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Sikh drivers are transforming U.S. trucking. Take a ride along the Punjabi American highway.
Man, this is a great find and a great tale.
Link to tweet
Great @jaweedkaleem story on a phenomenon I didn't even know was happening: More and more American truckers are Sikhs, who are quietly reshaping the communities they drive through.
Today, you go to some stops and can convince yourself you are in India.
Today, you go to some stops and can convince yourself you are in India.
Link to tweet
Sikh drivers are transforming U.S. trucking. Take a ride along the Punjabi American highway
By JAWEED KALEEM | JUN 27, 2019 | 3:00 AM | MILAN, N.M.
Its 7:20 p.m. when he rolls into Spicy Bite, one of the newest restaurants here in rural northwest New Mexico. ... Locals in Milan, a town of 3,321, have barely heard of it. ... The building is small, single-story, built of corrugated metal sheets. There are seats for 20. The only advertising is spray-painted on concrete roadblocks in English and Punjabi. Next door is a diner and gas station; the county jail is across the road.
Palwinder Singh orders creamy black lentils, chicken curry and roti, finishing it off with chai and cardamom rice pudding. After 13 hours on and off the road in his semi truck, he leans back in a booth as a Bollywood music video plays on TV. ... This is like home, says Pal, the name he uses on the road (said like Paul).
There are 3.5 million truckers in the United States. California has 138,000, the second-most after Texas. Nearly half of those in California are immigrants, most from Mexico or Central America. But as drivers age toward retirement the average American trucker is 55 and a shortage grows, Sikh immigrants and their kids are increasingly taking up the job.
Estimates of the number of Sikh truckers vary. In California alone, tens of thousands of truckers trace their heritage to India. The state is home to half of the Sikhs in the U.S. members of a monotheistic faith with origins in 15th century India whose followers are best recognized by the uncut hair and turbans many men wear. At Sikh temples in Sacramento, Fresno, Bakersfield and Riverside, the majority of worshipers are truck drivers and their families.
Over the last decade, Indian Americans have launched trucking schools, truck companies, truck washes, trucker temples and no-frills Indian restaurants modeled after truck stops back home, where Sikhs from the state of Punjab dominate the industry. ... You used to see a guy with a turban and you would get excited, says Pal, who is in his 15th year of trucking. Today, you go to some stops and can convince yourself you are in India.
....
By JAWEED KALEEM | JUN 27, 2019 | 3:00 AM | MILAN, N.M.
Its 7:20 p.m. when he rolls into Spicy Bite, one of the newest restaurants here in rural northwest New Mexico. ... Locals in Milan, a town of 3,321, have barely heard of it. ... The building is small, single-story, built of corrugated metal sheets. There are seats for 20. The only advertising is spray-painted on concrete roadblocks in English and Punjabi. Next door is a diner and gas station; the county jail is across the road.
Palwinder Singh orders creamy black lentils, chicken curry and roti, finishing it off with chai and cardamom rice pudding. After 13 hours on and off the road in his semi truck, he leans back in a booth as a Bollywood music video plays on TV. ... This is like home, says Pal, the name he uses on the road (said like Paul).
There are 3.5 million truckers in the United States. California has 138,000, the second-most after Texas. Nearly half of those in California are immigrants, most from Mexico or Central America. But as drivers age toward retirement the average American trucker is 55 and a shortage grows, Sikh immigrants and their kids are increasingly taking up the job.
Estimates of the number of Sikh truckers vary. In California alone, tens of thousands of truckers trace their heritage to India. The state is home to half of the Sikhs in the U.S. members of a monotheistic faith with origins in 15th century India whose followers are best recognized by the uncut hair and turbans many men wear. At Sikh temples in Sacramento, Fresno, Bakersfield and Riverside, the majority of worshipers are truck drivers and their families.
Over the last decade, Indian Americans have launched trucking schools, truck companies, truck washes, trucker temples and no-frills Indian restaurants modeled after truck stops back home, where Sikhs from the state of Punjab dominate the industry. ... You used to see a guy with a turban and you would get excited, says Pal, who is in his 15th year of trucking. Today, you go to some stops and can convince yourself you are in India.
....
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Sikh drivers are transforming U.S. trucking. Take a ride along the Punjabi American highway. (Original Post)
mahatmakanejeeves
Jun 2019
OP
Sikhs are good people. United shades of America did an episode on them...impressive.
Karadeniz
Jun 2019
#6
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)1. Guaranteed to produce hatred among white wing drivers.
safeinOhio
(32,706 posts)2. Sat Shri Akal
my friends.
MicaelS
(8,747 posts)3. Sikhs are very good people.
They take pride in working hard and give to the homeless.
Aristus
(66,431 posts)4. I have some Sikh patients.
I adore them all.
mbusby
(823 posts)5. Sikh National Center in Houston....
Karadeniz
(22,543 posts)6. Sikhs are good people. United shades of America did an episode on them...impressive.
JI7
(89,258 posts)7. even in India among all other Indians, the Sikhs are some of the most helpful