In chapter 5: An American in India, Eboo Patel narrates his experience of visiting India, this time he is making the trip voluntarily. The purpose of the trip is to create a connection with his past and his people. He was going back to India seeking to integrate into his “lost heritage, his people and land” (78). Although, Eboo had a different approach to embrace his culture at first, he did not fully agree with some Indian cultural norms. The class structure and the significance difference between the servants and the upper middle class made him very uncomfortable. He couldn’t conceive that in India “labor lacked dignity” (p.85), while in America labor gave people dignity. For Eboo, India was all about class status and America about equality.
