Nearly 19 years ago the number of Indians in Frisco consisted of 193 people. In the last two years, that population has climbed to almost 130 thousand, 14 percent, of total Collin County population and continues to increase in 2018. Part of the growing number of Indians in the Frisco area is freshman Shivani Kosuri, whose parents are from Hyderabad.  

“Being Indian in Frisco isn’t much different aside from the community of people I’m around,” Kosuri said. “In India where I’m from, there’s not much diversity when it comes to the type of people.”

While being Indian in Frisco isn’t much of a challenge for Kosuri due to the presence of diversity in the area, she still experiences stereotypes because of her ethnicity.

“The most common stereotype I hear is ‘you’re brown, so you’re smart’ and I think that is funny because that’s like saying your skin color makes you intelligent,” Kosuri said. “The other one being that if you’re Asian [or Indian], you have a better chance of being more successful in life.”

Although being Indian for Kosuri comes with stereotypes, there are also advantages that include speaking a foreign language and attending traditional events.

“I speak Telugu at home and when I go to Indian events,” Kosuri said. “I am also Hindu and usually go to the Hanuman Temple, which is really nice, well maintained and reconstructed so now it reminds you of a traditional temple you would see back in Indian.”

With a total of 21 public Indian holidays, Kosuri makes an effort to celebrate as many as she can, the main ones being Holi and Diwali.  

“I try to celebrate as many holidays as possible like Holi, which is when there are numerous colored powders that you throw at each other,” Kosuri said. “The other main one is Diwali, which we do firecrackers and a bunch of activities with lighting things on fire.”

Along with herself, Kosuri’s dad Praveen also enjoys the traditions of Indian events and holidays.

“I love to celebrate festivals and attend traditional Indian events which are common amongst our culture,” Praveen said. “My family is very traditional in the sense that everything we do is done together and over generations that gets passed down through valuable items from my grandparents.”

Although Praveen moved his family to the states for more opportunities and better living standards, he misses his family who still live in India.

“I moved to America for better opportunities and better standards of living for myself and my family,” Praveen said. “I miss my family in India and at times think of where I was born and grew up and my relatives.”

Surrounded by India on its left and right sides, Bangladesh is home to more than 160 million people with junior Zayan Chowdhury identifying with its culture.

“My family is from Bangladesh,” Chowdhury said. “There’s not a lot of Bengali people here other than family so it’s cool when I randomly run into other Bengali people.”

With not a lot of people in Frisco being of Bengali descent, Chowdhury is often subjected to racial assumptions.

“I can’t tell you how many times people have I thought I was Indian and I’m pretty sure most people still think I’m Indian,” Chowdhury said. “I’ve [also] experienced people automatically assuming I’m smart.”

Not only does his race cause people to assume and tease, but so to does his religion.

“I practice Islam at a mosque,” Chowdhury said. “There is a pretty big Muslim community [here] so it’s cool [but] I’m subjected to a lot of jokes for reasons that stopped bothering me a long time ago.”

Although Chowdhury lives in the United States, his family still takes part in Bengali traditions and celebrations.

“We celebrate basically everything with cookouts and family gatherings, most notably Bengali New Years,” Chowdhury said. “It’s different and more festive in Bangladesh, but that’s what I’ve experienced.”

Chowdhury also speaks Bengali and has visited his ancestral homeland many times.

“I speak Bengali, although not often, but it’s usually just at home,” Chowdhury said. “I’ve been to Bangladesh six or seven times and the cities get super congested, [but] the rural parts are really nice and spacious.”

While being of Bengali culture comes with celebrations and visiting the country, Chowdhury has also experienced the need to meet certain expectations.

“Although Bengali culture can be strict in some ways, it’s not as strict as other South Asian cultures,” Chowdhury said. “[But] there are high expectations both in achievements and abiding by cultural guidelines in terms of hospitality and such.”

Because of such expectations, Chowdhury sometimes finds it difficult to balance the culture of Bangladesh and Frisco all at once.

“It’s hard, even frustrating sometimes because Bengali cultural expectations are so different [from Frisco’s], it can be hard to find a balance,” Chowdhury said.

As the sixth most populated country in the world, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is home to more than 150 million people, several regional languages including Urdu, Punjabi, Saraiki, Pashto and Sindhi with about 96 percent of the population following the religion of Islam. Even though she wasn’t born in Pakistan, junior Minaa Ragmani identifies with the Pakistani country, it’s traditions, and customs.

Relocating from Pakistan to the United States in search of better opportunities, her mother and father, Sonia and Mohammad Rahmani, decided to start their family in the Frisco area.

“My husband had been in Texas and we liked the area, we heard very good things about Frisco ISD,” Sonia said. “We wanted our children to have the best education possible, and if we had the means to do it, then why not?”

Even though Pakistan and the United States are in opposite sides of the world, they are seemingly similar when it comes to the duties of daily routines.

“The daily life is pretty much like life here, kids go to school in the morning and the adults go to work,” Sonia said. “The women there mostly start working just like here, but in some areas, women are still housewives, just as there are some here.”

However one of the main difference in lifestyle between the two countries is the dedication and prominence of the Muslim faith in Pakistan.

“We follow the religion Islam,” Sonia said. “It is a very peaceful religion over there and involves five day prayers.”

Through the sharing of the same faith throughout the nation of Pakistan, there is a sense of community and unity with one another through Islam.

“All the neighbors are friends with each other and hang out together almost every day in Pakistan,” Rahmani said. “Whether it’s going to the mosque together or meeting for dinner there’s always a reason to meet together at the end of the day.”

Warming up to the city of Frisco and finding their place in the community was made easier through the local mosques and the friends that were made there.

“Most of our close friends here we know through the mosques since we don’t have any immediate family here in this area,” Rahmani said. “We go to five different mosques, Plano, Irving, Carrollton, Frisco and Richardson and since we visit so often we end up making close friendships with people that become family.”

Although Pakistan is almost 14,000 miles away from the city of Frisco, there are a couple different places the Rahmani family visits to trace back their roots to their culture.

“There are many different restaurants in the area that we like to visit that offer Pakistani food,” Rahmani said. “But we also get most of our meat from a grocery store called Oasis, because their meats are from animals that were killed a certain, holy way.”

The sense of being accepted was transcended throughout the mosque and Islamic community, however the same could not be said for Rahmani in the school environment.

“I moved to the United States when I was in the seventh grade,” Rahmani said. “September 11 came around and that’s when people started calling me a terrorist.”

Even by taking precautions with how she would address her culture to Americans at her new school, Rahmani still felt defeated by the treatment she was receiving from her peers.

“I didn’t advertise my Muslim faith around school because my parents warned me to be careful because we didn’t know how the culture was over here,” Rahmani said. “One month into the school year I remember freaking out and crying because I didn’t know what to do, this stuff doesn’t happen in Pakistan because everyone is the same religion.”

However, living in a country where racism and attacks towards Muslims are common, Sonia and Mohammad feel safe and accepted in the DFW area.

“We don’t really have any fears, kids growing up here have an understanding of other cultures,” Mohammad said. “We have done our best to share with [our] children about our culture and also to practice what we preach, our hope for them is to continue practicing their culture and live their lives with the same values that we have lived ours.”  

Teaching their children about their culture is a very important part of being Pakistani in the United States for Sonia and Mohammad.

“I think culture for us starts from home, for myself, I know that I can follow my culture in any way possible, from [wearing] a headcovering to the way to talk to parents, elders, and greeting them first,” Sonia said. “If you teach your kids all that from the very beginning, there shouldn’t be a problem with your kids not knowing their culture and they will learn to follow it and treasure it their whole life.”

Related Stories

Faces of Frisco: Being European

Faces of Frisco: Being East and Southeast Asian

Faces of Frisco: Being Latino

Faces of Frisco: Being black