KANSAS CITY: It is the Memorial Day weekend and Olathe, Kansas is living up to its reputation of being a quiet mid-western US town where little happens and everybody is exceedingly polite.
Hundred days later, the town is doing its best to move on despite the Trump administration's moves on immigration, visa control and other policies fuelling resentment in some pockets across the US.
It's not until you bring up the 'incident' — and people do use a whole set of adjectives to describe it, be it horrific, terrible or embarrassing, with an appropriate amount of hush in their voices — that you're reminded that this was the site of one of the most disturbing racially motivated attacks against Indians in recent history.
Going back isn't the tough part, reliving that night is
Alok Madasani was there. And in some ways, the events of February 22 will probably live with him, especially considering he's decided to continue in Olathe. "Initially, people back home made a few statements (about how they were scared for my safety in the US) but they understand I am an adult and I had to take a call and I am back (at work)," he said, when we visited him at Garmin, the tech giant where he and his friend Srinivas Kuchibotla worked.
Srinivas and Alok, who had met in 2008 after they finished their Masters degree in the US, had been friends and colleagues until the shooting cut the story tragically short. The duo had been hanging out at Austins Bar and Grill, which looked like a hundred other strip malls that we had seen across America, when a man named Adam Purinton accosted them, accused them of being illegal immigrants and after a brief exchange of words where Srinivas insisted they were there on H1B visas, he left only to return with a firearm blazing. Srinivas never made it out alive, while Alok and another American Ian Grillot who tried to intervene, got shot in their hands and feet.
It's the kind of thing that can make you want to throw in the towel and head back home —where gun violence is nearly non-existent and you are less likely to be called an Iranian. Despite all that, Alok decided he needed to get back to work, because his American dream and lure of a better life trumped those concerns.
"There has never been a doubt that I don't belong here. I have thoroughly enjoyed my stay here and continue to do the same. Being back at work at Garmin has helped me transition back to, I won't say normal yet, but I'm getting back to work and talking about it has helped me move away from that," added the Hyderabad-born, Warangal-raised techie. "One incident shouldn't mar the great opportunities that this country has," he said.
'I am staying away from Srinivas' family because they're in a lot of pain'
He's not the only one who's back after the tragedy. Sunayana Dumala, Srinivas' widow, has also returned. "I have been in touch with Sunayana and his family and it's not something that I can do freely now because I was there that day and the more I try to talk to them the more I feel like I'm invoking memories of that day. I can't fathom the pain they're going through even now. It won't go any time soon. I'm still trying to maintain some distance from them," he said. "Sunayana is a very strong woman and she is spreading the message that everyone should live without fear," he said.
Though the Indian community at large has been shouting about how they find acts of discrimination rising in the first six months of Donald Trump's presidency, Alok indicates how things are very 'friendly' in the mid-west. "To be honest, my perception about America hasn't changed. We came here to study and we had this great opportunity to work here and the political environment is not something we think about. During, before and after the shooting, neither my family nor my friends have considered us as outsiders in America," said the 32-year-old who is going to become a father soon.
In Kansas, random people want to know if he's okay
One of the upsides of the shooting is the way the people of Oletha and Kansas have really stood up and shown their support. "When I go to Target to get groceries, random people recognise me and ask me how I am doing now. They don't ask me about that night but they ask about whether we're OK and then they let me go. That's the best thing about Kansas," he explained, adding how relatives and friends whom he hadn't spoken to in years had now reconnected and have been constantly in touch over the past three months, "because they know I went through something that nobody should have to go through".
Governor Brownback's glad someone stood up to discrimination and took a bullet for it — the Kansas way
The Kansas community is a huge talking point for Governor Sam Brownback, a career Republican, who was most recently billed as someone that President Trump was considering for Ambassadorial position. Admitting that the whole shooting has left him 'embarrassed', he said he was glad that Srinivas and Alok stood up for themselves in the face of adversity. "It doesn't reflect who we are as Kansans. I was glad that somebody stood up and said 'No, this is wrong' and took a bullet for it. That's why we have honoured him. It was a tragedy and it shouldn't have happened," he said. Brownback, who is pro-immigration and is against abortion, also added that they would be throwing the book at the shooter. "As a government, we will be prosecuting the perpetrator to the fullest extent of the law. It is wrong and we're not going to stand for it. Period!"
Though he is somebody whose views are strongly aligned with the White House, Brownback conceded that the Trump campaign has created a climate of divisiveness. "I can say that there been a divisiveness that's grown since this election cycle. There seems to be heightened anger and vitriol that I think is not good. Social media also feeds these camps and it just gets shriller and shriller and that's lamentable," he said with a shrug, seated in his decadent Capitol Building office in Topeka, Kansas.
'We need more Indians and immigrants in Kansas'
Reflecting on immigration, he said that he was a big fan of the H1B visa. "I have supported H1B visas and we should do more of them. In Kansas we need people. We got just under three million people in a large State. We have jobs. We need people. So we're constantly trolling for good people," he said. Pressed to talk about whether Trump's van would hit states like his, he merely retorted, "It's been a tough debate on immigration debate. We're all immigrants other than the native Indians. My family is German eight generations ago." Enough said.