By now, I was playing tennis regularly at our R K Nagar colony.My colleague Mohan at Trichy was also a regular tennis player.I used to pack my tennis kit even for a one-day visit to Trichy. We used to stay at Hotel Sangam in Trichy and the Officers' Club ( where Mohan was a member) was close to the hotel.It had floodlights so we could play after dark.
I used to return from the factory to the hotel around 6 PM, change into my tennis gear and be in the club by 6.30 PM. We used to play till 8 PM, then rush back to the hotel, have a quick shower, change, gulp down dinner and be in the Railway Station at 8.55 PM to catch the Rockfort Express back to Madras at 9 PM.
Mohan was in Operations and I was in Marketing and we used to have a lot of arguments in Office on customer priorities for shipments, early deliveries etc. All this used to be forgotten on the tennis court and I got him to agree to many things in the tennis court which he would have vehemently refused that morning!! This is the power of sports, I suppose.
In February, the President of Xomox,USA came visiting and he wanted to visit the Taj Mahal on his way back. I was asked to accompany him on this visit.I had last visited the Taj Mahal in 1958 and this gave me a good opportunity to visit the monument again. From Agra, I went to Calcutta on my way to Bangladesh on a business trip.
I had to apply for the Bangladesh visa in Calcutta. I went to the Consulate and after handing over the papers, I was asked to come back in the evening.It was pouring heavily and we were all asked to stand on the other side of the street while the Consulate officials bellowed out the names thru a loudspeaker. Everybody collected their passports and I was the last one left.
I asked why my name was not called and the official replied in his thick Bengali accent," Of course we called your name Mr.Arkalgud".
I collected the passport and was on a Biman Bangladesh flight the next day to Dhaka.I visited Dhaka and Chittagong during this trip.Dhaka is like any other Indian city, but I've never seen so many cycle-rikshaws anywhere else. The commercial areas are crowded and the posh residential areas are very quiet. My host took me for dinner to Dhaka Club and it was no different from any of the British-era clubs in India.
I shopped for a Dhaka muslin saree for Sudha. The material is reputed to be so fine that you can pass an entire saree through a ring.I also bought a bright yellow wall clock that stayed with us for a very long time.
On my return, I plunged into my work and was constantly on the move. I stayed in some very good hotels--- Sea Rock at Mumbai, Hyatt and Maurya Sheraton at Delhi, Oberoi at Calcutta. The Sheraton group offered Welcom Awards during our stay and I collected enough Welcom Awards to be able to take Sudha and the kids out for dinner to the Residency at Park Sheraton frequently.
Sachin ( or was it Sandeep?) still remembers one of these dinners and you can ask them why!!
I remember that I spent Mar 22nd ( the first anniversary of daddy's death) in a hotel room in Hyderabad.I was on my way to Vizag.If you remember, I had mentioned that I didn't shed any tears when daddy died.On that day ( one year later), I remembered daddy and the good times we had and it all came out. I shed copious tears alone in the hotel room and finally achieved closure.
In May 1988, I was inducted as a member of the Madras Boat Club.Straightaway I felt at home in this Club since the ambience was so similar to that of the Clubs in KGF.MBC still has a drink called Cricket.One sip of this and the taste would take me back to the days of Shankar the barman mixing an Orange Squash in Nundydroog Club. The MBC even today organizes Tombola evenings on Sundays and mom was very happy to be able to attend this whenever she was in Madras.
One day in May 1988, I was called in by my boss and asked to be prepared to visit our Joint Venture partner's factories in Cincinnati( USA), Barnstaple (UK) and Lindau ( Germany). I was pretty excited since this was my first opportunity to visit Western countries.The visit was scheduled for sometime in Sep/Oct 1988 and my colleague K.S.Ravindran was to accompany me..
A couple of weeks before the visit, I was playing tennis in Trichy when I slipped and landed heavily on my left wrist.Straightaway I knew that I had broken a bone. I went to a hospital in Trichy and they reset the bone.Next day, I took a flight back to Madras.My left arm was put in a cast and the physiotherapy started when the cast was removed in a couple of weeks.
I even made a trip to Delhi with my cast. Talk about dedication to work!!
The foreign trip was postponed on account of this and then finally the program was made. I was determined to make the most of this trip and visit as many of my relations as possible.I spoke to Omprakash in New York and to Bharathi ( Appaji's daughter) in Chicago.I was also determined to visit Papachi and
K S N Swamy in Geneva though I had no idea how far Lindau was from Geneva.I also wanted to visit Disneyland in LA or Disneyworld in Orlando.
Looking back on my program now, I see that the personal component of my visit was more than the business component and I must really thank my stars that I had an understanding boss who agreed to my requirements.
Travel Corporation of India were our travel agents and I was personally co-ordinating with them for all my travel within the US.Those days,there was a scheme called VUSA ( Visit USA) where you could get a certain number of flight coupons for a fixed sum of money.My plan was New York-Cincinnati-Chicago-Orlando-New York.This involved 4 flight coupons but TCI was offering me only 3 coupons and wanted me to pay for the extra flight coupon that I required.I discussed with the TCI manager in the morning and he asked me to come back in the evening and collect the VUSA ticket after paying for the extra flight coupon. I went to the TCI office in the evening.The Manager did not see me come in since he had his back to me and asked his assistant " Has the Xomox "fellow" come?".He then turned around and blanched when he saw me. I told him that he was referring to one of his customers as a "fellow" and said that I would report this to my management.He profusely apologized to me and finally offered to give me the extra coupon at no extra charge.
Ravi and I finally left on Nov 4th by a British Airways flight to London.We left at 9 PM from Madras and landed at Heathrow at 6 AM after a brief stop over in Kuwait.It was bitterly cold , but I was well prepared.I had borrowed a jacket and gloves from my friend Gurushankar and this served me well.
We freshened up at Heathrow, had a good breakfast and then caught the 11 AM flight to New York JFK.After a 7 hour trans- Atlantic flight during which we had lunch and slept well, we landed at New York at 1.45 PM local time on Saturday 5th Nov.We were fresh as a daisy.
Omprakash met us at the airport and wanted to know whether we should go home to rest or whether we could visit Padma, Ravi and Gowri ( Anti's family-- they had emigrated to USA after Anti's death) in New Jersey.We opted to go to NJ.We had a nice visit and a good dinner at Padma's house.They gifted me a Van Heusen white shirt ( Palmgrove Hotel in Bombay lost it after 8 years, but that's another story).
We finally reached Omprakash's house in Staen Island at 11 PM on 5th Nov after seeing the World Trade centre and Empire State Building on the way back.
Sudha and the kids ( Anand and Aamod) had gone to Philadelphia and had returned by then, accompanied by Sudha's brother. Ravi stayed with me and we spent the night at Omprakash's house.
This was my first visit to USA and I was gaping at the sights and sounds of New York.Next day morning ( 6th Nov, Sunday), we got up and made a trip to K-Mart. Ravi and I then took the ferry and came over to Manhattan. We visited Battery Park and strolled down toWall Street and the New York Stock Exchange. I'd never seen such thick,fat squirrels before.There was no crowd and we practically had the place to ourselves.
Omprakash then took us to Jackson Heights in Queens.This seemed like Little India with lots of Indians walking around and Indian stores all over.I bumped into my Executive Director there.This was the first of such incidents where I bumped into my colleagues /relations in outlandish places.I bought a coral chain for my mom and lots and lots of Pampers for Swathi and Shruti.
I think I bought enough to last them for about 5 years and I lugged this all over America, England,Switzerland and Germany. So this explains the title of this blog.
We caught the evening flight to Cincinnati.Del Wahlert met us at the airport and took us to the company guest house.I was flabbergasted when I saw the TV and remote.We were making do with Doordarshan 1 and Doordarshan 2 at that time and here we had a choice of 62 channels, all of them running for 24 hours!! Man , this was paradise!! It took me an hour to figure out how to operate the remote.
The kitchen was another wonder for us.The variety of knives in that special knife scabbard amazed me.We spent 4 days in Cincinnati( 7th to 10th Nov). During this time, I visited Jayashree and Ramdas's house.Both were related tome from my dad and mom's side respectively.I remember they had this huge teddy bear for their daughter.Ramdas already had a car phone installed so this was another source of wonder for me. Will we ever be able to experience all this in India was the question that came to my mind in 1988.Now we have the answer.
On 10th Nov evening, we flew to Chicago. Bharathi and her husband were on hand to receive me at O'Hare Airport. Ravi flew on from there to Minnesota to spend the weekend with his relative. Chicago lived up to its reputation as a windy city.The wind chill factor was very high but Bharathi said that I had come well prepared for the weather.
Next day ( Friday 11th), I went downtown and took a city tour of Chicago.This is the city of Frank Llyod Wright, the famous architect and I saw many fine buildings.I visited the Chicago Museum and also went past Mohammad Ali's house.I saw the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Building, both fine specimens.
The day after that, Bharathi drove me to the Aurora Temple.It felt strange to be given ಗೋಡಂಬಿ and ದ್ರಾಕ್ಷಿ and ಬಾದಾಮಿ as ಪ್ರಸಾದ .She then got me a yellow full sleeved shirt . Their house was a magnificent mansion in an exclusive locality called Oakwood.It was reputed to have cost over 100,000 $ way back in 1988.
Their son Ravi was a Chicago Bulls fan and regaled me with stories of their baseball and football teams.
My colleague Ravi returned from Minnesota the next day. We met up at the Airport and took the next flight to Orlando. We stayed at a Days Inn hotel. We bought a 3 day passport to Disneyworld.We saw the Magic Kingdom, Epcot Centre and a few other attractions.Unfortunately, it was the Thanksgiving weekend and there was a huge crowd with long lines for every ride.
We took a flight to La Guardia and then a BA flight to London.The return flight was terrible.All too soon we were in London and I was still groggy with sleep.We took a bus to Reading and then an Inter City train to Exeter St George.Barnstaple is a small town in the south-west of England, no bigger than a village actually.We spent 3 days in Barnstaple. On one of the days, one of the employees who had spent some time in our Indian facility took us pub-hopping.English pubs have a unique local flavour.It's almost like a club and every person has his favourite "local". "I'm going down to the local for a pint( of bitters) " is a very common English expression.These pubs have board games such as darts and skittles.Some of these pubs date back to 200 or 300 years and each pub has its own traditions which are very fiercely guarded and handed down from generation to generation.
One of the Xomox employees was Derek Lathwell who was a very keen cricketer.His son Mark Lathwell later played for Somerset and for England.After 3 days in Barnstaple, we caught a flight to Geneva.We landed there on a Friday with the intention of spending the weekend with Papachi and K S N Swamy.They received us at the airport and took us to their apartment. The first thing that struck us was the total absence of noise in spite of heavy traffic.Honking was an absolute no-no.Papachi told us that even in the apartment, flushing the toilet in the night was taboo. I wondered how people manage when they get ಔಸರ .
We went to the French border,a drive to Lake Geneva and visit to some of the UN Buildings such as the Red Cross, WHO etc.The air was fresh and crisp.Everything in Switzerland is neat and orderly.
( Please note that all this while I was carrying nearly 2 suitcases full of Pampers for Swathi and Shruti. I think they still have some left!!)
The next day was a Monday and we caught the 6 AM train from Geneva to Zurich.The plan was for us to get down at Zurich.Someone from Lindau was to meet us and take us by car across Lake Constance ( ferry service) and into Lindau in Germany. I had heard about the famed Swiss habit of punctuality and I was watching the large clock close to our compartment on the railway platform.As the needle hit 6 O'Clock, the train silently steamed out.
We passed thru Lausanne, Bern, Interlaken and the scenery was like a picture postcard with huge cows grazing contentedly with their huge cowbells ( it hadn't started snowing yet).We got off at Zurich but missed the person who was supposed to come and pick us up. After some frantic calls to Lindau, we caught another train to St.Gallen and the person received us there and took us by road via Austria.
I was afraid that we would get stuck because I didn't have an Austrian visa ( this was before the days of Schengen) but surprisingly our passports were not checked in Austria as well as at the German border.I don't remember much of Lindau--- it was snowing and we couldn't move around much.
We spent 2 days in Lindau and then came back to Zurich to catch a flight to Gatwick.We spent the next 3 days in London--- a hotel called Commodore close to Queensway and to Marble Arch.Hyde Park was just across the road.
We took a London Tour and did Buckingham Palace, Harrod's, The Tower, Trafalgar Square, the Embankment, Houses of Parliament etc. I had always been a student of British history and it was fascinating to see many of the places I had read about come alive before my eyes. We also went to Madame Tussaud's and shopped at Oxford Street.Piccadily Circus was a riot of colour and I remember we also took in a movie there.I bought a Prince tennis racquet for 19 Pounds, a real steal.
Finally it was time to return to India and we caught the BA flight from Heathrow to Madras via Kuwait.We landed in Madras on 30th Nov.
By now, Sudha had learnt car driving.The other remarkable thing about 1988 was how tall Sachin grew in this one year.he was barely 10 years old but he was almost reaching up to my shoulder bythe end of the year.
Oh yes, Pampers wasn't the only thing I carried back in my bag.There were backpacks for Sachin and Sandeep and a pair of jeans for both of them.
I forgot to mention--- before I left on the tour I had to visit the Reserve Bank of India and explain to an official there as to why I needed 2100$ for my 21 days trip.He asked me a lot of questions about the purpose of my trip and even told me to send a visit report to RBI and , if possible, to save some of the 2100$ and remit it back.
Those were the days!!!
As I come to the close of my story for 1988, here's wishing all readers a Very Happy and Prosperous 2011.
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