John - Thanks for sharing, nice piece - liked it.

I sometimes wonder what it would be like to have a "featured posts" section in Sajha that gets updated daily by the admin with 3 or 4 features threads for the day. I think your stories would definitely qualify for that as would some of the others we get to read on Sajha these days.

Just a thought.

I always think we are alien when we are on any other land than ours!! Thats why I always want to go back to Nepal; Feel my own soil and even have a very big ambition to travel all around Nepal for a year without any commitments and write a travel journal as a book!!
Happy moving to new place John!! Hope ur life is going smooth! Give my love to ur little angel!! :)

Hehe John... cool one. We named it Jai-Kishan Haat a few days after we got here. And has been almost home ever since.

I do hate, with an unexplanable intensity, the incosiderate pushy bhaiyas, the fact that you wont get your chaya (if you wanted one, I don't) without forcing your way to the cash register. A pound of karela means having to plough your way to the cash counter through the mass of sweating, keo-karpin donning mausijis who won't give a whit about standing in line like any decent perosn would do. Innumerable times, I have dumped my bag of fresh vegetables before I have been pushed out of way by those for whom buying some 'bengan' before me meant the end of the world.

Having moved to New York from a relatively laid back north west, and being pushed right into a "Vidhan Market" was a little disconcerting. Paan spits all over the street, being shoved around on the sidewalks by freshly-arrived proud shoulders and elbows, and having to negotiate my way around the voluptous behinds of desi aunties took siometime getting used to.

The only respite from Jai Kishan Haat is to get away from it, but one can't help going back.

Thanks for bringing it up in a piece of great writing, as always!

Good Job John ! Well written :)

Very nice. :)

John,it is such a pleasure to "see" Urvi. I enjoyed how you made Queens come alive with your fine choice of words. It can't have been easy all these years for you and a thousand others eh?Heres to all who left home in search of a better life :)
Captain...I am in complete agreement with your suggestion too. I think John has evolved as a writer and is producing infinitely better work.

Hiyaa Scarlett there!! LTNS!! How u?? :)
Sorry John!! Couldn't help!! :D

As always expected, Brilliant work. I too can feel the agony of fate and social injustice. After two years of meticulous work and burning almost each of your midnight candle, instead of being able to embrace right away the much awaited day of your life-Yours graduation day. You are entangled with one hell of a task to figure out, which is the HOLY month? May, August or is it October.

I too agree with Captain Haddock and Scarlett about the way John has come along.

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Nice read. A voice of thousands of struggling immigrants!

It's Jackson Heights, bro. Fifth Ave. is not known for its eateries. New to the Big Apple, huh!

Between which restaurant was it?

Yak or the new nepali rest..?

wah wah nice one...

I don't know what to make of this memoir.First of all, with some good choice of words, it did seem well written.However, it's written so carelessly that its hard to read it other than as simply Mr. Galt's frustration, which is of course fine by me, but au contraire to its intended portrayal.

Like Dr. Strangelove pointed out, Its Jackson heights ,and as he said, 5th ave is not known for restaurants. More for Museums and shopping stores. Also, the final stop for the 7 train in manhattan is Times Square, not Grand Central.

I also want to pick a bone with people like Mr. Galt.He thinks he is more GreenCard worthy than Ms Shanti because he is an academian. He is smart, brilliant, we are told to believe.

Maybe he is. Its a silly argument. However, from his own admission, Ms shanti seem to possess certain qualities that maybe elusive to some people even after another five years in academe. Its a different thing to feel frustrated for not getting what one wants, but to put other down to make one self feel good is purely a common Nepalese mentality.

Might I say, may be you are not mentally ready for a green Card? (metaphorically speaking, of course)

good work Mr. Galt!! your writing flows like river, simple wording yet powerful imagination... You actually put my qualms hibernating over the years about immigrations :-(. Then I think US as a nation of intellectuals ( or aware people) who care about daily politics/affair rather than majority of working two jobs/overtime household with no time to think. Wow! that would be mess. You start seeing atleast 70-80% voting record (currrently ~45% in presidential, 25 % and below in local), electing incumbent 99% of time over and over would be history, Ralph Nader might be president, neocons would out numbered etc. etc. Good or bad, nations' policy making would not be smooth, being on top all the time would be hard to acheive.So She has benefited either by quiet hard working dreamers or overly smart people who can generate tax money as quick as possible.Immigrant people in the middle like you (and me) who wants effortless good life due to academia are so so taxpayer but also future trouble makers. I start to understand the policy then :-). Your inputs are welcome!!

Again, amazing description of a place that has so much to be written about. And the Abhishek Bachan billboard, can't escape from it as it is right in front of your face when you get there...the dhotics have succeeded in creating their own niche market in the land of the brave/free!! BTW, two not so big momo shops have opened around the area too and the price is a bargain as compared to the established Neapli eateries around the area. A nepali owned cell-phone store, 5-6 nepali food places, 2 nepali owned phone card businesses and a Nepali owned video/DVD/CD store...Looks like our first generation immigrants are finally learning to give up the chains that bound them to a regular job and have begun looking into being entrepreneurs themselves. All in all, a great piece of work like always.

"If I believe everyone deserves a better living, then I also believe living better should come only after a minimal struggle."

The above statement sums up the fallacy of the argument made in this piece. It is assumed that people who've got DV green cards do not have to struggle. I'm sure plenty of people have struggled for a better life in Nepal before getting their DV visas. Or does it count only if you struggle in America?

Or maybe the writer is trying to portray the prejudice educated Nepalese hold against their lesser educated countrymen in America - the taxi drivers and the restaurant workers. Like somehow a master's degree or a PhD makes them more deserving of the American dream than the others. People like them are deluded I say. What does it say about our community when a person still cannot say he's a plumber without drawing condescending looks.

Respect all the members of the Nepali community, because whatever they do for a living, they're all respectable jobs.

Unless you're selling crack, of course.

Hey, hey fellas, I don't think John meant to portray his feelings that way. Its not about whether the waitress who with no qualifications got a green card and John, educated as he is with two master was still struggling to get his. What he feels is something I have always felt; the ones who have been here for so long (legally, paying taxes, doing everything right by the system and making regular visits to the law offices to find out ways to achieve their gren cardl) are still eluded from their american dream. Whereas, we get a few lottery winners who without much effort get to achieve that dream instantly. Not that i have anything against them as a few of my relatives have come here the same way, but in my viewpoint that doesn't seem fair, does it? The US has an estimated 12 million illegals and wouldn't it be more rational to give these people a shot at their american dream rather than award that dream in a silver platter to another set of 55,000 people with similar backgrounds who have never even experienced the hardships/way of life here? Seriously, for me, even if the waiiress was someone with a Ph.D (or working towards one), I'd still feel the same as John did.

Apologies. My line above should've read: "The US has an estimated 12 million illegals and millions more on visas. Wouldn't it be more rational to give these people a shot at their american dream rather than award that dream in a silver platter to another set of 55,000 people with similar backgrounds who have never even experienced the hardships/way of life here?"

I had unwittingly classified every non-immigrant as an illegal. My bad!

.Nice Read John!!

That was indeed a nice virtual tour to Jackson Height. Personally, I don't like that place. May be because Florida is pretty quiet and I have become used to it.

That billboard thing is so distinct, everyone notices it. When I think of Jackson Height, the billboard is the first thing that comes in my mind. I thought there was still Shah Rukh Khan on the billboard, so this Abhisekh already replaced him? Shah Rukh is replacing Amitabh everywhere (saw one ICICI bank AD somewhere on a website) and Abhisekh is not leaving him, nice competition.

About Immigration thing, how about thinking it this way? Shanti would never be able to come to USA had she not won DV lottery. People like you (take it as 'people as educated as you are', can include myself in this category too) can live good life here with small immigration struggle or can go back home and still live a good life. Let them have some fun and earn some and make their life better.... and let's not forget, while talking about remittance, they always come ahead of people like us in sending money home, we rather buy another nice car.

Talking about DV, isn't it time for DV 2008 result yet? Man!! I must win this time. This immigration issue has become my headache lately. ;-)

Thanks John again!!

:-)

गाल्टे ;),

Excellent write-up aside,

Disparity in luck ("Shanti" vs. you in this particular story) is a matter of fact in life that one would do better by accepting it with an endless degree of magnanimity, than take it in negative strides. Being lucky is not a matter of choice -- "Shanti" may have chosen to apply for the DV, but she sure did not choose to win it.

I felt the particular need to make the comment since you seemed to imply that "Shanti" being less educated than you, should deserve either less than, or equal to, you in terms of acquiring the Green Card. One of the greatness of this country stems from the fact that this country is, after all, a land of opportunity -- for the most part -- for ALL, regardless of, for one thing, their academic achievements.

You would pardon me, of course, if I have misinterpreted your thoughts.

****************************

MazeMyan,

"...the incosiderate pushy bhaiyas...you wont get your chaya...without forcing your way to the cash register"?

"...having to plough your way to the cash counter through the mass of sweating, keo-karpin donning mausijis who won't give a whit about standing in line like any decent perosn would do"?

"...pushed out of way by those for whom buying some 'bengan' before me meant the end of the world"?

"Paan spits all over the street..."?

"...being shoved around on the sidewalks by freshly-arrived proud shoulders and elbows"?

"...having to negotiate my way around the voluptous behinds of desi aunties..."?

I think your description of Jackson Heights has more to do with your stereotyped prejudice than with facts. Some may be an occasional anomaly, like everywhere else, but they hardly are the usual way of life there.