Where There is a Will - Introduction

This blog is about how an individual ventured to leave a well settled and secure but highly unproductive and suppressing workplace at the age of 39 and persisted against several odds to keep  progressing.

The blog is to be read from the earliest post and move on to the latest as the events are given chronologically.  The aim of the writer is to reach aspiring youngsters to apprise them of  the possible difficulties and hurdles one must be prepared to face and handle without losing heart.  The problems faced are not unsurmountable or unique in the sense that similar problems of greater or lesser intensity might have been felt by many readers of these entries.

The blog starts from the time I boarded the plane at Chennai to go for higher studies at Northwestern University on December 26, 1976.  I have not given the exact circumstances and the cumulative effect of developments up to that point which made me take that decision.  Suffice to say that with what I was blessed with in terms of location, security of job and a family with two children, I still took the decision to go to a foreign land with no information, no connection and no financial support.  

I landed in Chicago on one of the worst winter nights with $80 in my wallet. I lost my wallet which contained most of it but for some changes in my pocket the day after I landed.  Thus starts the story.  I have gone through several job changes including two years of unemployment but ultimately reached Professorship in a University.

There is a Way!

Where There is a Will: 22. Back to Full Time Teaching: Settled Finally?

           

Where There is a Will: 22. Back to Full Time Teaching:  Settled Finally?

                                                            

Good start:

After a few hours’ break at Seattle, we caught the next train to go from Seattle King Street Station to Portland Union Station.  We were met by Dr. Cy Cook, Chairman of Civil Engineering At the University of Portland (UP) at the station.  He took us to the UP where we were given temporary accommodation.  Our car was waiting there having been delivered safely by the two voluntary drivers.

                                                    

                  Seattle to Portland by Amtrak:  3hr 25 min about 175 miles

Next day Cy took us to see apartments in Beaverton, a suburb of Portland and helped us find one at 5th Street, which was good.  It was a 3 bedroom apartment on the second floor (first floor in British terminology)!  

Compared to West Lafayette (and Platteville), Portland, Oregon is a much bigger city.  It is the largest city in Oregon and lies close to the coast and the border of Washington.  This part of the country, though much further in the North, never gets too cold and rarely sees snowfall.  Grocery shopping and children’s schools were close by.  My work (UP) was about 14 miles mostly through freeways and it was a commute of about 30 minutes either way. 

                                    

                       Daily commute from 5th Street Apartment to University of Portland

I started working with H-1 visa.  UP was a small, private Catholic University.  It offered undergraduate degrees only at that time.  The School of Engineering offered Civil, Electrical, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering programs.  It had a total faculty strength of 17 including the Dean of Engineering.  There were two secretaries and one technician to serve all the departments.

Shiley School of Engineering - University of Portland:  Courtesy:  Google Maps

The Civil Engineering Department had 4 faculty members including me; two “locals”, one from Turkey beside me.  The gentleman from Turkey, Mehmet Inan, was on leave in Turkey to fulfill his country's military service requirements.  I was assigned Statics, Highway Engineering, Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering besides Engineering Graphics.  I was also assigned Statics and Strength of Materials (combined course) for Electrical Engineering students.

Irony:

I moved away from Civil Engineering in November 1960 when I joined the Department of Town Planning in Madras.  Having spent several years teaching and specialising in Urban and Transportation Planning, I found myself assigned to teach Statics and Strength of Materials (which I had never used since 1960.

After my B.E. degree I wanted to pursue higher studies.  One night I got a telegram inviting me to the interview at the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) where I had applied for Masters in Soil Mechanics.  I went with my bag and baggage by train. It used to take 2 days and one night of travel.  At the interview I was asked if I had a course in Soil Mechanics in my undergraduate program.  I said "No; but I have done some laboratory experiments as a part of my coursework." After a few more questions another member of the committee asked me again "Did you take courses in soil mechanics in your undergraduate program". I replied again what I had just said few minutes ago. This fact was abundantly clear in my transcript!  I was rejected admission based on that fact. I returned by the next available train! I felt really sorry for my father as it cost nearly Rs. 160 (equivalent to may be Rs. 16,000.00 in 2023)!

Now I found myself having to teach Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering!

Statics was totally different from the way we learned.  It was all using vectors.  I had to learn cross product and dot product in order to teach Statics.  Dean Nelson casually mentioned that Statics for Civil Engineering and Statics and Strength of Materials for Electricals were essentially the same.  What I found was that there were totally different text books prescribed by a senior faculty member of Mechanical Engineering.  It turned out later that the entire batch of Electrical Engineering class was failed by the teacher in the previous semester.  That teacher was removed. Electrical Engineering here does not require drawing or statics and strength of materials.  Thus I had quite a challenge.

What I found over the years is that Statics and Drawing (Engineering Graphics) are “filter” courses.  Especially in the US, particularly lately, anybody fulfilling the minimum requirements of eligibility will be admitted to the branch of his/her choice.  Statics and Drawing will filter out the unprepared or uninterested and thus the senior classes will be easier to teach.  These are also courses assigned to the newest faculty.  Thus, these courses are also used for filtering the new member at the time of getting tenured.

Three years at Portland

Teaching Statics helped me in clearing the Professional Engineering examination.  Soon after starting teaching at UP I took the P.E. examination.  This was also an 8-hour open book examination.  I met another engineer of India origin coming for thePE examination at the same center along with me.  He literally brought a cart load of books.  It was not his first attempt!  I had just one book - the Handbook that I got free from McGraw Hill Book Club which I again bought back from the local book store at West Lafayette.

The P.E. examination is easier in the sense that it was more  oriented towards the engineering profession and practice and not so much the theory as the F.E. exam.  The idea of making it Open-Book is just so that one can refer to some equations and formulas.  I passed the exam and got my P.E. license. (Our friend with a cartload of books failed again).  Many in the academic circles never bother about the P.E. licensing.

Bought my First House in the US

Things seemed to be going well.  I enjoyed the teaching and the treatment in the department. Also, I felt (and was perhaps told by some) that buying a house shows the intention to stay and will help in getting immigration.  I found a house in Beaverton “for sale by owner.”  The house was a 3 bed room house in S.W. Taralyn Boulevard, not too far from the apartment where we were living.  The owner who was selling was an auto mechanic by name Val Vitek from Czechoslovakia.  He was a simple old fashioned individual and the process was simple.  I got the house for $60000 (today it is still there and goes for over $400000).  We agreed on the terms and I had to just send him the monthly installments.  

                            

                                                My first own house - 1982 to 1984

Buying My 4th and 5th Cars

As I had to drive daily about 26 miles each way through freeways I did not want to depend on the old car I had brought from West Lafayette.  Also it was not very fuel efficient.  So I started shopping for a better car.

In those days there were no Japanese or Korean cars in the market.  The only foreign makes were Volkswagon.  People were generally reluctant to go for “foreign” cars as the parts would be costly and it would be difficult to find an auto shop to fix them in case of problems.  A friend who was a longtime resident of Beaverton suggested a local car dealer and referred to Bob Fredeen, a sales person there.  I went there to meet him.  Also I had driven only automatic cars.  So I told Bob my criteria: American make, Automatic, 4 cylinder, 4 door car is what I am looking for.  He showed a few cars.  There was a blue car which looked nice.  So I asked him about it and showed my interest.  “It is a Volkswagon - Rabbit.  It is a standard (stick) shift model”.  Then he went on to say “It is easy to drive.  I can teach you right here”.  So I bought that car and learned the tricks of shifting using my right leg to press the brake and left leg to press the clutch pedal and shift gears.  It took  hardly 15 minutes for him to teach and for me to learn.

             

                      My first Standard Shift Car: Volkswagon Rabbit - My 4th car

I drove that car home.  Lo and behold, there was a railroad crossing and I had to bring the car to a stop.  It was on a hump.  Now, when I wanted to move, I was not able to shift to first gear as the car started rolling back as I remove my right leg from the brake pedal to accelerator pedal.  I somehow managed and reached home and called Bob to tell what happened.  “Oh.  I forgot to tell you how to do that.  You use the hand brake when shifting to first gear”.  It was quite a challenge to get that coordination, but after a while I found it not much different from driving an autoshift car.  Within a month or so we visited San Francisco on that Rabbit.  I was driving around and went up the famous “Most Crookedest Street”.  Near the top of the winding uphill road, I had to stop.  It was quite scary to again shift to first gear with cars standing behind and my car starting to roll back!  Thanks to the trick I had learned and mastered by then, I was able to move on without any incident!

That car was very good, very convenient and I enjoyed it.  One day it stopped and would not start!  Fortunately it was at home.  Val Vitek, the auto mechanic from whom I bought the house, helped me by fixing it.  I decided to sell the rabbit.  I found a used Mazda for sale by its owner.  He had driven that from Tenessee.  It was well kept.  It was also a standard shift car.  Thus I got my 5th car in as many years!  This Mazda GLC was to stay with me for the next ten years and I drove it with my family all the way from Portland, Oregon to Austin, Texas about a year later.

                            

                                 Mazda GLC - Early 1980s Model

Getting the Green Card and First Return Trip Home

University started the process of sponsoring my immigration by the end of the first year.  I sought the help of an immigration attorney (which, I learnt later, was not really needed).  The attorney will get any official correspondence from the immigration department directed to him and will forward them to me and charge attorney fee for  that service!

The university had to advertise my position.  Of course nobody with my qualifications and experience would apply for that post in a small, private, undergraduate institution.  So I was selected and sponsored by the University.

I got the green card sometime in early 1983.

Now that we got the green  card, we as a family, went to India to visit our parents and folks.  We spent about a month in Madras (Chennai) traveling to Madurai where my in-laws and parents were living at that time.  

I visited IIT-Madras.  My classmate, Dr. N. Rajagopalan, who had joined IIT as a faculty member soon after graduating from Guindy in 1960, suggested that I get into IIT.  I thought it would not be fair to UP and Dean Nelson who had taken the trouble to sponsor me for the green card.  So, I did not give much thought to that idea.

Another Rude Awakening

Things seemed to be going fine.  It is usual for teachers in Universities to get some research projects or consultancy/employment locally during Summer months.  I could not find any and I got one course to teach and got paid for that.  As an urban university, UP also offered courses off campus.  One such was to teach at Techtronics, a local company.  This was to enable working persons to get a degree by taking courses part-time in the evenings.  Every semester, the students will give their evaluation.  I was getting fairly good ratings though there will be some students expressing their dissatisfaction.

As I had completed 3 years at UP I applied for Tenure and Promotion.  Tenure is what ensures permanency of the job in Universities.  I was denied tenure and promotion.  The president of the University, Father Otto, personally called me to inform me of the decision.  He said I was teaching in areas unrelated to my specialty and also my English was getting better (meaning that my English is not up to the mark!).  When I related this to the Dean, he did not like it because he was the one to decide what courses I teach.  He went and talked to the President and came back to tell me that the reason for my not being tenured or promoted was that some students were not happy with my teaching.  

The whole game for me was to prove that I can get a Ph.D. and get promoted based on my work and qualifications, which was not possible at the School of  Architecture and Planning.

Where There is a Will: 21. Golden Period - Part 2

 Spring 80 Another Shock and Recovery:

University of Wisconsin (UWP) told me that they are looking for a replacement and that I will not be allowed to continue beyond that academic year.  I called and talked with my doctoral advisor at Purdue (Dr. Sinha), he said it is not worth my while to waste my time at UWP,  He advised me to return at the end of the semester to continue on the research topic.

But when I met him after my return he said that he had given that topic to another student and will assign me a different project.  I was not too happy about that as it may prolong my graduation by at least one more year.  He looked at me and I said “Beggars are not choosers”.  Of course he did not like it but he let me continue on the project from where I had left it.

My third car:

As it is practically impossible to live here with a family without a car, I had to buy another used car.  This time it was an early 70s model Impala.  This was another 8 cylinder gas-guzzler, giving 8 miles per gallon.  

70s Model Impala

Teaching Assistantship:

I got to work as the teaching assistant for Introduction to Civil Engineering.  This 3 unit course was meant to give the undergraduate students an overview of Civil Engineering.  A full time faculty member was in charge of this course.  He arranges for lectures by various practicing Civil Engineers.  My role was to just sit at the back and grade the periodic tests and quizzes set by the full time professor.

Got through the first step toward becoming a licensed Professional Engineer

One of the lecturers talked about professional licensing.  In order to be a licensed professional engineer there is a two step process.   First step is to take and pass an 8 hour open book examination.  The topics covered in this exam are the basic courses - most of which I had studied in my first two years of Engineering Course at Guindy and before, such as Mathematics, Physics, Statics, Strength of Materials.  One topic that I did not study in my undergraduate studies was Engineering Economics. 

This exam is known as the Fundamentals of Engineering examination, common to all branches of engineering.  (The requirements vary from state to state and might be different now).   After passing this examination and putting in some years of work experience under a Professional Engineer, one has to take and pass the Professional Engineer examination.  The PE examination is branch specific.

I went ahead and registered for the FE examination in Indiana.  I bought a McGraw Hill publication to review and refresh my knowledge on the basic subjects which I had studied 20 years ago and had never used in my jobs afterwards!  However, as I had taken Transportation Systems Evaluation (which is the application of cost-benefit/cost-effectivenes analyses using compound interest calculations, I did not have any hesitation in facing that 8 hour examination.

I took the exam and passed.  This was one very wise move I made as to be revealed 8 years later!

Bought my 4th Car:

As Impala was not economical I was looking for a smaller car.  I was able to sell  my Impala to a new post-graduate fellow that had come to Purdue and bought a 6 cylinder car.  This was an  American Motor Corportaion (AMC) make  and the model was Gremlin.  AMC was the fourth car maker after Chevrolet, Ford and Chrysler.

Early 70s model Gremlin.

Continued Smooth Sailing and Completion of Ph.D.:

Life had become a settled routine.  Veda took care of managing the household.  Children were used to taking the School Bus and were doing well in their studies.  Sowmya wanted to take Flute as part of her curriculum.  As Veda cannot be employed legally (because of her visa status) she kept busy by occasionally accepting to take care of little children.  Some of the parents of such children became good friends. One of them was from Elkhart, Indiana, a town known for flute making.  She helped get a good flute for Sowmya, which she still  has and still keeps playing.  

How I ended up buying back my own book from the local book store!

During the Christmas break, I went to Follets, the local book store and was browsing.  I saw the book “Civil Engineering Handbook” by Urquhart.

That was one of the books I got for free when I joined the McGraw Hill book club as recommended by Anil Bhandari.  Just out of curiosity (Divine play is mysterious) I took it and opened.  Lo and behold, I saw my address label intact on the first page!  My own book was stolen from the graduate student’s office and sold to this book store.

I talked with the store manager and showed him that it was my book.  He would not give it back to me.  He said “I have already paid for the book.  If you want you can buy it back from me!”  As I cherished that book (that is one of the handful of technical books I am still having; I disposed of most of my technical books a few years after moving to my present residence).
     

The book that I got for free when I joined McGraw Hill Book Club had to be bought back by me for about $34.00 (in 1979) from the local bookstore!

Upon coming to the graduate students’ office, I related this to the other students.  Then everyone started looking in their book shelves and found big gaps.  Another student from Colombia, Humberto by name, was looking for a bag which he was positive he had kept in that office.  Slowly it dawned on us that someone who had access to that office  found the bag to carry many textbooks from many shelves.  That person could have easily made a few hundred dollars by selling those books!  I was lucky in the sense that I had lost just one book which I got back.  Others had lost many valuable text books!

Job Hunting:

As I was sure of completing my work and getting my Ph.D by the end of July 1981, I started sending applications.  I got an interview from the University of Portland (UP), Oregon.  I flew to Portland and the interview was basically presenting my research.  The Dean of Engineering explained to me their terms.  He also said that I will be reimbursed the cost of travel for the interview if I am selected and I accept, or if I am not selected; however, if I am selected but I reject the offer, then I will not be reimbursed.

Soon after my return to W. Lafayette after the interview, I got an offer from UP, and I accepted it.

UP is a Catholic (Private) University.  At that time it was offering only undergraduate programs in Civil, Mechanical, Electrical and Industrial Engineering.

Completion of the Thesis and Defence:

Toward the end of July 1981 I had my defence scheduled.  That is the final stage.  My advisors and anybody interested can attend the defence.  The candidate is expected to “defend” his research findings, by answering questions and objections to the satisfaction of the committee.   Prof. Ravindran found some deficiency and wanted me to take care of it.  Prof. Sinha suggested that I go and start at UP and come back next summer to complete the thesis.  I insisted that I stay and get it done as I know it is very unpredictable to return and complete.  I managed to do the extra work within the next few weeks.

Visa Problem:

The practice in those days was for internationals to start using the practical training period while the immigration was being processed.  After finishing studies, international students are eligible to get 6 months work permit to be treated as practical training without change in visa status.  I had to go to Gary, Indiana to get my 6 months practical training approved.  The immigration officer was an Afro-American lady.   She flatly refused to approve saying that I already had practical training considering the work I did at NU after completing my M.S. course work. 

UP Gave a Helping Hand:

I called the dean of Engineering at UP (Dr. Thomas Nelson) and explained my predicament and requested him to process H1 visa.  H1 visa was the visa given for specially qualified persons in fields where they cannot find an American (any naturalized person of any origin).  He agreed to do so and I got H1 visa in about a week.

Off to Portland, Oregon!:

I found two people - not known to each other - who were going to Portland and agreed to drive my car for me.  They just wanted gasoline charges and expenses.  We booked our travel to Portland by Amtrak (railways) from Chicago.  We had minimal stuff.  We could send most of it in boxes by the US Postal service to be delivered to the Dean of UP.  The car was also to be dropped at UP.  The rest of our stuff could be packed in suitcases.  

We got a ride from Lafyette to Chicago.  Ikuo Harazaki, a Japanese and Essam Saraf from Egypt (both students at Purdue) wanted to go to Chicago.  Essam’s wife, Ikuo’s wife and one little daughter went with us in a van, driven by Essam Saraf.  

The train travel by Amtrak from Chicago was quite enjoyable.  We had booked a family room with 4 beds and it was completely private.  There was a conductor traveling along.  We had taken prepared food packets and hence there was no problem.  The journey was very smooth and comfortable.

 

Chicago to Seattle by Amtrak
Goes through the states of Wisconsin,Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana
Seattle is at the western end of Washington
Time of travel: about 46 hours/1743 miles

Where There is a Will: 20. Golden Semesters - Part I (Continued)

 Summer 1979:  Course Work  Over - Going on Full  Research and Full Pay

I had completed the required coursework as some of my courses at Northwestern University were counted for this purpose.  I was on full research assistantship.

The research was on Optimal  Resource Allocation for Highway Maintenance.  Dr. Sinha was the Principal Investigator and he had won grants to study the major highways of the six mid-western states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.  Dr. Ravindran was one of my advisors.  The project was to apply Goal Programming and Dr. Ravindran’s specialty was in that area.  The data were available and my duty was to formulate the Goal Programming Model and apply it to the data and come up with recommendations to optimally carry out the maintenance.

The first US Summer for my family!  Coming out of the winter with hardly 10 hours of daytime, the 14 hour daytime of Summer will  be really felt!  Children had a good time spending time outside as long as there was sunlight!  That is also the time for garage sales, picnics and visiting places.

With no pressure to complete and no interference by the advisor (Dr. Sinha) it was a very peaceful and smooth sailing for me and my family.

In Front of the Civil Engineering Building

Purdue University

Fall 1979:  First Real Job in the US:  University of Wisconsin - Platteville

Though the life at West Lafayette was good, I was getting impatient about

Continuing as a student, especially with children growing.  A graduating student by name C. J. Chang, had been getting interviewed for job offers and he mentioned about the opening of a faculty position in the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.  At that  time the University of Wiconsin-Platteville (UW-P) was an undergraduate only university (a.k.a teaching university as against research university)

Let me digress a bit to talk about the naming convention here.  University of Wisconsin is a system of Wisconsin State Universities; this means these are funded by the State as against privately funded universities.  In some states  - Wisconsin is one of them - there are state university campuses at several towns.  These are independent of each other.  The name of the town will always have to be added at the end of the name of the university to make it clear which campus is being referred to.

Platteville, Wisconsin is a small  mining town located in the southwest corner of the state.  C. J. Chang was offered the position but he did not want to take it.  I called the University, got an appointment for interview, and visited them.  I drove to Platteville with family.  It is about 300 miles from West Lafayette.  

The interview was simple.  They were recruiting faculty for 6 positions as apparently that many had just quit.  At the end of the interview the Dean of Engineering (Dean Busby) made the offer.  I was offered Assistant Professor position at $18000 per year.  I asked if the University will also sponsor me to get my green card.  The Dean was very pleasant and agreed to do that.

Return to West Lafayette After the Job Offer:

Let me digress a bit and take the opportunity to talk about my first encounter with traffic police here.

As I had gotten my driving license recently and did not have enough idea about driving on the freeways, I decided to return using side roads avoiding freeways.  In those days the practice was to become a member of the Automobile Association of America (AAA) and use their services.  They will give detailed route plan for long distance travel.  I had one such strip map to guide me.  I was driving back and it was past midnight when I was stopped by a police!  I pulled over and waited for the officer to come.  

“Sir, let me see your driving license.  Where are you going?”
“I am going to West Lafayette, Indiana”

“May I suggest you something?  When you drive through strange towns, pay attention to the traffic signs.  You did not stop at the stop sign”

“I did stop!”

“Sir, you are not going to West Lafayette this way.  You need to have turned right at the stop sign - not the stop sign where you stopped; the stop sign that you blew!”

He gave my license back. I thanked him and retraced my path to get the right turn and reach home safely.

Starting Work at UW-P:

Pretty soon afterward we packed our stuff and loaded them in a U-Haul trailer that I had rented and attached to my car and we set off to UW-P

Misfortune Strikes Again - or Was it a Signal to me?

Because of my inexperience and lack of proper guidance, I set out to go to Platteville using side roads.  Not too far from home, I missed a bend in the road and went straight in a farm track and hit a big post.  Car was fully damaged.  Fortunately none of us got hurt.  A local resident saw that and she informed the police.  A police officer came and he noted the damage to the post (a tall wooden post - perhaps telephone or some utility) and wrote a ticket with penalty.  With the help of a local resident - a total stranger - I called Padmanabhan.  He came and took us to his home at the HilltopApartments at West Lafayette.

He took us to Platteville in his car with the U-Haul trailer attached.  Looking back, I probably would have been wiser to have my Platteville project cancelled taking this as a bad omen!

Working at UW-P:

At that time Platteville had a population of around 9000.  It was just a university town.  It had a radio station of its own and also a municipal airport for general aviation. 

I found a duplex at 920 North Washington Street at Platteville for rent.  My work was at Ottensman Hall of Engineering at the UW-P, which was 5 minutes drive from our residence.  Children could continue their education at Westview Elementary School about a quarter mile to the west of our home so  they can walk to their school.  (See the map)

Short Stint at Platteville

I came to know that they hired 6 new faculty members at UW-P along with me!  There were 3 of us from India, one from Ethiopia and two locals.  I was assigned to teach Engineering Graphics and two Transportation courses.  Engineering Graphics was no problem as there was a good textbook and a workbook which the students completed.  The emphasis is more on understanding the concepts than on drafting skills. Transportation courses were somewhat challenging as these are not what I learnt (if any) during my undergraduate studies.  Also, there was a textbook already prescribed.  Fortunately, my predecessor, who either quit or was sent home for want of good evaluation by students, had left his assignment sets and tests.  I was able to manage.  

Got my first brand new car!

As my old car was rendered useless, it was bought for $60 (sixty only dollars) by the owner of the towing company where the car had been towed to after the accident.  So, I needed a car.  There were two Indians and one Bangla Desi in the faculty besides us the new recruits.  Bheru Lal Sukhwal in the Geography department was a longtime resident.  He took me to a car dealer in Dubuque, Iowa, the nearest big city.  I bought a Chevy Citation.  This was a 6 cylinder car, 1980 model already available in late 1979.  I think it cost $5000.  As I am a rich man now with a full time faculty position (!) I was able to get a loan and drive that car home.  I applied for a license tag (number plate) from Madison,the capital city of Wisconsin and nearest big city within Wisconsin State.

Chevy Citation - 1980

I even bought a new bed and mattress and other items - some new and some from a local resident who was moving out and selling some furniture. The winter set in and it was much harsher than West Lafayette.  One day the front door got snow deposited and frozen as ice.  We could not open the door from inside our house and were practically got house arrested!  Fortunately the landlord lived across the street and we had his phone number.  I had to call him and he came to remove the ice and open the door!

It looked like I had made it and found a permanent job with a future.  In those days and especially in such a small town as Platteville, people from  South Asia would all join in to have parties and other festivities.  The chairman of Mechanical Engineering was one Dr. Kenneth Klasson.  He lived near our house.  He had 4 children and his wife Margaret was a housewife.  Veda and she became friends.  Sowmya was not finding the school atmosphere much to  her liking, especially because of the many shifts and losing friends.  On the whole, life was stress free and peaceful, with apparently a settled future.

After a month or so I got the license plates in the mail from Madison.  It was two plates with two different registration numbers!  I called the licensing department to tell this and I was asked to return them as it was evidently a mistake! 

Toward the end of the semester the students give their evaluation of the teachers in each subject.  As a first time teacher here without the benefit of undergraduate education under this system, I perhaps did not get a good rating.  One student had written “Stop the world and let Muthu go!”  So, the new Chairman of the Civil Engineering  Department, Dr. Richard Wetzel said the Dean wanted to meet me.  They both told me that they are looking for a replacement to my position and may perhaps keep me for the rest of the academic year but not beyond that.  The understanding at the time of interview was that I am what is referred to as ABD (All but Dissertation) to get my Ph.D., which could be done during summer months.  Now suddenly they found that it will  not work, and they are looking for one with a Ph.D. They were also not going to sponsor my green card as I may not be retained beyond that year.

I got on  the phone  and related these developments to Dr. Sinha at Purdue.  He said if that is the case I should not be wasting my time at UW-P; better to return to Purdue by next semester and continue my research on the same topic that I was on before leaving to Platteville.

Heading Back to Purdue! 

So I started selling stuff including my car as I will not be able to keep paying the car payments and insurance.  I put an ad in the local radio station for the household stuff.  A local resident bought my car by assuming the payments remaining.  The license plates had not arrived yet!

Thus, I had to sell the first and only brand new car I  ever bought before I got the license plates!

The other two Indians recruited along with me  found a better job and were leaving Platteville.  One of them was passing through West Lafayette where he had a friend.  I was able to send several boxes of our stuff through him.  A local resident offered to take us to west Lafayette in his car for the cost of gasoline as he had his daughter living there and he is going to see her.  

We reached West Lafayette.  As we had yet to be allotted an apartment, we needed to stay somewhere.  In building 220 there was an American couple with 2 little children.  We had already become friends with them and Veda helped them occasionally by taking care of their children.  They offered to let us stay in their apartment until we got our apartment ready.  So, we stayed with them for about two weeks!

Where there is a will