From NU to PU

My first Autumn in Chicagoland.

My wife and children have gone to Madurai to stay with her parents. I am getting mails regularly from my wife and my father-in-law. I hope I could finish up my work here on time and return home to be back with my family.

I need to sign up for 2 more courses (6 credit hours of courses) and try to finish up my research.

I signed up for Introduction to Urban Transportation Planning and Urban and Regional Analysis. Both are within the Civil Engineering Department.

I am starting on the statisitcal analysis of the research data collected by sendingout questionnaires. The task involves using SPSS to do Factor Analysis and reduce the 20 or so factors affecting the recreational demand behavior of the residents into few dimensions. Then I need to develop a stochastic model to predict the recreational demand in terms of the identified dimensions. Looking back, I see how what I learned in my courses are being used in an applied research. The system, the syllabus/curriculum and the Professors are really great.

Ealy Fall in Evanston

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I get a promotion!

There is a notice announcing the availablility of a resident supervisor position. A batch of Saudi Arabians have come to Evanston to undergo a quarter oof training in Traffic Control. They are to be housed in Kendall College and they need a resident supervisor.

I went and talked to the person in charge and was immediately hired. The terms: free room in the same floor as the Saudis. I was to be the "lead Supervisor" and will have another Graduate Student from Poland to be the "Assistant" supervisor, under the same terms. Now I get a full room all for myself! The room is about as big as the one I had at 1221 Forrest, except it had more comfortable bed.

Now that I save on my room rent, and as I know how to eat in the hostel cafeteria, I decided to pay for eating at the Kendall College at Orrington and Lincoln (2408, Orrington,Evanston) Cafeteria and quit dish washing job. I just retained the weekly house cleaning as a "back up!"

 lincoln street

KENDALL COLLEGE

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When they say it is a pretty day here, it is a pretty day!

Autumn is really beautiful. As the year advances, I see the lush green leaves changing from green to brown to yellow and finally fall to the ground, exposing the empty nests of the poor birds. Wonder where they go now?

In this prat of the world, there is always something falling to keep the peole busy. In the Autumn, the leaves fall and there is constant hum of leaf blowers. Residents need to rake their leaves, pack them in bags and keep them for garbage pickup on scheduled days of the week.

Come Winter, there is snow fall, and people have to work everyday to keep their drive way clean. The city streets are constanly cleaned by snow removing equipment and are salted to help melt the snow.

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I have become "fully Americanized!"

I had bought a used suitcase from a nearby resident who had put up an ad in the Daily Northwestern. When I moved to Kendall College, I abandoned the suitcase I had brought from India.

Now I do not have anything except my black dialled wrist watch (my wedding present by my brother-in-law), and a 35 mm SLR Camera (borrowed frommy retired uncle) from India.

Thus I have become "Americanized." I even caught myself dreaming in English one night!

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I Buy More Stuff!

There are "thrift shops" here. These usually buy or accept donations of used goods, sell them at a very low price. I find a "clock radio" for sale. I have always been fascinated by the clock radio concept.

Back home, my hobby was to assemble radios and transistors. I remember how I was trying to convert one of my transistor sets to a "clock-radio". I had bought a chinese clock and opened it to insert a metal ring and wire it to make my own clock radio. I did not fully succeed in bringing my "invention" to a finished product.

Here I find a working clock radio! It is a clock and transistor combo. It has even a power outlet to get your coffee pot started in the morning, when the alrm goes!

I also find slide-rules available for 50 cents! When I started my third year engineering, one of my uncles presented me with a 6-inch slide rule. As a Civil Engineering student I could get by with that slide rule. A 12-inch slide rule was required and it cost something like Rs. 80, more than one month meal at the hostel! So, I could not resist buying this slide rule for 50 cents, though everybody uses only calcculators these days (1977).

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Winter 1977 - Pay Raise!

Professor Peterson is on sabbatical. I am working wioth Dr. Alex Anas,the Assitant Professor.
Alex is in his early 30s. He is an Armenian-Turk. He and Gokman converse with each other in Turkish.

My coursework is over. Now it remains for me to complete my report towards my MS. Alex wants me to go full time and pay for it! I am interviewed by a young lady in the University Administration. Even without my asking, she said "as you already have a masters (I have M. Tech from IIT, Kharagpur) I will fix you at $1100 per month."

That is a big jump from $350 a month! Now I am able to pay my rent and eat three meals a day at the residence hall cafeteria!

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The Saudis apparently are High School graduates, in the Traffic Police wing in Saudi. They are here to get trained in Traffic Control. They are in their early to late 20s. They are noisy with loud music playing in their rooms all the time.

One day when I go to the rest room, I find a girl washing dishes, with the tub full of food wastes!

The residents are not supposed to cook for fear of fire hazard. I do not feel comfortable to stay there with these happy-go-lucky Saudi trainees.

Now that I am a full-time employee, I thought it wise to get away from there so that I can do full justice to my work.

So I move back to 2000 Sherman. This time I did not move to the attic. I stayed in the basement and I give my house cleaning job to another newly arrived graduate student from India.

I set my clock radio to WLSChicago, the local radio station with 24-hour light music. Though I cannot catch the words of the lyrics, I like the music. I also set my alarm to wake me to music at 6 am. In the basement, it is always dark and there is no way to wake up without the alarm! Added to that, there is no sun until very late in the morning, though the days are getting longer.

This winter is even wrse than the last one, being the second coldest since 1873! Last winter (the third coldest), though it was the first winter for me in this country, I was in Loder Hall and the top floor of a centrally heated residence. So, I was well protected from the outside weather when I am in bed. Now, I am in the basement of an old building. It is freezing even inside with my thermals and sweater on! I buy an electric blanket. I request a space heater from my landlord to keep by my head side to keep my head warm, as I am not used to sleep with my head and face covered. This heater has a built in thermostat. It goes off when the temperature has reached the pre-set level and starts again with a hum.

With nearly 14 hours of work during the day, I feel very tired when I reach home. Eve

Every night, as I am trying to sleep, the thoughts of my wife, children, parents and brothers and sisters and in-laws rush to my mind and engulf me with a big fear "what if something happens to any of them?" "Will I be able to get there in time?" I just pray and sleep.

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Spring 1977

My graduation is approaching. With the increased pay, I have already cleared my loan, released my Insurance Policy and our house from the Indian Bank, and had enough money to buy my return ticket. I make arrangements to return to India.

An undergrauate work assistant says he is vacating his room and it will be availalbe soon. This is one of two rooms in the third floor of a local resident in Colfax Street. Thus I am now staying as a renter in the Jones' house. They have two children - Tina and Gregg, almost the same age as my children.

Gregg is a chess player and wants to play chess with me. He played well for a 6 year old. When he told his mom that I lost to him, she did not want to believe it. "You are a kind gentleman", she told me later.

Go for a movie, Eat my first pizza, go to an Indian music concert for the first time in the US

My report is done. It has been extensively reviewed by Dr. Frank Koppelman, the travel demand modeling expert at NU. He is my principal advisor as Dr. Peterson is on sabbatical and D. Anas is not an expert on Behavioral Choice Modeling. He reviewd and corrected severl times - mostly for punctuation. I realize how little I had learnt about punctuation in my earlier education. My report it is being typed for me by a secretary. she is doing it on the side for extra money.

I am a bit relaxed.

The other resident student in my new place called me for a movie. I go with him without the least idea of what it was about. The movie is "Casanova".

I come to know me about a South Indian Classical live concert through a student from W. Bengal. I go to the concert and feel so happy to have a taste of my native culture after a long time!

I go to Chicago for the first time with a friend and get introduced to "pizza."
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Lincolnland Tour

The International Students Center arranges for the Lincolnland tour every year. I just came to know about it. This is a 3 day tour within Illinois, in a special chartered bus. The tour also includes a visit to Springfield Illinois and to New Salem, Lincoln’s Boyhood Home.

AbrahamLincoln, the 16th President of the USA, lived in New Salem Village for 6 years, from 1831-37. Here, he clerked in a store, enlisted in the Blackhawk War, served as postmaster and deputy surveyor, studied law and was elected legislator.

There are several international students including some of the Saudi Arabian Trainees in the tour. The tour is very enjoyable and the driver is also the tour guide.

I still want to do my Ph. D. I am afraid I will be an object of ridicule if I return with another Masters Degree.

I send applications to the University of Texas at Austin. I also get in touch with Prof. Sinha at Purdue to revive my application.

I get a phone call from Randy McMehel of UT-Austin. It was a brief phone interview. Shortly after I get a letter offering me graduate assistantship! The Graduate Housing at Ausitn - one-bed room apartments - cost around $70 a month. But my admission was still being processed and I amasked to produce transcripts from Grade IV!

I visit Purdue upon suggestion by Dr. Sinha.......take greyhound bus......at purdue, I meet other professors and find a lot more fellow Indians in the School of Civil Engineering. I am assured of an assitantship here also.

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Summer 1977

First air-travel within the USA

The General Motors at Detroit, Michigan, are looking for a graduate student to work on their newly acquired travel demand model. My class mate Michael Couture (the other grad student in my micro economics class last spring) was there last summer. He says they paid $15 an hour, and they will count this service if I later join the company. Very tempting!

I call them and am called for an interview. I fly from Chicago to Detroit. My first air travel ever from Madras comes to my mind. I am traveling by air again after nearly 15 months.

At GM, I am given a demonstration of the computer model I will be working on. The interview is different over here.

As the interviewer isexplaining - almost "selling" - the opportunity to me, there is the tornado warning siren and all of us go down to the basememnt of the building.

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My mind goes back to the interviews in India. The interview in India used to be more like a verbal examination of your school and college subjects. I remember the interviews with Dr. A. L. Mudaliar and later with N. D. Sudaravadivelu, the Vice Chancellors at Madras University. Dr. Mudaliar asked me why I was late for the interview. "Will you be late to teach your class too?" "I am just now coming from a class I am teaching" "What class?" "I am the Head of Town and Country Planning Section at the Central Poly technic, Adyar. I finished my lecture and had to come from Adyar to Chepauk by bus"

"Where were you born?" - Thiru. N. D. sundaravadivelu.
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I did not get selected for the GM internship.

My friend Krishnaswamy and Dr. K. S. Rajagopalan (both UT graduates) encourage me to goto Purdue and not UT Austin.

I take Greyhound again and go to West Lafayetee, with my bag and baggage. It is a three hour journey from Chicago to West Lafayette.

Good bye Hare Krishna of Evanston!