DEPARTED FROM
Mumbai, India

ARRIVED IN
Pullman, Washington

YEAR
1975

AGE
27

COLLECTED BY

Leaving from Bombay, it was kind of last minute. I got my admission into Washington State University and took it and left practically immediately. So I transferred from Madison to Washington while I was in Bombay. It turned out that the only Washington I knew at the time was Washington D.C. and lo and behold, coming to New York, of course I got my ticket to Pullman, but Pullman isn't even on the map. It's a tiny, tiny town outside of Spokane, Washington. So I had to go clear across the country from New York jetting to Spokane and there was a blizzard. It was probably the harshest blizzard ever and that closed the airport down. I had never seen snow before in my life, so that was quite an experience. But the professor who was also going to drive to Spokane offered to take some of us students. And he drove us down from Spokane to Pullman about eighty miles in a driving snowstorm. And I don't know whether you know but when the snow comes up the windshield, it's extremely hypnotic when the headlights are on. So that was probably one of the most interesting events. Then of course having got there, finally, they hosted us for a dinner of hamburgers and the director of admissions went around the room saying, "what brought you here?" And when it came to my turn, I said, "you know, I went out to see the world. I wanted to see the world." And he says, "and you left Bombay to see the world and you came to Pullman?!" He says, "you know, the world is Bombay not Pullman." But that was my introduction to the country. Very humorous, a lot of good people, and of course a lot of first times - having traveled for the first time and of course snow for the first time and then the absurdness of not knowing where Washington state was or confusing it with Washington D.C.