Great Changes

More than thirty years have passed since Amna Khan has arrived to the United
States. She has not only learned to work harder here, but also to respect others more
regardless of family or financial backgrounds. Upon entering her house, which is in a
leafy and very clean neighborhood, to interview her for three consecutive days, on not
one incident was she annoyed by my appearance, instead she constantly told me to do my
best on this project. I realized that her standard of living has increased in a great way after
my acquaintance with the two BMWs parked in her garage, and the 60 flat screen
television in her house. In India, their household did not have a television, a telephone or
a refrigerator. Now, at least thorough my eyes, I think that she has more than necessary
things to subsist in this world. Other than this, she also always asked how the interview
went and even offered to redo it if the information she said was acceptable. Her age is
over fifty and her husband passed away only several months ago. She has not lost her
spirit partially because of her familys intense consolation and her pre-occupation with
kids, thus she loves her job as a daycare owner. Claiming that she made the correct
decision to immigrate to the United States with her husband (who was a student at that
time), she does state throughout the interview process that Americanizing was
inevitable and that change was necessary to fit in this society.
Born to a humble, but well off family in Hyderabad, India, Khan was given to the
best possible secondary education in India at that time in an all girls school, the school
that I attended was a very good school. It was the best school in India, said Khan after
being asked about the quality of education in India.
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Over there children, until they graduate, they dont work. The only thing
is that they have to go the school, and basically do their best. Like over
here, after you are sixteen, you go for a part-time job.

Her mother was a housewife and her father was an accountant for the Public
Works Department, which has affiliation with the Indian Government. He entered his
career as an accountant and retired as an accountant too. Life in India, as Khan recalls
was very peaceful and that her father was the only working member of the family --
yet, his income was ample to live a prosperous (but not a luxurious life). Her family
consisted of seven brothers and sisters; Mrs. Khan was the eldest of them all. Family
structure in India was very different from the American system, where elders were
greatly respected. We used to greatly respect our elders, if they said something that we
didnt like, we still obeyed them. Not only were elders greatly respected, but they were
loved and looked upon as a role model too. Khans role model was her grand mother who
took great care of her and loved her a lot too.
My grandma, my fathers mom, was a very good lady. She used to like
me more and then since my childhood, she used to take good care of me
and used to love me. When I grew older, she was sick -- she had paralysis.
She couldnt walk, eat with her hands -- and I used to help her out. She
could talk, but she couldnt some things like talking a bath or changing
her clothes, you know stuff like that because her hands and feet were not
working. She trusted me a lot; she was a very great lady -- very great lady
you know. She worked very hard and took care of my father and my aunt --
became a widow after two years after marriage and she was very young
then. My grandma - she didnt get married again and stayed a widow and
she went to school because she was young. Anyways she went to school
and became a teacher, and then she earned money and took good care of
her kids and she later became the principal of that school. I always follow
her like my role model because at that time, about a hundred years ago, a
woman in India could do it, so why shouldnt I do it? In the United States,
it is a great country I could do a lot, right? So I always keep her as my
role model.
Mrs. Khans fondest memories of India were her parents huge house with fruit
trees of all sorts -- which she said the numbers of varieties of them were too large to
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name, but the notable ones were the mango trees, coconut trees and banana trees. Their
house was so large that they did need to go outside because they had a colossal front and
back yards to play in. Another notable aspect of her house was that they had large gates,
compared with American counterparts, where there are really have no gates, and that the
garage takes most of the space of the back yard. An average American reader will be
astounded by how a middle class family can have such a large house, but by conducting
some background research, most houses and properties are passed on from generation to
generation, and sometimes someone form a generation may wish to add onto their
parents property.
In her childhood, Khan claims that she did not really travel a lot. The only places
where she traveled were to her fathers lands and also to her relatives nearby. Their
standard of living was decent, but not luxurious. Luxurious in this case means that they
did not have televisions, refrigerators or anything of that sort in her house. Another
reason Khans family did not travel that much was because they only got one day off for
weekends and also the summers beaks were short. Even without all these luxuries, Khan
claims that life in India was very peace and there were no pollution and the weather
was very beautiful.
With all this good memories of India, Khan states that one bad memory ruins it
all. This bad memory refers to the fact that she was unable to fulfill her dreams of
being a doctor.
America is the land of opportunities, here everything is possible .So I
didnt go for medicine. But I feel bad about it; you know if I was here in
America, I could have gone to medical school by taking loans and by
taking financial aids. There is nothing over there. There are no loans and
no financial aid at that time. The people who couldnt afford it -- you
cannot do it. But United States there is a great thing that over here, even if
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you cannot afford it, the government will help you out. When you get a job
you could pay back again. Thats the great thing about America.

Unable to study medicine, Khan was forced into the science field and went for
bachelors in science in biology, chemistry and anatomy. This especially happened
her family because she had six other siblings after who were in dire need of
decent education too. If all the limited financial resources are spent on one person
then the others will be unable to get the same privileges later that the eldest had
already enjoyed. Again the college she attended was an all women college
called Wonitama Mahatma Alley. She also says that getting a college education in
India has helped with getting the daycare license here. If I had not gone to
college, I probably would have not passed the exam, said Khan. Just getting to
school was also different he her. In India, if you were a woman, then you would
be escorted by someone or travel in a group of other women when going to
school. In America, she could travel alone, without anyone forcing an escort to go
with her.
Right after Khan became married to a student, who was studying civil
engineering in the United Stated, she applied for the F-2 (which is what the
dependent of a student is called). After arriving in the United States, Khan was
disappointed to see that when she became sick, see went the Cook County
hospital (which is free for all patients) that it she was the most crowded hospital
she had ever seen in her life; waiting in the long queues was also new to her:
Over there, we have some government hospitals and they are free and
you could go there. Anyone can go there and receive medical treatment. If
you want private doctors, you can get them cheap too. Here, if you have
no insurance, it means that you are dead. Even for a minor surgery, you
cannot afford to pay -- but over there you could. If you cannot afford the
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private doctors, you can always go to the government hospitals and they
do it free for you. They were big hospitals. You know Nizam, the King of
Hyderabad, he built a big hospital there. They are very big and well
equipped. But most of the people try to go to the private doctors. They are
not bad, they are lot like very expensive like here. The main thing is that
you can afford it.

Khans arrival to the United States was not really a challenge. She came as a
students wife. The security in the airport did not interrogate us, as they do today, said
Khan. She also added that even though it is harder to become an immigrant these days,
back then, the American airport guards were relaxed; the only thing they looked at was
our visas. From the easiness of entering the U.S. that Khan talks about, we can
without any difficulty surmise that the airport guard or the immigration officers were not
that strict as they are today. While even getting my Indian visa to visit my motherland,
the Indian authorities asked for proof that I was really an Indian, imagine what entering
the U.S. is like now, said Khan after explaining how many of her friends, who were not
successful to become American citizens are unable to now enter the United States after
they have left for a vacation to their country of origin. One person was not allowed to
enter the United States for ten years because he had lived here for a short period of time
illegally, said Khan. Khan has learned to be very thankful after seeing the various
situations of people.
Her initial goal for coming to the United States has been fulfilled. Her husband
successfully finished his studies as a civil engineer and later obtained a good job. The
primary reason that her husband took the chance to come to the United States and study
here was because studying here means that he has a higher potential to accepted for a job
in another country (such as in India) than another candidate, who has the same degree
gained in India. Then through her husbands job, she got her green card and then later the
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American passport. Overall it took us about ten years to get the passport. Five years to
get the green card and then another five years after the green card to get the passport,
said Khan. After she and her family received the passport, her husband got an even better
job, and finally she began to settle down permanently in the U.S. by buying a house in
West Rogers Park, where she had previously lived in an apartment. She decided to
permanently settle after receiving the passport was primarily because her family feared
that they might get deported, while they have large amounts of assets here. Other than
this, she also included that her immigration process and initially arriving to the United
States was not at all a challenge. The process was neither very hard nor adventurous,
added Khan.
I was just eighteen years old at that time -- I knew that this United States
was good and everything; I did not have any idea about it. When I came
here, I liked it because it is a good country. I should say it was harder to
be an immigrant than now; at that time very few people used to get the
green card at that time. We came here in nineteen seventy-two. It was very
hard at that time. Now it changed a lot, now I see so many Indian people
and all the people across the country, but at that time there were not all
this people. It changed a lot!

She also thinks that immigrating to the United States the right decision. I would
under no circumstances go back to India, said Khan, who has now spent more than two
thirds of her life here, and also become a grandmother several years ago. All her children
were born here and because these reasons, she believes that if she goes back to India, this
would detriment her family greatly -- but she does miss her country:
I did feel very bad. I used to love my mom and my dad a lot -- also my
brothers and sisters. I missed my country. When I came here, I missed
them a lot. At that same time, my husband was studying so I cannot leave
and go back home -- I have to support my husband too, so I was living
with him here.

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The key to happiness and prosperity is hard work claimed Khan in her interview.
She first stayed as a housewife for two years after her arrival to the U.S. and studied the
English language. After getting a hold on English she started a day care service because
this would earn her money while also taking care of her beloved children. Basically it
takes two or three years to get a daycare started, said Khan after she was asked how a
day care center would operate if she is new to the U.S. and that no one would know her.
Then after this job, she also worked at St. Francis hospital in the billing section and the
records room. The shifts she worked were all night shifts because all day she helped her
children and also sent them to school (she also helped her husband prepare his lunch).
When tranquility was restored after her children went to sleep, Khan would then go to
work. She is not just industrious, but adventurous too; this can be proven by hearing the
story of her owning and operating a gas station in downtown Chicago for some time. This
was a major change in the life of an Indian women as she stated, because in India women
stay as housewives. They take care of their children, their husband and cook food --
basically they take care of the household affairs, said Khan. Being able to juggle both
the household affairs, and also to earn money simultaneously, the work history of
Amna Khan is extraordinary. Owning the gas station helped her with the daycare
business: Through this, I learned to interact and meet many different types of people and
also respect them very much, said Khan. She was correct, some basic research of the
Indian Subcontinent will lead everyone to the reality that it is a very conservative area,
where interactions between the different genders is very limited, though trends are now
going in the opposite direction. Here in the U.S. Khan was given to opportunity to act
like a professional and build her career easily without any obstacles.
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Being the first to come to the United Stated, Khans relatives also followed her
here. For example, her brother came as a student and has now settled in Texas and her
sister married a person who was already an American citizen. When I go for a vacation
in India, there are no relatives there. This shows us that entire families move/ immigrate
to the U.S. after just one couple come here.
Everybody came here by themselves. Like my sister, she got married into
a man who was already an American citizen and she came here. My
brothers, they came here by their own visas. Everybody came here
eventually. We came here and after two or three years we got the green
card and then we have to wait five years to get the citizenship, and overall
like ten years.

Luckily for Khan, the security in the United States when entering through the
airport did not interrogate her at all; it was not just her, but the whole batch that came in.
Other than this many people had the same reasons as her to leave her country.
Yeah lots of people. Some of them came here as student wives. What
happened is that students used to come here, and then go back to India
and then go home and get married. It was not very rare, but quite a few
came this way. It is hard for the student to live alone here because they
need a company at home when they get here from college. Studying is not
like one year or six months, it takes like five, six years. Then you have to
get a good job.

While coming and immigrating to the U.S. was not really much of a challenge for
Amna Khan, she does say that in some ways she did feel different from everyone here
culturally. Even asked about what kind of cultural differences was observed between
India and the United States, Khan said that:
Like you know the people over here, the kids especially, they dont have
respect for the elders. Like back home, we had a lot of respect for our
parents, our elders, and teachers and so on. If our parents said something,
we never used to give back answers to them. When the teacher entered the
classroom, we used to stand up and greet them like good morning and
good afternoon whatever it is, and then when the teacher used to tell us to
sit down, then we used to sit down.
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Other cultural factors like food were not very hard for Amna Khan. This is
because of the big Indian community in Chicago and lots of Indian owned businesses
which provide Indian foods at modest prices. Overall, Amna Khan likes the American
culture and she had no problems adapting it. Out of all the things to adapt in the
American culture, she especially loves how Americans are open-hearted and free. Here
she can open her heart and say what ever she fancies; the open-mindedness of Americans
was not seen by her in any country that she lived in. Open-minded to her means that there
all many different cultures in the United States (people from Europe, Asia and the Indian
Subcontinent), you can express your culture by wearing what you want and no one
would care and they will still respect you. Comparing with both Indian culture, and the
current American culture, Khan thinks that this culture is better:
I think that the American culture is better. In many ways, this culture is
better -- like over here, we respect work. Like what kind of work you do.
Any kind of work is work. Everyone is respected -- like our garbage man.
We respect everybody. We dont care even if they are the garbage man or
you know -- anything. In India, back home they dont do that. They look
down at those people. This is very bad, I dont like it. Because work is
worship, they are not begging you, they are not stealing anything, they are
working hard for money, and it is their right. Everyone is equal, we should
not make these kinds of differences between people -- I dont like it. This is
a great country, and because of these kinds of reasons -- I like it.
It has now been more than thirty years since Khan has immigrated to America. She has
claimed in the interview that she has changed a lot -- especially in cultural aspects. I like
to adopt the good things of all cultures, whether or not that culture is a thousand miles
from where I am from, said Khan. One thing that she specially liked about the American
culture was that everyone can Americanized once you come here.
Mrs. Khan has no relatives in India anymore, and since she has lived in the U.S.
for such a long time, it is a foreign country to her now. I cannot think of living in India
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anymore, this is my country now. We go and visit sometimes, but I cannot think of living
there, said Khan. One fact that she stressed on was that how you can fall in love with
this country and how fast time can pass away.
I spent eighteen years in India -- that is it. I was eighteen when I came
here and now I am fifty-two. I spend thirty-four years over here. I love
being here and this is my country and even my kids -- like my oldest son is
like thirty-three years old and he has his own kids. They all think that this
is their country because they are born and raised here and they dont want
to go back to India.
Amna Khan thinks that she is more financially secure here than she could have
been back in India. India currently has no social security system and when you retire, you
practically have to live off your own money. When Amna Khans husband became
extremely ill due to uncontrolled diabetes, the U.S. government paid for his
hospitalization and eventually for his full recovery. This all happened without negatively
affecting their households standard of living, thus her children were able to attend
college simultaneously. Khan thinks back in time to when she was unable to attend
medical college because of her familys financial conditions which was because to her
own fathers medical conditions. This is what makes America so great, said Khan.
Other than this she also added that her fathers illness gave her mom many sleepless
nights; she was worrying about the familys slow depletion of financial resources because
the government did not help them at all. From the dialogues of Amna Khan, we can infer
that she has become more care free and more dependant on the government.
She recalls that the people here are very welcoming and that they do not
discriminate anyone because of race, jobs or anything. From them, I learned to be more
respectful, said Khan. The clients of her babysitting service are very respectful and are
helpful too. One example of this is when the tragedy of September 11
th
happened, the
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parents informed her that if she needs anything, just tell them and they will shop the
groceries for her. When asked about her worst experiences acclimating to the American
culture, she proudly stated that there were no worst experiences! When the opposite
question was asked, she said that it would take a lot of time to explain them all, but she
was astounded by the peoples friendliness.
Mutual friendliness was one of the most common terms that appeared in her
interview process. Settling in the U.S. was only an easy process because everyone was
helpful to her. From the days she attended an English learning institute to owning a small
independent business, Amna Khan has changed a lot (Americanized) since her
immigration from India. She has not only learned to work harder and help other people,
but also to retain her own culture by still respecting the elderly. Retaining some portion
of ones own culture, makes someone a true American because United States is a mixture
of all the worlds cultures and a culture only develops by accepting the best portions of
all cultures in this world.