An Urban Hope, by Sankar Chatterjee

Immigrant Debashis Mitra, a high school math-teacher in Philadelphia, came out of the morning’s first trolley. Retiring early from his prestigious accounting job, he began teaching in a low-income area.

It always intrigued him how this rich country still treated its minority citizens. The west side, populated by African-Americans, remained frozen in the segregation-era. After the Afghan War, the SE-Asian refugees had landed in the southern region, still striving to integrate. But, the lack of quality education was hurting their children most.

Amidst city lights, Debashis noticed the first pink shade of the sunrise, offering him a ray of hope.

(Image credit: Tirthankar Ghosh)