Bob CollinsAs we’ve noted before, there’s a lot to love about a naturalization ceremony.
Yesterday in Moorhead, Saravana Rangaswamy, his wife, Vandana Srivastava, and their eldest son, Karan Saravana, became citizens at a ceremony at Concordia College, Fargo Forum reports.
They came to the United States 18 years ago in search of a better life and they found it.
They’ve found something else here; something that goes unnoticed in today’s political atmosphere. They found open arms.
“We’ve felt comfortable here. We don’t feel like we’re outsiders,” Vandana said.
He said his family tries to share what they’ve learned with other new Americans and one of the things he tells them is that freedom can be misused, especially when people start to earn money in amounts that would have seemed impossible in their home countries.
“We try to tell them how they can make use of all the opportunities they’ve got, rather than choosing life on the wild side,” he said.
For both he and his wife, Rangaswamy said moving to the United States from India meant leaving behind people who were important to them.
Calling the move “a very, very tough decision,” Rangaswamy said it nonetheless has paid off for his family.
He said both of his sons are now in college, with Lalit majoring in business and planning to take the family’s consulting business “to the next level.” He said Karan is in pre-med and plans to become a surgeon.
