Hannah Humphreys
Fall 2022
“When I came to this country I used to wonder why people spend so much money on pets right? And now I have a pet. Seriously, I used to wonder what is wrong with these people? How much money are they spending on pet food and stuff like that? Now guess what: I am, that crazy American lady.”
Always one for an adventure, it’s no wonder that Vini Jain ended up in California, a mere fourteen thousands kilometers from home. Bangalore, India, while not her birthplace, was where Vini spent her childhood, enjoying the lively sounds, events, foods, and cultural heritage of the city. She was sent to the best schools that money could buy, and as the youngest of four, made rebellion her favorite pastime.
Vini was one of two girls to study engineering in her high school. She was the only one of her siblings not to have an arranged marriage. Where Vini sees a mold, she breaks it. It was this tenacity that made the decision to move an easy one.
Her husband, Raj — her college theater class sweetheart — was made an offer from his company to have him transfer to the San Francisco division, as Silicon Valley was then the most up and coming tech hub the world had ever seen.
In her early twenties, Vini was elated by the idea of moving to the United States; she had experienced life outside of India in shorter stints that her job had offered, most notably in Singapore. Her ambition and taste for something new meant that Vini was happy to come over to the US unemployed, a luxury few get to enjoy in the immigration process.
Many of the qualities about Vini’s immigration story are such luxuries: a private lawyer, someone to pay for the visa, a family to pick her up from the airport. Other parts of her story highlight the inescapable challenges that come with venturing so far from home. When asked about her first months in California, Vini paints a far sadder picture;
“There’s nobody around you, don’t see a single soul. That was the other difference in India, there are so many people that it is never just you. You can never be alone or lonely in India, because there’s always people around.”
Education, opportunity, and privilege aside, Vini’s story speaks to the inevitable truth of the outlander: the loss of community. With time, she found herself acclimating and adjusting to her new lifestyle — getting a job in tech, shopping at newly-founded Indian grocery stores, and taking her daughter to celebrate Holi at the Stanford campus, with the interest of making sure she knows her heritage.
While moving to the United States was an adventure, it was also a challenge in finding community, friends, and a new sense of identity. But for Vini, a change of home was not a change of heart.
“When I came to this country I used to wonder why people spend so much money on pets right? And now I have a pet. Seriously, I used to wonder what is wrong with these people? How much money are they spending on pet food and stuff like that? Now guess what: I am, that crazy American lady.”