Five Famous Indian and Pakistani Houstonians
Categories: Texas
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| Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni |
Born in Kolkata, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni left India for America to pursue graduate school, and eventually received her PhD from Berkeley. A poet and novelist, Divakaruni has written around 15 books, many of which deal with the immigrant experience. She won the American Book Award in 1996 for her collection of short stories, Arranged Marriage, and has written for The New Yorker and Atlantic Monthly. Two of her books have been made into movies, and one has been turned into a Tamil TV serial. Divakaruni now teaches creative writing at UH.
Wrote Divakaruni on her web site:
Women in particular respond to my work because I'm writing about them: women in love, in difficulty, women in relationships. I want people to relate to my characters, to feel their joy and pain, because it will be harder to [be] prejudiced when they meet them in real life."
1. Raj Bhavsar
Raj Bhavsar
So he was actually born right here in Houston, but Raj Bhavsar has created his fair share of milestones. Bhavsar, a gymnast whose parents are Gujarati, is the third Indian-American ever to win a medal at the Olympics. During his third Olympic games in 2008, Bhavsar and his World Champion U.S. team earned a bronze in artistic gymnastics, a sport that surely sculpts the best biceps known to man. Bhavsar even has a gymnastic position named after him: "The Bhavsar."
Now at the ripe age of 30, Bhavsar performs in Cirque du Soleil.
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