It was July 18, 2011 and Neeraj DevVarma squeezed into a Honda Civic with his mother, father, brother, sister, aunt and cousin on their way to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, the biggest airport in eastern India. At the airport Neeraj met three friends, Prithak, Alphonse and Karuna as they embarked to America.
Neeraj was prepared to say goodbye to his family. However, the thought of not seeing his parents for year or more did sadden him. After saying their goodbyes Neeraj and his friends descended into the busy cauldron that was the domestic part of the airport. After passing through to the international side they boarded their flight to Frankfurt, Germany and departed at 1 am on July 19.
Flash back seven months.
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Two important sets of exams were only a couple of short weeks away. For Neeraj, doing well meant getting into university in India. It was early December in Agartala, the capital of the Indian state of Tripura, as Neeraj packed his bags for the day and headed to Holy Cross School.
Neeraj approached the majestic campus with his mind firmly set on the exam that day. In the middle of the test, an administrator entered the room and called Neeraj and two of his best friends Prithak and Antara out of class.
Prithak was nervous walking through the hallways. The administrator had told them they were meeting with the vice principal. The thought of expulsion popped into Prithak’s mind, and he immediately began ravaging his memories for any major mischief he could have caused. As the three students entered the vice principals office, they were offered something distinctly different.
They had been offered the opportunity to attend university in America. The information was very vague – they weren’t even told the name of the school – and the three students left the vice principal’s office confused. Is this for real? Is it worth the hassle? Is it worth the money?
A few days later they received an email from Father Pinto of Stonehill College, providing details.
The three students later met with Stonehill College alumni who were doing service projects in India. Alums like Ben Albert along with the vice principal helped them fill out the Common Application, get teacher recommendations and write their personal essays.
Neeraj was excited by the prospect of the three of them, being the best of friends, all embarking on this incredible adventure together. However, in the thick of their application process, news broke out that only two of them would be allowed to attend Stonehill College.
December 18, 2010. The applications were sent out. Now they had to wait. And wait. There was no response until late March, 2011.
Neeraj felt relaxed through the waiting period. He learned from his father to never expect something that has been offered to you. It can just as easily be revoked. It was nearing April and still no official response. Eventually, Indrania DevVarma, Neeraj’s mother, spoke to the vice principal. She relayed the information to Neeraj.
Neeraj had been accepted, along with Antara. Prithak had been accepted into Kings College in Pennsylvania. Neeraj had always believed that he was the one that would be left behind, so this news came as quite a shock to him.
Two weeks pass and the reality of the situation begins to settle in. Neeraj was out of town in Shillong when he logged onto his Facebook to catch up on the latest happenings of his friends. Prithak had posted a status saying that he was attending Stonehill College instead of Kings College, along with Neeraj as Antara had pulled out.
The next major hurdle was acquiring a visa to stay and study in America. Two other students that were joining Neeraj and Prithak, Alphonse and Karuna, were originally meant to have attended Stonehill College a year earlier but they ran into visa issues. Neeraj applied online, and had to first pay a $300 application fee, and then an extra $200 to obtain a F1 student visa. The next step in the process was setting up an interview with the US embassy in Calcutta.
Neeraj travelled to Calcutta on his own at the beginning of May. He had an aunt and a cousin with whom he stayed with while in the city. The morning of his interview on May 8, 2011, his aunt drove him to the embassy and dropped him off in the blistering heat. Neeraj walked through the doors and was immediately confronted by security. He had already been told that he could not bring a backpack, so all he was carrying was a folder with the necessary paperwork to submit the full application. He walked through a metal detector and left his watch and wallet with security.
Neeraj walked further into the embassy and picked up his appointment ticket, number 93.
“Huh, same as my birth year,” he remembered thinking.
He took a seat in the waiting room. A short time passed before being called up. On the other side of the glass at the counter was a disgruntled and rude Indian man. He wasn’t pleased with the pictures Neeraj had brought with him and told him that he needed new ones. There were photo booths situated just outside of the embassy for this exact purpose.
Neeraj knew he had no choice but to use one of these photo booths, despite the people running them being notorious for ripping customers off. Sure enough, Neeraj paid an extortionate amount of rupees just for new pictures. The sweat was dripping down his face while the sun pounded against his back as he headed back inside the congested and stuffy embassy. His pictures were approved by the angry Indian then took his seat again in the waiting room.
He waits. And waits some more. He waits so long that he starts to realize that people coming in after him are leaving before him. Two hours and a half pass before the number 93 is called out. Neeraj got up and headed into a side room where a smart looking American man is sitting. He hardly acknowledges Neeraj and for the most part stares at his file instead. He asked Neeraj the typical generic questions – “what will you be doing in the US?” “Studying,” – before asking him about Stonehill College. The interview ended and Neeraj picked up his belongings at the security desk and left. After waiting two hours and a half, the interview lasted less than a minute.
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The nine and a half hour flight touched down in Germany at Frankfurt Airport at 7:15. The sheer size of the airport overwhelmed Neeraj, who had never seen anything so big in his life. Being the only one with a debit card, he was quickly talked into buying everyone breakfast. This lasted the group until they departed, this time on a ten hour flight headed towards Logan Airport, in Boston.
On the first flight Neeraj and Prithak watched three different movies on the personal TV screens assigned to each seat. On the second flight, Neeraj was sandwiched between two random travelers with no TV to distract him from the tedious trip.
At Logan Airport, Karuna was stopped by immigration. There were small discrepancies in her paperwork. Once the immigration officials had spoken to Stonehill College they let her through. Even then, the bags took hours to arrive.
Joe Pottackal, a recent Stonehill graduate, and his girlfriend Christina Perera, an upperclassman at Stonehill met them at the airport. The couple brought the jet-lagged and exhausted group to the Stonehill College campus.
The Indian kid had made it.End Notes:
Interview with Neeraj DevVarma
Interview with Prithak Chowdhury
Interview with Jacqueline Guzman
Interview with Liza Talusan
http://www.holycrossschoolagartala.in/
http://www.nscbiairport.org/
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