1922 - 1929
AMERICAN DAYS

On 8 October 1922, JP’s ship sailed into San Francisco harbour, one of the most scenic natural anchorages in the world. It was also the port of entry for Asians. Many externed members of Ghadar party ( North Indian Revolutionary ) had settled in California. The indian contacts there had advised JP’s group to stay in the inexpensive hotel - Nalanda Club at Berkeley.

JP was charmed by the beautiful settings of the sprawling campus of University of California on a range of hills rising out of ocean. But the first term had already started and he and his friends needed work to survive till the new term began.

Sher Khan, a pathan overseers, received them with great affection and expressed that “I should kiss your feet, because you have just come from India”. He directed them to grape orchards which paid 40 cents an hour for working nine hours a day. JP’s job was to select grapes suitable for drying as raisins. These new comers were very popular among the Indians there. The older residents were keen to know the developments back at home and were very impressed that JP had left college in response to Gandhiji’s call.

As some savings were created, JP returned to Nalanda club. He took admission into the second year in January as he got years’ credit from his Indian intermediate science degree. His main subjects were Mathematics, Chemical Engineering and biology and he got straight ‘A’ in all subjects, except in practicals where he found it hard to follow the American accent. In his spare time he set type for a publication providing information for Indian students. Considering his traditional background, he had a surprisingly smooth transition in the foreign country. Due to very expensive studies at Berkeley, he shifted to Iowa State University. Even there he had to work hard to pay his way – he worked as a waiter in a restaurant, cleaned and varnished furniture, washed windows, and shovelled snow in the depth of winter.

Due to lack of proper clothing and late night work that paid by an hour, winters was the most testing time. He often stayed in the bed and missed his early lectures. But this made no difference to his scholastic performance and he continued to get straight A’s. But despite excellent performance in examination and seminars, he was denied the grade by the strict disciplinarian professor of German, due to lack of attendance. JP felt this as evidence of the irrationality of conventional education. The beginnings of his interest in a new, convention-free educational system which would encourage and provide facilities for a student to pursue knowledge in his own time and style originated in this experience, and later became a facet of the Total Revolution for which he campaigned.

His financial constraints as well as need for more knowledge stimulating environment made him move to Chicago to University of Wisconsin at Madison for next three years. Here, work was more readily available and atmosphere was more surcharged with political currents and happenings.

His stay in Chicago, on and off for three years, had left an incredible mark on JP’s personality. He did all kinds of jobs, shovelling snow, cleaning hotel bathrooms, turning out nuts and bolts in one factory, packing pottery in other. He worked in the cattle slaughter factory, but could not tolerate the sight of so much blood and got the job in power house. He even tried his hands at trading the Himalayan Herb, but could not be a successful salesman. But the handsome young Asian had a curiosity value and this put him in an embarrassing situation when a young maidservant made advances at him. In his spare time he started reading European Literature and was particularly impressed by Anatole France and Henrik Ibsen. He took lessons in Bengali language and ballroom dancing. Liked Greta Garbo films but these pursuits were marginal to his other interests.

In Chicago, he became seriously ill for around 5months and had to ask for financial help from home. His father mortgaged family’s village land for the purpose. This happened as he was looking for work to fund his Moscow visit. In winter, on one day, after fruitless search for work, he did not have five cents needed to take tram to go back home. He walked the ice covered roads, without an overcoat and with large holes in his shoes. He nearly collapsed at his door. An incorrect diagnosis by a cheap doctor made things worse. Had it not been due to the love and the care of the landlord Indian couple from West Indies, he would not have survived the ordeal.

JP was in Wisconsin when a resolution for investigation into the Teapot Dome scandal, one of the biggest at the time, was pushed for. The scandal involved transfer of oilfields owned by the US Navy to private interests. Wisconsin was at the forefront of the demand for a clean government. JP’s concern with corruption and his confidence in public inquiries as a remedy originated from this experience. It was during this time that he met a member of American Communist Party, a brilliant young polish Jew – Abram Landy. Landy introduced JP to M. N. Roy’s work that reasoned against Gandhi’s strategy. He also met other Marxists and was drawn to the ideology.

The communist party cell used to meet at a small tailor’s shop owned by an immigrant from Russia, who read and translated communist literature to them. The intellectual ferment intoxicated JP and he gave up science to take up Sociology and Economics to look deeper into Man’s evolution and the economic basis of society. Once JP passed his BA degree, he was appointed as assistant professor, and for the first time he was financially comfortable. He became a well known figure on campus.

His fellow student Saul D. Ozer remembered him even after 40 years ! In 1968, he told a interviewer that Narayan was never rude but he was sharp as a knife. And Narayan followed every argument to its logical conclusion. And as a logician he was superb. That he understood Marxism but it was obvious that there was some conflict due to the strange mixture of Marxism and Gandhism and he was trying to reconcile

JP returned India in 1929 after knowing his mother’s serious condition. Except for academic and political influences, he had picked up little from the great United States of America. After spending 7 years abroad, he still was a serious, single-minded man – calm within and restless outside.