Shubha Muhurtham

My idea was to publish this piece on the 3rd of September that being a very important date in my life. But it did not happen. The 3rd of September may not mean anything to the majority but may mean the world to a minority. I belong to the second group and if you are thinking that it was the day I got married, you are most certainly wrong. My marriage was on the 22nd of June 1977 a day chosen after reading horoscopes and consulting the astrologer. On the other hand 3rd September was a date that was decided at random. It was a date decided for convenience and not one of those termed “auspicious” by the Pundits.
When we got married, Kumar was working in Muscat and so I could not accompany him on his return. There was the formality of getting my entry permit and other papers in order and hence it was decided that I would follow him at the earliest. He left for Muscat by the end of July and within ten days got my papers ready. However he wanted me to be in Chennai until Onam was over and so asked me to travel to Muscat on the 3rd of September 1977. If I remember right, it happened to be a Saturday. This was the time before Chennai was directly connected to Muscat and so I had to take an Indian Airlines flight to Mumbai and from there I flew on a Gulf Air flight to Muscat. Thus my first proverbial crossing of the seas happened on that date. I was in no way to know then as to how many criss-crossings of the various Oceans and land masses I would make. I grew up in a simple and humble family and as I have earlier said, flying in an aircraft was something we did not even think about. For us it was always terra firma and the greatest joy we had as children was the annual trip to Kerala by train.
In the first three years of marriage, my travel only pertained to the annual vacations to India. The so called barrage gates in terms of my travel were let open in November of 1980 when we took a trip to the Far East. This was my first to places other than the Middle East of which I had reached Saudi Arabia earlier in 1980. During this trip we covered Hong Kong, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia. After that Hong Kong became a part of my yearly routine. Kumar was working for Cathay Pacific Airways and whenever he went on work, I too would accompany him. I won’t be wrong when I say that at one point I knew Tsim Sha Tsui (the shopping district of Hong Kong) like the back of my hand. This summer when we went to Hong Kong after a gap of 15 years, I was indeed proud that I could still find my way around and in fact floored a friend with this knowledge.
1987, is again an important year for me as it was in September of that year that I made my first visit to the United Kingdom. Although I grew up in the post colonial era, the fixation with the Raj was strongly within me. This may be one trait I picked up from my father. He had his reasons as he studied in an European High School and his father worked for the Imperial Army. Anything British he adored and he did not mince his words when he spoke about it. As for me the United Kingdom also meant the Western Hemisphere and visiting that part of the world was definitely the dream of a travel bug. My first trip to the UK was indeed memorable and I made sure that I visited the most prominent of the historical sights. Visiting the Lake District and seeing the Dove Cottage was an out of the world experience. William Wordsworth is my all time favourite poet and I am happy to say that two of his poems “The Daffodils” and “The Solitary Reaper” are etched in my mind. We also made a side trip to Amsterdam and seeing the windmills, canals and the dykes were so wonderful. The first time I had seen a picture of the windmill was in my 5th standard social studies book. It was a sketch and we had to colour it. The picture is still so vivid in my mind’s eye. When I went into the windmill, I thought to myself, where have I reached. Am I worthy of all this. It is embarrassing to write this, but UK became a part of my yearly trip what with my sister Latha having moved there after her marriage. Thus in a year there was a trip or two to India, a trip to Hong Kong and a trip to the UK. This period saw Geetha move to Brussels and that made Belgium too became a part of my yearly routine. It was during that time that we visited France, Germany, Italy and Turkey. Italy was a once in a life time experience and what made it outstanding was the fact that the three sisters with their spouses made it together.
1989 was when I made my first trip to the US. I was frankly not very enthusiastic about making that trip for the simple reason, that the travel involved was far too much. Also the Lockerbie disaster had just happened and hence it was not very appealing. The three cities I visited were Los Angeles, San Diego and New York. All the cities had so much to offer and that made the trip truly rewarding. Then in 1992, Geetha moved to Boston thus US too became a part of the circuit. Thus every other month saw me packing my bags and going on a jaunt within Saudi or the Gulf or elsewhere. Thus when we had to leave Saudi, one of the few things I was sad about, was my travel. I thought that being back in India meant a total full stop to all the wonderful over seas trips.
It is 14 years since I am back and I am indeed happy to say that but for the initial three years when we were busy finding our mooring, the following years have seen us go on a holiday. Thus we have visited Sri Lanka, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia (2000 & 2007), UK, Switzerland, USA (2002 & 2006) and of course our very recent trip to Hong Kong and China.
Sometimes I have to pinch myself to believe that I have seen so many places and have had such wonderful experiences. As I keep telling people, most of what I know is not what I learnt from the text books but whatever I have picked up during my travels. I am grateful to God and thankful to Kumar for making all this possible. It also makes me strongly believe that September 3rd 1977 was a spectacular Shubha Muhurtham - one that changed a young girl’s life in more ways than one.