Unheard Voices

I moved into a new apartment that evening, and after setting up the basic furniture etc, was pretty tired. I went to bed at about 10pm, which is early morning in New York. I’m not sure why I didn’t sleep right away. Some channel was playing a rerun of a West Wing episode. Another channel was playing When we were Kings - the documentary on the 1974 Ali-Foreman fight. At about 11.08pm my time, there was a newsflash - plane hits the World Trade Centre in New York. A few minutes later there were live pictures. Within half an hour, I was calling friends and family.

(More at Mukti)

A little more than 12 years ago I started my American life as a graduate student. First few years, my life was a monotonous repetition of long cold nights in my attic den, day long lab and class and daily lunchtime walk to the student center for the 99c taco with a plastic glass of water. This lunchtime break with that taco was my window to the campus life and also indulgence into thinking of the far-away homeland and the left behind life. One of my first observations of the student life in my campus was the ethnic segregation of the students in the students’ center cafeteria. Young white men and women are crowding around one table. Blacks have their own corner. First generation desi students are flocking together, so are the first generation Chinese or the second generation desis. (more…)