DEPARTED FROM
Hyderabad, India
ARRIVED IN
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
YEAR
1983
AGE
11
NOW LIVES IN
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
TRANSCRIPT
I am Shaji Chacko. It was March 5th, 1983. My mother and I flew from Bombay, India, to New York, America. I met my aunt and uncle there, at JFK Airport. At that moment, my uncle gave me a jacket. It was a nice jacket, so I put it on and didn’t think twice about it. We collected all of our luggage, made sure we had everything, and got ready to leave the airport. We were hit by a strong gust of wind outside! I had never felt that kind of cold before and quickly zipped up the jacket my uncle gave me. At which point I realized why he gave me the jacket - to keep me warm! In my mind I had always pictured weather in America to be cold and windy, never any sunshine. At least that’s what I imagined from pictures, only cloudy and windy year-round. Later on, I came to realize that in America there are four distinct seasons: spring, summer, fall, and winter. These seasons were unlike the weather in India. I had grown up with warm, hot, and occasionally rainy weather. That’s how I learned about new and different weather in India. Anyways, when we first came to India, I was 11 years old. I was oralist (speech-focused). My parents and I would use our voices and I would miss the conversation around me. Later on, and at this point I had become fluent in American Sign Language, I asked my mother… I was curious about why the two of us had come to the US together, but separately from my father and my siblings? My aunt had asked my mother to come to America on her own, to save money and support all of us. Her goal was to pursue nursing, while we stayed behind. Nursing was in high demand in those days, in 1983. My aunt asked her about it, but my mom stubbornly told her “no!” In fact, she wanted both of us to move to America together. Our reason for moving was for deaf education. My mother knew that deaf education in America was better than deaf education in India. It was thrilling to learn this! I am so grateful to my mother!
