Visiting Indian Professor's Culture Shock: Washing Cars vs. Teaching Class

A former Indian professor, Zafar Nomani, recalls how his father's reaction to seeing him washing cars as a way to earn a living taught him about the dignity of labor. Nomani was a visiting teacher at Kansas State University in 1962 and had just arrived from India on a fellowship. His father froze when he saw Nomani washing cars, but Nomani has said that this experience helped shape his perspective on the importance of hard work. This memory reflects the significant cultural differences between Nomani's Indian upbringing and American college life at the time.