Among my meanderings, I am a MIT PE (Cuban salsa) instructor. This comes with a perk of sailing privileges at the MIT sailing pavilion. Useless, I thought, until a few weeks back I stepped in at the pavilion for the view. The guy at the desk was pretty chatty and I told him about my sailing experience almost 40 years back. Guess what, he pulled out my sail card 1976-77, from the archives which brought back memories.
It was the summer of 1976. A couple of us decided to learn to sail. I think the group included Subodh Mathur, Prem Das, and myself. We took a few lessons and quite enjoyed them. The instruction for beginners was to NOT sail when white caps were showing on the river. We were also given reminders about how polluted Charles was then. (Remember the admonition about not putting your fingers in the river lest they should dissolve?)
Ah, but as the song goes, “We were young and sure to have our way”.
So, one windy day, Subodh and I took off in a Tech dinghy. I am sure we were feeling very pleased that the we had taken off despite the cautioning “red flag”. Rather confident, we did another thing that novice sailors should not be doing: we jibed. Predictably, the boat capsized, and, we were in the water! After flailing around, we managed to haul ourselves onto the overturned boat and we sat there waving our arms frantically for help! After what seemed an eternity, the lookout on the pavilion spotted us and sent a motorboat to bring us back.
Next it was a trip to the Medical department for an examination and shots. Ugh!
That was the end of my sailing career!
I don’t have photos from those days but recently, Raj Melville’s daughter, Anu sent me my photo from his 1977 Sloan yearbook. 
In 1980, I joined AMITA (Association of MIT Alumnae). We did two important things:
- Started the High School Visiting Program to encourage girls to study STEM subjects.
- Demanded women’s toilets on every floor of buildings at MIT.
Over the years, I have served as AMITA Treasurer, and held various other positions on the AMITA Board. In 2014, I was awarded the Alumni Association Award for UPOP mentoring. I have also served as a mentor for the MIT 100K competition and funded their aerospace track in 2008.
For fun, I have performed a cha-cha at President Rafael Reif’s inauguration with the MIT Ballroom Dance Team and salsa-ed across the Harvard bridge at MIT 100 with the MIT Casino Rueda Club.
The sailboats on the Charles still beckon.
MIT Sangam Reunion 