Poor India: A cabbie chases his American dream

Dressed in a crisp white shirt and a pair of khakis, Sukhdeep Singh Bhatia sits in his 8-year-old bright yellow Ford Crown Victoria waiting for a fare.

Working 80 hours a week as a cabdriver the 43-year-old is stitching together his dreams -- patch by patch.


		Mike Urban / P-I
	Cabbie Sukhdeep Singh Bhatia says, "I do not think I can find a job in India that can support the lifestyle I have here."

For a man who crossed continents from a small north Indian town to a bustling high-tech city in the Pacific Northwest, he has frequently shifted professional gears. At one point in the past decade a struggling businessman in India, now a hardworking cabbie in Seattle, Bhatia has learned to chase his dreams doggedly, patiently and piecemeal.

Just back from a family holiday last month in Vancouver, B.C., visiting his parents and brothers, he will move to a new five-bedroom house in Mill Creek later this month.

"We have frequent guests at home, and our three-bedroom house (in Lynnwood) feels small," he explained. And even as he completes the loan for his new home, his mind wanders away thinking about his sons.

"I want them to do well. Unlike India there is no environment for studies here," he adds in concern.

His 17-year-old son, a high school student and the older of his two sons, has begun looking for summer jobs.

"Any job would be good to get him some experience," he said.

After summer, he wants his son to take up a part-time job while he takes classes toward a profession at a community college. Though he wouldn't want to subject his son to the rigors of the India he endured, he misses the discipline that Indian schools instill in children. At times he worries about their growing independence and alienation from Indian culture and religion.

But going back has never been an option.

"I do not think I can find a job in India that can support the lifestyle I have here," said Bhatia, a college dropout himself.

Fifteen years of economic liberalization, a buoyant economy fueled by rising exports and the outsourcing boom has dramatically changed the world's perception of the land of elephants and snake charmers. But for India's huge underbelly of uneducated and unemployed, poor and undernourished -- change has been anything but dramatic.

More than 300 million Indians are poor, more than 35 percent are illiterate. About 60 percent of Indian households do not get water at home and 44 percent live without electricity. Close to 40 percent of the Indian families live in one-room houses and 39 percent of all married couples in India do not have a room to themselves.

So while India's economic growth has created small islands of change for an urban, educated middle class, the vast majority of Indians have seen change that has been too slow and too little.

Just ask Bhatia.

He was a struggling entrepreneur selling auto parts in Ludhiana, a north Indian city. By no means poor -- in fact, relatively well off by Indian standards -- he says life was never easy.

"We always thought before we spent, on even small things," recalls Amar Jyoti Bhatia, 41, his wife who managed a beauty parlor from home to supplement his family income there.

"There was never enough."

Ten years later a lot has changed for Bhatia, who got his American citizenship early this year.

Not that life has been easy here. When he first came, Bhatia took odd jobs and worked long, uncertain hours. For six years he toiled alone, while his family stayed in India. Working as a deliveryman for a Seattle company, he landed a management job in 1999.

"It was very comfortable and well-paying," he recalls. With a relaxed 40-hour-a-week schedule, generous family benefits and a net salary of $2,300 a month, he earned a decent living.

He got laid off last year. But the good life, even though not as comfortable, continues.

Now he works as a cabdriver. His days start at 6:30 a.m. and he often works seven days a week. Despite the grind, he still feels far better off than in India, he says.

"That's what is good about the U.S. -- if you are willing to work hard there's enough work and money," he said. His wife, Jyoti, works five days a week at a retail store.

While India's economic progress has caught the headlines, the Bhatias know the grim realities and tough competition his family would face back home.

Two years ago Assam, a northeastern Indian state, erupted into major violence because thousands of unemployed Indians from outside the state flocked in to interview for 2,700 very low-level railway jobs.

Out of the 400 million work force in India, more than 44 million are unemployed and only 28 million are employed in the organized sector where employee benefits like medical and retirement are provided for.

And for all the buzz in the United States about jobs being outsourced to India, the information technology industry employs barely 1 million people there.

So even though his hours are long and his career track here hasn't been steady, for Bhatia and his family, life here still holds promise that India cannot.

They eat out as a family frequently. Their children have good clothes, shoes and games.

Modest annual holidays are a given. And soon, they'll get another new part of the American dream, their 2,760- square-foot house in Mill Creek.

"Class divide in the U.S. (compared with India) is almost zero," he says. "There's no telling if the guy sitting next to you in a restaurant is rich or poor here."

Indians like Bhatia have little reason to go back.

If anything, most are digging their heels -- and roots -- ever deeper here.

- In Seattle, two faces of India
- Rich India: Their own home away from home

Malini Goyal, a journalist from India, is working at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on an Alfred Friendly Press Fellowship. She can be reached at 206-448-8138 or malinigoyal@seattlepi.com.

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