Sima Choudary

### Occupation

**Washington Project manager**, Childhood Centre developer (formerly), South Asia rebuilding manager (formerly)

### Affiliations

Department of Childhood Development, The Government

### First Mentioned

Season 3, Reel #1: July 3, 1953

**Sima** is a secondary character in the third season of Within the Wires. She oversaw various projects for construction in the Society on behalf of the government, and was at one time supervised by Michael Witten.

## Biography

Dr. Choudary was instrumental to the New Society's rebuilding efforts in the South Asia Region.

Director Witten assumed that based on her age, Sima spent some amount of time in a Childhood Centre growing up as they became "mandatory" around that time. From context, it would seem that Sima was in her early 20s in 1953. In summer of that year, Sima Choudary worked on her first design for a Childhood Centre in North America. Director Witten, who was overseeing the project, gave her numerous notes, mainly involving making the space more welcoming and like a home, particularly a home for children with space for them to play and socialise comfortably as well as learn. There were also practical oversights, such as the small kitchen and the lack of staff quarters, as well as some budgeting issues.

Director Witten also asked Sima for a favour in gleaning information about the European offices and in particular Karen Roberts, who he was suspicious of. He asked her to be discrete when she asked around. Apparently, she subsequently expressed to him a personal dislike of Roberts and admiration for Witten. In April 1954, Director Witten wrote to express his approval of her updated designs for the Childhood Centre, as well as to recommend her for a management position over the New Conversion Project in Chicago, since he would be having a change of position and wanted to leave somebody he trusted in charge of the Project. He promised to continue acting as her mentor through the adjustment period and beyond. Sima evidently accepted, and in September of the same year was put in an interim management position over the Washington D.C. project after KR Development was prevented from further involvement and it was put back into government hands.

In 1959, Vishwathi Ramadoss gave a speech at a Board of Governance summit praising and thanking Sima and Sarah Chisholm for their work on the Washington project, which provided public housing and new jobs in the city, and was apparently "unmatched" in the New Society. Ramadoss also named Michael Witten as a visionary on the project.

## Additional info

* The name Sima means "boundary" or "limit" in Sanskrit
* Michael's information about Childhood Centres becoming mandatory during his and Sima's childhood is likely unreliable, as children were not technically legally required to be separated from their parents until 1960. However, it was encouraged for children to go through regimen at Childhood and Programming Centres in the 1940s.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Season 3, Reel #9: September 13, 1954
2. ↑ Season 3, Reel #1: July 3, 1953
3. ↑ Season 3, Reel #8: April 20, 1954
4. ↑ Season 3, Reel #10: June 21, 1961
5. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.161
6. ↑ Season 2, Cassette #5: Van Gogh Museum (1977)