Rocky Barua is a PMP-certified business contractor. Originally from Bangladesh, he has lived along Columbia Pike for many years.
We moved here from Chittagong, Bangladesh in 2001 and the first place we lived was South 7th Street at my uncle's house, two, three blocks down. We actually didn't know anybody besides him. His wife is my mom's cousin, that's the only people we knew. Before we moved my mom called my uncle saying "We are moving to America and we don't know anybody." He told her "You can come and stay at our house for as long as you need." So we moved there and stayed them for about eight months. I went to TJ [Thomas Jefferson Middle School] at that time and then we moved to the Ballston area for two, three years, and then my parents bought this house just off the Pike.
I was twelve when I came here. We were part of the lottery system. America does this lottery thing in each country and you can fill out the application as a lottery. If you're lucky and get picked, then they give you the option to come here. They look at your background and see if you can actually survive here. After that you go through a whole interview process. You have to go to the embassy and talk to them and they check all your backgrounds. Then after everything works out, then they'll give you the visa.
I started sixth grade here. It was shocking at first because back home they barely teach you English. All they do is they make you read books and then memorize what you read. You don't understand the language, it's more memorization. writing on your exam; no conversation. It's all Bangla. So when you move here, you understand the words but you're not verbally able to communicate with anybody because you've never really spoken English. So sixth grade, seventh grade, it was just tough. Luckily I made one friend at that time, from Morocco, someone who spoke Arabic as his native language. We'd take the same bus and we were both in in the same HILT [High Intensity Language Training] class. He would call me every day and keep talking and talking and talking. He would put me on a three-way phone call with other classmates. At first I had no idea what' was going on, but they just kept talking and kept talking and then slowly, I guess I started talking back and then it just kind of picked up. We would talk about homework and stuff, but then I would just kind of do the homework but I couldn’t really say anything to him. He just kept calling and calling and I guess my mouth opened up finally.
I was twelve when I came here. We were part of the lottery system. America does this lottery thing in each country and you can fill out the application as a lottery. If you're lucky and get picked, then they give you the option to come here. They look at your background and see if you can actually survive here. After that you go through a whole interview process. You have to go to the embassy and talk to them and they check all your backgrounds. Then after everything works out, then they'll give you the visa.
I started sixth grade here. It was shocking at first because back home they barely teach you English. All they do is they make you read books and then memorize what you read. You don't understand the language, it's more memorization. writing on your exam; no conversation. It's all Bangla. So when you move here, you understand the words but you're not verbally able to communicate with anybody because you've never really spoken English. So sixth grade, seventh grade, it was just tough. Luckily I made one friend at that time, from Morocco, someone who spoke Arabic as his native language. We'd take the same bus and we were both in in the same HILT [High Intensity Language Training] class. He would call me every day and keep talking and talking and talking. He would put me on a three-way phone call with other classmates. At first I had no idea what' was going on, but they just kept talking and kept talking and then slowly, I guess I started talking back and then it just kind of picked up. We would talk about homework and stuff, but then I would just kind of do the homework but I couldn’t really say anything to him. He just kept calling and calling and I guess my mouth opened up finally.
I made friends pretty fast. We are all immigrants in the class, we were all taking HILT classes. So we were all kind of just the odd bunch. We had kids from Argentina, Morocco, El Salvador. There were only a few Asian kids, it was mostly Hispanic and a couple of Middle Eastern. There were only one or two other south Asians, They were also from Bangladesh. There was one Indian kid at that time. I did feel accepted there. I never felt like they don't want you here or to just go back or something. I never felt that way.
I moved to Swanson Middle School for half of seventh and eighth grade and then went to Washington & Lee High School after that. Then I went to college, to VCU in Richmond where I studied Business Administration. Richmond was a culture shock after living in Arlington. I remember my first night there I heard gunshots. The college used to send out notifications saying "Stay under these perimeters, don't go out of that area." Sometimes we heard of kids getting robbed and all that. I lived in the dorm right by Monroe Park, and then after my first year, I was living in Chamberlayne Road, which was worse. But I used to drive, so I would just go to my house and just stay in my room and I would never come out except mostly when I had to go to class. But now when I go back to visit, oh my God the whole city changed. VCU bought out a lot of the areas and they just keep building and building and now it’s just became a college area.
My parents didn’t get to go to college; I'm the first one to go to college in our family. There was a lot of pressure, because of culture, especially here, their whole idea is to go. Most of our parents, most of my cousin's parents, most of the community people that I know, their parents didn't go to college. So when they come here, the whole main focus is that you need to do something with your life. We brought you here. We are working hard to provide for you guys. So you need to go to college and make something out of your life. So, that pressure is always there. So for that, I had to go to college.
I moved to Swanson Middle School for half of seventh and eighth grade and then went to Washington & Lee High School after that. Then I went to college, to VCU in Richmond where I studied Business Administration. Richmond was a culture shock after living in Arlington. I remember my first night there I heard gunshots. The college used to send out notifications saying "Stay under these perimeters, don't go out of that area." Sometimes we heard of kids getting robbed and all that. I lived in the dorm right by Monroe Park, and then after my first year, I was living in Chamberlayne Road, which was worse. But I used to drive, so I would just go to my house and just stay in my room and I would never come out except mostly when I had to go to class. But now when I go back to visit, oh my God the whole city changed. VCU bought out a lot of the areas and they just keep building and building and now
My parents didn’t get to go to college; I'm the first one to go to college in our family. There was a lot of pressure, because of culture, especially here, their whole idea is to go. Most of our parents, most of my cousin's parents, most of the community people that I know, their parents didn't go to college. So when they come here, the whole main focus is that you need to do something with your life. We brought you here. We are working hard to provide for you guys. So you need to go to college and make something out of your life. So, that pressure is always there. So for that, I had to go to college.
After college, I came back here to Arlington. In the beginning I didn't get any job. I was doing Uber most of the time because I shad student loans to pay off and after six months the payments kick in; there's no break. I was also doing food delivery jobs in Alexandria. One of my community friends, Shibly Shiraj, he had a delivery company called Express Entree. I needed a job so I was delivering for him. Then slowly I got a contracting job with a company, Grant Thornton, and that was the turning point in my life I was doing business requirement analysis for the FAA system. I got to learn all that stuff and slowly expended my knowledge. I also just became a PMP, a certified project manager. Now I work for NTT Data and I'm working for Customs and Border Protection (CBP). It was good during Trump's time because he funded so much money for the border wall and everything. So the CBP decided to hire lots of people, contractors. After the Presidential change less money was given for CBP contracts. I run into a lot of South Asians in contracting; a lot of Indian and Pakistani people. I actually have not met one Bangladeshi person at work so far, which has been surprising.
Both of my parents work two jobs each to just survive. My mom works at the food court in Pentagon and my dad is the manager at the Exxon on Clarendon Boulevard. My dad also used to work at a Papa John's as a delivery man. That's a lot of work. They've been doing this since we got here. My mom doesn't even take days off, she works seven days a week.
It is not an easier situation for them than it was in Bangladesh. If they were back home right now, they would've just retired. I see a lot of my mom's friends back home that have buildings and they're landlords. They bought land way back in the day and the building they’re in lets them just live off the rent. Every time I go visit they're just all hanging out, going to places and enjoying their life.
Both of my parents work two jobs each to just survive. My mom works at the food court in Pentagon and my dad is the manager at the Exxon on Clarendon Boulevard. My dad also used to work at a Papa John's as a delivery man. That's a lot of work. They've been doing this since we got here. My mom doesn't even take days off, she works seven days a week.
It is not an easier situation for them than it was in Bangladesh. If they were back home right now, they would've just retired. I see a lot of my mom's friends back home that have buildings and they're landlords. They bought land way back in the day and the building they’re in lets them just live off the rent. Every time I go visit they're just all hanging out, going to places and enjoying their life.
Our family is Buddhist, but back home we're only 1%. Most of my friends, my parents’ friends, they're all Muslims or Christian or Hindus. Bangladesh is mostly Muslim. Here we have a temple in Alexandria, right by Fort Belvoir. It's not big, just a house that they made it into a temple for the time being. It's all Bangladeshi there. Right across the way, there's a Vietnamese temple. Sometimes we do see the Vietnamese group come in and they'll be on their temple and we Bangladeshi people are on our temple. So it's interesting. When you come here, people don't really care about religion as much. Back home it’s mostly religious. Even though we say we're a democratic country, religion plays a big role. Back home, if you were trying to find a job or anything, they know what religion you are mostly based on your last name. My name is Barua and all the Baruas in Bangladesh are Buddhist. So then you won't be able to find a job so easily or people doesn't really give you priorities about anything. But here, your last name could be anything, you could be any religion and nobody cares because there's nothing with the religion here. It's just, if you do the work, yeah, you're welcome.
I’ve also been involved with Prio Bangla [Bangladeshi cultural and charitable organization]. The Bangladeshi community in this area is really small, so everybody knows each other. I used to dance with Shristee Nrittyangong School of Dance and that's how I got to know Pryalal [Karmakar, Prio Bangla’s director] and everybody in the circle. Pryalal said, "Okay, since you dance, you can perform in our functions. Then we became close friends and he asked me to help out managing and setting up at our events. Our biggest event is the Street Fair and it’s a whole day event with performances from different groups and cultures. It became a yearly thing where I volunteer to help out and set up everything for Prio Bangla. Since the Prio Bangla street fair is right near my house, sometimes they'll use our backyard to build all the frames and display booths or anything they need because they can just carry it right there.
I’ve also been involved with Prio Bangla [Bangladeshi cultural and charitable organization]. The Bangladeshi community in this area is really small, so everybody knows each other. I used to dance with Shristee Nrittyangong School of Dance and that's how I got to know Pryalal [Karmakar, Prio Bangla’s director] and everybody in the circle. Pryalal said, "Okay, since you dance, you can perform in our functions. Then we became close friends and he asked me to help out managing and setting up at our events. Our biggest event is the Street Fair and it’s a whole day event with performances from different groups and cultures. It became a yearly thing where I volunteer to help out and set up everything for Prio Bangla. Since the Prio Bangla street fair is right near my house, sometimes they'll use our backyard to build all the frames and display booths or anything they need because they can just carry it right there.
There have been a lot of changes since we moved to the Pike. The Food Star area used to be really busy with a lot of Hispanic people, Asian people, from all the apartments around here. They had the barber shop, a billiard place and we used to go shop there all the time. Now it's been torn down and if you go to Harris Teeter, you'll notice there are not as many cultural people anymore. It's mostly...I guess you can tell they're doing well in their life. Because if you look at the price difference, Harris Teeter has higher prices than if you go to Food Star or even Glebe Market. Food Star had a lot of cultural food. They had the Hispanic section, the Asian section and a lot of fruits and stuff that you can never find in Harris Teeter. I've never seen tamarind in Harris Teeter, but Food Star would have a bunch in packets. Then there's a lot of noodles that we eat from back home, one of our noodles called Maggi. It's a masala noodle, masala flavor. We eat ramen, but ramen is not the same as this. The seasoning is just different than ramen noodles would have, but then you won't find this in a Harris Teeter grocery store. Things like that, you miss. I know a lot of people are saying the area’s being gentrified, but I haven't fully seen the gentrification yet. A lot of these houses around here are still empty, it's condos and new apartments. I'm not sure who's going to afford to live there because even a one bedroom condo is three hundred, $400,000. I keep seeing these prices, so I'm not sure who is moving in. I guess when they do that's when life will change. Once Amazon comes in fully, I'm pretty sure all these places will fill up with a lot of people. I don't even own this house, my parents own this house and I get text messages all the time like, "Do you want to talk about selling your house?" I don't even own this house.” Right now I guess it's a seller's market, since all the house prices are high and the interest rate is low. All these new condos are being built but there needs to be affordable housing also. I'm not sure if that will help, because then everybody who is part of the affordable housing is moving in, but then you don't see the rich people moving in. So now it's unbalanced, but maybe when Amazon comes and COVID is over, they'll move in.
I am also very comfortable with the fact that there are people from everywhere here. Growing up here I've met people of all different kinds. Here it's pretty mixed, but when I was living in the Ballston area in north Arlington it was mainly Hispanic, before they broke it down and built all those fancy new apartments there. A lot of my friends were living there, but then as soon as they broke all of that down and started building the new style apartments and the rent went up, everybody moved. If you go to Barcroft Apartments down the Pike, people are still staying here, but then for how long? We already see everything's broken down and new apartments are being built. The question is what is affordable? People can say, "Okay, well based on the market, $1,400 for one bedroom is affordable." But then people that live there will be like, "I'm not paying $1,400 for a one bedroom. I can move out a little bit further and get a two bedroom for $1,400, or one bedroom for $700.”
I see myself staying here. I can't move out of this area. It's home. I am going to try to stay here, big time. But the problem is I don't think I can even afford a house here. So maybe I’ll get an apartment because even little houses are six, $700,000 to buy, which is a lot of money.
I see possibilities for my future in this area. I'm pretty sure there'll be a lot of companies moving in here after Amazon. It's right next to the Pentagon, and if you take the number 16 bus, you'll be in D.C within half an hour. Bus 16 is always running. There's always four or five of them. When I had to go work before COVID I would always just take 16 and would be at work within 30 minutes. Columbia Pike is a prime spot, so I'm pretty sure a lot of people will move in. Even businesses might take some of those buildings and open up offices because it's right next to everything. in 10 years, hopefully, if I can afford it, I can buy a house here and still live here. But I know for sure I'm not moving out of Arlington or even this area right now, especially doing government jobs. I'm working from home right now, which is great. When I have to go into the office in the morning, I can't drive there, parking over there is ridiculous. So I always have to take the bus. And this for me right now is a prime spot because I just kind of run to the stop, not even a block away.
The Pike community is not D.C, but the way I always felt here is, when I was growing up, going clubbing and whatever, you go to D.C and you see the whole lifestyle over there; D.C is always like a rush, rush, rush. But then you come to Arlington it's kind of quiet. It's not dead, but it's quiet for peaceful living. And there's no crime, almost. The police or fire or ambulance they're always here within two, three minutes if you call them. So life here is just great.
I am also very comfortable with the fact that there are people from everywhere here. Growing up here I've met people of all different kinds. Here it's pretty mixed, but when I was living in the Ballston area in north Arlington it was mainly Hispanic, before they broke it down and built all those fancy new apartments there. A lot of my friends were living there, but then as soon as they broke all of that down and started building the new style apartments and the rent went up, everybody moved. If you go to Barcroft Apartments down the Pike, people are still staying here, but then for how long? We already see everything's broken down and new apartments are being built. The question is what is affordable? People can say, "Okay, well based on the market, $1,400 for one bedroom is affordable." But then people that live there will be like, "I'm not paying $1,400 for a one bedroom. I can move out a little bit further and get a two bedroom for $1,400, or one bedroom for $700.”
I see myself staying here. I can't move out of this area. It's home. I am going to try to stay here, big time. But the problem is I don't think I can even afford a house here. So maybe I’ll get an apartment because even little houses are six, $700,000 to buy, which is a lot of money.
I see possibilities for my future in this area. I'm pretty sure there'll be a lot of companies moving in here after Amazon. It's right next to the Pentagon, and if you take the number 16 bus, you'll be in D.C within half an hour. Bus 16 is always running. There's always four or five of them. When I had to go work before COVID I would always just take 16 and would be at work within 30 minutes. Columbia Pike is a prime spot, so I'm pretty sure a lot of people will move in. Even businesses might take some of those buildings and open up offices because it's right next to everything. in 10 years, hopefully, if I can afford it, I can buy a house here and still live here. But I know for sure I'm not moving out of Arlington or even this area right now, especially doing government jobs. I'm working from home right now, which is great. When I have to go into the office in the morning, I can't drive there, parking over there is ridiculous. So I always have to take the bus. And this for me right now is a prime spot because I just kind of run to the stop, not even a block away.
The Pike community is not D.C, but the way I always felt here is, when I was growing up, going clubbing and whatever, you go to D.C and you see the whole lifestyle over there; D.C is always like a rush, rush, rush. But then you come to Arlington it's kind of quiet. It's not dead, but it's quiet for peaceful living. And there's no crime, almost. The police or fire or ambulance they're always here within two, three minutes if you call them. So life here is just great.
I haven't experienced much serious discrimination in this community, not the way people would think. Maybe once or twice and then it would be people that probably don’t even live here, because we know all our neighbors. There'll be some random people that will make a weird remark or something. And I think about them, “do you even live here?” Plus I feel that here, we actually don't even see that many white folks compared to all the other cultural people. I figure racism is mostly out the question because we are almost all immigrants here. I’ve never felt like people will verbally abuse you or anything. None of that. I feel safe, accepted. All the businesses over here are run by all immigrant people like us. My uncle owns the gas station right across the Pike, then the kabob place right here, Family Kabob, one of my middle school friends owns it now. And then the Chinese and Japanese restaurants, the Thai place, even the McDonald's, are all owned and worked by immigrant people. It's a really good thing.
Interview and photography by Lloyd Wolf.
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