THESE 50 YEARS IN THE USA

Today marks the 50th anniversary of my first entry into the US.

The greatest boon of this migration is certainly the enormous opportunities our children Priya and Prem have got that have made them highly successful professionally and in many other ways. (While talent cannot be stopped from succeeding, it would have been much harder for them in today's Tamilnadu marked by unbridled reverse discrimination and corruption.) Soundaram also could continue her studies to get a Ph.D without facing any age restrictions then prevailing in India . She has had a rewarding career, first as the head of testing and evaluation in the largest public school system of NJ and later as a faculty in education guiding 28 students' doctoral work and see many of them rise to leadership positions in the NJ public school system, one of the best in the nation. To me, the biggest benefit has been the ability to support my family both here and in India while remaining a researcher all through. It is a profession where one trades intellectual satisfaction and the hope of attaining a sliver of immortality through one's scientific contributions in exchange for losing many a monetary and other opportunity. Doing that as I did, and also in times when we were treated very much by some as intruders (our colleagues and superiors did not grow up with us or other Indians in schools and colleges as is the case for our children), it has sometimes made me wonder if the tradeoff has been personally worth it, often resulting in an answer in my mind in the negative. But in all honesty, I must say that compared to the transience of monetary gains, awards, etc., the fact that I could indeed contribute some fundamental results in probability theory (some bearing my name) and apply them to improve communication systems that everyone depends on (one piece of my work has also been life saving for vast swatches of this land) has made my life an interesting and exciting one. Being truly foreign to this nation as we were, the friendship and support of the Indian community here are what sustained us. The opportunities denied both of us at work were more than compensated by the ability to build and serve in organizations serving this community with a great sense of thankfulness for what they meant to us and also for our posterity. We take great pride in that we did not stop with just the Indian community in extending our help but could help many local ones too helping the poor and needy. Our modest way of living did allow us to do these in spite of not raking in a lot.

As we age, our concerns are two-fold: (a) Will the greater acceptance of us recent immigrants that we saw, be sustained and allow our children serve what is indeed their nation and the only one they know to their fullest capacity? Or, will it diminish and the clock reset to an undesirable level through the hateful and ugly rhetoric of the likes of Trump? (b) Will our grandchildren and successive generations understand, cherish, and pass on the high cultural heritage and family values we grew up with and got ingrained as Indians born and brought up in India? Will they understand that those enduring values are those that truly distinguish us and can indeed make a difference in many ways both personally and societally?

Well, it has all been a wonderful life overall. Once again, I thank all our friends and colleagues who have helped us over the years one way or the other seeing each other as fellow humans and not through any lens dividing us. Most importantly, I thank the J.N. Tata Foundation, the K.C. Mahindra Foundation, and Purdue University. While the former two helped me with scholarships, Purdue gave me a Fellowship. Without these, I could not have come at all. It was indeed my great honor to be named.a Distinguished Science Alumnus by Purdue, an award given to only a handful of people each year.