:: Shekhar Bhatia

American dreams

By Shekhar Bhatia

July 26 : This is the story of two young immigrants, one a woman from Ukraine and the other a man from New Delhi, who came all the way to America to chase their dreams. There are millions like them in this country; I came across two, and was fascinated by their spirit of adventure and enterprise.

I met Katrina, a young woman from Ukraine, at the opening of an art show where she had been hired to take photographs. In the course of the evening, we got talking about cameras for beginners like me. She looked European but still had a pronounced ethnic accent. She said she was from Ukraine, and had come to the US seven years ago after winning a Green Card in a lottery.

The US government issues 50,000-odd Green Cards every year through what is known as the Diversity Visa lottery programme. Applicants who meet the eligibility requirements from countries with low rates of immigration to the US are selected randomly by a computer. In 2009, over nine million people tried their luck.

Katrina did not have friends or relatives in the US. However, her mother had a friend who knew someone in Boston, and that’s how Katrina landed here. That family was kind enough to offer her a place to stay, and helped her to settle in a new country.

She did odd jobs to earn some money, and then joined the Boston School of Photography with a student loan. She graduated last year, bought herself a Canon Rebel camera and is now paying off her loan by taking on assignments for family weddings and social events. In order to do this she had to buy a car which she has fitted with a GPS (Global Positioning System) to find her way around. I asked her how she had raised the money for all this and she smiled and said, "The American way".

Is she lonely? "I had to make friends", she said. Some people who were studying with her introduced her to the Russian immigrant community. Now she goes with them on trekking holidays and even visited Sikkim last year and acquired a taste for Indian food in Siliguri. Today, her accent is still foreign but her confidence is all American.

My second story is of a man named Pushp Bhetia, a young Sikh from Delhi who moved to New York some 10 years ago.

Around the corner from Tufts University, not too far from Boston in a suburban town of Somerville, there is a popular Indian restaurant called Guru. It’s a no-frills eatery — a large open-plan kitchen, adjoining a dining area that opens on to the sidewalk. From its bare, freshly painted walls it seems to be a relatively new place. It looks like an American dhaba that serves authentic Indian food and has stylish Ikea furniture.

But it was the signboard that intrigued me — "Guru the caterer... Divine Indian food for brilliant minds" — and got me talking to Pushp Bhetia, the owner of the restaurant.

Pushp was a photographer in New Delhi till he moved to New York where he opened a cellphone store. He says business was fine till 9/11 but after that cellphones cames under scrutiny and he decided to sell out. A friend advised him to try his hand at Indian catering and he set out to look for a place. He had no idea where: what he was certain was that he wanted to get out of New York.

One fine day — this is in his words — he packed his bags and took a taxi to the Greyhound bus stand. He saw a bus going to Boston, boarded it, and six hours later landed in a new city. It sounds incredible, but it’s true.

A techie friend told him that MIT is full of students who yearn for Indian food. But Pushp had no experience in catering; he did not even know how to cook a decent meal, let alone chicken tikka masala. At the same time he was convinced that he was on to something good. So he called his mother and various aunts back home in Delhi and Punjab, and took recipes over the phone: one aunt taught him how to cook aloo gobi, another gave the recipe for rajma and saag paneer. By a process of experimentation he hit upon a winning formula — a takeout offering home-cooked Indian food for lunches and student seminars at MIT. It was an instant hit. And so the line on the signboard: "Divine Indian food for brilliant minds".

Soon Americans started dropping in to pick up lunchboxes and asked him if he could also do dinners. The enterprising sardar took this opportunity and added a few tables to his catering outlet. He hired a Gujarati woman to make rotis, naans and paranthas. "In our homes rotis were always made by women. And aunty (that’s how he addresses her) provides a woman’s touch".

Apart from the pickles, everything else is made freshly in his kitchen. "Pickles need to be matured in the sun. This country does not have the right weather for this". He says his American customers have learned the Indian names of the items on the menu: they ask for saag paneer and not spinach with cheese. Their favourite, however, is chicken tikka masala.

He has a jar in his restaurant in which people drop their business cards. Every week he picks two lucky winners and gives them free lunch boxes. He also has a shelf full of books on India in his restaurant. "For those who are curious about the country", he says. It’s his way of promoting India.

The woman from Ukraine and the man from India have never met each other but they have a lot in common: in a way they are both gamblers. They risked everything to chase a dream. They have the typical immigrant’s mentality: they will do whatever it takes to adapt, survive and succeed in their new life.

And given Katrina’s newly-acquired taste for Indian food and mangoes, and Pushp’s interest in photography, I won’t be surprised if they eventually meet up one day.

Shekhar Bhatia can be contacted at shekhar.bhatia@gmail.com