Proceeding on Vacation

Successfully completing my tour of service of 27 months, with the hectic work in three different districts and hospitals in Uganda, I was looking forward to travelling back home and meeting my people and sharing my exotic experiences with them. It was a great time for me.

Towards the end of May, 1972, I completed various formalities with the Ministries of Health and Personnel before proceeding on leave . To my surprise it was quite simple and easy to deal with the officers in different ministries. Files would move without affixing any wheels or greasing them. Not only that it gave me a good feeling, it also spared me of lot of time, allowing me to follow my profession sincerely with full dedication and devotion. 

This time I was to travel by sea. I boarded East African Railways train in Kampala on way to Mombasa via Nairobi. It was a very scenic journey giving a panoramic view of the East African countryside. The train  was comfortable, giving the passengers a sleeping berth with neat and clean sheets and blankets and dining facilities. Of course we had to buy the coupons for food with Uganda currency before the train crossed the border and entered Kenya. The train journey was comfortable as well as enjoyable (quite comparable with our present day Indian Railways Rajdhani trains, though minus the speed and  air conditioning, which , of course, was not required because of the salubrious climate ).

After travelling for more than 2 days, the train steamed into Mombasa and I stayed in Hotel Astoria there. I  had more than 24 hours there in Mombasa, roamed around here and there window shopping. One could discern an obvious stamp of Arab and Indian influence there in the architecture and the language Swahili incorporating a lot of Arabic words. This was all due to lot of trade going  on in eastern coast of Africa, including Kenya , Tanganyika and Zanzibar( comprising present day Tanzania ),  and Middle East and India.

Next day I boarded the ship of Shipping Corporation of India sailing between Mombasa and Bombay. For me there was a double joy since the name of the ship was the 'State of Haryana'. So virtually I was home before touching the shores of my motherland India and reaching back home, in Haryana. The ship was captained by a Goan, Nazareth and most of the other employees on the ship were also from Goa, quite appropriate for them since Goa is on the sea shore and they are attracted to sail around the world. Quite fascinating and exploring it is. 

My first two days on the ship were really troublesome because of sea sickness. The sight of food made me feel nauseating. Third day onwards I got accustomed to the movements of the ship.On the ship they kept us busy with different activities every day. There was a musical troupe of young boys from India and they were entertaining us with film music, one of the boys singing in a female voice rendering Lata Mangeshkar songs. 

One day there was a beauty contest. There were three judges on the panel for that. Despite my refusal to be on the panel, they forced me to be there. The lady who was selected as Beauty Queen happened to be the wife of the marine engineer on the ship travelling as a family. Then there were film shows, I recollect having seen 'Khamoshi' featuring Sanjeev Kumar. Then there was a fete on one of the days

During the journey,  much to everyone's amusement, crossing the Equator was made to be a big event just to arouse our curiosity. The ship arrived at Seychelles, we had to disembark to get an X Ray done on a child for he fractured his clavicle bone falling from a Table Tennis table on the ship, and for further medical treatment.

Soon we approached Indian waters. Our ship had to anchor some distance away from Bombay harbour for a day due to congestion at the port. After completing the usual immigration and custom formalities, I started train journey to Delhi and Yamuna Nagar alongwith my elder brother who had come to Bombay to receive me. There was a great amount of happiness and satisfaction after joining my family once again!