CROSSING BORDERS:
How my international experience has affected my view of the world
SUBMITTED BY:-SYED I. HAQUE
MS-Mathematical Finance
Level-Graduate
The idea of writing an essay on my experience as an international student in the
United States occurred to me while reading the book-Balkan Ghosts by Robert D.
Kaplan. Now it is one of the most unlikely of books when it comes to celebrating
diversity. This book is about the ancient hatreds between ethnic groups in
Eastern Europe which burst out into the open in the 90s and led to the
dismemberment of the former republic of Yugoslavia. It was one of the most
painful episodes in post-war Europe. While reading the book and its gloomy
portrayal of a land where forced ethnic integration led to horrific violence, I could
not but think about the extraordinary yet thriving diversity that I have
experienced in America. This is a place where ethnicities, races and religions have
intermixed to create an exquisite mosaic of humanity. A place where diversity has
not only thrived but has been a beacon of hope for all those people who believe
that integration does not necessarily mean assimilation and forgetting your own
roots.
I came to the United Stated at a time when history was being made in this
country. An African-American man of extraordinary talent, the son of a foreign
student, Barack Obama had been elected president. Only thirty years ago his
father would have been denied a place in a restaurant in most Southern states
just because of the color of his skin. I had watched the election night moments on
TV. It was an extraordinary night. Who would want to miss the scenes of tears
streaming down the eyes of Jesse Jackson, the profound speech by the Presidentelect and the most graceful concession speech that I had ever heard by John
McCain.
Love it or hate it, you cannot ignore the United States. I have been an avid reader
of American history because of the unique history of this nation. Its founding
fathers wrote that magnificent document called the American constitution. A
constitution, which has been the source of inspiration for countless freedom
struggles and draft constitutions all over the world including that of India’s.
I had read about the brutal Indian wars, the Civil war, the Reconstruction years,
the years of racial strife and finally how 9/11 had changed life in America.
Therefore, I wanted to see for myself what America was all about and what it was
not.
From the moment I landed in Chicago, I was overcome by the sheer diversity of
the people who call this country home. People coming from developing countries
often get dazed by the technology gap which is why they overlook the human
angle. If George Washington were to rise up from his grave today, he would
certainly have doubts about whether the place he is walking on is really America.
My classmates are a microcosm of the diversity that defines America. There is an
American girl from Boston, a Physics graduate from Cameroon, a Chinese
Economics student from Shanghai, a baseball player from Nashville, Tennessee
and finally a fellow Indian from the Southern part of my country. Each of these
people is a story in itself. They come from the most diverse of backgrounds, each
with having a different opinion about the world we share. Notwithstanding our
different experiences in life, we get along so well that we have become great
friends within weeks of knowing each other.
Every Thursday I take a bus to the uptown campus in Charlotte and meet another
set of unlikely friends. For, I meet a Pakistani-Canadian whose grandparents
migrated from the part of India where I come from and a Bangladeshi whose
nation came into being after a bloody separation from Pakistan. It was a conflict
that left bitter memories between Bangladeshis and people of my ethnic group.
Yet I look forward to meeting them every Thursday not only because we all are in
the same graduate program. We share the same religious background and we
have thought provoking discussions relating to our experiences as a Muslim. As a
religious minority, I have had my occasional share of fear and mistrust in a
nation that has seen spasms of religious and ethnic hatred resulting in horrific
violence. Therefore it is a cathartic experience to freely talk about the things that
are buried deep in my psyche and that which I never got to discuss with friends in
India. Those are the moments when you realize how deep the expression
“freedom of expression and thoughts” can be and not some meaningless words in
an otherwise elaborate Constitution.
There is an innate sense in us that we tend to gravitate towards people who share
our culture or language. People always tried to stick to people from their states or
region. Over here you know right from Day 1, that you have to overcome that
tendency to look for people who look like you or who may speak your language.
The people with whom I share my apartment come from places in India I have
never been to. Back in the northern part of India where I come from, you always
hear stories about how people from the South or the West dislike us. The best
part of living with my roommates is that I m able to shed those mistrusts and
prejudices and instead affirm my belief that we essentially share the same roots
though our cultures might slightly differ.
Therefore, when I received an email asking for my experience as an international
student I could hardly come up with anything. How could I use the word
“experience” for something that was barely two months old? But on the bus
journey from Charlotte to Atlanta, I started reading Balkan Ghosts. By the time I
was half-way through this book about the failure of human beings to forgive and
forget age-old grudges in a forgotten corner of Europe, I knew I had to write this
essay. In the end, the thought of putting my experiences in another melting pot of
humanity, albeit with a completely different experience that that of Robert
Kaplan in the Balkans was too tempting to ignore.