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

Chapter 3

Landing in America

The Air India flight that took me to US on the cold night of 29th December 1974 had a couple of stops. The first stop was in Kuwait for refueling. The flight then went to London and finally to New York.

Due to the excitement of my first flight and also the fact that I was going to US, I could not sleep at all in the plane. Even today, after traveling maybe millions of miles in planes, it is nearly impossible for me to sleep on them. So when I was not looking outside the window I chatted with my fellow passengers and the air hostesses.

An Indian professor who taught in some US university befriended me. He was an elderly gentleman but we chatted quite a lot. Just before reaching London he asked me whether I was taking any liquor for anybody in US. I said no so he asked me whether I could take an extra bottle for him. In those times every passenger was allowed to import only one bottle of liquor in to US so getting an extra bottle was a good deal. At the London airport he bought two bottles of Chivas Regal at the duty free shop of which one bottle I had to carry past the US customs in New York. Then I realized why he was so friendly to me. In any case this allowed me to see the dazzling display of duty free shops in London Airport and also found out that Chivas Regal is a prized whiskey and a good present for somebody who drinks.

While approaching London airport strange thoughts came to my mind regarding our old history of colonial rule by British and how they had raped and plundered India. These thoughts never came later on when I traveled many times to London but the first visit brought them as if they were a part of greater consciousness of India and I was an integral part of it.

My Air India flight was to New York’s John F. Kennedy (JFK) international airport and from La Guardia airport I had a domestic flight on Eastern Airlines next day to Gainesville, Florida.

I was a fast learner and so learned quite easily how others behaved and tried copying them. Thus I had no difficulty at the immigration or customs in New York though this was my first visit.

Just before landing at JFK in New York, I had befriended another Indian professor who was a thorough gentleman and felt very happy that a new Indian student was coming to US. He told me never to go back to India since US was a land of opportunity and offered a great future. He also sensed my apprehension regarding immigration and customs and getting my flight for the next day. Hence he told me how to behave with the customs and immigration officials. Since he was also traveling by the helicopter service to La Guardia he helped me take the shuttle and showed me all the landmarks of New York as we flew from JFK to La Guardia.

It was a fantastic sight to see so much brightness at night and even today when I think about that journey it brings back wonderful memories of that amazing sight.
When we reached La Guardia airport the gentleman professor (whose name I cannot recollect now) asked me where I was staying during night. I told him I had no place to go to at which he was very surprised. He told me that loitering in the airports is strictly forbidden and if the cop or police finds out about it then he will force me to leave the airport. In any case the professor found out that till midnight or early morning there will be flights to and from La Guardia so if I just show that I am waiting for some flight I will be all right.

He also helped me by putting my only suitcase in the airport locker and gave me the key. In those times the lockers at airport required 2 quarters and he give me 2 more quarters in case I needed my bag and wanted to put it back again. He assured me that everything will be alright and left his visiting card with me. It was a wonderful and a warm welcome that I felt because of the generosity of this Indian professor.

I had reached La Guardia at 8:30 p.m. and my flight to Gainesville was at 7 a.m. next day. So there was nothing else to do but to see America as it passed by in La Guardia airport.

From lack of sleep, excitement and probably the excellent and rich food in Air India flight I got slight indigestion. So a couple of times I went to the restroom. This was the first time I was using the European toilet and not being used to them I squatted on it. The American toilet doors are open from below and hence anybody can see the legs of a person inside. So whenever anybody came to the toilet, I would get down and this program continued for sometime.

After I came out of the toilet, I washed my hands and as per my usual habit I took out the handkerchief from my pocket to wipe them. A black passenger who was standing at the next wash basin washing his hands, immediately said “Man take the paper it is free”! I laughed at his remarks because he thought that a poor Indian might be afraid of taking the paper towel thinking it might cost money! We chatted for a while and then I requested him to have coffee with me. So my 50 cents that the Indian professor had given me were used up.

The scene at La Guardia airport was amazing. It was New Year’s Eve so it was quite crowded. I saw for the first time the openness in American society where they would do anything in public. Thus some couples were kissing really passionately and except for actually making love they did everything openly. For a young man coming from a prudish and conservative society like India this was quite a revelation.

In those times La Guardia had sofas in the waiting halls. So I found a sofa close to where my luggage was stored and tried to lie down on it. Since the Indian professor had warned me not to sleep, I kept an eye for an occasional cop. Anytime I saw a cop I would get up, sit and pretend to read and when he went away again lied down. This is how I passed the night.

By the time morning came I must have slept for not more than one hour or so and thought that on reaching Gainesville I will sleep. I had no idea where I will be staying or how will I reach the dorm that I had asked for. These things I thought will somehow be taken care of when I reach Gainesville. I also thought that if the higher forces have allowed me to come so far they will also show me the way.
In the morning after freshening up I went to collect my luggage from the locker and was quite happy to see that it was still there! Coming from a country like India where one is always afraid of thefts in lockers it was a new experience that it was intact.

The flight from New York to Gainesville was by a small jet plane of Eastern Airlines. I again asked for the window seat so that I could see how US appeared from the sky. I befriended my fellow passenger. He was a Chinese student doing his Ph.D. in electrical engineering. So I must have asked him millions of question regarding University of Florida. He assured me that electrical engineering was very good but was non committal about mechanical engineering. When I asked him about Dr. Erich Farber he said that he had not heard of him. My heart sank and I wondered whether I had made a mistake of coming to UF.

As we approached Gainesville, I looked out and did not see anything except trees. We landed on a non-descript airport which was even smaller than the Lucknow airport and in those times Indian airports were a laughing matter. The porter brought out our luggage from the plane in a hand trolley and told us that we should pick it up ourselves from it.

In early 1970s Gainesville was a small university town with student population of about 28,000 and the total population of about 130,000. There was hardly any industry and very little commerce except what the university community generated. This was the reason for a very small airport and very few flights per day. In contrast today Gainesville has become a fairly large town with student population of nearly 46,000 and huge shopping malls and large housing complexes dotting the city. Besides it is consistently rated as one of the best cities in US to live in.

At the airport gate an elderly gentleman and his wife greeted me. I guess I was the only Indian on the plane so he recognized me immediately. The elderly gentleman was a retired University of Florida professor in nuclear engineering and he and his wife had volunteered to pick me up at the airport. Long ago I had written to the International student office that I did not know anybody at UF and if somebody could pick me up from the airport then it would be appreciated. Hence it was very sweet of them to come to the airport on New Year’s eve.

The first thing the professor told me was that I probably needed some good sleep. He must have figured out from my blood shot eyes and disheveled appearance. He enquired about where I would be staying and when I told him that I have not heard anything from the UF housing he drove me straight to the International student office.

The day was 31st December 1974 which was a Tuesday. So there was not a soul in the university since it was Christmas vacation. Still the head of the International student office Ann Corbin - a very charming lady was there probably waiting for my arrival. She was very helpful and phoned a couple of Indian students. But being a holiday season nobody was around. After many tries she located an Indian student who had come from out of town and was staying as a guest in one of the apartments. Ann thought that either on 1st or 2nd January, I should be able to go to the housing office and find out about my staying arrangement hence I could stay for a day or two in that apartment.

So the professor and his wife deposited me around noon at this apartment which was about three miles from the University. The Indian visitor greeted me and after a quick hello I immediately took bath and almost broke my bones by slipping in the bath tub but luckily nothing happened. After taking bath and freshening up, the Indian student and I went to the nearest place to eat. I was really hungry since I had not eaten in the last 10-12 hours because I did not want to spend money on food at the N.Y. airport.

Though I was hungry and quite sleepy still the first impression I had when I walked from the apartment to a nearby restaurant was of tremendous silence. Though it was a holiday season and hence there were fewer cars on the road, none of the cars honked and there was very little noise otherwise. This was a tremendous contrast to my surroundings in Lucknow and Delhi where the noise pollution was quite heavy and where nowadays it has become a major epidemic.

We went to Steak and Shake which offered mostly beef and chili and this was my first meal in US. For an almost vegetarian from India this was a strange introduction to America. After that I came to the apartment and slept. This was about 1 or 2 p.m. and when I woke up at 11:30 p.m. I heard strange noises coming from the living room. The owner of the apartment, an Indian graduate student, had returned from his vacation and was watching American football on his TV.  I introduced myself but was surprised by the lack of interest this Indian student had in me. He had been in Gainesville for almost 4 years and had very little interest in anything Indian. As a matter of fact he told me that I should look for another place to live since other roommates of his were coming next day. Since I was still feeling groggy I went back to sleep and woke up in the morning feeling quite fresh.

In the morning the other roommates (all Indian students) came and the one in whose room I had slept told me bluntly that I had to move out. He suggested that I should look at the advertisements in the local paper Gainesville Sun and then call the phone numbers given in them. I called one number and the voice at the other end could not understand my English so I realized very fast that hunting for apartment this way would be a futile exercise.

By this time I had found out that one of my IIT Kanpur classmates Udai Pratap Singh was living and working in Gainesville. Udai and I hardly knew each other in IITK and just had a passing acquaintance. But in this foreign land both of us met like long lost friends. He immediately told me to move in with him in his apartment till I found a place. However I thought it might be better to first find out what the status of my campus housing was.

So next morning I went to the housing office on the university campus. The office was about 2-3 miles from the apartment and since it was winter and a very pleasant weather I walked to it. I was therefore very surprised that every 2 or 3 minutes a motorist would stop and ask me if I needed a ride. I was really touched by their generosity and thanked them. In those times walking in US was quite a rarity and most of the times people either rode a bicycle or drove a car. Gainesville had a nearly non-existent bus system and so it was difficult to get around the town. I enjoyed walking and loved the green surroundings. The present US is a very different place and if you are walking nobody will ever ask you if you need a ride.

On reaching the housing office I asked the lady at the counter whether I could get an accommodation on the campus. She said everything was full and could help only if she had received a request before hand. I told her that sometime in September I had sent a letter and I was not sure whether it had been received since I never got a reply. She went back into the records office and fished out my letter and said that yes housing would be available to me in the Beaty Towers. I was so thrilled by this news that I almost hugged the lady. Beaty Towers which was next to housing office was for graduate students and the costliest dorms on the campus. If I remember correctly it was $ 175 per quarter and I had little more than $ 200 with me. Besides I had to pay 100% advance and did not know when I would get my monthly stipend from the Indian embassy since all the cheques came from there.

However the rude welcome that I had received from the Indian students in the apartment where I had spent the first two nights made me take the decision immediately and I took admission in the Beaty Towers. My friend Udai told me that till I got my cheque from the Indian embassy he would loan me money for the groceries and other things. So that evening after Udai came back from his office I got my luggage from the apartment and moved into Beaty Towers.

Beaty Towers apartments were cramped but a luxurious place to live. Each apartment which was centrally air-conditioned had 2 rooms, a dinning/kitchen area and an attached bathroom. These apartments were meant for 2 students with one in each room, but because of shortage of space it housed 4 students, 2 in each room. Since it had a modern kitchen and a refrigerator, I had to buy some utensils to cook. The rest I borrowed from my roommates later on.

Since it was still the holiday season, I was the first to arrive in my apartment and did not know who my roommates were. At around 12 midnight I was woken up by this hunk of a man who was very tall and spoke with a thick European accent. I was still too sleepy and so said good night to him and went back to sleep. Next morning I found out that my new roommate was a Romanian graduate student in Chemistry and that his father was the second in command to the President of Romania.

We became very good friends and he felt a certain kinship to me since he loved Raj Kapoor movies and I was a foreigner. He hated America. To him any day a foreign roommate was desirable to an American. I used to argue with him that if he did not like US then why he was staying in that country to which he could never give any satisfactory reply. I found this tendency in quite a few foreign students I encountered during my stay in US. They all criticized US but never wanted to leave it.

The Romanian roommate used to be visited occasionally by dark suited characters who seemed to be KGB - type operators. They brought crates full of Vodka since he used to drink heavily. Whenever I broached the subject of his visitors he would simply ignore my questions. I lost touch with him when I moved to Reid Coop in the next quarter. However I was told that he had abruptly left UF without a forwarding address.

Next morning I went with tremendous eagerness to my department. This was my first day on a US university campus. The winter quarter had started and so there was quite a lot of activity and crowds at the campus. Everything was new and unique to me and so I soaked up as much experience and sights as possible.
I reached the department office, finished the paper work and then went to see my professor Dr. Erich Farber. I was really touched by the extreme politeness and helpfulness of the Mechanical Engineering office staff. In fact US of 1970s was a very polite and gracious society. Some of the rudeness that has crept in now came much later on.

I was told that Dr. Farber will come later on in the day. So I waited and when he came I went to his office and introduced myself. I asked him whether he had received my letter regarding my coming to work under him to which he replied that he got 200 letters every day so was not sure which one was mine ! This was my first brush with his arrogance and I had many opportunities to experience it later on during my UF stay.

– Continued

July 29, 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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