One Man Left India Alone in 1957 and Missed Six Years With His Sons
That sacrifice set up his family for generations, and he believes his grandfather succeeded.
Joys of Compounding · Ravi Gupta - Bring Joy - [Joys of Compounding, EP.21]In 1957, Ravi Gupta's grandfather left India alone. He was 35 years old, married, with five young children, and he came to America to build a new life.
It was not a quick separation. Three years later, he went back to India and brought his wife and his daughter to America, but he left his four sons behind. Among them was Gupta's father, who was then 8 years old.
The boys would not live with their father again for six years, from 1957 to 1963. Those were the years when Gupta's father grew from age 8 to age 14, the stretch when a boy becomes a teenager, without his dad in the house.
That is what one decision to immigrate cost, and what it created. Gupta, an investor at Sequoia who once worked in private equity and as chief financial officer of the grocery delivery company Instacart, traces his family's opportunities directly to that lonely trip. His grandfather's purpose, he said, was to make sure the next generations would be educated, and he thinks he succeeded.
One man came alone. He raised five children. Those five children had 17 children of their own. Gupta said his grandfather wanted schooling for the 17 grandchildren, adding, "I think he succeeded." He jokes that he is "the only one of the 17 without a graduate degree."
What makes the story land is how Gupta measures it as a father. His own twins were turning 12, with another child age 10, when he told it. Those are the same formative ages his father was when his own father was gone.
"There is literally nothing that could make me be away from the kids for six years in order to build a better life for people I'd never meet," Gupta said.
Gupta called it sacrifice and vision. A man gave up six years with his sons so that his grandchildren, and people he would never meet, could have better lives. In layman's terms, as Gupta put it, "a decision one guy made in 1957" created the opportunity for all "the goodness that 17 of us have."
Questions people ask
Was 1957 unusually early for an Indian immigrant to come to America?
Yes. Large scale immigration from India did not begin until after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 removed quotas based on national origin. In the 1950s, only a few hundred Indians were admitted each year, so arriving in 1957 was early and often meant coming with little community support.
Why would a father leave some children behind for years?
Gupta does not give his grandfather's reason for the timing. In general, pioneer immigrants often had to find work and housing first before they could afford to bring family members, because of cost and immigration limits. That general background is not stated as this family's reason.
What did education mean for an immigrant family like this one?
For many immigrant families, schooling was the most reliable path to secure work and upward mobility. A college degree opened professional jobs, and a graduate degree offered still higher pay and stability. Gupta ties his own family to that goal when he says his grandfather's purpose was education and that he thinks he succeeded.