Talking of Places

The names of places have always attracted me. At an early age I knew by heart the capitals of almost all the countries. Even today, arising out of my greater exposure, when I learn of a new place, it’s goose-pimples all over. During the first visit to a palmist in Calcutta, the man looking at the lines on my hand just blurted out in Bengali "Ki Bohirmukhi haat" meaning 'what an outward orientation'!! This was something quite contrary to the introvert that I am. Just savor the dichotomy - an introvert having an external disposition. A colleague a few years earlier had commented that two opposite streaks run thru my hand.

Although I would be abreast with the latest happenings all over the globe thru newspapers, the actual physical external environment unfolded to me very logically - step by step. And the process continues even today. Currently the travel blogs are taking me to the farthest corners of the globe, criss-crossing all the seas and mountains of the world. I have a fair idea of the Machu Pichhu trails of the Incas in Peru. I know about the birds flocking in their thousands at a lonely island off the coast of Mexico.

It all started when a small group of our friends made trips during the holidays to nearby places. It gathered momentum with my CA articleship days when I travelled to the schools of rural Bengal for conducting audit of their accounts. The position was important as the Government grants to schools depend heavily on a clean audit report.

I still remember the excitement of my first trip to a village school in Burdwan district. I took the Black Diamond express at 6.10 AM and then had a bus ride of 26 kms to a place called Bulbulitala. Then walking along paddy fields I reached the school by 10. The Headmaster who was running refresher classes was taken aback – how could I reach so early? Then I realized that no earlier auditor had taken an express train at 6 am for a village school audit. I could not do full justice to the one kg piece of chena (paneer) served to me at dinner. Then there was a college audit at Egra in Midnapore district. The huge pieces of fish we used to have at a roadside shack called Deben Hati’s hotel are still fresh in memory.

The state barrier was broken when I moved out to Jamshedpur (Tatanagar) for Industrial training at the Indian Tube Co. The ten months spent there saw me visit a number of places in and around Bihar.

A sort of going across the India borders was added when I took up a rare opportunity of working for the Godrej group at Phuntsholing in Bhutan.

The closure of the Bhutan unit brought me to the Capital of the country in another Godrej venture. I had a 15 year stint in Delhi before the commercial capital of the country beckoned me to the laps of the Arabian Sea. The interesting fact was that my first passport made in Delhi in 1983 went abegging in the sense that not a single entry was made on it before its renewal in 1993. Both at Delhi and Bombay, my sojourns were limited to and fro the airports - dropping and picking up friends and relatives from across the globe. How fervently I used to hope (and pray) for a trip on those international flights at that time!

The international flavor to my life came in 2000 when travels to Manila and Singapore became a regular feature on my official agenda. Visits to the Corregidor Island and Pagsanjan Falls opened up my Asian tourney.

Then came the big trips to the US and Canada, England and Ireland and now to Western Europe. I like this gradual evolution. It reminds me of my father’s sayings that you need not worry. Everything has got its own timing. To these I add that if you want something genuinely, it’ll come to you. I have got multiple examples of that in my life. Ramakrishna Dev used to say that you ask for it and the mother will provide you with the same. You’ll have to ask for it whole-heartedly.

Here are a couple of stories on the topic of new places.
During the Bournvita Quiz contest Calcutta Semi Finals - a question to us was "which Republic lies between Lybia and Algeria"? Pat came the reply from me "Tunisia". Actually African geography was never taught to us in any of the classes. But I had a hobby of looking at the atlas. On the African page I used to rhyme and tune it up "Algeria, Lybia, Tunisia". That periodic tuning of the rhyme saw us thru the semis and then the final also. In the Finals the question was what was the oil port on the Caspian Sea. I could scamper home with 'Baku' after having initially responded with "Azerbaijan" when the Late Hamid Sayani Sir wanted the more specific answer of 'Baku' (Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan). We were Calcutta champs that year (1973).
Some years back two guys visited our place. One of them was introduced as a person who stayed in the Central African Republic. I asked him coolly as to whether he was staying in Bangui (Bangui being the capital as per my Geography). The man was completely taken aback. He exclaimed that he had been staying 8 years there and none of his relations had bothered to ask him anything even once. And here was a total stranger who was talking of the Central African Republic as if it was his home state. He demanded to know as to how I knew about Bangui. Well my Geography, my GK, my penchant for foreign lands was the answer.

Even during our latest visit, our host at Jena (Germany) would laugh away whenever any topic of German towns would come up for discussion. She would start by surrendering saying ‘you know more about Germany than what I do’. I hope the fervor stays on.