By Columbus, they made it!

Los Angeles: Call them modern-day Columbuses or simply adventurous souls, the Punjabi love for the new world is quite unparalleled. "Open up American or Canadian visas for a day, and the streets of Punjab will get empty," vouches Californian Balkar Singh, who came here in the early '60s.
Historically, some of the earliest immigration to America took place on the West Coast ��� Punjabis came to San Francisco through the sea routes of Hong Kong, legally and illegally.
Today, the huge Indian-Punjabi diaspora is a success story in every field, be it medicine, business or IT ��� and more are joining in. Meanwhile, the intrepid immigrant is finding new backdoor routes to phoren dreams...
Easy Rider: The Punjab Police rafting team that disappeared from Colorado last month was just a replay. In the early '90s, an Indian tent-pegging (an equestrian sport) team visiting the US kept waiting for a constable from the BSF at the airport, only to realise that 'Bhajji' had gone missing.
Whether he's running a Seven-Eleven at San Jose, or working at a vineyard in San Joaquin Valley, or driving a taxi or truck on the freeway is anybody's guess.
Vanishing Trick: Jaswinder Singh used to dream of America. Five years ago, the carpenter from Hoshiarpur got himself a business visa to Mexico.
Luckily, the connecting flight from New York got delayed and the airline put up the passengers in a hotel. Jaswinder saw his big chance and vamoosed.
Today, he works at a Chevron gas station almost 18 hours a day. "Life in America is not as easy as everybody back home thinks. I have lost my youth, missed the joys of bringing up my children," he says.
Mexican Trail: Resham Singh reached Mexico in the early '80s. "I was part of a group of immigrants. We were all loaded into a truck by an agent and smuggled into the US."
Resham got caught but the insurgency in Punjab saved him from deportation. In 1987, the US government offered green cards to all illegal immigrants who had worked a minimum 90 days as farm labourers.
A relative who owned farmland was happy to fulfil Resham's legal requirements. "My family had nothing in Punjab, barring a few acres of land between three brothers.
I spent my youth working hard in the fields, wading through jungles and rivers. The sacrifice has paid off. My children go to good schools, drive good cars.
I send back money to my relatives in Jalandhar. Today, we are well-off," says the farmer from California.
Mr White: Thirty-year-old Manbir Kaur was lucky to get a visitor's visa to attend a cousin's wedding in 2000, did a Colorado, and is biding her time doing odd jobs in Fresno.
"In India, I was just spending time cooking food and making cowdung cakes. I am happy here, though I do miss my family. Now I need a gora (white man) to marry and I'm all set."
Names have been changed on request.