Our Life, Our Times :: 54 :: Cooped up In a sealed house

http://www.bagchiblog.blogspot.com

It has now been more than 72 hours that our building was sealed by the authorities. They have erected barricades on two sides of the building on the Ridge Road. So even if one gets out of the complex one would not be able to go on either side unless one jumps over the barricades. That is a tall order for many, especially for me – an octogenarian. At this age I would be lucky if I am able to go across a barricade that is a couple of feet high. What we have are chest-high barricades on both sides. So jumping over the barriers is out of the question. Hence, the entire community of 13 flats is stuck inside for as many as fourteen days, Yes fourteen days, which is the quarantine period – a period determined by the period of incubation of the Covid  19 virus.

The sealing of the property of 13 flat owners came about because one of them thought nothing of the advice given by the PM and numerous others including the TV channels that one should stay at home during the lockdown period. He somehow obtained a pass and moved around freely or rather indiscriminately in his SUV with his wife. The wife must have developed symptoms as he got her tested earlier and even had the common areas sanitised. As she tested positive people came took her away to Chirayu Hospital – now a Covid 19 hospital. And the following day they sealed the building and since then we are stuck.

Our helps have disappeared, the hawkers no longer hawk around vegetables and even one of the two watchmen have bolted away. Thankfully my wife had bought enough of vegetables, rice and wheat flour so there is not much of worry on that score. But I have to have medicines in uninterrupted supplies. I cannot go to the CGHS dispensary. The government arm dealing with this part of the problem of confined people has so far been unable to respond.

Claims are made that supplies of vegetables and groceries would be made door to door but that is hardly ever happening. The watchman who is around is helping out in getting the vegetables from hawkers who are somewhere around the barricades. Even if vegetables are not available one can survive on cereals. These are early days, perhaps, things would improve as the days roll by. We are, in any case, luckier than others as we can somehow manage things.

 When I think of the government it seems they have taken upon themselves huge responsibilities. The way the services to both, the affected and unaffected are being rendered is amazing. The governmental organization has risen to the occasion as one man and tirelessly taking care of the people. As they found a corona positive patient from our building the testing unit came yesterday to do swab tests of every individual in the building. They were sitting out in the Sun which was doing its best with the late April heat of the high noon. They were in their PPEs that are made of sheer plastic in multiple layers that retain the body heat and apparently make it unbearable. One member of the team was fidgety and I found him trying to open up the PPE as much as possible. I had nothing but huge amount of respect for them. They were putting their life on the line to save others and they are in thousands.

It is not healthcare workers alone who have taken upon themselves the mantle of being saviours of the people. There are others like the municipal workers, the sanitisers, the police and allied forces who have been shouldering huge responsibilities. Medical research laboratories are doing fantastic work and one feels proud when one realises that the nation can fight any adversity that might befell it. This massive blow as, I remember, the 1962 war with China, miraculously raised nationalistic feelings among the common men. Hundreds of thousands of workers who got locked in without any source of income may have panicked and started walking hundreds of kilometers for their homes but that sort of behavior was natural. Eventually, appreciating their difficulties, the states to which they belonged took it upon themselves to arrange for their transport back home.   

The take away from the misfortune that befell us is that it has perhaps made us a more cohesive and strong nation. People are ready to meet any challenge that comes their way. Perhaps all this is because of the Prime Minister’s popularity among the masses. His repeated calls given in national addresses over the TV were responded to with enthusiasm by the people.  

*photo from internet

 

Our Life, Our times :: 53 :: Wishing for a Corona-free India

http:..www.bagchiblog.blospot.com

Many predictions have been made about the currently rampaging corona virus that is infecting thousands and killing hundreds in the industrialized and developed world. While China claims that life in the epicenter of the pandemic, Wuhan, has become almost normal it is rampaging through the developed world like never before. Thousands have fallen (victim) to it in Germany, Italy, Spain, Great Britain and the US. Economies of these countries are disrupted just as those of the emerging economies like that of India. It is difficult for a country to remain under a complete lockdown for long. But the virus is such that unless there is a complete cessation of all kinds of activities its chain is not snapped and it continues to thrive.

That is what the doomsayers are afraid of. How long can the countries be kept locked in while the pandemic has a free run of the world knocking down thousands of people with the infection and killing hundred as it sweeps through various countries. A medicine man was describing the other day a scenario on the TV that was frightening. He said that nobody knows how long this menace would last – it could be a year or it could be two years or even more or indefinitely into the future. It seems to have the capability to send us all to the Stone Age – dangerous and lethal as it looks like. The immediate misfortune of a long drawn out lockdown could be a severe famine. For loosening grip of the virus on us much would depend on how we handle it and how soon we are able to eradicate it.

Lockdown and social distancing have emerged as major arms to fight the virus. But to organize millions of people to pay heed to the advisories to observe the restricted way of life indefinitely is a difficult proposition. Many of those caught straying out of their houses, particularly in India, are poor and they come out to get some fresh air, crammed as they are generally 8 to 10 people in a hundred sq. ft. room.

Indian economy is slated to lose heavily as the virus looks for new victims in India. Estimations have been made of a loss of Rs. 32000 crore every day of the lockdown during the first 21 days. Unemployment has risen from around 5% to 26% as on 9^th April 2020 and 45% of the households have seen a drop in their incomes. It is mind-blowing. Almost every sector of the economy has been battered. It must have been heart-wrenching effort for the government to have announced a lockdown and then extend it knowing as they did its massive economic costs. The Gross Domestic Product is likely to register a historic low of 1.9% as indicated by the IMF. Worldwide, too, economies are likely to contract and global economic growth is likely to suffer. No one wishes to extend one’s neck out and predict with certainty when the pandemic will cease allowing resumption of the arrested economic activities.

The doomsayers say it is not as simple as that – that is predicting a post-Covid scenario. There could be any number of possibilities. The virus could refuse to go away or the world is unable to chase it away. The first scenario as painted by Politico, an US based magazine, is about the great deceleration. The US, Europe and China, the big three, struggle to recover from the battering of their respective economies with major fiscal and monetary efforts. The second scenario is more about China which wins the war with the virus and capitalizes on it by building ties across Asia, undermining democracy everywhere and ruthlessly blunting dissent at home. The rosiest scenario is about a V-shaped recovery and the rich West vaccinating everybody against the virus in the third world for free.

These basically depict the American way of looking at things. The scenarios predicted are generally US-centric. For us it would suffice if we imagine only two alternatives. One, the virus becomes uncontrollable, mostly because our people do not observe the guidelines issued by the government. In the process the Centre has to throw more money at it to contain it. But that pulls in millions who were climbing out of poverty into middle class back into poverty. Despite the herculean efforts of the government the economic recovery is slow with poverty on the rise enhancing social tensions.

The alternative scenario that we could think of could be that despite the lapses of various sections of the people the government with its unmitigated efforts is able to control the pandemic and makes the country largely free of the corona menace. With the virus shaken off, the government decides to prepare for the next pandemic which is predicted to be more lethal. The most positive item of this scenario would be the government, with the help of various international organizations/institutions, is able to pressurize China to close down its wet markets. Economically, the government, with active cooperation of the people, is able to register a V-shaped recovery eventually regaining its economic and social balance and is able to put its economy back on a firmer footing.

The above is more of wishful thinking. We are such a divided country, a few sections of it will never allow the government (run by whichever party) to continue and do the good work. We start barking at our opponents at the slightest pretext regardless of the fact whether the opponent is doing work that is good or not. Look at the way West Bengal government is fighting with the Centre.

What all this adds up to is that people in general should act as advised by the experts, the government at the centre having most of them. If we do that, we would be lucky if we become a Covid-free country by September next. Only then Modi will be able to set the wheels of the economy in motion. Hopefully, once the economy starts moving he will get support from most sections to recover the expenditure and losses incurred in dealing with the pandemic

*Photo from internet

Destinations :: Manali (1993)

http://www.bagchiblog.blogspot.com

Add caption

In 1993, having slogged quite a bit in the Personnel Wing of the department, we decided to take a break and a holiday. We had covered most of the hill stations by the 1990s but we had not been to Manali. I had heard about Kulu and Manali when I was still in the College. As the trip was difficult not many would attempt it. We had a family friend who used to be a very good artist. He was most probably from Karnataka but was trained in Santiniketan when Tagore was around. He was so intensely influenced by Bengali culture that he would wear nothing other than hoti and kurta which Bengalis call

Panjabi. Having heard about the colourful Dussehra of Kulu he decided to take a trip and came back and told us about the beauty of the place. This must have been in very early 1950s.

Since then Kulu Valley was on my mind but could never make it – even when I was in Chandigarh. This time we decided to spend a week there and in order to have more time there we did not take the surface route.

Indian Airlines had introduced a flight from Delhi to Bhuntar which is about 10 kilometres away from Kulu. We took this opportunity and flew to Kulu, Of course, the flight was risky as the plane after leaving the plains of Punjab had to fly between two hills. Occasionally the hillsides came pretty close to the wing tips even though it was a small turbo prop plane. Obviously the passage chosen by the pilot was narrow and perhaps was tricky. But the flight was uneventful though not devoid of anxiety.

Kulu is a temple town and was known as “Dev Bhoomi” (God’s own land). There are temples from where one can get a panoramic view of

the valley. There are numerous temples that crowd around the place – some are in the valley and numerous on the hillsides. But we were not really interested in temples and hence we pushed off straight towards Manali. On the way, however, we stopped to take a look at the trout farm. Trouts were introduced here by the British and they flourished here as well as in Kashmir. I therefore saw a trout for the first time after leaving Kashmir five years ago. I had even had a piece of grilled trout along with friends. The

farm seemed to be doing well and it had a burgeoning population of the fish.

Manali town turned out to be haphazardly built overgrown village. It is here you see the effects of unplanned urbanization. And yet it is full of foreigners, especially Israelis.  One would come across foreigners almost everywhere. I came across a white man getting a haircut and a shave in high noon by the side of what might be called a main road. The barber had nailed a looking glass on a tree trunk and had placed a chair in front with a small table by his side for keeping his instruments. A

typical rustic setting that one comes across in rural India.

There was nothing much to do in Manali except enjoying the very pleasant climate. We made a trip to the river side, the river being Beas, one of Panjab’s five rivers. On another day we walked up to the Circuit House near which there was a dense growth of trees. Manali seems to have lost a lot of trees and hence this place near the Circuit House has become a sight to be seen. The place, indeed, looks quite bereft of trees.

We had to do the very popular tourism sight of Rohtang Pass. One cannot really go across this more than 13000 ft high pass. It is open only

up to a point for tourists who want a little feel of the Alpine climate and snow laden mountains. But we came across snow fields, small though they were, very soon after we left Manali. The winter had been harsh and snow was littered all around even in late April. Himachal Tourism has provided certain places on the way for fun and frolic for children. The Pass was closed and naturally we could not approach it. Now the road through Rohtang is an alternative route for Leh but one can face a traffic jam right at Rohtang because of heavy traffic of Army vehicles, commercial heavy

vehicles and tourist vehicles. And one has to obtain a permit to travel on this road to Rohtang. Tourists get the permit for only a day.

We also took a trip to Naggar, a town on the north bank of Beas River a short distance away from Manali. It used to be the capital of Kulu State at one time. It has a castle built by the former king which is now converted into a heritage hotel. Devika Rani and her husband Svetoslav Roerich had a house here which is now a Museum. It mostly contains his landscapes. He was known also as portrait painter and his portrait of Nehru is hung in the Central Hall of the Indian Parliament.  

From Naggar I could see down below a temple in the valley. The temple was like any another temple but smaller in proportion. What was peculiar about it that it was made of slate grey stones. On the way I had seen several structures – domestic and commercial – of this grey coloured slate stones. Construction of houses with these stones would not perhaps present many difficulties but to erect a temple, complete with its pointed spire, must have been very a labour intensive process hundreds of years ago

From my scrap book :: 18 :: China should pay for our distress

http://www.bagchiblog.blogspot.com

Writing on the current pandemic of COVID 19, David Quammen, a commentator, has been trying to look for the reasons of the spread of the virus. He says the reasons can be found in the facts that “We invaded tropical forests and other wild landscapes which harbour so many species of animals and plants – and within those creatures so many unknown viruses. We cut the trees, we kill the animals or cage them and send them to markets. We disrupt eco-systems and we shake viruses loose from their natural hosts. When that happens, they need a new host. Often we are it.”

Quammen has very succinctly described the mechanics of the spread of the COVID 19 which he says was not even a novel event that befell us. “It was – it is – part of a pattern of choices that we humans are making”. His findings reveal that only we have invited this not-too-novel a virus to be our malign guest. Our unrestrained greed, our feral quest for new experiences have enabled this virus to treat us as its host and bash and pummel us any which way. Even the ongoing pandemic has not deterred us as reports have appeared in the press indicating that the Chinese wet markets with live and dead animals, the alleged source of the virus, have been reopened after the lockdown was lifted in Wuhan.

The novel Corona 19 virus belongs to the same family of viruses as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) viruses that too acquired epidemic proportions in 2002-2003 infecting around seven thousand people killing more than seven hundred – just about 10% of its victims. The virus emanated, scientists believe, from a non-human source, presumably a bat. Years ago they found something like this in a cave in Yunnan, about 1000 miles West of Wuhan, and noted its existence with concern.

One such scientist, Zheng Li Shi of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, who gave Covid 19 its name, along with her collaborators showed in 2005 that the SARS pathogen was a bat virus that had spilled over into humans. Shi and her collaborators have been tracing corona viruses in bats since then, WARNING that some of these are uniquely suited to CAUSE HUMAN PANDEMICS.

Quammen has reported that in a 2017 paper researchers had pointed out that they had found corona viruses in multiple individuals of four different species of bats, including a horse-shoe bat. The genome of the virus taken from a horse shoe bat was reported to be 96% identical to the Wuhan virus. And those two constitute a pair distinct from other known corona viruses, including the one that causes SARS. The assessment of the researchers is that COVID 19 is novel and, therefore, possibly more dangerous.

Quammen reports that Peter Deszak, president of a research organization that focuses on connection between human and wildlife health, told him that he and other researchers have been “raising the flag” on these viruses for 15 years. According to Deszak, they had even taken blood samples from Yunannese living near the cave the study of which revealed that 3% of them had developed antibodies against SARS related corona viruses. This only proved that these viruses were making the jump from bats to humans. “In other words this Wuhan emergency is no novel event. “It is part of a sequence of related contingencies that will stretch forward into the future AS LONG AS CURRENT CIRCUMSTANCES PERSIST.

By the “current circumstances” Quammen means “perilous trade in wildlife for food with supply chains stretching from Asia, Africa, the United States and elsewhere. The trade has been outlawed in China on a temporary basis but it was also outlawed during SARS, then allowed to resume – with bats, civets, porcupines, turtles, bamboo rats and many kinds of birds and animals piled together in markets such as the one in Wuhan”.

From what Quammen has indicated it is clear that China was aware of these lethal viruses for around 15 years. Having some knowledge of the Chinese official system gathered during my one month stay in China around 30 years ago, I can say with confidence that they have a very efficient system of ascending channelization of vital information from the district level to the central authority. Hence it will take much more to make me believe that the findings of the researcher Shi were not known to the Chinese Central authorities concerned. Even Peter Rezdak has said that he has been raising the red flag over these viruses for the last 15 years. Looking at all these pieces of evidence it is clear that China, despite having the services of brilliant scientists, failed to take preventive action in time and avoid the pandemic and the Wuhan lockdown for two months. Its failure to warn the world of the pandemic cost various countries thousands of life and, of course, millions of dollars as their economies came to a grinding halt.

After the SARS epidemic the Chinese had closed down its wet markets that sold wild and farmed animals and various species of birds including bats. But these were soon reopened just as these have now been reopened after Wuhan recovered from the Covid 19 pandemic. According to President Trump, the WHO has supported this brazen act of China. That the WHO was slammed for this reason by the US is another matter but the stalling of $40 billion US contribution would surely adversely adversely affect mitigation activities undertaken by WHO in so far Covid 19 pandemic is concerned.

The Times of India of April 16, 2016 reported another lapse of China. “In the six days after top Chinese officials SECRETLY determined they (most) likely were facing a pandemic from corona virus, the city of Wuhan at the epicenter of the disease, hosted a mass banquet for tens of thousands of people That is to say that even after the Chinese authorities were convinced that they were up against a PANDEMIC they did not let it out to the world until their formal functions – “two biggest meetings of the year” – were over. Nothing could be more irresponsible than this and nothing could be a more blatant display of self-centredness.

The pandemic has set the Indian economy back by decades. It has had to briskly ramp up the medical facilities in thousands of hospitals, provide necessary equipment to doctors and para-medics, had to use the national airline to rescue thousands of stranded citizens in corona affected countries including China and above all had to put the country under a lockdown, presently, for as many as 40 days during which all economic activities have come to a full stop.  Besides, the government has had to put money in the hands of millions of industrial workers, agricultural workers, labourers, daily wagers etc., who had been stranded in their respective places of work. The growth rate of the economy is going to be severely impacted. Some reputed organisations like IMF have predicted that India’s growth rate in 2020 is going to be only 1%. Quite clearly, the economy of the country is going to be severely depressed pulling millions of people back into poverty.

Since the corona crisis is being considered as one that is worse than created by a war the government is trying to fight it like it would fight a war. It is throwing everything it has to alleviate the sufferings of the people. It is likely to take years to come out of it and it will take blood, sweat and tears of the people to do so.

One does not know how the world community feels about it but one tends to feel that the Republic of China is solely responsible for inflicting this misery on India and other countries. It, therefore, should be made to pay compensation to all the countries for making them needlessly suffer privations. If reparations were paid by Axis Powers for waging an avoidable war after the Second World War there is no reason why China should not pay countries like India for the devastation caused to their economies and inflicting misery on their unwary citizens.

*Image from internet

Deatinations :: Dar es Salam (1992)

http://www.bagchiblog .blogspot. com

Mt. Kilimanjaro as seen from Moshi

We took off from Nairobi and after sometime were flying by the snows of Kilimanjaro. We could see the peak from the plane – it was largely flat and at places green with some snow around. After around an hour the plane landed at Dar es Salaam airport. I was put up at Ambassador Hotel that was just about better than ordinary but nowhere near the Panafric Hotel of Nairobi.

 Tanzania is made up of the former Republic of Tanganyika and the former Republic of Zanzibar. The two joined together to make a viable country. As I was taken to the Postal Headquarters I could see lack of development though the roads had been asphalted by Japan about three years back.

 The Postal Headquarters was I think a fourteen storied building that presumably was a gift from a friendly country. I had to go to my counterpart on the 12^th floor. Out of two only one lift was functioning. I waited for the one that was working. I saw on the panel above the lift doors the lift coming down stopping at every floor. As it hit the ground floor and the door opened a mass of humanity seemed to have been expelled from it. Taking into account the number people waiting for the lift I refrained from joining the pull and push to get into the lift. I decided to climb the 12 floors taking breathers on every other floor. I am normally scared of lifts and if these are crowded they are all the more inconvenient as they give me claustrophobia.

At the age of 50 climbing 12 floors is quite a job though I once climbed 13 floors after having escaped a severe injury in a stalled lift in Sanchar Bhawan in New Delhi. But that was when I was a few years younger. Huffing and puffing I made it to the 12^th floor. My counterpart offered me coffee that was very welcome. He introduced to me a gentleman who would take care of me and help me in my work.

We started with a visit to the main office of exchange in Dar es Salam, Dar for short. Getting the hang of what needed to be done I later moved from office to office. Thankfully they had placed at my disposal a Suzuki Vitara.

It was a small postal organization and its traffic with foreign postal organizations was limited. There was another office of exchange of mails at Arusha and a third one in Zanzibar. Arusha is somewhat close to Serengeti National Park. For Zanzibar one had to take a hovercraft from Dar but frequent breakdowns reportedly did not allow it to come back to its base in Dar. I, therefore, chose to go to Arusha. Though there is a flight from Dar to Kilimanjaro Airport only 50 kilometres away from Arusha the Administration booked my travel on a bus along with an officer. The bus trip turned out to be of more than 12 hours and we reached Arusha close to midnight.

Next morning Director Moshi arrived at the hotel. He was in-charge of the operation in the region including Arusha and Moshi. As it was a Saturday the office was not open. I had, therefore, to extend my stay by one day. I lost another day as they did not get tickets by air for Dar. I had refused to travel back by bus. The extra day I spent in working with Director Moshi. I did as detailed a survey as possible of the routes that are being used. The officials complained that their mails for Europe were being held over at Nairobi and hence being delayed in transmission. I flew back to Dar and spent another day with my counterpart for discussions. Their chief also told me that they were not happy with the way and the tardiness their dispatches were being treated by Kenya Post. He wanted me to intervene to rectify the situation.

After a fourteen day halt I was ready to leave for home via Kenya. Despite being so near Masai Mara and Serengeti I could not visit any of the famed game parks. Somehow my counterparts slipped in the matter. They should have planned for it. When any UPU dignitary visits Delhi for short length of time he is always taken around Delhi, Agra and Jaipur – the Golden Triangle. These administrations obviously had no such tradition.

Destinations :: Nairobi (1992) - Mombasa

Http://www.bagchiblog.blogspot.com

Malindi beach

We hit the highway for Mombasa around midday. From Nairobi the distance was a little more than 500 kilometres from Nairobi but the driver said he would be able to cover it in five hours. True enough we arrived at the White Sands hotel a little before 5.00 PM.

The highway was very good and we maintained a speed of a little more than a hundred kilometers all through. It had traffic warnings, “safari salama” in Swahili language but written in Roman script on big hoardings planted at frequent intervals. The highway ran parallel to the famous Nairobi – Mombasa metre gauge track on which the Kenyan Railways used to run their well known luxury train. The train was reported to be like the one that plied between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore where they used to serve, inter alia, Earl Grey tea at one time. The train had provision for looking out for game on its two sides as the track seemingly cleaved the two game parks of Amboseli and Tsavo. The highway too did likewise but since the railway coaches are on a higher level the passengers are able to see giraffes and elephants – the tall animals for which the parks are ideal habitat. The highway being on a lower level offers only an occasional impala or a zebra that happened to cross the road. Tall grasses of the expansive grasslands shroud the animals from view.

As we drove down the highway we could see Mount Kilimanjaro on our right with its peaks covered by snow. This is the only mountain in Africa that gets snow. The setting reminded me of the film “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” of 1950s starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Susan Hayward. The film was based on Earnest Hemingway’s novel of the same name. I cannot forget the last scene where a tired and sick Gregory Peck languorously sits on the grassy ground leaning against a tree trunk below the snow-capped Kilimanjaro as a vulture circles overhead.

We arrived at the hotel a little before five in the evening. It was a very luxurious hotel – very well appointed and very good food, western as well as Middle Eastern. The beach was next door and indeed it was a good and clean stretch of beach with, curiously, white sands. Later I found white sands all along the Western coast of Africa, that is, wherever we happened to go.

Mombasa has had a chequered history. It has changed hands several times. Only when Vasco da Gama, the great Portuguese sailor and adventurer went up and down in search of India he came across Mombasa, a bustling commercial port that he thought of capturing it. Even the rule of Portuguese was not stable as the British were out to expel them from the port. They succeeded in doing so and eventually they received the town on a platter from the Sultan of Zanzibar who nominally controlled Mombasa after being defeated by the British. It soon became capital of British East African Protectorate. The English influence that one comes across is because of a pretty long spell of British Rule.

The interior of the town is quite filthy and crowded. There are a number of mosques as the town was in possession of Omani Sultans. We did our work and visited offices. Only surface mails were being routed out of the country through Mombasa. An international airport came up much later. We used to lunch at the hotel as the food used to be delicious. I found most of the waiters wearing very colourful printed shirts that had heavy African embroidery right around the neck and along the front openings for buttons. On being told that these were known as Kitange shirts and were available in the market I looked for them in Nairobi and bought a few. 

Having come all the way I could not leave the place without visiting Malindi, a town about 100 kms away. I had heard about it so much. It is also a port town and had attracted European attention. Vasco da Gama during his voyages on the African west coast knocked several times on the doors of Malindi. Eventually he was successful in breaking through the African resistance and establish a Portuguese trading post and he also procured a guide who would show him the way over the Indian Ocean to India.

 Like Mombasa Malindi too had a chequered history and was alternately ruled by Omanis and Swahilis and therefore a large section of the population is Muslim. During the World War II it was bombed and was later hosted a PoW camp. Today Malindi is a tourists’ paradise with blue seas and white sands. The sands are so white that they dazzle the eyes when the sun is out. Exotic lobster-based food is served on the beach.

Next morning when it was time for us to leave our UPU Regional Consultant expressed a desire to be driven through the Tsavo National Park. So we drove through the Park – mostly through tall grasses over which we could spot a few tall necks of giraffes and the humps and the backs of elephants. All other small animals like antelopes, hyenas, jackals etc, were successful in hiding themselves from view. An ordinary, everyday automobile is not good enough for safaris. One needs to be at an elevation, say like on elephant back to view the animals in their natural environment. Anyway it was quite an experience to drive through Park. 

The day after our return was the last day before my departure for Dar es Salam. I went and met the top bosses of Kenyan Post to brief them about what we had done. As I came down to the DDG’s deputy’s room where we had done all the work an officer came and told me that the DDG wanted us to go to Nakuru. We piled into a car and drove for around two hours before hitting Nakuru. It is a typical colonial town having been established during the colonial era. Its elevation of more the 3000 ft gives a temperate climate all round the year. It is more famous for the Nakuru Lake where hundreds of thousands of flamingoes gather creating a splash of white on blue waters of the lake. It is a sight for the Gods.

(Concluded)

Destinations : Nairobi (Part I) 1992

http://www.bagchiblog.blogspot.com

Jomo Kenyatta Convention Centre, Nairobi

About a couple of hours of flying brought us to Nairobi from Addis Ababa. The Nairobi airport was bigger, more business-like and free of clutter. This was the second time I was using the airport. Earlier, about three years ago, I had passed through Nairobi on my way up to Manzini in Swaziland as also on my way back from there to India. Here the first thing that strikes you is that everybody is very smartly dressed – men in suits, generally, in shades of grey and women, too, in skirts and top of more or less the same colour.

An official from the administration was there to receive me. He whisked me out in a jiffy and took me straight to the Panafric Hotel. It was a biggish hotel which I later found very comfortable. The Kenyan Administration man deposited me in the hotel and before disappearing said somebody would come in the morning and take me to the Office of the Director General.

So I cooled my heels till the next morning. In the meantime I availed of

At the animal orphanage

the hospitality of the hotel and had tilapia fish for dinner. The fish is also available In India but apparently not in such copious quantities. Panafric’s fried tilapias were very good. Next morning a young man made his appearance; he was one Mr. Oyyo from the Administration. He took me to his Deputy Director General who welcomed me over a cup of Kenyan Coffee – not the same as in Addis Ababa with a herb. It was plain and simple coffee – much like what one gets in India

We went to the level below the Deputy Director General and commenced work immediately. The work was similar to what we had done in Ethiopia. The only difference was that Nairobi had more intense relations with Europe, especially Eastern Europe, and the postal traffic had gone haywire because at that point in time the former Yugoslav Republic was breaking up. Many countries came up on the scene whose names even the officers were unfamiliar with. Like for example, they did not know where Ljubljiana was. They were impressed when, on being asked, I told them it was in Slovenia. Every day we would work through the emerging requirements of the people and the business community to ensure that the Postal System gives them satisfaction. I was there with them all the time and many of the boys were very intelligent and hard working.

An exotic bird in Nairobi National Park

Towards the end of the week Mr. Oyyo informed me that we were to go to a small town, Mechakos. It was off the Mombasa road and used to be the capital of Kenya before it lost the status to Nairobi. Nairobi thus is a young town, established only in 1890s  A biggish village now,  Mechakos had a number of people working on wood. Perhaps, wood was easily available nearby and the people were making good use of it by shaping out lovely curios. Wood craft was very popular and as there was a market for the finished product in Europe and the US the craftsmen seemed to be quite affluent. I found many of them working wearing suits instead of dungarees or overalls. I too bought a good looking figure of a man about 10 inches tall.

On our way back there was a scare. The engine of the vehicle – a kind of SUV much like our Mahindra’s Bolero – caught fire mid way to Nairobi. The driver tried to put out the fire but couldn’t do so. The officials who accompanied me scrambled away from the vehicle. I came out last as the official sitting next to me was a lady and she was in a hurry to get out. The fire was eventually extinguished but the vehicle wouldn’t start. The driver left in a bus that mercifully came that way to bring another vehicle. Nairobi was still good 40 to 50 kms away. All told, he had to travel around 100 kms that could take around two and a half hours. But

The Central Business District

as dusk fell over the highway the lady got worried. She was worried about looters who ply the roads at night. True enough; Nairobi was not quite safe in the evenings how could its outskirts be safe at night? Thankfully, the driver arrived with another vehicle and I hit the hotel at 9.30 in the night.

In African countries the incoming mail was not being delivered door to door. They had no postmen and had the post box system; everyone who received mails had to have a post box in his name. One day I was taken to the City Square post office. There I came across hundreds of post boxes of aluminium in many tiers. Checking them I found lots of the letters that were put in the boxes were pretty old. But the blame would not come to the post office; it was the business of the holder of the post box to have his mail collected in time.

The City Square is a typical colonial place with shops all around. This is where the post office eponymously named is situated. And this is where I had the first Indian samosa. The man who brought it said he had done so since I was an Indian and it is from India that it came to Kenya. Our samosas are, however, bigger and very, very seldom would have fillings of meat. These were far smaller and had meat inside and were very delicious.

While winding up we found that there was appreciable traffic of parcels to Eastern Europe. Kenya is known for its coffee and tea and these products go all over Europe, especially Eastern Europe but there were obviously bottlenecks as the dispatches were being unduly delayed – a case of defective routing. All these were revised with the hope that consignments from Nairobi would be moving faster to Europe.

An antelope in the Orphanage

Had the Administration informed me in time that it would not be able to organize a trip for me to Masai Mara I would have arranged one for it myself as many batches left from Panafric for the National Parks. One Sunday, however, Oyyo came and took me to the Nairobi National Park. It was quite strange to see tall giraffes against the backdrop of tall buildings. Nairobi also has an orphanage for wild animals.

Nairobi offers some fine shopping in Africa after South Africa.  I came across a shop that offered gear for safaris. These included from hats to jackets to boots to cameras. However, I found an Egyptian cotton shirt in khaki with posterior of a zebra printed on it in black. I found it very attractive and it was with me for years. Next to this shop was the famous restaurant by the name “The Carnivore” where Sunil Gavaskar was reported to have had crocodile meat. The restaurant offers meat of almost all wild animals. In an Indian shop I came across incredible cheating. I bought a few braces for my trousers and the price quoted was unbelievable – each one almost of Rs. 1000/-. During the bargaining I happened to tell them even in India they wouldn’t cost so

At the National Park

much the shopkeeper immediately asked me whether I was an Indian. When I answered in the affirmative the price immediately dropped by 50%. All this happened in the presence of Oyyo. I felt very ashamed.

 Central Business District of the town is a massive affair and in it is located the tallest building of the town – the Kenyatta International Convention Centre, KICC for short. The building is of thirty storeys and has a helipad. It occupies an enormous area. There are other interesting buildings but the district was still, kind of, work in progress. 

The regional UPU consultant for Africa, a former officer of Nigerian Postal System was to come to Nairobi. He wanted to visit Mombasa. I met him after arrival and found him familiar with many Indian consultants. A very amiable elderly person he asked me to accompany him to Mombasa. I had to go there in any case as it had exchanges of postal items with foreign countries.