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Reminiscences and Perspectives

Syed Tanvir Wasti. Reminiscences and Perspectives. STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS MUSINGS By Brian Stott. TANVIR, MANY APOLOGIES FOR MY ABSENCE AT THIS CELEBRATION. NEARLY HALF A CENTURY AFTER YOUR FIRST ARRIVAL AT METU.

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Reminiscences and Perspectives

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  1. Syed Tanvir Wasti Reminiscences and Perspectives STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS MUSINGS By Brian Stott

  2. TANVIR,MANY APOLOGIES FOR MY ABSENCE AT THIS CELEBRATION NEARLY HALF A CENTURYAFTER YOUR FIRST ARRIVAL AT METU

  3. THE CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT MUST ALSO BE CONGRATULATED ON YOUR RETIREMENT…. FOR HAVING KEPT SOMEONE WITH YOUR AMAZING ABILITIES IN ANKARA ALL THIS TIME

  4. I met Tanvir at METU in 1965 • I arrived from Manchester for 3 years • He returned with his Cambridge PhD • He was a brilliantly-intellectual, super-cultured, energetic, fun-loving, witty, charming person • His command of English language and literature was encyclopedic • In spite of this we became firm friends

  5. BUT, WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT IT IS SURPRISING THAT SUCH AN INTERNATIONAL “HIGH-FLYER” DID COME BACK TO METU FROM CAMBRIDGE

  6. SO, WE WILL HAVE A SHORT QUIZ LET US SPECULATE ABOUT WHY TANVIR RETURNED TO METU • Yıldız • Wasti generations & Cambridge –“been there, done that” • MIT, Berkeley, Caltech –places for monomaniacs • Pakistan and its food –too hot • Turkey and the METU civil engineering challenge attractive • Turkey was a good base for multi-cultural interests • All of the above

  7. Silifke Turkey, 1966 1965-8, Elec. Eng., METU. What a wonderful life it was in Turkey! Arizona USA, 2006 38 years later, after UK, Canada, Brazil and 25 kg Perhaps I should introduce myself

  8. Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of Tanvir from 1965 He does not seem to have changed too much. But now he is more distinguished, resembling … An international banker? A university president? A top-level diplomat? A Nobel laureate? A billionaire industrialist?

  9. NO DOUBT, IN THIS SYMPOSIUM, TANVIR HAS ALREADY BEEN ACCUSED OF BEING….. ALL KINDS OF THINGS SUCH AS…..

  10. Renaissance man Cultural bridge-maker Speaker-debater Bridge player Educator Accomplished engineer-researcher LITERARY CRITIC Warm, considerate friend POET-WRITER Historian Family man Multi-linguist Internationalist

  11. So, I imagine that at this point, Tanvir is either …. • Suffering his apotheosis with resignation, or • Mentally rehearsing a bi-lingual speech, or • Feeling slightly ill and looking for the exit

  12. TO TAKE THE PRESSURE OFF TANVIR, HERE ARE A FEW IMPRESSIONS ABOUT THE YEARS THAT WE SHARED AT METU

  13. Our METU, 1965-8 • These were the “golden years” of METU? • METU was a national hope and symbol for technical progress • It was directly responsible to parliament • It had top US-Europe trained Turkish faculty • Plus 10-15% foreigners • It attracted the brightest and best students • Everybody’s enthusiasm was infectious* • * Few signs of the world-wide student unrest that reached Turkey in 1969

  14. Our METU, 1965-68 • Rector Kemal Kurdaş • A great leader (and what a tree-planting legacy)! • Engineering Dean Mustafa Parlar • Inspirational, forceful, intimidating but often a “softy” Side note: the Vice-Rector was Orhan Alsaç, whose son Ongun has remained my research and business partner since 1970

  15. Our METU, 1965-68 In Electrical Engineering, the twice-daily faculty tea breaks, often attended by Dean Parlar, took place at a long old table in the dark, damp, uncomfortable basement of the building. The çay had been brewing for hours and was “mature” • Campus in the middle of nowhere • Quite near Eskişehir, or so it seemed • No neighbors, except Maden Tetkik Arastırma • Few “people” facilities • One horrible cafeteria • One snack bar in Architecture • A few improvised volley ball courts in the dirt • Air conditioning almost non-existent • Few refuges for faculty or students

  16. Our METU, 1965-68 • Technical facilities • Lab. equipment often on international par • One IBM 1620 computer for all of METU • Only punched card input, line printer output • Much slower than a Palm Pilot today • Very good technical library • Fairly modern copying equipment

  17. Our METU, 1965-68 • Civil engineering had some of METU’s strongest faculty members • Electrical engineering (my department) was also good • But the quality of the undergraduate students was superb • Sadly, many of the Elec. Eng. class of 1968 now hold high positions in the USA!

  18. Our Ankara, 1965-8 • A large small town • No international class hotels or restaurants • No bars, few clubs, one modern café (Piknik) • No shopping centers (Gima opened in 1967) • All packages from abroad had to be personally picked up at the Ulus post office • No imposing edifices along İnönü Bulvarı • Kocatepe was not even thought of 

  19. We envied Tanvir’s rear-engine VW Beetle, because of its handling on the snow and ice Our Ankara, 1965-8 • Summer – bone dry, roasting • Air conditioning yok • Frequent water cuts – the bath-filling ritual • Winter – colder then, deep-freeze spells • Award-winning air pollution • Car snow-chains often needed for places like Çankaya, Kavaklıdere, even METU

  20. Our Ankara, 1965-8 All this sounds as though the old Ankara was a really unpleasant place Absolutely not! We foreigners at METU loved Ankara and Turkey Why? Perhaps because: • Turkish people everywhere were so kind and friendly • There was a general spirit at METU of being involved in something new and important • The country as a whole was so historical and magical

  21. Our Turkey, 1965-68 • Relative political stability • Atatürk ethos still alive – strong public secularism • The biggest national project was the Keban dam • Much more American influence, then

  22. Our Turkey, 1965-68 • A wonderland of history and nature • Very little tourist industry, e.g. • We slept in tents on the beach close by the Marmaris kalesi • Göreme was a novelty - we had to find a local bekçi to show us (with an oil lamp) the recently-discovered underground city • Kuşadası was dominated by camping • Everywhere was extremely safe

  23. Our Turkey, 1965-68 • Road travel was a constant adventure • Inter-city roads two-lane only • Kamyonlar were deadly (better now?) • Bosphorus crossed only by ferry • Incredibly skilled Turkish car mechanics • Air travel was good • We got a nice new Esenboğa, but • Changing terminals at Yeşilköy was something else

  24. THERE WAS NO TV Our Turkey, 1965-68Perhaps, one of the best things of all was….

  25. The main middle-class pastime was visiting and receiving people at home – several times a week This was a wonderful “people oriented” lifestyle Turkish people clearly gave friends and relationships very high priorities in their lives This was an important lesson for us British

  26. Back to Tanvir - man of equations and letters I know little about his civil engineering work But I have a thick file of his erudite historical and literary publications (including a book) in English – and this is a tiny sample of his output

  27. Now, a little less adulation and a few random epithets

  28. TANVIR THE EXHAUSTIVE His historical research leads him down some mind-bogglingly obscure paths Imagine, for instance, searching the world for the English translation from Arabic (only several in existence) of the diary of an unknown 19th century government official in Tunisia Imagine, moreover, the utter serendipity of this turning up in my local university library!

  29. TANVIR THE SCOFF-LAW In 1966, while he was still inhaling Turkish literature like a vacuum cleaner, he forced me to smuggle a then-illegal Nazım Hikmet book from Bulgaria to Turkey

  30. TANVIR THE HAZARDOUS He has a memory like an I am periodically shocked by things he tells me about myself, from 40 years ago, that I had completely forgotten (for good reason)

  31. TANVIR THE GENTLEMAN Despite a very slight tendency to enjoy a good argument, Tanvir is remarkably polite, measured, considerate and a perfect old-style gentleman. Here is an example….

  32. At my parent’s home in Lancashire, England, my (rather sheltered) father tried to educate Tanvir on the meaning of some common English saying, such as … “a stitch in time saves nine”

  33. Embarrassment Tanvir nodded seriously and gratefully for this information …. … while I went green and purple with

  34. Afterwards, I told my father (we do this kind of thing to our parents) …. ..…that was probably the only person you will ever meet in your life..… ..…who could tell you where that saying first appeared in Shakespeare, Milton, etc….. ..…and the same for most other sayings in the English language..… ..…and moreover could give you the etymologies of all the key words through Sanskrit and Old Norse (maybe I exaggerated slightly … but only slightly)

  35. TANVIR THE GLADIATOR Did I say that Tanvir has a “very slight” tendency to enjoy a good argument? Actually, I meant that he loves a good mental-verbal sparring session

  36. On his return from Cambridge, Tanvir’s credential that most impressed us METU British was Not his PhD – lots of people get one It was his Presidency of the Pembroke College Debating Society That was really SPECIAL

  37. Debating, Cambridge-style, - is a form of bloodless modern dueling, - using superb command of the language, - rapid thought and fact retrieval, - rapier-like wit and humor, - psychology, and flexible logic. It is sometimes called…. The shortest cut between two minds, or Feud for thought

  38. In 1967 we had a visitor to METU, Professor Colin Adamson, who prided himself on his ability to expound and argue on any subject, ad infinitum We decided to teach this man a lesson We arranged a small party at the Karadeniz Lokantası (then İzmir Caddesi), and invited Tanvir Colin and Tanvir immediately locked onto each other like opposite magnetic poles

  39. They discussed and argued for at least five hours nonstop, like the intellectual versions of old-style prize fighters During this entire time, they remained oblivious to the rest of the party

  40. At the end, Colin was reduced to a numb, silent, vacant, shell, with seized-up vocal cords and a glassy stare…. ….while Tanvir continued to expound non-sotto-voce on the latest subject that they had chosen to discuss I, Brian Stott, do solemnly swear that the above is completely true and not at all exaggerated We took Colin home, put him to bed, and he was well recovered after several days

  41. Well, Tanvir, it looks as if you have broken through the retirement barrier with flying colors Though it’s difficult to imagine you just sitting on your laurels

  42. Affectionate congratulations from me and Patricia, and no doubt from all your many other friends and admirers. Love to Yıldız, Nazlı (+) and Arzu

  43. Tanvir, thank you for everything over all these years This ends my message

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