9 - You can take an Indian out of India but you can’t take India out of an Indian. - Ethiopian journey - Blog Post no -9

Chiseled features of a Ethiopian Girl! 

We started the process of packing up. You can take an Indian out of India but you can’t take India out of an Indian. One of the first things I bought and packed were a pair of Indian flags. I did not want our family to miss The Independence day and Republic day celebrations in a foreign country.   

Finances were quite tight and I did not want to take loans to go abroad. I was grappling with the issue. The telephone rang. It was Dr. Y. Kiranmayee, the HOD of Management Department, Dr.B.R.Ambedkar Open University. She wanted me to write three chapters for the B. Com, final year text book of “Principles of Marketing”.  She said that the University would pay Rs 15,000/- for the three chapters. It was like manna from the heaven.

Ethiopian girl wearing Traditional Dress

I thanked her profusely and told that it will be done in two to three weeks. As an afterthought I told her “madam, your offer comes at the right time. I was desperately wanting some extra cash for buying things for my Ethiopian trip”. She was very glad that she could be of help. As promised I took a hard copy and a soft copy of the three chapters with in the stipulated time. Dr. Kiranmayee was delighted and saw to that I was given a cheque immediately. In a government university immediate payment was almost impossible. I thanked her from the bottom of my heart.

Next we picked up clothes including woollens and sweaters. We had to be careful as we would not be coming back for the next two years. We also packed Red gram, Tamarind and even Sona Masuri rice. We packed so many things that I was quite worried that we would be overweight. The weight limit at that time was 40 kgs per person and I was sure that we were packed to the gills.

Oromo Couple 

We also packed sports equipment like badminton racquets, shuttle cocks, badminton nets, chess board, children text books and like suggested, many good movie CDs. Yes, the movie collection had many hits of Rajendra Prasad, the comedy doctor of telugu movies.

Things were progressing well at the institute too. CBIT accepted my resignation. We were scheduled to fly on the 9^th November 2002. Our tickets given by the Ethiopian government were only from Mumbai and I wanted to fly from Hyderabad. Same issue again. No cash! This time I knocked at the door of Dr. Jaypal Reddy, HOD, Mechanical Department and the President of CBIT cooperative society.

Oromo Girl Ethiopia 

Jaypal Reddy was an institution at CBIT. He was a dynamic person and was instrumental in sourcing and buying of land at a very reasonable price at Attapur and then offering the same to CBIT employees. It is due to him that many CBIT employees could build nice homes and settle down in life.

Dr. Jaypal Reddy gave me a patient hearing “no problem at all. I will see to that your Cooperative Society account is closed and that you get the amount due to you”. The amount saved in the Cooperative Society came up to Rs 16,000/-. It was enough for our family’s air tickets from Hyderabad to Mumbai. The tickets were bought and the countdown started.