Ajeet Singh Sood has led may lives. His first life was full of privilege as the youngest child in a family that rubbed shoulders with maharajas and the British raj. All that came crashing down during Partition, in his second life. But his desire for education led him to a coveted position on the Bhakra Dam project. In this, his third life, he comes to America and accomplishes even more feets of engineering. But his mind is not satisfied. It longs for something it hasn't seen in 60 years.

COMING TO AMERICA

Bhakra Dam had a few more years to completion. The Americans wanted to bring all the necessary equipment and build it quickly, but the Indian government wanted to spend 10 or more years to employ as many laborers as possible for as long as possible.

While working on Bhakra Dam, Ajeet Singh was still giving architectural advice to government officials. One of those officials was Hari Sharma, for whom he designed an octagon-shaped house. Sharma, undersecretary of the education ministry, was also a soothsayer on the side. He wrote Ajeet Singh’s horoscope: He would get married and leave for America; have an accident in which either his wife would die or suffer from health problems for the rest of her life; and no matter how hard he tried, his son would leave his faith.

“What was he trying to do?” Ajeet Singh thought. He didn’t have money to go to America. “When time comes, money flows from every direction,” Sharma said.

One day, as Ajeet Singh sat and listened to Sharma’s wild stories, a large black car adorned with little flags drove up to the house. It was the undersecretary to the prime minister. Nehru needed Sharma to tell his future. It was a routine for both.

Ajeet Singh never stopped pursuing higher education. He was always sending out applications to colleges and universities abroad. Even though he was a top engineer on Bhakra Dam, his degree-by-correspondence meant little to his colleagues with Ivy League degrees.

“They all thought that I got the coveted job because I was Khosla’s pet,” he still laments. “They never wanted to think that I could do beautiful work.”

But the Americans recognized his ability. Case Institute of Technology in Ohio invited him to join the master’s program. If he could command engineering projects in America, he would get the professional respect he so desired. He was given a leave of absence from Bhakra Dam, but he had no money.

“So now what?” he asked Sharma. A few days later a Rs. 10,000 check arrived form the Delhi Cloth Mills with a letter that said there were no strings attached, no interest and no payback necessary.

“So - did the money come or not?” Sharma said. It was 1960.

The whole family came to the railway station to see him off. With a heavy heart, Ajeet Singh left them. His wife and two kids went to stay with her parents, and his mother went to stay with his sisters.

Ajeet Singh’s third life was far away. The train went to Bombay where he boarded a ship for a 17-day trip to Naples, then on another ship to London, and then he flew to New York where a United Nations representative received him. They went to see the U.N. building before boarding a bus to Cleveland.

A host family helped him adjust to his new life at Case where he shared an apartment with another student and had to learn how to live without a personal servant.

“It was horrible for me to bring the groceries and cook,” he said. India was a place where domestic help was cheap. He was given a servant as part of his job on Bhakra Dam. Now he had to manage living and studying on his own, with only the memories of his family to help him pass the days.

“I would fall asleep and dream that my son is lying on my chest,” he remembers. “Then I would wake up and realize that I was alone in America.” After his daughter’s birth, Ajeet Singh took greater responsibility in the care of his son. They had become especially close before he left India. But even with all these adjustments, he calls his life in America his “golden period.”