People, in the family and outsiders, often ask me questions like the following: When are you going to retire? Aren’t you tired of teaching? Don’t you have enough money in your retirement plan? Why do you keep working when your funds income after retirement would be no less than the present salary? Don’t you enjoy traveling and learning new hobbies – like, languages, gardening and cooking etc?

Such questions are normal as I have healthfully completed 84 years of my life so far. But I am still doing all that is expected from a professor at UNLV. For people in India, at this age, full-time working is beyond imagination. Indian services have a mandatory retirement age ranging from 58 to 62. Historically, India’s retirement age is a vestige of the British colonial mindset.

When I came to the US in 1968, the retirement age in the universities was 70 years – far beyond that of India. By the 1980s, the mandatory retirement age in the US was eliminated especially in colleges as it was deemed to be an age-discrimination. I often tell my folks in India that UNLV has a performance age – a system of comprehensive annual evaluation. It is worth noting that people in their private businesses – be it medicine, law, agriculture and industry, they go into retirement in phases. 

Anyway, this line of thinking has been prompted by a colleague of mine. He is 73. Recently, he collapsed twice while teaching in a classroom and working in his office. Luckily, someone was there each time to call an ambulance. He was rushed to the hospital and saved. Currently, he is undergoing professional evaluation to determine his fitness to return to his duties or not. Here is a case where the application of the current state of the law becomes questionable.

Nevertheless, it has prompted me to think about my retirement. I do not think that the decision should rest on me alone – students, colleagues, administrators, and my family should have a say too. It reminded me of my two colleagues at UNLV.  One openly said, “I will never retire. Someone has to drag my body out of my office.” In 2020, she died of Covid-19 at the age of 89. Another colleague retired at age 92 after being on leave for almost a year. Yes, both of them have impacted my professional life. 

Five years ago, under different circumstances, I faced this question of retiring or not. At that time, I decided to get feedback on it from my students who knew me no less. There was not even a single student who had suggested that I should hang up my gloves – using boxing jargon. Since then, I have told my Chair that if at any time a bunch of students complain against me, say, for being lost in a class, then that would be my last day. However, as long as there is one student who evaluates me as the best instructor he/she ever had at UNLV, then I owe my pedagogical talents to the students. 

In scholarship, I am the only polymath at UNLV. Proof: I have written thirteen books in seven different genres – all after the age of 70. Yes, no one can write such books before the age of 50. Its teaching corollary is that in the 2024-fall semester, I will be teaching an honors seminar, Paradoxes in Arts, Science and Mathematics. A fresh PhD from Harvard or Stanford would have no clue on such a subject. Well-rounded scholarship has to be both at micro and macro levels. Macro outlook takes years to flower like good wine takes time to mature. Apart from teaching and scholarly activities, I remain engaged in the affairs of my Department, College and University through various committees. There are many outreach activities which continue to delight me – like volunteering as a judge in various contests. They expand my horizon of the day!

In the beginning of adult life, my job occupied just a fraction of my time. Life then appeared to be compartmentalized. Gradually but unconsciously, I started knocking down the walls. In this lifestyle, for instance, whatever people generally do after retirement, I have already done far more. At this stage, my life has become seamless. In math jargon, one’s job is a subset of one’s life. But in a holistic way of life, there is a coalescing aspect to it. 

Mathematically speaking, there exists a person out there who can do my job better than I am presently doing it. In sports, there are players who retire at their prime, and reinvent themselves as coaches, commentators, and analysts etc. As far as my job at this point in time is concerned, I do not look beyond one good year at a time. 

I have a mathematician friend living in Boston. We have known each other since 1960 when we were both in India. He moved to the US in 1965. We frequently chat over various aspects of life. Interestingly, we both have come to the conclusion that a tenured full professorship in an American university is the best academic job in the world. 

That is all – a summary of my thoughts that welled up in my mind. Everyone is welcome to comment and give their evaluation of my job performance and retirement in whatever capacity I am known. 

Satish C. Bhatnagar, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Mathematical Sciences,  University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154 Phone: 702-895-0383 Email: bhatnaga@unlv.nevada.edu
Adjunct Professor, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda (2019 –  ) UNLV Faculty Senate (2018 – 2021)

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