A new window opens for India

For my Engineering degree, I studied in one of the famous Indian institutes of learning. Since our institute had a sort of Pan India nature, I had classmates from all over India. A similar situation prevailed for most of the courses taught in our institute. Some of the special courses, like Aeronautical Engineering, even had foreign students on their rolls. I distinctly remember having met a number of students from Egypt, during my college years. These Egyptians were a friendly lot. They studied hard and were most cordial when talking to other Indians and never confined or restricted themselves to the company of their own countrymen. Those were the days of great bonhomie between India and Egypt, with Indian Prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and President Abdul Nasser of Egypt, forming some sort of coalition of Non-Aligned nations. Indian Government and Government of President Abdul Nasser, collaborated on many joint projects. This might have been the main reason for presence of the Egyptians in our institute. However, those days of friendship were soon lost as Nehru and Nasser passed away. Egypt moved towards Soviet block first and later moved on and became friendly with Americans. The special relationship between India and Egypt evaporated and only formal relations remained.