Publish Minnesota By Daniel M. Grade 7, Minnesota Country of Origin: India The name of the immigrant I interviewed was Aamani Gundu. The immigrant I reviewed was from India. She told me all of the stuff that I am about to write. Her family moved here because of her dads’ job. They moved to Minnesota in June 2004 when she was in 8th grade and have lived here since. Her religion is Hinduism and she can speak four languages: Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, and English. The clothes you would wear are saris. There are also about 10000 gods. She believes in Ganesh, the elephant god (It is supposed to symbolize good education and success in life). She once went to India in the 10th grade and at the airport they pulled her out of the line because she has a different skin color, so they thought she was a terrorist. They checked all of her stuff which took 45 minutes so she missed her flight. There are 2 different types of festivals that she still celebrates: Diwali and the harvest festival. Diwali is the festival of lights (power of good over evil). They dress up in new clothes and set off fireworks. The festival is 10 days. The harvest festival is just like our Thanksgiving. She has left behind a lot of things in India, like friends, family, and her hometown. Some of the things she brought with her are culture. She’s happy to have a new life and new friends. I had asked her if she would ever want to live in India again and she told me she would not want to because it’s too hot and the school is hard because there are lots of exams from 9th to 12th grade. I also asked her what the kids are like. She told me they start kindergarten when they’re 3. The schools have lectures, but not labs (they have to memorize theory and not test them). The kids speak 3 languages usually. Some games they typically play are field hockey, cricket, ping pong, basketball, and some football and soccer. Back to Immigration