In the summer of 1980 while doing my PhD at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, I visited the USA for the first time. I bought a Greyhound bus ticket for one-month unlimited travel. I visited many cities, wherever my friends used to live while pursuing their PhD’s.
Though there were not many differences between Canada and USA at that time, I was overwhelmed by American kaleidoscopic natural beauty, friendliness of the people, living comfortability and unbelievable freedom.
Luckily, after my PhD I joined the University of Hawaii, Honolulu as a postdoctoral fellow. However, I left Hawaii after one year for my country.
Meanwhile, I got married, immigrated to Australia, and after three years, came back to Bangladesh. Almost 15 years thereafter I started to think about the USA again. How can I move to the USA again with my family of five?
From Dhaka, Bangladesh, I started applying for faculty positions at different universities in the USA. It was unbelievable to me that I had an interview call from a private university in West Virginia. During the 45 minutes interview, it was mid-day in the USA, but it was midnight in Bangladesh.
What a lucky man I was! From that interview, I was selected for an associate professorship. But my family members all needed a visa, and I needed an H-1 visa for me.
It was Sept. 11, 2001. I came back from work and entered our living room where CNN continued its breaking news.
What was it? Was that a movie clip? A plane hitting a building. Then the second plane. The twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsing… Who could believe it, how was it even possible?
But it happened and what a coincidence? From thousands of miles away I was watching live on TV.
Totally unexpected tragedies happened. My sadness turned to fearfulness.
We might not get the visa from the US embassy in Dhaka. Already people from several countries including Bangladesh were banned from traveling to the USA.
One day I was talking with our chairman of the pharmaceutical company I used to work in an executive position. I said to him, “I am not sure that we will get the visa.”
He said, “You will get it because you applied for a visa as an Australian citizen, not Bangladeshi.”
One fine morning we went to the embassy. The consular officer was asking, “What will you be teaching?”
I said, “Chemistry.”
Like benzene?
How do you know?
I had chemistry in my undergraduate.
He was asking a few questions to my wife and daughters too.
My company’s chairman was right. We all got visas. Once again, we were lucky. Our Australian passports worked well.
However, one month of the Fall semester has already gone. The provost of the university was a very kindhearted person. She was handling my chemistry classes until I joined.
After a 24 hour total flight time, we landed at the Charleston airport in West Virginia in the 2nd week of October 2001.
We were singing, “Country Road, take us to our naturalized home.”
Finally, this summer while visiting New York, we went to the World Trade Center arena – 9/11 memorial and museum to show our respect and pay tribute to the victims of 9/11.
Jiben Roy, a native of Bangladesh, teaches chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences at Mississippi University for Women. He writes occasional column in the Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Jiben Roy, a native of Bangladesh, teaches chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences at Mississippi University for Women. His email address is [email protected].
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