Bridge across cultures

An expert in ancient studies, Ian Desai has won the Rhodes scholarship this year. Ashok Easwaran meets the Indian-American who has worked on a rare subject — the comparison between the Mahabharata and the Illiad.

Ian Desai: His learning curve is “as steep as the Everest”

Indian-American Ian Desai, one of two students from the University of Chicago to win a Rhodes scholarship this year, is an intrepid explorer.

Desai, Asian American Andrew Kim and 30 other Americans will benefit from two years of free study at England’s Oxford University. Desai, 22, is all over the map — literally and academically.

His teachers say he is intensely curious, wants to bridge cultures and challenge the status quo, thanks to his supportive parents. Desai’s father is from Gujarat and his mother is from Boston.

A New Yorker, Desai graduated this year with a degree in ancient studies. In 2001, he tried to retrace the mythic journey of Jason and the Argonauts through Greece, Turkey and the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.

He travelled by bus, motor cycle, car and on foot. To get around, he used a little Greek, broken Turkish and the kindness of strangers. He even negotiated with Turkish fishermen to spend 10 days on their trawler.

At one point he and Michael Newton, a photographer who chronicled the trip, were warned by a Georgian train conductor that they were in bandit country.

"We’re very proud of him," said Susan Art, Dean of Students of the University of Chicago’s undergraduate college. "Ian is a remarkable individual who has contributed so much to the university. I think his success does justice to the quality of the education we offer," Art added. Desai hopes to build upon his undergraduate research that has explored a rarely undertaken subject: a comparison of the Iliad and the Mahabharata.

At Oxford, Desai plans to pursue degrees in both modern European literature and Oriental studies. He hopes his academic study will result in a deeper cross-cultural understanding with a social purpose.

"I hope I can help build bridges between academic, business, and non-governmental communities," he wrote in his application, "in order to foster social progress in the world." While at the University of Chicago, Desai was elected a Student Marshal, the highest academic honour for an undergraduate, and received the university’s Brooker Prize in Book Collecting for his collection of poetry.

"Ian Desai was one of those rare students who read every book I ever mentioned, discovered other books that I had not even known about, pestered me with questions, and demonstrated a learning curve as steep as the Everest," wrote Wendy Doniger, the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor in History of Religions in Desai’s Rhodes recommendation.

In addition to his academic and intellectual accomplishments, Desai was a leader of several extracurricular organisations. He co-founded and directed the Chicago Society, which brings leading members of government, industry, policy to campus, and the Kashmir Project, which hosted conferences on the history and culture of this hotly contested region.

A month after completing his degree, Desai co-founded Linking Individuals Through Education (LITE), a Chicago-based non-profit group focused on promoting cross-cultural understanding.

—IANS

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