Interviewer: Par Pandit, son
Interview Date: November 20, 2011
Experiences: Immigration from India, Santa Clara County Water District, Acculturation,Diversity
The Life of Joe Pandit
This paper is about the life of my father Joe Pandit - a civil engineer who came to the United States and served as a Santa Clara Valley Water District Director for 10 years. All the information gathered is from an interview with my father and mother, Vanleela Pandit, on November 20, 2011 in Saratoga, CA unless otherwise noted.
Thakor (Joe) Pandit was born on April 22, 1937 in the village town of Gana in Gujuart,
India.
He was the youngest of six children born to Bhikhabhai Pandya (born 1888), an educator
and
school principal, and Chanchalben Pandya (born 1892), a housewife. Bhikhabhai was
50 and
Chanchalben was 46 years old when he was born. The middle brother Rasik Pandya had
died
before Joe was born. Joe was very attached to the youngest sister Hansa who died at
the age
when 13 when he was five years old. His other siblings were his oldest brother Shankerlal
Pandit
(known as S. B. Pandit), and his older sisters Narmadaben and Nirmalabe. All of his
living siblings were at least 20 years older than Joe.
Joe lived with his parents until the age of 14; then he moved in with his brother
who was a
professor at a University in town of Vallabh Vidhyanagar. Joe went to three different
primary
schools followed by three different high schools. After high school, he completed
a Bachelor
degree in Civil Engineering at Sardar Patel University in Vidhyanagar then earned
a Masters
degree in Hydraulics and Dam Engineering at University of Pune. He then returned to
Vidhyanager to be a Associate Professor at the same University where his brother worked.
At the age of 20, in 1957, he was introduced to Vanleela Vyas, a 17 year old teenager
from
Baroda. The meeting was set up by Vanleela’s maternal uncle and S.B. Pandit. The very
next
day they were engaged and married shortly thereafter. Joe did not want to marry since
he was
still attending college, but agreed anyway.
In 1965, while teaching at Vighyanager University, one of the head professors and
Joe’s mentor,
Professor B. M. Jani, advised him to go the United States for further training. They
wanted him
to get his PhD, then return to the university to help set up a new engineering department.
This
professor had attend University of Illinois and told Joe that the United States is
the best place to
further his education.
My father researched and applied to about seven colleges including MIT, Illinois,
Wisconsin, Cal
Tech, and U.C. Berkeley. He was accepted to all of them but wanted to attend the University
of
Iowa for two reasons. One was that he wanted to work with a famous civil engineering
professor
named Hunter Rouse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_Rouse). The second reason
was that
he had very little money and Iowa was the only university that offered him a teaching
assistant
position prior to his arrival to the United States. Joe discussed with Prof. Jani,
his brother S.B. Pandit, his father, and his wife leaving for the United States. Although
his father had reservations and was against the idea, he agreed because it was a good
career move. Two friends helped him make the arrangements to go the United States
including coming up with the airfare. He left in September of 1966.
When he boarded the plane, he had about $8 in money. That was the maximum the Indian
Government allowed you to convert to American dollars when you left the country. Joe
had a friend named Mahendra Patel who was also going aboard to study in New York.
They
went together to the United States via Hong Kong, Japan, and Hawaii before arriving
in San
Francisco. Mahendra’s brother wired them $200 while in Hong Kong so they could do
some
traveling. Once they got to San Francisco, another friend’s brother gave them money
to take to
a bus ride to Iowa. Mahendra continued on to New York.
When Joe arrived in Iowa, he had $2 remaining. Two contacts he had in Iowa had already
made lodging arrangements for him on the campus so he did not have to stay in the
dorms. Joe
immediately went to the financial aid department the very next day to get a loan.
Before coming to the United States, Joe and Vanleela had had two children. In 1962,
they had had a baby boy name Parimal. In 1963, they had had a baby girl named Punita.
From the time Joe and Vaneela were married they were often living apart as he attended
or taught college. The trip to the United States was yet another temporary separation.
During the 1966-67 school year, Joe finished his Masters degree in Hydraulics and
Water Resources at Iowa. During that time, he started working for the Army Corp of
Engineers in Rock Island, Illinois. It was there that he acquired his nickname “Joe.”
The Army had to get a special visa for him to work there from Washington D.C. as foreigners
without citizenship were not allowed to work. He remembers people in the Midwest as
being friendly and helpful. Once when he had a flat tire and did not know what to
do, the Director of his company saw him stranded in a snow storm and changed his tire
for him.
Joe struggled initially with the coursework at Iowa because the teaching methods were
so
different from India. In the United States, the professors generally made assignments
and
did not go into detail about how to solve problems. The students were left to figure
it out
themselves. In India, the professors went into great detail on almost all problems.
However in
India, your grades were determined by a single test at the end of the school year.
This test was
designed by an instructor somewhere else in India so you had to hope your teacher
covered
everything that was on the syllabus. In the United States, they had intermediate stages
to
assess your knowledge including tests, reports, and papers.
In February of 1968, Vanleela along with Parimal and Punita arrived from India in
Moline, Illinois
where Joe was now living. The children started 1st grade and Kindergarten. In January,
1969
the youngest daughter Priti was born.
After suffering through two cold winters in 1968 and 1969, Vanleela demanded that
the family move to a warmer climate (V. Pandit). Joe got a job offer from a company
in Florida but he chose
to accept an offer from the Santa Clara Valley Water District. He got the offer after
a two-hour
phone interview but no face-to-face interview. They left in mid-June 1969 and spent
about 20
days coming to California. They travelled through most of the western states by car
and saw
every major water dam along the way. They also visited several national parks and
Disneyland.
Before they left Moline, Joe had called the phone operator and asked for anyone with
the last
name of Patel or Shah in San Jose. These are the two most common Gujuarti last names.
The operator found two numbers and he called them. One of them was Jayant Patel who
also
worked at the water district. On the day they arrived in San Jose, Jayant told them
about a
vacant apartment in their complex in the Edenvale area. Joe and Vanleela took the
apartment
and began their life in San Jose. Joe and Jayant continue to be friends today.
In 1969, San Jose was growing and the population reached about 450,000 in 1970. It
was only
204,196 in the 1960 census (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Jose,_California). There
were
orchards everywhere. Joe and Van bought their first home in 1971 in Almaden Valley,
and
Vanleea went to work in 1973 as a PC board assembler to help financially.
Joe worked at the Santa Clara Valley Water District as a staff engineer for the next
13 years
(1969-82). He generally liked his job and co-workers. However during these years,
he offered
suggestions on how to improve projects or processes which were generally ignored.
He also
observed that upper management was almost completely white and there were no minorities
in
supervisory positions. Joe strongly felt that if an individual were qualified and
worked hard then
he or she should be given opportunity to advance their careers and prove themselves.
This was
not happening at the water district. He threatened to run for the position of Director
of the water district. His superiors did not take him seriously, so he ran. He won
the seat from District 1 (includes Almaden Valley, Blossom Valley, Gilroy, and Morgan
Hill) running on the platform of being a Civil Engineer who was aware of and knew
how to address the water related problems. He was re-elected again in 1986 and 1990.
During the majority of these years (1983-1993), there were four engineers on the Water
District
Broad - Joe Pandit, Bob Gross, Joe Donohue and Patrick Ferraro. The first recommendation
from Joe was to hire an outside consultant to review the hiring practices of the water
district.
This consultant interviewed many minority engineers and found that indeed there was
discrimination in promotions and job opportunities. Previously many of these minority
engineers
were reluctant to speak up because they didn’t think management would care. The board
made
policy changes and within three years the issue had been addressed. Joe is very proud
of this
change. Today, many of the supervisors at the water district are now minorities.
Another issue that concerned Joe and several board members was how money was being
spent. There was over staffing on certain projects that were not high priority or
essential while
other more important projects were under staffed. The district was also hiring too
many consultants. These issues were addressed and resolved. However, these same problems
exist again today.
In 2011, Joe thinks the Board is over spending again and needs more and better information.
There are also not enough engineers on the board. However, Joe approves of the current
General Manager - Beau Goldie - whom he considers very conscientious and effective.
Another
issue that concerned him was that only 5 of the 7 Board members were elected. The
other 2
members were appointed by the County Supervisors. He thought all of them should have
been
elected. All board positions became elected around 2009.
When Joe Pandit got elected, he became only the second East Asian Indian ever to be
elected
to public office in the state of California and possibly in the United States as well.
The first was
Dalip Singh Saund from Yuba City in the 1956 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalip_Singh_Saund).
Joe was the first Indian publicly elected in Santa Clara County.
Once he became a Board Member, Joe resigned from his position as staff engineer to
avoid
any conflict of interest. Since Board members' pay was very low, he worked as a consultant
at
other companies and water districts. Joe left his position as Board member in 1993
to return to
being a staff engineer. He retired from the Water District in 1998. He ran again for
the board in
1998 and 2006 for District #4 but was defeated by the incumbent Larry Wilson both
times.
Since his retirement, Joe has been traveling and raising grandchildren. Joe and Vanleela
have
visited most of western Europe including Spain, France, and Portugal. They have seen
Brazil,
Bali, U.A.E, Australia, and New Zealand. Joe hopes to see South Africa, Kenya, and
Machu
Picchu if his health allows it. They have seven grandchildren - the first born in
1993 and the last
two born in 2004.
Although he considers himself to have a good and happy life, Joe does have one regret.
He
wishes he had spent more time with his children. From 1968 to 1982, Joe and Vanleela
were busy bringing relatives from India and helping them get settled here. The first
two relatives were
students whom they placed at colleges in St. Louis and New York City. After Joe became
a
citizen in 1974 and Vanleela in 1976, they began to bring direct relatives over. Most
of them
needed help learning English, getting trained, finding jobs, then finding homes of
their own. All
of them lived with them for 1-3 years before moving out on their own. Along with their
jobs, Joe
and Vanleela were kept busy for many years. They didn’t have much time for a true
family life
with just their children.
Assimilating into the American culture was also an issue for the Pandit family. While
living in
Illinois, Joe had American, Chinese, Filipino as well as Indian friends. However,
after arriving
in San Jose, they began to acquire more Indian friends. When the relatives started
coming,
their family and friends' circle became even more Indian. In addition, Joe and Vanleela
were
not comfortable with the liberal nature of American culture. While his children continued
to be
slowly assimilated in the American culture, Joe did not encourage it. However since
Joe was not
particularly religious either he did not stress a purely Hindu life. That changed
after Joe became a board member. The position required interacting with Americans
on an on-going basis as well as several trips to Sacramento and conferences representing
the water district. He truly enjoyed his time as board member.
His overall opinion of Americans is high. He considers them fairly honest and straight
forward.
Joe considers the lack of corruption on a day-to-day basis a major benefit of living
in the United
States. In addition, the many anti-discrimination laws passed in the 1970s, according
to Joe,
helped create a more level playing field for everyone. He did feel some discrimination
after
arriving in California. In fact, Joe thinks there was less discrimination when he
was in Iowa
and Illinois. While the discrimination was not obvious, he says he could feel it and
sometimes
see it in people’s behavior. However, compared to other minorities he considers the
level of
discrimination he suffered fairly low.
This lack of discrimination may more with do the type of Indians immigrating to the
United
States in the 1960’s. There was a labor shortage for technical positions so the United
State
government encouraged professionals from Asia to immigrate there. Joe wishes that
many of the Indians who have been here since the 1960s and 1970s would make a greater
effort to assimilate to the American culture. He considers it too easy to stay within
your culture and not make the effort although he understands the difficulty when language
is a barrier. Joe didn’t really have a choice when it came it assimilating. None of
his children married persons of the Hindu faith. Punita married Robert Bigler who
is Mormon while Priti married Patrick O’Shaughnessy who is Roman Catholic. Meanwhile,
Parimal did marry an Indian woman from Mumbai named Rajul Udani but she is of the
Jain faith.
Regarding business ventures, Joe developed a close friendship with Jagdish Shah,
another civil
engineer, whom he met back in 1969. Together and separately they bought rental homes
during
the real estate boom of the 1970s-80s. Their investments proved to be successful and
provided
them with a better life.
Joe is now 74 years and dealing with health issues. He has had three surgeries for
his heart
and prostate. He also been dealing with diabetes for the last 20 years although it
is now under
control. Recently he has developed back problems which make it hard to walk for extended
lengths.
Joe is in many ways a reflection of the Indian engineer who came in the 1960s. He
completed
an advanced degree and found a job so he did not return to India. He brought his family
over, moved a couple times, made some good investments, and helped his family become
established in this country. Where Joe was different was his 10 year service as a
publicly
elected water district board member. He has high regard for the United States and
Americans in
general.
Bibliography
Pandit, Joe Thankor (Saratoga, California; November 20, 2011)
Pandit, Vanleela (Saratoga, California; November 20, 2011)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_Rouse, November 23, 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Jose,_California, November 27, 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalip_Singh_Saund, November 26, 2011
http://www.valleywater.org/About/Board_of_Directors/District_Boundaries.aspx
De Anza Class: History 10
Instructor: Anne Hickling
Interview Date: November 20, 2011