The Golden Semesters at Purdue

Fall 1978 - Family is here!

We arrive at 220-16 Nimitz Drive. Other than our house in Jagadambal Colony, none of the rented places where we lived in Madras are anywhere near this apartment in convenience and space. My family was very happy. When I opened the kitchen faucet, water gushed out forcefully and they were all taken aback!

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I am so glad to have my wife and children here. My wife quickly set up our house, got the groceries and I once again am enjoying wholesome and delicious food and coffee! There is one chinese store where we can get some spices; most of the Indian groceries and spices have to be mail- ordered from Chicago.

Schooling for Children

I took them to the elementary school. There are two elementary schools they can go to, and I chose Klondike Elementary based on the recommendations of other graduate students in a similar situation. As we were informed already, my wife came prepared with the documents and immunization records. The admission procedure was very simple - based on our statments and records, my daughter was admitted in the 4th grade and my son in the 3rd. The school bus will come to Arnold Drive to pick them up along with other students from the housing complex, and drop them off after school. They will be provided with the necessary text books for their use throughout the semester/year and to be returned for the use of the next batch of students!

Our children fitted into the curriculum and the routine very easily. They come home and enthusisatically discuss their projects. One day it will the working out of fire escape route for our apartment. Other day it will be about Tom Edison ........

The school is a county school, commonly called "public school" as against "private school." Hence, there is no tuition fees to be paid. Almost all of the children going to this school are children of Purdue Students or Staff, and mostly international students.

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I buy my first car and learn to drive

Now that I have my family here, I felt the need for a car - mainly for shopping, and also to take the family around for sight seeing and outing.

I shopped around for used cars as most of us who come here as students do. I found a blue Chevy Malibu to my liking. It was a late 60's model - 69 I think, a 4-door sedan, automatic, with air-conditioner and radio/cassette player built in. Anil and Abdalla (my neighbor, from Ethiopia) helped me learn to drive.

Fall semester actually spans fall and part of winter. As the semester advances, daylight is shrinking and it gets dark as early as 4 pm.

Pretty soon my driving practice came to a stop because of the snow and ice.

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How Indiana solved their winter problem:

Though Indiana is at about the same latitude as Illinois and Ohio, it is not as industrialized or moneyed as those two. It is more an agricultural state. It is said Indiana could not afford snow removal/clearing equipment and hence solved their problem by declaring themselves a "Southern State".

Indiana also does not switch their clock twice a year like the rest of the U.S. (except Arizona and Hawaii) do. "The cow does not give milk an hour earlier because you switch the clock!"

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Teaching Engineering Drawing At Purdue:

I came to know about the teaching assistant position in the Graphics Department. Prof. Sinha also encouraged me to take it, as that way he can save the departmental research money to help another student.

There were 16 or so sections of Engineering Graphics. As I had learnt Engineering Drawing from my High School days, I thought I can do this. My duty was to be the lab instructor for two sections. The teaching experience was very enjoyable. They had sheets with partially solved drawing exercises, and the students had to complete the problem assigned to them. Sounds easy. But, the problems have been developed over a few generations of Purdue professors, and are very challenging. I used to be baffled by some of the problems. As I go round, I will find some of the smarter students' solutions and learn from them to teach others! Every lab exercise was already there for us the graduate instructors to collect from the department and distribute for the students to work on; then we grade them, with corrections showing in red.

There are two or three semester tests, known as performance drawing. The end of semester examination was in the form of a book, with multiple-choice questions similar to GRE and other tests! The questions were well designed to test the understanding of the students more than their drafting skills, which have already been tested throughout the sememster.

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Boy! Am I Glad I Have Medical Insurance!

The invoices have started coming for my hospitlization and surgery. They run in thousands of dollars. I am glad I sought the advice of the Director of International Affairs at NU and took two medical policies. There are few insurance companies willing to insure a non-immigrant. The insurance company recommended by the Director fo International Students had two options: one with low premium, low deductible and low coverage; the other carried a higher deductible and higher coverage. I carried both. Thus, between the two policies, I was covered 100% of the costs, except the premium.

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Spring 79

I continue my half-time teaching of Engineering Graphics. Prof. Sinha arranged for a quarter-time research assistantship. Thus I am now getting about $525 a month. I signed up for 9 semester hours. I was assigned a research project of Dr. Sinha. he was developing an Optimal Resource Allocation Model for Highway Maintenance for the State of Indiana. He joined Prof. Ravindran and proposed a Multi-Objective Programming Solution. Prof. Ravindran is a Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering and has already published couple of text books. My task was to develop a Goal-Programming Model, collect the historic pavement performance data and come up with an optimal allocation strategy. Though I had 9 semester hours of coursework, the fact that I have my wife to share my problems with and to take care of my food, combined with the fact that I am teaching Graphics for the second time (and hence takes a lot less time) I was able to do the research also.
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I Get My Driving License

I practiced driving whenever I got a chance - whenever the roads were clear enough. The "pracrice" is really driving on the road. The requirement here is that I get a learner's permit by passing a multiple choice test on Indiana driving manual, and should have a licensed driver accompanying me when I drive until I get my driving license.

There is one Abdahir Majid, a Tamil from Malaysia. He is a graduate student in Transportation, doing his Masters Program. He has just come. As he had international driving license, he used to accompany me to satisfy the legal requirement.

During the spring break, I decided to go and take my driving test. Majid was to accompany me. As we were about to go, Benjamin, another T and T graduate student from Puerto-Rico, came to our house and joined us.

At the licensing office, when they looked at Majid's international license, they said he does not qualify and I cannot take the test if he was the one who accompanied me! Fortunately Benjamin had a valid driving license, and as he accompanied me to the licensing office, I was allowed to take the test.

The test consisted of driving in the city, as directed by the accompanying examiner. It also included parallel parking, (parking parallel to the curb between two parked cars.)

At the end of the test, the examiner pointed out two mistakes I did, but still passed me and I got my license.

Now that I am licensed, I accompanied Majid until he got his driving license!

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We had great fun during this time!

The India Students' Association is very active. There is a weekly radio program where Hindi songs were played. Some students want the announcements also to be in Hindi.

There is a regular Hindi film show. Anil Bandhari is the President.

At the Diwali Celebrations, Veda got a chance to sing. Her rendering of "Masilaa uNmai Kaathale" of Alibaaba fame was very much appreciated.

Veda made friends with other graduate-spouses from Japan, Indiana, Guyana, etc.

Children had their friends and were simply enjoying! They had reading assignments. On heavy snow days, the school will be closed, but they will be given snow-day assignments!

Summer 1979

I am on full research work. Though the outside temperature is not as high as what we are used to in Madras, the contrast from the winter days added to the lengthy summer days combinedwith the absence of air conditioning in the apartment makes the summer feel quite hot!

We have more fun in the form of picnic to turkey run state park, visits to places in and around such as Fort Ouiatenon (129 S River Rd, West Lafayette, IN), and enjoying the summer to the full!

I was feeling guilty to let my family live within my limited income as a graduate assistant. I have now completed my coursework. Prof. Sinha helped me transfer some of my NU credits and even some of my IIT-Kgp credits. I have only my research to be completed, which can be done off campus. So, I started to look for full time employment. I attended a job fair in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Some students have graduated and got employed. One got an offer from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and he rejected it. He is from Taiwan and decided to go back. I sent my resume to Platteville, and got invited for an interview.

I went to Platteville towards the end of summer. I drove my Malibu, with my family. The interview was by several senior faculty members and the Dean. I go and visit them individually and visit the Dean in the end. The Dean made me the offer on the spot, offering $18000 a year. He was happy to hire me as I am experienced, and have two Masters degrees. They were willing to sponsor my immigration.

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Stopped By A Traffic Cop

We are returning back to W. Lafayette. As I had hard time navigating in Chicago, I took a route avoiding freeways. It took much longer. About midnight and we are passing through a small town in Illinois. I am stopped by a traffic cop .

"Sir, may I see your Driving License?"

I showed him my driving license. "What did I do?"

"Sir, you blew a stop sign!" "I sure did stop!" "Sir, you stopped in the last onw; but you did not stop in the one before. Where are you heading to?" "To West Lafayette, Indiana"

"May I make a suggestion?" "Yes"
"First, when you are driving through strange towns, pay attention to stop signs. Second, you are not heading to West Lafayette this way. You should turn right in the stop sign - not the one you stopped; the one you blew"

I do not know if he decided not to issue me a ticket because my name is too long for him to write, or because I was an out-of-state driver! I did not have to pay him any on the side either!

I thanked him and went my way.


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