DEPARTED FROM
Delhi, India

ARRIVED IN
New York City, New York

YEAR
1997

AGE
25

Can you give me some background information about you?

My name is Gautam Gupta. As you just said, I was born in India, in 1972. The first ten years of my life, I grew up in a city called, what is now known as, Chennai. And back in the day, it was called Madras. It's a very big city. It’s one of the four big cities in India.

My father was a professor at a college in Chennai. I was born, I was raised there, the first ten years of my life. Then after that—my family originally belonged to Delhi. We moved back to Delhi in 1983. And then I lived there till I moved to the United States in 1997.

Why would you move to the United States? Why did you leave India?

Well, I left India because I was working in this job that I was not really enjoying. And I was looking for some other opportunities that would help me in my career. And after doing some research, I figured United States probably held the best opportunities for me, so I decided to migrate. I decided to take my chances and come to the United States.

What were your expectations for America?

Well, I did not really have these strong expectations. I just wanted to better my life. And I thought that United States would give me some great opportunities, and hopefully, an education here would open a lot of doors for me. That was my expectation, that I would want to get a good education and then be able to do something which was more meaningful.

Did the conditions in India push you to migrate?

Yes, especially during that time. It's a very different story now. But in the mid 90s, the opportunity subset in India was not that wide. Especially if you didn't go to one of the top schools, the opportunity set was much smaller. And I felt like I was kind of stuck in this bad cycle, where I couldn't really get out of the jobs I was in, to find a job that I truly would have liked to do.

What was your migration experience like?

Well, it was my first time actually ever leaving my home. So it was not something that I was truly prepared for. I really didn't know what to expect. I just literally packed my bags, and I flew to the United States. And I really didn't know what to expect. I really didn't have any preconceived notion, because the entire experience, the entire process, was so fast. That the excitement, it was more of an adrenaline rush, rather than a thought-out process of like “Yeah, this is what I am going to be expecting when I moved there.”

How prepared were you when you moved? How much did you bring?

Well, I was prepared enough. My mother, she was really worried because she knew that I had never lived outside of the house. She had packed basically an entire house into two big suitcases for me.

Really? That's cool. When you arrived in the US, what was your first impression of it?

When I arrived in the US, my cousin, who used to live in New York, picked me up from the airport, and we drove basically to go to his house because I stayed there for a couple of days. But we drove through New York City. And that was my first impression. When I saw those tall buildings in New York, I was absolutely flabbergasted. I thought, “Oh my God, what an impressive city.” So that was my first impression. And I thought it was really really really cool.

And then you went to college in New Orleans and how was it like in New Orleans?

Well, New Orleans, especially after having driven through New York and I ended up in New Orleans. New Orleans was a completely different setup. Because it is much more, I wouldn't say poorer city, but there is definitely more pockets of poverty in New Orleans than there is in New York. And generally, it's socio-economically much different than New York. I felt I was more comfortable in New Orleans initially, at least having migrated here. I felt more at ease in New Orleans.

So if you went to college in New Orleans, why would you even go to New York?

My primary objective of migrating was to find a really good spot to work and to basically achieve something in my career. If you look at my profession, New York is the pinnacle. If you can make it in New York, you can pretty much make it anywhere. So ideally, if you can find a job in New York, that is really good. That would have been for me a dream situation. It was always my objective, so to say, to work on Wall Street. So that's why New York would have been the ultimate objective. However, I had to take a circuitous path to get to New York.

For the first time you came, how long did you stay in New York?

Well, the first time I really stayed in New York was when I came for a job interview, in 1999. I had a job interview with an investment bank. I stayed here for two nights.

Do you stay connected to India?

Yes, I do. I love to take you and your sister and your mother. And we all loved going to India together. My mother still lives there with my sister. So, I do go to visit them quite often. My cousins, my entire extended family lives in India. Whenever I do go, I try to meet all my extended family.

Where did you live when you came to New Orleans? Because you had no family, or anywhere to stay.

Right. For me, the whole experience of New Orleans was very interesting because when I got there, I didn't really know anybody at all. And I was completely at the mercy of— Thankfully, there was this Indian association that I was able to send an email to and there was one student who picked me up from the bus stop and let me stay with him and basically guide me through the process. Otherwise, I would have been very, very challenging for me.

Okay, that's it. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to listen to my story. Appreciate it.