Applying for Extra Work at Bloomingdales

Those were the poverty-stricken days! On three or four occasions, at night, I went to Bloomingdale's to try to get extra work carrying heavy boxes and unloading the delivery trucks. At first they would not give me a job because they thought I was not strong enough.  Then they said to me, "You are strong, but you need a social security number before we can hire you."

Poor me! If you work at the Indian Consulate, you do not get a social security number because the Indian Government takes responsibility for you.  And I did not have a green card either. So I could not get work at Bloomingdale's. I could not become a porter to carry boxes from one place to another just so that I could earn a little extra money.  O God, O God!

[Source: "Applying for Extra Work at Bloomingdale's" in Sri Chinmoy, My Consulate Years, Agni Press/Aum Publications, Jamaica, NY, 1996, p. 26.]