1970s America - An Indian Student’s Journey; Chapter 6

Anil K Rajvanshi

This is chapter 6 titled "India Association" from the book "1970s America - An Indian students journey". Dr. Rajvanshi narrates the stories from the Indian community at UF at that time and various initiatives he took as the president of the Indian students association.
This book narrates the story of a young idealistic student of IIT Kanpur who in 1974 at the age of 24 went to USA to pursue higher education. He left a very lucrative career in US to come back and work in rural India in 1981 and in the process of developing technologies for rural applications discovered himself. Dr. Anil K. Rajvanshi has written in an engaging and lively style the memoirs of his stay and experiences in America as a student and as a faculty in the 1970s. It is an inspiring story and should appeal to all Indians including non-resident Indians (NRIs) and students aspiring to go abroad and who want to make a difference in India, especially rural India.The whole book is available at https://nariphaltan.org/usexpwithphotos.pdf
Dr. Rajvanshi narrates in these podcasts his experiences in US and what made him come back to rural India. In late 1981 when Dr. Rajvanshi returned, rarely any Indian with an IIT degree came back. Even the few who did come back went to big cities like Bombay, Delhi, Bangalore etc. He went straight to rural Maharashtra which was as alien to him as any foreign country since he hardly knew the local language or the milieu! Why did he do it and was it worth it? This fascinating podcast will talk about it.