The Only American from Our Village
The Only American from our Village
Arun Joshi
This short story, written in English, describes what happens when Dr Khanna, an Indian scientist who has settled in America, returns to India for a visit. The court paper sold by the ashtamp farosh who tells the story of what happened to Dr Khanna's father is special stamped paper on which certain legal documents are required to be written.
Dr Khanna was easily the most outstanding immigrant physicist at the University of Wisconsin. Personally, he considered himself to be the finest of all physicists, immigrant or native. He was also among the dozen or so best-dressed men on the campus. When he was forty Dr Khanna, his wife Joanne, and their two sons decided to visit India, the country that Dr Khanna had left fifteen years earlier and where his fame had preceded him. The four week trip was a success by all accounts. He was received by an official of the Council of Scientific Research. He addressed a conference on Interplanetary radiation and inaugurated three well-attended seminars. He met the President and the Prime Minister. He was offered many jobs each of which he politely declined. His wife and children were worshipped by his relatives whom they had never met before and for whom they had brought Gillette razors, pop records, and a mass of one-dollar neck-ties. The records and the neck-ties were unusable because the relatives had neither record-players nor suits but the razors were greatly prized, especially by the women who saved them for their teenaged sons. The last of the four weeks Mrs Khanna and the children went off on a sightseeing tour. Dr Khanna delivered his final talk at a college in his former home-town. The talk went well. He was introduced to the audience in glorious terms and the boys stayed quiet which was not natural for them. He was thanked profusely and, it seemed, endlessly by the lecturer in Physics. Some of the audience stopped by on their way out and hid their humble
Arun Joshi
This short story, written in English, describes what happens when Dr Khanna, an Indian scientist who has settled in America, returns to India for a visit. The court paper sold by the ashtamp farosh who tells the story of what happened to Dr Khanna's father is special stamped paper on which certain legal documents are required to be written.
Dr Khanna was easily the most outstanding immigrant physicist at the University of Wisconsin. Personally, he considered himself to be the finest of all physicists, immigrant or native. He was also among the dozen or so best-dressed men on the campus. When he was forty Dr Khanna, his wife Joanne, and their two sons decided to visit India, the country that Dr Khanna had left fifteen years earlier and where his fame had preceded him. The four week trip was a success by all accounts. He was received by an official of the Council of Scientific Research. He addressed a conference on Interplanetary radiation and inaugurated three well-attended seminars. He met the President and the Prime Minister. He was offered many jobs each of which he politely declined. His wife and children were worshipped by his relatives whom they had never met before and for whom they had brought Gillette razors, pop records, and a mass of one-dollar neck-ties. The records and the neck-ties were unusable because the relatives had neither record-players nor suits but the razors were greatly prized, especially by the women who saved them for their teenaged sons. The last of the four weeks Mrs Khanna and the children went off on a sightseeing tour. Dr Khanna delivered his final talk at a college in his former home-town. The talk went well. He was introduced to the audience in glorious terms and the boys stayed quiet which was not natural for them. He was thanked profusely and, it seemed, endlessly by the lecturer in Physics. Some of the audience stopped by on their way out and hid their humble