of the urban male is changed instantly. when kids see other kids ride they want to know how it's done. that's the hook. >> i can't tell you where i would be without this program. it changed my life. it's helped me set goals for myself. i'm a part of something. >> when you teach a child to ride a horse, they learn that they are the center of their environment. once they make that connection on connection, they can change what happens in school, at home, and the community. it's through their minds and hearts. they have ability. they just have to unlock it. >> great story. modern-day cowboys. time for our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta to tell his story. "sanjay gupta m.d." starts right now.

>> all right. i've never done this before, so here we go. the people back home are so jealous. >> yeah. >> you're probably wondering what's happening right now. well, so was i. truth of it is fun of this was supposed to happen, beach, the camel ride, returning to a country my mother fled 70 years ago as a refugee. did you ever think you would be doing this? >> i was not planning on this. snits going to be a journey of surprises. >> yes. >> what are you thinking right

now? >> i can't believe it. i can't believe it. >> you never thought you'd come back here. >> never. never. >> now i'm back with my son after 67 years. >> i'm not 67, just to be clear. >> i'm back after 67 years. a lot of things happened because i was only 5, you cannot be 67. >> right. >> i tell people my mom was a refugee when she was a young person. >> i'm still a refugee. i never got back. >> my mom was a survivor of one of the bloodiest partitions in history, the religious wars between hindus and muslims in india and pakistan. you left everything you owned. >> everything we owned because we did not know how long and where we are going, we did not know that also. i tell you one good thing happened out of all this. you know when you take a ball and you hit hard, it goes up

high. however you hit, it goes up, right? >> well, here you are. >> we are here. . >> this is it. this is your roots. should we get out? let's go. it's hard to believe but my mom hasn't been back here in 70 years. she hasn't seemed to miss a beat, though. she's asking right now in as i understand -- sindi if anybody recognizes her name. [ speaking foreign language ] >> so you walk through here. does anything look familiar? >> i think that sword looks

familiar, and those doors they look familiar. >> these doors over here? >> yeah. one of these doors can be my house. >> really. >> yeah. >> you want to knock and take a look? >> we can try, see if somebody will open. >> it's worth a shot. we've come all this way. >> yeah. >> i see some movement back there. [ speaking foreign language ] >> she thinks this might be her house. >> we used to have this -- >> courtyard like this? >> courtyard like this and the swing used to sit like in this portion. >> is that right? >> yeah. >> so what do you think? >> it's amazing. can you believe? i livid in someplace like this. >> do you think that this was your house? >> if not exactly same house but something similar. it may be same house. >> does that look familiar? >> something like that used to be there. temple we used to visit. >> is that right?

>> yeah. >> it really strikes me to think that my ancestors used to go there and pray. >> pray. that's only temple out there in town. not one generation but several thousand years they were here. >> that's extraordinary. that's our history. >> yep. >> you know, the thing is history has a strange way of repeating itself. all the violence that my mom thought that she had left thought that she had left behind,

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the next morning we all come down, she's on time, we're late, of course, because we've been up all night. she says i thought we were all going to meet at 9:00. i didn't get a chance to tell you this but there was actually a terrorist attack on the airport last night. she did, yeah, but we were supposed to meet at 9:00. but despite everything that was going on, i still got to do one of the most amazing things on this trip, take a stroll with my mom on karachi beach. i mean, you left your homeland into these waters and never came

back. >> never came back in 67 years. >> i look at that water, i want to grab my surfboard and go out and surf. you look at that water and you see what? >> i see this is the water took me from this land. >> took you away. >> took me away from my home. >> and these are the very steps my mom and her parents and grandparents stepped down before getting on a cargo ship bound for bombay. these were awful times and the partition of india was in full swing. when think about getting in a cargo ship at age 5, very uncomfortable, not knowing where i'm going, not knowing if i'm going to be safe, having just left everything that i owned in the world behind. i think i would be sick to my

stomach. >> sure, but i had a very brave mother. >> your mother? >> my mother. she reminded me every day we have lost everything but we have our courage. and we are not going to give up. >> while my mom's home was forced to move to karachi, bangalore and other places, my dad's family literally lived in the same place for thousands of years. we've finally arrived here. hard to believe what you're looking sat the older place so we can trace my father's ancestry. these are the people who still live here.

[ bell ringing ] >> it was a hero's welcome everywhere dad went. some big crowds. >> they were not because of me. >> but i think a lot of it was because of our great grandfather, because he donated a lot of land for the temples and he was a pretty charitable person, which was interesting because you can hear somebody's name, you can hear their -- where they lived but then when you get a little bit of an idea of what kind of person they were, that's really fascinating. as you can see, they literally rolled out the red carpet for my father and i. meeting hundreds of relatives i didn't even know i had. they even put up a sign.

my grandfather. welcoming cnn. they say i'm a renowned neurosurgeon, a little more credit than i deserve. but they've welcomed us into their home. let's take a look. any of this look familiar to you? >> all of this has changed completely. if i remember, there were stairs going up from here. >> these are the stairs right here. what's that? >> completely renovated. >> so it's different. >> the idea that i tell my friends that my parents came from the other side of the world and various small towns and villages, i mean, this is it. >> this is -- this is the very spot. >> it's kind of humbling, right? >> very humbling. >> started with nothing. >> yep. >> when you finally went to the united states, how much did you have with you and what did you -- what were you able to

take? >> made 600 rupees a month. >> and he needed to send you with 10,000 rupees. >> yep. >> that's more than a year's worth of -- >> more than a year. two years to save that money. >> that's incredible. it's big step. >> yeah. we were about to take the biggest step in our own journey. who were my ancestors? what kind of people were they? we found the key that could help unlock the answers to some of those questions. it's amazing, so with all the technology, all the things that exist in the world today, these handwritten scrolls may be some of the best records of our own family tree. >> that is absolutely correct. ®. and it's affordable. >>sounds great.

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this place is a very sacred place. and the reason it's sacred is

evil danger, all the way to the indian ocean. you can see a lot of people come here to bathe and it's considered very holy. >> does the gupta family feel a connection to this place? >> well, we came here when i was younger. >> you see, in the united states we record our lives at the time that we are born. but centuries ago in many places including india, they recorded their lives at the time of death. that's why so many people bring the ashes of their loved ones to scatter here in this holy river. >> they keep a lot over years so you can go back several generations and find out who all

came here. >> so here it is, perhaps the most important moment of our whole journey, and there's my daughter, fast asleep, passed out in my wife's lap. in her defense it was well over 100 degrees in that room and there was no fan, no breeze. >> so back to 1698? that's how far it was? >> 1698 is not the -- >> it's even before that. >> not the calendar year. >> even before that. so roughly how many years back are we talk snabt. >> about 1,600 snop about 1,600. >> yeah.

>> these records go back 40 generations. it's quite incredible. they start off writing on leaves and when paper was actually created they started writing on paper and some of these records here goes go back hundreds and hundreds of years. we came here to find our roots. and today it wwe decided to lea some of our own as well. perhaps our own family will see this hundreds of years from now. [ chanting in foreign language ] >> do you feel a certain connection to the gods and -- what do you feel? >> yeah, you do feel closer to the gods over here.

>> the last time you were here was when your father passed away. >> yep. >> and it was important for you and your brother to come here and place the ashes here. >> right. >> what is the meaning of that? what is the purpose of that? >> well, they just feel that this is -- this is getting the salvation. >> so you think you want to cleanse your sins in the river? >> well, i'm debating, but i've been fortunate enough so -- >> debating whether you want to go or debating whether you have sins? >> i'm sure we have some sins. >> we all have sins. you ready? ♪

>> there's something about searching for your roots that forces you to have experiences like that one with your parents and with your kids. but, you know, you're probably wondering how did i come into this whole equation? well, it's something i alluded to when i gave commencement address at my alma mater, the university of michigan. you see not only was the foundation for most of my life conceived in this town, i myself was likely conceived in this town. best bet is the 17th floor of the university towers though no one is talking for sure still even after 43 years. ♪ turn around

♪ every now and then i get a little bit hungry ♪ ♪ and there's nothing good around ♪ ♪ turn around, barry ♪ i finally found the right snack ♪ [ female announcer ] fiber one.

how do you feel about being here? >> it just looks like it happened yesterday. >> it's safe to say this is the first place you arrived in the united states. >> that is correct. >> were you scared? were you nervous? >> to tell tow yao the truth, i didn't know what the hell was coming next. sometimes jump into the lake and you just let it go and say whatever happens happens. >> right. right. and, boy, do things happen. sometimes when you least expect them. and in this case, at the corner of south university and south forest avenue in ann arbor, it's quite a story. buckle your seat belts. your car broke down right around here? >> yeah. just maybe a block from here.

and i was looking for a pay phone. >> so she find a pay phone and find a phone book and starts leafing through it to see the first indian name that she can find. truthfully, i'm not so sure through the phone book she would have gone, but it turned out to be a moot point because someone answered the phone after that first ring. it wasn't the person she was trying to call, but it was that guy's roommate, her future husband, my dad. you remember this like crystal clear? >> crystal clear. >> so an accidental phone call and you guys end up -- >> meeting. >> meeting. getting married. >> yeah. >> yes. >> and there you have it. >> right. right. is that a good part of the story or a bad part of the story? >> it was the best part of the story. >> and the rest is history. >> the rest is history. >> good history. >> yes. >> but i can say that my roots started right here. >> that's right. >> for sure. >> no doubt. >> no doubt.

>> the young couple needed jobs, and they found them at a booming ford motor company in dearborn, michigan. so you really just walked in. >> i just walked through those things. >> august 1967. >> august 1967. and when i came this person looked at my resume and he says, are you applying for engineering job? and i said, anything wrong with that? and he said, but we don't have any woman engineers working here. i said, well, if you don't give me a chance you won't have any. >> and she did become the first woman engineer ever at the ford motor company. when you finally were hired, the person who hired you told you to do something on the spot. >> he says, i cannot pronounce your name so that's the time my name became rani. >> which i should point out means "queen" in hindi. not sure what my mom was trying to say but i think there's a metaphor in there somewhere. my dad, he also got sick of spelling his name every time

someone asked so he decided to change it as well. >> that's when you became sam. >> i say this is it, now i'm back to my old one. >> so how big part of your roots would you say this place is? >> you know, my good part of my life i worked for ford 34 years. i worked in this building. >> pretty amazing. everything for us and my brother and now my kid i mean made that possible in some ways. >> yep. >> life is a journey. you go through it. and you go through every season of it. each one of those roots becomes

a root for somebody, maybe not for you but maybe generations down. >> i think more than any other place in my life this is where i grew i think as a person. i think i came here as a 16-year-old kid and, you know, i left here as a neurosurgeon. and today the operating room is where i still feel most at home. but what about my mom? was that really her home? we may never know. but i realized it hardly mattered because, you see, my mom was suddenly a kid again. >> this is what i used to do in '67. not bad, right? >> pretty good. you haven't lost your touch. and for my dad it became clear that home would always be wherever his family was. that's the way it is for most of us. home is a feeling. for me, for my parents, for all of us.

>> there are two track, one for coming and one for going. >> i think it suddenly strikes you that in order to really understand where you're going you have to understand from where you came. >> you came from. yep. >> that makes sense, huh? now it makes more sense than ever. >> yes. you are in the cnn "newsroom." i'm jim sciutto in new york. we begin with the far-reaching effects of ebola. the plan, leave no stone unturned. a cruise ship is steaming back to galveston, texas weather a lab supervisor who may have come into indirect contact with ebola, and frontier airlines is scrambling to contact as many as 800 passenger who is may have flown on a plane that ebola patient amber vincent flew on herself. vincent and nina pham are