Engineering a Life

In 1961, at the age of twenty, I arrived in the United States (US), landing at the port of New York after three weeks at sea with only $300 in my pocket. Coming from a small village of only 200 people, I had never seen anything like New York City before. I had made it here on sheer faith, by staying focused on my goal of acquiring education in the US. I'd overcome peer pressure to stay back in India, lack of funds, the feeling that I was abandoning my family and so much more just to get here. And now that I was here, I had to make it work. There was no other option but to succeed. I didn't know what would be waiting for me as I made my way to Tennessee, which is where I spent my early years in the States, nor did I anticipate the culture shock of being not just in the US, but in the South in the 1960s. This is a story of succeeding against the odds, and of my perseverance and determination to create the life I'd always dreamed for myself, even as a little boy in India, where my options seemed anything but limitless. I didn't know when I started out and when my dream took a much more convoluted path than I could ever imagine. My experience of being an Indian college student in the South at a time when many people did not know much about Indian culture brings a unique perspective to a story that also focuses on following one's dream and never giving up, despite unfavourable circumstances.