Extended SOJOURN

Ashish Roy arrived in Spokane Valley prepared for a business trip. His American sojourn — which by day two included snow — was supposed to last three months. A computer programmer, Roy was on loan from his company in India to help a Liberty Lake high-tech firm with a short-term project.

A decade later, Roy enjoys telling stories about his first days in Spokane Valley. He didn’t dare leave his hotel room during the snowstorm because he had no winter coat. His first day of work, his supervisor introduced him to informal American business styles by suggesting he ditch the suit.

“I didn’t have plans to go abroad,” Roy said in a recent interview at his family’s modest Spokane Valley home.

Yet here he was.

During the first few months, he paid $300 phone bills to call India daily and talk to his wife Chaitali, who gave birth to their first-born daughter, Ankita, while he was in Spokane Valley. As is customary in India, Ashish and Chaitali’s families arranged their marriage.

Their relationship has needed a good dose of flexibility since its beginning. Chaitali was working as a dietician at a hospital, but gave the job up to relocate. She planned to look for another job, but on the day of their wedding, Ashish found out he would be transferred to another city in India.

They moved and started life together. Not long after, Ashish Roy was asked to come to the U.S. Chaitali Roy was eight months pregnant at the time. When Roy realized the project in Liberty Lake would last years, not months, his employer helped get his family visas to join him. Chaitali Roy said it was hard to be so far away from family, but she set to work learning to drive on the right side of the road and began taking programming courses at Eastern Washington University.

The young family lived in the Valley 206 apartments. For the first few years, the move to Spokane Valley seemed temporary. They were on a visa that limited their time in the U.S. to six years.

Both Ashish and Chaitali work at Getronics, a Liberty Lake company that does software development for financial institutions. There are approximately 15 people at the local site from India, according to the company.

It was Indian co-workers who first made the Roys feel welcome in the area.

“I was very happy. The people were so friendly,” Ashish Roy.

Getronics helped the Roys get green cards. They started thinking for the first time about raising their children in the United States.

They bought a house and a sport utility vehicle. Ankita, 9, and Anuj, their 6-year-old son, enrolled at the private Pioneer School. The kids take swimming classes and karate and get after school tutoring in math.

Betty Burley-Wolf, principal of Pioneer School, said she’s enjoyed working with the Roy children.

“They are so enthusiastic. They love to learn. They smile from ear to ear,” she said.

The Roys said they’ve grown comfortable with their new life in Spokane Valley. Yet they are practical about how much longer they will stay. Getronics has had several rounds of layoffs in recent years. If their jobs end, they’ll move to another U.S. city or go back to India, they said.

“You are attached to this place, the Valley,” Chaitali Roy said. “It kind of has its own sweetness in it.”

Spokane Valley and Liberty Lake have numerous Indian families who came in the high-tech boom of the 1990s.

Mallur and Sreedharani Nandagopal watched the influx young Indian immigrants. The Nandagopals moved to Spokane more than 27 years ago. When they came, there were only a couple of Indian families of the Hindu religion in the area.

“Coming from India, for us, our spirituality was part of every day life,” Sreedharani Nandagopal said in a recent interview. “My culture is not in the air here.”

They wanted their then-young children to have a spiritual connection to India and started meeting monthly with another family in a worship service. These days the monthly gatherings (which include a potluck) typically attract 50 or 60 people.

The U.S. Census lumps Indian immigrants with other Asian groups, so it’s unknown how many families live in the area. Anecdotally, the Indian immigrants in this area are well-educated, middle class and speak fluent English.

Sreedharani Nandagopal launched a public education campaign soon after arriving in the area that continues to this day. India is more than the poverty of Calcutta, Nandagopal tells people. Hindu religion is not a threat to Christianity, she says. She does what she can to make India seem less mysterious to the average Spokane resident. She’s helping bring an Indian dance program to the Met this winter through the South Asia Cultural Association.

“It’s better to educate the people than get upset about their questions,” Nandagopal said.

Americans have been welcoming. Ashish Roy talks easily to fellow parents when he brings his children to after-school Kumon math tutoring on the South Hill. The family plans to go camping with others from Pioneer school later this month.

A story Ashish and Chaitali Roy like to tell is of the 1996 ice storm that paralyzed the area by tearing down power lines and trees and covering every surface with a slick layer of ice. Chaitali had just finished making a chicken dish when the power went out and she found herself alone in the apartment.

A neighbor knocked and asked where her candles were.

“What candles?” Chaitali Roy recalls asking.

The neighbor woman then brought over candles and lit the fireplace. The neighbor found teddy bears and brought them to occupy Ankita so the girl wouldn’t be scared.

“We never spoke before that,” Roy said. “I don’t know her name or anything else about her.”

It was the first time they’d gotten help from a Spokane Valley stranger. They were grateful.

A month later, the neighbor moved away.

The Roys say they’ve never forgotten her kindness.

“We started liking this place. It’s a small town and everybody is so friendly,” Ashish Roy said.