HOW DID IT ALL BEGIN?

Some times I wonder how and when the travel bug bit me. Probably this desire to travel germinated in me after going through the leaflets and pamflets and brochures collected by my father who,on finding me going through those brochures said that he always wanted to travel and see places but his financial conditions didn't allow him to go beyond the collection of free fliers and reading and seeing the glossy pics on them. Those days were very hard. He had a large family to look after and tours were just a luxury. It was the first time ever in my life, that my father had spoken to me or communicated to me something about himself. I t was ,otherwise, always only a question answer session I being at the answering end.
CUT TO the second scene when almost 30 yrs later I started to go regularly to tourist destinations fist within India and later abroad. A brief opportunity was provided by my luck in 1973 when I was selected by the Ford foundation India for a scholarship of a rather sumptuous
amount of 400 $ a month for undergoing a post graduate diploma at the University College ,London in the field of Urban Development in developing countries. That was the first time ever that somebody from our entire family went abroad and I was that proud torch bearer.
While travelling to London in my first ever plane ride,I remember the innocence of my first look every where. The travel across the Alps in Europe at a height of 39000 ft listening to the sweet musical tunes of Aasha Bhonsale,looking below at the snowcapped peaks appearing like salt and pepper mountains, the all refreshing cool drift of wind which I experienced at Frankfurt standing near the plane's door,are permanently etched in my memory.The vastness of Heathrow was very frightening to a first timer like me.The tension increased further when it became pitch dark at around 4 p.m. in the month of Oct.73 when I landed.The mortal fear of being all alone in a foreign country gripped me. I was only 33 then and had not travelled alone much by then. Everything was new around me and I was undergoing a culture shock. I took a n airline coach to Kensington and took a taxi there. The taxi driver was polite but probably read the confusion writ large on my face and dropped me at the desired office address of an acquaintence of mine through another friend.He wasn't there and another gentelman, Mr Balasubramanyan took me personally to the Indian Y.M.C.A. I still remember his name even to this day because he was like a God- sent angel to me who took proper care of me during those early stressful moments and lodged me in Y.M.C.A. which became my second home while I stayed in London till July 1974.
During the Christmas break, on 24th Dec. I travelled from Victoria to Medstone east ,to spend my vacation with a British Jew family of teachers Don & Jane, who were a typically cold British couple. After staying with the Taylor family and experiencing thereal culture shock I returned to the comfort of the YMCA.