My name is Tarun. I was born to Purendra (my father) and Amita (my mother) in Kanpur, a city of India. I always had a pleasant life with some variations in the countries I lived in. Kanpur is one of the industrial cities in India. It is a small developing city. My father used to live with his two brothers and their family. We had a house with fifteen rooms. There were twelve people living together in a house. It was fun to live with all my cousins. My great grandfather had built the house. I think the part of life that I have spent in India was the part in which I was free from any tension. But I was fortunate to come to U.S. with my parents. My whole family immigrated to the US. The day when I came to America my life started to change.
I can still clearly remember I came from school and my parents were having some serious conversation about life in America. I had never imagined living in the U.S. It was mainly my father’s decision to move here. I did not think of going against the will of my father. Every parent wants their child to have a successful life, therefore my father decided to use the opportunity of going to America to change the life of his children. But up to that point I personally had never thought of moving out of my house.
In India my father had a business, which he inherited from my grandfather. It was successful, but as time passed the corruption and local politics were interrupting the well-being of the business. My father used to have three shops, but due to the pressure from politicians he had to sell one. There was a lot of gang activity going on. If you had a connection with high profile people then you could get rid of the gangsters, otherwise you would have to pay them so that they would not interrupt in your daily business activities. The conditions were getting worse; even the police would not interfere in these matters. This was one of the reasons why my father decided to move away from the place where he was born.
My house in Kanpur was in a peaceful location. The house had three floors; both my uncles had their individual floors to live in. Everyone shared the same kitchen. It was nice to live with everyone because we could share our sorrows, problems and happiness with each other. Nobody was left alone; we always had someone to accompany each other. Everyone lived comfortably in the house.
As the time passed it was getting much harder to find jobs in Kanpur. The rate of unemployment was increasing. The political situation was also very bad. Corruption was the biggest problem. My father told me that even to pay income tax you had to bribe many government officials to make sure your tax was received by the office. Due to corruption it had become tough to find job. Many young boys started to get involved in gang activities. Theft on road and in houses started to become common. A woman wearing expensive jewelry and walking down the road was not safe anymore. Today I think if I was to be living in India, even after my education had ended, it would be a tough fight to find job.
When my father received the letter for immigration, he decided that me, my mom, my sister and him would be going to US. He explained to my sister and me that there are many problems in India; if we had the chance to get out we should go to the” land of opportunity.” Neither my mother or me were very happy with his decision, but nobody went against him, we all gave in to his will. Because somewhere in the bottom of our heart we knew that he was doing everything for the betterment of the family. Even so, I was sad to move any from my cousins and relatives.
My life in India was similar to any child from a middle-class family. I was going to a very reputable private school. The atmosphere of the school was pleasant. My cousins and I were in same school; therefore we had a big group of friends. Being a student I did not have to earn money. My parents would pay my tuition fee. I was provided with all the comforts of life. All my demands would be accomplished.
My father's decision changed me and my sister’s lives. I still remember the day when we were leaving India I cried a lot. I felt sad to leave everyone behind. My first day in America, I was not very excited to be here; in fact, I was feeling terrible to start a life where I did not know anyone.
We rented an apartment. My father found a job easily. When he left for work we would feel lonely because in India we had so many people living together, and now only four of us were left. Later me and my sister also found a job. Since we immigrated legally it was easy to find jobs. My mother in India was a housewife. She had never gone out to work, but now in America she went out to work. She was not able to find a job which was suitable for her; therefore she left the job and decided to continue to be a house wife.
In order for a family to survive in America all the family members have to work. me and my sister decided to support our father economically by working. I found a part time job. This was my first job. I was working at a 7-Eleven as a stock boy. When I was living in India, my father was the only one who earned and everyone else would live comfortably. Because we were immigrants we did not have a lot of money to survive, therefore, we all had to work. It is tough to start a life from zero. But we did it.
The worst part of living in America was the feeling of loneliness. I would feel alone many times. Everyone is so busy with their work that we do not have time to share our personal emotions with each other. Another barrier was language. Due to difference in language me and my family had a hard time in communication. Even at work this would be a problem sometime.
Later on I started going to school. The education system in India and America is very different. I still think the schools in India were better. School was the place where I had to deal with the culture shock. Boys and girls were too free. I was surprised to see that in school so many students were involved in love affairs rather than studying, and teachers would not say anything to the students. The relation between a student and teacher was different. The level of respect was not what I had seen in India. When I was in India, all students would greet a teacher whenever they see them. Whenever a teacher enters a class all students would get up to greet the teacher. Whereas in America students would not even care to greet and respect the teacher. In India it was planted in the mind of a student to respect all of your teachers. The education pattern was very different in both the countries. The level of stress for education in India makes the student work very hard. I never felt that stress here.
I am not able to make too many friends in US. During the first few months after school I was very happy to go to work because it would make my time go faster. I did not need a friend to spend my time. Work has become my good friend. I am very close to my mother. When I was in India I had my cousins, uncle and aunties to share my feelings, but in US my mother had become my good friend. I would share all my feeling with her.
I still have contact with India. Each year I go to India to visit my friends and family. I still have my house in Kanpur. My cousins still live there. I go there for holidays. I do not have any financial connections with the country, but my father does have financial terms with his brothers back home. We still maintain our house in India.
Now that I am settled in US. I would not imagine going back and starting my life again in India. I do not regret my father’s decision of coming to America. I feel that I have done hard work here and in exchange of my work I was able to see good results. The reason behind my decision of not going back to India is because I do not want to start my life again in a new place. Even though I know India it would not be easy to start your life from the beginning. I am happy with what I have earned here.
I have never viewed any racism against me in America. This country is the land of immigrants; if you work hard you will defiantly get the result of it. I only had one problem with the immigration policy. My uncle who is a U.S. citizen has applied for a visa for my father, mother, me and my sister. The process took fourteen to fifteen years. I did not even have the knowledge that my father had applied for U.S. visa. I wish the process should not take that long, because in such a long duration of time your life can change.