GMU, SPP Professors Featured in Autobiography by 2001 MPP Graduate

In an autobiography covering her first 35 years, 2001 MPP graduate Arathi Krishna writes about the role that her education at GMU played in her life.

“The theme of the book is the experience of an Indian woman, who goes abroad on a quest for better education, both for herself and her children and achieves these goals despite the various pressures she is subject to both as a mother and a wife,” says Krishna, social secretary of the Indian Embassy in Washington, D.C. Krishna hopes that her story will provide Indian readers with an interesting insight into another culture’s education system. “My days at George Mason are memories I treasure very much. They are featured in this book in some detail as I wanted to share with my readers, particularly in India, the unique experience of a U.S. campus life,” she says, adding, “Apart from the academic part, I gained immensely from the experience of being in the university, which has a very fine faculty and staff.” Krishna’s book also chronicles her relationship with GMU faculty and staff, including Dr. Roger Stough and Dean Kingsley Haynes. “My life was enriched by each one of them and I have given the details of my association with them and the faculty,” she says.

Arathi Krishna is social secretary for the Indian embassy in Washington, D.C.

Perhaps most interesting to readers outside the Mason community are Krishna’s experiences as the daughter of a prominent Indian government official, as well as her relationship with Indira Ghandi, the Prime Minister of India (from 1966-77 and 1980-84) who was assassinated in 1984. Her father, Begane Ramaiah, was a Minister in the Government of the Indian state of Karnataka. She explains, “As I have narrated in the book, my father was chosen to be Indira Gandhi's guide and interpreter when she contested from Karnataka for the Indian Parliament. This gave me an opportunity to meet and come to know Mrs. Gandhi, who became a role model for me.”

Krishna also praises GMU and SPP for indirectly helping her to publish her first book. “George Mason expanded my horizons and gave me inspiration to write the book,” she says, adding, “Needless to say, my language and diction also improved with my interaction with my fellow students as well as the faculty. I wonder whether I would have written the book if I had not gone to George Mason for my second master’s degree.”

“A Quest Across the Sea” is available in Politics & Prose Book Store at 5015 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, D.C., for $12. The book was published by Mayur Publications in Banglore, India, and was released by Chief Minister of Karnataka Dharam Singh on June 10, 2004.