It was a usual Sunday and I was at my local cafe sipping a delicious flat white. Decaf btw, because I drink too much coffee. I needed a distraction and I opened Twitter. It’s always a mistake to open the dumpster fire that’s Twitter. And the first thing I saw was this racist tweet from a politician in Texas saying — “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.” It was infuriating to see this. I went to grad school at Texas A&M. I am not supposed to like UT but honestly, I love them.
The tweet has been making rounds. It has 20.7 million views as of now. It’s still infuriating 6 hours later but I have also been thinking, “Why does it feel like the whole world is crashing down? That living in America feels like a prison sentence rather than a privilege. It’s quite sad because that’s not the Texas I experienced.
I lived in College Station, TX, a small university town. As a broke college student, I appreciated help and support at any point I could get. The community that supported me and other Indian students the most were people from the Church near North Gate. The one person I remember the most is Steven White. I don’t think I have ever met someone so selfless, someone so caring, someone so generous. He was not the only one but he certainly was the prominent volunteer who helped us in every way.
I got an apartment with other fellow students but we had no furniture. We didn’t even have to think about buying furniture because we knew that the Church giveaway would help us. Initially I wasn’t that grateful thinking it’s old stuff that people didn’t need so maybe it’s just a way for them to get rid of stuff. But what I saw immensely surprised me. It wasn’t that the Church had everything one could possibly imagine but it was such high quality that I don’t think I would buy it new even today. But more importantly, the shocking thing was not only that I could take anything I wanted for free, all I had to do was mark it, give them my address and they would deliver them to my apartment. I was baffled. Why would anyone do it? I still can’t understand that. I am not sure if I could meet such people in San Francisco.
They delivered the furniture promptly and even placed it wherever I wanted. It wanted to offer them something — coffee, breakfast, money, anything. But they denied. Their work wasn’t done; there were many more furniture deliveries waiting for them. I said goodbye to them and looked around to see all of my apartment furnished without spending a single penny, without carrying as much as a chair. It was incredible. This was my 5th day in America and nothing could ever top this. But I was wrong.
The two years I lived there, I saw the generosity and warmth of the people around me. The Church had a lounge area that served coffee and snacks. It has comfortable couches, tables, and elevated seating near the window. It was open to everyone and up until midnight. I along with many of my friends used that space for studying. It was the perfect spot. Close to my apartment with free coffee and sometimes free chai made fresh courtesy Steven White. Steven was terrific. He would come ask us if the chai was good. He used to joke that his plan to become a chaiwala eventually.
The Church and Steven organized events to celebrate Indian festivals like Diwali and even Indian independence day. The events were incredible with Indian food cooked by all of Steven’s family and some volunteers. Sometimes they had catering from an Indian restaurant. There’s only one Indian restaurant in College Station so people familiar with the town know what restaurant I am talking about. We had games, and singing and dancing in these events. It was where we all got together and celebrated our traditions in a uniquely Texan way.
Texas was my definition of America for the first two years, and it was a great one. People who were kind, caring, and generous. The people I knew, the Texas I experienced, were real. But so is the tweet.