It sounds like a bad joke, but what happens when you put, on a flight into New York City, a famous Indian actress, singer and comedian–and an American who suspects they might be terrorists? The answer was provided yesterday, when the Indians were arrested upon their arrival at LaGuardia airport, after their flight had picked up an escort of two fighter jets. The actress, Samyuktha Verma, who is described by the New York Times as the Julia Roberts of southern India, was brilliant in contextualizing the experience: “America is a good country, and I understand people are afraid of people who look different.”
Author: Peter Maass
I was born and raised in Los Angeles. In 1983, after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, I went to Brussels as a copy editor for The Wall Street Journal/Europe. I left the Journal in 1985 to write for The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, covering NATO and the European Union. In 1987 I moved to Seoul, South Korea, where I wrote primarily for The Washington Post. After three years in Asia I moved to Budapest to cover Eastern Europe and the Balkans. I spent most of 1992 and 1993 covering the war in Bosnia for the Post.
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