TRANSCRIPT
TRANSCRIBED BY Indigo Mudbhary (x 6)
Okay. I’ve started recording.
Okay. I came to the United States in 1987. I'm pretty sure it was September 22nd. I remember it very well. I may be off by maybe two or three days at most, but it was right around then, September 22. I grew up in India, in Bombay and Calcutta, which is now Mumbai and Kolkata. I had never traveled outside of South Asia before. I had been to Nepal and I had been to Bhutan, but I had never been to any Western country. So, it was a big deal for me. And, I was coming for college. I flew on Singapore Airlines to Singapore first. That itself was, for me, quite something because I had never seen a city that was as clean and well— so much infrastructure and whatnot. That was itself an event for me. And then the flight from Singapore to San Francisco, it was like SQ1, I think, or maybe SQ1 or SQ2. But that itself, for me, was something that stuck with me, because I was thinking, “Wow, that's like… you're elevated to the premier flight of this airline.” And back then, the planes didn't have enough fuel to fly direct. We stopped in Hong Kong. And then we also stopped in Honolulu. It was Singapore to Hong Kong to Honolulu to San Francisco. And in Honolulu, I do remember an event that was significant. We were asked to deboard the plane because they wanted to clean up or whatever. And I remember that we were all sitting in this waiting room, I suppose—just waiting to get back on the plane. And something significant happened because the flight was mostly Asians, lots of Asians—all kinds, South Asians, East Asians. But while we were sitting in this waiting room, there was this one guy—Caucasian, American, Caucasian male—and he was just making jokes and kind of shooting the shit and having fun. And I remember feeling—I didn't know what to make of it. And everybody else, especially all the Asians, we were all quiet. Everybody was sort of quiet.
And it took me a while, probably months beyond that, to process what I witnessed back then in September of ’87 but I remember thinking back and realizing that was a very significant experience where this guy—this American dude—he didn't have the shackles of culture and the weight of his tradition or anything like that. He was just like, “Hey, we've got nothing to do here. We're all hanging out for half an hour.” He was just making jokes and shooting the shit, and everybody else was very quiet. And it was a very revelationary moment for me to kind of realize that, wow, this is the cultural difference that I didn't understand at the time, but—’til today—it defines, for me, what it means to be American. Because you don't have the shackles of that culture. You’re free to do what you want and speak as you will and whatnot. That was very interesting.
Anyway then we got back on the plane. We arrived in San Francisco. That was also an interesting experience for me because I had a second cousin who lived in the Bay Area. And I had never met him before, but he was the guy who was going to receive me at the airport. I had been shown a photograph of him, he had been shown a photograph of me. And when I arrived in the airport — this is, again, '87, so this is before San Francisco had the international terminal, so it was a very dinky terminal — there was a baggage claim area and then, if you looked up, there was a glass viewing area. But it was easy enough; there weren't that many South Asians at that time. It was easy enough for me to look at him and identify him and he identified me. We sort of waved at each other, and then I claimed my bags and whatnot. And then he got into his car and we started heading to his home. He lived in Sunnyvale at the time. That was also an experience that I remember as if it was yesterday, because driving on the freeway was so weird for me. I had only been on Indian roads, and all of a sudden I'm on this freeway that's four lanes, and there's all these lights, because it was nighttime, and I could just see all these lights, flashing by and then—. For me, it was so surreal. It actually reminded me of this video game from again, 37 years ago. There was a video game called Knight Rider that I had played in an arcade in Kolkata. It probably just came out maybe a year or so before I left. But it was this video game called Knight Rider, and it was so simple: it just had these lights, and then the lights would suddenly turn this way, and then you had to steer the steering wheel and then turn the other way and whatnot. I felt like I was in a video game. It was just so different from anything I'd ever experienced driving in the streets of Kolkata, or in India. It was all silent. There was no honking, there were no, dogs or cows or anything like that. It was a really weird, bizarre experience. Anyway, I was following along, and then the other thing I remember from that day that also struck me: all of a sudden, I saw this sign that said: “Stanford University, Next Exit.” And I was like, “Whoa.” That threw me off. That blew me away. I was like, “Wow, I've never been a part of anything so important that there's a friggin’ sign on the freeway that says ‘Stanford University, Next Exit,’” because that's where I was going. And it was surreal for me.
Anyway, I get to his house. And then the next day, I asked my cousin, Suresh “How do I get to Stanford?” Because I wanted to visit the campus before actually enrolling, even though it was one day early. He gave me the instructions. He told me how to take Caltrain and what to do and all that. I left his house, and I remember walking on the street, and I was very puzzled, because there was nobody on the street. It was completely desolate. And there were these beautiful sidewalks, with all these sharp corners and everything was so clean and nice, but there were no people. And I was very puzzled. I remember wondering, because I come from Kolkata, where there's no sidewalks and there's a gazillion people everywhere. I was genuinely puzzled. I was thinking “What is it with Americans… do they take a nap in the afternoon or something? Why is there nobody on the streets?” It was completely quiet. Anyway, I kept going, and I got to Caltrain.
Well, before I got to Caltrain actually, something else happened. I had to cross the street, and I had been warned that in America there's this thing called jaywalking. And I had no idea what that was, but I was told you don't jaywalk because it's against the law and whatnot. Anyway, I had to cross the street, and there was this big red hand like this [gestures]. And so I was like, “Okay, I'm definitely not going here. I'm gonna wait for it to turn to something else.” And I waited and I waited and I waited, and it was still this red hand. And I noticed that there were multiple cycles. Everybody got their green lights, and everybody went this way, that way. There was no pedestrians except me, and I'm waiting for this damn light, this red hand, to change but it wouldn't change. I waited maybe five minutes, I don't know, for a long time. And then eventually I was like, “Listen, I have to go. I haven't crossed the street. What am I going to do?” I decided to just go for it when I thought it was safe. And of course, as my luck has it, the minute I started to cross, the light turned green for the other guy, and there was this dude in his pickup truck. He got the green light, and as I was crossing, he rolled his window down and leaned out and said to me, “Idiot!” [laughs] I remember thinking at the time “Dude, you tell me what I should do. I don't know. I'm at a loss.” I don't know what to do. Obviously, the answer is I did not know that there was a button you have to press to engage the green light. I had no clue. I was a proper FOB — fresh off the boat. So, anyway, so that was interesting. Then anyway, I got to the train. I took the train. I took the train to Palo Alto, and I had a Stanford map, and I didn't look closely enough. I was trying to figure out, okay, what’s… where’s north in this map, and I couldn't find it. In my state of confusion, I suppose, I said, “Okay, well, if there's no north, then I have to assume that north is up.” Based on that, I started to walk in the opposite direction, unfortunately. I started to walk down University Avenue instead of towards Stanford. And I walked and I walked and I walked, and I kept walking, and the more I walked, I was thinking, “Wow, this oval is going to be gigantic, because I've been walking for a long time and I still haven't come to the Stanford oval.” And I just kept on walking and walking. I was very puzzled and very disoriented. I walked for so long that eventually I got to the freeway, and I didn't even know what it was at the time. I just saw these signs that said, “U.S. 101, no pedestrians, no bicycles.” And it was kind of terrifying. I remember it invoked in me, sort of—the only time I had dealt with things that said “U.S. whatever" was the whole visa process of, applying for a visa and trying to come to this country as a student. It was terrifying. I didn't even know what it was, and I was like, “Whatever, this is—U.S. 101—I don't want to go there. It's no pedestrians, no bicycles, nothing. Okay, I'm turning around.” I guess it was at that time when I figured out and I took a closer look at the map, and I did, in fact, find that in the bottom corner there was a little compass and North was down. And I've talked to a bunch of people since then. I think I'm not the only one who was confused by that, but the Stanford map, for whatever reason, the North is down, but they don't show it to you clearly. So at that point, I figured, “Okay, I've been going the wrong way, so I've got to go all the way back, and that's how I'll find the campus.” And then something weird happened. This family, this car pulled up, and they asked me, “Hey, do you know where the university is?” I have no idea why they asked me — this 18-year-old, brown, clueless dude walking on the streets of Palo Alto, but they decided to ask me, “Do you know where the university is?" And I was so confused and disoriented by then that I asked them, “Do you mean Berkeley?” I don't know why I asked them that, but it was 37 years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday. And they said, “No, Stanford.” I said, “Oh I think I just figured out how to get there." And I even said, “If you'll give me a ride, I'll show you.” And they gave me a ride, which was great. And it was this extremely Caucasian Midwestern family. I think they were from Iowa, and their son was same as me, 18, and he was going to be a freshman at Stanford, and then they had this younger daughter in the back. And so they let me in, and they drove me all the way. And, yeah, I got to campus. They dropped me off. And then I was okay. Then I had the map, and so I was able to find myself. I got to the dorm where I was supposed to be. And that was also interesting, because they send you so much information in the mail. I mean, I got a telegram that "You've been accepted to Stanford.” And then I got so much encouragement and whatnot, that colleges do, right? I was expecting a grand welcome or something. But they were just like, “Oh, but check in is tomorrow.” And I was like, “Oh, okay.” It was kind of a letdown for me. That's pretty much all I did on that day. And then I went back to my cousin's house. But then the next day, when I showed up, it was great. Because then they were all ready for the freshmen, and they look at your photograph. The minute I showed up, they're like, “Oh, you must be Subir. Great. Come on, welcome.” And they showed me around, checked me in, and yeah. And everything was great from that point on. Couple of things I learned very early on in college was that Americans care a lot about which state they're from. Because I had no idea being from India, being from a foreign country. I had no idea. To me, it was just all the U.S. But no, it mattered a lot. And then, of course, I've been here now for 37 years, so I understand the cultural differences. But at that time I had no clue. But somebody was from Wisconsin, somebody was from New York, somebody was from Texas, and the differences are immense. I know this now, but I didn't know it at the time. The other thing that also struck me was the music you listen to is also very significant. At least it was in ’87, maybe it is still today, I don't know—
Definitely, yeah.
—among Gen Z, [laughs] but like, yeah. That's a huge thing. Whatever music you listen to defines your friends and who you will get along with and whatnot. Those were the two biggest things I realized quickly about American culture is which state are you from and what kind of music you're listening to. There you go. Those are all the thoughts that I have to share.
Wow. Um, yeah, I don't think I have anything else to ask you about, because you covered everything I would ask.
Okay.
Yeah. Unless there's anything else you'd like to share, I think, yeah.
No, like I told you, I made a few notes about what I would say, because this is a great topic, I think.
Yes.
Yeah. There you go. These were very memorable days for me, and even though it was 37 years ago, I feel like it was yesterday, and I remember every detail.
Wow, yeah. I'll stop recording now.
