Raajeev’s Corner

Washington Stories

United over our common grief and connected with our bond of humanity.

Raajeev’s Corner by Raajeev Aggerwhil

I have been living in Los Angeles for over ten years now. Before moving here, we lived in Fairfax Virginia, a suburb of Washington DC. I had moved there in the late 90’s to help my company do business with the federal government. The population in the DC area at that time was much more homogenous and predominantly white. Soon after moving there, I realized that I was not very comfortable around 70+ old white men who were mainly my customers. If any of them were in a military uniform, my nervousness would get worse. I think it was because I was used to a much more diverse population in the San Francisco Bay Area where I had lived for many years prior to moving.

To confront my fear head-on, I decided to join a Toastmasters group that would meet in the Pentagon every week. Toastmasters is an International non-profit organization that helps its members become better public speakers. The idea of going to the Pentagon and giving speeches in front of other club members, many of them in military uniform, took the fear away by force. Within six months, they made me the president of the club. As I became more comfortable, I found that my humor would come out in my prepared and impromptu speeches. I would even make fun of them. “Before coming here, my impression of you guys in military uniforms was shaped by Hollywood movies that portrayed you to be lazy, incompetent maniacs with big egos. And its amazing how Hollywood could be so right!” Laughing together over jokes like these took away my discomfort and nervousness and made me a more confident speaker. It also helped me transform to a stand-up comic.

After 9/11, it became much more difficult for visitors to go to the Pentagon. South Asian visitors were still welcome, but I used the excuse of longer delays at the visitor center to not renew my membership. Also, our youngest baby boy was born four days after 9/11 and that made things at home very hectic. Along with my friends, I had planned a surprise last-minute baby shower for my wife on September 11. We were living in a predominantly white neighborhood of Fairfax Station. Although it was close to a Hindu temple, there were very few minority families. As the horrific details of 9/11 started unfolding, we began to deal with logistical issues like how we would get food from DC to Virginia. The Indian restaurant we had used for catering was in DC. Even if we planned for an alternate last-minute caterer, I wondered how our neighbors would perceive a bunch of Indian people dressed to celebrate in sherwani’s, saris and salwar kameez’s, dancing to the tune of Bollywood music, as the nation faced the worst terrorist attack. There was only one thing we could do. Cancel the baby shower.