BY TANYA ALBERT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
UNION TOWNSHIP -- It was 2:30 on a warm spring afternoon at Lakota East High School. In Room 228, down a long empty hall toward the back of the building, Gaurav Bhatara sat side by side with his math teacher.
School had been out for about an hour. The long line of buses was gone. But Gaurav's college prep Algebra II book was open to a page of problems on horizontal and vertical asymptotes.
He gripped his pencil, and on a sheet of white notebook paper he began to work the tricky problem. When he was done, he looked to his teacher. The teacher told him he hadn't done the problem quite right. He tried it again.
In India, the school day would be over. Gaurav would be playing cricket with friends. But to pass this class, he stayed after school two or three times a week for extra tutoring.
"It was easier in India for me," said Gaurav, who starts his senior year of high school this month. "Here it's a little bit harder for me."
Many students struggle with algebra. What is especially challenging for Gaurav is he also had to adjust to a new language, a new school, a new culture. He moved from India to Greater Cincinnati in April 1997.
Last fall, he found himself thrust into a school where he didn't know another teen in the building. He spoke English, but English in the United States has been much harder for him to understand than when he heard others speak it in India.
More quickly than other members of his immigrant family, Gaurav accepted his new culture and assimilated.
The 18-year-old embraced all things American.
He especially embraced computers. Gaurav spent so much time surfing the Web that his parents got rid of their home Internet connection because they thought it was taking up too much of his time.
This summer, he helped operate the new James Bond ride at Paramount's Kings Island, which sometimes meant he didn't get home until after 11 p.m. His parents, Vinod and Neelam Bhatara, didn't necessarily like it. Last week, he started a second job at Kohl's Department Store. In India, Gaurav wouldn't have a job yet, and he wouldn't be allowed to stay out late.
But knowing it is common for teens in America to work, they accepted it. They are open to changes like this because they think he can find more success in America than in India.
Success is Gaurav's focus now.
He is looking forward to going to college next fall. He dreams of going to the University of Cincinnati to study computer science or accounting.
That's what the hard work was all about in his teacher's classroom last spring.
Poring over notes tucked neatly into a thick black binder, he scribbled down a few more numbers trying to work out the problem he didn't get right the first time.
Finally, he got it right.
Then, and now, he embraces a saying displayed in the front of that classroom: "The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary."
Gaurav doesn't mind the hard work: "Life is better here. I don't want to go back to India."
Insight into India
Father sees dreams becoming reality
Mother finds her own independence
Daughter struggles to find her niche
