The research Group in the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, MD. USA (1979)

Starting a career in USA half a century ago – Prof. Rajiv K. Saxena

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Starting a career in USA half a century ago

Fifty years ago, America was considered the ultimate in scientific research. That is probably true even today. All young researchers who completed PhD in sciences, would move to USA for postdoctoral research experience. Most of them settled permanently in the USA and a handful like me returned back to India. After completing PhD in the Biochemistry Department of AIIMS in New Delhi, I first went to USA in July 1978, almost 50 years ago! My wife Queen, who too completed her PhD alog with me, too joined me in USA after few months. We were stationed in Baltimore in the east coast state of Maryland. In this article, that was serialized on Linkedin, I describe my first experience of starting a life in the USA. In 1978, we had little knowledge of the life in USA. India was way behind in sciences as well as the social culture of USA that was entirely different than what we had in India. To day’s youth would not find much difference if they move to USA. But 50 years ago, the scene was entirely different. Read on…

A half century ago – My first day in USA

This 4th of July was the 250th anniversary of US independence. For me, this date is special too as 48 years ago in 1978 that was the day I first set foot in the USA for Post Doc, and quite an adventure that was. It was my first introduction to the West.

There were no direct flights from New Delhi to NY and I had to take a break at Frankfurt. We arrived late in Frankfurt and the connecting flight to NK had already left. I was given another flight to NY but my luggage got left at Frankfurt. Thus as I reached NY my luggage was missing. Further, my flight to Baltimore had already left. That was a bit overwhelming for a novice in international travel, like me.

I managed to get a hotel room for night in a hotel near JFK. That was my first introduction to a bed with a box spring and mattress, as also a color TV!

Next morning, as I reached the airport for my flight to Baltimore-Washington Airport, I was apprehensive of what I will do when I reach there? My supervisor Dr. William Adler would have seen me missing in my previous day’s scheduled flight. Where I will go, I wondered. I did not have Dr. Adler’s phone number, how would I inform him of my arrival?

Then, as if God-sent, I saw around the boarding gate, an Indian young man staring at me. He introduced himself as Deepak Srivastava. We talked. He was an old hand and had lived for many years in USA. Where will you go in Baltimore, he asked me. I had no answer. I told him about missed flight and Dr. Adler. Do you have his phone number? No!

Worry not, he told me and went to a pay phone. He called directory enquiry in Baltimore and asked for the phone number of William Adler. It seems there were three William Adlers in Baltimore. Is he William Adler, M.D., he turned and asked me. Yes! He got the number and immediately called Dr. Adler.

During the short 1 hour flight to Baltimore, Deepak gave me a crash course on living in the US. Now that you are in healthy country of USA, you will not fall sick. You can concentrate on your work, and learn the ropes.

When I reached Baltimore, Dr. Adler with his wife Charlotte and daughter Ellen were waiting for me. I waved goodbye to Deepak and rushed to meet Bill Adler, who was to be my supervisor for next 6 years.

First two days in Baltimore

From the airport, Bill Adler and his wife drove me to their home. I was seeing USA for the first time. Bill’s BMW was gliding over beautiful clean, wide and clear roads, greenery on both sides. His house was like a cottage.

They offered me lunch. Charlotte’s quiche was very tasty; I had never eaten anything like that. They had a plate of strawberries on the table, but I did not take any. They were perplexed why I would not eat one. Little did they know that In India, hosts have to ask the guests many times before guests pick a snack. Taking anything without being asked is bad manners.

It was 4th of July long weekend. I thought that Adlers would put me up in guest room. But after the lunch, Bill drove me to a motel where he had booked my stay. I still remember the daily charge was UD$14 (it was 1978).

Bill never asked me if I needed money. I guess, Americans don’t do that, as that would be too much of familiarity in a first meeting. In India, with a visitor in my situation, the host would definitely ask if the visitor had money.

Those were the days when Indian Government allowed only 8 dollars for a trip abroad. Thanks to my elder brother, a marine engineer, who had tucked $2000 in my pocket for meeting early expenses in the US. If I did not have that money, I don’t know what I would have done.

In the evening, I was hungry but did not know where to go. High-way outside has no shops. I tried walking, but found that I was the only one walking on the road. Everyone else zipped by in cars.

I returned to the Motel and asked the motel office where I can get food. They told me that there is a bar in the basement. It was my first experience of entering a bar.

Atmosphere was intimidating. People were sitting on tables and the counter and having drinks. I too sat on the counter on a stool. The barman asked me what I would have. I said omelet and toast! Today as I remember it, I appreciate that they did serve me what I ordered.

Next day I asked the office about a shopping center. I was told to walk ten blocks and take a left. I had no idea what a block was, but I kept walking. Strange signs on the road, like “Midas Mufflers”, intrigued me. What does it mean, I wondered?

Unlike Indian youth today, who are used to eating housed like McDonald restaurants in India, in 1978, I was absolutely ignorant. I did enter an eater and asked for a fish burger from the displayed menu. The girl on the counter spoke on a mike “Fish platter!”. The food did appear in few minutes and I brought it back to motel.

The burger was really tasty. I could not throw plastic cutlery, so washed it and kept if for later. Old Indian habit of not throwing anything, of any worth.

Next day Bill and Charlotte picked me and took me to an apartment that they had selected for me, in an area named Essex in east Baltimore. It was on bus line for commuting to the National Institute on aging where I would work.

My first apartment in Baltimore:

In 1978, we had no apartment culture in India and I had no idea what an apartment would be like.

The apartment that Bill and Charlotte had selected for me in Essex, was good. It was in a green wooded area with many low-rise apartment buildings. The apartment was carpeted, partially furnished and had a functional kitchen with a large refrigerator.

Charlotte was very thoughtful and had brought a large brown bag with things I would need to start living in that apartment. She gave me a couple of large towels, a bed-sheet, a pillow, cooking utensils and cutlery etc.

Fifty years later, I still have a couple of things Charlotte gave me on that day, including a large steel kitchen knife. Bill and Charlotte left me after giving me directions to a nearby grocery store and the bus stop nearby.

The grocery store was huge and bigger than any store I could have imagined. It was a learning experience to do grocery for the first time in USA.

Somehow, even though I had reached USA only 2-3 days ago, I was missing home. I wanted to eat some good Indian food. I spent quite some time finding lentils, rice, wheat flour, salt, sugar, spices, vegetables, tea and milk etc. Small packets as I had to walk back to the apartment with groceries.

While looking for metal thali, the nearest thing I found was a pizza baking pan, which I bought and used for eating food for next month, or so. That day I made khichdi. I recall what a bliss it was to eat with butter and alu-tamatar shorba, as my first self-cooked food in Baltimore.

The bed was too soft and uncomfortable for me. I took a blanket and spread it over the carpet near the French window in the drawing room, and slept there. In night I was woken up by very loud thunder noises. The lightning was dazzling and the thunder was like lightning strikes. It was raining heavily.

Baltimore is located on Chesapeake Bay on the Eastern sea-board of USA. I thought may be thunders are qualitatively different here from what I had seen in Delhi. I was awake for a long time. As I dozed off, someone inside me told me “welcome to Baltimore Rajiv, you will get used to it”.

Starting a life in Baltimore:

In October 1978, three months after my arrival, my wife Queen and son Gaurav joined me in Baltimore. I took a train to New York to receive them at JFK airport. Our son Gaurav was about a year old then. At the JFK airport, the baby recognized me and ran to me. It was the first time I saw him walk! Queen was dead tired and had severe jet lag. She slept for the next two days.

Those days, I use to take a bus from the apartment in Essex to the National Institute on Aging, better known as the Gerontology Research Center (GRC). It was located within the campus of the Baltimore City Hospital on Eastern Avenue. Later, the hospital was taken over by the John’s Hopkins Hospital.

From the bus stop to GRC, it was a good 20-minutes walk and I had to walk through an old fashioned street (Bonsal Street) with small row houses on both side. It was a Greek area where many Americans of Greek origin lived.

One day I saw a notice “Apartment for rent” on one of the houses. We rented the apartment at US$ 180 per month, and saved commuting time. From the windows of that apartment on first floor, we saw our first snow. Being from Delhi, I had never seen snow. And that day an unusual blizzard hit the city, dumping a record 3 feet snow! The whole city had shut down. Walking in three feet snow, to GRC building was a challenge!

Soon I bought a yellow VW Beetle and got a driving license too. Dr Adler had offered a Post-Doc position to my wife Queen also. The problem was who would take care of our son Gaurav who was only 1 year old?

Our Greek landlord introduced us to Mrs. Armstrong, a grand-mom and a babysitter, who drove a huge old car. She would take Gaurav on all weekdays in the morning and bring him back in the evening. That was a great help and allowed Queen to work. Mrs. Armstrong could not pronounce “Gaurav”. She renamed him “Gusha”, which became Gaurav’s American name.

One day, I jumped a stop sign while driving out of a shopping center. A van coming from the left; hit our car. Queen and Gaurav were in the front seat. We were all taken to the hospital. The car was a total loss. Luckily, Gaurav did not suffer any injury. Both Queen and I suffered injuries on our foreheads.

We soon recovered. Our colleagues helped and Gaurav stayed with Mrs. Armstrong for few days. Later I bought a used brown Toyota Celica that remained with us for the rest of our stay in Baltimore.

America 50 years ago:

Baltimore stay was my first one in the US, starting in July 1978. I have written in some details about this stay that lasted for about 6 years. We never once visited India in that time period. There were no mobiles and internet. We corresponded with the family back home by sending real hand-written letters. That mode had its own charm. We all may remember that song “Chitthi ayi hai watan se …! That song captures all nuances. Unfortunately, that mode of communication is now dead.

After Baltimore, I had the opportunity of visiting many other cities as visiting Professor or NRC Senior Fellow, in USA for long stretches of time. These included two years in Pittsburgh (University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, 1990-1992), two years in Morgan Town WV in NIOSH, CDC (1999-2001), and two years in Durham NC in USEPA (2005-2007). Also shorter visits to cities like Fort Collins, CO; Chicago, IL. However, the Baltimore stay was the first one and it stands out as I experienced USA for the first time. By the time we left Baltimore, I was an old hand and later visits did not elicit a comparable thrill.

We loved America of 1978 to 1984, while living in Baltimore. Later in multiple long and short visits, I saw America slowly changing and sort of lose its innocence. Americans were totally self absorbed and knew nothing about other countries. In a way they still are, but 55 years ago, it was palpable. I recall one American whom I met on a bus stop asking me –how do you speak such good English? I told him that our education in India is in English. He was visibly surprised. “You learn something new every day”, he said.

We also saw some major changes in Baltimore. The social center of Baltimore in form of Harbor Place in down town came up when we were residents there. We loved going to Harbor Place and the cluster of great restaurants there. East Point Mall was our favorite place to hang around. It was close to our institute and Queen and I often went there for lunch. We first ate Pizza and ham & cheese sandwich there. Loved it!

Bill Adler’s lab was a great place to work. He gave us full freedom to follow our research ideas. A new class on lymphocytes, NK (Natural Killer) Cells, was discovered in 1970s and we focused on understanding the physiology and regulation of these cells. We published about 30 papers on NK cells and became a well recognized research group.

Gradually, we came to know many Indians in Baltimore and often had get-togethers with great Indian food. I must mention Dr Gopal Bhatnagar, a faculty in John’s Hopkins, who helped us a lot in initial phase. He took us to all Indian grocery stores and often invited us to his house in Towson.

Variety of and quality of programs on TV was mind boggling. Six years went quickly. I however never thought of permanently staying back in USA. My heart belonged to India and I knew that we have to one day return back to our roots in India. And we did.

Prof. Rajiv K. Saxena