The two-year period we spent in Hawaii was one of the most serene and enjoyable times in our lives. We arrived in Honolulu in late August of 1979 and were met by a Bahá’í friend, Craig Quick. Craig and his wife, Pam, a Japanese American, hosted us for a few days during which I met with Dean Furtick, who then introduced me to Dr. Van Reen, the Chairman of the Department of Nutrition. I signed my employment papers and inquired about the availability of faculty apartments. I was lucky in getting a two-bedroom apartment in the faculty housing complex on Dole Street, which was walking distance from the Manoa campus. We moved in shortly after and procured a pre-owned 4 -door Toyota Corolla. Things were moving faster than we expected.

As the fall semester commenced and schools reopened, we looked for schooling for the kids. Shaku, after evaluation of her neurological condition, was put in a “Special Education” program in a private institution, The Variety Club School, which was contracted by the public school district to cater to students with developmental delays. Vivek went to a nearby Montessori school during the first year and later to the public elementary school situated very close to our apartment complex. Both the kids had swimming lessons in a nearby pool.
Nana, during the first year, worked at Liberty House in the Ala Moana Shopping Center as a retail sales agent. Later she attended, for two semesters, Kapiolani Community College in their culinary arts program. She did so well that she was on the Dean’s list for the two consecutive semesters.

My University Project
The Hawaiian public schools had a highly diverse ethnic and cultural population of Caucasian, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Latino, and African-American origins. The visiting professorship was a joint appointment between the University of Hawaii’s Department of Nutrition and the School of Education for a community nutrition project in Hawaiian public schools. This was funded by the Hawaii State Department of Education and Dr. Francis Pottenger, of the U of H School of Education, was the principal investigator.
The first primary objective was to deliver basic nutrition education (101) to the entire Hawaiian public school food service staff and revamp the menu to address the culturally diverse student population, yet conform to the federally mandated Recommended Daily Allowance standards of nutritional value. The second objective was to assay the nutritional intake of over 1,000 students selected in the seven regional districts using a 24-hour dietary recall procedure to evaluate their nutritional status. The student population was from the elementary, junior high, and senior high schools representing each of the ethnic groups mentioned above.

A second project was funded by Tufts University, a private research university in Medford, Massachusetts, near Boston. Dr. Ira Lichton of the Nutrition Department was the principal investigator. This project was to conduct an anthropometric study of children from ethnically diverse homes, which involved taking weight, height, and mid-arm circumference for body mass index measurements of school children while in school.

The same targeted student population was used in both projects. From the database supplied by the Hawaii School Board we pre-selected for our study over a thousand students, containing a minimum of ten boys and ten girls, of ages between five and sixteen, drawn from each of the seven major ethnic groups. Letters were sent to their parents/caregivers to obtain the needed permission to take body measurements of their child and the 24-hour dietary recall. I had to travel to the selected schools on all four islands. With adequate advance planning of the travel itinerary, and in consultation with the principals of the participating schools, the three of us — myself, Sandy Shimabukaro (graduate student of Frank Pottenger), and the local participating school’s nurse — collected the measurements and food recall over a eleven-month period. The projects were completed successfully and the results were published in several relevant professional journals.
In consultation with Dr. Pottenger, I initiated an ancillary pilot project in one of the Pearl City Public Schools, which was not part of the State Department contract. This school had a population of over a thousand students with the elementary, middle, and high schools combined on one campus. The city, being near the Naval base of Pearl Harbor, had all seven ethnic groups well represented. The purpose was to remedy the food-waste problem in the school lunch program. With the help of four parent volunteers we surveyed over one hundred plates after the children finished their lunch but before the leftover food was dumped into the garbage can. It was found that over 45% of the food was not consumed and over 75% of the milk cartons went into the garbage unopened. We displayed one day’s wasted milk by sealing it in long four-inch diameter plastic tubes which we hung at the entrance of the dining hall. The visual impact of the wasted milk had a dramatic effect. The waste was understandable as a high percentage of the schools’ ethnic groups were lactose intolerant; that is, they lacked lactase, an enzyme needed to break down the lactose. This causes stomach upsets. Regular milk was replaced with powdered milk, which was already treated with lactase. This milk powder was available from the USDA’s food bank, the group that administered the school lunch program. We also advised the parents to give lactose-free milk to their kids at home. Lo and behold, the milk waste was reduced considerably.

Another interesting finding was consumption of dessert. It was noted that the dessert was usually served along with the meal. Because the kids were hungry, they generally ate the dessert first before the main meal. This elevated their blood sugar level and consequently they lost their appetite for lunch. We changed the practice so that dessert was served only after the main meal had been eaten. This change resulted in a significant reduction on the amount of unconsumed food. The principal and the food service manager were pleasantly surprised to see the changes. They said that this was the first time that a faculty member of the Nutrition Department from the University visited and examined the school lunch program.

Our Social Life
We had a pleasant social life both inside and outside the Bahá’í community. Dr. Frank Pottenger, the Director of the Curriculum Research and Development Group (CRDG), in the School of Education was my friend, philosopher, and guide. He was a thorough gentleman and a scholar, and he and his family became close to us. We were invited by the Pottengers to share a meal with them almost every national holiday or over long weekends.

With the Pottengers in Hawaii

Easter with the Pottengers

We had the pleasure of having Nana’s parents at our first Christmas in Hawaii. Mr. Guerard was courageous enough to take his first ever flight this time and enjoyed the trip. As a family we frequented the beaches at Waikiki, Hanauma Bay, Haleiwa and Waimanalo as often as we could and toured the neighboring islands of Lanai, Molokai, Hilo, and the Big Island.

After we had been living in Hawaii for almost one year, we became worried about our shipment from Mumbai which had not arrived yet. By coincidence, my Calcutta friend Goswami and his wife, who had hosted us during our visit to Mumbai, visited Hawaii and stayed with us for a week. I gave him all the documents regarding the shipment and requested that he go in person and find out what happened to the shipment. On his return Goswami sent me a report saying that the company that was supposed to ship the household goods has been taken over by another company. This new company still had the container but could not locate where Honolulu was in the world or determine the best route to ship it.

In the spring of 1981 Dr. Ira Lichton, the principal investigator of the project with the Tufts University, and I went to Boston to give a final report on the anthropometric study. Here was the first ever live baseball game I saw — Boston Red Socks playing the NY Yankees.

In the summer of 1981 the Dean of the School of Public Health at the Manoa Campus came to know of my community nutrition work and offered me a three-week assignment at the University of Guam to conduct a workshop on basic nutrition to the public health nurses. This was an additional bonus. It was there in Guam I got acquainted with the dedicated Bahá’í couple Hubert and Marian Johnson. On my way back I flew to the nearby islands of Samoa and visited the Bahá’í House of Worship.

In June of 1981 a conference of all the food service managers in all the schools in the entire State of Hawaii was held in Honolulu where the results of the two projects were shared. The conference started with viewing a video entitled “Empty Platter Does Really Matter” which outlined strategies for school food manager training to reduce food waste in school lunch programs. We concluded with a commitment to follow through with the recommendations. Copies of the following manuals, which represented the final report of the project, were distributed to the participants:

•    Nutrition Education in the Classroom — For Teachers in Elementary Schools.

•    Nutrition Menu Planning Guide for Hawaii Schools Food Service Managers.

•    Preschool & Elementary Teachers Training in Nutrition Education.

•    Framework for Sequential Integration of Nutrition Education in the Curriculum of Hawaii Public Schools.

I knew well that my tenure at the University would end in the Fall of 1981. I had to find an employment plus affordable living quarters. I once again sent a stream of applications to every educational institution in the State of Hawaii, which included the Punaho High School, a prestigious private school. Frank Pottenger tried his level best to secure a tenured professorship in the School of Education. At the same time Nana and I investigated the real estate world and the prices of rentals were sky-high. It appeared that rents outside the faculty apartments where we were living would be beyond our means even if I got a good employment in Hawaii.

Dan Jordan’s Timely Call
One evening after I came back from my Guam trip I got a call from Dan Jordan. He conveyed the good news that he was able to persuade the President of National University in San Diego to establish a School of Education right from scratch. The university president, Dr. Chigos, a daring entrepreneur and maverick, gave Dan a desk and a telephone line and asked Dan to start establishing the new Department of Education. Don Streets and his family were already there and living in Escondido. National University was one of the newly emerging universities for working professionals in Business Management. It also had a Law School but no School of Education. Dan said now he has for the first time the authority and the resources to draw the needed faculty to establish the ANISA Program and wished to have me once again as a faculty at National University. He also conveyed that I would have to come to San Diego to be interviewed for the faculty position by the Academic Dean, Harold Wells. After consultation with Nana, we both went to San Diego to see the place and get to know more about the School of Education. A Bahá’í friend took take care of the kids in our apartment while we were gone. I had an excellent interview with Harold Wells and I had no second thoughts on my decision to accept the position since I was not able to secure a job in Hawaii. Nana had to sacrifice the last year of her studies which would have given her an AA degree in Culinary Arts. Nana was very much disappointed to have to leave Hawaii as so many things were going well for us.

So in Aug 1981 we relocated ourselves back on the mainland.