I graduated from Michigan Tech in the summer of 1969. I got a couple of job offers, and took one with EAI in New Jersey. It was about 30 miles south of NYC. My friend Umesh Malhotra and his brother Girish were already in NJ. It was a very good job as a hardware engineer with a minicomputer company, paying really well. I bought a new Ford Maverick and rented a nice furnished apartment. As summer turned into fall, I was having the time of my life enjoying new found freedom. There very few Indians in the US back then. We did not mind traveling 100 miles to visit friends.
I almost forgot to mention the two main events of the summer of 1969: the moon landing and the Woodstock festival in upstate New York. I was still in Houghton when the moon landing happened and left soon after for New Jersey. The big news when I got there was this first ever open field drug/sex/music festival where tens of thousands people, it might have been hundreds of thousands, camped out in the open field for several days. It was a peak of hippie culture of make love not war!
I ended up in Chicago in the summer of 1968, with $10 in my pocket. I had been at Michigan Tech for 9 months, and this was my first summer break.
I checked into a YMCA hostel for $4 a night. That immediately told me that I could survive in Chicago only one more day.
It was early evening, so I decided to go out and see if I can get a job. I was told to look for “Help Wanted” signs in the windows, especially in Restaurant windows. It was only a few minutes before I spotted such a sign. I stepped in and asked them for the sign in the window.
The manager asked me if I was ready to work right away; yes I replied.
I was sent back to the kitchen and given an apron and asked to start doing dishes. There was no discussion about the salary or anything else. I worked for six hours and was handed $10 in cash and given a full meal.
Thinking back to this tour de force of an article in Fortune Magazine dated May 15, 2000. It was titled “The Indians Of Silicon Valley”. Click here for the full article or read it below: