India, Oct. 27 -- Four decades ago, I arrived in New York City as a scholarship student at Fordham University, Bronx-wide-eyed, hopeful, and determined to earn an MA degree in Mass Communication and Journalism. Among my fellow scholars was a young man from a village in Uttar Pradesh. He had never left India before.

Within weeks, the cultural vortex of New York City, Manhattan's 42nd Street, swallowed him whole. He struggled to adapt, didn't make the grades, missed classes, and had to return home. I stayed, completed my MA degree, followed it with a second in Religious Education, and later became the youngest editor of The Herald weekly in Calcutta and the first non-Italian director of the Salesian News Agency in Rome-admired for my Ameri...