Thousands of miles away from home, a young man from Telangana sought refuge in a Texas mall as a gunman opened fire on anyone in his path.
“I could not breathe for a long time. We were hiding in one corner, holding each other tight,” he said, recalling the mass shootout that made global headlines on 6 May. “Even after the police took over, we were so terrified. The cops did not let anyone go, they asked us to call our friends or family to come pick us up,” the young man added.
Thatikonda Aishwarya Reddy from Hyderabad was also in the mall. Four days later, her family received her body for the final rites. She was one of the eight people who died in the shootout.
The 27-year-old, the daughter of Rangareddy district and sessions court judge, had completed her masters in construction management from Eastern Michigan University and was employed as a project engineer in a Texas firm. Until the events on 6 May, she was living the dream of lakhs of students in Telangana.
The United States’ gun culture and the increasing number of shootouts worries Indian parents and prospective students, but the allure of a prosperous future outweighs concerns for safety. These aspirations are driven by social status and the desire to be part of an elite club of families with children abroad. One in four Telugu families had an American connection, the former US Consul General (Hyderabad), Joel Reifman, had said in March 2021.
“Why would I not want to move to a country that will pay me a lot more for the same work I am doing. With my pay in India, I could never dream of buying a house in Hyderabad. But with five years in the US, I could help my parents buy a flat,” said Shashank B, a software engineer from Dallas.
Fear and hope in Telugu land, US
What Canada is to Punjab, US is to the Telugu states. More students from Hyderabad went to America to study in the 2021-2022 academic year than New Delhi and Mumbai combined, said a report by Open Doors. Of the 2.6 lakh international students who enrolled in the US during that period, 75,000 were Indians, 30 percent of these were from Hyderabad, the report said.
Last month, 24-year-old Saiesh Veera from Eluru in Andhra Pradesh was shot dead at a gas station in Ohio where he worked part time. He was about to graduate and was the first in the family to go abroad to study. It was his late father’s dream to see his son settled in the US.
Saiesh took a hefty loan to fund his education, and now his brother Venkatesh is wading through the financial red tape.
“He did take a loan. I am yet to visit the bank and check what’s next. Will I have to pay back the total amount or does he have insurance?” said Venkatesh.
Every year, just before the spring and fall admission season, Hyderabad’s International Airport teems with students lugging suitcases and their families waving them off to a bright figure.
But the threat of a gunman on rampage and the fear of what could happen is a constant. For elderly parents left behind, these incidents often trigger panic and sleepless nights.
Ramamurthy Rao was at home in Hyderabad when he got the alert that a gunman had opened fire in Allen Mall in Texas. His son was studying there. “My heart skipped a beat, and I called him immediately,” said Rao, who had no words to express the joy and relief when his son picked up the phone. He was nowhere near the mall.
It’s not just students, but software engineers who also migrate to the US or take on projects there in the hope that the move will become permanent.
Ajaya Kumar Vemulapati, partner at IMFS Hyderabad, an independent coaching and consultancy service for higher education in foreign countries, says this migration did not happen overnight. “It started in the 1980s, and picked up with the IT boom in Hyderabad. People who moved to the US, helped their juniors or someone they worked with come there. And today, you will barely find a Telugu household without any US connection,” he said.
What’s changed is that it’s no longer limited to an elite wealthy class. People are taking loans, even selling off their properties to fund the US dream, he added.
Bye-bye session on security
It’s now become standard operating procedure for organisations to hold briefing sessions for ‘new arrivals’. But instead of combating loneliness or making dietary adjustments, safety is the topic of discussion.
The American Telugu Association (ATA), one of the independent organisations working for the welfare of Telugu students in the US, has warned the students to avoid working in dangerous and vulnerable locations.
“We understand working as part time to meet the needs for college education is important but remember life is very valuable and it is more valuable for your loved ones back home,” the organisation stated on its website.
Ashok Babu Kolla, from the Telugu Association of North America, estimates that 15 Telugu students were killed in the last three years in the US from gun violence alone.
“I take care of ensuring the body is shipped to India and their hometown. We’re not even counting students who die due to accidents—that is two per week. On an average, it takes $9,000 to send the mortal remains to India and in some cases families cannot even afford that, so we pitch in,” Ashok Babu said.
These organisations also conduct awareness programmes where students are taught to take care of their safety, and instructed to avoid unsafe areas or always travel in groups.
Ajaya Kumar Vemulapati conducts similar workshops.
“After our students clear the entrance exams and secure an admission, we do a ‘bye bye’ session with them. The discussion is purely on how to take care of themselves in a foreign country. How the law and order is very different from India and, of course, the wild gun culture problem,” he said. He estimates that around 35 percent of the students who go there are young women. “Their parents are even more apprehensive.”
And with good reason, too. According to data from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, 48,830 people died in 2021 due to gun-related injuries in the US, which also includes death by suicide. It was a 23 percent increase from 2019, before the pandemic.
Geneva-based Small Arms Survey has shown how the US is the only nation in the world where civilian guns outnumber people — 120 guns for every 100 people.
A few students do question their pursuit of a better life. Pruthvi Raj Rokkam, from Telangana, who is enrolled in an undergraduate programme in Kansas, says it’s “unsettling” to live in the US “where vending machines sell bullets”. “Incidents like this reaffirm my desire to move back home,” he said.
(Edited by Prashant)