In late 1960s three engineers and a purchasing manager from the electronic division of NCR (National Cash Register) Computer Division went to South Portland, Maine, for the certification of new plant of Fairchild Electronic that was ready to manufacture custom designed integrated circuit for NCR. I was one of the engineers who went to South Portland. From Los Angeles, we flew to Boston, then took a small ten passenger plane and arrived in South Portland just before sunset.
From the airport we went to the hotel and immediately decided to go for dinner. The Fairchild’s team also joined. At the dinner, the conversation turned to the presence of Native Americans – American Indians – in Maine, particular about a tribe that inhabited in the present-day Portland when Europeans arrived in the sixteenth century. One of the participants turned to me and said, “You are not saying anything.” I said, “What can I say, when I am the only real Indian here.” Everybody laughed.
At a luncheon party of our aerospace company in Los Angeles, the conversation turned to the topic of indigenous people, particularly the Native American people who historically inhabited the central and southern coastal regions of California, in portions of what is now San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Someone interjected an episode as to how a certain native tribe was so much afraid of the marine layer that kept fog around, trapping it in the form of low clouds. They would not come down the mountain and settle in the costal Los Angeles South Bay area. Most probably they were afraid of nature’s smoke signal. They were talking about the Chumash tribe, California tribe of Native American Indians who were hunter-gathers and fishermen.
The Chumash people lived in well organised coastal villages of grass mat houses, until the arrival of the Spanish who forcibly removed them to missions. The conversation continued about Native Indians, European settlers and others. I don’t remember the details but this much I know, I said, “Don’t tell me about this, I am the only real Indian here.”
In 2016, my next door neighbour lady walked up to my house front door and rang the bell. I answered, and she handed me an envelope, saying her family was getting ready to celebrate her 100th Birthday and had come to invite me and my wife to her birthday celebration. Startled and perplexed, I looked at her and congratulated her. She walked back to her house. It was a very poignant moment for me. I had never imagined that she is 100 years old. She was a very courageous woman, healthy and walking without any assistance or cane. Two years ago, watching her painting on the fence of her house, my thought placed her age at middle eighties and now I know, at that time, she was ninety-eight.
The birthday celebration was held in the afternoon on June 16, 2016. I went there after the lunch and she asked as to why I did not come for lunch. I told her that I was fasting and she understood. The family had invited relatives from Washington State, Pennsylvania State and from all over California. At that occasion, her 80+ daughter invited me to speak for a few minutes. I congratulated her relatives who had come from all over the US and added that some had come from Pennsylvania, which is considered a State from back east, I said, “Some relatives have come from back east, but I am from ‘way back east’, I am an East Indian, as a matter of fact, I am a real Indian.” Many people applauded and clapped.
A man from Chicago with an Italian sounding name refused to meet Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for ten minutes, demanding that she give him an hour’s time to show, in right perspective, his ‘Big Dream’ for India which would bring Indians together through total connectivity. A tremor was felt in New Delhi when Mrs. Indira Gandhi not only agreed to meet Sam Pitroda for one hour but also invited her whole cabinet, secretaries of various departments and parliamentarians to listen to Sam’s plan.
It was Sam Pitroda’s big dream to bringing telecom system via indigenous development to India with the help of young local Indian talent and providing total accessibility, including rural telecom connection to all of India by digitalising of network. Sam Pitroda’s work in the telephone automatic switching system in the US had made an impact, brought telecom revolution and propelled him into fame and popularity, giving him a chance to carve out a pioneering role in the United States for himself.
My friend of more than 50 years, Abdul Gani Shaikh introduced me to Sam Pitroda, he and Sam Pitroda are classmates of Baroda Engineering College. I read Sam Pitroda’s autobiography and when I talked to him on the phone (Sam Pitroda lives in Chicago) I said, “Sam, you are neither an American Indian, nor an Indian American, you are a real Indian. We are all real Indians.”
The Indian American Heritage Foundation and Global Organisation for People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) organised a seminar, on 4th of July 2017 on the occasion of American Independence Day, to pay tribute to pioneers, patriots and Gadar heroes of India by celebrating American Independence Day and Indian American Heritage. The seminar was held in the city of Artesia, a suburban city in Los Angeles County of California.
The 4th of July programme included speeches on topics: America’s war for Independence and its Heroes, Early Indian Immigration and Settlement Problems, Struggle for US Citizenship, Fight for India Independence (Gadar Movement) and Remembering Pioneers and Patriots. I, this writer, was invited to speak about Moulvi Barkatullah. I talked about him and his achievements and how he became one of the top freedom fighters of India. In 1915 Moulvi Barkatullah became the Prime Minister of India in exile in Afghanistan and Raja Mahendra Pratap became the President.
In the end I said: “Today, we are celebrating the American Independence Day. Today is American EID: Exciting Independence Day. EID means: to celebrate or observe, a feast, to felicitate on the occasion of a feast. In six weeks on 15 of August 2017, we will be celebrating the Indian EID – Exciting Independence Day. On the programme brochure, a quotation said, ‘Then we must first know who we are.’ I know, who we are: we are all desis; we are Indians, as a matter of fact we are all Real Indians.”
I am proud of my heritage. As a matter of fact, I am a real Indian of Islamic persuasion.
[Mohammad Yacoob is a retired industrial engineer and an engineering proposals analyst who lives in Los Angeles, California]