66. First Overseas trip – To Hawaii

Almost everyone  likes  to travel abroad, especially those who loves to travel. We can see  new places and  meet  people  from a different land and even make acquaintance with a few  of them. For those who are  working in colleges and have  some interest in doing research, the best way to go abroad is to send their research papers to conferences that are  being held in your place of interest. Large number of conferences are  being held  these days and it will not be very difficult   to identify a  conference venue. First step will be  to send  a  paper  to  the conference  and get it accepted. Once paper is accepted next step is to raise funds to meet the registration fee, travel and accommodation. There are several  governmental  and a few  private agencies  providing financial support  for  researchers  for  attending conferences  to present   their  papers. A few  educational institutions  provide registration fee  alone  for attending  conferences. Application for  financial support can be given  only after  the  paper is accepted and a copy of the  letter of acceptance and the paper will have to be submitted along with the application. Very often, by the  time  one  has to proceed for the conference, even the  offer of financial support  may  not  be  available. If   one is optimistic,   he can spend money from  his pocket and if the  support is offered, actual bills, receipts and travel  tickets  will have  to submitted for  reimbursement  of the actual expenses. It is  most likely that the expenses  for travel and  accommodation will be reimbursed.  Often  the air fare  is the  major component. For example, in 1998, the  economy class air fare  to and from  any major city  in USA  was  of the order of one  lakh or more by Air India. Financial  support from government  departments  require that we have to travel by Air India even if cheaper  flights are available from other airlines. Sometimes, even if one applies early, due to red  tape, the  formal sanction  of  funds can be delayed.

In spite  of all these, even  today, for  faculty  from ordinary institutions, this  is the  easiest way to get  financial support. If  either   the  researcher is  involved in a major research project and he is the chief  investigator  or if the  investigator  is willing  to  release project funds, it  can be utilized  for the travel if it falls within  the allocation. Now, after the  sixth  pay  commission report  has been implemented faculty  in  central government institutions  have  been provided with a special allowance called Professional Development Allowance (PDA)  under which they can use  part of the  money for such purposes under certain conditions. When I was in service, we could use  it for attending one  national  conference and another international conference.

I was  not very keen  to  send papers  to international conferences held outside  the  country   mainly because  conference  papers are not given much  importance  other  than for meeting friends and making new contacts. Second reason  was  the  huge  expenditure  involved. One or two papers  written by  me and our guides  from our PhD  work  were  presented  by my professor himself. Just for the  experience, I thought  of   attending  one for conference. With this in mind, a paper was sent for a conference in Honolulu , Hawaii in 1998. Paper was accepted for presentation. Our institution did agree to  give the conference registration fee of Rs. 20,000/,  but the travel  expenses of more than one lakh had to be raised.

Among the  central governmental agencies  that provide  grants , the  most important were the University Grants Commission (UGC), Department of Science and Technology(DST), All India and Council for Technical Education(AICTE) and Kerala Science Technology and Environment(KSTE). But  most of these  organizations  take  minimum three  months to process the application  and communicate a decision positive  or negative. When I was hesitant  counting the  money involved, my wife and both  children encouraged  me to take a chance and go, if necessary taking a loan from the  provident fund. So, I finally decided  to  go and attend  the conference.

Most of the  conferences  abroad are  held  in  beautiful tourist  locations and mostly  in first class hotels.   Charges  for accommodation  in such hotels are  quite high, usually of the order of 100 -150 USD. I was   not sure  whether  such amount will be reimbursed  by the  agency  supporting me. As I was  regularly   using internet and email at that time itself, I remembered   a famous university in Hawaii from where  one of our senior colleagues had taken PhD, i.e. East West  University  in Honolulu. I checked their website and searched  for   any Indians  in the university as  research scholars or faculty. I could locate   five of them and copied their email id. I wrote to all of them stating that I am coming to Honolulu for presenting paper and  asking whether   there is any possibility of getting concessional accommodation for teachers in the university. All the five of them replied promptly that they have  nominated one of them to help me and accommodation can be arranged in the  faculty house for a nominal payment of USD 25 per day. They added that  frequent buses  are available   for transport to the  conference venue from the university  by paying USD 2 per person. But the accommodation has to be booked in advance by paying the rent for the number of days required. Further, they said if I have any difficulty  in sending the money, they will pay  and I can reimburse  when I go there. International credit cards were not available with me; however, I took  a demand draft for USD 100 and send it urgently by Air mail. Fortunately for me, by the time I reached the  university,  the  draft was received and I could get the accommodation without troubling my new friends.  So, I started  on my first trip abroad  without any guarantee that whether I will be able  to get any financial  support.  However, on reaching the  university and when I went to the university library to check my mail, I saw an email from my colleague and part time research student Smt.Padmakumari that  UGC has  sent a telegram  offering financial support for attending the conference. The best possible  financial support was from UGC and I was  sure that major part of the expenditure will be reimbursed by them.

When I was  talking about Honolulu, Smt. Padma Kumari’s  daughter who was probably in class 4 or 5, told me “ Uncle, don’t  you know that live volcanoes  still exist on Hawaiian Islands” . Hawaii, is in the centre of the Pacific Ocean which can be seen as a series of  tiny dots in the  deepest ocean in the world. The 50^th state  in  United States  of America  has and even  now have  live volcanoes from which hot reddish lava  flows  into the  ocean  creating new lands almost every day. They have a  national park  of these  mountains. There   are excellent  videos  on National Geographic channel indicating  how  they are  sprouting  hot lava out. Anyway, with a slight fear  in my mind and with all good  wishes from  my family and   friends, I embarked on  the first voyage abroad   in which I had  to  fly over two great oceans, Indian ocean and Pacific Ocean.

https://youtu.be/_zeUdtx_KAI