Immigrants....

Written in Dec 2000

Sitting in the lobby floor, peeping out of the plain glass window I was waiting for my carpool friend to join me...The longest river of the world, Mississippi was punctually flowing across the other side of our office window. Barges were as usual doing their jobs utilizing her smooth flow. Men and women of all ages with T-Shirt/short combination were releasing the sweat and the Mitochondrian cells by jogging even in the bone chilling wind, when their fellow cyclists and skaters utilized that pathway to move parallel to the catchment area of the river. Memphians were all set for boiling Turkeys apart from a healthy honey baked ham for the next day's Thanksgiving celebration of year 2000!! City of Memphis looked awesome especially after the arrival of fall - waiting for the white christmas, when the whole downtown getting illuminated, with all kinds of Thanksgiving SALE on most of the shops; the interstate highway I-40 that connects east to west, also a tangent to some parts of Tennessee looked even more busier with the automotives engaging themselves to rule the traffic..This was also a high time for many Desis to design their long weekends traveling the sunny Florida or the bayside California/Las vegas at the West coast. People from Hyderabad and its neighbouring districts are the primary source of Indian Java population in the US. Doctors, surgeons, civil engineers who migrated from Madras and Bangalore ages ago were also no less in their numbers. Many Dallals from North eastern part of India have already conquered the business here!! Ofcourse people have adjusted to many things - the day to day lesser Fahrenheit temperature, the typical accent of Afro-Americans, the importance of Halloween's day, Martin Luther day, Labor's day, President's Day, July 4th, Thanksgiving and all other day's.., adjusted to all the evergreen nightclubs and hooters, the fast moving life...last, but not the least, saying "Hi..how are u doing" to any stranger coming across irrespective of sex or age. I have to accept the fact that I was one among those millions of Indians who migrated, temporarily or permanantly to the land of oppurtunity, United States. I was quite surprised to find that still many of this country men in the Central part of US doesn't even heard of India; many here still believe that everybody on the Earth does have the same religion, celebrate same festival, eat same bufallo and red lobsters!!...People across the world mainly Mexico, Japan, China and Europe have made their home here and ofcourse their offsprings are the natural resources of this land, language and culture. It's also sometimes an interesting phenomena for us to identify their original race due to their inappropriate hybrid identity. I understand that it is not just we, who are Dollar dreamers, but everybody across the world whoever landed here are for the same purpose!!

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When I visited my brother-in-law's native at Uppala (around 30 miles from Mangalore) 4 years ago, most of the people from the Northern part of Karnataka had made their way for their livelihood there. It was an extra-ordinary daily wages they received from the then Konkan railway construction agencies, that had brought all of them to this fertile land, Mangalore.
Foreseeing poverty, heat, drought in their native land Bijapur and Gulbarga, workers probably migrated during the season of the railway way back in early 90's, embosing their existance in Karwar, Kundapur, Udupi and Mangalore districts in Karnataka.

The highlight of the area; the greenary spread throughout the Western ghats, continuous water supply, road system, commutation, adjustable society, and ofcourse money were the main attraction for their expansion of growth amidst the sultry weather created by the Arabian sea. As local mangalorean labor found to be little expensive and more dominating abiding to
the prominent labor laws, these people from "Bayalu seeme" (dry land) soon found this to be their dream land of paradise. Cheap labor, adjusting nature was more than a considerable factor for the employers here! The minorities are always inferior in any part of the globe...so too this place. Numbers grew in as and when requirement incremented. First him, next his brother, then his neighbour and his friends occupied the piece of land. When they found stabilized and comfortable in this area, started importing their wives and children to this tourist spot, who has not seen the water and rain for ages! Some young men with strong muscles getting extra pay for their overtime work were of high demand in their place. Perhaps they are fed with most beautiful brides based on their immigration validity!! They go to their motherland once a year probably, during rainy season when it is not too hectic to work beneath the red soil...most of the guys take their stride to comeback with their newly married beauty queens of their province. This sometimes tighten their budget though helps tremendously in feeding them the regular raagi rotti and other stuffs- their primary source of food. They totally have different food taste from the locals, they can neither get their favourite mouth watering dishes from the outside hotels nor they were strong enough cooks to prepare during their tons of workload till their counterparts joined them. In the meantime many people with slightly higher IQ than the normals, also started creating hotels for them, which could serve all rottis to make them nostalgic.. Initially they also faced the problem of language accent; people from this bayarea speak different from that of people originated from the dry land. They both used to make fun of their respective languages at their respective backs...needless to say gradually they soon commommorated to the more complex frequencies. Konkan railway construction is now somewhat a history I believe!! But the people who discovered the means of immigration for their better living still lives taking Tulu and following the other's culture and tradition..ofcourse their siblings continue to occupy this land for the years to come.


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My friend who sits in the first floor tapped me, when I turned back. Next day, I had planned to meet a person who was an active member of some Indian cultural organization in Memphis city. Forming a music group in the next few months of my journey altogether takes another story.. I didn't want to be just one among millions of immigrants from India.. As soon as I sat in Nissan Altima car,,, Jagjit singh/Chitra singh's ghazal...

"Safar mein dhoop tho hoagi..Jo chal sakho tho chalo
Sabhi hein bheed mein thum bhi..nikal sakho tho chalo.." continued.

Happy new year 2001..
Vishwesh