DEPARTED FROM
Odish, India
ARRIVED IN
New York City, New York
YEAR
1962
AGE
21
TRANSCRIPT
That is my first day, with a baby I was alone traveling, okay. And then when I traveled, and when London came, that escalator—so you know how to just get down, I never even been on there. So that was the first experience, I have to hold tight, and I have to carry the baby and the handbag and everything, come down. I said, “Oh, how can I come down? I may fall.” But I was just looking this side, that side. I was watching how people are going, and then I followed them somehow, you know. Because you think everything before you do, so it was a little bit scary. But I managed, okay. And then I came here, the first experience in New York, it's like I am in a different world.
But I was so crazy about learning driving. So what I did was, in front of my house, there is a high school—those days they come to the school—driver classes—so for the students, like a 16 year old , they teach that, you know, driving school, driving. I wanted that, so when he finished one day, I saw him, then I just walked across the road and I met them. I asked him, “Can you teach me driving?” He said, “Yeah, sure.” Those days, you know what, $5 in lessons. For four classes, $20 you get license [laughs]. So I had some pocket money under the clothes from the grocery, he gave me, so that $20 I gave him—four lessons, I got my license.
I came home, I told my husband that, “You see, I got my license.” He said, “What? How did you get the license?”— that’s what “I'm not going to give you the car, you are not driving anywhere.” But, you know, I got it, then I was driving, driving. You know, I drove in New York, anywhere if I have to go, I went and I drove.
