The American Dream Powered by Gas

What would H.N. Shantha Murthy, the subject of Karla Murthy’s “The Gas Station Attendant,” have thought about the claim that his story was “not the ‘American Dream’ come true?” As outlined in Ms. Murthy’s documentary, her father’s life in the United States was marked by repeated travails. His hand at entrepreneurship was rocky: Businesses failed, significant debts accrued, questionable decisions made, and family tensions exacerbated. Murthy ended his days working the graveyard shift as, you guessed it, a gas station attendant.Which is not a glamorous or necessarily enviable job, but it is honorable work. If Murthy took on the responsibility as a desperate measure, he likely brought to it the good will and tenacity that were the hallmarks of his character. In Ms. Murthy’s picture, we are given the portrait of a man with an innate ability to make and sustain friendly working relationships. Murthy’s economic circumstances were not always happy and his disappointments many. But dreams are realized in myriad ways.Take, for instance, a happily married daughter with two beautiful children who is not only making a go of it in New York City, but lives in stately digs at a picturesque Brooklyn neighborhood, Fort Greene. Ms. Murthy, who serves as the narrator of “The Gas Station Attendant,” makes a point of how erratic life can be for a young arts-inclined individual just out of college. What did she expect? In the long run, Ms. Murthy has done well for herself. An undercurrent of begrudgery nonetheless winds its way through “The Gas Station Attendant.” The struggles of a loved one are never easy to watch, let alone experience. The story of Ms. Murthy’s father is, like many immigrant sagas, a confluence of arduous circumstances, individual initiative, unstoppable resilience, and out-and-out luck. Utilizing family photographs, home movies, taped conversations and documentary resources, she’s crafted a picture that is a qualified valentine to her father and a means of personal catharsis.Born in Bangalore, India, Murthy was raised by his father after his mother died when he was two years of age. Murthy Sr. worked in a bank, saw to it that his son took English lessons, and introduced him to Western culture by taking him to the movies. When the bank job went under, father and son returned to the village of family origin. If a consequent life of poverty weren’t challenging enough, a freak accident rendered the Murthy paterfamilias comatose for three weeks.“That day my father came to consciousness,” Murthy relates to his daughter, “I told him I’m going to go and get some bread from Bangalore.” The prodigal son didn’t return for ten years, at which point he left home for good. Life didn’t get any less difficult; Murthy suffered from deprivation, slept on the streets and traveled what seems like the entirety of India looking for employment. Work eventually came at a luxury hotel in which Murthy, working as a porter, went the extra mile for a couple vacationing from Texas.Ms. Murthy wasn’t able to interview Mr. and Mrs. Kern, who had long since passed away. But she tells of how this Houston couple took a shine to the young Indian man, asked him if he’d like to become a cowboy and subsequently sponsored his emigration to the United States. The rest of this tale is history in the making as Ms. Murthy continues to navigate the hills-and-valleys of life and culture lived free of crippling penury. One parent’s hardships lead to one child’s rewarding life. In that regard, the American dream of a gas station attendant is true indeed.

The American Dream Powered by Gas

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