Vivek Sawant can count his American blessings, never mind the humiliation and trauma he underwent at the John Pickle Company in 2001.

His wife and two sons are with him and Sawant, who works for a company run by an Indian entrepreneur in Tulsa, now has his own house. He could be, like some of his colleagues, making about $100,000 annually.

"There are many blessings I can count," he says. "But there is also sadness, for I cannot go to India till I get the green card." Like 53 other former John Pickle workers from India, he too is waiting for his permanent residency.

"My parents are getting older, and I would like to spend more time with them," says Sawant, who hasn't gone to India since he left the country in 2001. "If there is an emergency, I can go home on parole, but I would be afraid of the problems at the American consulate. There could be many delays."

He is worried for his older son, Sangram, 17, who has already got an aviation diploma. "He wants to be a pilot but because of our visa situation, he may not be able to do it immediately. A lot of things have changed in America after 9/11."

Keeping up their morale was a big priority for the former John Pickle workers, during the six months or so they spent trying to deal with virtual slavery at the plant.

"Before we got the work authorisation, which took several months, we took up all kinds of unpaid jobs," Sawant recalls. "I worked at temples, churches and hospitals. We got food and a place to stay, but we knew we were in America and things will turn out fine in the long run." 

At a court hearing against John Pickle, Robert A Canino, who also serves as an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on a Worker Exploitation Task Force with the US Department of Justice, said, "These workers were lured to America with false promises of decent treatment and fair pay, only to find themselves exploited and subjected to harsh degradation based on their race and national origin. Their hopes for a better life were crushed."

But Sawant and many other workers India Abroad spoke to for this article said the situation, though dire, did not last long. "We are realists and we knew we had overcome our obstacles," Sawant said. "And I think we have done that."

The workers � electricians, welders, fitters and chemists, ranged in age from 30 to 45 when they arrived in Tulsa � knew little of the city, or state. Some like Balaraju Salapu, 31, had been married for just about a year, and had promised his pregnant wife he would be taking her to America within a year or so.

Others, like Srinu Kalla have had to wait several years to get married. "About 40 people in our group had already been married, and they could get their wives to join them within two years of arriving in America," the journeyman technician recalls.

Kalla himself got married in Andhra Pradesh about two years ago. He told his bride that till he finds a permanent job, he would have to travel from city to city, once every six months. Apart from a wage of about $30 an hour, traveling technicians also get paid $100 as per diem.

It is a tough life, but in comparison with what went before, it is almost paradise. "When I see I can travel freely, and get paid well, I try to forget the bad things that had happened to us," he says. "But we also got to know a lot of good-hearted Americans, especially Mark Massey, who has become our friend and brother. People like him help us have faith in human beings."

The memory of Massey, and all the others who helped them in their need, inspires Kalla to help people along the way. "It does not matter where they come from," he says. "I would like to do something meaningful for them." 

For Jagdish Prajapati, who like Sawant works at a chemical plant owned by Dayal T Meshri, the main focus during the John Pickle days was recovering the dignity that had been stripped from the workers � and what helped was the humanity of those who helped, in numerous ways.

"When we were in trouble, several Indians helped us quietly," he says. Some gave the workers subsistence allowance, and some like Dayal Meshri, apart from subsidising their stay, told the workers that he had handful of openings for them once they got the work authorisation.

Meshri is president and CEO of Advance Research Chemicals, Inc. The firm makes over 300 chemicals for the automobile, electronic and pharmaceutical industries, and also has plants in Mexico and India. He is one of the best known industrialists in Oklahoma.

"Going from Pickle to Dr Meshri was an incredible experience," Prajapati says. "He made us feel as if we really belonged to the family, not just the workforce. Our morale began soaring." About six former John Pickle workers started working for him, and three including Prajapati have stayed back. 

Prajapati too has bought a house recently. "In India we do the grahpravesh ceremony, and there are priests who know how to do it," he says. "Here, in a small city like Tulsa, we do a token pooja and look out for a suitable occasion to have a proper ceremony."

He has begun loving life in the Bible Belt. "People here are more family oriented than in the bigger cities, I feel," he says. "Besides there is little crime here and it is easier to make friends than in big cities."   

The workers can never forget that despite winning a court battle against John Pickle, and despite the court declaring that he had violated the civil rights of the workers from India, the businessman never went to jail. There is a civil action pending against Pickle, but Kalla and the others say they have no idea what the outcome will be. "We are moving on with our lives," he says.

Their efforts to reclaim their lives and dignity is increasingly bearing fruit. Kalla, who like some of the others had worked in other countries including Singapore before coming to America, says "If you ask me where I feel most at home, I will tell you immediately it is here."

While some found the task of rehabilitation relatively easy, Uday Ludbe still recalls the nightmarish first six months of job hunting. Somehow, he says, each worker had to find a a car, never mind how old it was; some equipment related to his profession, and a readiness to slog. Initially, some of the workers drove long distances to report to work in a city 200 or 300 miles from Tulsa.

Ludbe, who found a job in a Louisiana city, didn't have a decent car for some time. He walked for an hour-and-a-half each day in one direction to work, mostly along the highways. "On some evenings, fellow workers gave me a ride but it was tough," he recalls. "But one had to carry on. It was also important to prove to ourselves that whatever our profession was, whether we were electricians, fitters or welders or chemical engineers, we had to excel. We had taken a lot of negative things at John Pickle, and that meant building our self esteem was one of the first goals as free workers." 

Ludbe is one of the most articulate of the former John Pickle workers, but he admits it was not easy for the first year or so "to understand the way Americans speak and their mindset."

Another major consideration for most workers, who had taken hefty loans to pay the recruitment agency in India, was saving money and ridding themselves of debt. The trick, says Ludbe, was to just keep soldering on, doing whatever comes to hand, taking it as it comes. He travels constantly on work, spending a few months in one Midwestern city and moves on to the next.

"I am looking forward to being in one city, working for one company, and having more stability in my life," he says. Jobs like the one he gets through contractors have only limited insurance, and that too only related to the workplace.

"I cannot say we are getting everything we need," he says. "But I think everyone in our group is doing well, and once we get our green cards, life is going to be better."

For the John Pickle workers, who came to the land of the free only to find themselves enslaved, and who have since attempted to put their lives back together brick by brick, that green card is now the Holy Grail � not merely for the opportunities it signifies, but because once they have it in their hands, they can finally do something they dream of constantly: visit family, friends, in some cases even wives and children, back home in India.

Images: (Top) Vivek Sawant with his family and Jagdish Prajapati with his family.