Education, Careers & Professional News
Indo-Pak Partition Survivor Heads Chicago College
A refugee from Pakistan, a lonely immigrant, entrepreneur and now an educationist, Indian American Mr Jatinder (Jody) Wadhwa is an embodiment of the man who has realized the American dream.
Mr Wadhwa has just taken over as chairman of the Oakton Community College (OCC) near here and says his involvement was a result of his upbringing in India, with its strong focus on education.
A good education was the key to my life, Mr Wadhwa told IANS in an interview.
His life though has been full of varied experiences. His most haunting memories, he says, are of his familys traumatic journey to India from Pakistan after partition and of the wanton brutality around him when he was a boy of 13.
I remember seeing one of the rioters throw a wailing two-year-old boy into the air and impale him on a sword as he fell down. It was hell. Even today, my knees shake when I think of those days, Mr Wadhwa said.
The partition changed the lives of his family members and gave him a lifelong aversion to religious extremism.
We went, almost overnight, from being very rich, to being very poor. My family, consisting of my parents and five brothers and sisters, lived in refugee camps in India. But we were grateful that all of us were still together, and in one piece, he said.
After graduating from Punjab University, Mr Wadhwa came to the US in 1956. Unlike most Indian immigrants then, his intention was not to study. All I wanted was to work and pay off my familys debts, he said. So he left school and worked at two eight-hour jobs a day.
He rose to become chief operating officer of a Chicago-based company, EZ Foil. Buying the company under a leveraged buyout, he ran it for 15 years, before selling it to Tenneco. I retired, having hit my jackpot, at 55, he said.
Seeking to contribute to the community, Mr Wadhwa ran for election to the Illinois House of Representatives as a Democratic candidate, in 2000. Although he lost, he has no regrets. My defeat should serve as a stepping stone for other Indian Americans, he said, I want our youngsters to get into the political mainstream.
Mr Wadhwas involvement with the OCC, and with the Indo-American Centre (IAC), a community service organisation that primarily serves the South Asian community, in a sense, grew out of his earlier experiences in the US.