How a Gujarati farmer became America's first motel king

A long time ago, a farmer named Kanji Manchhu Desai left his home in Gujarat, India, because his family owed a lot of money.

He went to America, where at first he picked fruits and vegetables in the hot sun for only ten cents an hour.

During a big war, a woman who owned a small hotel had to go away, so she asked Desai to look after it for her.

He said yes, ran the hotel well, and earned his first $100 in one month.

Then he told his friends and relatives that running hotels was the best job for them in America.

He cooked them a tasty meal called khichdi and kadhi and lent them money with just a handshake — no papers needed.

Soon, more and more Gujarati families, many named Patel, started buying motels across the United States.

Today, people from that community own about 60 out of every 100 motels in the country — and a writer named Mahendra Doshi wrote a book about how it all started, called 'From Surat to San Francisco.'

Sadly, Desai was sent away from America and died in London in 1965, before he could see how big his idea became.