DEPARTED FROM
Dhaka, Bangladesh

ARRIVED IN
New York City, New York

YEAR
1979

NOW LIVES IN
Tampa, Florida

COLLECTED BY

So, do you remember any stories from your first days in this country?

Hello, thank you for having me. I must say that my first memories of coming to the United States stemmed from kind of a – it was a mixture of feeling of a lot of sadness and anxiety from coming to a new country and sadness from leaving my family and friends back in Bangladesh. And uh, I have to say that I left behind my two year old son who was very close to me, and that was my biggest anxiety of how he would take it. And we were not in an age of like, internet. Viber, WhatsApp and stuff like that, so there was complete lack of connectivity as soon as I came to this country, and I was very worried about leaving my child back. And it was sad, especially because, you know, he was very close to me, and I had to make up this elaborate story about me not leaving, really, but him coming to join me, and how I would wear a certain pair of shoes and he would come to New York, and I would meet him at the airport, wearing those brown shoes, etc, etc. So it was like a game we played. But it was the sad part. The happy part was coming to do something that I really wanted to do, which was get into a graduate program and continue, hopefully, my career in research in academia. The mixture of those two played into my first days of coming to the United States.

Okay thank you for your response. The second question is, what were some of the cultural differences or similarities between the United States and Bangladesh that you noticed?

So I think that, in answer to that question, I would say that my early childhood growing up, going to Catholic missionary school, where we closely follow events that were happening in the United States made me aware of life in the United States. And especially my teachers spent a lot of time talking about, even like politics of like when JFK was running for the election and we followed every single minute, the vote count, and what was going on. So it was something we were quite cognizant about, about life and politics in the United States. And I followed the NBA and, and the NBA stars were my heroes, too, at that time.

But as far as cultural differences, I think the major shock for me was because I had started a career in teaching - as a teacher at University of Dhaka. And when I came, my first day, going to school, here in New York was trying to meet with my mentor. And I was told where his office was, and I went down to the basement where his office was next to the lab. And I found a gentleman in front of that room number and I asked him, “Where's Professor Jack [inaudible]?” and he said, “I am Jack.” He was sweeping the floor, actually. And I was quite taken aback. And because he was a very well known scientific personality. And here he was, you know, cleaning the floor. So that was like a, like a rude shock, actually. But then I got used to understanding the fact that there was a lot of camaraderie between faculty and students and understanding that respect is different from just showing respect and it has to be coming from within, like you earn your respect. And I grew to like that over the years.

The other thing I must say, as a little bit of story, is that I came to New York around the time when there was a lot of crime in the city. And my first experience coming in, and my brother, who I stayed with, kept on telling me as we were going down Van Wyck Expressway or wherever it was, he said, “You have to be very careful about crime. Don't be on by yourself on a train and come home, don't spend time in the lab late nights and stuff like that.” So, I was pretty much coached into how to behave in New York City as far as safety was concerned. So that was a little bit of, I guess, I won’t say shock, but understanding of, an awakening about safety, a lot of safety tips, everybody gave me safety tips on how to go about, how much money I should be carrying, etc, etc. But then, I guess, you know, I must say that I spent my time in New York City without any untoward experience, or anything happening, which I'm thankful for, but, it was, I won’t say a part of a cultural experience, but it was the experience of realizing this is the United States but I have to be very careful about not getting mugged and robbed. Part of it was like, perceived, and part of it was real. I mean there were areas where we were afraid of rolling up the windows and stuff like that when driving around and there were areas where, of course, you know, it was like Central Park was still Central Park there at that time, as it is now. But there were times of the day, you know, like where you wouldn't be alone.

So, culturally speaking, I think I mentioned already that I was aware of, you know, I didn't have a rude shock, but it was getting to know people as I got to know people, I found out that the approach to life was a little bit more practical, and I felt very comfortable getting used to my life in the United States very soon. So, I must say that I have been blessed with, with everything that I could have wished for. And my actually, the perception would be reversed, I think, because the perception of somebody coming from Bangladesh. And I think my professors, my department chair actually said, “Can you give a lecture on whatever you want to talk about”? I said, “Why?" And he says, “No, I want to see how you speak in front of a class”. So I had already spent four years teaching in Dhaka University, which is like a prestigious place in Bangladesh. But here I was having to just say, talk, and prove to the chairman of the department that I could talk in front of a class, you know. So I can understand their thinking of that, maybe my abilities were based on coming home based on my background in education in a third world country, But it was, they were pleasantly surprised that I could talk and I had a very good rapport with my students and it was all positive after that.