I immediately sent a telegram home to my parents:“ Successful!” It was June 1965.
In September of 1965, I headed for Kharagpur. My first six months away from home for the first time were very lonely. I was terribly homesick, but soon I began to enjoy being“ independent” and doing things without having to ask permission from my parents, whether it was buying clothes, going to a movie, or eating out at a restaurant.
In June 1967, as I was finishing up my research work, I wrote to the Martin Marietta Company in Denver, Colorado, U. S. A. asking them for copies of technical papers in the same field in which I was doing research: explosive forming. The company forwarded my letter to the Chairman of the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Denver. Dr. A A Ezra wrote to me and to my professor at IIT, acknowledging my letter, asking if I would be interested in doing my Ph. D. I sent my application and was offered a $ 4400 per year scholarship. But travel to the U. S. A. was expensive, at least $ 650 for a one way ticket. So I wrote to the Nizam of Hyderabad( the Maharajah), asking for a loan. Instead, I received the full amount from him as a gift from the Nizam Trust Fund! Before I left India for the U. S., my father told me, " Whatever you do, don ' t marry an American girl.”
There were a number of firsts as I started my American education. I saw women smoking for the first time and was shocked. The girls on campus wore mini-skirts and took sun baths in bikinis on the university lawns. I couldn’ t look at them. I experienced water and snow skiing with American friends. I eventually met Diane, my future wife. I was able to do all of this and finish my doctorate in three years. In my course work of over 30 subjects, I had only two B’ s and the rest were A’ s. making as a graduate student, so I turned the offer down. From there I went to India to find a job and get my parent’ s permission to marry Diane. I was not successful on either front and returned to Denver and the university as a“ Research Associate,” which involved teaching and continue research. This allowed me to continue courting Diane again.
I have an interesting experience to share about my job search in India in 1971. I applied for a teaching position in Osmania University Engineering College, but was turned down because the principal felt that my getting degrees from Osmania( B. E), IIT Kharagpur( MTech) and USA( Ph. D.) showed that I did not have allegiance to one place. When I applied to ISRO( Indian Space Research Organization), Trivandrum, I was told that they were looking for a foreigner for the program. I later learnt that since they could not find a foreigner, they shut the program down.
In June 1972, just before my marriage, I interviewed with Thiokol Corporation in Brigham City, Utah, for a mechanical engineering position. I was turned down because my“ background was not commensurate with the opening.” This was a polite way of saying“ We don’ t want you.” About a year later, at a conference in Colorado springs, I met an engineer from Thiokol who told me they were hiring. So I called the person who had originally interviewed me. He said that I was turned down because I was a foreigner and could not get a security clearance. I told him that I already had one through the university, so a week later, I received a job offer to start at Thiokol. I joined in October of 1972.
In the March of 1971, I went for an interview at Oxford university in England and was offered a teaching position for less money than I was
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