When I reached a landmark

 So I have reached 75..it is a landmark since when I was born the life expectancy in India which had just become independent was just 32; it is now 70. I was a sickly child but my father being a doctor helped a lot to survive the childhood diseases and also in later years. My genes also played a part. It is now time to look back and thank God for his mercies. I could and continue to live a full life. May be I am becoming more illtempered knowing that the "use by" date is fast approaching and I have a lot of things which I wish to do. I am grateful to all my friends and family who stood with me. Continue your best wishes and prayers for me...

My brother and his wife made my day memorable. They arranged a surprise get-together with my cousins and niece with their families. He even got a new tv so that we can watch the world cup match..good food...nice ambience..thank you titty...thank you Rita ...

The Ullannur experiment

 75 years ago my grandfather started a rural school in our small village in Kerala where I studied from 1957 to 1960. It...read about his experiment ...extract from a book by Duance Spencer Hatch(an American who spent a lot of time here with his wife in the thirties) published in 1938 by Oxford University Press.We are trying to revitalise this school.

THE STORY OF OOLLANNORE 

ALONG a country road that follows a small brook in 

the narrow Oollannore Valley, came a barefooted high 

school boy. It was moonlight and after nine o'clock. 

He was on his way home from teaching in a night school 

of depressed class and untouchable children. He was 

a Christian boy. His mother was watching for him 

from the high cliff a little way out along the, road from 

home. She had a complete clean suitshirt and 

mundoo ready for him. 

“Dip yourself in the brook, Keevarchen, and put on 

these clean clothes ', she called. Every night when he 

came from the night school he had to do this because 

he had been with the untouchables. 

She was a good Christian woman and a very good 

mother : she was only training her son in the general 

custom at that time concerning the untouchables. In- 

deed, Keevarchen's father was even more carefuL 

Every time he came from market he dipped in the 

brook ; and the rule was that there must be a man to 

watch so that, if necessary, this man could testify that 

the dipping had been ' all over '. Even when he came 

in from the fields where he directed the working of 

farm labourers, he dipped in the brook before going 

up to his house, for were not these labourers Parayas 

and Pulayas, depressed and untouchable ? 

That was thirty years ago. 

This school boy was M. K. Varghese, the founder 

and living spirit of the new Oollannore Rural 

Reconstruction Institute which has been founded on the 

six acres of the land surrounding the same old home. 

The main school building and the smaller ones are 

grouped around the old house on the bluff high above 

the road. 

Socialization in action is the outstanding character- 

istic of the Oollannore project ; and at every function 

the most striking phenomenon is that men and women, 

boys and girls, of all classes and creeds, including the 

former depressed and untouchables, all the people of 

the Valley are there, moving happily together without 

any sense of contamination. 

I consider this Institute one of the most important 

developments in the field of Rural Reconstruction in 

the past two years. Its aim is so to reorient education 

that the young people of this valley will not have any 

abnormal discontent to make them want to get away 

to the cities ; that the school shall so train them that 

the majority should be able to return to the lands of 

their fathers and live there a happy and successful 

life. It is expected that in ten years time there .will 

have come about in the Valley a complete upward 

change toward a more abundant life, the school being 

the social and educational centre for both old and 

young. This is a new kind of Centre the School 

Centre. All the teachers, who are well above the 

standard of usual rural teachers, act as extension 

workers in their spare time, much as our extension men 

work out from Martandam Centre. This project is 

an activity of the little Oollannore YMCA which works 

under honorary, unpaid leadership as so many YMCAs 

in our area do. 

In addition to the benefits to Oollannore Valley, we 

expect that this project will be an example which may 

be studied and will have an influence throughout 

India and beyond. 

A system of education suited to the needs of rural 

areas is a pressing need in India today. Probably all 

educationists agree that the present system is unsuited 

to such a rural country and that it is producing a grow- 

ing problem of the somewhat-educated unemployed. 

The wrong orientation of the present system has been 

clearly pointed out by several expert committees and 

several educationists. 

The Royal Commission on Agriculture in India said, 

* Unemployment is being accentuated by the present 

system of education . . . agricultural-bias schools are a 

remedy.' The Auxiliary Committee of the Indian 

Statutory Commission supported this view saying that 

the present system based on urban requirements is 

wasteful and harmful. The Travancore t Unemploy- 

ment Inquiry Committee reported that the present 

system of education had neglected the formation and 

training of character, and that its contribution to the 

economic development of the State has been disappoint- 

ing. They recommend that English and Vernacular 

middle schools in rural areas should be converted into 

agricultural-bias schools. The Travancore Educational 

Reforms Committee recommended the establishment of 

vocational-bias schools. 

' After many years of experience and effort in the 

villages of the Punjab/ says Mr F. L. Brayne, Rural 

Reconstruction Commissioner, ' I am convinced that 

there is no better or cheaper agency possible for re- 

making Indian villages than rural uplift schools.' Dr 

Kenyon L. Butterfield reported, in his Christian Mission 

In Rural India, ' The real nucleus of rural uplift is 

the village school. It should give the village boys and 

girls an education that fits them for life in the village. 

Adult education should be an important feature of the 

school/ 

As I write the Government of Madras after a survey 

of its whole field of elementary and secondary educa- 

tion have issued a communique which points out ' the 

defects in the present elementary education system and 

its curricula, including the antiquated methods and 

the divorce of teaching from environment. It empha- 

sizes the need for rural bias 

We hope that Oollannore will show the way. If it 

is to do so the curriculum is very important. Obvious- 

ly a school with its pupils taking part in agriculture 

and gardening on these six acres of land, doing poultry- 

keeping, bee-keeping, weaving, other cottage industries, 

and domestic science, cannot do all these things 

adequately and well, and at the same time keep on 

doing all that is required in an ordinary school. 

Mr Vargfrese and his fellow educators have drawn 

up a syllabus which is just now being considered by 

the Education Department of Government. It in- 

cludes rural reconstruction subjects, domestic science, 

enough fundamental subjects, and enough cultural 

subjects to provide a good education for a happy and 

successful life in rural India. The pupils come* to 

Oollannore after four years of study in eight ordinary 

primary schools in the area around. They stay at 

Oollannore the fifth, sixth, and seventh years. If they 

then begin life as farmers, business men, traders, or 

home-makers, they may continue reading with the aid 

of books from the school's circulating library, they will 

have the benefit of the adult education and extension 

programmes, and constantly visit the school as their 

social centre. 

'What about the small percentage of these rural 

youths who really ought to go on to High School and 

College ? ' After finishing the seventh class at Oollan- 

nore, such a pupil may join the Second Form in an 

English school and proceed straight on through High 

School and College. Had he gone to the English 

school in the first place he would have been in the 

Third Form instead of the Second, but from being in 

the Oollannore School, he has gained all the extra 

richness of that fuller training. Even tnough he will 

study a year longer before going to College, he will 

have saved Rs. 24 in total fees, a big amount to poor 

parents, since the fees at Oollannore are only Rs. 18 

for three years, whereas in the First Form of the Eng- 

lish School alone, of which he skips the fee, is Rs. 24 for 

the year. 

It is interesting to note that a larger percentage of 

boys from the Oollannore school passed the regular 

Government Vernacular School Examination than boys 

from nearby vernacular schools. This is in line with 

experience in other countries where pupils who spend part 

time on vocational projects do as well in cultural subjects 

as those who spend full time on cultural subjects. 

The school provides a meeting-place for the officers 

of the Government Agricultural, Industrial, Co-opera- 

tive, and Public Health Departments enabling them 

to come in touch with the rural people. The results 

of the experiments conducted by these departments are 

communicated to the people and translated into action 

through the medium of the school and its teachers in 

their extension teaching. 

It is the remarkable co-operative spirit at Oollannore 

that impresses everybody. When sanction for this 

school was received two days after the state schools 

opened for the year, they were not sure how many pupils 

would come. The first day there was only one pupil 

administered to by two high grade teachers in a room 

in the old Varghese home. In a month there were 

103 pupils. The very urgent need for at least a roof 

to cover the pupils and the teachers was manifest. 

Hindus and Christians of all castes and creeds and 

conditions joined together, and in one day built and 

thatched a very substantial shed, adequate in size to 

house this growing school. 

Then this co-operative spirit began to spread through- 

out the whole Valley. Across the fields stood the 

Jacobite Church without any roof; it had been 

roofless for nearly twenty years. An eye-witness of 

how the co-operative spirit took hold of this situation 

writes : ' Though many people do not believe in 

miracles in the twentieth century, yet a real miracle 

was performed through the Oollannore YMCA. You 

are aware of the great split that cut asunder the Jacobite 

Church of Malabar, about two decades ago. You 

know of the attempts made by Lord Halifax, Bishop 

Gore, Bishop Pakenham-Walsh, and others, to bring 

about peace in the Jacobite Church. The little roof- 

less church which you have seen from the roadside, 

do you know how that little church lost its top ? That 

was due to the great split that took place in this 

Jacobite Church twenty years ago. The parishioners 

of Oollannore were so divided they did not thatch^ the 

roof of the church building. The roof fell down, the 

worship was stopped, and a small jungle grew up in- 

side the church. Thieves could hide behind the 

bushes. All these years there has been no Sunday 

worship, no Sunday School worth the name, no spirit 

of fellowship among the parishioners. Now you must 

come and see what a great change has taken place. The 

parishioners are united. They are one in mind and 

spirit, the jungle has been cleared away, the restoration 

of the church building is taking place in right earnest. 

It is an inspiring sight to see all working as one, the 

Hindus helping with the carrying of stones and other 

materials. It is a sight on which angels in heaven 

look down and smile. It came from the prayers and 

the work of the YMCA members and the school/ 

The Hindu temple was in a dilapidated condition. 

The Christian leaders called the Hindus together and 

talked with them about this. They were all interested 

in every institution in that section being well looked 

after. The temple, like the church, needed a roof 

The villagers recalled an old form of co-operation 

between Hindus and Christians in connexion with the 

temple tank which in olden days was annually cleaned 

by all people joining together. So now they went to 

work, thatched the temple roof, renovated and cleaned 

up the premises. Out of this grew a successful appeal 

to Government who have now taken over the mainten- 

ance and care of this temple an assurance that it will 

be well maintained in future. 

The account continues : ' Oollannore village was 

notorious for petty thefts. There were a "number of 

young men in the village whose habit was to idle away 

their time. They wasted the day in card play and 

sleep ; night was the time of their activity. They 

earned their daily bread by the nightly stealing of the 

agricultural products of their honest neighbours. 

Honest farmers gave up their cultivation because the 

fruits of their labours were snatched away by these 

nocturnal parasites. Now, a great change has taken 

place in these young men. They frequent the reading 

room and library ; they attend the fanners' classes, 

night school, lantern lectures, moral and devotional 

addresses. Personal contact, wholesome influence, and 

the interesting model cultivation in the school com- 

pound has further helped to bring a great change. 

Stealing abandoned, these fellows get wages for some 

of the work at the school, quite sufficient to maintain 

themselves and to make small savings. With the sav- 

ings they have begun to cultivate their own lands. 

When the thieves took to cultivation, the honest 

farmers began again to cultivate, and with redoubled 

energy. There will be a plentiful harvest this year.' 

Drinking was another curse of the village. ' The 

leader of the half dozen confirmed drunkards was the 

terror of the village ', a correspondent from that section 

writes. * Now you must come and see this leader : he 

is now a perfect gentleman, always doing some useful 

work for the school. Our plan is to give him plenty 

of work to do, to give him good company, and to pay 

his wages in kind. He has now given up the drinking 

habit and become a very useful man. The school has 

created a healthy atmosphere in the villages so as to 

make the wicked people feel ashamed of their wicked- 

ness and gradually depart from it.' 

The folk dances of the villages, which are different 

in form from those in the Martandam area, but vigor- 

ous and excellent ones, are being revived. Since the 

school began to encourage them, those who knew them 

have been going from village to village teaching them. 

There was no hospital or qualified medical aid in all 

that region. The Institute desired to run a dispensary. 

A Canadian delegate to the World Conference visited 

Oollannore and gave a few rupees to start a medical 

fund. Then Dr Howard Somervell, the great mission- 

ary surgeon, he who climbed Everest, accepted an 

invitation to open the dispensary and to give one day 

of his busy life to Oollannore. The usual opening 

function is entirely talk ; this was a working opening. 

He was to come at eight in the morning. The day 

before, the sick began to come in or to be brought in. 

Before the doctor arrived the school had registered 

140 patients. By noon he had examined fifty cases and 

he asked the authorities to send away fifty of those 

registered, as he expected there would not be time for 

so many. With his usual vigour he worked straight 

on, eating a bit of bread and butter which they gave 

him at noon, occasionally jumping out of the window 

of the new building and racing round the compound 

to get a bit of air. The people were deeply impressed 

with his good nature and tireless energy. When the 

teachers were annoyed at the great crowds pushing into 

the place to see the doctor work, he was goodnatured, 

mischievously throwing some water on them when it 

was necessary to push them back. He examined 

patients steadily until 9-30 in the night, and then drove 

over a hundred miles back to his hospital at Neyyoor, 

where more patients would be waiting for him. 

Dr Somervell was so impressed with the needs of 

the sufferers of this area that he has agreed to be a 

regular member of staff, visiting periodically. The 

school is now employing a young doctor and a com- 

pounder. The dispensary administers to an average of 

twenty persons a day. The doctor conducts hygiene 

and first-aid classes in the school. 

The Institute's Co-operative Society is of a new type* 

The Valley is frightened of the very word ' co-opera- 

tive'. The usual Co-operative Credit Societies were 

established there. They were unlimited liability 

banks ; borrowing was easy ; there was not ' all-the- 

way supervision '. Many are in debt there today be- 

cause of the failure of that kind of co-operative society. 

Our Oollannore Co-operative had to start with teacher 

members whose participation would create confidence* 

The principle is that no money loans will be given* 

The teachers receive provisions and other necessaries 

of life the cost of which is charged against their pay. 

Members other than teachers can do all their purchas- 

ing and selling through the Society which supplies 

them with such things as manures, seeds, implements, 

yarn for their looms, beehives. 

Two surveys have been completed but not yet fully 

tabulated. One is the general survey conducted on 

the ' sample ' plan under the direction of Miss L. C. 

M. Ouwerkerk, Professor of Economics, H, H. the 

Maharaja's College of Arts, Trivandrum, with the help- 

of the teachers and other local leaders. They prepared 

a special survey form and surveyed 62 families. These 

62 families Represent under the ' sample ' survey system 

620 families of the area. 

The second is a dietary survey conducted under the 

direction of Dr Akroyd of the Government of India 

Nutrition Institute at Coonoor. For this survey it was. 

necessary for a trusted surveyor to be present in every 

house, of the twenty typical families, before every meal, 

as they had to see the materials for each meal of the 

day before cooking. When these findings are tabulat- 

ed, we shall know somewhat exactly what these rural 

people eat and shall be able to take steps for a more 

nutritious* and better balanced diet. The Oollannore 

surveys will be as useful as the surveys we have done 

in other places and which we need to do wherever we 

work. They have emphasized the fact that while the 

expert surveyor is needed to direct, such surveys can 

never be correctly made by outsiders, however expert, 

without the co-operation of a number of local leaders 

who have plenty of local knowledge and the confidence 

of the people. 

I was a bit anxious when I heard that Sir John 

Russell, who had come to India to advise on Agricul- 

tural Science, was to visit Oollannore, for he is a real 

scientist, and we had not yet been able to do things 

very scientifically at Oollannore. However, after the 

visit Mr Varghese wrote : ' It was a grand visit. Though 

the Director of Agriculture on arrival declared that the 

time allotted at Oollannore was only twenty minutes, 

Sir John and party stayed here for two hours. They 

inspected the library, co-operative store, weaving works, 

poultry, bees, and the demonstration farm. Sir John 

had a long talk with the fanners who had assembled 

here. He went rather minutely through the statistics 

of the economic survey. He was alarmed at the 

condition of the villagers. He said, " The Martandam 

ideal as translated into action at Oollannore is the 

right way and the only way for improving t'ne condition 

of the villages. Though slow, it is a sure way." ' 

After one year of school the big shed was no longer 

sufficient, for 250 pupils were in attendance. During 

the past year, they have put up a very substantial school 

building, and classes are being carried on in both the 

big shed and the new stone building. The clay tiles 

for the roof of the big new building arrived by river 

in the picturesque, hand-poled wallams, but the river 

was two miles from the building, and there was no 

money to hire coolies to carry these tiles. About 150 

Oollannore citizens came forward and carried the tiles 

on their heads from the river boats to the Institute. 

Scarcity of funds is the besetting problem. Mr Var- 

ghese and his teachers say over and over again, ' When 

we seem to be down to the lowest depths financially, 

something providential happens/ I had advised 

Varghese to keep his teaching job in the Government 

School six miles away and to direct this institution in 

his spare time. How could he support this large new 

project without this monthly income? He has been 

going ahead on faith putting all he could possibly spare 

of his personal pay into the school. Yet the school 

had such debts in Varghese's name that a month ago 

he received notice from Government that unless by the 

end of the month he paid off his debtors who had 

made attachments against his pay, he would have to 

leave his government job until his debts were paid. 

Then in that dark moment there came from New York 

a cheque in answer to an appeal I had made on the 

Institute's behalf. This enabled Varghese to clear the 

debts and continue to do his work in the High School. 

The teachers at Oollannore are dedicating the years 

here as a labour of love. They work without assurance 

that there will be money to pay them, and for a small 

amount when they were paid. 

The Spencer Hatch Rural Reconstruction Institute 

and School they have paid me the rare compliment of 

naming the whole project after me with its fourteen 

teachers doing extension service, the people of the 

Valley co-operating, is one of the most promising of 

our developments.

Coconut plucking... then and now...

A Tata Indigo car comes and stops at the gate..the driver in a shabby t shirt and boxer comes out and says"i am Naushad..you had phoned me"..at first it didn't strike me..then I realised... I had called one Naushad to pluck the coconuts in my neighbour's plot...it is he...out of the dickey comes his climbing contraption..
They are attached to the tree and in a jiffy he is up and plucking the coconuts..3 trees took about 20 minutes..they are about 15 feet tall...he gets seventy rupees for each tree and the contraption cost about 3000 rupees.. in his car he has a power saw...he says he is an expert in cutting down tall trees in pieces...
His visit brought back the memories of coconut plucker in my village...he was a six footer.. hefty, very dark guy..his name..nanu thandan(this is his caste surname..they only pluck coconuts and cut trees). He comes with a single bamboo ladder which extends to about half the height of 20 - 25 feet tall tree and a specially made heavy chopper...dressed in a single loin cloth he is a formidable sight to watch.. we children follow him around hoping he will pluck for us a tender coconut..if the mood suits him we are lucky..how different it was compared to present day .. it was a day's work..no car...no contraptions..all muscle power...we enjoyed it...

Dangers of tv binge watching

I must be watching the big bang theory too much...all the characters were with me in my village..they had come on the way to October fest in Munich (not comicon) presuming I am joining them. Sheldon was the leader and he was distributing money from the common pool for the metrofare..when I said I am not coming they came to the village home of my grandfather where I happened to be to persuade me to come with them..they pushed me and molly so much that I gave up and decided to dress up. Meanwhile they, the 3(Rajesh was not there; I don't know why) went to the dining room and picked up the glasses with water to drink..I had no heart to tell Sheldon that they were used glasses when I saw them drinking... that's when I woke up from my dream...

LIFE'S REGRETS

It is some time since I blogged..

I was reading an article about 5 great regrets people had at the end of their life. This left me thinking… what are my regrets? What  would I have done differently? It looks nothing much..

I was a sickly child. If I am ok for a couple of weeks I would be sick the next week.. nothing serious.. cold..cough..upset stomach ….. Pink of health was not a phrase I will find in my life history. just a few months before the preuniversity examinations which decides your career path I had to undergo appendicectomy and miss classes for over a month. I must have been lucky.. I got good marks and ended up in the premier engineering college in Kerala. I never followed a strict       exercise schedule by visiting gyms or yoga classes. Even I was lazy to follow home bound self help exercise regime. I also had brush with life threatening illnesses; but I came out successfully. I always joke..all removable organs have been removed from my body..tonsils, appendix, prostrate, cataract (lens of both eyes). Still sickness really did not change my life.. So there is no regret in that direction.

Career choice and working hard were other two main regrets of many people. When I got out of the engineering college there were hardly any jobs available. In fact for almost a year I helped out in my father’s dispensary. So when an opening came up I grabbed it with both hands. It was a sales mans job.. travelling.. meeting clients which was a bit difficult for me since I was at heart an introvert..by and by I started to enjoy travelling and meeting people.. it was  a plus point that my family never objected to my continuous travels (there were times when I was away for 300 days a year). I managed to carve out a career and so even after retirement from the company after working with them for 36 years I still enjoy travels and meeting people. So no regrets in this front.

Did I speak out my mind always? No.. but that I do not regret. 

Staying in touch with friends… this I always did and so this also is not in my regret list.

Did I do things which made me happy?? I think so even if it meant not conforming what the society expects.

So ultimately what regrets I have???????

The only regret I have is that I trusted most of the people I met…and this did not turn out correct. I never judged people correctly.. molly as a knack for that.. so sometimes I follow her instinct… and it helps..

If I get another chance I will live my life the way I lived already..no change…

A TRAGIC LOVE STORY

He had been courting her for some time. Spent some time with her. One day she brought her mother over to have a look at him. She was not very impressed...she felt he was small in size and cannot stand up to the bullies to protect her daughter. What she did not realise was he is a loving guy who will give his life for her daughter.

A couple of days later the daughter turned up with a burly guy in tow. It was clear the mother had made the decision.

He was inconsolable.He had no interest in eating. He spent a lot of time watching the couple and came to me with tears in his eyes. I did not know how to console him. You see I cannot speak his language...He is the stray cat who made our home his home.

I am hoping that he will soon meet his soul mate.

AN ORPHAN'S STORY

I am an orphan. My mother left me, my elder brother and sister after birth and just disappeared. We had to fend for ourselves from then on. We were lucky.. Our mother left us in a gated community. Those living here especially a young woman and her family and an old couple took care of us. We slept and ate at the young woman’s villa; occasionally we went to the older couple’s villa for a snack or a drink of milk. With the love they gave we never missed our mother.

My brother grew up fast and was a burly lovable fellow. My sister was very adventurous. She twice managed to climb on the roof of one the buildings and could not come down. She cried and cried. Then the watch man climbed up and brought her down. She never learnt from her experience. One day she decided to venture out of the colony. We tried to persuade her from going out; but she did not listen. Sadly for her and us she got lost and never came back. We both brothers were very sad and still miss her. May be this episode made both of us more close. We never fought with each other and ate and slept together without fighting. The old man has some photos of us sleeping together.

I had my own problems. I had some difficulty in eating and could eat only very slowly. So I remained small in size.

I don’t know how I learnt my food habits. I cannot eat any soft food; I like crispy fried things… banana chips is one of my favorites. Dried fish is another favorite. Meat I do not like. . I also like somebody watching over me when I eat.

I heard one day the old man telling his wife that dried fish is not available and he bought readymade food which he said was expensive and is normally bought by rich people. I was surprised that he spent his money for this special food for me. It was great. Nice fish taste and nutritious.

There was a bully who used to sneak into the colony in the night. My brother could stand up against him but I had to run and hide when he came. One day I could not run away and was attacked by him. It was a traumatic experience. I had injuries all over. I thought I will die. Luckily the old man cared for me. He brought me water and some food and slowly I recovered. I have to really thank him for giving me my life back.

The adventurous trait of my sister may have rubbed on to my brother as well. He was keen to roam around. He will not listen to me. One day he just disappeared. I was inconsolable. I could not sleep alone. I spent a few sleepless nights. Then I just got used to it. Then one day he returned. I was so happy to see him back. I heard the old man telling his wife that I ran like a bullet out of the gun from his villa when I heard my brother’s voice. He was dirty and hungry. Seems he had a rough time but he told me that he had a wonderful time seeing new sights and new people. The only problem was the speeding vehicles and stray dogs. He urged me to join him in his next outing.. Maybe I was a lazy guy… I said no. He spent a week with me and then went on his way.. he is yet to return. I hope he is safe and sound and hope to see him soon.

Life goes on for me. Now a days I spent most of my time in the old couple’s villa. Only problem is that the two families who take care of me are some times away and I have problem to go and get food from other villas. Last week both of them were away for a couple of days and I had to live only on water from the tap. I was elated to see the old couple back who immediately recognized my plight and fed me. The young woman is yet to be back. I hope it does not happen too often.

I hope by now you know who I am. I am a stray cat who made my home in the gated community. Being a stray and since the old couple is allergic to cat dander I can never live inside. The young woman has a baby now and so I cannot live there also. I have to make do with sleeping in the garage or in the work area. But I think I am well off with food to eat and being petted and taken care off.

PS. The old couple had some visitors yesterday and they cooked some chicken. Since my brother is fond of chicken I made an attempt to find my brother… viola.. I found him in one of the villas and brought him over. We had a nice dinner together. He is still here.. Hope he stays back.

My First European Trip

This is what I posted on FB ............

When I see the young travelers present their travel shows on TV with such fanfare highlighting their adventure, my thoughts go back to my first European trip, which was an adventure in every sense of the word.

It was over forty years ago; even before many of these travelers were even born.

What can spoil a trip?

delayed flight?
lost luggage?
cancellled flights?
trouble at emigration?
trouble with food?
checked by police when you are having a quiet dinner?

One is enough to spoil the trip. If all these happen on one trip what  would you call such a trip? disaster? adventure? choice is yours. It happened to me and I would call it an adventure.

Every Indian dreams to travel abroad and I am not an exception. So in September 1976 when my employer proposed that I visit the Machine Tool Exhibition in Birmingham I jumped at the chance; the added attraction for Birmingham was that since my brother in law was living in Birmingham, with the tight foreign exchange regulations at that time (you were allowed to take only US$ 250), I could save on the expenses by staying with him.

My passport was not valid for travel to Europe and U.K. and the first step was to get the endorsement. Passport office in Hyderabad had just started working and luckily the PRO was a nice man and I got the endorsement done quickly. At that time only France and Switzerland needed visas for Indians; U.K. and German Visas were issued on arrival at the airport. It was decided that I will first go to Switzerland to meet M/S. Maillefer in Ecublens near Lausanne - the beautiful city on the banks of lake Geneva and headquarters of International Olympic Committee, 1 hour by bus from Geneva -

I had to get the Swiss Visa personally in Mumbai. I decided to leave for Mumbai and then after getting my visa continue with the trip.

I left Hyderabad on 23rd September 1976 - 35 years ago to this day - on my first overseas travel.

I got my visa the next day; then there was a snag... it seemed that I was getting an eye infection which could derail my trip. I may not have prayed as ardently as that day; somebody up there saw to it that the infection subsides in one day. But I never realized that it was the start of an adventure.

I was to leave on 25th night on an Air India flight to Rome taking a connecting Alitalia flight to Geneva. The idea was that I would land up in Geneva on 26th morning to be picked up somebody. Air India as usual had other ideas... The flight was delayed over 12 hours with a short transit time in Rome. I was in Geneva around 10 o'clock in the night and found to my dismay that my checked in luggage had decided to catch a different flight. Since Air India had nobody in Geneva to help with the missing luggage, I was at the mercy of Italian(French?) speaking Alitalia representative whom I could somehow inform that I will be in Lausanne and the luggage must be sent there. There was nobody to receive me and I bravely walked out into the biting cold of Geneva.

Here I was in a strange country, middle of the night, with no knowledge of the local language, with just the clothes I was wearing and very little money in the pocket that too in dollars.

I knew the only solution is to reach Lausanne where my hotel was booked. My saviour turned out to be the driver of the bus to Lausanne into which I got into. He spoke no English and I spoke no French. He knew I was lost since I handed over the dollars for the ticket. Instead of kicking me out, he took me to the exchange bureau got the dollars changed and took the correct fare. When we reached Lausanne, he called a taxi and arranged to drop me at the Carlton Hotel where I was booked...All these communicating only by few words but mostly with hands and eyes...You find human kindness in strange places…. I will never forget this guy...

The receptionist was English speaking and quickly checked me in. I sank into the soft bed and woke up to a funny loud grinding noise outside my window; it was early morning and with my jet lag, it took some time for me to figure out the noise. It was the tram with its sprocket wheels making its uphill journey from Ouchy, the famous Lausanne lake front.

The hotel provided all the missing implements-razor, toothbrush etc.- for me to get ready to be picked up for the meeting. The missing luggage arrived in the evening- delivered at my hotel.

Flight to London was uneventful as also the emigration. But then the connecting internal flight to Birmingham was cancelled and I had no way to inform my brother in law the changed arrival. The cabbie at Birmingham airport helped me to reach the house late in the evening.

The exhibition was uneventful and during the weekend I visited my uncle in Manchester and ended up spending the whole week with him and his family. I had no visa for France and my uncle took me to Liverpool to the French Consulate and he convinced the consul that it would be a big loss for the French economy if his nephew does not go to France and should be given the visa. With the French single entry visa in hand my subsequent plans also fell in place.

My plan was to fly to Lyon via Paris. But the French Internal airlines, Air Inter, had other plans. They went on a strike the day I landed in Paris and I was in a way stranded in Paris and decided to make full use of it. Booked a hotel from the airport and caught a taxi to the hotel. Typical Paris Taxi fellow dropped me on the main road near the hotel refusing to come into the lane muttering something in French, which I never understood. Lugging the luggage I managed to reach the hotel, which to my delight accepted the booking I had made. Paris was an experience with very little money but with lot to see. I also ventured into the famous Department Store, Galeries Lafayette where one of the floor managers mistook me for a rich Indian; he must have been disappointed since I limited my purchase to some clothes on discount and some melamine plates, which we still have.

I had no liking for the bland French Cuisine and most of the evenings I went to a Chinese restaurant. One evening I saw a dark skinned fellow like me at the other table; we waved at each other and soon started to talk; he was from Pakistan and stranded in Paris like me due to cancelled flights. We hit off well and roamed around in Paris together.

Since I was stranded in Paris not knowing when the flights will resume I decided to finish my appointments. The first guy I phoned was the 60-year-old owner of a hundred year old company who is well known to be very abrasive. He gave me a lecture on keeping the appointments … “you Indians do not know the value of time and appointments.. Come back on the day I gave you”. (I had the appointment with him for the latter part of the week) A shrewd businessman he is, he relented when I told him that I might not meet him if he does not accept the changed schedule. He knew the importance of the meeting more than me since the meeting extended for 2 days and I was tutored on all aspects of his machines some of which were yet to be sold in India. The final result was that one of his products became a benchmark for Indian cable industry, several of which we sold in India. I also had a meeting in the Montparnasse Tower, which was at that time the tallest building in Europe.

My counterparts in Lyon were very nice and took good care of me. When they invited me for a seafood dinner I accepted it even though I had an early morning 4-hour train trip to Strasbourg the next day. “Oysters.. They are the specialty here,” my friends told me. I never had eaten Oysters but decided to try. I must have eaten a lot with the nice French wine since in the middle of the night my stomach started a violent protest. I spent the remaining time in the toilet and I was so sick that I almost decided to skip my trip; but then I had no choice since my flight back to Paris was booked from Mulhouse, the airport nearest to Strasbourg. The only memories I have about the train trip to Strasbourg are the strange look on the faces of the copaasengers about my frequent visits to the toilet, the cleanliness of the train toilet and the ingenious foot operated toilet flushing system.

It was in Strasbourg that I learnt about the tragic air crash in Mumbai where all the people in the plane were killed. It seems that the plane was to fly to Hyderabad but the passengers of another flight to madras, which was cancelled, forced the airlines to fly them first to Chennai and then go to Hyderabad, which led to their tragic end. It was as if they were inviting death.This crash had an indirect connection to me, which I will tell later.

The meeting in Strasbourg seemed to go beyond the time of my Air Inter flight from Mulhouse and my hosts graciously changed my booking to a later Swiss Air flight. I agreed without realizing the problem I was going to face. To catch the Swiss Air flight I had to go to the Swiss side of the airport (the airport of Basle Mulhouse is in France but built by Swiss and used by both France and Switzerland) passing through the emigration. This was no problem but when I landed in Paris late in the evening I got stuck at the emigration. You see… I had a single entry visa for France and by going out in Mulhouse to catch the Swiss Air flight I was out of France and had no more French visa. I was detained at the emigration. When they found that I was taking an early morning flight to Dusseldorf they relented and let me in but did not make any entry in my passport. I had a good nights sleep and turned up at the airport early enough. When I reached the emigration, they were confused… this guy has an exit stamp at Mulhouse and here he is… in Paris without an entry stamp the very next day…. Lot of discussions and lot of hand waving.. Then they felt… this guy is going out… let him go… so I left Paris without an exit stamp from Paris..

Dusseldorf was fun with the beer and food in Alstadt. My favorite was sauerkraut and sausages.. The days in Dusseldorf went off fast with meetings.

I was getting homesick with almost one month of travel. But somebody up there felt that I must have a crowning experience before I leave. The last evening I was eating in the Yugoslav restaurant near my hotel where I used to go once in a while. I could see some youngsters in jeans and T-shirts moving around and checking me out… after hearing about the racial problems in Germany I was a bit scared… I finished my dinner and was about to walk out when one of the guys came to my table and asked for my passport, which unfortunately I had left in the hotel. It turned out that they were from the police…. Imagine my shock… the spectre of spending my time in a German prison loomed large even though I had not done anything wrong. It seems that the restaurant where I went is a pick up point for illegal immigrants and since I was going there more often, they must have felt I am in Dusseldorf with some ulterior motive. They decided to come with me to the hotel to check my papers. Anyway after seeing my papers they let me off. I had a sleepless night and I must have been one of the first fellows to check in for the flight – one of the first AIRBUS 300. I must have been the happiest fellow in the plane from Frankfurt to Mumbai.

I made several trips afterwards but none of them this long and eventful…

PS.. The connection with the plane accident in Mumbai… I had posted a picture card from Paris and it had never reached home till I came back. Then it was delivered, with a seal “Involved in air accident in Bombayi”…. It gave me goose pimples…a poignant reminder to the lives lost…. See it below.


picture postcard
carlton hotel lausanne - my first hotel abroad.

CAR STORIES

CAR STORIES 1

My fascination for Ford must have started in my early days. The memory of the first car I rode was a ford 1946 vintage run as a taxi.

I must have been 5 or so. We used to hire it to drive to Trivandrum from the place near Kanyakumari where my father worked at that time as a doctor. The driver had a funny name, Adima - literally translated, slave -. He must have been a good driver since my father was a terribly short tempered back seat driver and we never heard any shouting matches.

Later on I lived with my grandfather in Kerala when my father moved to Nilgris. During this time we used to hire the newly introduced Ambassador driven by Mathai.

He was a good driver; the only problem was that the maximum speed was 25 miles even if there was an emergency. But then during those times it must have been a good speed. For the Kerala monsoon the wipers were of no much use. So chewing tobacco will be smeared on the windscreen when the rains got bad (the water will drain away fast with tobacco)

It was also the time when my father decided to buy a car. I do not know the reasons but we landed up with a Vauxhall Wyvern of the 1950s vintage.

It had a flying horse on the bonnet with red plastic wings which could be lit up in the night. It also had turn indicators on the B pillar which will pop out as a hand when you put the switch on; of course hand indication was mandatory with various signs for left turn, right turn, u turn etc. Air conditioning was unknown and so we drove around with windows down or up as the weather condition demanded. If I remember correct, the glasses had to be manually pulled up.

My father I think had a pathological fear of driving himself even though he had a driving licence (he used to say that he had seen umpteen motor accidental deaths and injuries during his time in Shillong with the British army during the world war and this really scared him). However once in a while he will take over the wheels and most of the times we had close shaves. The one I still remember is when we were on the way to Coonoor for the weekly shopping and were going up hill through the tea gardens. The driver realised that my father had to change gears which he was not very adept at. So the driver told “clutch and gear change” to remind my father. But my father only heard “clutch” and promptly pressed it with disastrous results. The car lost the momentum and started to roll back. The driver shouted brake but my father in the confusion continued to accelerate; so we went on going backward with the engine roaring and all of us in the car screaming. Luckily for all of us the car landed in a small ditch and did not roll over. The driver got a mouthful from my father for not advising him correctly (he would never accept that he made a mistake). The aftermath of this incident was that he never drove when we children were around.

We used to make our annual holidays in Nilgris from our boarding schools in Kerala. My father will drive down with the driver and pick us up. The drive was over 300 km and with the road conditions it used to be a whole day trip or some times two days with visiting relatives on the way. One memorable drive was when we left Palghat at 9 in the evening and drove late night through the Nilgiri ghats with fog making the drive difficult. We had Thomas as our driver who had a huge Jesus on the Cross tattooed on his arm. I think Jesus was with us all through.

We graduated to a standard Ten and later on to Standard eight (even though it was an older vehicle it was well maintained) which was exactly similar to Standard 10.

Only problem with standard eight was that luggage had to be kept from inside by folding back the back seat since there was no dickey opening at the back. Standard 8 also took me to my college in Calicut the first time. It was a drive of around 200 km from Nilgris; almost a full day. Midway the front wheel started to make rubbing noise. The driver had a look and said there was too much grease in the bearing and so he cleaned up the bearing. But he or none of us realized that the wheel bearing was damaged and the grease was running out due to over heating. The car must have run nearly 100 km in this condition through ghat roads till we reached Calicut. After dropping me at the college, they went to a garage where they found that the bearing had seized and it took the whole day to get it out. Imagine being stranded in Nilgiri ghats in the night; we escaped that.We had this car for five years. When my father retired I pleaded with him not to sell it so that I can drive around; we had good fights but it was impossible to win. He got Rs.6500 for the car.

I wowed to buy my car when I got a job (not a two wheeler which has a side story. While in the engineering college I tried my hand to learn to drive a scooter; I already could drive the car but scooter was another kettle of fish. My brother in law had left his Lambretta scooter at our house during a holiday and I decided to try my hand. The ride started with all the village children running after me shouting… see…see… isaacachayan on the scooter…. the scooter landed in the paddy field and I on the road. That was the last time I rode a two-wheeler).

It was the late sixties and jobs were hard to come by even for an engineer from a Regional Engineering College. I helped around in my father’s dispensary, taught in an ITI and looked around. When I got my posting under government of India training scheme for unemployed engineers in 1970 I moved over to Hyderabad and that is where part 2 of my car stories unfolded.