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After a euphoric start 1970 settled in to a more of a routine.

A long distance relationship with Ann had its rewards and burdens. She came to visit me every chance she could get. I went to visit her once to get proper engagement and wedding rings. Ann, like me, was not particularly religious but still wanted a church wedding. We had to find a church as most churches are not open to outsiders. After visiting several churches and getting unreasonable demands, we got lucky. We found an Episcopalian Church, Ann’s denomination, with a priest I happened to have had made friends with. I used to play tennis with my friends in a public park. An elderly couple used to play on the next court and they would request a doubles game from time to time. That elderly man was Father Whitehead of the Church of the Intercession, in Wilton Manors, a suburb of Ft Lauderdale. He readily agreed to marry us! I still had to do rest of the arrangements. Flowers, reception, staying arrangements and sundry other things.

During all this I got laid of second time from my job. SEL was a big supplier to NASA. By 1970 economy was going south. Having put a man on the moon, NASA was was winding down the space program. Nixon’s Vietnamization of the war resulted in hundred’s of thousands people coming back home from the war. This time I found a new job very quickly and not too far from Ft Lauderdale. I went to work for RCA Computer Systems in West Palm Beach, about 40 miles north of Ft Lauderdale. I did not want to move as the wedding was going to be in Ft Lauderdale so I commuted for several months.Father Whitehead marrying us Bride arriving for the ceremony. Done Deal! Ann with her sister, mother and grand mother With Umesh Malhotra and Bhopi Dhall

During this time I also got my draft notice. Even though war was winding down, they were still drafting 50,000 people a month. I tried to enlist in the Air Force and Navy (Ann’s brother was in the Navy) but neither Air Force nor Navy would take me, they had enough US volunteers so did not have to take foreigners, but Army was hot after me. I fought very hard to stay out of the army but I got my summons  for the physical before being inducted. I was  very desperate when I got the good news. I was rejected because my left deltoid  muscle had atrophied and my shoulder would dislocate from time to time. For once in my life I was glad to have this physical affliction.

Needless to say my father was not too happy with any of this. He had not gotten over my cutting my hair and now I was marrying a foreigner (for him!). We had a small and intimate wedding. My IIT friends Umesh Malhotra and Bhopi Dhall attended it. Ann’s father was not too happy either so he did not attend it but her mother and sister were  present. Her brother Mark was on an aircraft carrier off the coast of Vietnam so he missed it. We had a small reception at my friend Jeff Katz’s house, where we had platters of kosher cold cuts and punch. A very inexpensive and elegant affair.

We had a simple honeymoon in Key West. After the wedding Ann got her discharge from the Air Force as we were more than 50 miles from the closest base. We moved to Palm Beach Shores and rented a nice cottage on the beach and decided to live happily ever after, until I heard on NBC News (NBC was a RCA subsidiary at the time) that RCA was pulling out of the computer business. Soon after that, I got laid off third time from a job.

Things could not have been better for me after I moved to Ft. Lauderdale in March of 1970. My new job with SEL was very good, Ft Lauderdale was in the sun  shine state of Florida, I bought a used Chevrolet Impala (every Indians dream back then) and then Ann came to visit me in late March. Ann had been my pan pal for previous three years. She was from Connecticut and had joined the US Air Force in 1968 and was based at Lackland  Air Force Base in San Antonio Texas. She was going home for Easter vacation and stopped en route to visit me. Though Ann and I were writing to each other for three years and had exchanged photos and talked on the phone several times, this was the first time we were going to meet in person.

I picked up Ann at the Miami airport in my Impala. She was dressed in the Air Force blue uniform. I was immediately smitten and could not take my eyes off her! I got the sense that she had taken a liking to me too. Four days later when she was getting ready to leave, I could not resist proposing marriage to her. She was taken aback and told me that she needed time to think it over. Few weeks later she called to say that answer is yes. I and Ann were married on March 26th, 1971.

It will be 45 years in a couple of months and I have never had second thoughts.

Ann at Miami AirportAt my apartment in Ft Lauderdale

Ann and I at my apartment Ann and Kanwal T our Engagement dinner at Benihana in Ft Lauderdae wit Jeff and Rudy Katz

TiE’s first annual report was published in 1996.

Philosophical framework was wordsmithed by Suhas Patil, Roy Prasad​ and yours truly over a bottle of wine at Suhas’s house.

It took several revisions and precise wordsmithing to get it right!

It was not called TiEcon back in 1994. That name did not come about till 1997. But the very first public TiE conference was held on March 26-27 at The Fairmont Hotel in downtown San Jose. Initial thought was maybe 100 to 200 people may come – 500 had signed up by the time conference happened.