Anecdotes during my Travel

  When we returned to Turkey after visiting my children for the mid-summer vacation, the inflation there was very high. Luckily, the summer vacation was not over yet. What should I do? I was thinking about going back when I got a phone call from Cyprus. An old friend of mine works as a dean at a university there. It was him. We called him before going to America. Among many other things, he mentioned the inflation in Turkey and other things. Suddenly he said, are you interested in coming here? Then we can arrange a reasonable salary. In any case, just go back after completing the vacation you have taken. We are starting a new course and department. We are starting the Electrical Electronics Engineering Department. It would be good if you could join as its head. What the doctor ordered and what the patient wanted became one. I thought to myself that it would be enough to avoid the trouble of having to bring money from home to go back. He quickly gave me detailed information. It was ...

  A part of the country called Turkey is in Europe and the rest in Asia. In general, in our experience, the culture of the Turkish people is closer to Asian culture. But it seems that a good part of them wants to be European. That is why they imitate Europeans in dress and other things. In fact, like Indian culture, the current culture in Turkey is a hybrid culture. The Turkish language itself is a good example. The script is English. The grammar is Arabic. Because of this, they can never handle the English language well. Almost all books are available in Turkish translation, even engineering books. I doubt if they have heard of copyright. I understood this after the first classes. Almost all the information has to be written on the board. Students will obediently write everything down. The students will be very happy if the questions are asked from that. Everyone will get good marks. It is a problem if they ask a little differently. I remember a story a friend told me. Two A...

Once, while waiting for a bus, a short man approached me and asked if I was from India. As we spoke, I got to know him well. He was a third-year medical student at Cukurova University living in Adana with his three siblings—a sister and two brothers. They lived in a rented house about five kilometers from us, while their elderly parents remained in a village in Iraq. The eldest sibling worked to support the others, and one of the brothers was a skilled cook. When I invited them over, all four accepted and visited us the following Sunday. It was a wonderful occasion. As descendants of Mesopotamian culture, they were eager to learn about Indian traditions. They examined our coins and belongings with great curiosity, and my wife gave them several books. The sister, Emina, asked me to write her name in Sanskrit so she could have it engraved on her locket. They were so enthusiastic that although they arrived in the morning, they stayed until evening. Before leaving, they invited us to t...