Chai Time with Bernadette White - July 29,2012

In today’s Chai Time show we invite Bernadette White. Bernie is currently working as an Outreach Coordinator at the Center for South Asia at Stanford University. The other hat she wears is that of a doctoral student at Syracuse University, studying Sociology. Her research focuses on rural India, and more specifically, the social and political issues surrounding the discussions of farmers’ suicide. Her research has allowed her to gain experience conducting research internationally- with research trips to India. She has travelled to a lot of different cities in India and has done her fieldwork in the Vidarbha region in Eastern Maharashtra, India. Farmers in India became the center of considerable concern in the 1990s when the journalist P Sainath highlighted the large number of suicides among them. Official reports initially denied the farmer suicides but as more and more information came to light the government began to accept that farmers in India were under considerable stress. It is a very serious issue and our guest today has been doing an extensive research in this field. We will talk about this sensitive issue, plus we will talk to Bernie about how she got interested in India and Indian culture. We will also like to know about her hobbies, favorite movies and of course her favorite Hindi movie songs. We will listen to what Bernie likes to listen.