American Baapu: India Through My Eyes

In 2014, my wife and I helped a young Bengali woman who was visiting the US for the first time when 15,000 travelers were stranded overnight at the Dallas Airport. We remained friends and grew close, keeping in touch online. In 2015, she asked that we come to India to be in her wedding party as her "American parents." It was an incredible way to experience India for the first time! At the request of a few Indian friends from an online forum, I wrote a short travelogue about that first experience in India. More than 100,000 Indians read what I wrote! Some were young people who became close online friends. Some wrote me with personal issues. They began calling me "Baapu," "Baba," "Angel Paa," "Touji," "Papa Rick," and "Dad." I called them the sons and daughters of my heart. In 2017, we returned to India and stayed with the families of some of them in five different cities. This book tells that story.