Celebrating Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month: Meet Sohaib Khan, Jigna Dave, and Avik Das

In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, NYCHANow spoke with three long-time staff members to learn about how their backgrounds and cultural heritage inform the work they do on behalf of NYCHA and its residents.

Sohaib Khan is NYCHA’s Deputy Director of Infrastructure Engineering. He and his team work to ensure the health and well-being of NYCHA’s Data Centers at its central offices (90 Church Street, Long Island City, and 250 Broadway); he has been with NYCHA for 13 years. The son of an airline pilot who flew for both American Airlines and Pakistani International Airways, Mr. Khan grew up travelling around the world. His family hails originally from Pakistan, but Khan himself lived there for only two years: he was brought up first in Germany, and then he and his family came to the U.S. He and most of his family live in the Westchester County town of Yorktown Heights just north of New York City.

Despite his international background, Mr. Khan is a proud and devoted New Yorker.

“I love New York for so many reasons, but one most of all: New York is such a melting pot!” Mr. Khan said. “This city has this amazing way of being home for everybody. All you need to do is walk outside for five minutes and you can run into so many different cultures, so many different types of people — I love that so much!”

Mr. Khan’s family has become a melting pot of its own: his wife, whom he met while they were both students at Marist College, was born in the U.S. and comes from a “very” Irish Catholic family, just one culture represented across his family. Asked how his family’s background and traditions inform his life today, Mr. Khan said:

“First of all, the holidays are very important to me – the times when we all get together. I have family who are Jewish, I have family who are Catholic, I have family who are Muslim. I’ve got all three great Western traditions, all in one family! And I love it! Because to me, it’s really not the differences that make people great — it’s the similarities. No matter who you are meeting, that person is another unique human being, not a label that says, ‘I’m a member of one group or another!’”

Mr. Khan approaches his work in that same spirit: “If we have a problem, my team will come, argue with me, disagree with me, and we walk together toward one answer, as one voice – I’ve always believed in that; that’s the way it should be. This is what I tell people: it’s not the job that makes you happy – it’s the team. If they feel the team effort, if they can feel that you care about them, that team will get its work done. And you know what? It really works!”

Jigna Dave is a 29-year veteran of NYCHA; she proudly began working for the Authority in 1995 and is now a member of the Department of Real Estate Services. Ms. Dave hails originally from Ahmedabad, the largest city in India’s western state of Gujarat. Ms. Dave came to the U.S. three decades ago in pursuit of educational and other opportunities. She is the proud mother of two sons, both of whom were born in the U.S. during her career at NYCHA.

Ms. Dave is proud of the multiculturalism and openness of Indian culture: “In India, we celebrate everybody’s tradition. We have Christians there, we have Muslims there, we have Sikhs there, we have all those groups – it’s not only the Hindu people. And we all mix, so whenever there is any celebration, all of it feels like it’s part of your family. When I got married [in India], all my neighbors – from every background – came to help us to decorate the house and everything, and it was everybody together. So, whether we are going through a good time or a challenging time, everybody’s like family, and that’s just how it should be.”

Avik Das is an Administrative Auditor in NYCHA’s Department of Internal Audit and Assessment. He has worked at NYCHA for 26 years, almost all of them with the Audit Department.

Mr. Das was born in India, in the renowned city of Kolkata (Calcutta). He went to college there and then came to New York City for graduate school. At NYU Polytechnic, he was able to complete his Master of Science degree in management thanks to a scholarship made possible through NYCHA.

“It was called a Mayor’s Graduate Scholarship,” Mr. Das explained. “It helped me so much! The requirement of the scholarship was that you had to work full time; I am so grateful for that opportunity.”

Mr. Das believes that his work at NYCHA lives up to the highest ideals of the culture in which he was raised: “When I joined NYCHA, I immediately found the mission of this organization to be very attractive, because I love to serve people who need that service. This kind of work truly creates long-term satisfaction. When you know for sure that you are making a positive difference in someone else’s life…it creates a lasting sense of contentment and joy. In our tradition, this kind of service is called ‘Seva.’”

“’Seva’ is a Hindu word that means ‘selfless service.’ In our tradition, we are called on to perform Seva on behalf of others, genuine service that has a genuine impact on someone else’s life. We are encouraged to do good, and through doing so to discover a deeper perspective on what creates happiness. And you know what? Genuine Seva really does touch your soul. It genuinely gives you a feeling of peace.”

While living out the ideals he was raised by, Mr. Das is also happy to do so as a true New Yorker, to be able to offer Seva here in his adopted country: “I am so proud to live and work in one of the greatest cities of the world! This truly is a land of immigrants. All of us immigrants together, we work hard to make this country better. So many different ideas, so many different cultures – and yet you come to see that all human beings are, down deep, the same. Then it naturally follows that all people are deserving of help, of true service. For those of us lucky enough to work at NYCHA – it’s so wonderful! Because we really are dealing with basic necessities for our fellow human beings. We all need shelter! It’s just as basic as food, for every single person. And in a city like New York City, which is quite an expensive place to live, the mission we have – what a privilege to be part of providing it.”

Photo caption: Long-time NYCHA employees Sohaib Khan (left), Jigna Dave (center), and Avik Das (right)