other cousins, [although] I was probably more fluent, but I really did not use it. I lost a good chunk of it. I basically disassociated myself with as much brownness like the cultural aspects in any way possible to make myself as American as possible or what I thought that meant, especially when I was in high school. I am a teenager. I want to fit in. So I did not wear any of my cultural clothes to school. I did not bring Indian food to school. All these things that I would definitely do now without question. But yeah, I definitely I think I did the typical clichés thing where I was like, I am an American and just kind of disassociated as much from my culture as possible.
00;11;30 - 00;11;34
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And for you at that time what did American mean?
00;11;34 - 00;12;36
JASDEEP AUJLA: I will be honest, I think for a lot of us it means white. It means eating a certain type of food, not eating your own ethnic food. And for me, like at school, that meant I wanted to be popular. I wanted to have, I remember blond highlights were especially popular if you had brunet hair. News flash, blond highlights and brunet hair on darker skin people do not typically look that great. But I did it. God bless my parents let me do it. You know, fitting in, like fitting into that look, trying to be that skinny person, trying to be pale, hide my tan until it was cool, right? Because when summer rolled around, it was cool to be tan. But then when winter rolled, like, I would do anything to try to stay pale. You know, I think that was the big thing was looking lighter, wearing those clothes that maybe just did not suit me. You know, trying to fit in.
00;12;36 - 00;12;37
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: What high school did you attend?
00;12;37 - 00;12;44
JASDEEP AUJLA: I went to Lake Mary High School. All that aside, great high school, by the way. Not a bad high school. Just I am a teenager.
00;12;44 - 00;12;47
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Right. Right, right. Yeah. And I did not mean to ask that question to—
00;12;47 - 00;12;57
JASDEEP AUJLA: Yeah. I went to Lake Mary High School, Greenwood Lakes Middle School, which is right next door, and then Heathrow Elementary.
00;12;57 - 00;13;00
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Nice. What year did you graduate high school?
00;13;00 - 00;13;03
JASDEEP AUJLA: 2008.
00;13;03 - 00;13;09
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And did you attend college right after? What were your plans right after high school?
00;13;09 - 00;13;30
JASDEEP AUJLA: Yeah, I went directly into college. I graduated in May. That following June, I finally turned eighteen because I was always a little bit behind in age. And I enrolled and started at FSU, Florida State. And the goal was always to go into political science, and that was what I did.
00;13;30 - 00;13;32
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Okay. So that was your B.S.?
00;13;32 - 00;13;34
JASDEEP AUJLA: Yes. In political science.
00;13;34 - 00;13;38;
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Why was that always the goal?
00;13;38 - 00;14;21
JASDEEP AUJLA: I do not know, I think, I just always wanted to do something maybe global, I guess I like that. But also, like in our house, the joke is in the Indian community, you are only really worth something as a kid if you are a doctor, an engineer, or pharmacist. And I am certainly none of these. Not that there is any shame in those professions or any other profession, but that is kind of the cliché, right? So the only other suitable alternative was law school. And I think poly sci is kind of the main major that most people who go to law school do. So I think in the back of my mind, I always knew I was going to end up in law school whether I wanted to or not.
00;14;21 - 00;14;33
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Yeah, and that was going to be my next question, how you navigated those stereotypes of you are only successful if you are a doctor, engineer or pharmacist, you know.
00;14;33 - 00;15;44
JASDEEP AUJLA: Well, I am still navigating them every time I have to explain what I do. So at this point [in my life], I [was] still very much deep in the “I am disassociating with the brownness part of my culture” to a certain extent. But college kind of went a different direction, which was nice and cool at the same time. So I purposely picked FSU because it was as far as I could go and still in state. Most of my peers in the Indian community, they went to UF. That was standard. You had to go to UF. Well, guess who did not? And guess you did not want to? But finally went to FSU, did nothing in medicine. So I was not around any of the really, truly any Indian peers. But I think I started meeting more people of color in general. And that, I think, shifted me back to maybe being comfortable with some of the stereotypes and being okay, not being some of those stereotypes, because I met people who were also people of color, but different colors than me and not white. And I was like, oh, this is a different dynamic.
00;15;44 - 00;15;53
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Yeah, absolutely. What year did you graduate FSU?
00;15;53 - 00;15;58
JASDEEP AUJLA: 2011.
00;15;58 - 00;16;09
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: What were some things that stick out to you in your mind when you look back at your college experience in FSU during those years?
00;16;09 - 00;17;15
JASDEEP AUJLA: I definitely had a great time in college. I have never been shy, per se, but I am a little bit nobody would believe me, but I am a little bit of an introvert until I am around people whose opinions matter to me because those are the ones that can hurt me. Strangers I am less inclined to care. But I think I became a little bit more comfortable, having conversations. I think I became more open too because most of my friends in college were, Black or Hispanic, and I saw how cool their cultures were and how much they loved them. But then I realized they were pretty similar to mine. And I think that kind of helped me reconnect with mine. So definitely that part, because I joined an Indian dance team, which is something I never would have done in the past. That was definitely a good one. And of course, football games, right? I am an American in the sense that I do love my football, but yeah, probably those times like hanging out with my friends and I think that was where I got interested in culture. Maybe not necessarily mine right away, but culture, which kind of helped me bring back to mine.
00;17;15 - 00;17;28
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Yeah. That is very interesting. And I do not think too uncommon because colleges typically are so multicultural. But it also needs to be also within. Like you need to seek it at some level.
00;17;29 - 00;17;32
JASDEEP AUJLA: Yeah. I actively had to try at some point.
00;17;32 - 00;17;39
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Exactly. And so that is very interesting. Talk to me a little bit more about that dance team and your experiences there.
00;17;39 - 00;18;11
JASDEEP AUJLA: Yeah. So it was actually interesting. So some of the other schools, bigger schools have lots of Indian dance teams if they have the population. And now, man, I think almost every Florida school has some version of an Indian dance team, which is wild. UF had multiple, of course, because that was where all Indian kids went. FSU did not have any because there was not really a population. Some kids decided to start one and I decided to join it. And that was definitely something I do not think I would have done in the past.
00;18;11 - 00;18;16
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: So did you guys compete with others, or it was more like a…?
00;18;16 - 00;18;57
JASDEEP AUJLA: Ours was so fledgling that we would not have been able to compete. I mean, I will just level with you. There were a couple people on our team who clearly grew up doing that dance, like professionally instead of just at parties and stuff. I was not one of them. And so we would have been crushed. The other schools, though, definitely. Actually, there was a massive competition, multiple schools have them, where teams compete against each other and there is a giant one in DC that has been going on for years because Virginia, California, these states have larger population. So these schools compete. But now, I would not be surprised to learn if they have one that actually competes, I do not know.
00;18;57 - 00;19;03
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: What did you learn or relearn about your culture through that experience?
00;19;03 - 00;19;49
JASDEEP AUJLA: I will definitely say music helped me get back in touch with the language. Yeah, that was probably the biggest thing. I was always sort of into Indian music. I always had kind of like, back when you burnt CDs, but the coolest tunes because my family lived in Canada and stuff like that. So we would always bring back CDs because there was such a large population up there. But I think I really did not understand a lot of the lyrics, obviously. And when I joined that team, because I had to start listening, and I was around other people who spoke, I definitely think that led me back to the language more. Yeah, for sure. That was probably the best thing I got out of that.
00;19;49 - 00;19;54
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: So what did you do right after college, once you graduated in 2011?
00;19;54 - 00;20;28
JASDEEP AUJLA: I rehabbed my knee before I had surgery. I tore my ACL while I was in my last semester of college, which thankfully I graduated in December. So I had knee surgery and then saved a little bit of money. [I] promptly blew that money because I went on a road trip with my friend. Definitely would do again though. [It] was a great time and then came back. [I] did the beach every day. All day. I love the beach. Try to squeeze as much fun as I could. And then I went to law school.
00;20;28 - 00;20;35
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: But first, before we get to law school, did you tear ACL dancing?
00;20;35 - 00;20;51
JASDEEP AUJLA: No, I actually, I tore it playing flag football at FSU, in intramurals, because I am, again, a terrible example of what most people want in an Indian daughter. And I did not dance. I played sports.
00;20;51 - 00;20;58
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And this road trip. Where did you guys go?
00;20;58 - 00;21;40
JASDEEP AUJLA: You are going to laugh, but, so we left here, we went up to Georgia, we went to Atlanta, and then from Atlanta, we went to Kentucky. Yeah, I know Kentucky. And then from Kentucky, we went to Tennessee. We went to Nashville because my friend was turning twenty one. We did Grand Ole Opry Broadway. Fun fact I actually really love country as much as I love my own folk music. My music taste is just all over the board. So we did Nashville, and then we went into the bottom of Ohio, and then we came back to Atlanta, and then my cousin graduated, and then most of Florida and then back to our little town.
00;21;40 - 00;22;10
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: You were young, of course, but at an age where you obviously understood or could understand sort of the deeper context of politically, socially, whatever. The point I am trying to get is a) what was your experience like? You know, a fun experience. Yes. But b) what did you learn about the US doing that type of trip?
00;22;10 - 00;26;54
JASDEEP AUJLA: Some clichés exist for a reason, but on the complete opposite end of that, a lot of these clichés are slowly dying, which is great, which is fantastic, and clichés that exist were both good and positive. So I went with my best friend and so she is very Caucasian. Looks like the girl next door. She is great. I am the complete opposite. But I sound like this. I talk like this. So on the phone, you never know what I look like, right. Atlanta was fine. Atlanta was a big city. I feel like big cities are usually, the diversity is in there. But when we got into Lexington. So we actually stayed just outside Lexington, which is one of the cities. And I use the term city loosely in Kentucky, but it is where the university is, which is why it is big. But it was not my first time there, thankfully, but an anecdote to that, if you want to know how funny it was, the first time my other friend and I flew up while we were in college to visit her on spring break, and we were at Sanford International Airport. And the guys checking IDs and he was like, “Where are you ladies heading?” And we were like, “Oh, we are going to see our other best friend, spend spring break with her.” He was like, “Cool, where are you going?” And we were like, “Kentucky.” And his face visibly dropped. And he was like “You know people from there come here.” And then he looks at me and my friend and my other friend is also Caucasian, and he looks at me, and he was like, “You? You are going to Kentucky?” I am like, “Yes, me. I am going to Kentucky.” And that was the same vibe we went again later because my friend has a younger brothers who at that time were in high school. So we actually ended up going to a local varsity baseball game at a high school. So you can think the most cliché movie kind of thing to do. And yeah, I very much stuck out. There are a couple of African American kids on the team. Couple meaning literally quite two. But no other color. There are no Asians. There are no Latinos. Yeah. I was definitely aware that I was different. But it was funny we get to the ticket gate and it was like five dollars, unless you have, you know how it is for high school games. And my friend's mom, who I call mom, is like “Oh, this is my daughter, and this is her best friend. So, we are willing,” she was about to pull out five dollars to pay for me or whatever. And the lady was like, “No. You can go in if you willingly came up to a high school baseball game on your road trip,” she goes, “you must actually be family.” But, yeah, I definitely felt weird.
We would go into this city, I definitely stuck out. Every store we went to, I stuck out. I do not know if you have seen those things in people's houses, I mean, I have one in my apartment, but, like “bless this mess.” That was at the peak of that movement. And I definitely did not understand some of the expressions. And I may have been “bless your heart” a couple times. So that was fun. But yeah, I was very aware that I did not look like the town I was in. And then funny enough, we drove to another one of their baseball games, which was like in a remote town in Kentucky, a small, small, small town. That one was fun. And we went ziplining in the Red River Gorge, which is a beautiful area if you have ever been. And one of the workers, because there were a lot of college students who work those kinds of jobs kept staring at me, and I was really confused and uncomfortable. And then I realized he was trying to figure out where I was from because he was thrown by the fact that I have this American accent, but I am clearly some sort of ethnicity. And anytime you tell someone your ethnicity, if they are not around a lot of people of your kind, which is what happened on this trip, someone proceeded to tell me that they had Indian food once, and I was like, that was great, you know? But I mean they mean it from a good place. But I mean, anyone who is a person of color, of any capacity knows what I am talking about. And it is like, okay, or any cliché, like, if you tell someone you are from the South and they are from outside the US, they are like, “I had fried chicken once.” You are like, okay. And that was kind of how I felt. It was a lot of “That is so nice. Lovely, yeah. I have had that too.”
00;26;54 - 00;27;00
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Yeah, absolutely. That was why I wanted to ask because yeah.
00;27;00 - 00;27;03
JASDEEP AUJLA: It is fun. It is Kentucky.
00;27;03 - 00;27;07
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: So you where did you attend law school?
00;27;07 - 00;27;11
JASDEEP AUJLA: So I went to law school down south in Fort Lauderdale. I guess technically it is Davie. Nova [Southeastern University].
00;27;11 - 00;27;19
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Yeah. And talk to me about your law school experience. What was that like?
00;27;19 - 00;28;59
JASDEEP AUJLA: I mean, for me personally, I think I did it because, like I said, all good kids are supposed to do ABCD. And since I did not do ABCD this was a good backup option. I mean, it definitely helped me in my career now, but if I have children one day, I mean my parents were wonderful, but if I have children one day, I think I do not have that stigma of they need to do ABCD that my parents had. I mean, they did their best with what they knew. Law school was hard for me academically. But I did it. Law school are interesting because law schools are still also a place of privilege, right. It is private education. So primarily the classes are still Caucasian leaning. But if they are not even in South Florida, which leads there to be more minorities in the classes, which is great, but they are mostly, Hispanic/Latino, but they are, again I do not know if I could say this, but white passing and they come from that old money. So they come from money. So the money kind of erases the fact that they are a minority. So money also buys you privilege. There were not a lot of any other minorities either. But again, my friend was studying ophthalmology at the same campus, but obviously in the med-side. And her campus was just full of Asians. But again, it is a privilege thing, right. Grad schools are a privilege thing. So there is a reason you do not see as many minorities in them, unfortunately. And then the ones that you do fall into certain clichés. We fall into clichés.
00;28;59 - 00;29;10
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Since you really touched on class and race, what about the gender makeup? Were you one of the few women in your law school?
00;29;10 - 00;30;15
JASDEEP AUJLA: No. I think law is one of those professions, if I am not mistaken, so do not quote me, I think there is actually going to be more females than males in the next little bit. It is one of the ones that you can break down. And I think that was maybe because there is so many facets to law. If anything, I think law might be going the other way in terms of needing more men. I do not know if you have seen the billboard, somewhere in Orlando, it is a male only attorney firm to help men going through divorce. So they do not take on female clients, like they support the—because the idea is that the woman always wins. But I think you are going to see more of that maybe. But I will say though, the guys that I knew tended to be the ones who had the best offers outside of school because they had the best networks, and it is still a little bit of a boys club, but definitely women are breaking that ceiling faster. And maybe because, like I said, it is more diverse in what you can do with it.
00;30;15 - 00;30;21
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And after law school what happened?
00;30;21 - 00;31;21
JASDEEP AUJLA: So “CliffsNotes” version, because it was not a very fun time in my life. I was in my last semester of law school, and I was studying for exams, and I ended up getting sent to the hospital because I had a seizure, from basically staying up too late and abusing caffeine and stuff to stay awake. And then they were worried that I was going to have epilepsy. I do not thankfully it is nice. So I was sick, so I took a while to recover from that. And in that time, I took the bar and everything, and I think maybe because I was sick, I was really honest with myself. I just could not see myself doing it forever. And also the economy stunk at that time. And personally, I lost some of the favorite people in my life. Like my grandpa passed. My uncle passed. So I think that maybe shifted it a little bit. The economy was terrible when I graduated, so I knew I still had to make some money doing something. So I ended up working for Panera.
00;31;21 - 00;31;24
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: What year was this when you graduated?
00;31;24 - 00;31;39
JASDEEP AUJLA: I graduated in 2015. So I ended up working for Panera. And the company that my mom works for, like doing customer service until I was offered my first HR job.
00;31;40 - 00;31;44
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And how long were you at that job or jobs?
00;31;44 - 00;31;59
JASDEEP AUJLA: Oh, the Panera one? Panera was probably a couple months, but the other job that I had simultaneously, a solid year maybe. Yeah, a solid year for sure.
00;31;59 - 00;32;04
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And what were some of your responsibilities at that job?
00;32;04 - 00;32;24
JASDEEP AUJLA: So it is heating and air conditioning, a large one. You see their trucks all over Florida. But I worked in the customer service department. So basically when you had a problem with your air conditioning, you call in, you get somebody like me, we schedule your call, go to the dispatchers, you order parts, stuff like that.
00;32;24 - 00;32;27
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And then after that year and a half-ish, where did you go?
00;32;27 - 00;32;54
JASDEEP AUJLA: I went to a construction company, General Contracting Construction Company. They do mostly plumbing. And I was very fortunate, this is where networking sort of comes in, the old HR director at the company that my mom worked for years was the new HR director there. And they had an opening for an HR assistant. So it was kind of my first foot into the world of HR.
00;32;54 - 00;32;57
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And your responsibilities were very similar or?
00;32;58 - 00;33;18
JASDEEP AUJLA: Yeah, kind of similar to what I do now. So did a lot of hiring. I work the HRIS software. So the software for human resources, [I] dealt with if you had an employee that was being mean to you, you come to my office very general HR things on some capacity.
00;33;18 - 00;33;33
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: I am not sure if this is appropriate, but this is your life, so I am sure you have experienced some pretty bizarre or maybe problematic HR instances or.
00;33;33 - 00;33;35
JASDEEP AUJLA: Like directed towards me or brought to me?
00;33;36 - 00;33;39
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Both, I guess. I mean, mainly brought to you.
00;33;39 - 00;33;42
JASDEEP AUJLA: Oh for sure. On both tokens. Yeah.
00;33;42 - 00;33;50
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: I mean, if not, it is okay. But if you are willing to share, since this has been your profession for a while now.
00;33;50 - 00;37;43
JASDEEP AUJLA: So construction is kind of rough, okay. It is a rough industry. I had an incident where it was very hard to hire women in construction, and basically we had a female who was great. I do not care if you are male or female. I should put that on the record, but it is just the fact that statistically, it is very difficult to hire women, they do not last as long. And unfortunately, a lot of that is the culture in construction, like in the field, the offices at construction companies are almost always women, right, like the secretarial work. But I had one, she was really great. Basically, I had obviously some guys on the site who were inappropriate, whistling at her, making comments. So my GM did the great right thing, came and told us. So we had a whole thing. We moved her to him so that these guys would not interfere because she does not want to start something which is terrible. But it was her reality. And so she was going on and on and on, and I guess one of them saw her outside of work and with her partner, who was also a female. And then, of course, that spreads on the job site. So now they were harassing her. So now it becomes like a whole big thing. And now I have these giant guys in my office, and I have to explain to them why they cannot do that. And then I ended up firing one because he basically ended up not threatening her but sending inappropriate text messages. And I will let you fill in the blanks for a derogatory term for a lesbian. And that was wild because then it triggers like a whole big thing.
But the next big thing was a couple years after that, unfortunately, my company actually, we fired some people and the EEOC [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] got involved, which I do not know if you have ever had to deal with the EEOC. It is awful, but all that is to say, so now I am in the middle of having to do sensitivity training with a bunch of very rough around the edges guys. And we are talking about how you cannot discriminate according to the law. And the only thing these guys are stuck on is if trans people can use their bathrooms. And I think at some point one of them was talking about, “Can you speak foreign languages at your job?” I am like, I do not care if they speak Spanish to each other. I was like, yes, they need to speak English to do their job right. But if they are going to talk to each other in Spanish, I could care less, right. As long as in like vendors, everybody, because that was a job requirement, to speak to your vendors. But like they were just going on and on and one of them was like, well, “what if one of my employees is an idiot?” And because we were going back and forth on the same thing, I think I lost my plot. And like our attorney from the firm was in there. And I was like, because he was like, “What if I said they are a fucker?” I am like, “I do not care what you call somebody who messes up, as long as it is not an illegal word or harassing word or anything, and you are equal opportunity about it.” I was like, “I do not know what is so difficult about equal opportunity. If you are going to call him a fucker, you got to call him a fucker. Like everybody is equal opportunity.” And my whole table turned around and my boss is like, “She is not wrong.” And the attorneys were like, “That was actually what I was going to tell you.” And I was like, “See! Moving on.” But that was wild. These were conversations I never thought I would have to have. And now I have them way more frequently than I thought I ever would. But it is cool. It is part of my job.
00;37;43 - 00;37;47
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for sharing. And that was here in Florida?
00;37;47 - 00;37;52
JASDEEP AUJLA: Yeah. The company is here in Florida. I am obviously not using names because it is rude.
00;37;52 - 00;37;58
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Yeah of course. So how did you end up here at UCF?
00;37;58 - 00;38;42
JASDEEP AUJLA: Once I got into HR, I really liked it. I always kind of wanted to go there. I probably should have gone there right out of college, but I did not. When my boss gave me the opportunity, I had started applying for jobs and was just kind of biting my time waiting, and I knew I wanted to be in the university environment or a large multinational corporation, so that I could possibly go international somewhere. And this job opportunity opened. I got an interview, another interview, and then the job ended up being mine. So it was kind of one of those perfect timing plans because it was time to move on in order to move up in my career and move out into maybe a little more tolerant environment.
00;38;42 - 00;38;43
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And was that part of the calculus?
00;38;43 - 00;39;09
JASDEEP AUJLA: So yeah, for sure. I knew I was not going to stay in construction for the rest of my life. Not to say that construction is not tolerant, but it is one of those industries that are very heavily favored by a certain ideology. And universities are kind of the opposite. It is every man for himself thinking, I mean, university definitely made me more open. There are more cultures. So I needed to be somewhere more like that.
00;39;09 - 00;39;13
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And how long ago was this transition?
00;39;13 - 00;39;16
JASDEEP AUJLA: About a year. And about a week, it will be a year.
00;39;16 - 00;39;36
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Oh, wow. Nice. So transitioning out of your professional life and more broader life questions. You have a very interesting perspective on Florida because you basically have lived in Central Florida during your formative years.
00;39;36 - 00;39;38
JASDEEP AUJLA: My whole life. Yeah, pretty much my whole life. We moved here at four.
00;39;38 - 00;39;42
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: But then you went to Tallahassee for college.
00;39;42 - 00;39;43
JASDEEP AUJLA: I did.
00;39;43 - 00;39;50
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: So you got the North Florida experience, and then for law school you went to South Florida? And as you know—
00;39;50 - 00;39;50
JASDEEP AUJLA: They are very different.
00;39;50 - 00;39;56
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: They are very different. So please elaborate for the record.
00;39;56 - 00;42;56
JASDEEP AUJLA: Well the adage is the further north you go, the more in the South you are, which is true because coming out of Orlando, Orlando is pretty diverse. People do not realize that. Tallahassee is small, and if it did not have the capital, it would be even smaller. So people kind of walk the same, talk the same thing, think the same. It is kind of remote. It is isolated. That has changed now, but the adage of the further north you go, the more the South you are in Florida is true. The accents change a little bit. Mine certainly did a little bit when I was in college. I picked up some expressions that I never would have otherwise. Naturally, the population, again without the capital and the school is very heavily Caucasian, and tend to be more of the, again, this is taking out the university and the capital because these are the other people who work and live there. They kind of fit a cliché. Their country, their—not that I think this is a bad term—but they are rednecks. They are rednecky. They prefer to be outside. There is kind of the cliché of fishing and being outside, and the trucks are more of a thing you see there. You go to South Florida, [and] nobody wants to drive a lifted F-150 through the streets of—I was closer to Fort Lauderdale. That was rough enough with that. Certainly not if you go to Miami. We go to Miami all the time. Like you saw the opposite end. You saw imported foreign cars. You saw so much more like foreign luxury. And if you boated it was not to go fishing, it was because you had a nice boat where you had those fancy jet skis. You know, it was very different. The people there are hustle and bustle. It is almost like anything but being dirty. Whereas like up north, it is very much about being out the side and the country. And values change too, right. Mostly everybody in North Florida. And I am pretty sure political maps will back me up on this are very heavily conservative. The further south you go, that map definitely starts changing colors. And there are pockets, definitely more options in terms of that. Lots of churches up in Tallahassee or as you are getting there. Maybe not as many down south. Not to say that they do not have religion. But you are certainly not going to find a mosque in Tallahassee. Now you [can] find [an] Islamic Center or Jewish Center, but it is because of the college. Like colleges bring diversity, which is why I wanted to work for one.
00;42;56 - 00;42;56
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Absolutely.
00;42;56 - 00;42;59
JASDEEP AUJLA: But if you took it away, like there is no way.
00;42;59 - 00;43;25
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Right. How has Florida—and I am going to say Florida because as we just said, you have experienced all the regions. Typically I say Orlando because the people I am talking to are from Orlando, but you could take it more generally, which is great. How has Florida, in your mind, changed since you have been here in the mid-1990s?
00;43;25 - 00;47;29
JASDEEP AUJLA: Well, for starters, the population is way larger than when we came here. I think there is more diversity in the people of color community. Obviously, when we moved here, the predominant minority was Puerto Ricans, in Central Florida at least. And then Miami was very heavily Cuban and Venezuelan. And then you had pockets of Haiti and so on and so forth. I think these pockets of population are popping up everywhere now. You know how big cities have Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Haiti, whatever. That is happening. I think Orlando is a great example. We had no good restaurants in my opinion, like foreign restaurants. And now there is like just in my side of town, like seven Indian restaurants within three miles of me. But on that same token, there is like four Pho places. And I actually think if anything, the Latino communities’ influence is almost waning, it is giving way to maybe Asian migration. And not that it erases it, just that you are seeing more of it now. So I definitely think it has led to better food. I definitely have met more people. I think it might have also liberalized Orlando for sure. But my neighbor on my left is like an eighty-seven year old Puerto Rican woman. She is a diehard Catholic conservative, basically call her grandma, but she is like the sweetest person. My neighbor on my right is a single mom with two little girls very antipolitics for the most part. If she is going to vote, she is going to vote blue as possible. You know, does not believe in organized religion in any capacity. And my parents are in between. And my parents, we are Sikh. So it is a nontraditional religion in the terms of it is not one of the Abrahamic faiths. We are Brown. We speak multiple languages. So that is my little piece area that I live in. And I think that is changing here. I definitely think the food, the culture, the pace of life is getting a little bit faster. I used to joke that it was a bubble town and that I could not wait to get out, but that had changed.
I think South Florida is also changing. I feel like it was really heavily Latino and Hispanics, I know those are different, and I actually think the South American culture might be taking over the Cuban culture more. I almost think like the authentic Cuban culture that made Miami, Miami, is being pushed out. The last time I went there was a couple months ago, and I am actually going in a couple weeks. So I am excited to see if anything has changed. Because now a lot of those restaurants, I call them community centers, are gone or they are going away, and they are giving way to more commercial chains. And that is really sad, which is funny because Orlando is doing the opposite. It is pushing back against commercial chains because that was all we had for so long. But Miami, once upon a time was kind of the mecca for the mom and pop cultural ethnic foods and those are going away. And if you do that, you take away the community, and also they just cannot afford it. So that was definitely changing. Affordability is affecting who moves in here and making it generic. I hate the way all these new shopping plazas look, it is disgusting. And that is happening all over the state, even in Miami. Tallahassee is growing. So Tallahassee is going to experience its own growth change in the fact that suddenly a town that did not have many people now has apartments everywhere and all of these things. So I feel like that is probably the biggest change.
00;47;29 - 00;47;39
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: So relatedly, what challenges does Florida/Orlando face today?
00;47;3 - 00;49;22
JASDEEP AUJLA: One for sure: a housing crisis. I would probably say it might even be the primary one because when we do not have the space. Orlando just does not have the space. That is why they call it Orlampa or Tamplando or whatever you want to call it, because it is growing into each other. But the reality is there is only so much that you can tear down, too because we live in a swamp, like Florida is a swamp. We carved it out and we created a city. Orlando is the same. And it is proven every time a hurricane hits, which also adds to the housing crisis. But I would definitely say housing crisis first, and it is just not affordable. Florida used to be really affordable. And if you were from here, you kind of always figured you would be able to maybe get a small house. I cannot. I have a full time job, I have benefits, all of these things. I do everything quote unquote, right, I cannot afford a house by myself. That was definitely one. The overcrowding, because of the population, there is not enough housing or at least affordable housing. But I would say right on top of that environmental. This past year alone, we had how many terrible storms? And as a repercussion, the insurance companies are pulling out, all of these things are changing. But at the same token, we are still growing. So how are you supposed to provide people with these necessities? I just think specifically for Orlando, it is the little big city that never was supposed to be, and it is growing way bigger than I think people realize, and at a pace that is a little bit faster. [It] does not seem like it is fast, but if you really look at it, it is quite quick. But we just do not have the infrastructure for it.
00;49;22 - 00;49;39
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: That was very interesting. That little moniker you gave. In what ways do you think Orlando or Florida will change in the next twenty five years? So by 2050, which you will still be around.
00;49;39 - 00;53;10
JASDEEP AUJLA: I hope, right. That is the goal. Wow. At some point every city has a population slow down. But we did not have a skyline when I was growing up. Now we have one. I think we might be on board to compete in, in terms of being like second tier cities, not second tier in terms of living standards, but like size. So I definitely see more buildings, more housing that corridor between Tampa and Orlando, for sure going to be more houses. Unfortunately, I see Florida losing a lot of its wetlands. I do not want it to, but politically, the way it is going, we seem to be really backpedaling on our environmental protections because of who we vote in. And that was not to say I agree or disagree, it is just their policies, for the most part are not environmentally friendly currently. And unfortunately, that is damage you cannot really bring back. I actually see more people leaving. I actually think in that time span, you will be hard pressed to find anybody in Florida who is actually Floridian. That was definitely one.
The racial makeup. I think most people will look some version of Brown. Not to say the same kind, just I think intermarriage is going to get bigger and it has been bigger. And Orlando is kind of a perfect place for that. Orlando prides itself on being like a little safe space in the middle of Florida. Where you can be conservative and be a minority, where you can be liberal and be whatever. But you did not see those when I was growing up, a lot more interracial, interfaith marriages. So I am definitely thinking the population might be more tan leaning, but of all different kinds.
And then politically, I do not know, because Florida goes conservative and then it does not. And then Orlando is, like I said, almost like the Austin of Florida sometimes because we are like this weird little piece that has, because of Disney tourism, all of these things. So I do not know, are we going to stay the little blue piece in the middle of like, you know what I mean? Like the little Austin, like keep it weird with our arts festival. And that is the other thing, unfortunately, I hope because we are getting all these new stadiums, maybe we are kind of culturally more relevant now instead of just being a tourist town. I think if we are going to become relevant, it will be for medical stuff, but I would love to see if we were maybe more culturally relevant in the arts and sports scene. I think sports will happen first than art. I definitely see all of the places that I went to dying. I think the old way of doing some things like beaching will go away. We might do it more like California style, where there are sections that are public and the rest is unfortunately private. No longer what we did when I was growing up, where you drive on to the beach, and you buy boiled peanuts from roadside stands. I think we are going to go to more city in that aspect, and we will probably lose some of that. But I hope we stay.
00;53;11 - 00;53;37
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: We opened up this conversation with how you navigated your Indianness and your Americanness. So now looking back and where we left off in the early twenty-first century, how do you feel now [today]?
00;53;37 - 00;55;36
JASDEEP AUJLA: Oh now I am very proud of both. You know, somebody asked me, “Where are you from?” I say, “I am [from] Florida,” but when they ask that underlying meaning, I have no shame in explaining that my family is from India. And then explaining where in India. I love my food. Now I eat both. Like Monday night, it will be Indian. Tuesday night it will be pasta. Wednesday will be leftovers. There is no shame. I bring food to work. If I had to leave work to go to a cultural event, I would just change at work. I definitely think I am way more open. My language has come back. It is obviously not as great as it was, but I think I am way more appreciative. I make more of an effort. And I realize there is no right way to be what you are. There is no right way to be Indian. There is no right way to be American. And being one does not negate the fact that I am the other, which was the biggest thing. Definitely the biggest thing. I also think having friends like me now helps. My generation of kids that grew up here, and not just me, I am in my 30s, but the ones that are maybe like their early 50s and mid-20s, we were kind of the test subject. So I think we all kind of have navigated that and our uniqueness. But definitely now I am super proud of my religion. I love my food. I will brag. I love that I am bilingual. Means I can talk when I do not need anyone to hear me. Yeah, definitely now it is a brag. But I think sometimes I am still a little hesitant in certain situations. Definitely when I travel. I love to travel. I might play up my very American, white sounding, if you will, accent, and play into certain clichés. But unfortunately, that is also just survival. But in terms of being proud of it, I have no shame in that anymore.
00;55;36 - 00;55;43
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: You mentioned cultural events. Can you share how are you involved culturally here in Orlando?
00;55;43 - 00;57;32
JASDEEP AUJLA: Sure. So, one is religion. So my family and I are Sikh, so we go to a Gurdwara, which is our temple. So that was definitely one. The other one is I am a part of arts organization called Asian Cultural Association [ACA]. I have been for a really long time. So it is definitely grown from a tiny little fledgling, like, “who are you?” to now we have recognizable events, [like] the South Asian Film Festival every year at Enzian [Theater], which is like one of those events people know about, people who do not even care anything about history, it has just been running for a long time, and we do that. That is really cool. But what is unique about that, and I think what has worked for me in terms of still supporting it after all this time, is that it is not only spreading our cultural identity to people who do not belong to it, it is also exposing people in our culture and community to other viewpoints and ideas, and maybe breaking some of these clichés like, “No, your daughter doesn't have to be a dainty, petite thing, then be a housewife.” Again, these are clichés. She can be a smart doctor who lifts and is a powerhouse and does ABCD and it is okay if your kid is not a doctor. And so I think we do both. And I think that is really cool. I like being a part of that, like bringing our culture to other people, but also turning it around and exposing our community to other cultures and maybe bridging the gap between the generations a little bit. And then just attending if there are events or parties or anything, who does not love a good party.
00;57;32 - 00;57;58
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And I am sure given your perspectives and your experiences you are younger and you have not fit those roles, those clichés. You have contributed a lot breaking [it] down, being involved in the organization, or do you think that happened more like a collective effort?
00;57;58 - 01;00;09
JASDEEP AUJLA: I think it is definitely a collective effort. But I also think that my generation might have been the first one, and maybe the ones a little bit older than us, we are the first ones to really get the opportunity to try, like our parents are one thing. Our parents already broke a certain mold when they came here. But they held on to, not all of them, but many things you hold on to your cultural identities, even when they clash with your new culture. America is your new culture. I think my generation, probably, and the ones a little bit older were the first ones to maybe try breaking some of those stereotypes. I definitely think, like my nieces and nephews, they got zero shame in their game about being Brown and American. And it is just not organically like who they are as people. But I definitely think so. Yeah, maybe.
But I think it is also a big thing [about] where you live, too. I think there is just a cultural identity shift in general of maybe breaking through some normal, like, I am a fan of tradition, but there is a difference between a beautiful tradition and the concept of, like case-in-point, in my family. I have a cousin who is gay, and he is about ten years older than me. He was in the closet forever. He came out. None of us cared. And by that, I mean none of the cousins cared. Our parents still had a little bit of a hard time with it, but I think it is their willingness to maybe realize that that was still my son. He is still a good guy. He does all of these things. He takes care of us. So I think they realize, embracing some of these new norms does not mean letting go of the traditions that matter, like family values and support. So I would say maybe, I might be a part of it, maybe because I do not fit a little bit of the mold. I did not do these things, and I am still okay. And I still love my family, and I still go to temple. You know, I have a tattoo, and I have not burst into flames, so.
01;00;09 - 01;00;12
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: How long have you been involved with the ACA?
01;00;12 - 01;00;39
JASDEEP AUJLA: Gosh. I do not know, I want to say, since maybe I was nine, eight, something like that. We [helped] Jasbir Mehta, whose the director. We [helped] her back in the day, fold the mailers to send to people, letting them know about an event. And then when you are in high school, you do it for volunteering. And then I have just been on and off whenever I am in town and still am.
01;00;39 - 01;00;45
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Yeah. And I am assuming your parents got you involved in that or was that you as a nine year old taking the initiative?
01;00;47 - 01;01;22
JASDEEP AUJLA: It is kind of one of those organic things where everybody knows each other sort of situation. So, Jasbir and her husband live in the same neighborhood as my uncle and his wife, and they are both doctors. Both her husband and my uncle are doctors, and their kids are about my same age. And so my mom worked in the summers and basically she was like, oh, you can drop your daughter here. They can have a play date. We ended up hanging out and then we spent time. So I was just there. So it was one of those, “And then I stayed,” whether she wanted me or not. But yeah. Still there.
01;01;23 - 01;01;40
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And I know we have really discussed this throughout the entire conversation, but I want to ask it explicitly because I have asked everyone this. How has your Indian heritage influenced your perspective on life generally and living in Florida specifically?
01;01;40 - 01;03;16
JASDEEP AUJLA: Generally, maybe some of the values. I am really big on family. The notion of being there for family. And family is not just my blood family, [but] those friends, the community. Community, that is big. Building my community, keeping my community, taking care of my community, big on that. Like if you are my person, you are my people. You are my people. Definitely, I feed everybody who comes to my house. That is also a thing.
And then you said, like in Florida, how it is shaped my? Well, there is just more of us now. And it is a different wave, like, I will level with you. I live over where Deloitte is. I do not have anything in common with them. You would think I would, but I do not. I think it is shifting. I think the next wave of Indians might be more Indian than they are American, and I do not think they want to let go of that. So I think that was going to cause a little bit of a clash, maybe between people like my parents and us who assimilated maybe a little bit more. It is growing, the population is growing. So I imagine maybe we will start affecting things like politics and maybe we will have a seat at the table. I see that happening because on the local scale in Orlando, we have had some commissioners and so on, so forth. So definitely see that. And I am also like East African Indian. So I am a different type of Indian altogether.
01;03;16 - 01;03;27
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: If someone is listening to this recording fifty or a hundred years from now, what do you want them to know about your culture and the state of Florida?
01;03;27 - 01;04;45
JASDEEP AUJLA: What I would love for them to know about my culture is that, we are about community and that we are a culture that is so diverse. You know, India has so many languages and religions and people, and that they should not be afraid to talk to us, and they should definitely try our food. That would probably be about our culture, but definitely the community aspect. Something about Florida or just Orlando. Something about Florida, give it a shot. It has got more to offer than you think. And it is also very pretty. And do not let people scare you that something bad is going to happen to you if you move here. And “Florida Man,” is both real and not real at the same time. But for Orlando, I would tell them, we are such a tolerant community. Yeah, we have conservatives, liberals, gays, straight, people of color, Caucasians, but I would tell them that Orlando is a community that, at the forefront, if you are an Orlandoian cares about you as a neighbor. As many things that are different, we are very, very good at coming together as the 407 and as Orlandoians.
01;04;46 - 01;04;51
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Excellent. Thank you so much for taking some time out of your day to speak with me.
01;04;51 - 01;04;51
JASDEEP AUJLA: Yeah no worries.
01;04;51 - 01;04;53
SEBASTIAN GARCIA: I really appreciate it.
01;04;53 - 01;04;53
JASDEEP AUJLA: Have a good one.