69. USA and World War II - War Memorial

Little  bit of history. When the World War II  started, only  Hitler’s  Germany, France and Great Britain  were  involved in that. United States of America  was  not a party in the beginning. At that time, Pearl Harbour in Hawaii  was one  of the  most important  ports  of USA. All on a sudden, on 7^th Dec 1941  at 7.55  in the  morning, the  ocean carriers  anchored in Pearl Harbour were bombed by the German  bombers, without any provocation. The  reason for USA  coming into the war was not the cruelty against the Jews, or the annexation of Poland or the war against Britain, but this single  attack on the  war ships  of USA  which ultimately  resulted in the  defeat of the Germany-Japan alliance.

More than 1177 sailors  died on the spot. The Arizona memorial in Hawaii  has been  constructed in memory of  these sailors. U.S.S Arizona was the one that suffered  most from the attack. Bombs from four fighter  jets fell  on this  ship. Three  of them  very near the ship and the fourth with a weight of 800 kg right on the ship which broke the ship into two pieces. Arizona  war memorial  187 ft long is built on the remnants  of ship that is  remaining sunk in the harbour. The names of the 1177  sailors  who were killed in the  attack had  been embedded  in marble  at this memorial. This  is considered to be  the unique among the war memorials in USA.    

On the  windward side of the Oahu  island, one  important sight  is the sea animal park. There   are a few pools in which dolphins and seals  play. For those who are interested , they can play with these animals. Dolphins  can be trained easily and they can play  with human beings wonderfully. Trainers  make them do many things like swimming synchronously in groups, somersaulting rhythmically etc. Only thing is that after every show, just like  for naughty  children, they have  to be given  special  incentives   like their  favourite fish to eat. Seals  can clap their hands and show special gestures  similar  to human beings and entertain us. Entry fee  every where  is not small , anything from 20 dollars or more. Due to the  limited time available and small pocket , we did not spend much time or money there. A special gift that one can make in these  tourist spots is to   make special  animals  and shapes from a copper penny. Here  they were making beautiful dolphins and seals out of a  penny. In our country  misusing  coins for such things  is a punishable offense, but here  it is ok, may be only because it is the smallest  coin that is being circulated.

We returned  to the conference venue by evening ready for the conference banquet. Usually , banquet is a very happy occasion where  one can eat to their heart’s content. The  banquet  is part of the  twenty thousand  we paid as registration fee and thought we could make something out of this special dinner Since our lunch was  very light,  we were really hungry and  thought we  can eat something  in the  banquet. But unfortunately, we could not find  anything to eat. Somehow we managed to take the soup and eat something similar to noodles and finished  off with  ice cream  and returned  to the university.

From among the list  of residents in the faculty house, I could identify an Indian name, one Prof.Nahata. I left a message  in his pigeon hole  expressing my interest  in seeing him. As I was  returning to my apartment, I met him in the  elevator. He was a  professor of English from New Delhi, almost 70 years of age. He was speaking in typical Oxford English and his  ripe age was not at all evident  in his speech. In many American universities,  age  is not a  restriction on senior professors whose faculties are intact. There are   many professors  very active in research and teaching  at seventy or more. Think of what  is happening  in our country. The teachers  superannuate at  58 or 60 and either  sit at home or go to private  institutions to give  tuition. Some  of them   in engineering may  join self-financing colleges. It is really unfortunate that their  rich experience is not being properly used  by the society. Many of them are highly  qualified and have experience in teaching  graduate and masters’  level of 30 years or more.  Please do not think that  I am talking about myself.  I have superannuated from N.I.T Calicut at 65 and continued to work in M.E.S.College  of Engineering  Kuttippuram for another  5 years. I have no regrets. Even now, I can take at least  two to three  hours  class if some one  makes a request, if necessary  free of cost.  It is a fact that I  have never enjoyed  my administrative work, even though  I was  fully  immersed  in it during the last   five or more years in N.I.T Calicut  in different  roles. Even  during  those days, I used to take at least  one course  for  B.Tech or M.Tech and enjoy   my  classes . Hopefully     many of my students also might have been benefited from those classes.

Our  Bangla  lady’s paper was in the  last session on the third day. As expected, many of the  delegates    had left  the venue by that time. As a matter  of courtesy to the  young lady, we two Indians decided to  be among the audience even though the topic of her research was  not familiar to us.  Unfortunately, it so happened that we were the only two persons in the audience except the session chairman and co-chair other than the speaker. Anyway, we  remained  there  till the end of the presentation just to oblige her. She has come prepared with almost a  month’s programme including visit to a few  universities  on the main land . As  I had  my return flight  on the  next day, I bid farewell to  Prof.Reddy and our Bangla  lady there itself.

Other  things to see in Hawaii were  in other islands including Hawaii, the  largest  island among the group. Visit to these  islands have to be planned well ahead and it can be only by air. They do not have boat trips   like those available in our Lakshadveep and Minikoy islands. Since  I had to leave on the next day and had not prepared  for these trips, I  met the  Bengali friends  in the university and thanked them  for the timely help in getting  me a  convenient accommodation within my pockets. On the return trip, I was  planning to stay in Singapore for two days, that too for a  specific reason  which will  be revealed soon.