Meet the Patels Page #2

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...is Patels.

The story starts she's from Anand.

I am from Dharmaj.

My brother got married to her sister.

I was only 18, she was 14.

We decided that both families, you know,

liked each other.

And then we were told that we are going to

meet each other at this person's house

and our parents were waiting outside

and we went in the room

and given five minutes to take care of it.

We had a guy in the middle of

us so there's no hanky-panky.

In India,

the girls don't have much

of a say in those days.

Girls have to get married

to who their parents say,

so I said, "No, that's not fair."

I said, "If you have anything in your mind,

"you want to marry

someone else, let me know,

"and I will say no.

"So that way, you don't have to say no."

I went back and told my family,

I said, "This is the girl I want to marry."

It took five minutes though... Right?

We never said anything, just

hi, hello, and that's it.

Let's get married.

And let's get married.

- Right.

- Right?

And I'm supposed to get a girl from where?

Ideally.

It's a triangle. That

would be ideal for Patel.

Uh-huh.

So if I found a girl from this,

- Kapadvanj in Kheda...

- Hmm.

Oh, you're shaking your head

already, that's way too far?

How far apart do they have

to be for it to be justified?

Well, usually there should be no relation.

Because everyone is probably still,

a lot of these people

are probably still related

way down the road.

I'm pretty sure they are at some point,

but I don't know that much history of it.

Before we go any further,

let me just take you back.

Take it from the top,

one, two, three...

India 1945, Dad entered the world.

Twenty-two years later,

Dad's entire village

pooled their money to

send him to America.

You know I came to America with

eight dollars in my pocket?

That's all, that's all I had.

Look at me now.

1967, Dad enrolled at Michigan Tech.

He and six other guys from India

shared one room and

one bank account.

You know, I had to look up

every word in the dictionary,

every word.

Having a weak English lexicon left me feeling

lugubrious, acrimonious, cantankerous.

I'm sorry, am I being superfluous?

Look at me now!

1972, Dad's dad called

him and told him...

It's time to get married!

Dad flew to India, got

an arranged marriage,

came back with Mom.

You know some people they date,

then they get married?

We did it opposite.

Look at me now.

I don't know how they fell in love,

but they are the happiest

couple I've ever seen.

- 1975, you were born...

- Yup.

Three years later, I was born.

I had a very happy childhood,

but the older I got,

the more I lived a double life.

At home, I was Indian

Ravi, I spoke Gujarati,

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