Oneness with Nature!

By 1975, I had been in Uganda for almost five years, and had been quite busy with my professional work plus facing the problems associated with the exodus of the Asians. So far, we hadn't been able to visit any National Park in the country. Now since my wife Meenakshi had also joined me in Masaka, we decided to finally have a little break and go on a safari and see the animals in their natural habitat.

The very famous Murchison Falls with its National Park was renamed by Idi Amin as Kabarega National Park in the 1970s, after King Kabarega  who reigned over Bunyoro around the end of the 19th century. The King had resisted colonization by the British, was arrested and was exiled by the British to the Seychelles. King Kabarega died in Jinja, in 1923 en-route to Bunyoro while returning from exile. This episode always sounded so familiar to what had happened in India, when the freedom struggle was being fought.

The change in name was never legally promulgated. The name of the falls and the national park reverted to Murchison Falls following the downfall of Idi Amin. This area was explored by a British explorer, Sir Samuel Baker, in the 1800s, who christened the falls after Sir Roderick Murchison, the then president of the Royal Geographical Society.

We drove to Hoima in our Ford Escort. The journey from Masaka to Hoima via Kampala was an exciting first long drive for us as a couple. It was a pleasant experience to be together on this journey. The weather was fine, though not very cool as the month of December is usually dry around these parts and the greenery also diminishes a bit. 

At Hoima, we spent the night with Dr. Rajendra Kumar and his family. Dr. Kumar had been there since I left Hoima, and was living in the same house where I had lived while in Hoima. Being there once again felt good even though we were there for a short while only. Dr. Kumar had a very energetic and lively 3-4 year-old son, who was very social and hospitable. It was he who would offer beer and insist on replacing the bottles once they were empty, and also would remind us to replace them in the fridge. It was quite amusing to see him work like that. Not only that, he was also sipping from his father's glass but his parents did not seem to mind it or were rather encouraging I would say. After a good night’s rest we started off for the park early in the morning. Dr Kumar and his family joined us for the trip to Murchison National Park. Hoima to Murchison Falls and National Park took us about three hours.

On reaching Murchison National Park, we had some snacks and rested a while in Paraa Safari Lodge which is tucked away in this away beautiful hideaway far from the urban locales. Paraa is now owned by the Madhvani Group, a business conglomerate, owned by an Indian family. Incidentally, the Bollywood actress married the scion of the Madhvani family in 1974. Indeed, India has been tied to Africa in countless ways!

Then we roamed around in the park and enjoyed some stunning views. We saw quite a few baboons, elephants and hippos in the water. This was the first time we had seen animals in their natural habitat. The lodge was full of tourists of various nationalities, enjoying the sight of wild animals in their natural environment and relishing the hospitality of the Ugandans. There was a lot of hustle and bustle. It was a very good and refreshing change for us in a relaxed atmosphere, far from the turmoil of the city.

Watching the wild game in the National Park was an amazing yet exclusive experience. We were amazed how the droves of animals roamed about freely, oblivious of human beings around them close by clicking the cameras to capture them. A strange thought crossed the mind that we are now viewing these animals at close quarters and admiring the creations of nature in their own environs roaming about, yet we leave no opportunity to poach and kill them for sport or food. It may be for relishing the game meat or for trophies to be displayed very proudly in our living rooms. We tend to derive a great pleasure out of all these misadventures of ours. How nice it would be if we can have a peaceful and meaningful coexistence on this planet. Then there wouldn't be any danger of extinction of some of the species which are already rare to find. Those will just be in history books for our future generations to learn and see their pictures like the dinosaurs which disappeared from this earth millions of years ago. Surely, it does help to be in tune with Nature and its beings, that's what Africa taught me.

But at that moment, Meenakshi and I felt the oneness with Nature!

Building Bonds, Post Exodus..........

Life in Hoima was going on normally with lot of work to do and very busy day in and day out. I happened to meet a gentleman called Anton Pillai from Sri Lanka, who was working in a Tea Estate about 10 miles away from Hoima. It was good for me to know him and visit the family occasionally for a change. Of course they were regular visitors to Hoima for their shopping spree. They were quite regular in attending the Catholic Church on Sundays. He had two lovely daughters and a son.

The British Manager of the Tea Estate asked me if I could attend to their workers, who may need medical assistance, once or twice a week. I welcomed the suggestion and started attending patients twice a week. While going there the emergencies in the hospital were always on mind and had to keep pace with all that though it was a little tight and kept me on my toes. I was enjoying the work and meeting the challenges fairly well. Mr. Pillai's family left for Sri Lanka after a few months. He also followed suit after sometime. They settled in Jaffna, though he was working in Colombo. As we went on leave in October, 1977, we took British Airways flight, passed through Seychelles onward to Colombo and then India. There we happened to see the book, State of Blood, on Idi Amin and Uganda by our former Health Minister Henry Kyemba who had to go in exile to save his skin. We bought the book, read it and left it in India, because it was a banned book in Uganda. The book elucidated the atrocities and horrors committed by Amin and his unruly soldiers.  In Colombo, we met Pillai once again and caught up with each other. His elder daughter got married to a Norwegian and shifted to Oslo.

While in Hoima, I got acquainted with the Rev. Fr. Willie Audette, a Catholic Priest, who was a fatherly figure to me, very social and amiable. He was stationed in a parish 35 miles away. He used to visit Hoima very often for the basic needs and would always make sure to meet me. It was so kind of him to do that. I developed a close kinship with him which continued for many years afterwards. Pillai and I visited him in his parish and it was a treat to see how they were living in the bush with a nice pucca brick house with their own generator to provide electricity and to pump up harvested rain water in a concealed tank in the false ceiling from the underground tank. It was an eye opener for me to see all these luxuries in the jungle - much like jungle mein mangal. 

Life in Uganda was tough those days,  more so in the rural setup, but seeing all this gave an insight to the vision of the pioneers to surmount difficulties. In one of his letters Fr. Audette told of his first journey from  Canada to Uganda in 1936 to take up his priesthood took one complete month. Now a days it takes 24 to 48 hours, such a drastic change. On our trip to India in 1977, he sent a gift to one of his old friends, Dr. Barkat Singh who was once in Mbarara many years back and then returned to Jaipur to lead a retired life. Dr. Barkat also reciprocated by sending a shawl for him.

Later years when my wife joined me in Masaka in 1975 and we were relocated to Makerere University and Mulago Hospital, Fr Audette would always visit us and spend some quality time with us. She joined Dept of Biochemistry of the University  and I was attached to the Medical OPD in teaching hospital, Mulago Hospital in Kampala in 1976. 

As we decided to leave Uganda for good in 1981, Fr Audette didn't want us to go. He was trying to find a place for me in Kilembe Mines Hospital whereas he was located in Fort Portal at that time, even arranged an air ticket to enable me to go to Fort Portal for an interview. We had to decline the offer very politely since we had already decided to relocate ourselves in the greater interest of our family. 

A few years afterwards he also got retired and went back to Canada. There he went to Lennoxville in a house meant for the aged and retired priests. We were always in touch with him especially during Christmas and New Year, exchanging greetings and catching up with each other. In 1989, when he learnt that my son was interested in Africa and wildlife, he posted him a book titled 'Serengeti Must Not Die', which covered the journeys of a German father son duo - Bernhard Grzimek and Michael Grzimek, both zoologists, who extensively toured the Serengeti and Ngorogoro. We received the book over two years after he sent it, and it remains a prized possession in our household, till today!

In January, 1993, he wrote a very nice letter. Once there in Canada, he was feeling 'home sick', saying that he felt stranger among his own people after having spent more than 45 years in Uganda. Me and my family too feel very "homesick" a lot and do yearn to visit Uganda sometime!

In 1994, there was no response to our Christmas greetings from Fr. Audette. In 1995, again no response, but did get a reply from an unknown person but a friend of Fr Audette, also living there in that house informing us that Fr. Audette was no more and had left for his heavenly abode sometime back. It was so good of him to have conveyed this tragic piece of news which plunged us in grief, otherwise we would be in dark. That was the time for us to pray to God for this noble soul to find solace in heaven and to let us bear this loss with courage.

In our years abroad, we developed strong bonds with unknown people of different races and religions. That feeling of closeness was as great as a family-feeling, a very simple human bond, that perhaps is hard to build in today's materialistic world!  

Post Exodus Era At Hoima

Arriving in Hoima Hospital in Bunyoro district, in 1972, soon after the departure of Asians from Uganda was a unique experience. Psychologically, one would presume there was some sort of vacuum there, something missing and a feeling of discomfiture. I stayed in the Guest House for a few days till I moved to the house allocated to me about one and a half kilometer away from the hospital. 

Hoima is a nice small town in the western part of Uganda with a hospital of 60 beds. Besides me there was another Dr. DK Musisi who was also the Medical Superintendent. Just 3 months later he was promoted and posted in the Ministry headquarters in Entebbe. During the months we were together, we worked very closely and learnt a lot from each other. After his departure, I managed the hospital single handed for almost two years. It was a real adventure and bold experiments I had to undertake to help my patients on the road to recovery. I must mention here that once I took the plunge to do whatever I had to do for the benefit of the patient, I experienced success in 95% cases. The situation was that if you dare intervene chances of success were more than 90%, whereas if you don't then there is a strong, possibility of 90% fatality. That was a sheer delight in the wilderness there. A realization dawned on me that once you decide to do something after reading your books, your only companion to consult, with a firm determination to help your patient, God was always with you. This is what kept you going, and was a reward in itself so to say. Not a small thing, of course.

The life in Hoima was a little lonely in the beginning, atmosphere depressing. The shops left by Indians had been taken over by the Ugandans who had little experience in the businesses they were handling. Hence there was a chaos. Essential commodities like sugar, salt and edible oils were very much in short supply. Not to talk about brown flour (atta), though white flour (maida) could be obtained with some effort. Our staple diet of chapati would be made from a mixture of white flour mixed with soya flour to make it a little coarse. I must give credit to the new Ugandan businessmen who were always considerate and made these items available.to me saying that I was their guest and must have these things. Hats off to them for their great support in those times of scarcity and non- availability of essential items.

Just across the Hoima hospital, there was Hoima Club providing some sports like Table Tennis and drinks. I used to meet one young Ugandan there also interested to play Table Tennis. He was a Sugar Technologist, educated in the National Institute of Sugar Technology, Kanpur. His Ugandan girlfriend had done her graduation in Baroda with a scholarship from the renowned industrialists, the Mehta family of Lugazi. She could  speak Hindi / Gujarati fluently, and no one could discern if she was not an Indian girl when not looking at her.

By the time I landed there in Hoima, there was a Gujarati private practitioner Dr Patel who also left in a month or so. Three to four months later, one Mrs. Indu Asthana came and met me and I learnt that her husband, Mr.BB Asthana was a Chief Magistrate stationed in Masindi about 35 miles from Hoima..It was from then on that we became great friends, they were like my parents, where I would go on some weekends and find a solace far away from my own people.Our association with the Asthanas continued and is still going on, even with our children who are like their grandchildren. Later, Judge Asthana was promoted and became a High Court Judge in Kampala. Sadly, Judge Asthana is no more as he left for his heavenly abode when he had retired to London where his son is an Attorney.

Near Masindi a sugar factory was being erected by people from Walchandnagar Industries, Pune. They were mostly Maharashtrians, headed by one ND Rajpathak. There was a symbiotic relationship with them. Whenever any one will fall sick, they will seek my opinion and I would  enjoy their hospitality. It was  good for all of us there to have a nice time together and talk about home and compare the two countries, just for the sake of discussion. Some years later we were travelling to India on leave via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. and were in a hotel. There was a pleasant surprise meeting with ND Rajpathak in the restaurant.There he was now engaged with putting up a sugar factory in Ethiopia. Seeing all this we were so proud to help our brotheren there on the African continent. India's association with African countries in their socio-economic development has been a historic one, and is still going strong.bilaterally.