India, March 21 -- Two winters ago, when I was in Austin, the capital of Texas, I suddenly received an invitation to McAllen, another Texas town minutes away from the US-Mexico border. It was from my English teacher, Shaju Antony, who had taught me at the boarding school I attended in Nabha. He and his family had become Texans more than a decade ago.

"I know this region quite well and we can visit Mexico's border town called Progreso," he said over phone. Within an hour, I made up my mind and called back, rolling out an excited"Yes!" I imagined the exhilaration of meeting him after such a long time and also the opportunity to visit Mexico.

As planned, we reached the border on a cloudy January morning, parking the car in the US parking l...