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Yug Dabadi interview
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- [AUDIO OUT] that you did come in today
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- Asian-American Digital Archives.
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- The audience is very important to us.
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- Thank you.
- Welcome, everyone.
- This is "Stories To Tell."
- And I am Dharitri Bhattacharjee.
- I teach history at Western Washington University.
- In this oral history series, our goal
- is to present before you a diversity of South
- Asian perspectives on COVID-19.
- The South Asian countries are India, Bangladesh,
- Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives,
- and Afghanistan.
- For the next four weeks, we will be bringing before you
- on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 2:00 PM Pacific Standard Time
- a new voice.
- I will ask questions and seek responses for the next 30
- minutes.
- And after that, I encourage you to ask questions
- to Yug Dabadi, who is our guest today.
- I am the one who's going to be conducting the interviews.
- But a lot of people are responsible for putting this
- together.
- I want to especially acknowledge our program specialist
- at Western C.A.R.E.S., Athena Roth, who you just heard from.
- and our archivist at Center for Pacific and Northwest Studies,
- Ruth Steele.
- And finally, welcome, Yug Dabadi, our guest today.
- Yug is from Bhutan and right now lives in the Seattle region.
- He's a microbiologist by training
- and right now works as a blood banker and virologist
- at University of Washington.
- He's a community leader to the Bhutanese community
- here in Seattle, as well.
- So Yug, you are from Bhutan.
- But when you came to the US in 2008, you came from Nepal.
- Can you tell us a little bit about your life,
- a political biography of sorts, before you came to the US?
- Sure.
- Hi, everybody.
- My name is Yug Dabadi.
- I was born in Bhutan.
- And I went to elementary school back in Bhutan.
- Then in 1992, my family got evicted
- because of the ethnic cleansing movement happening inside Bhutan.
- And then we came to Nepal to be a refugee.
- And I spent 17 years in the refugee camps in Nepal
- where I went all my education in Nepal
- as a microbiologist with my bachelor's degree and master's
- degree.
- Bhutan is a very beautiful country, very small, teeny.
- Now they claim it's the happiest country on this planet.
- But the Bhutan does have some dark side of it,
- which is they have a policy in 1980s--
- one nation, one people policy, which
- means that every citizen in this country
- should follow the Drukpa traditions, wear their dress,
- follow their languages, and everything.
- So in 1985, Bhutan brought a policy citizenship act.
- And they conducted a census, which
- meant a lot of Southern Bhutanese, which are ethnically
- Nepalese, to be stateless.
- And they stripped off our citizenship.
- And there was a human civic right movement in 1990
- which was cracked down by the government with the military.
- My father got arrested during that time.
- And then he was given a choice to leave the country or die.
- So my father choose to leave.
- And then he decided, OK, I'm going to leave this country.
- So we left the country all of a sudden.
- And we came to a refugee camp in Nepal.
- We were registered as Bhutanese refugees in Nepal.
- And then the international agencies
- like UNHCR here and all the donor agencies
- stepped in to provide food and some medical help.
- We established school in the refugee camp.
- Our refugee elders taught us.
- And there was a school up to grade 10.
- I graduated that school and went to a nearby school
- to get my grade 12 and then the bachelor's degree
- and then the master's degree in Kathmandu.
- In 2008, the UNHCR and the United States and all the donor
- agencies, they were fatigued.
- And they brought a program called the Refugee Resettlement
- Program.
- And my family applied to be resettled in the United States.
- So this is our choice to be here in this country.
- In 2008 in August, we came here.
- And then I was in Everett in Washington.
- And then life started beginning as an American way of life,
- I guess.
- So I will just like to add, the Drukpa tradition,
- the imposition of that, it had also
- to do with following the Buddhist religion.
- And you are a Hindu, is that right, Yug?
- Yes, majority of the people living in the Southern Bhutan,
- they are from Nepalese descent.
- And all of them, almost 98%, were Hindus.
- However, there are some small community
- that were Buddhist, as well.
- I never heard of Christians and other religion
- in Bhutan during the '90s.
- But now people have more freedom to choose for their faith.
- So now we have a lot, many people, like Christians and other faiths,
- as well.
- Mhm.
- So are there similarities between Bhutan, Nepal?
- Like, when I think of Bhutan and Nepal, they're hilly.
- They're beautiful.
- And you know, Seattle is sort of similar, the way I look at it.
- How do you think?
- Like, your memories of Bhutan, Nepal,
- does it sort of come back with your living in Seattle?
- Yes, it does.
- That is the whole point I'm living
- in this very expensive place.
- Bhutan is very mountainous.
- The landscapes are so beautiful.
- Same with Nepal.
- Nepal is also very mountainous.
- And they have very big mountains and the landscape.
- And the Pacific Northwest landscape
- is kind of similar, although we don't
- have bigger mountains here.
- But still it reminds me of my home and Nepal.
- So how was your initial first month, first year
- after you came to the US?
- Was there a culture shock?
- Or how do you integrate into being an American,
- living that life?
- You know, I was pretty well-informed
- about this country.
- I do a lot of research and read, so I wasn't
- really into cultural shock.
- But before we came in here, the International Organization
- for Migration, who arranged the travel and everything,
- they gave us an orientation.
- And they were talking about all this culture shock,
- you know, were you're in the honeymoon phase
- and you get a culture shock.
- You're in the [?] phase and the [?] phase,
- all kinds of things.
- But there were other people with culture shock.
- Our settlement was facilitated by the resettlement agencies.
- They found a place to live in.
- And then we were supported by the government welfare
- system for eight months.
- After that, you're on your own.
- Some agencies help us find jobs.
- Our community's very mixed.
- So seniors and people with language barriers,
- they had a tough time initially.
- So they have a culture shock, as well.
- And so I had to step up, and with my friends,
- to organize some cultural activities,
- some religious activities, that they
- don't feel too sad about it.
- So what happens when you get asylum in a country
- and in the US specifically?
- What is the path, because, I mean,
- if you come here as an immigrant,
- then there are visas, citizenship.
- It's a very, very long way up.
- But it is not the same case when you get asylum, is that right?
- Oh, well, I think the Refugee Resettlement Program
- is a very well-designed program, where
- the Department of Homeland Security, they go in Nepal.
- And they interview us for the visas and everything.
- So once you're on this, you know whether I am processed,
- all these processes, we were interviewed back in Nepal
- for the green card and everything.
- So once you enter in here, they gave us I-94.
- And then a year later, you get a green card, although you
- have to apply for it.
- And after that, in five years you
- have a right to citizenship.
- There is a pathway that you can apply.
- And then you can become a citizen.
- But you have to pass the test which consists of a hundred
- questions.
- And you'll be asked at least 20 questions on that.
- And you should have some language skills, as well.
- All the questions are asked in English.
- So for people attending school or colleges,
- it's not a big deal.
- You just have to read through, and then you just pass.
- But for people with language barriers and seniors
- who have never been in a school and never seen a school,
- it's a very big challenge.
- And all these seniors, they are learning the languages
- through community colleges or with some other agencies.
- Some of them are able to obtain citizenship.
- But others are not.
- So still it is a challenge for people.
- We, as refugees, we come here.
- We have these privileges, a very guided pathway
- to citizenship.
- But for immigrants, I think it is challenging because there
- are some restrictions to it.
- We, as refugees, we come without any money.
- There is no money.
- If you're talking about myself, I had only $50
- when I entered this country.
- But I think immigrants, they belong
- to wealthy families and this.
- They might have some money to bring
- with them when they come in.
- So they will not maybe feel financial challenges at first.
- But refugees will feel the financial challenges
- pretty hard.
- Mhm, so once you came over here--
- you came in August.
- And you said around September, October--
- I really found that story interesting,
- if you would share with us--
- that it was the time of this big festival, Dussehra.
- And somehow it was through that moment that you
- also, apart from doing a job-- and you got a job
- fairly quickly in the US-- you also
- evolved into becoming a community
- leader for your community.
- Will you talk about that?
- Yeah, you know, it's very interesting
- because when I came in August, there
- was some other family that came in June and July.
- And then they were kind of sitting inside their apartment
- and not able to find ways to get out of that,
- except for going to grocery stores.
- So our big festival, Dussehra, or the Dashain,
- is a very big festival for Nepalese and other Hindu
- people.
- So that came along.
- And then they're all seniors sitting inside their apartment.
- And they're pretty sad.
- And they told me, we are not sure whether we
- are allowed to do this festival, celebrate this festival,
- or not.
- And I told them, you know what?
- This is the United States.
- We can celebrate this.
- So let's do it.
- So I told them, let's have a potluck party in a park.
- And then I asked people to cook some ethnic food
- and then bring into the park.
- And I call other people around that I knew,
- other American families.
- And then we gathered in the park.
- And then we celebrated that first Dashain here
- in the United States.
- After that I started organizing more inside a hall
- or in a hall, so it was a little more organized after that.
- Then people had other problems, too.
- I mean, they had medical appointments.
- Nobody knew how to drive.
- And we didn't have GPS or anything at that time.
- So I had to look at the maps and have them drive to the places,
- to the doctor's appointments.
- Sometimes I interpreted for them.
- And then other challenges, as well.
- So when I started organizing all these things,
- I started creating volunteers and started taking people
- to the temples, also, you know?
- I knew some people from India and Nepal,
- so they helped me do this.
- And then I started doing all these community gatherings
- and all these community organizations and stuff
- like that.
- Mhm, so you stayed in Nepal as a refugee from 1992 to 2008.
- And so it could not have been life without uncertainties.
- So now that you're living through a pandemic,
- is it bringing back those memories?
- How are you responding to the pandemic?
- Just how are you doing?
- Just you, how are you doing?
- Personally, myself, I'm doing OK.
- You know, there's some emotional changes.
- There's some financial hardship, as well.
- But overall, I think I'm doing better than other people
- because I have gone through more worse than this.
- Living in Nepal was very uncertain for us.
- We were living without a future.
- We were not allowed to work there legally.
- So there's no financial future.
- There's nothing like that.
- So at least here, I know that we'll go through this.
- And then this will end one day.
- And then we still can start doing things, you know?
- So I'm not worried about it too much.
- And also, I had a lot of friends from Nepal
- that are living in China when the pandemic broke,
- when this virus came out.
- So I was reading a lot about it.
- And then I was kind of mentally prepared, you know,
- this might come to us.
- And then it will have an impact on our lives.
- So I was kind of mentally prepared.
- And then I've been telling people, if that happens,
- we have to deal with this compassionately,
- not worrying too much.
- Taking proper precautions.
- But we have to deal with this with compassion
- and with information, you know?
- At that time, we didn't have much information.
- But now we have so much available.
- So I think we can be safe, and this will end one day.
- Mhm, so if you were to speak for your community--
- even as communities from South Asia,
- you know Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, I
- mean, they are spoken about far more than Nepalis or Bhutanese.
- So if you were to speak for your community,
- how is the Bhutanese community doing in the pandemic?
- You know, our lives have been impacted like as others.
- I think people lost jobs.
- Most of the people, they work in restaurants and airports.
- And they lost jobs previously.
- But now I think, other than that, yeah,
- I was telling that we didn't have a culture of going outside
- and eating at restaurants or dining-in-a-restaurant culture.
- So most of the time, we prepare food ourselves at home,
- and we eat.
- That's that.
- And we're pretty connected with each other.
- Every single day we talk about it.
- And since I am a microbiologist, people know about that.
- And they always ask me, what can be done, in certain situations.
- So I've been advising them because I have an access
- to more scientific information through my work
- and through my own research, as well.
- So I've been providing them some information, how
- to be safe in this pandemic.
- And people are very serious about it.
- And they're taking serious precautions.
- Overall, you know, within the United States,
- we are at least 90,000 here so far.
- I think I know a couple of families, a couple of them,
- they passed away because of COVID.
- But the death is not more than five percent.
- So I would like you to talk a little bit about your work.
- But I also was interested in how you talked about your coming
- together.
- And just today I read on New York Times, David Krugman
- writing about the social safety net, which
- is missing in American society.
- And you talked about how your community comes together.
- And even if someone is out of job, money,
- you are always helping that person out.
- So is this something that you as a community leader
- consciously try to hold on to, these
- values that you sort of came with into the US?
- Yes, you know what?
- I want to tell one thing positive about living
- in refugee camps, because we had nothing there, right?
- So we share whatever we had to save ourselves.
- So we have that philosophy as a brethren.
- Refugee brothers are, as a community,
- we always have a willingness to help each other.
- So we pitch in some money if some family needs it.
- We try to organize some kind of helping hands to the people
- if they really need it.
- For example, if a family needs to pay rent,
- we pitch in some money.
- And then we try to help them out.
- So we have that.
- We bring it in.
- And we just wanted to hold onto that
- because I think this is very, very essential at this time
- of difficult times.
- Sure.
- And now back to your work, briefly explain your work
- as a virologist.
- What do you do?
- And you'd also mentioned that your lab is basically
- at the forefront of this work.
- What's your work?
- And also, if you would like to say,
- what do you think about state handling
- of the pandemic in the US, and also your thoughts
- on how it is being handled in Nepal and Bhutan.
- Sure.
- I have a graduate degree in microbiology.
- And then I am a medical laboratory scientist, also.
- So I work for a blood bank right now.
- And then I also go to work with the virology lab, which
- was the first lab in a private sector or public sector
- after the CDC developed the test for COVID-19.
- So I go there and help testing all these patients
- and everything.
- As far as I look into it with all my expertise and all
- the information, I think the United States initially
- didn't do very well in handling this situation.
- But I think things have improved now as the information came in.
- This Washington State handled it, I think,
- in a very good way, an effective way.
- Although initially this state also struggled
- to obtain some essential PPEs and all kinds of test
- kits and stuff like that.
- When you're talking about Bhutan,
- the current prime minister is a physician himself.
- So Bhutan did a wonderful job in handling this COVID-19
- pandemic.
- There was not deaths reported.
- And there are very minimum cases in Bhutan.
- Nepal is still struggling because there's
- a lot of countries that don't have a lot of expertise on it.
- So Nepal is struggling.
- I think it's been mismanaged by the government.
- There's a lot of political push and pull in that country.
- Overall, Washington State and my home country,
- Bhutan, did a wonderful job combating this pandemic.
- Mhm, so you are a US citizen right now, is that right?
- That is correct.
- Uh-huh, so in future, is the US home for you now?
- Or would you consider going back to Bhutan
- or going back to Nepal?
- Well, I think going back to Nepal is very challenging to me
- because Nepal doesn't have a provision to give citizenship
- or any other rights to me.
- So if I go back in Nepal, there's
- nothing I can do legally.
- So there is no question going back to Nepal.
- Bhutan will not allow me to go back because they don't still
- consider me as a Bhutanese.
- So I don't have any rights to go back to Bhutan.
- If I go there, they probably will throw me in a jail.
- So there's no point I can go back to Bhutan.
- So I think this country is mine now.
- This country's adopted me.
- So I'll work here as a good citizen.
- And I'll be friendly with the fellow citizens.
- And I try to help my community drive through this path
- of being citizen.
- We're responsible citizens, you know?
- And I believe with all these communities coming in,
- I believe we'll have a good life here, too.
- Mhm, so how do you look ahead?
- Do you think in a year or two, how
- will your community, your state, this country,
- where do you think you'll be?
- If you're more specific about pandemic,
- I think we'll have a solution to this problem
- in the recent future, if not maybe next year or so.
- I think human civilization has fought more dreadful diseases
- than this.
- It's just the nature of the virus is airborne.
- So we do not know who is carrying it.
- And it's evolving so fast, it's mutating so fast,
- so we do not know the exact nature of the virus.
- So it's a little challenging to the medical community.
- But I'm very hopeful that we'll have an end to this,
- and we'll come over this.
- We'll defeat this virus.
- And we'll have a good life.
- And we'll return to normal very soon.
- My community, I think we are doing very good.
- Many of us are houseowners here.
- Our community juniors, our kids, are going to school.
- And they are doing really good.
- They're adapting to the new life already.
- They are already like Americans.
- Seniors, they now understand that this is their new home,
- and they have to adapt to it.
- So it's a very beautiful and happy community here.
- Mhm, so you talked about financial hardships
- along with one of interrelated problems of the pandemic
- has been talks of the recession, like a depression
- that's coming here.
- How do you think an immigrant community or refugee community,
- asylee, I mean, how do these communities respond
- to such new which is different for people who are from the US?
- I think my community's not a wealthy community, right?
- Nobody has a lot of money on these stocks or bonds.
- And they don't worry about losing it.
- So we just do a minimal work.
- We just get something.
- We try to save a little bit.
- And then we live our life.
- So as long as we have a job, we can go and work and get
- a paycheck, I think, people are OK with that, you know?
- So they're not really worried about racism or something
- like that or losing a lot of money into it.
- But what they're worried is if the businesses do not open
- and if the businesses go to bankruptcy
- and then they lose their job, they
- might lose their livelihoods.
- So that is the big concern here.
- And we will hope and we pray that that does not happen.
- We hope that business thrive and that our community
- people have a job.
- And then they can live a very easy
- and a very simple lifestyle.
- Mhm, OK.
- So a question that I'm asking everyone in this series
- is if there was a particular moment when
- you realized that you're living through a pandemic.
- And if there is one, can you describe it?
- Oh, yes, you know what?
- I've been hearing all this news even when
- the virus first broke in China through my friends there.
- And they were telling me it's very dreadful.
- And if they have to go to lock-down,
- it'll be a difficult thing, right?
- So here in Washington State, when
- I realized that there was an order from the governor,
- a stay-home, stay-safe order from the governor, and then
- my hospital started restricting visitors.
- There is no people in the hospital except
- for the employees.
- There was less traffic in Seattle.
- And there was news about scarcity of the toilet papers
- and a store ran out of grocery items.
- And I saw scared people.
- And there were no outdoor activities.
- Those kind of things, you know, were the indicators
- that are telling me, OK, we are in not a normal time.
- Maybe this is a pandemic.
- Mhm.
- So is there anything else you would
- like to share with us, Yug?
- Anything else for our listeners?
- Maybe a question I didn't ask.
- Maybe a response that you didn't get to share with us.
- Well, I think what I would say is
- I think we all are going through a very
- emotional phase of our life.
- And we're living in uncertainties, which in one way
- it's correct.
- There's a lot of things uncertain.
- But I want you listeners and everybody listening to me,
- would listen to me--
- we'll go through this.
- It's not the end of the life, OK?
- There are situations where I was, personally myself,
- in a bad situation than this.
- And these bad things do not remain too long.
- It will go through.
- We'll go through.
- Let's be positive.
- Let's try to work out.
- Let's follow precautions.
- And then I think this virus, we'll
- defeat this virus for sure.
- And thank you for--
- and then I want to share these fellow American people,
- thank you for letting us come in into this country
- and share the resources and this space with you all.
- Hopefully we'll meet one day in person and talk more about it.
- Thank you so much, Yug.
- And I may have lied when I said that was my last question.
- What does "Yug" mean?
- What's the name?
- It means 100,000 years in Sanskrit.
- 100,000 years, OK.
- Yeah, one yug.
- One yug, OK.
- Yeah.
- OK, so that's that.
- And if any of you have questions for Yug, you're welcome to ask.
- But I also give it over to Athena right now.
- She will unmute you if you have questions for Yug.
- Hello, yes, you are all able to unmute yourselves now and ask
- any question you would like.
- So please feel free to.
- Hi, I'm always the first person to ask a question.
- But I'm just going to keep up my trend.
- Thank you so much, Yug, for your story and--
- Sure.
- --for what you are bringing and giving.
- And I'm really stricken listening to your story.
- I wrote it down very early on--
- refugee elders.
- And that turn of phrase just was so
- beautiful to me, that sense of respect
- for teachers and the sense that they're, even
- in the environment of displacement
- that you've lived in so much throughout your life,
- that you are also building community, sustaining
- community, within the refugee camp,
- creating new families of elders and youngers.
- And then later you referred to brethren or refugee brothers.
- It must be a common language for you in your community.
- But for me it was really stunning and beautiful.
- So thank you for teaching me that.
- That kind of led me to--
- the next thing you said, you talked about,
- in the refugee camp, we had nothing.
- So we shared everything.
- And that points to an attitude of abundance, a sense
- that there is enough to go around if we make it so.
- And I think one of the things that
- has been challenging in the United States
- is that people have, in many cases,
- not responded during the pandemic with an attitude
- of abundance but rather with an attitude of scarcity.
- And with an attitude of scarcity, we hoard.
- We keep for ourselves.
- We turn against.
- We create barriers and boundaries.
- And so I'm wondering if you could just
- speak a little bit about that contrast in your experience
- as someone coming from South Asia, both Bhutan and Nepal,
- and then coming to the United States.
- Sure, my father, he is a very educated guy in the community,
- right?
- So I was born in a very remote village, you know?
- Until I was born, we didn't have roadways, right?
- So I knew they were constructing roads in Bhutan.
- So after that on, there was a lot of communication.
- So between there it is a whole drastic area.
- My father is an honored guy.
- So if people had to write letters,
- they would come to my house.
- And my father would write letters
- to someone serving in the military or somewhere else,
- right?
- And if they had no food, then we had a lot of fields.
- So they would come and work for us.
- And my father would give it to them.
- So I came up in that culture.
- I grew up by giving.
- And serving people is the way my philosophy is into it.
- So when you first came in the refugee camps,
- there were people who were at different levels in each group
- and different levels.
- So some were ran out of the colleges.
- So they were in the college, the only one college in Bhutan
- at the time that ran an undergraduate school.
- So they ran out of that.
- And they had nothing to do in the refugee camps.
- So they say, you know what?
- Why don't you gather some kids and start teaching them?
- So we started that way.
- So our classes were, like, under the shade of the trees
- sometimes, you know?
- And they built a little attached room
- and bamboo leaves on their huts.
- And then we used to go and read there.
- And the next day, the wind would blow away.
- And we would have nothing there.
- So we sat there again, and learning happened.
- If you have a mentality, I think if you
- have a mindset of doing something,
- I think that will happen.
- So human mind is very, very strong.
- And human belief I think is very stronger than anything.
- If you believe in it and if you work on it,
- you have patience to do it, you'll get it.
- So a refugee camp was like that.
- So later on, we established schools.
- And then there was one agency that
- came in called Caritas Nepal.
- They supplied a little bit of textbooks.
- So not all of us got textbooks and copies, right?
- So whatever we got, like in a group of five,
- we get one set of books.
- That's it.
- So we shared those books.
- One day, someone would take one, geography.
- Other would take science book or math or anything like that.
- We sat in a very small group and learned.
- So learning happened.
- You know, UNHCR and the whole United Nations
- rated that school as one of the best schools in this planet.
- And that was done by UNHCR.
- So that was the best school.
- So we are taught in the English language.
- But the local people, they had to pay a lot of money
- to get that quality education.
- So there was a contrast, you know?
- And then when you compare that thing in the pandemic, I saw--
- I mentioned earlier, people are running out of toilet paper,
- and they are hoarding things and keeping in their garage
- while the other one is suffering without anything.
- So I think that's why I told everybody,
- we need to deal with this with compassion.
- If you're lacking compassion, you're inviting problems.
- So it's more of compassion.
- That's why I'm telling people, they
- are scared to go to work in the virology lab.
- So I told them, you know what?
- You want to get out of this fear,
- we have to go and work there, feel
- what it is, because if you don't do it, nobody's going to come
- and do it.
- Nobody from the street is going to come and do
- the PCR testing for this COVID, because we
- are trained to do this.
- We have to deal with this with compassion.
- If you put the compassion factor to it,
- I think we'll do things a little bit better
- than ordinary people with ordinary mentality will do it.
- So that's the whole point I'm trying to give to my community
- and to my friends, as well.
- So I think I want to leave with this.
- And I want to pass on to other people, as well.
- If I write an email to my younger generation here,
- you know what?
- We're going to have a soccer tournament here.
- Would you guys sort of volunteer?
- I'll have 10 or 20 or 15 people come
- in [?] on that day.
- So I have no problems, you know?
- We have this thing going on.
- And we want to set up this example to everybody.
- So thanks for asking that question.
- Well, you're such a young man, but you're clearly
- one of the elders in your community.
- And it's so beautiful to know that that's the lesson, that's
- the teaching that you're doing.
- I always laughed about the toilet paper thing
- because so many people in South Asia don't use toilet paper.
- No.
- So it's just totally a non-issue, you know?
- It's like--
- No, that's what I told my friends.
- They were worrying about it at work.
- You know, I don't have a toilet rolls.
- I told them, I have a couple of them.
- I'll give it to you because I have no use.
- Yep, water works.
- I'm used to use water.
- So come on, you are really running out of it,
- I will give it to you.
- But do not worry about it.
- I [?] toilet paper before I arrived in the US,
- so yeah.
- Yeah.
- Well, thank you again so much for sharing your story.
- I really feel so uplifted by hearing your story.
- And I think that really means a lot in these times.
- Thank you, Amber--
- Thank you.
- --for the question.
- Anyone else?
- Any question?
- Nothing else?
- OK.
- No?
- Again, thank you so much.
- I feel like I have to pause when this is done
- and process because there's so many wonderful things to think
- about and take away from this.
- So thank you, thank you, thank you.
- And thank you everyone for being here today.
- Thank you to Amber for your wonderful thoughts
- and questions.
- We're grateful.
- Like I said, our audience is a very important part
- of this process.
- And I'll hand it over to Dharitri for any closing
- thoughts here before we go.
- But thank you so much.
- Thank you for attending.
- And thank you, Yug, for joining.
- And we'll see you all again on Thursday and, for the next one
- month, every Tuesday and Thursday.
- Great, thank you to you all.
- All right.
- Thank you, Yug.
- It's so wonderful to meet you.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Yeah, thanks for having me.
- Thank you.
- All right, you guys have a good day.
- Thank you.
- You, too.
- Bye.
- Bye.
- Bye, everyone.