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Ruhel Islam interview

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Transcript

Hello hello.
Welcome, everyone.
It's good to see you today.
I'm just going to wait one moment while everyone files in
and turn off that waiting room so others that come
a little after can join us.
Great.
OK.
Hello and welcome.
My name is Athena and I'm with Outreach and Continuing
Education and Western C.A.R.E.S. here at Western Washington
University.
And I'll be acting as your host today
for this session of Stories To Tell.
Just to note, the interview today is being recorded
and will be archived by the Center
for Pacific Northwest Studies and the South Asian-American
Digital Archives.
And they will be made available to the public for research
and teaching and education.
So do note that while you have your camera on.
And a quick note about Western C.A.R.E.S., we
started this as a resource for us
to connect, and share, and maintain our sense of community
and engagement during these times when we're trying
to stay home and stay well.
These are online interactive sessions
put on by your colleagues and peers who
are so generous in volunteering their time
to share their interests and experience with you.
As your host, I'm going to introduce your session today.
And then I'm here to help provide tech support
and anything you may need.
Do know that you entered the call today
with your sound muted and your video off,
because we are recording these and that
helps us to keep the focus on our speakers.
There will be time at the end where
we'll be able to turn your sound back on.
If you'd like to ask questions, the audience
is a very important part of the series,
and we would love to have any questions you may have.
And know that there is a chat option in Zoom, as well,
if you'd prefer that.
And we'll keep an eye on that as well.
So now I'd like to introduce your wonderful host, Dharitri,
and say thank you so much for everyone for being here today.
Welcome, everyone.
This is Stories To Tell, and I'm Dharitri Bhattacharjee.
I teach in the history department at Western.
In this oral history series, our goal
is to bring before you diversity of South Asian perspectives
on COVID-19.
The region of South Asia comprises
countries like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal,
Bhutan, Maldives and Afghanistan.
So every Tuesday and Thursday at 2 PM Pacific Standard Time,
we will be bringing you a new voice for the next four weeks.
Minorities and immigrants are routinely
absent and underrepresented in archival collection,
so I could not be more excited to be convening the series.
I will be doing the interview for the first 30 minutes,
after which you are encouraged and welcome to ask questions
to Ruhel who is our guest today.
And while I'll be conducting the interviews,
there are a lot of people without whose help this
would not have been possible.
And I would like to thank Athena Roth.
She is the program specialist with Western C.A.R.E.S.
And Ruth Steele, who is the archivist at Center for Pacific
and Northwest studies.
And our guest today is Ruhel Islam.
I read about Ruhel in a New York Times article.
He's a Minneapolis restaurant owner.
His restaurant is called Gandhi Mahal,
and he'll talk about what I read in the New York Times.
It's one of the restaurants that sort of caught fire.
And I found the story very, very interesting.
He's from Bangladesh.
And he's going to talk to us about his restaurant,
his philosophy on bonding over food.
And I think we should just let Ruhel start talking for himself
instead of me introducing him.
So Ruhel, welcome.
And tell us a little bit about Bangladesh,
about sort of your childhood there,
your teenage years there and what you remember,
and just your life there.
Yeah.
Thank you for inviting me here.
My name is Ruhel Islam, and I was born in Bangladesh
in a village called [?Bahar Mordan?] in 1976, right
after liberation.
We are in the northeast side of the country and [? ... Assam before ?].
The famous tea garden area is there.
The Assam tea is very, very popular over there.
And yes, when I was growing up as a little boy in the village,
you know, we face--
we've seen a lot of stuff, natural disasters growing up.
And as you know, Bangladesh is ground zero for climate change.
And every year, we have to rebuild our country and village
some part.
And one day, when I was a little boy,
I heard that Bangladesh will go under the water.
Yes, [AUDIO CUTS OUT].
Yes, OK.
Sorry, I didn't hear.
You were muted for a bit.
That's fine.
So you grew up in Bangladesh, and you
told me these wonderful stories which
I would request you to share-- the precarity of sort
of the climate over there, and how there would be, you know,
the cyclones.
And so food became an integral part of your life right
from the beginning and sort of building community around food.
How did that happen?
Well, I was growing up, you know, watching my mom cooking
food for a whole village some time
because of flood and stuff.
And my culture, actually, we grew up in agriculture
closed-loop food system, which is very important, I feel,
every day.
I felt it when I was a little boy, when
there is everything under water in our village, in our home.
We had a closed-loop food system so we were able to host whole village
for a few days.
So food is something-- like I'm very passionate about food,
and food security, and climate, and climate change.
And I remember like--
you know, something you don't forget as a little kid.
So when a flood and all these crises
happened and people come together
as a community in the year.
Which is our community.
You know, I always mention which is Hindu, Muslim, Christian
all together.
That's called a real community.
So sometimes, when I talk about community,
I means our community.
I've been building here for the last 12 years.
I'll come back to here.
But this real community look like--
not only Bengali community or Indian community or, you know,
we [? interchange those ?].
But what I see in the community, like they
are talking about climate change,
Bangladesh go under the water.
I was really scared.
You know, why?
And they're talking about because of human cause,
because of stuff.
We're not taking care of our planet.
I asked my mom, why is this?
You take care of the environment.
The way you wish to be treated yourself,
other people treat yourself, treat your soil, your land,
your tree, your plants same way.
If you cut one tree, plant three trees.
Those are all kinds of stuff we learned by growing,
you know, in a village area.
Yeah.
We think that climate change is like a talking point right now.
But for centuries, people who have sort of
lived close to nature have always
known the importance of protecting the climate.
So sorry, did I cut you off?
Were you saying something?
Oh no, no.
I was saying like, you know, I was a village boy.
Then during high school time, I went to Dhaka.
My uncle take me to Dhaka.
And I was in-- you know, it's a different world over there.
Like it's a capital city.
Then my journey started.
I remember I went with one [? cloak ?].
I said to my uncle, can we visit?
OK, I go with him.
Jump into his car and went to Dhaka.
I wanted to be the change from that time.
You know, I want to be something.
So let's start a journey.
So I was out of whole village probably one of the guys who
went out to the capital by itself,
leave parents and friends and community behind.
You know, for-- I think for a better life.
You know, you want to see what happened.
And sometimes, growing up in a big community,
in a joint family, there is--
I was one of the dark skinned guys there, you know.
So I know that feelings over there growing up.
I was very--
I didn't mind it.
I didn't mind at that time.
But now I more feel like there was some kind of, you know,
sadness growing up.
By oh, you know, people judging you or--
you know, it's kind of colorism things.
You know, it is colorism.
It is not main way racism or whatever.
But there was a deep colorism in part of--
what was it.
Yeah.
I think it's a colonial legacy in all of South Asia, right?
I mean the fascination with the light skin.
So just for the audience, 1971 is
when Bangladesh achieved independence
from sort of being Pakistan, like West and East Pakistan.
[AUDIO CUTS OUT]
And that is what he was referring to.
So you left the village.
You went to Dhaka.
But you left Dhaka as well and you came to the US.
Why did you come to the US?
And talk to us about coming to the US,
and from there, the starting of Gandhi Mahal.
Yeah, I came to US 1996, you know.
My sister got married to American business man.
And you know, my father requested
to my uncle to arrange my visa to come [? with her ?]..
This is how I came in.
And it was a wonderful experience, a cultural shock.
I first came and landed.
I feel like I came out from the plane.
And coming out from the airport too and watching
the snow, last day of the snow, I
feel like I came into heaven probably.
You know, that was the feelings.
You can't, feeling say this stuff with a word.
It was a very good feeling about it.
Then '96, then 2000 I moved to Minneapolis.
I got married, actually.
And then I came visit Minneapolis 2000, where I met
and we did some back and forth.
In 2005, I started business in Minneapolis
in the small food court area-- it's called the Taj Mahal
by the University of Minnesota.
Then 2008, we decided to go fine dining, you know.
And I took a lot of consideration at that time.
Because what's going on in the world
is a very, what do you call, the recession going on,
chaos everywhere.
Then I said you need to bring people together.
And one of the reasons--
you know, you probably have a question about
why I made Gandhi.
One of the reason I name after the father
of the peace, Gandhi's name, to remind actually
people, remind people that there was a guy who stood for,
fought for bringing diverse group of people
together to a nonviolent way, non-violent world.
And then I believe in food, and I saw--
I witnessed that food brings people together.
And I thought, that's what our--
I'm probably-- I know about this.
I know I understand food language.
I understand a passion about this.
And teaching from my mom, grandma,
uncles, all kind of stuff.
And I was just very focused and determined.
And really, it's been now last 12,
13 years we've been building community over the move.
And when I came in Minnesota, me and my brother, we were very
stranger.
Now we build a community, which is-- our community
means we have a Gandhi Mahal community.
You know, that's wonderful thing.
And I realized that I really build a community
when we talk about our building got burned out.
You probably saw all this stuff in the newspaper, what people
reaction and stuff, you know?
So this really means a lot to me.
So Gandhi Mahal was established 2008,
and it was during the time of the recession.
Can you talk to us a little bit about the--
I mean, you've talked about, I think,
one of the founding philosophies was
to build community over food.
But also in the kinds of people that you employed immediately,
you know, to start Gandhi Mahal.
There was recognition of that too.
Can you talk a little bit about that?
Yeah, so me and my brother started the business.
And then within a couple years, we
are able to create 20 more jobs.
And very important jobs.
Some of the local job and important job
is we work with [? VOA, Volunteers ?] of America.
So giving second chance to people.
So reentry to the community.
So we were working with them in the kitchen, showing them--
teaching them cooking and also growing food in order to--
Gandhi Mahal is dedicated to bringing you peace
by pleasing your palate.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
And I was inspired by that message.
And what that does all this mean?
That if you know where is your food coming from,
how much carbon footprint.
Because for me, you know, experienced climate change,
disaster country, to come here.
All kind of stuff.
So we tried to do the right thing
and let the world know that these things are possible.
And one of the things, when I become a US
citizen in 2008 and judge--
during the oath ceremony, judge told us like,
we don't want you to forget your country.
We want to greet your culture.
And that was one of the biggest additional
to my spirit, my mission, a lot of energy.
And I was able to duplicate myself
within a couple of years.
We've been recognized.
So we received awards, community responsibility awards.
And in a few months, again, we get invited to White House,
during Obama time.
We were able to meet with a roundtable discussion,
how to create jobs, what is the idea?
We share our ideas.
We talk about food and food security, grow your own food,
talk about the garden kitchen of White House.
You know, there's a lot of interesting thing happened
that time.
And yeah, so it is like a lot of work and the way we do,
you know.
Sometimes it's very difficult once you--
in a mission, you keep move forward,
move forward and get things done, get things done.
And I remember, we were able to bring a student group of people
back home in Bangladesh, which is study abroad--
study abroad people, probably 21 that
went and stayed in our village home, worked in our field,
learn about closed-loop food system.
And we came back.
Then in right away, we did gardening, backyard gardening.
End of the-- middle of June, we started.
First year, we harvested 2,000 pounds of vegetable
from our garden.
Then we hiring these people and students.
We end up having 10 gardens, and we used to
harvest 10,000 pounds of vegetable every year,
local food.
And not only that, we introduced our Bangladeshi squash, beans,
uri, shim and spices, fenugreek, the methi patta.
The main important is kadi patta.
We had made-in-Minnesota kadi patta in our restaurant.
Patta as in leaf.
So he's talking about the spices.
You know?
Some of the spices that are so integral to Bengali cooking.
So it looks like--
I mean, you know, of course, Gandhi Mahal is not just
a source of income for you.
It's a labor of love.
It's a place where you've sort of brought together
all your philosophies in life.
So what happened in-- how was all this affected in February,
March, when the pandemic hit?
Yeah, so--
Does the sort of the story of a restaurant owner,
from the economic point of view, like
what happens when a pandemic hits and you're
running a restaurant?
Yeah, so we started very hard during 2008.
Then when virus like a pandemic
came, we realized-- because we dealt in a developing
country like malaria, cholera, dengue fever, which
is from-- you know, a lot of other problem,
every year we face, we handle.
And we kind of know right away, you
know, yes, this current time, social distancing
is very important.
Because those things we learn from our culture.
If science tells us do this, we learn back home.
Anyone gets sick, we kind of quarantine
separate in the room.
Even every day my mom again has
to take bed out on the sun,
then warm, bring it inside evening time, you know?
And that was all part of the process.
And it was-- even though we did the right thing,
like we started a process so that safe, social distance,
masks.
Besides that, we created extra step in our place.
We were doing a walk through process system.
So we shut down.
Even before government shut down,
we said no, it's going to be dangerous.
We see some effect and we were hearing news every day.
I said, this is going to be spread.
We call [__________] in Bangladesh.
And then we're very careful.
And our customer, our health is first priority for us.
So we call it one, two, three system.
It was very popular right away.
Everyone coming in, all neighbor.
And also, again, neighbors come together to support us.
People were ordering online, ordering gift card,
buying lot of gift cards from us.
All community came together, supported our business,
as with other business also.
Though we were affected probably,
you know, 40% down to business.
But again, we had to let go some of our waitress,
because we don't need them anymore.
But what we did, we turn into delivery drivers, some of them.
Created jobs that way.
We have to-- if you know, you want
to do something that really make difference-- different ways.
And so we were able to run business
until this and with very careful way.
What I do, also like, I'll give you one hints here.
Like we have a third-party delivery service.
So I decided, why we just learn the free delivery
and increase our own our in-house delivery,
increase some job for our waitress
and whoever wants to deliver?
So we created another job this way.
So still, we went down to 50%, probably.
We had 20 employees down to 10 employees during that time
just to-- it was very economic.
And, you know, we tried to support our staff
with the food.
Everyone has to food in their plate no matter what.
You know, whatever we can do with food.
Because we build it together.
We work together on this.
So with innovation, it looks like you're constantly
having to innovate, like think of new ways
to respond to the pandemic.
But even despite the best efforts, I mean the--
I mean it did affect you.
I mean, you said the 50% business.
Yeah.
It did affect-- yes, yes.
And also, you know, when you know.
And also, in the meantime, we are
preparing-- when you do open.
I told people probably, you know,
it's going to take a long--
make a long term plan.
And I was preparing ourself to hold the restaurant space.
We are slowing down, reducing to 60%.
So reducing to 50% to 60% to the seating capacity.
And we plan to build aquaponic, so growing planter
in between the tables, creating a distance.
So 8 foot.
What to do with the 8 foot in between?
So he says, let's grow food.
So are all plan building a planter.
So you always come up with a backup plan so that--
you know, like if you grow chili, you need spicy food,
and you can just go harvest right there.
Go get your own chili to make it spicy, [? morich ?] and stuff.
So yeah, so we made a plan actually,
just because we are ahead of every single, if you call it,
problem or game.
Because from our experience, what we
experienced growing up in a developing country,
suffering all these things.
And I says, we have to deal with this this way.
So you dealt with the pandemic, I
mean, with a lot of uncertainty, as did I think--
you know, globally, this was the response.
This was March, this was April, May.
And then finally, I think the pandemic must
have taken a new meaning for you,
because you are a resident of Minneapolis, for what happened
on 25th May with George Floyd.
Do you recall that day?
And do you recall like your head space?
What were you thinking when you heard the news?
And did you-- just tell me about your day.
Yeah, I learn about this actually--
you know, like we are handling our business
to make sure that all good.
In the meantime, this happened.
I missed the news.
When my daughter came out from a delivery,
she says, you know, something about this.
I didn't pay too attention.
But next day, when we learned that some--
you know, that George Floyd was murdered lying down and stuff,
and my daughter says, here is a video.
She captured a little bit of during when he was arrested,
taken slowly to that car and stuff ...
And then slowly things change here.
You know?
We were-- first of all, you know, it's kind of shock.
Because something happening in our area.
And during this time, we are maintaining social--
we are not struggling, but fighting back with coronavirus.
It was very important focus that time.
Then you know, a movement happened.
They came to the third precinct.
We are the next block to the third precinct area.
Our restaurant was located right there, slowly movement,
you know.
All the media everywhere, people
keep going and growing and growing.
Then we see a protest coming everywhere.
Finally, that whole-- even though we
were open for delivery take out this couple days,
we did receive orders.
But very difficult to deliver, very difficult to-- a lot of
people did not even come to this place.
A lot of canceled orders and stuff at that time.
So as we go, closed doors.
And finally, it is--
was traumatized, when 20 - 25, 26, 27 was going crazier.
You know, 27, 28.
These are like-- I see fire everywhere, you know?
Before the night that all this problem--
tear-gassing problem, you know.
It looks like a police state, like where we grew up watching
those things, you know, was--
I seen as a teenage or young age autocratic government growing up.
Those police state was--
you know, it's a different experience.
It was little traumatized beginning,
and you see fire everywhere.
That was very scary.
So I read in The New York Times article as well that,
you know, like when there were all these protesters.
And, you know, they had been--
they were tear gassed.
The medics were there, and they were treating.
And a lot of them were taken into your restaurant.
Like they were there,
like the 26th, 27th.
So I'm thinking, like was it a difficult decision for you?
Or did it come very easily for you
to immediately like open up your restaurant
for people who needed to be treated by the medics?
Yeah, this is by nature.
Like humanitarian and whatever.
I right away, when they came in, I
see in my eye people are tear gassed and I see blood.
I said, yes.
I did not hesitate anything.
I right away open up the door.
And not only open up, but created the environment.
Me and my daughter, we have the mask and face
shield and everything, make sure that we are personally
secure ourselves, so that virus
considering that and putting a lot of sanitizers everywhere.
And they also-- by the way, we had supply from everywhere
came in.
You know?
Don't worry about those things.
But it was not a difficult decision for me.
Because we know we need this.
And right away, my--
sometime, you know, times [________]..
Times tell you-- it tells you what to do.
Your heart is in the right position,
you make a good decision.
And finally, while all this is happening,
and you've been hit by a pandemic,
then your city is up in flames, your restaurant, right,
is set on fire.
And I think that is how I, of course, learned
about you, from the article.
And I'm curious--
I mean, again, the same kind of question is that-- you know,
I understand that protesters, victims, these are
not anodyne categories.
But, I mean, very bluntly speaking,
you were the victim of the fire.
And yet, you know, the headline said that you
stood with the protesters.
Where is-- I mean, this could not
have been a momentary response.
Right?
So what is the history behind like, you know,
sort of this thinking, that you immediately
sided with the protesters?
Though you lost your source of livelihood in that fire.
Yes, but you know, I was--
this is what do you call, recreate something.
We've been dreaming, you know?
We can recreate this positive way of thinking.
We can rebuild our building.
It's very important.
And even though it has been like 12 years of building community,
and restaurant, and so many important pieces was inside--
my grandfather picture, and just hard to collect again,
and other parts of the artwork and labor of love.
My daughter grow up ... and all these good feelings.
But at the end, you know, I believe
every time something happen for good reason, you know.
And we can rebuild.
We can come back.
And there's probably now we can--
you know, what do you call?
Recreate something even more better thing right now and more
stronger.
So and that's just something I felt, like you know, justice.
Like you know it is what do you call--
is very important.
Justice is very important.
Because, you know, if people have been--
what do you call, suffer for a long, long time.
Long, long time people are suffering for what is all this?
All about justice, you know?
So--
And you're referring to African-Americans
as a community in the US?
Or whom you think justice should have been meted out
or should be meted out?
Yeah, we need-- yes, of course.
As an Asian community person, sometimes we
have immigrant privilege, I can say.
We have a lot of things.
People think about us, oh, these guys are doctor, engineer.
You know?
A lot of other--
and I see people treating our Black brothers and sisters,
our Native brothers and sisters, a little different.
Slowly you learn and focus on this.
But for me, when I go to--
when I started business, I found a lot of people come together
to support.
Went to-- because it's not easy to do business, come from--
do business, come from another country.
But it's a wonderful country.
It gave us the opportunity to achieve our dreams and goals.
And something I feel ...
Something is deep problem.
I don't know what is that, whoever made these laws
or all of this system and all these things.
There is some big problem, probably.
People need to go deep and find out and solve the problem.
But there is a problem.
There is issues.
I'm curious.
You mentioned the term Asian privilege.
I mean, so do you think there is no racism against, you know,
South Asian immigrants?
It's only directed towards the African-American community?
There-- probably there is.
I haven't experienced beside sometimes traveling around--
if you travel in the airport, you probably face some.
Otherwise, you know, you don't feel that much of things here,
that kind of problem, I think.
Yeah, I never faced those.
From your own life experience, you
did feel that, you know, the rhetoric of the American dream.
I mean, it does--
in your life, it has been true.
You were able to make your dreams realized
in this country.
Is that how you would put it?
Yeah.
Sorry, I didn't get it.
What was the question again?
I'm just saying, so through your life,
you felt that the American dream,
it worked for you, definitely.
It's worked for me.
You know, I came all the way from hottest country
in the world, came to the coldest city
in the country, the best city, and living my life building
community.
You know, this is a privilege.
This is achievement.
And we work hard with those things.
And you know, but you can, you've seen
destruction everywhere.
All our life.
It's something-- sometimes, you know,
destruction of a building was--
in a way, it's a blessing in different ways, I can say.
Sometimes, you know.
Because we can rebuild, rethink something here.
But this is the big problem, you know.
This is a big problem.
And what I believe in right now, we all
need to speak out about this, what is the problem.
If we don't speak out, it's a problem.
If I face something, you know, we should have a--
we should talk about it, then solve the problem.
And important is, you know, we go--
in Bangladesh, we said no problem to everything.
You know, even though we are suffering in floods, this and that.
But we say, we smile and solve problem.
Move forward
and try to get the job done.
And so this is--
it's a better place for us to achieve our dream and goal.
And not only that, I believe we can work toward justice.
We were-- in a developing country like Bangladesh
other people, we cannot protest like this.
You know, you cannot protest against police.
Very difficult. Your life will be danger.
People will disappear.
Your family, everyone will be out.
You know?
But right now, right now, we have like a blank canvas
to paint an image of new world.
Now is the time, I think.
It's time to do those things here.
So we have some questions for you from Bidisha.
And we will end soon Bidisha and
I think you should ask him yourself.
But so Ruhel, what's happening with the restaurant
right now?
I saw that there was a big GoFundMe started for you.
So will the restaurant be back?
I think people in Minneapolis will definitely
want to know that.
Yes, we'll be rebuilding the same building.
But right now, we'll be opening up a temporary kitchen
to do takeout and delivery and some catering
while we are building a new building here in Minneapolis.
Yes, we'll be rebuilding.
OK.
And there's a question that I'm asking everyone
in the series, which is, was there a particular moment when
you realized that you're living through a pandemic,
a historic pandemic?
And if there is one, then can you describe that moment?
Yes, it was like we were--
I felt like we were just getting to mission work kind of thing,
like a very--
not too many, you know, like very stressful.
It's very stressful.
Because not only that, how to keep your patrons,
yourself, your family safe from virus.
That was a very, what do you call, a deep concern, you know?
But we dealt with it.
And we're continuously dealing this way, you know?
And it's, you have to deal this for the next couple years.
It's not going to go away easily.
It's going to come back.
So it cannot depend on no one.
We have to depend on ourselves, you know?
We have to depend--
make sure that we stay safe, make
sure we keep our brothers and sisters
and our community members safe.
And by wearing a mask.
Simple thing, you know?
And keeping the distance.
It doesn't mean you have to stop eating,
you have to stop growing.
If you do everything, this is how
we move forward but with a safety distance, with a mask.
So is there anything else you would
like to share Ruhel?
I mean, I think I would like to open up
sort of the session for other--
Yeah, so what I'm thinking, when I say it's a blank canvas,
we're thinking about imagining a new world, new something.
So for our place in the corner, we're
going to open up a global design collaboration for the building.
So now, when I say we come back strong from the ashes,
and we try like a Phoenix bird.
And how do that?
That's an international design collaboration
will help us that.
So we want to make a best building, sustainable building.
So eco building or certified building so that we
don't depend on either electricity for--
we can produce all these things here,
and grow food, and beehives, and educational stuff,
and teach our young children, our young people.
Teach our angry people how to calm down, you know?
Through working, through taking care of environment and stuff.
And just be the change as I was inspired by, be the change
and make world a better place and continuously
working with community.
And we'll come back, because building may be burned,
but I have community built over a few--
12, 13 years.
It's still with us.
And that's why it will come back strong.
And we have to come back.
So thank you.
I will open up the session for questions.
But I will definitely
thank you for your time and your world view.
It is so optimistic, something that I think we all need, just
this perspective on how--
you know, the kind of, basically,
losses that you're suffering right now.
And even then, all your response is so positive and optimistic.
And that is indeed [AUDIO CUTS OUT].
So thank you so much.
And we will have questions right now.
I really, really encourage all of you
to ask questions to Ruhel.
He loves-- he has many stories which he hasn't yet shared.
So maybe it will come up.
And Bidisha, do you want me to read out your question?
I have a question from Bisdisha as well.
Or do you want to just ask him?
Should I read out the question?
You're on mute.
You're on mute, Bidisha.
OK.
Hello!
Hi.
Thank you so much for your very inspiring talk.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you as well.
You had mentioned that you were thinking
about some creative ways to have social distancing
in your restaurant by growing plants.
I was wondering if there's any forum for small business
owners like yourselves to share these ideas.
Because everyone's struggling and everyone's
looking for ways to make this whole situation
feasible in the long run.
So is there any forum to exchange such ideas?
I don't know, but we can create those together.
This is what will come back.
That's when we can create it together.
That's a very simple thing, what we followed in this.
But I was very open, you know.
If you look at the Facebook during the pandemic time.
So I was doing some of the how to process--
what was the process come in and take the food out, you know.
Yes.
And, you know, another thing I did during the pandemic,
I get rid of all the cold drinks.
I was making our own drinks--
Chai, turmeric drinks, turmeric Chai, and also the drink
juice we made with a pineapple, turmeric, ginger.
So you boil ginger and then strong water is coming.
Then slowly let the water cool down.
Then use with the pineapple and other stuff.
So that was like a-- that helps your immune system, you know.
And I learned that because when I
used to get sick in little age, my mom
used to feed me pineapple.
That was like-- every single thing we did or I watched doing,
our parents and sister, grandmother,
it's working for me here.
It's really working for me.
So at that time I was able to keep our staff and everyone
boosted with pineapple.
Great.
Any other questions?
Anyone else wants to ask a question to Ruhel?
Ruth?
Yeah.
Hi there.
Thank you so much, Ruhel.
I really appreciate you being here today
and sharing your story.
One thing I wanted to ask you a little bit more about
is food justice.
And for people who are interested to find out
more about food justice issues in their community,
do you have any recommendations about where they should start?
It seems this has been a life long passion for you,
and you've drawn inspiration from a lot of different people
in a lot of different places.
But I wondered if you had any advice.
Yes.
So I think--
I'll say one thing right here, you know.
What I noticed here.
We have in America, we have a serious food injustice and food
caste system.
We have a food caste system.
Because first of all, people are slow poisoning us
through the food.
And also, some people, they are living healthy also
through the food.
So why is there two kinds?
We divided people, organic, non-organic, GMO, non-GMO,
you know.
These are the very seriously food caste
system going on here.
And when you go to like a big organic store, who goes there?
Who can afford those food?
Think about that.
Who can afford to the regular food?
So I felt those are serious issues going on there.
So I started grow your own food.
Which is, you know, satyagraha.
Gandhi says one of the main things is, grow your own food.
And that, a few things happen.
You can address climate change through growing your own food.
So low carbon going in the air.
And also, you can get 100% nutrition
from your food, which is transporting food,
you lose 50%, 60% nutrition.
Even though maybe something was green, they used something.
And also, it's not you lose waste.
And a lot of other stuff involved.
But yes, it is very--
it is very important here.
Because how to address our food caste system.
So what I believe in, grow your own food.
And one food.
Food should be called food.
All should be organic food, healthy food.
Why are you dividing people?
So that people have suffering for obesity problem, depression,
high blood pressure.
You know, high blood pressure, why you have high blood
pressure, people getting it?
Because you're putting pressure on the food--
the chicken and other stuff--
and growing them within 10 days, 20 days.
And you think this food is getting high blood pressure.
You know, it's a lot of systematic problem.
And who's using-- who is eating this food?
Think about those things, you know?
Yes, this is a big issue for me.
And I just keep going.
This is what whole rebuilding, design will be built in
food system inside.
You know?
We were one of the first aquaculture in the country,
in our basement.
We now-- that's why we said we have like a blank canvas now.
We can paint whatever you want to paint.
And that's why when I do the design collaboration,
you participate, anyone can participate,
so that we can address those issues that can
lead by example to the world.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
Other questions?
OK.
So thank you, Ruhel, and thank you everyone for attending.
I hope you enjoyed listening to Ruhel Islam.
So we'll be continuing with this series like I said.
And then next Tuesday and Thursday, we have Batool Zaidi
lined up.
We'll be talking about an international faculty at Western.
And she'll be talking about the difficulties of being
an international faculty and conducting research
during pandemic.
And we'll be talking to Kamrun Nessa, who's
from Bangladesh.
And she will be talking about running a community
kitchen in Seattle.
So actually, Ruhel is one of our very, very few participants
who is not from the Pacific Northwest region.
So that's exciting to have him here.
So I hope all of you will keep coming back and asking
questions and having this conversation.
And all of this is being recorded.
So if you want to access this later,
you just have to keep in touch with the Center for Pacific
Northwest Studies, and it will be up soon.
I really appreciate all of you being here,
and I'll just hand it over to Athena.
Thank you so much.
I'm so grateful for these discussions.
I really look forward to every one.
Thank you, Ruhel.
That was wonderful.
And Dharitri, always, I mean, what
you bring is so amazing to Western C.A.R.E.S.
and to our community.
So thank you so much.
And I hope you do join us again.
We have a lot lined up that's just wonderful.
Thank you so much.
Have a wonderful afternoon, everyone.
Thank you very much.
Have a great day.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.

In collections

Stories To Tell Oral History Project: A South Asian Perspective on COVID-19

Details

Title: Ruhel Islam interview
Description: Ruhel Islam, owner of Gandhi Mahal Restaurant in Minneapolis, discusses life in Bangladesh, creating community over food, Minneapolis protests and Black Lives Matter. This interview was conducted by Dr. Dharitri Bhattacharjee and presented online initially via the Western C.A.R.E.S. program and website (with Athena Roth as session host).
Date created: 2020-07-16
Type of resource: Moving image
Contributor: Islam, Ruhel (interviewee)
Bhattacharjee, Dharitri (interviewer)
Roth, Athena (host)
Western Washington University. Outreach and Continuing Education. Western C.A.R.E.S. (supporting host)
Genre: interviews
Related to: Stories To Tell Oral History Project: A South Asian Perspective on COVID-19
Related item link: http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv345932/
Publisher: Digital object published by the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Libraries Heritage Resources.
Physical location: WaBeCP
Western Washington University
Repository: Center for Pacific Northwest Studies
Access conditions: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
This resource is made available for educational purposes, and is subject to U.S. and copyright laws. For more information about rights or obtaining copies this resource, please contact the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University, Bellingham WA 98225, USA (360-650-7534; cpnws@wwu.edu), and refer to the identifier and title of the object. All citations/credits must reference: [title/identifier of this object], Stories To Tell Oral History Project, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Washington University.
Identifier (local): storiestotell_20200716_islam
Identifier (mabel PID): wwu:37428
Physical description note: The original session was broadcast and recorded in Zoom, with this edited/titled version of the recording created by CPNWS staff for the archives.

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