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

Chapter 9

Exploring America

Most of my American travel was work-related. However when I could, I took time out and used to take side trips to see that great country.

During one summer break I and Nandini decided to travel to the southwestern states and then to California to see solar energy work being done in various universities and organizations and also to visit Grand Canyon, Carlsbad caves and see cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles etc.

I had just finished my qualifying exam and nearly finalized the topic I would be working on for my Ph.D. Nevertheless I thought it would be wonderful to go and see what major labs and universities were doing in solar energy and maybe to get some inspiration from their work. There were a lot of activities in energy R&D in US during President Carter’s era (1976-80). He called creating national energy security as moral equivalent of war. Hence not only universities but national defense labs like Sandia labs in Albuquerque, New Mexico had started working in solar energy.

In those times there was Ameripass of Greyhound Bus Company which allowed unlimited travel in $100 to any city in US for one month! Thus we felt this would be a great way to see America. We also decided to save on hotel bills since we did not have friends at many of the places that we wanted to visit. Hence we used to travel mostly at night and visit the labs during day time. Later on in 1978 I gave the same Greyhound pass to my parents when they were visiting me. This allowed them to travel all over US and enjoy America.

Our first stop was Albuquerque to see Sandia labs. An interesting incident happened at the New Orleans bus stop. Our bus from Gainesville reached there around 4 in the morning. There was a half an hour stop so we started getting down still groggy and sleepy. At the bus exit door an immigration officer stopped me, flashed his immigration badge and asked for my passport. I was half-asleep but felt affronted by this sudden confrontation. So I asked him to show his badge properly! He was slightly taken aback but showed it and told me not to touch it. Once I was convinced that he was a genuine immigration officer I said “Why do you need my passport? I do not carry it with me all the time”. “Sir you should carry it always with you. We are looking for illegal Mexican immigrants” he replied. After I showed him my UF photo ID he left. It is unimaginable in the post 9/11 scenario to have an exchange like this. I would have been in real trouble for questioning an immigration official !

Sandia labs in those days was doing pioneering work in solar power. In 1975 they had set up the world’s first 5 MW solar power plant. The concept was called Solar Tower Power in which hundreds of mirrors placed on the ground reflected the sunlight to the top of the tower where the concentrated solar beam heated a material (generally some inorganic salts) which in turn heated water to produce steam and hence power. The sight of the mirrors focusing the beam on a single tower was very impressive and heralded a space age solution to energy crisis.
The head of solar energy group at Sandia lab was one Dr. Stromberg whom I came to know quite well through correspondence and phone calls. Since I worked with Dr. Farber, a renowned solar energy expert, I was welcomed to visit Sandia. Besides in those times most of the labs and universities welcomed the students visiting them and were very helpful regarding research. Later on because of security reasons they started to tighten up on such visits.

Still I remember that when I came back from my California visit, Farber kidded me by saying that he would like to know beforehand where his students were going. “I got phone calls from Washington asking me who is this Indian student of yours. Is he a terrorist or a genuine scholar?” Farber said. I was not aware that anybody going to Sandia labs had to have a background check done on him. Later on I found out that since the lab made atomic weapons all visitors had to be subjected to such checks. So this background check was provided by my department at UF after I had left for my trip. Those were simple days when a few phone calls were enough to do these checks.

However slightly later on in 1980 when I took about 40 participants of the course on Training in Alternative Energy Technologies (TAET) from our lab to Sandia we had to give a detailed biodata of each participant to the State Department in Washington D.C. and then only got permission to visit. Even after getting the permission one was not sure about what might happen in the lab. For example as we were on our way to visit the Solar Tower site, a convoy of trucks carrying atomic weapons was being taken from the manufacturing facility to the storage facility in Albuquerque mountains and hence our bus was stopped. Somehow this information reached Washington that a bus load of foreigners were witness to the atomic weapon transport. Immediately our future trips to Albuquerque were stopped. In 1980 just after the Iran crisis the security to most of these labs was increased. Today one has to do a lot of paper work before a foreigner is allowed into these labs.

In any case Dr. Stromberg welcomed both me and Nandini to his lab and took us on the tour of Solar Tower in an electric car! This was probably the first electric car in the US. It was a rudimentary vehicle with hardly any great electronics but was very functional and traveled at 40-50 miles per hour. Once it reached the solar site it was plugged into the solar charger for battery charging. I thought it was a great idea to showcase the solar economy!

The Solar Tower facility was very impressive and was basically a research lab where dozens of doctoral and postdoctoral students were conducting research on various aspects of electricity generation by solar thermal process.

There was a pleasant surprise in store for us during our travel from Albuquerque to Tucson-our next stop. At the bus station there was quite a rush and hence we could not get into the first bus. But immediately Greyhound Bus Company got a second bus only for the two of us! We could have never believed that the bus service would be so efficient. We were therefore the only passengers on the bus all the way from Albuquerque to Tucson. The Greyhound bus service was extremely efficient and prompt in those times and it was a pleasure riding the buses. Unfortunately today the story is very different and the service has deteriorated drastically.

Besides the Sandia facility I also visited during this trip the solar work being done at the University of Houston (solar concentrator work); Arizona State University, Tempe (Dr. John Yellot’s work on solar passive cooling); University of California, Los Angles (UCLA) (high efficiency solar collector work at Dr. Edward’s lab); U. of California, Berkeley (Sea Water Conversion lab which was doing pioneering work in desalination); Colorado State University, Fort Collins (Dr. George Lof who was one of the pioneers in solar energy utilization); University of Arizona, Tucson (Green house lab which was the forerunner to the world famous Biosphere project in 1990s).

Visiting these labs was a great learning experience and brought me up-to-date on all the major work going on in US in solar thermal applications. At most of these places I was referred to as Dr. Rajvanshi and some of the professors were surprised that a graduate student who had just passed the qualifying exam would undertake such a journey on his own. In fact in those times it was rare for a student to go around the country visiting labs.

After my summer visit I gave a one-hour seminar in our department on the solar energy work being done across the country. It was probably the first such seminar based on a student’s trip and later on Farber suggested that other students, whenever they went for lab visits, should come back and give a seminar. After the seminar the departmental secretary told me that the mechanical engineering department could reimburse my travel and staying expenses for such trips. I never took any money from the department for such trips even later on since in those times travel was very cheap and I mostly stayed with my friends. Besides I enjoyed the travel and meeting people. In any case I became goods friends with most of the researchers and faculty I met specially Dr. George Lof and Dr. Yellot. Besides I also made unexpectedly some new friends in Tempe.

We reached Tempe, Arizona in the morning by the Greyhound bus which deposited us at a nondescript bus station. In those days Tempe-the home of Arizona State University (ASU) was a small university town. So after getting down we were walking on the street near the bus station and debating on how to go to ASU to meet Dr. Yellot and see his lab. Should we take a bus or hire a taxi. We had no place to stay but thought once we reach ASU campus then we would find something. In those days quite a number of US universities allowed free stay in dorms during summer break to students visiting from other universities. Nandini that day had worn a sari and both of us were looking quite disheveled since we had spent the night in the bus traveling from Tucson, Arizona.

Suddenly a car stopped by at the corner of the street and an Indian gentleman asked us whether we needed a ride. He was Nimish Patel who was also a student at ASU. He and his wife Parul Jhaveri were architects and were spending one year as apprentices at ASU. We were delighted at this god sent opportunity and both of us thoroughly enjoyed our stay for 2 days in their small apartment. In those days ASU did not have too many Indian students and hence Nimish was also delighted to meet us. Since then we have remained good friends and today the Patels are very successful architects of Ahmedabad.

In those days Nimish Patel’s mother was also staying with them. Hence with two of us as guests, their small apartment became very crowded. But we were subjected to very gracious hospitality by the Patels. I still remember an amusing episode. Nimish was quite plump when we met him. Yet his mother complained to us that her daughter-in-law did not feed her son properly and did not give him enough milk. Nimish mildly objected by telling her that instead of milk he ate ice cream! “Milk is milk and ice cream can never replace it”, said his mother. Both of us could not hide our amusement at how a mother’s fixation for milk continued even after the children had grown up!

The Carlsbad caves and Grand Canyon were really fantastic sites. America is really blessed with beautiful landscapes and national parks. Besides they have been maintained well so visitors can see and appreciate the natural beauty. This was quite a contrast to what I had seen in India. In fact some places in India have unsurpassed natural beauty like beaches of Maharashtra, Himalayan mountains or rain forests of Kerala. Yet we do not keep these places clean or visitor-friendly.

In the Grand Canyon we met a Japanese family or group which had 10-15 members. They were not interested in seeing the beauty of the Canyon but only in taking photographs. At every scenic spot they would get down from the shuttle bus, quickly take photographs and again get back on the bus. When I suggested to them that they should sit and enjoy the beauty of the landscape, the head of the delegation said, “We will sit in our living room and watch all these slides”! Japanese have been known to be great photograph-takers. Once when I was leaving the Japanese delegation which had been visiting our solar lab at the Gainesville airport, the head of the delegation even took a photo of my car number plate!

I crisscrossed the country later on many times and tried to see as many of the national parks and landscapes as possible. Thus I saw the Rocky mountain range at Yosemite National Park where we stayed in a log cabin for a week. Similarly we traveled to Smokey mountain ranges where I did some trekking etc. Besides this there were many opportunities for camping. I have always believed that US is a great place for tourists to see its natural landscapes and not its big cities which are nearly similar with same type of shopping malls, eating places etc. Nevertheless too often the foreign students do not go to these places of natural beauty but like to visit only cities.

Our first trip to Berkeley was quite memorable. After getting down at Oakland Greyhound bus terminal we took the local bus to Berkeley campus. We were given a free dorm at Berkeley for 3 days. As we got on the bus, Nandini looked for her purse to pay the fare. Suddenly we realized that the purse had been left at the bus stop! It contained all our money and important papers. Since we were carrying 3 bags and pillows somehow in the hurry to get in the bus Nandini left the purse on the bench at the bus stop.

I requested the bus conductor to stop the bus but he said that it will stop only at the next station. We got down at the next station which was a good half a mile from the bus stop where we had boarded the bus. I have never run so fast in my life as I ran that day for half a mile. On reaching the bus stop I found that the purse was not there. Suddenly in the distance I saw a man carrying it. I ran after him without saying a word fearing that he might run away if I shouted. When I reached him I told him that it was my purse. He immediately gave it to me saying that he was taking it to the Post office so that it could be returned to me. I thanked
him profusely and offered him a $ 5 token award. He refused to take it. We were always warned by our friends that there was a lot of crime in the Oakland / Berkeley area but this was a shining example of a very honest citizen of this area.

After checking into the dorm we went to take bath. The dorm had common bathrooms and toilets. The women’s bathroom though was on a separate floor. So when Nandini went to the shower she saw a couple taking bath together in the next cubicle! Berkeley was even more liberal than UF!

I went to the Mechanical Engineering department to meet the Professor whom I had befriended in IIT Kanpur. The secretary asked me whether I was from IITK? I was surprised by her clairvoyance but she clarified by telling me that all the Indian’s in the department are from IITK and so she presumed that I must also be from IITK! In 1976 IIT had not become a brand name but at least in some top schools like Berkeley, IITK was very well known.

Besides the university campuses we also visited the big cities like Houston, San Francisco, Los Angles, San Diego, Tucson and St. Louis. Both of us enjoyed visiting museums and sampling good local ethnic food. In Tucson we went looking for the hospital where Nandini was born in 1954. However to our dismay we found that it was demolished and in its place stood a shopping mall.
We were suckers for visiting various museums to see great work of art and exhibitions. Besides driving to New Orleans in 1977 just to see Tutankhamen’s exhibition we also saw the Picasso perspective exhibition held in New York Museum of Modern Art in summer of 1980. We stood for 6 hours in a long queue in New York to get the tickets and another 4 hours to enter the Museum! This was the longest I had stood in any queue in US.

Later on during our many travels in the US there were quite a few amusing incidents. I was once driving through Kansas State when we decided to stop for the night at a very small town called Oakley. If I remember correctly in 1979 the town population was probably 500. There was only one hotel and one decent restaurant. So when we went to eat in the restaurant almost the whole town came to see us since Nandini was wearing a saree! I guess in those days very few Indians passed through such conservative small American towns.

Similarly I had gone to Fort Collins for a conference in 1980. One evening we together with our friends, decided to go out to a nice restaurant for dinner. I drove on a particular road where no U turns were allowed and since the restaurant was on the other side of the road I had to take a turn. After driving for a couple of miles I became impatient and decided to take a U turn after checking that there was no cop around. However within seconds a cop materialized and started flashing his car lights.

In my 7 years’ stay in the US I never got a traffic ticket and I was very proud of my record. Couple of times I did get parking tickets at UF campus but they were never for speeding or driving related offenses. This would therefore have been my first traffic violation. So I was very afraid that my record will be tarnished. I got out of the car and told the cop “Sir I am totally guilty of wrong conduct and will accept whatever ticket you give me”. Normally there is a tendency in the drivers to argue with the cops in such situations. So this cop sensed my feeling of guilt and was very surprised at my frank admission. “Sir where are you coming from”? he asked. I told him from Gainesville so he replied “Yes sometimes these U turns are pretty bad and get on the nerves of out-of-town drivers. Please drive carefully next time”, and left me off without a ticket!

Another travel related incident was not very memorable. I used to take the TAET participants to New Mexico and Arizona to show them large scale solar related projects. Once we were returning to Gainesville via Atlanta. The Atlanta airport was the hub of all flights going to or from Gainesville. Our flight to Gainesville was supposed to come from New York but because of bad weather in New York it was delayed. So every half an hour the flight timing at Eastern Airlines counter would be changed. This went on from 5:30 p.m. to 9.00 p.m. Meanwhile our request to meet a manager of Eastern Airlines (EA) was turned down.

Finally in a fit of desperation we informed the Eastern Airlines (EA) staff politely that in the morning they would see a story in the Atlanta Journal (local paper) about how 40 foreign dignitaries were stranded at the Atlanta airport because of the stupidity of Eastern Airlines. That made the EA promptly give us a hotel for night and book us on the morning flight. This crass commercialization of airlines industry has become even worse today where in case of weather related delays the airlines do not offer anything to the passengers - not even food.

Just before leaving US in 1981 we had bought a $ 300 airline ticket on Eastern Airlines. This ticket allowed us unlimited travel anywhere in the country for one month. We utilized this ticket fully and visited all our friends around US. Those were the golden days of air travel in US with excellent service and good food. Today the airlines are just like a glorified bus service with no food, hardly any service and quite often late and not on time.

In my 7 years’ stay in US we traveled quite extensively all over the country and stayed with innumerable American and Indian families and enjoyed their gracious hospitality. Since then I have traveled to many more areas whenever I go to US. However few states in northwest still remain to be seen. It is my keen desire to see the natural beauty of America’s northwest and hope that one day I will get an opportunity to do so.

– Continued

September 9, 2007

Images under license with Gettyimages.com

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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