Youth: Yohaan Guard

Everyone faces challenges but life is all about how you deal with these challenges. Interviewing Mr. Hosi Mehta allowed me to understand how one’s identity and sense of self are forged through the process of overcoming these obstacles.

Participant: Hosi Mehta

It was a very interesting experience going down memory lane. If sharing my life experience inspires a young person, I would consider that as a successful venture. I always say that life is but a series of memories. Every family should have their own history recorded for future generations. Thank you to the FEZANA REC team for all you do.

Forging A Resilient Soul: An Interview with Hosi Mehta

Interviewer: Yohaan Guard

Date: 12/17/2023

Transcript

00:00:00-00:00:02 Interviewee

So, what do you want to ask?

00:00:04-00:00:08 Interviewer

OK, so let’s start talking a bit about your childhood. Can you tell me where you were born and what your family was like?

00:00:10-00:01:10 Interviewee

Yeah, I was born in Bombay, now called Mumbai and we lived there in our, in Chia Bazaar, right..if you’re familiar with Bombay. But it’s like an old Bombay area and I lived there for three years. Not even three years because my dad passed away a little before I was three so my grandparents, my dad’s dad, my dad’s father and his brother used to live in Ahmedabad. And they had four children. But they said that why don’t you come and live with us, because my mom was alone with two little kids. And those days it was very hard for women to kind of bring up kids. They were not allowed, not necessarily allowed to work. But it was taken for granted that women would take care of children. That was the society that we grew up in. So we moved to Ahmedabad and we lived there for all, all my schooling and everything was done in Ahmedabad.

00:01:18-00:01:19 Interviewer

So can you tell me a little bit about that education you had?

00:01:21-00:03:56 Interviewee

Education wise, I went to… what is it called?…like a kindergarten, but it was more of a, no,… it’s what is it called…there’s a Montessori school system! And so I went there. Then I went to..where my cousins were going, my brother was going. So, Saint Xavier’s high school, right there. And the first three years of my schooling was in Gujarati medium because in Ahmedabad they believed, in Gujarat they believed that at some point, that everything is going to be in Gujarati. So you better change to Gujarati medium. So I went for the first three years of my life. I studied everything: history, geography, everything was in Gujarati. So I studied in that language. Math was in Gujarati. And then in the third year they all of a sudden, they found out that Gujarat is not going to be sustainable and English is the way to go. So they transferred me to an English medium school class. In the same school, but there were like two different divisions. In the Gujarati medium, so you had everything in Gujarati; and English medium where you had everything in English. It was like that. So I transferred to the English medium and it was a hard task, a hard transformation because everything I learned was like…even the tables we were, for example like in the math class, we used to have to recite multiplication tables out loud. So, I had learned it in Gujarati. Now I had to kind of say it in my mind, in Gujarati, when I was narrating it in front of the class and translate it into English and say it. So, I got into trouble because it was taking me longer and they thought I didn’t know what I was talking about. But that was the reasoning.

I was never a very good student, to be honest. I just….In school I got into trouble from the time I was a little child because I was too independent. It was, I was like, you cannot tell me what to do. You show me what to do and that doesn’t work out very well. When you’re a kid growing up, you know, especially when there are six boys in the house, you have to do what the parents tell you. Otherwise it caused a big problem with my family. So I had a rough time growing up. But I never, never in my growing up life, I never felt like I missed out on not having a father because my uncle and my grandparents, they were extremely nice, extremely accommodating, and we grew up as one family basically.

00:04:09-00:04:16 Interviewer

That’s great! What did being a Zoroastrian mean to you, as a child? Was there like a big Zoroastrian population where you were growing up?

00:04:16 Interviewee

Big, big what? I am sorry

00:04:18 Interviewer

What did it mean to be a Zoroastrian?

00:04:20-00:05:03 Interviewee

Oh Zoroastrian, ok. Uh it wasn’t a big deal because our friends were Zoroastrian, though in India, it’s like a mixed community. You don’t think of yourself as Zoroastrian or this or that, you know, you know, like we had neighbors who were Muslims who were Hindus or Christians. And we all played together, so it was not a big deal at all in that respect. Besides just learning about our Navjote and stuff like that. That was our religious part. Otherwise, we were not, I mean, we had to do, after our Navjote, we were expected to do Kusti every time you went to the bathroom. When that was like one of the necessities that we grew up with. So you kind of held off going off to the bathroom. Also sometimes, you know the prayers and all that, but as kids you kind of go through that kind of stuff.

00:05:17-00:05:18 Interviewer

So how old were you when you first moved to the US?

00:05:21-00:05:38 Interviewee

When we first, when I first came here, actually my brother was here already and because I used to get into trouble, everybody felt like, you know, why don’t you go somewhere? A different atmosphere, different change of place. Maybe you’ll make something of yourself. So my mom and I, we came here in 73, 1973, so I was about 19 or 20 years old at the time.

00:05:47-00:05:53 Interviewer

So you obviously like the different motions, what was it like moving here, the change in scenery?

00:05:53-00:06:57 Interviewee

Oh yeah, I hated it here. I did not like it here. I was, I was registered to go to school for studying about auto mechanics because my background was in automobile engineering, so I figured. I always wanted to be in business. That was just my dream because again, because I was just that my mindset was to be in control of my life. I did not want somebody else to tell me what to do, and maybe that’s how I grew up, and that’s probably what pushed me into making a decision about getting into business. So I wanted to go to school to study about, study about auto mechanics, because with an engineering background what you do is you end up working for a bigger company like, you know any automotive company or a dealership or something like that. And I did not want that. I wanted to do something on my own. So I went to school for auto  mechanics for about, it was about two and a half years in school. Their “Auto Mechanics” and “Body and Fender Repairs” were two different courses. And I finished the work.

00:06:59-00:07:02  Interviewer

So what was your schooling like? Was it easy as a foreigner?

00:07:03-00:11:46 Interviewee

No, it wasn’t. It was very hard at first. I had some experiences which are kind of interesting. It might be, it might sound a little racist, but when I came here, I was told that, you know, my school was like 80% black kids, black people, you know; they were not kids because it was, this was just when I think Vietnam War had ended and and a lot of people who were getting out of the army were getting free schooling and they, they were in the school also. So there were, a lot of them were ex-service people. And they were, most of them were young and I was like, obviously I was 20, but they were like in their mid 20s or 30s, 40s in that age group.

But I was one of the younger people there and I was told at that time there was a fashion. This is a kind of an interesting experience…I don’t know how many hours you have…I can talk about a lot of stories like this. But you know they, they used to have this Afro hairstyle, you know, it was, it would be kind of like this (gesture), but curly hair, they would have like that. You must have seen that. And in those days they had a comb, which was like a pick. They call it a pick, and they would have, most of them would have it in their pocket in the back and the handle would stick out. I thought it was a knife that they were carrying because I was told that, you know, my brother warned me. Yeah, this is not India, don’t get into trouble, don’t get into fights. There are people that carry knives and this and that. So be careful. And so I was like, in my mind, minding my own business and stuff. And there was this one guy. He was a big guy. He was probably 6’4” or so, big built. I mean, I felt like a midget in front of him, and he always kept pushing me. And first of all, I had a hard time understanding the accent, because American English is a little different from Indian English. And then in those days, the the black, the English was very different. They called it “Jive” and there was, there were their terms that you could not even figure out what it meant if you just knew basic English. So, I had a rough time understanding, so I kept to myself. I just mind my own business. Did my own stuff. And at that time I was because I did not like it, I took a full time job and I was a full time student also. So I was working and studying, 8 hours and 8 hours. So I, I was, I kept myself busy because that would kind of make me spend my time. Days would go by fast. So that’s what I was doing and this guy kept pushing me. And one day he just, we were just between classes and I was walking somewhere and he kind of he pushed me and said, “Hey,”.. he wanted some money and he said, “Give me some scratch.” I think that’s the word he used and I didn’t know what that was. And I said, “Hey, I, I don’t, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I said, you know, leave me alone, I’m minding my own business. And he said, “Well, what are you going to do?” And he kept his hand on his waist. I thought he was reaching for his knife. I don’t know what happened to me. And that kind of something happened in my head and I just had to literally jump up and punch him. And this big guy just fell down flat. I thought he was dead. And I got scared and I started running because I didn’t want to kill someone. Like, I just started running and everybody, all these guys, they caught me, and the principal of the school came and they took me in the office. And then. It was like what? What are you doing? Like, you’re a foreigner, you can’t do stuff like that here. And I said, “He pulled a knife on me. I had to protect myself because nobody carries knives here in school.” And I said, “Yeah,” I said, you know, “He was reaching for his knife. They all have knives in their back pocket.” And he said no. So he went out and checked, and he, then he brought the comb and he showed me the handle was sticking out. And I, I, I thought that they were all carrying knives and that’s all that was just natural for me to think like that. And so he gave me a big lecture and then he kind of said that you cannot do stuff like that. You cannot hit someone. And I said, “Well, what am I supposed to do if somebody’s like, yeah, it’s like a matter of my life.” And he said no, no, nobody carries knives and this and that. So that was it. And surprisingly, that guy became a good friend of mine. He was kind of a bully, kind of a guy, but I guess that’s how he played bullies, but he was kind of like a bodyguard for me. So and then throughout the schooling, I never had any problems with anyone that after that.

00:12:00-00:12:02 Interviewer

Um so I know you mentioned you moved back.

00:12:02-00:17:14 Interviewee

So that was one experience. Then I started working at a place and I was working as an electronic technician. And I didn’t have a clue about electronics, but that was the time that they had openings for those kinds of jobs. So they were, one of my brother’s friends was an electronics engineer and he was working at his place. So he said, “Really, I, I need somebody in my place. And I said, “I don’t have a clue about electronics.” He said, “Just make up a story that you work somewhere.” And I said, “But I don’t have a clue of what to do also.”

So one day he came with a broken circuit board and he told me that this is a register. It has like lines on it, it’s called the register. The thing with three legs, it’s called a transistor and he showed me how to solder. I had never soldered before so he said, “OK, that’s how you can just make up some story. And when the boss calls you for an interview, just tell them you have few years of experience in India. Who’s going to try to check in India?” And so I kind of made-up a story saying I worked for Bharat Electronics and gave an address and everything and you know and I got a job. So it was like I got a job paying, I think it was like $3.50 or $4.50 an hour or something like that. In those days, that was pretty decent for not knowing anything. So I started working at that place. I was in, fixing radios and clock radios. They used to have clock radios in those days, and the clock radios were, the clock was mechanical, you know. Now you have the electronic, you know, the digital clock. The old days, it used to be, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen those. There would be like a tumbler of numbers, and it would flip. And one day it was very slow. So I, you know, being mechanical minded, I kind of took things apart and tried to see if I could fix the clock. And I, I fixed one like you know got parts from 2-3 different old radios that were laying there because if the clock was bad, they would throw the radios away and they would fix it. And these are like all brand new, but if the clock was defective, they would just throw the whole radio away. And there was a room that was like about 3 feet from the floor filled with all these old radios. I mean, you’re brand new, but they were there because the clocks were bad. So I took that apart and I fixed it and I tried it out for 3-4 days to see if it was keeping good time and all that. Then I told my boss I said, “You know I can fix the clocks.” And he was like shocked. He says, “Are you sure?” And I said, “Yeah, I’ve got these couple of them that I fixed and I kept them there for three days. They’ve kept good time.” Yeah. And he was really thrilled because there was a lot of wastage that could be you know used up in a productive way. So all these people who had 20 years of experience and working there in the office, they would come to me and give me the clocks to fix any time then. So I had a nice job right away. I got a raise and everything. I had a good job doing that.

And then I finished my schooling. I had that job all the time that I was schooling and I used to live in Hickory Hills. Kayomorsh [brother] used to live in Hickory Hills at that time, which is very close to Palos Hills and from there I would go to school and it was, it was like just by the city Norridge, Norridge, Norridge, Illinois. And then I would go to work in the afternoon and I’ll go and then I would come home. So I was driving almost close to a 100 miles every day, and Roxana and Zenobia were little that time and they would wait for me to come home and play with me and I would carry them both in my arms. But that’s, but it was a nice time growing up and everything. But then, when I finished my, finished my schooling I applied for a job as an auto mechanic and one of my, my boss was like very upset where I was working. He says, “I’ll give you a raise. Why are you changing your field? You can work inside, indoors. You want to work outside in the shop, and you want to work outside and you know, being a mechanic you’re exposed to different weather. You’re not going to make a lot of money.” But I said that’s my dream, so I just want to follow that. So, I kind of left that job and started working.

Actually, before I left my job, I met my wife. She used to work at the place where I used to work before. My daughter…we got married. We had a child. Before we got serious, I told her, I said my dream is to go back and live in India. I’m not going to live here and she makes fun of me now, she says, “Yeah, I was young. I was stupid. I was in love. So I said yes to everything.” And we did move back.

00:17:18 Interviewer

How old were you when you moved back to India?

00:17:21-00:17:26  Interviewee

Uh, when I moved back, probably I was 23. 23 years old or so, 23, 24.

00:17:29-00:17:36 Interviewer

So walk me through the process that made you move back to India, because you had a job here, you were getting comfortable here, so what made you decide…

00:17:39-00:18:11 Interviewee

I was never comfortable here. I was never, I never really liked it here. All through, I never really liked it here. And so, my, my goal was always to go back and I had studied here, so I had bought tools from here and I figured that when I go back there I would be like 10 years ahead of anybody else there because here everything was so much more advanced and, and, and it was. It was, so that was a big plus for me when I went back because I had my business, was you know, just started moving around right away, almost.

00:18:16-00:18:20 Interviewer

So what was it like going back to India after living here? Did it change anything? Was it different than the first time?

00:18:22-00:19:20 Interviewee

No, I actually, I liked it because I had grown up with all these friends of mine and it was very hard for my wife, because she is, she was born in Minnesota, she had never been anywhere except for Minnesota, and Illinois. I remember the first time we met, she had, she had no clue about India and she was like, you know, she thought that in those days they used to show movies about India and it was a lot of poverty. And she asked me, like, do you have cows walking in your house? And I said cows in my house? Like you know, we live on the 2nd floor, how will the cow come up there, but that was the impression that people here had in those days and there are probably some people now too. But it has changed a lot, a lot of, a lot of it has changed because a lot of people from here also go for work and stuff. So they get exposed to our events. Everything is there also. Does that answer your question or?

00:19:21-00:19:26 Interviewer

Yeah, yeah. So then eventually you decided to come back here, right? So walk me through the decision to come back here.

00:19:30-00:23:07 Interviewee

I had, I had different businesses there, two different businesses. The first, there the problem is that property is very expensive. And we, we did not have any money from our like family where we weren’t really rich or anything. So we didn’t have any resources. Whatever I had, was whatever I had. It was like there was nothing, no big amount of money that our parents had saved up for us or anything like that. We were not born rich. We were not like… we were middle class family. So yeah, we we never could afford, I could never think of buying property. So, and there, the leasing laws were very strict. So you know if you lease the property from someone you cannot, the landlord cannot increase the rent. You could live there for 50 years and they cannot increase the rent. That’s how the laws work. So nobody wants to rent their property. So when I wanted to start a business, I had to go in partnership with someone who had a property. So I had to go in partnership with this person who had property and he had a garage also and I said my background is this and you know we met through some common family friends and that’s how we started the business. And one place I was doing well, and I kind of got taken advantage of because I never paid attention to the financial side. I was more into the work side, work aspect of it and wanted to build the business and the business was doing very well and I never paid attention to the financials. And then I found out that I’m not making any money here, and so then I started looking for another place and a bigger, lot bigger place was available and so I started with him and that’s where I had, we had a lot bigger place. We had like 30 some employees like I had mentioned earlier. Yeah, we, we were doing very good, very well because we were booked for almost a month ahead of time. And you know for the work to be taken in.

So business wise it was very good. But a lot of corruption, lot of fights because I ended up here because I never gave in to that. And the employees were nice, but they were like they, they.. when you’re too good, they take your goodness as a weakness. And I learned that the hard way and eventually one day they just, I just kept giving in, giving in, and I felt like, you know, these people don’t have anything in their life, so why not? And but they take your, your take advantage of the situation and they went on a strike. And when they went on a strike, it, it kind of hurt me personally, really bad. I still feel when I talk about it like, you know, because that was like my dream. I had to give up my dream to be there. And so, and it started, when I, when I saw that, it started affecting me mentally. physically. I was, I started having epileptic attacks from that and so you know actually, we had three little kids at that time. My two other kids were born there. So, you know, we, we just decided that this is no way to live. I’m not even 30 years old, and and I cannot go on like this. So we decided to come back.

00:23:11-00:23:15 Interviewer

Yeah. So coming back the second time was very different than the first time?. Was it easier?

00:23:16-00:23:42 Interviewee

It was not easy because of my health issues. It took me a long time to get used to that and it was kind of a failure. Accepting failure in my life, that was the hard part of it. That my dreams were not coming true, and then I had to give all that up. And just do whatever like whatever, whatever my fate is kind of like. Give up on that kind of. That was a hard part.

00:23:44-00:23:47 Interviewer

But other than that, it was easier than the first time, like integrating back into American culture?

00:23:48-00:24:36 Interviewee

No, no, no. I, I was because I was not well, I was sitting at home. I was playing Batman all the time. I was really good at it. I became really good at it, but I, I just, there was nothing else I was doing. I was just playing with the kids because we had a lot of kids at home. We had three kids. When we came back. I think my brother had, yeah Farhad was born there too. You know, Rashni was born too, yeah, yeah, Rashni was born too. My youngest son was six months old. Shazad was six months old when we came back here. Rashni is a little older than him. But no, that was, it wasn’t a very exciting time of my life.

00:24:42-00:24:44 Interviewer

So how long after coming back did you open your own business?

00:24:47-00:25:04 Interviewee

It was almost a year and a half or so, I think. I don’t remember exactly that time of my life. I kind of, some of the things I have probably forgotten. Because of the medication and everything. And I kind of have patchy ideas about it.

00:25:05 Interviewer

Was opening your own business hard? How is it different from opening your own business in India?

00:25:11-00:37:39 Interviewee

It was very hard. We, we started, we were looking for a place. First of all, I was starting, I had started looking for a job because it was a rough time to do anything. And I couldn’t find a job. Nobody would hire me because I didn’t have any experience here. That was a big thing. And finally, I said, you know what, I have to do something on my own because I, I know I’ve done it before. It was in India. But I had done it and I was successful there. So I can do it here.

And so we found a place in Oakbrook, and it was a gas station and an auto repair shop and obviously, we couldn’t afford to pay anyone, so my wife used to pump gas and I used to fix cars. That’s how we started out. And, in those in those days, it was like a full service gas station. So when you go to fill up gas, somebody comes out and fills up gas in your car. They clean your windows, check the oil, all that kind of stuff that was just taken for granted. That’s how, you know, you get your gas filled up. And now it’s like everything is self-service, change, all that stuff, right. But before that’s how it used to be and the cars were a lot bigger in those days. In the 60s, 70s, cars were huge cars. So whenever you got a customer that a car that was stored in, which was very big, my wife would sit in the car, had to push it to get it in the way so I could work on it and we had to wait for a good customer who’d come and help push the car because it was too big for one person to push and so, but that that’s how we survived. We kind of, and after a year or so, things started picking up and then we could hire someone and gradually things started getting better.

And we were there for five years and I wasn’t really familiar with lease requirements and stuff like that. So my lease got over and the landlord, they doubled my rent because they figured that, you know, I’ve established a business. I can’t go anywhere because I’d lose all that business. So they, they, they figured what’s he going to do? So they doubled my rent. So I, I figured if I can pay that kind of money then I might as well buy something of my own. And that’s when this place came out, was in the market and we looked, we looked a lot. We asked a lot of different people to go in partnership and stuff like that. And it was a very hard time to, to get the place because we had to get financing for it and we didn’t have any money saved up. You know, whenever you go to get financing, you need 20% down and first time I went to the bank… First of all, they wouldn’t even talk to me because I, we didn’t have any kind of down payment, so they wouldn’t even bother. On the phone they would ask like, how much do you have down in this? I said, “If I had down, like I wouldn’t come to the bank, what are you there for?” And the bankers would say that’s not how it works. You know, you got to have something down on your side. Otherwise we won’t give you a loan. And that’s a whole different story again. I was, I was going to go in partnership with someone because, you know, when you are, when you’re in business and you’re doing well, people see that you’re doing well and everybody tells you, oh, if you ever need to buy something, let us know. We’ll invest money and this and that. And so finally, when I was looking for this place. I started asking people and everybody was like, ah, that’s a lot of money. I would need $150,000 at that time for down. And everybody was like, oh, we got money invested and we can’t take it out. And this and that and all kinds of excuses. It was a very humbling experience because there was, like, begging for money literally from people.

And finally, one person I knew. I still know him very well. I’m not going to mention any names or anything, but you would know. But he was willing to go in partnership. He wanted 50% of, 50% of the business and property for investing that 150,000. And I was desperate because I had three little children, I didn’t have anywhere to go. I didn’t have any options, so I agreed to that. And we had like a month, month and a half left, before closing. For the closing, for the property and he backed out. He backed out at that time and he said, like, you know, I cannot do it because you have a gas station. If there’s a leak in the gas, gasoline, it was like a big, big deal that in those days they didn’t have any kind of financing for it. And I would be personally responsible. I’m risking more than $150,000 if something like that happens, so I said, you know, you’re telling me now at the last minute that after, when the closing is to be done?

I went to the Dar-e-Mehr one day and one of our customers asked me so how is your new property been going? And I said it’s not going good because the partner I had is backing down. And she told me, she says, “Why don’t you ask people in the community?” And I I said I have, but nobody wants to give me any money because I don’t have any equity. I don’t have a house that they can take or anything that they can, you know, I, I don’t have any guarantee for their money. So how can I? She said, “Why don’t you ask people? You’re honest. You’re hardworking. You’d be surprised.” So, I said how, how would, how much would you give me? Right there, I said. And she said, “I’ll give you $50,000.” It was my first opening. And she said, “I’m going to charge you 2% more than what the bank charges you.” And I was so desperate. And in those days, rates were, interest rates were like 16%, 17% and 2% over. I said whatever, this is an opening.

So I went and told the banker. I said I got somebody who will give me $50,000. He was like, be reasonable, people don’t just give money just like that, don’t get your hopes up and I said no, no. I said this is going to work and I said I’ve got, I’ve got 3 little kids. This is my only way out and it has to work. And he says, well, wish you all the best. But you know, don’t get your hopes up because you still have to come up with $100,000 more. And then I started asking people, I said I’ve got 50,000. How much would you give me? Somebody said $5,000, somebody said $10,000. I started getting that money, putting it in the bank. And my banker was like, just shocked. He said, “Nobody gives money like that.” And finally, I had the money, the down payment and we closed on the property and fortunately, when now, when I think about it, I’m not, I don’t have a partner. So when those adversities work, they work in your favor. But at that time you don’t realize that. But in the long run you learn that you know it’s to my advantage because now I own a property which is worth millions of dollars so you know it’s a big plus in that way, but it was a rough time.

In fact, yeah, going back, when I first started my place in Oakbrook, that was an interesting experience too, because we had a little bit of money that we had to give for the rent advance for the rent and stuff like that. And, and to buy some tools to start the business and the place was filthy. We had to clean up. I remember my wife and I, we just were on the floor scraping the floor because it was like that, pick up grease and grime and stuff like that. But, when you first start a gas station, you know when you want to buy gas, the the trend is that you have to give an advance to the gas. So, when I, I you know, this man came, comes up, and he was an Italian guy. I’ve always remembered him. Had a lot of people who helped me on my way and he was one of them. He said, “Well, you’re going to buy some gas from me? I have been supplying gas here.” And I said, “Yeah, John, sure. I, I don’t have anybody else. I’ll buy it from you as long as you give me a good price. He says, “Yeah, yeah. I’ll give you a good price. You know how it works.” And I said, “No.” I said,”I’ve never done this before. So how does it work?” He said, “You got to give me advance because the gas that I’m going to… that’s the way it works everywhere. You know, either you give me a cashier’s check or cash.” And I said, “How much?” He says, “It will be $10,000.” So I said, “I don’t have $10,000.” “Well then you can’t have gas.” Then I said, “OK. I wont have gas.” I’ll just fix tires and once I get that money, I’ll open up the gas station. So he’s standing there looking at me and he says, “You look like somebody I can trust.” He sticks his hand out, shakes my hand. “Tell me that you will pay me. I’ll give you the gas. Then you pay me when you order the next load of gas.” I said, “Sure,” I said, “Once I have the money from selling the gas, I’ll give that to you.” Well, for 5 years, we’ve never had a contract. Not like the form that you made me sign. So we never had a contract or anything. Everything was done on a handshake and about 4 years later, after he started this, he brings his son and he says, he says, “Hosi I want you to meet Barry. He’s my oldest son and he’s going to take over the business and he’s going to run the business now and I told Barry that this is Hosi and this and that. And he’s been working with me for the last four years.” A week later, Barry comes with a suit and all that stuff, and showed me all these big papers and he said, “Sign these papers.” And I said, “What is that?” He said, “It’s a contract for you to buy gas.”

I said, “You never had any contract. Why would you want a contract now?” “That’s the way my dad did business. And this is different now. It’s not going to work like that.” So I kind of felt a little hurt because I felt like, you know, all of a sudden this new guy comes in and he doesn’t trust me. Hey, but so I called up John and I told him, I said, “You know, I said is there some problem?” and he said “Why? What do you mean? What are you worrying about Hosi?” And I said, “No, your Barry came and gave me these papers and said sign these papers. Otherwise you won’t get any gas.” “What?” [said Barry]. I said, “Yeah.” “OK. Just hold on to it. I’ll be, I’ll stop by tomorrow.” I said, “Ok.”

Next morning, he comes by with Barry and Barry is standing there like a little 5 year old kid who was being punished or something standing in the corner. John is like, “Give me those papers.” So I give the papers and he tore it up, and throws it on the floor. “Barry pick them up.” I said, “John, you don’t have to do that. I don’t want you to embarrass him in front of anyone.” “No, he has to learn,” he says. “When people are honest…you don’t find people that are that honest with you for so many years and he’s going to ruin my business if he does like this.” He says, “He has to learn the right way. To respect people who are that honest.” Oh that was the last time I saw Barry. He never came again. He never had a contract or anything, but that was the experience there. And then when we moved here, they supplied gas here also at that time. I always stayed with them because they always stayed with me, so it was just a mutual kind of respect for each other. But those are the little things in life that you learn and you kind of feel like it’s, you’re, we’re losing that kind of personal touch and personal honesty and respect for responsibility, that kind of stuff.

00:37:45 Interviewer

So shifting gears, when did you first discover ZAC [Zoroastrian Association of Chicago]?

00:37:51-00:41:35 Interviewee

ZAC, when I was here before also, but I did not have any time at that time. But later on, my kids were, you know, obviously growing up. And so that’s how we kind of got involved in ZAC and in the, in the beginning, I actually, even when I was there, we I remember in the old place also in Oakbrook when we were there. Once we had a fundraiser for…we had a car wash. All the kids came and they… we had hoses and they got soap and this and that. And like it was just more like a fun thing. And we had a car wash and we collected some money and that was for the youth fund. I was always involved with the youth at that time. And we had a big group of young kids that time. And I remember you used to have…the kids would vote who they wanted to go, take with them as a chaperone when they went for the congresses. And I would, they would always vote for me because they could get away with a lot with me because I grew up like that. So I figured, like, you know. Everybody has fun and you know I wasn’t that strict with the kids or anything. So like I always get got voted in and I always took the kids. So that’s how I got more and more involved and we used to have sleepovers at that time. And you have like 30 kids at our house sleeping over. The boys would be downstairs. The girls would be upstairs and then some of the boys would go up or some of the girls would go down. And you have to scream and shout and get them all separated and stuff like that. But it was a lot of fun and what we would do is we get to, whoever hosted the evening, the sleepover, had to take the kids out for like bowling or something, some activity and then they would come to your house and then sleep there. Kids would never sleep like, be up to after 3-4, be here giggling and screaming and stuff like that. And but those are the kids that grew up. They’re, they’re still friends. They still have connections and some of them it’s nice to see that they’re active at ZAC now. You know. And trying to think going. A lot of these young parents now, they, they grew up here, we grew up here. They, they were all like in that that group. Youth group. But that’s how I got involved in ZAC then.

I was on the board. Then I ran for President and I won. I think I, I was president twice. I was the only guy who was president twice. We had, we did a lot of stuff when I was involved in it too. We bought the house next door that we have. And the, the Rivetna Hall we call, it wasn’t there at that time. So we built that and did fundraising for that. Kusti room wasn’t there at that time. My first time that I was a president, we built that and towards the end of it we built the hall. And then the next time that I was invested, we got the house. So that was my involvement in ZAC and we had Congress, we had like a North American Congress here. We had a Youth Congress here. So it was pretty active. That continues with guys like you. And you go up, get it work.That’s the way you keep growing your community, your religion, everything your values.

00:41:42-00:41:43 Interviewer

Yeah, so I know how, you said, you were involved in the ZAC. How do you feel like the a Zoroastrian community at ZAC has possibly benefited you?

00:41:50-00:43:18 Interviewee

Oh yeah, my values, my ethics, everything. I mean, it’s, it’s from what our religion teaches us that’s. You know, that’s my life. I feel, I hope. You know, I mean that that’s all. That’s that’s our background. That’s how we grew up. We had even growing up like my my grandfather was very strict but very strong in ethics and values and very, very strong. I, I remember. He used to work in a textile mills and he was a leading master. It was like a whole department called Liberty and he was in charge of that. And one day, there was some, something kind of similar to that Barry experience because his, his boss, who had hired him, who was getting older and the son took over the textile mills and he was running it and he said he told my grandfather something to do something that was not very ethical according to him. And he picked up a chair, threw it at the guy, and he walked out. He said, “To hell with you, I don’t want, I don’t need this job and he went home and then the, the boss took his son and brought him to our house and, and apologized in front of everyone and then come back and stuff like that. So those kinds of things you know, when you see that when you’re growing up, they kind of become part of you.

00:43:22 Interviewer

So one last question. So to connect all your life and all your diaspora. you’re traveling from US and India. Is there anything you would change about it?

00:43:34-00:44:06 Interviewee

Anything that I would change? No, I have not made a single mistake in my life. I feel like that because everything that happened, even the negative things, they happen because they make me, they make you who you are. So I feel like I have not really made any mistake in my life. A lot of people might not agree with that, but that’s the way I feel about it because that’s who I am. I mean, you know, whoever you are is because of the experiences you’ve gone through and so that’s it, I don’t know if that answers your question, it’s very short, but.

00:44:13 Interviewer

Thank you for your time. Thanks for the Interview

00:44:15 Interviewee

You’re welcome.

00:44:17 Interviewee

Wishing you all the best