Reminiscences and Perspectives
STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS MUSINGS
By
Brian Stott
TANVIR,TANVIR,MANY APOLOGIES FOR MY MANY APOLOGIES FOR MY
ABSENCE AT THIS ABSENCE AT THIS CELEBRATIONCELEBRATION
NEARLY HALF A CENTURYNEARLY HALF A CENTURY AFTER YOUR FIRST ARRIVAL AT AFTER YOUR FIRST ARRIVAL AT
METUMETU
THE CIVIL ENGINEERING THE CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT MUST ALSO BE DEPARTMENT MUST ALSO BE CONGRATULATED ON YOUR CONGRATULATED ON YOUR
RETIREMENT….RETIREMENT….
FOR HAVING KEPT SOMEONE FOR HAVING KEPT SOMEONE WITH YOUR AMAZING WITH YOUR AMAZING ABILITIES IN ANKARAABILITIES IN ANKARA
ALL THIS TIME ALL THIS TIME
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
BUT, WHEN YOU THINK BUT, WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT ITABOUT IT
IT IS SURPRISING THAT SUCH AN INTERNATIONAL “HIGH-FLYER” DID
COME BACK TO METU FROM CAMBRIDGE
SO, WE WILL HAVE A SHORT QUIZSO, WE WILL HAVE A SHORT QUIZ
LET US SPECULATE ABOUT WHY TANVIR LET US SPECULATE ABOUT WHY TANVIR RETURNED TO METURETURNED TO METU
Yıldız Yıldız
Wasti generations & Cambridge Wasti generations & Cambridge –– “been there, done that”“been there, done that”
MIT, Berkeley, Caltech –MIT, Berkeley, Caltech – places for monomaniacsplaces for monomaniacs
Pakistan and its food –Pakistan and its food – too hottoo hot
Turkey and the METU civil engineering challenge attractiveTurkey and the METU civil engineering challenge attractive
Turkey was a good base for multi-cultural interestsTurkey was a good base for multi-cultural interests
All of the aboveAll of the above
Perhaps I should introduce myselfPerhaps I should introduce myself
Silifke Turkey, 1966 1965-8, Elec. Eng., METU.
What a wonderful life it was in Turkey!
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
38 years later, after UK, Canada, Brazil and 25 kg
Unfortunately, I do not have a Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of Tanvir from 1965photo of Tanvir from 1965
He does not seem to have changed too much.But now he is more distinguished, resembling …
A top-level diplomat?
An international banker?
A university president?
A Nobel laureate?
A billionaire industrialist?
NO DOUBT,NO DOUBT, IN THIS SYMPOSIUM,IN THIS SYMPOSIUM,
TANVIRTANVIR HAS ALREADY BEEN ACCUSEDHAS ALREADY BEEN ACCUSED
OF BEING…..OF BEING…..
SUCH AS…..SUCH AS…..
ALL KINDS OF THINGSALL KINDS OF THINGS
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
TO TAKE THE PRESSURE OFF TANVIR, HERE ARE A
FEW IMPRESSIONS ABOUT THE YEARS THAT WE
SHARED AT METU
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
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
Side note: the Vice-Rector was Orhan Alsaç, whose son Ongun has remained my research and business partner since 1970
Our METU, 1965-68
• 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
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”
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”
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
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!
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
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
We envied Tanvir’s rear-engine VW Beetle, because of its handling on the snow and ice
We envied Tanvir’s rear-engine VW Beetle, because of its handling on the snow and ice
Our Ankara, 1965-8
Absolutely not! We foreigners at METU loved Ankara and Turkey
All this sounds as though the old Ankara was a really unpleasant place
• 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
Why? Perhaps because:
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
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
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
Our Turkey, 1965-68Perhaps, one of the best
things of all was….
The main middle-class pastime was visiting and receiving people at home – several times a
week
This was an important lesson for us British
Turkish people clearly gave friends and relationships very high priorities in their lives
This was a wonderful “people oriented” lifestyle
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
Now, a little less adulation and a few random epithets
TANVIR THE EXHAUSTIVETANVIR 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!
TANVIR THE SCOFF-LAWTANVIR 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
TANVIR THE HAZARDOUSTANVIR 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)
TANVIR THE GENTLEMANTANVIR 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….
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”… “a stitch in time saves nine”
Tanvir nodded seriously and gratefully for this information ….
… while I went green and purple with… while I went green and purple with
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 moreover could give you the etymologies of all the key words through Sanskrit and Old Norse
(maybe I exaggerated slightly … but only slightly)
..…and the same for most other sayings in the English language..…
TANVIR THE GLADIATORTANVIR 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
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
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
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
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
During this entire time, they remained oblivious to the rest of the party
They discussed and argued for at least five hours nonstop, like the intellectual versions of
old-style prize fighters
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
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
Affectionate congratulations from
me and Patricia,
and no doubt from all your many other friends and admirers.
Love to Yıldız, Nazlı (+) and Arzu
Tanvir, thank you for everything over all
these years
This ends my message
