Memoirs      
1970s America – An Indian student’s journey
by Dr. Anil K. Rajvanshi

Chapter 2

The Preparation

After getting the news of scholarship lot of work still needed to be done to get the passport, ticket, foreign exchange, visa, etc. Getting a passport in 1974 was quite a big affair and took an inordinately long time since a detailed police inquiry had to be conducted. I applied to the Lucknow Passport office (since we lived in Lucknow) for it and with the help of my father’s political connections got the passport in quite a short time. My case was also helped by the fact that I was a Government of India National Scholar which was quite a prestigious scholarship.

Getting foreign exchange was another matter. In those times there were hardly any travel agents and thus I decided to do everything myself. It was quite a lot of work but somehow I enjoyed it because it allowed me to interact with the Government of India’s (GOI) bureaucracy. At that age one is not cynical and hence I took everything in stride as it came.

The Reserve Bank of India’s regional office was in Kanpur so the foreign exchange of 250 US dollars that the GOI had given me was to be purchased from Kanpur. I filled out all the forms and deposited the necessary money. I thought that this paper work should be enough to get the foreign exchange since the official Government of India (GOI) letter was also enclosed. However after an eternity and explaining many times why I needed the exchange I was given the travelers cheques. I had never felt so much fear in my life as I felt after getting the cheques and they were put in the innermost pocket of the under garment.

For my M.Tech I used to be paid Rs. 400 p.m. scholarship. With this scholarship I thought I lived like a king. I had two pairs of shirt and pants which were washed every Sunday and I used to see a movie in Kanpur once a month. Thus in two years of my M.Tech. I saved substantial amount so that I could pay for all the formalities of going to US like getting foreign exchange etc. In 1974 a US dollar was worth Rs. 8 and hence $250 did not amount to too many rupees. In fact after passing B.Tech I never took any money from my parents.

To get all the paper work done for US I had to go many times to Shastri Bhavan, Delhi. I used this opportunity to really walk all over New Delhi. Delhi in 1974 was a beautiful city with hardly any traffic, broad footpaths and sidewalks and in September/October a very pleasant weather to walk. The fact that I was going to US filled me with tremendous emotions and happy feelings of how I was going to use my US education for the betterment of India.

I cannot explain why I got these emotions. I still remember many of my friends remarking at that time that I talked of nothing else but India and its future. At the age of 24 the mind is at its peak and if it gets a boost by some positive event like going to US then it knows no bounds. I felt at that time that I could do anything in the world and nothing was impossible. This joyous and exuberant state must have been noticed by others also because in any government office work etc., I seemed to charm a lot of office babus with great effect!

Thus for my air ticket I was given a letter by Shastri Bhavan for Air India. By this time I had become good friends with Mr. Sharma the same babu in Shastri Bhavan who had said that I will not get my traveling allowance (TA/DA). Since I was a part of the “system” now, hence Mr. Sharma being a good GOI clerk would provide all the help. He was the point man who gave all different letters for passport, tickets, foreign exchange etc.

Air India in those times (1970s) was one of the world’s best airlines (it is really sad to see what it has become today). Their main office in Delhi used to be in Connaught Place and was huge and very crowded. Armed with the letter from the Education ministry I went to meet the manager of Air India to get my ticket.

I chatted with him quite a lot telling him about my desire and aspirations of using solar energy for betterment of India etc. etc., when on the spur of the moment he said that he will give me a ticket for helicopter ride from JFK airport to La Guardia airport. In those times all the international flights used to land at JFK airport in New York while the US domestic flights used to originate from La Guardia airport which is about 10 miles from JFK. Normally there were shuttle buses between the two airports. At that time I had no idea what the manager was talking about but later on I found out that the helicopter ticket is normally given to first class passengers. Since this was my first flight anywhere so I had no idea what was in store for me but was overjoyed to learn that besides the jumbo jet, I will also be traveling by a helicopter.

During my visits to the Shastri Bhavan, Mr. Sharma the clerk used to be very surprised by my decision to go to University of Florida. He said many times that most of the national scholars go to top schools like MIT, Stanford, Berkeley etc. “So why are you going to University of Florida? I have never heard of this university”, he used to ask. I used to explain to him that I was going to work under a world famous professor and the university name did not matter very much for Ph.D. He somehow was not convinced with this answer and said that I was making a mistake.

By the time I got my air ticket it was already middle of November and the next item on agenda was to get the US visa.

Also I was receiving regular mails from the University of Florida housing office telling me to please postpone coming in fall of 1974 since there was no campus housing available. In any case I was going in the winter quarter (starting from January 1975) since all the formalities of Government of India scholarship could not be finalized for fall quarter. So I wrote to the housing office at UF that please book a room for me for winter quarter. This letter was extremely helpful later on.

My father being a well-known political figure in Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) politics was frequently visited by high-ranking US embassy officials. He was very close to Shri. H. N. Bahuguna who was a popular chief minister of U.P. and a strong candidate for future prime ministership of India. The US embassy staff recognized this and hence whenever they visited Lucknow they would meet my father. Besides he was a regular columnist in Hindustan - an influential Hindi daily paper published from Delhi by Hindustan Times group.

My father’s editorial articles on political matters of U.P. regularly appeared in this paper and molded the opinion of important people in New Delhi. This was much before the crass commercial journalism that the present papers have come down to, so that the editorial columns of newspapers do not shape the opinions anymore.

This is what brought Mr. Peter Thompson the first secretary in US embassy to Lucknow to see my father and they became good friends. So when the time came for me to get a US visa my father phoned up Mr. Thompson in Delhi who immediately agreed to help me to get the visa work done.

On the appointed day I went to the US embassy and straight to Mr. Thompson’s office. In those times it was quite easy to go to the US embassy in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi. Nowadays it is a fortress and I am told that it is very difficult to go inside it. Peter had called me a little earlier since he wanted to talk to me and at the same time the appointment was kept somewhat flexible.

I told Peter about my aspirations of learning solar energy and we discussed lots of things. Since Kennedy was one of my heroes in those days so I discussed the Kennedy clan. Peter was quite surprised by my readings other than engineering since he thought that IITians were nerds. In any case I remember discussing with him the issue of Nixon pardon and he was very emphatic that President Ford made a mistake in pardoning Nixon. I as an impassionate observer felt that some of the Americans were not forgiving and were very passionate about taking revenge. However I could see their point of view since the younger generation in those times was extremely polarized by Vietnam war which they thought was a part of Nixon legacy.

Peter, at the appointed time, took me to the Consul General’s (CG) Office. I was asked to wait for a few minutes outside and I found that the gentleman sitting next to me waiting his turn was the attorney general of India. Though he had been waiting much before my arrival but because of Peter I was immediately called into the office of CG. The CG looked at my application, the I-20 of the UF and also the amount that I would be getting from the National Scholarship.

If I remember correctly there was a shortfall of about $ 1500 or $ 2000 per year between National Scholarship that I would get and UF demand. So he asked me how I was going to make up the difference.

I replied that the UF figures are for American students who live an affluent lifestyle, go to discos and party all the time whereas an Indian student with simple living will not require too much money for staying !

The CG glared at me angrily and I got the feeling that he would have thrown me out of his office but the situation was saved in nick of time by Peter Thompson’s intervention who suggested that since all the fees are being taken care of by the Government scholarship, the living allowance should be sufficient to survive. After coming out of the office Peter told me that I should not have said what I did, so the visa was really given because of Peter Thompson.

My statement to CG was not really off the mark since I found out later on that the UF numbers were based on a student eating out in UF cafeteria which was much more costly than cooking at home. Thus I was easily able to save some amount every month even from my meager $ 250 monthly stipend which was eventually raised to $ 400/- within one quarter of my reaching Gainesville.

In any case getting a US visa was very difficult in those times and I wonder whether without the help of Peter Thompson I could have gotten it. I am sure the consular staff would have insisted that the difference be made up by my family’s finances and with the precarious financial situation of my family it would have been very difficult to do so. As they say when things have to happen ways are shown by the forces to be.

Peter Thompson was a very dynamic and bold man but was also slightly arrogant. His arrogance naturally came from the power of US government. After getting the visa we both went to the office of Shri. Ratan Lal Joshi the editor of daily Hindustan. Shri. Joshi was at one time a very close confidant of Mrs. Indira Gandhi and an influential figure in the New Delhi political scene. We were both invited by Shri. Joshi for lunch at his house.

Ratan Lal Joshi and my father were in jail together during the 1942 freedom movement and were very close friends. So anytime I came to Delhi I would go and meet Joshi ji. He was an intellectual and a very soft spoken person and we enjoyed talking on all sorts of issues concerning energy and Indian affairs. When I told him about my getting the US visa and how Peter Thompson was helping me in getting it, he invited both of us for lunch.

We reached Joshi ji’s office around 1:30 p.m. On entering it we found that Mr. Joshi was on the phone and he kept on talking for the next half an hour. Obviously Peter Thompson got really rattled and after Joshi ji finished talking he told him that he has information that Mr. Joshi will be soon removed from editorship of Hindustan!

Mr. Joshi became extremely angry, livid and red in face and started telling Peter Thompson in raised voice that CIA agents can do anything. Peter who obviously knew what was coming could not tolerate the remarks and left without lunch. I pleaded with him to stay on but he refused to budge.

I found out later that Peter was right and Shri. Joshi ji was eased out from his editorship in next couple of months. The main reason was that Joshi ji was perceived by Mrs. Indira Gandhi to be close to Shri. H. N. Bahuguna - her archenemy and a person considered to have engineered the famous Allahabad High Court decision against her in 1975 which ultimately led to imposition of emergency in India. How Peter and US embassy knew about it at that time is a mystery to me.

I left India for US on 29th December 1974. It was my first flight anywhere and hence the excitement was too much. Not only my whole family, but friends and well-wishers came to see me off. I think about 10 to 12 people came to the airport to bid me farewell. In those times it was a big affair to see off people at the airport especially when one was going to US.

At the security point in those days they used to check the baggage physically since the x-ray checking had not been developed. Since I was taking a couple of pair of shoes the rude security person remarked that all students going to US carry only shoes! He was quite an obnoxious and rude person and broke a pakad (potholder) that a British couple had bought to take back home. They had bought it in Chandani chowk and it was a very useful and novel item for them. The security man did not even have the courtesy of saying sorry. Going through security and customs at the airports in India in those times was quite a harrowing experience. By contrast it is a very smooth ride nowadays.

The British woman was distraught and almost on the verge of crying. After we sat in the bus which took us to the aircraft, I tried to console her by telling her that not all Indians are as crude and impolite as this security person was. I apologized to her on his behalf. I was a proud Indian and felt that the foreigners should always leave with a good impression about India.

When the Air India flight took off at midnight I cried. It was a strange experience for me since I always considered myself as a strong person but a tremendous love for India the motherland erupted within me. I vowed that I was going to US to learn technologies so that I could come back to use them for India’s benefit. I am still amazed even today about how that feeling came but it did come with a tremendous force. There was sadness in leaving my family behind but this overwhelming emotion for India was amazing. I felt that they were pangs similar to those felt by a newly married girl during Bidai!

– Continued

July 22, 2007

Government Scholarship | The Preparation | Landing in America 
Campus Life | Brush with Greatness | India Association | Marriage
Looking for Better School? | Exploring America | Graduate Studies
Teaching at UF | Decision to go back to India | Epilogue

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