It’s almost 19 years since the day I landed in Fargo ND. Even after two decades I still remember my 1st day. The very first impression was, “I can’t breathe here”. Well, in my home town in India you can actually feel you are breathing. The air has volume there. It’s thick with all extra nutrients (?) such as carbon particles, garbage molecules, all kinds of pollutants. So you feel the air. In Fargo, I couldn’t tell if there was anything going inside my lungs or not. That was my first surprise; of course, I was going to get many more during my twelve of years here.
It was kind of spring when Fargo & I met each other. Sorry… I should explain. Fargo is not a town. For anyone else Fargo may just be a city, for me Fargo is an entity. It has a soul and has a character that only a few can realize.
When I decided to take a job in US, I applied to only 2 advertisements. And a company in Fargo offered me a job. Since I had done all my homework about the job profile, there wasn’t a question of not taking it. I was never worried about the money, so pay was not the consideration, the people who interviewed me were very friendly and there was a mutual comfortable feeling. But still I wanted to consult a couple people I knew who were in US for some time. I called one of them and he said he has never heard of Fargo and he was asking me where it was. Next, I called my wife’s cousin. He was in US for quite some time so I knew that he would know about Fargo and he did. But after talking to him I wished I didn’t. His description of Fargo reminded me of Dante’s Inferno. It scared me, shook me, demoralized me, did every mental damage that it possibly could (sorry for a little exaggeration on my part). “I didn’t know you disliked me that much”, I jokingly told him this years later when he visited us in Fargo. His opinion about Fargo had changed then. Of course it was his dear little sister living there.
Anyways, this all was weighing on me when I came to Fargo. May be that made the experience more pleasant.
When I stared working & got to know people inside office & outside (mostly other Indians who had moved there several years ago); invariably our conversation would start with a smirky smile & a curios question, “How did you come HERE?” They used to wonder; out of all the cities in US, why someone would choose Fargo to come to work & that too straight from Mumbai.
Although the question bothered me initially, I realized that they wanted to know how come Fargo is so famous!
Then they would usually move on to ask me how’s the climate in my home town? (19 years ago, Fargo hardly knew anyone beyond neighboring Canada & a few adjacent states such as Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana & that’s all)
I remember a story I heard from a friend; who was a CT surgeon at the local hospital in Fargo. One of his patients had asked him where he was from and when he told that patient that he was from India, the patient had asked him which state (of US) was it in. Fargo was very ignorant about rest of the world then.
It used to be like a child that was self-engrossed and experiencing tranquility. And why shouldn’t it? Fargo was a self-sufficient, neat little town. Like a small baby tucked in baby cloths by a mom after bathing.
Fargo always had a calm stature. In spite of the bad publicity it got due to extreme cold and the movie “Fargo”, it always had a warmth in its air.
To me, Fargo was, at times, like a moody grandpa. Who on colder wintery nights would sit around a dimly lit fireplace and lost in thoughts of good old days! No worries, not too much excitement; just serenity. On the contrary in spring the same Grandpa would literally spring up to a buzzing day & night work and sandbagging to save its character from the two flooding rivers. The Red River of The North & Wild Rice. Both rivers were very special. Red is the one of only two rivers in the world that flows from South to North. Wild Rice was mellow & tasteless like rice but would show its colors only in spring. Like the presence of rice you feel while eating Biryani.
Fargo, in those days, had another habit. It would embrace anyone easily. When I moved there and started a small Indian community festival, Fargo helped me grow it from a few to hundreds.
Only once had I seen Fargo really angry! Only once. But it was quite understandable. It was when a North Dakotan girl was kidnapped from a mall in a nearby city, raped & murdered brutally. Fargo was upset, it was angry. And for months it weighed on its mind. I know during the wintery nights, it would also shed some tears. Both Fargo & I used to.
My love for Fargo from the day I landed to the date today hasn’t gone down. Its been 7 years now that Fargo & I continued our long-distance relationship.
I didn’t grow up in Fargo but I did see Fargo grow up spells & bounds. Not just it developed itself, it developed my wife & I and also simple, naive people like us. I saw my son grow up & move out to college. I bought my first car, my first house with Fargo looking over my shoulders. When I made mistakes, it took me in its arms & consoled me. When I wept in pain, Fargo did too. When times were tough, Fargo stood behind me as a rock.
The years have passed and stress has grown, life’s lessons are hard to accept at times but then I look back and call Fargo in my memory. It still responds. An assuring aura is felt instantly. It calms me down mentally; however, it wells up my eyes.
Fargo, no doubt is the coldest city I came across but that’s what made me fall in love with it.
Because…..
It’s true they say, “Colder the weather is, warmer the people are!”
And Fargo is “people” for me, then, now and forever.
(Original Pictures’ Credit: newvitruvian.com)
