The Curry Club
by
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So where were the castles? The captain announced, “Welcome to Los Angeles! The local temperature is eighty-five degrees.” I looked out the window and saw the gray haze all over the city; it looked like a dark bubble. Feelings of sleepiness and nausea as the airplane descended left no room for excitement, only a lot of confusion.
The America of my imagination would be confirmed or shattered shortly after my descent into LAX airport. The anticipation was almost too much to handle. Time seemed to go by quickly and to be out of joint. Everything was jumbled as we rushed from place to place. I got off the plane, still in a vomitous haze. The stewardess who brought me countless barf bags earlier in the trip managed to give me a big smile and a “See you soon!” farewell. For more than a year I had envisioned the American paradise of which I would soon form a part. What would I see? Perhaps I had just missed the castles. Would I run into Barbie at the airport and get invited to the Dream House? Would everyone be absolutely gorgeous? Would they accept me? I felt I had an edge on my fellow Indians on the plane because my parents had already lived there for a year. They would help me get along… right?
We went from long lines at baggage claim to other long lines in other long places. We rushed through LAX trying to find my father. Customs naturally took much longer than expected, and although we had seen my father waving and smiling through the windows, finding him amongst the claustrophobia-inducing barrage of foreigners at the International Arrivals gate was daunting. The task was even more complex for my poor mother who was dragging four dazed, tired, and disoriented children with her.
Airports are usually the sites of tearful hellos and goodbyes, fights and proposals, being ripped apart and being brought together again. Beyond my fatigue, I still felt a twinge of excitement at being a family together again for the first time in a year, even if it did take place in an airport. My father, mother, and all my sisters came together there. I would grow to love airports because of this, my first fond memory of America.
We hugged and I cried. My father bent down and made a special point to tell each of my sisters and me how much he had missed us. There he was – loud, judgmental, tall, loving, adventurous, selfish, traditional, dedicated: my father. We would butt heads numerous times in the coming years, but I was truly grateful to see him there, just as he had promised he would be when I sat on his lap a year before.
My parents were wise enough to bring my sisters and me over in time for the start of the new school year, but too optimistically thought four days would be enough to assimilate to the Southern California way of life. They did their best to expose us to some different things. We ate at Carl’s Jr., went to see Raiders of the Lost Ark, and even got to drive past Disneyland. Each one was its own adventure.
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About the Book
Do you remember Southern California in the 1980’s? Do you know what it’s like to live someplace new? Did you ever feel like the whole world was weird and different and that only you and your best friend knew how to cope? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you will definitely find something to relate to in The Curry Club!
The Curry Club follows the stories of Ashwara and Maria, two young girls growing up in Irvine, CA in the 1980’s. Ashwara’s family comes from India. Maria’s family comes from Ecuador. Neither is completely comfortable living in Irvine, but both are excited about all the opportunities and adventure that comes their way.
Join their adventures as they grow up together learning about life and sculpting their unique identity from friends, cultures, families, and ‘80s pop culture!
About the Author
Mrs. Krishna currently resides in the Bay Area with her husband and two teenage children. She is a social studies teacher at Mission San Jose High School, where she has been teaching ethnic studies and World History for over 10 years. She enjoys working with her students and colleagues very much. She met her co-author, Mr. Neeb at Stanford during graduate school. Mrs. Krishna has traveled to South Africa and Germany as a Fulbright Scholar. She was selected to complete a trip to the American South to study the footsteps of Martin Luther King and later attended a seminar at University of Cambridge. Mrs. Krishna has completed extensive work at the Martin Luther King Papers Project at Stanford and built a summer internship project for her students. She has also been to Costa Rica, Vietnam, India, China and other countries to learn about various cultures. She believes learning is best achieved by traveling and treating the world as your classroom. Mrs. Krishna has received numerous teacher awards and absolutely loves teaching.
Trevor lives with his wife and three dogs in San Diego. He makes a living teaching high school math and managing apartments, but he much prefers the time he and his wife spend together. Trevor is also an avid runner, reader, and theater-goer. Trevor has degrees from UC Berkeley, Stanford, San Diego State, and is even pursuing an associate's degree from San Diego City College.