GONZÁLEZ: Sher, thank you so much for doing this. I really appreciate you taking the time. Thank you. My pleasure. I’m sure I’m not the first I know, I’m not the first one to ask you to do this. But can you explain where you were on September 11, 2001?
SINGH: I was in Massachusetts. I was working in Boston. My wife had finished her dental school and we had moved back to Virginia. I was still working some jobs there as a consultant with a company.
GONZÁLEZ: Were you with your wife that day? Or were you by yourself?
SINGH: I was by myself.
GONZÁLEZ: And so did you touch base with any other people from your family or your close circle of friends and talk about what it might mean for people like yourself who are Sikh, or at least like very optically non-Christian people?
SINGH: We did because they were concerned obviously. I was not with them. Because when something like this happens, you want to be close to your family. I was in Boston, and home was back in the DC area. I think there was a talk saying, “Okay, you don’t have to travel right now.” But I think I already had been in Boston for two weeks, and I wanted to come back home. And it was uncertain how things would happen. So I think it was like, I’m going to take my chance.
GONZÁLEZ: Okay, and so now it’s September 12, 2001. And can you just explain like, what it was like to board the train? Did you think anything of it? Did it feel different to be even like in public on that day?
SINGH: Yeah. So you know, I left it pretty early in the morning when it was dark, took one of the commuter buses in Boston to the train station, it was like a quiet, silent all the way through there. Obviously people at the bus stop and people in the bus and then at the train station, people I mean looking at each other but not necessarily smiling, certainly not smiling at me. Sometimes you accept that as an immigrant or as a person of color, or a different descent, that when when things are not certain people are always going to look outward, okay? Somebody from my home didn’t do this. Somebody from outside did this and you look like an outsider. So natural phenomena. But okay, I was a traveler, like anyone else. I had my bags. I mean, I had a ticket and obviously had a plan. And I was determined to follow through.
GONZÁLEZ: How old were you at that time?
SINGH: Good question. 30, I think.
GONZÁLEZ: So around 30, you’d already lived like a fair chunk of life. Had you ever felt that kind of outsider, like “everybody might be looking at me” thing before, being an immigrant to the United States?
SINGH: Certainly not as as much as on that day. But Sikhs have a very distinct identity, with the turban and the beard. You can have everything, and you could be living out in the mountains where nobody knows you. But we don’t believe in that. We strongly believe in our identity and the principles, and we strongly believe in community and being a part of the fabric of the community.
GONZÁLEZ: So you get on the train, Boston, and then you make it a couple of stops. And then, I don’t want to make you relive that that day too much, but just in your words, what happened once you got to Providence?
SINGH: So when the train, it seemed to have stopped a couple of times before as well. It’s seemed like it was like mechanical work or something. And then finally, when we were slowly pulling in, it seemed quite eerie. I could almost sense that there’s something wrong more than just more than just the train. There’s no nobody knew there were no announcements coming on what’s going on. And then when the train stop, you know, there were people walking starting to come in to train getting in and checking all sides coming towards me and walking past and looking. And then obviously then you know, officers in uniform came and then they do their weapon at me and asked me to step away, step out, walk with them. So obviously I was alarmed. Curious and maybe, “Okay, I understand. There’s the images you’re seeing on the TV, and how you see me.” So I gave them that chance. “Okay, well, I’m not going to try to explain anything right now.” And I picked up my bag or whatever I had and walked out walked in front of them side on the platform. My heart pounding a lot. Okay, well, I don’t think he’s gonna shoot me so I’m gonna go Yeah,
GONZÁLEZ: Did you know you have any idea that that they were serious about this?
SINGH: Obviously they weren’t smiling. So if I thought well, I understood the gravity of what had happened. When you know you and your own conscious are strong and believe in either in the system and believe in, in your own practice and on your own your own belief and I knew I could get over this. I knew I could explain it. Obviously it took a little bit longer. And it gave me maybe a lifelong desire to push myself even more than I used to to be an outreach kind of a person. Because it really struck me somewhere that this, my identity has to stand for itself. So I’ve got to really make an effort and in everything that I do in life, to stand on a position and make a point, be strong at it.
GONZÁLEZ: Okay, so it’s been 20 years since that day when you were detained. If you were to describe that change over 20 years, that’s a long time in yourself that change, how would you describe the trajectory of that change and having to reach out more? How is that arc gone for you?
SINGH: Certainly the first year or a couple of years were, I would say, advocacy and standing out. And then as time went on, what I felt was a good amount of awareness had started to happen. And I was already on that path of being an immigrant. And now after 10 years, or so, being in America had settled and educated I was doing well in life. I can support others, I can support other immigrants, I can support other people of color I can, it got a lot interviews like this, or or it got to a point where I felt that I want to focus on having this kind of things, not repeat again. I got to work, we got to work at all angles. And I felt I was very strong at working with children from the Sikh community, from the Indian American community to interact and integrate and be involved in interfaith activities and be involved in community services so that we can, as a nation, become stronger as a nation heal and not let this happen to anyone. People around us will see who we are. People around us need help.
GONZÁLEZ: Do you ever get angry about what happened to you on that train 20 years ago?
SINGH: No, I don’t. Whatever I can make a positive change, whatever thought can improve life for me and life for people around me and others, that’s where I’ll think about, and that’s where I want to focus on.
