My Life and Times with Panjab University by Dr Ajaib Singh Oral History Project
my hoshiarpur days
OHP Administrator
Dr. Ajaib Singh obtained his MSc Honours School in Chemistry in 1957 from Panjab University College Hoshaiepur and PhD in 1961 from University of California at Davis. He retired as worl-wide director of Chemtura Corporation in 2001. He now lives in USA. Email: ajaibsingh@hotmail.com I was born in village Dholan Hithar, district Lahore on 14 January 1935. In 1947 when Partition took place I was a seventh grade student. My destitute family left home and holdings behind and after some hard times of wandering as refugees, settled in village Saloh, district Jullundur. I resumed my education at Arya High School in Nawanshahar where I passed matriculation examination in 1950. In high school, where I was exempt from paying any tuition fees and I could walk to school from my village, things went well. However, attending a college in Jullundur city (40 miles away from home) was financially next to impossible for my parents to afford. My father always dreamed of sending me to college. But his meager means as a village tailor were insufficient to feed his family with five daughters and two sons, and also pay for my college education. His highest aspiration, nevertheless, was to see me become a high school teacher after obtaining BA and BT degrees (Bachelor of Training was later designated BEd). I recall my father and me going to Lyallpur Khalsa College, Jullundur, to meet the Principal. After looking at my high marks in every subject, the Principal assured my father that I would do well in college and that he would remit my tuition and other fees. Even with no tuition expenses, the cost of living away from home in or near the college was still an insurmountable financial hurdle for the family. As luck would have it, my elder brother had just been appointed as a sub inspector in Punjab Rehabilitation Department in a small village Dulo Nangal near Beas, district Amritsar. He made a generous offer to pay for my railway pass if I lived with his family and commuted as a day student to the College. Consequently, I got admission in the college as an FSc student and lived with my brother and his family for two years. Every morning I walked two miles from my village to Beas railway station, took a train to Jullundur city railway station and then walked over a mile again to the College to attend my daily classes. I then completed the same reverse journey in the evening. Thanks to my brother and his young family, I completed my FSc degree in 1952 achieving first division and first position in the University, as I recall. During my high school period, my elder sister got married and was now living with her family in village Raja Sansi about six miles outside of Amritsar. This provided me an opportunity to consider joining Khalsa College Amritsar for BSc. My sister and her in-laws were generous enough to help and provide for my board and lodging and in fact insisted that I join Khalsa College. In the meantime my elder brother had been promoted as inspector and posted at Taran Taran, near Amritsar. He promised financial support and really urged me to continue my studies. Being a refugee from Pakistan and a brilliant student I also got a small (about Rs 20 per month) scholarship from the government. With all these resources, I joined Khalsa College Amritsar. My brother donated to me his old bicycle which I used for two years to travel to and from between Raja Sansi village and the College. I graduated in 1954 in first division and with top honours. Consequently, I received a letter from Panjab University suggesting that I join the Honours School in Physics or Chemistry at the University College in Hoshiarpur. With no financial resources, was again next to impossible and I kind of ignored the University letter. However, as destiny would have it, my elder brother got transferred from Taran Taran to Hoshiarpur in August 1954. Again he promised full financial support along with board and lodging facilities and urged me to continue my education. With that support, I travelled from my village Saloh to Hoshiarpur and by nine in the morning I was in the Physics Department at the University College. I met Dr. Bal Mokand Anand, the head of the Department, and showed my credentials as well as the letter I had received from the University He was a very kind gentleman. He looked at me with a sad expression on his face and regretted that I am a day too late as the selection of candidates for admission to Physics Honors School had already been completed. He then got up from his chair, walked over to me and put his hand on my shoulder and said that I might still have a chance to join the Chemistry Honours School, where the selection of candidates was still in process. He pushed me out of his office saying that I should run to the Chemistry Department and see Dr. S. M. Mukherji. He further said that he would call Dr. Mukherji and let him know about me that I was on my way to see him. Immediately, I hurried to the Chemistry Department and asked permission to see Dr. Mukherji. When I entered Dr. Mukherji's office, and was about to address him and tell him who I was, he got up and rather tersely spoke to me saying "Mr. Ajaib Singh, don't you know how to present yourself to a gentleman?" I was somewhat taken aback by his terse command and respectfully asked what had I done. "Take your sunglasses off when you are talking to a gentleman", he again commanded. I meekly took off my sun glasses. I did not know that it was bad manners to be wearing sun glasses indoors when one talks to a respected gentleman. Nevertheless, I quickly responded pointing to my right eye that it was irritated and quite sore, perhaps due to high heat of summer and that is why I was wearing the glasses. Dr. Mukherji smiled and said "you are a quick thinker Mr. Ajaib Singh, please sit down and you do not need sunglasses indoors". Apparently, Dr. Anand had already telephoned Dr. Mukherji. I passed my credentials and the letter from the University to Dr. Mukherji which he quickly glanced over. He called his assistant (Mr. Chuni Lal) over and asked him to quickly fill out my application. He then told me that I should come back after 4:00 pm when the list of candidates selected for admission would be posted on the departmental bulletin board. I said my thanks to Dr. Mukherji for his kind considerations. Mr. Chuni Lal and I hastened to the former's office where he typed my application and smilingly told me how I might have made it in the nick of time. The same day in the afternoon I went back to Chemistry Honors School. The list of selected was up on the bulletin board, with my name second from the top as a second year student. I Lived with my brother and his small growing family in a rented living quarters (a portion of a house) in the Prem Nagar part of Hoshiarpur, only about half a mile from the University College. With the love and support of my brother and his family, I completed my studies and graduated with B.Sc. nonors degree in Chemistry in 1956. Honours School was a close knit community of scholars and teachers. Professors Narang, Puri, Balwant Singh, Ram Chand Paul,. Inder Sen Gupta and Kundan Lal along with Professor Mukherji as the department head, were our learned teachers. We were a total of thirty students who graduated with BSc Honours and continued for the MSc degree. As an MSc Honours student, I was lucky to get the job of a laboratory assistant to help younger students with their laboratory work. I got paid Rs 80 per month for the job and this essentially relieved my brother from the financial burden of my studies that he had been bearing for so many years. I was able to move out of my brother's house and started sharing rental accommodation in the Model Town area at Hoshiarpur with two others, Mr. Antardhyan Singh Nagi and Mr. Ravinderjit Sahni, both Physics MSc Honours students. We rented half of a bungalow with two bed rooms and kitchen facilities. We three cooked and shared meals and lived together for the duration of our MSc studentship. MSc Honours was a research program in which one carried out original research and submitted a thesis for acceptance. I chose Prof. Inder Sen Gupta as my research advisor on the advice of Mr. Sohan Singh Chaudhary, who was a neighbor of mine in Saloh and who had graduated under Prof. Gupta a couple of years earlier and was now working in a research laboratory in Jammu. I was assigned to do research on structural elucidation of a mono-terpene alkaloid, Chaksine, extracted from an herbal seed of Cassia absus Linn, also known as Chasku in India. I had barely started on the project and had extracted the needed quantities of Chaksine from Chasku seeds, when Prof. Gupta left for University of California at Davis as a visiting professor for a year. I was left to my own resources and without the needed guidance of a research advisor. A month or so later, Professor Mukherji realized my predicament and suggested that I work with one of his doctoral students, Mr. O. P. Vig. Prof. Mukherji had several doctoral and post- doctoral students working under him mostly on the synthesis of natural terpenes and their structural confirmation. V. S. Gaind, O. P. Vig, R. P. Gandhi, K. S. Sharma, and S.S. Sandhu are some of the names that come to mind who were actively doing research with Prof. Mukherji. Under the guidance of O. P. Vig I was able to synthesize a couple of Terpenes, dl-dihydrocarvone and dl-camphorone. I wrote my thesis which Mr. Chuni Lal typed. On its basis I obtained my MSc Honors degree in 1957. While at University of California at Davis, Prof. I. S. Gupta must have talked to the head of Chemistry Department , Dr. Reiber, if they would consider admitting me into their PhD program. Apparently, Prof. Gupta was convinced of my abilities as a hard working student and was persuasive enough with Professor Reiber that, unexpectedly, in early 1958, I got a letter offering me admission for PhD. The letter mentioned that I should arrive at Davis by the end of August to complete formalities of registering as a student. The letter further informed me that I would have no in-State or out of State tuition expenses and that I will be provided a teaching assistantship (paying $180 per month).. While my other MSc Honours class-mates, interested in further studies abroad, were in the process of applying to various foreign universities, this letter offered a life-changing opportunity and was a Godsend for me. My excitement over the news, however, was only momentary. When the reality of expenses that would be needed for a trip to the USA hit me, my excitement kind of faded away. The travel costs to USA coupled with the costs of trips to Delhi to apply and secure a visa for the USA were insurmountable hurdles for me, my family and my relatives. After a few days of contemplation and discussions with my family and relatives, I expressed my dismay in a letter to Prof. Gupta. I thanked him profusely for his kind efforts in creating this great opportunity for me, but pointed out that my lack of financial resources would not allow me to realize the benefits of his kind efforts. There followed several letters from Prof. Gupta exhorting me to avail this opportunity and not let it slip by. I spent several agonizing weeks exploring ways to cover the travel costs to USA. One late evening, when I was visiting my parents in village Saloh over a weekend, I was called over by our next-door neighbor, Chacha Lehna Singh. Although we were not formally related, our families had maintained close relationship for generations. Even before the Partition, our families lived in the same village, Dholan Hithar, and Chacha Lehna Singh had great respect and brotherly friendship with my father. As we were casually chit-chatting, and catching up on the news, Mr. Lehna Singh asked me about the letter I had received from USA. I explained to him about the contents of the letter from University of California and how great an opportunity it offered to me to continue my education. I further explained to him as to how dismayed I felt and that I might not be able to avail of the wonderful opportunity due to lack of financial resources to pay for the travel expenses. He too felt badly about the situation, and closed the conversation by saying that if further education were in my destiny, Almighty God would find a way for me. Early next morning, before I was ready to leave our village for my trip back to Hoshiarpur, Chacha Lehna Singh walked through the door to our house and called out aloud for me. As I approached towards him and before I had greeted him, he looked at me and said, "Beta, I will buy you the ticket to USA. I will not give you the cash, but when you have the visa and ready to buy the ticket I will pay to the travel agent the cost of your ticket." With these words he walked out. He did not ask for a written note that he would be making so much in payment on my behalf, or when I would return the money, if ever. Although, I paid Chacha Lehna Singh the cost of my airline ticket within my first year at Davis, I will always respectfully remember his generosity and his love and respect for longstanding family relationships. Providence had always helped me at every step of the way in bringing to me the gift of education. My educational achievements were not a result of my dreams or a result of my thoughtful planning. It was destiny that was always there to show me the path and clear the hurdles for me. Mr. Shakti Kumar Airy, one of my MSc Honors class-mates and I both went to Delhi together and applied for our student visa at the United States Embassy. Shakti had admission in a PhD Program at University of Oregon. We both travelled together on Pan Am. In those days, the planes were propeller driven and had a relatively short range. There were only limited flights that covered the route from India to USA via Japan. We had several flight changes and fight stops along the way, including a two night's layover in Tokyo. It was nice that two of us were traveling together which made the travel easier and enjoyable. We enjoyed our sightseeing trips and wonderful hotel stays in Tokyo at the expense of the airline. I arrived in San Francisco in the early afternoon on 29 August 1958. I had merely a sum of $5 in my pocket; this was the maximum amount of foreign money that was allowed by the Reserve Bank of India at that time. After a few days, that is in early September of 1958, I registered at the University as a graduate student and joined the chemistry department early September 1958, There was no advance payment of research assistantship by the University. The first cash I earned in USA in fact came from slot machines in Nevada! My first few weeks in the USA On arrival at San Francisco airport and after completing the customs and immigrations formalities, I had to figure out the means of transportation that I should use to reach Davis. I did not know anybody in USA who could have come to meet me at the airport and guide me. As I wandered around the arrivals hall I spotted an information station. Looking somewhat haggard from my long flight from Hawaii and bewildered by the unfamiliar surroundings, I approached the information station and asked the attendant lady for help. She called over an elderly gentleman to help me. I explained to him that I needed to go to University of California at Davis and had no idea what transportation is available that should take me to the destination. This kindly gentleman showed me on a map where and how far Davis was from the airport and he explained to me that the best way for me was to take two buses. He helped me with my small suitcase and put me on the first bus that took me from the airport to a bus depot somewhere in San Francisco city. As the gentleman had explained to me, at the downtown bus depot, I asked for the second bus and its time of departure and bought a bus ticket for Davis. It cost me a total of 75 cents in total bus fares and by the evening I was standing at the bus stop in Davis. I did not know anyone at Davis and it being Friday evening it was not possible to contact anyone at the University. I had to wait until Monday, when school would open and I could present myself at the chemistry department and seek help. Not knowing anyone and with no place to go, I dragged my suitcase and walked into a small hotel (the only hotel in town) and asked for a room. I explained to the lady attendant that I have just arrived from India and I am a graduate student at the University and I have no place to go until Monday. She called her manager who came out of his office. I explained my situation to him and told him that I have only four dollars and 25 cents on me but I do need a place to stay over the weekend. He asked me which department I would be studying in. After I told him that my name was Ajaib Singh and I would be a graduate student in chemistry and the name of the head of chemistry department was Prof. Andrews, the manager walked back into his office. He must have called Prof. Andrews on the phone and confirmed my identity, as when he came out again he gave me a room to stay over the weekend and asked me to later pay him $15 as I got settled. I felt so very lonely and homesick in my room. I was writing a letter back home regarding my safe arrival in the States, when someone knocked on my door. I opened the door and saw the hotel clerk, the lady I had met earlier. She looked at me and said "you have not gone out of your room since you arrived and it is getting rather late. If you are hungry, you better go and get some food as the restaurants will soon be closed." I told her that I had little money and did not know where to go and what food to order. She asked me what I would like to eat. Not knowing anything about American food and not wanting to eat unknown types of meat dishes, I requested eggs and toast. After a short while, she returned with a couple of pieces of toast and egg omelet and that made my first meal in the United States. Every day I had eggs and toast for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next couple of days. It cost only twenty five cents for a meal of eggs and toast with a glass of Soda. Davis in 1958 was relatively a small college town. Over the weekend I wandered around the streets and it seemed I had covered the entire town. I wandered around in the Campus and made myself familiar with the surrounding. I located the administration and the Chemistry department so that on Monday I could find my way around. As I was standing in line waiting for my turn for registration as a student, the student ahead of me introduced himself to me and asked me what I was registering for. It so happened that both of us were registering as graduate students in chemistry and both of us had teaching assistantships to support us financially. Mr. J. David Davis was from Plattsburgh, New York. He had already rented an apartment and asked me if I were still looking for a place to live and if I would like to share the apartment with him. He struck to me as a congenial person as he had opened the conversation with a person who appeared quite different, wearing a beard and a turban, than all the others around. After both of us completed the registration process, he drove me to his apartment so that I could see it and decide. As we talked I explained to Mr Davis that I had less than three dollars to my name at the time. Till the department paid me my monthly salary as a teaching assistant in advance, I would have no money for rent or for food. Mr Davis laughingly said that he was bigger than me and he would beat me up to get the rent and cost of the food if I did not pay him after I got my first paycheck. The apartment was in a newly built building and we were the first tenants. It was fully furnished with beds, sofa, dining table and chairs along with cooking pots and pans as well as dishes etc. The same day I moved in and Dave and I became the best of friends. In the beginning I had absolutely no taste for the American food. For the first month or so I lived on eggs as my staple food. It took some time before I ventured to even taste Dave's cooking. It took months before I started really enjoying hamburgers, hotdogs, steaks and chops. With time I also occasionally started to cook Punjabi food. It also took some time for Dave to get used to the smell and taste of spicy Indian food. After a week of sharing the apartment with Dave, he urged me to accompany him to Reno, Nevada on a Saturday morning. He said that he had a great desire to visit a place like Reno as there were no places like Reno on the entire east coast where he grew up. Hesitantly, I agreed to accompany him and we drove across the California border to Reno in the Nevada state. Reno was an opulent place with literally hundreds of gambling casinos and brightly lit grand show houses. We entered one of the big casinos. Dave was quite excited to be in the casino, though I felt somewhat intimidated and uneasy. We wandered through the casino for a few minutes. There were rows and rows of gambling machines and gambling tables and the place was filled with thousands of gamblers trying their luck. Dave put a nickel (five cent coin) in one of the gambling machine and showed me how to pull a lever. The machine took the nickel and whirled around until it stopped and two nickels fell. Dave looked at me smilingly and explained how lucky we were that we put one nickel in the machine and got two back. Dave called a change lady and gave her a five dollar bill and asked her to exchange it for nickels. He gave those 100 nickels to me and told me to stay at that machine and have fun playing and he would see me in an hour. As Dave went to play table games, I started feeding nickels into the machine. Suddenly, I was startled when the lights on the machine started to flash and bells started ringing. A change lady appeared immediately and told me that I had hit a jackpot and she gave me seven dollars and 50 cents. It made me feel happy and exited. I quickly put a five dollar bill in my pocket to return it to Dave for the nickels he had bought for me to play with. And I asked the lady to exchange the remaining two and a half dollars in dimes (10 cent coins). I moved over to another machine that needed dimes to play on. The machine gobbled up many of my dimes with no returns. Then again the bells rang and the lights flashed. I had hit another jackpot. This time the change lady came and gave me 15 dollars. Now quite emboldened and joyous, I converted another five dollars into quarters (25 cent coins) and tried my luck on a quarters machine. I must be lucky that day as I hit a jackpot not only on the quarters machine but also later on a half dollar coin machine as well. I was ready to move onto playing on a dollar coin machine when Dave found me and asked me if I have had some fun playing at the nickel machine. He was totally taken aback when I showed him that I had won 149 dollars playing on nickel, dime, quarter and half dollar machines and now I was going to go on and try my luck on the dollar coin machine. Dave sternly told me that I had had enough of beginner's luck and I must not push my luck too far lest I lose everything I had won. He then smilingly told me to buy us both a good dinner to celebrate our trip to Reno before we headed back to Davis. We had a great dinner in the most opulently elegant restaurant in the casino, and I happily paid for the dinner. As Dave was driving us back from Reno, I paid him $60 as my share of our first month's rent for the apartment and cost of food for the month. Dave then took me to a men's clothing store on our way in Sacramento (Capital of California) and helped me buy a new suit and two new shirts. Dave explained to me that the suit I was wearing during registration time looked way too out of style with ugly two foot wide pants bottoms, and he hoped that I would never wear that suit again. A month passed and I had not received a paycheck for working as a teaching assistant at school. One day I went over to chemistry department office and asked Mrs. Ring (department secretary) if she knew when I will get paid. Her one word answer was "eventually". Not fully comprehending her answer, I asked Dave how long is "eventually". Dave laughed and explained that both of us would get paid at the same time and "eventually" meant in the near future, and hopefully soon. Dave turned out to be a real gentleman and a great friend. I learned so much from him. He even taught me how to drive on his car and helped me get a driving license. He was my mentor throughout the graduate school and we have cherished our friendship throughout our lives and we remain friends even now when both of us are retired. --- As a graduate student at UC Davis I chose to work under the supervision of a very learned scholar, and a very kindly gentleman, Professor Lawrence James Andrews, who was now the head of the chemistry department. Under his able guidance I completed my studies and my research to qualify for the award of the PhD degree. In September 1961 I submitted my dissertation in physical organic chemistry on the subject of "The effects of ortho substituents on the rates of solvolysis of benzyl and benzhydryl bromides" as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of philosophy in chemistry to the graduate division of the University of California. Prof. Andrews was also helpful in securing a research fellowship for me so that I might continue my stay in the USA and further my carrier. He contacted several well-known scholars at different universities on my behalf in an effort that I might land a research fellowship in top institutions and with highly respected scholars. With his kind help I had several offers but I accepted research fellowship with Professor Frank H. Westheimer at the world renowned Harvard. With him I did research and published papers on the mechanisms and activities of enzyme Chymotrypsine. Spending a year at Harvard University provided an unforgettable learning experience. The opportunity to be in the company of and learning from so many world renowned and celebrated researchers and scholars was unparalleled, perhaps, anywhere else. While at Harvard, many companies would send their recruiters to entice capable scientists to work for their companies. I also interviewed with several recruiters from chemical companies like DuPont, Union Carbide, and American Cyanamid etc. Each of these companies that I interviewed offered quite attractive positions. I, however, accepted a research scientist position with American Cyanamid Company as they offered me the flexibility to pick any Division and location in the company that I would like to work at. Furthermore, this company promised to do their best to secure me a change of my immigration status from a student to one of a permanent resident in the USA. I worked with American Cyanamid Company from September 1962 to 1976 in their research and development department at Bound Brook, New Jersey. I progressed from the position of a research chemist to a principal research scientist in the Elastomers and Rubber Chemicals department and published many research papers and obtained over half a dozen patents in the chemistry and technology of polyurethane elastomers and thermoplastics, an emerging and growing new field in synthetic rubbers (elastomers). In 1964 on a trip back to family in India, I got married to Manjit Inder Kaur, a daughter of an army Major stationed in Delhi at that time. Manjit joined me in June of 1964 and we started our family life while I was working with American Cyanamid Company and we lived in a nearby town of Highland Park. In August of 1976, I was offered a position of a group leader, in charge of polyurethane technology research and development at Uniroyal Chemical Company in Naugatuck Connecticut. Uniroyal Chemical Company (Latter named Chemtura Corporation) was a relatively new entrant in polyurethane products with yearly sales of their polyurethane elastomeric prepolymers in the amount of less than 10 million dollars. Under my leadership starting as a group leader, then a manager and finally as a world-wide director of polyurethane technologies, I helped develop and commercialize several new and innovative product lines and helped acquire adjunct and synergistic technologies from other competitive companies to grow Uniroyal's business in elastomeric polyurethane products. Under my technical guidance, Uniroyal attained the status of a world leader in castable polyurethane elastomers. I was also instrumental in growing their production and commercial operations to Europe (Italy), South America (Brazil), Australia as well as in Southeast Asia (India, Singapore etc.). Chemtura Corporation's yearly sales in polyurethane products had sky-rocketed to nearly a billion dollars, by the time I retired in February 2001. In 2007 after my wife Manjit also retired from her job as a customer relations officer at Peoples Bank in Bridgeport Connecticut, we moved to Virginia State with a bit more temperate climate and where our son Dinesh Singh was running a couple of his privately owned Pharmacies. We have three grown, married and quite successful children. Surveen Kaur Singh is our eldest daughter, a practicing Optometrist, and lives in San Francisco CA, with her husband (Kashif Maqsood)and their two boys, Enaam Singh Maqsood and Zameer Singh Maqsood. Dinesh Singh, a pharmacist, is our middle child and he lives in Stafford, VA, (the same town where we presently live) with his wife Parminder Kaur, a practicing registered nurse, and two of their girls, Priya Kaur Singh (14) and Serena Kaur Singh (12). Our third and youngest child is Parveen Kaur Verma, a practicing endocrinologist, who is married to Vijay K. Verma, a Cardiologist and together they live with their three children (Avani Verma (11), Vikram Verma (9) and Ayaan Verma (5), in Hainesport, New Jersey. Our retired life is quite comfortable being relatively in good health. We enjoy traveling and spending time with our children and grand children. Three Friends at Punjab University College Hoshiarpur – 1956-1957 From Left, Ravinderjit Sahani (Physics Hons.) Antardhyan Singh Nagi (Physics Hons.) Ajaib Singh(Chemistry Hons.) Prof. Inder Sen Gupta at Hoshiarpur Railway Station as he left for University of California, Davis in c. 1956 Ajaib Singh in 1958, Graduate student at University of California at Davis | My Life and Times with Panjab University by Dr Ajaib Singh | Oral History Project Early Panjab University (1947-1965)
Oral History Project
Dr. Ajaib Singh obtained his MSc Honours School in Chemistry in 1957 from Panjab University College Hoshaiepur and PhD in 1961 from University of California at Davis. He retired as worl-wide director of Chemtura Corporation in 2001. He now lives in USA. Email: ajaibsingh@hotmail.com

I was born in village Dholan Hithar, district Lahore on 14 January 1935. In 1947 when Partition took place I was a seventh grade student. My destitute family left home and holdings behind and after some hard times of wandering as refugees, settled in village Saloh, district Jullundur. I resumed my education at Arya High School in Nawanshahar where I passed matriculation examination in 1950.

In high school, where I was exempt from paying any tuition fees and I could walk to school from my village, things went well. However, attending a college in Jullundur city (40 miles away from home) was financially next to impossible for my parents to afford. My father always dreamed of sending me to college. But his meager means as a village tailor were insufficient to feed his family with five daughters and two sons, and also pay for my college education. His highest aspiration, nevertheless, was to see me become a high school teacher after obtaining BA and BT degrees (Bachelor of Training was later designated BEd).

I recall my father and me going to Lyallpur Khalsa College, Jullundur, to meet the Principal. After looking at my high marks in every subject, the Principal assured my father that I would do well in college and that he would remit my tuition and other fees. Even with no tuition expenses, the cost of living away from home in or near the college was still an insurmountable financial hurdle for the family. As luck would have it, my elder brother had just been appointed as a sub inspector in Punjab Rehabilitation Department in a small village Dulo Nangal near Beas, district Amritsar. He made a generous offer to pay for my railway pass if I lived with his family and commuted as a day student to the College. Consequently, I got admission in the college as an FSc student and lived with my brother and his family for two years. Every morning I walked two miles from my village to Beas railway station, took a train to Jullundur city railway station and then walked over a mile again to the College to attend my daily classes. I then completed the same reverse journey in the evening. Thanks to my brother and his young family, I completed my FSc degree in 1952 achieving first division and first position in the University, as I recall.

During my high school period, my elder sister got married and was now living with her family in village Raja Sansi about six miles outside of Amritsar. This provided me an opportunity to consider joining Khalsa College Amritsar for BSc. My sister and her in-laws were generous enough to help and provide for my board and lodging and in fact insisted that I join Khalsa College. In the meantime my elder brother had been promoted as inspector and posted at Taran Taran, near Amritsar. He promised financial support and really urged me to continue my studies. Being a refugee from Pakistan and a brilliant student I also got a small (about Rs 20 per month) scholarship from the government. With all these resources, I joined Khalsa College Amritsar. My brother donated to me his old bicycle which I used for two years to travel to and from between Raja Sansi village and the College. I graduated in 1954 in first division and with top honours.

Consequently, I received a letter from Panjab University suggesting that I join the Honours School in Physics or Chemistry at the University College in Hoshiarpur. With no financial resources, was again next to impossible and I kind of ignored the University letter. However, as destiny would have it, my elder brother got transferred from Taran Taran to Hoshiarpur in August 1954. Again he promised full financial support along with board and lodging facilities and urged me to continue my education. With that support, I travelled from my village Saloh to Hoshiarpur and by nine in the morning I was in the Physics Department at the University College. I met Dr. Bal Mokand Anand, the head of the Department, and showed my credentials as well as the letter I had received from the University He was a very kind gentleman. He looked at me with a sad expression on his face and regretted that I am a day too late as the selection of candidates for admission to Physics Honors School had already been completed. He then got up from his chair, walked over to me and put his hand on my shoulder and said that I might still have a chance to join the Chemistry Honours School, where the selection of candidates was still in process. He pushed me out of his office saying that I should run to the Chemistry Department and see Dr. S. M. Mukherji. He further said that he would call Dr. Mukherji and let him know about me that I was on my way to see him. Immediately, I hurried to the Chemistry Department and asked permission to see Dr. Mukherji. When I entered Dr. Mukherji’s office, and was about to address him and tell him who I was, he got up and rather tersely spoke to me saying “Mr. Ajaib Singh, don’t you know how to present yourself to a gentleman?” I was somewhat taken aback by his terse command and respectfully asked what had I done. “Take your sunglasses off when you are talking to a gentleman”, he again commanded. I meekly took off my sun glasses. I did not know that it was bad manners to be wearing sun glasses indoors when one talks to a respected gentleman. Nevertheless, I quickly responded pointing to my right eye that it was irritated and quite sore, perhaps due to high heat of summer and that is why I was wearing the glasses. Dr. Mukherji smiled and said “you are a quick thinker Mr. Ajaib Singh, please sit down and you do not need sunglasses indoors”. Apparently, Dr. Anand had already telephoned Dr. Mukherji. I passed my credentials and the letter from the University to Dr. Mukherji which he quickly glanced over. He called his assistant (Mr. Chuni Lal) over and asked him to quickly fill out my application. He then told me that I should come back after 4:00 pm when the list of candidates selected for admission would be posted on the departmental bulletin board. I said my thanks to Dr. Mukherji for his kind considerations. Mr. Chuni Lal and I hastened to the former’s office where he typed my application and smilingly told me how I might have made it in the nick of time.

The same day in the afternoon I went back to Chemistry Honors School. The list of selected was up on the bulletin board, with my name second from the top as a second year student.

I Lived with my brother and his small growing family in a rented living quarters (a portion of a house) in the Prem Nagar part of Hoshiarpur, only about half a mile from the University College. With the love and support of my brother and his family, I completed my studies and graduated with B.Sc. nonors degree in Chemistry in 1956.

Honours School was a close knit community of scholars and teachers. Professors Narang, Puri, Balwant Singh, Ram Chand Paul,. Inder Sen Gupta and Kundan Lal along with Professor Mukherji as the department head, were our learned teachers. We were a total of thirty students who graduated with BSc Honours and continued for the MSc degree.

As an MSc Honours student, I was lucky to get the job of a laboratory assistant to help younger students with their laboratory work. I got paid Rs 80 per month for the job and this essentially relieved my brother from the financial burden of my studies that he had been bearing for so many years. I was able to move out of my brother’s house and started sharing rental accommodation in the Model Town area at Hoshiarpur with two others, Mr. Antardhyan Singh Nagi and Mr. Ravinderjit Sahni, both Physics MSc Honours students. We rented half of a bungalow with two bed rooms and kitchen facilities. We three cooked and shared meals and lived together for the duration of our MSc studentship.

MSc Honours was a research program in which one carried out original research and submitted a thesis for acceptance. I chose Prof. Inder Sen Gupta as my research advisor on the advice of Mr. Sohan Singh Chaudhary, who was a neighbor of mine in Saloh and who had graduated under Prof. Gupta a couple of years earlier and was now working in a research laboratory in Jammu. I was assigned to do research on structural elucidation of a mono-terpene alkaloid, Chaksine, extracted from an herbal seed of Cassia absus Linn, also known as Chasku in India.

I had barely started on the project and had extracted the needed quantities of Chaksine from Chasku seeds, when Prof. Gupta left for University of California at Davis as a visiting professor for a year. I was left to my own resources and without the needed guidance of a research advisor. A month or so later, Professor Mukherji realized my predicament and suggested that I work with one of his doctoral students, Mr. O. P. Vig. Prof. Mukherji had several doctoral and post- doctoral students working under him mostly on the synthesis of natural terpenes and their structural confirmation. V. S. Gaind, O. P. Vig, R. P. Gandhi, K. S. Sharma, and S.S. Sandhu are some of the names that come to mind who were actively doing research with Prof. Mukherji. Under the guidance of O. P. Vig I was able to synthesize a couple of Terpenes, dl-dihydrocarvone and dl-camphorone. I wrote my thesis which Mr. Chuni Lal typed. On its basis I obtained my MSc Honors degree in 1957.

While at University of California at Davis, Prof. I. S. Gupta must have talked to the head of Chemistry Department , Dr. Reiber, if they would consider admitting me into their PhD program. Apparently, Prof. Gupta was convinced of my abilities as a hard working student and was persuasive enough with Professor Reiber that, unexpectedly, in early 1958, I got a letter offering me admission for PhD. The letter mentioned that I should arrive at Davis by the end of August to complete formalities of registering as a student. The letter further informed me that I would have no in-State or out of State tuition expenses and that I will be provided a teaching assistantship (paying $180 per month).. While my other MSc Honours class-mates, interested in further studies abroad, were in the process of applying to various foreign universities, this letter offered a life-changing opportunity and was a Godsend for me.

My excitement over the news, however, was only momentary. When the reality of expenses that would be needed for a trip to the USA hit me, my excitement kind of faded away. The travel costs to USA coupled with the costs of trips to Delhi to apply and secure a visa for the USA were insurmountable hurdles for me, my family and my relatives. After a few days of contemplation and discussions with my family and relatives, I expressed my dismay in a letter to Prof. Gupta. I thanked him profusely for his kind efforts in creating this great opportunity for me, but pointed out that my lack of financial resources would not allow me to realize the benefits of his kind efforts. There followed several letters from Prof. Gupta exhorting me to avail this opportunity and not let it slip by.

I spent several agonizing weeks exploring ways to cover the travel costs to USA. One late evening, when I was visiting my parents in village Saloh over a weekend, I was called over by our next-door neighbor, Chacha Lehna Singh. Although we were not formally related, our families had maintained close relationship for generations. Even before the Partition, our families lived in the same village, Dholan Hithar, and Chacha Lehna Singh had great respect and brotherly friendship with my father. As we were casually chit-chatting, and catching up on the news, Mr. Lehna Singh asked me about the letter I had received from USA. I explained to him about the contents of the letter from University of California and how great an opportunity it offered to me to continue my education. I further explained to him as to how dismayed I felt and that I might not be able to avail of the wonderful opportunity due to lack of financial resources to pay for the travel expenses. He too felt badly about the situation, and closed the conversation by saying that if further education were in my destiny, Almighty God would find a way for me.

Early next morning, before I was ready to leave our village for my trip back to Hoshiarpur, Chacha Lehna Singh walked through the door to our house and called out aloud for me. As I approached towards him and before I had greeted him, he looked at me and said, “Beta, I will buy you the ticket to USA. I will not give you the cash, but when you have the visa and ready to buy the ticket I will pay to the travel agent the cost of your ticket.” With these words he walked out. He did not ask for a written note that he would be making so much in payment on my behalf, or when I would return the money, if ever.

Although, I paid Chacha Lehna Singh the cost of my airline ticket within my first year at Davis, I will always respectfully remember his generosity and his love and respect for longstanding family relationships.

Providence had always helped me at every step of the way in bringing to me the gift of education. My educational achievements were not a result of my dreams or a result of my thoughtful planning. It was destiny that was always there to show me the path and clear the hurdles for me.

Mr. Shakti Kumar Airy, one of my MSc Honors class-mates and I both went to Delhi together and applied for our student visa at the United States Embassy. Shakti had admission in a PhD Program at University of Oregon. We both travelled together on Pan Am. In those days, the planes were propeller driven and had a relatively short range. There were only limited flights that covered the route from India to USA via Japan. We had several flight changes and fight stops along the way, including a two night’s layover in Tokyo. It was nice that two of us were traveling together which made the travel easier and enjoyable. We enjoyed our sightseeing trips and wonderful hotel stays in Tokyo at the expense of the airline. I arrived in San Francisco in the early afternoon on 29 August 1958. I had merely a sum of $5 in my pocket; this was the maximum amount of foreign money that was allowed by the Reserve Bank of India at that time.

After a few days, that is in early September of 1958, I registered at the University as a graduate student and joined the chemistry department early September 1958, There was no advance payment of research assistantship by the University. The first cash I earned in USA in fact came from slot machines in Nevada!

My first few weeks in the USA

On arrival at San Francisco airport and after completing the customs and immigrations formalities, I had to figure out the means of transportation that I should use to reach Davis. I did not know anybody in USA who could have come to meet me at the airport and guide me. As I wandered around the arrivals hall I spotted an information station. Looking somewhat haggard from my long flight from Hawaii and bewildered by the unfamiliar surroundings, I approached the information station and asked the attendant lady for help. She called over an elderly gentleman to help me. I explained to him that I needed to go to University of California at Davis and had no idea what transportation is available that should take me to the destination. This kindly gentleman showed me on a map where and how far Davis was from the airport and he explained to me that the best way for me was to take two buses. He helped me with my small suitcase and put me on the first bus that took me from the airport to a bus depot somewhere in San Francisco city. As the gentleman had explained to me, at the downtown bus depot, I asked for the second bus and its time of departure and bought a bus ticket for Davis. It cost me a total of 75 cents in total bus fares and by the evening I was standing at the bus stop in Davis.

I did not know anyone at Davis and it being Friday evening it was not possible to contact anyone at the University. I had to wait until Monday, when school would open and I could present myself at the chemistry department and seek help. Not knowing anyone and with no place to go, I dragged my suitcase and walked into a small hotel (the only hotel in town) and asked for a room. I explained to the lady attendant that I have just arrived from India and I am a graduate student at the University and I have no place to go until Monday. She called her manager who came out of his office. I explained my situation to him and told him that I have only four dollars and 25 cents on me but I do need a place to stay over the weekend. He asked me which department I would be studying in. After I told him that my name was Ajaib Singh and I would be a graduate student in chemistry and the name of the head of chemistry department was Prof. Andrews, the manager walked back into his office. He must have called Prof. Andrews on the phone and confirmed my identity, as when he came out again he gave me a room to stay over the weekend and asked me to later pay him $15 as I got settled.

I felt so very lonely and homesick in my room. I was writing a letter back home regarding my safe arrival in the States, when someone knocked on my door. I opened the door and saw the hotel clerk, the lady I had met earlier. She looked at me and said “you have not gone out of your room since you arrived and it is getting rather late. If you are hungry, you better go and get some food as the restaurants will soon be closed.” I told her that I had little money and did not know where to go and what food to order. She asked me what I would like to eat. Not knowing anything about American food and not wanting to eat unknown types of meat dishes, I requested eggs and toast. After a short while, she returned with a couple of pieces of toast and egg omelet and that made my first meal in the United States. Every day I had eggs and toast for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next couple of days. It cost only twenty five cents for a meal of eggs and toast with a glass of Soda.

Davis in 1958 was relatively a small college town. Over the weekend I wandered around the streets and it seemed I had covered the entire town. I wandered around in the Campus and made myself familiar with the surrounding. I located the administration and the Chemistry department so that on Monday I could find my way around. As I was standing in line waiting for my turn for registration as a student, the student ahead of me introduced himself to me and asked me what I was registering for. It so happened that both of us were registering as graduate students in chemistry and both of us had teaching assistantships to support us financially. Mr. J. David Davis was from Plattsburgh, New York. He had already rented an apartment and asked me if I were still looking for a place to live and if I would like to share the apartment with him. He struck to me as a congenial person as he had opened the conversation with a person who appeared quite different, wearing a beard and a turban, than all the others around. After both of us completed the registration process, he drove me to his apartment so that I could see it and decide. As we talked I explained to Mr Davis that I had less than three dollars to my name at the time. Till the department paid me my monthly salary as a teaching assistant in advance, I would have no money for rent or for food. Mr Davis laughingly said that he was bigger than me and he would beat me up to get the rent and cost of the food if I did not pay him after I got my first paycheck.

The apartment was in a newly built building and we were the first tenants. It was fully furnished with beds, sofa, dining table and chairs along with cooking pots and pans as well as dishes etc. The same day I moved in and Dave and I became the best of friends. In the beginning I had absolutely no taste for the American food. For the first month or so I lived on eggs as my staple food. It took some time before I ventured to even taste Dave’s cooking. It took months before I started really enjoying hamburgers, hotdogs, steaks and chops. With time I also occasionally started to cook Punjabi food. It also took some time for Dave to get used to the smell and taste of spicy Indian food.

After a week of sharing the apartment with Dave, he urged me to accompany him to Reno, Nevada on a Saturday morning. He said that he had a great desire to visit a place like Reno as there were no places like Reno on the entire east coast where he grew up. Hesitantly, I agreed to accompany him and we drove across the California border to Reno in the Nevada state. Reno was an opulent place with literally hundreds of gambling casinos and brightly lit grand show houses. We entered one of the big casinos. Dave was quite excited to be in the casino, though I felt somewhat intimidated and uneasy. We wandered through the casino for a few minutes. There were rows and rows of gambling machines and gambling tables and the place was filled with thousands of gamblers trying their luck. Dave put a nickel (five cent coin) in one of the gambling machine and showed me how to pull a lever. The machine took the nickel and whirled around until it stopped and two nickels fell. Dave looked at me smilingly and explained how lucky we were that we put one nickel in the machine and got two back. Dave called a change lady and gave her a five dollar bill and asked her to exchange it for nickels. He gave those 100 nickels to me and told me to stay at that machine and have fun playing and he would see me in an hour. As Dave went to play table games, I started feeding nickels into the machine. Suddenly, I was startled when the lights on the machine started to flash and bells started ringing. A change lady appeared immediately and told me that I had hit a jackpot and she gave me seven dollars and 50 cents. It made me feel happy and exited. I quickly put a five dollar bill in my pocket to return it to Dave for the nickels he had bought for me to play with. And I asked the lady to exchange the remaining two and a half dollars in dimes (10 cent coins). I moved over to another machine that needed dimes to play on. The machine gobbled up many of my dimes with no returns. Then again the bells rang and the lights flashed. I had hit another jackpot. This time the change lady came and gave me 15 dollars. Now quite emboldened and joyous, I converted another five dollars into quarters (25 cent coins) and tried my luck on a quarters machine. I must be lucky that day as I hit a jackpot not only on the quarters machine but also later on a half dollar coin machine as well. I was ready to move onto playing on a dollar coin machine when Dave found me and asked me if I have had some fun playing at the nickel machine. He was totally taken aback when I showed him that I had won 149 dollars playing on nickel, dime, quarter and half dollar machines and now I was going to go on and try my luck on the dollar coin machine. Dave sternly told me that I had had enough of beginner’s luck and I must not push my luck too far lest I lose everything I had won. He then smilingly told me to buy us both a good dinner to celebrate our trip to Reno before we headed back to Davis. We had a great dinner in the most opulently elegant restaurant in the casino, and I happily paid for the dinner.

As Dave was driving us back from Reno, I paid him $60 as my share of our first month’s rent for the apartment and cost of food for the month. Dave then took me to a men’s clothing store on our way in Sacramento (Capital of California) and helped me buy a new suit and two new shirts. Dave explained to me that the suit I was wearing during registration time looked way too out of style with ugly two foot wide pants bottoms, and he hoped that I would never wear that suit again.

A month passed and I had not received a paycheck for working as a teaching assistant at school. One day I went over to chemistry department office and asked Mrs. Ring (department secretary) if she knew when I will get paid. Her one word answer was “eventually”. Not fully comprehending her answer, I asked Dave how long is “eventually”. Dave laughed and explained that both of us would get paid at the same time and “eventually” meant in the near future, and hopefully soon.

Dave turned out to be a real gentleman and a great friend. I learned so much from him. He even taught me how to drive on his car and helped me get a driving license. He was my mentor throughout the graduate school and we have cherished our friendship throughout our lives and we remain friends even now when both of us are retired.

—

As a graduate student at UC Davis I chose to work under the supervision of a very learned scholar, and a very kindly gentleman, Professor Lawrence James Andrews, who was now the head of the chemistry department. Under his able guidance I completed my studies and my research to qualify for the award of the PhD degree. In September 1961 I submitted my dissertation in physical organic chemistry on the subject of “The effects of ortho substituents on the rates of solvolysis of benzyl and benzhydryl bromides” as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of philosophy in chemistry to the graduate division of the University of California.

Prof. Andrews was also helpful in securing a research fellowship for me so that I might continue my stay in the USA and further my carrier. He contacted several well-known scholars at different universities on my behalf in an effort that I might land a research fellowship in top institutions and with highly respected scholars. With his kind help I had several offers but I accepted research fellowship with Professor Frank H. Westheimer at the world renowned Harvard. With him I did research and published papers on the mechanisms and activities of enzyme Chymotrypsine. Spending a year at Harvard University provided an unforgettable learning experience. The opportunity to be in the company of and learning from so many world renowned and celebrated researchers and scholars was unparalleled, perhaps, anywhere else.

While at Harvard, many companies would send their recruiters to entice capable scientists to work for their companies. I also interviewed with several recruiters from chemical companies like DuPont, Union Carbide, and American Cyanamid etc. Each of these companies that I interviewed offered quite attractive positions. I, however, accepted a research scientist position with American Cyanamid Company as they offered me the flexibility to pick any Division and location in the company that I would like to work at. Furthermore, this company promised to do their best to secure me a change of my immigration status from a student to one of a permanent resident in the USA.

I worked with American Cyanamid Company from September 1962 to 1976 in their research and development department at Bound Brook, New Jersey. I progressed from the position of a research chemist to a principal research scientist in the Elastomers and Rubber Chemicals department and published many research papers and obtained over half a dozen patents in the chemistry and technology of polyurethane elastomers and thermoplastics, an emerging and growing new field in synthetic rubbers (elastomers).

In 1964 on a trip back to family in India, I got married to Manjit Inder Kaur, a daughter of an army Major stationed in Delhi at that time. Manjit joined me in June of 1964 and we started our family life while I was working with American Cyanamid Company and we lived in a nearby town of Highland Park.

In August of 1976, I was offered a position of a group leader, in charge of polyurethane technology research and development at Uniroyal Chemical Company in Naugatuck Connecticut. Uniroyal Chemical Company (Latter named Chemtura Corporation) was a relatively new entrant in polyurethane products with yearly sales of their polyurethane elastomeric prepolymers in the amount of less than 10 million dollars.

Under my leadership starting as a group leader, then a manager and finally as a world-wide director of polyurethane technologies, I helped develop and commercialize several new and innovative product lines and helped acquire adjunct and synergistic technologies from other competitive companies to grow Uniroyal’s business in elastomeric polyurethane products. Under my technical guidance, Uniroyal attained the status of a world leader in castable polyurethane elastomers. I was also instrumental in growing their production and commercial operations to Europe (Italy), South America (Brazil), Australia as well as in Southeast Asia (India, Singapore etc.). Chemtura Corporation’s yearly sales in polyurethane products had sky-rocketed to nearly a billion dollars, by the time I retired in February 2001.

In 2007 after my wife Manjit also retired from her job as a customer relations officer at Peoples Bank in Bridgeport Connecticut, we moved to Virginia State with a bit more temperate climate and where our son Dinesh Singh was running a couple of his privately owned Pharmacies.

We have three grown, married and quite successful children. Surveen Kaur Singh is our eldest daughter, a practicing Optometrist, and lives in San Francisco CA, with her husband (Kashif Maqsood)and their two boys, Enaam Singh Maqsood and Zameer Singh Maqsood. Dinesh Singh, a pharmacist, is our middle child and he lives in Stafford, VA, (the same town where we presently live) with his wife Parminder Kaur, a practicing registered nurse, and two of their girls, Priya Kaur Singh (14) and Serena Kaur Singh (12). Our third and youngest child is Parveen Kaur Verma, a practicing endocrinologist, who is married to Vijay K. Verma, a Cardiologist and together they live with their three children (Avani Verma (11), Vikram Verma (9) and Ayaan Verma (5), in Hainesport, New Jersey.

Our retired life is quite comfortable being relatively in good health. We enjoy traveling and spending time with our children and grand children.