I remember that day very well, I think it was 20th
June 1964.One day before that is on 19th July Baba came to drop us
that is Aai Deepak and I to the S S Kampala and we were travelling to Mumbai to
Bombay to India for a resettlement. We were leaving Dar-es-Salaam for good.
During our journey we were also accompanies by Sudha mami and Sanjay who was a
toddler about 8 months old, Vimal mavshi and Suresh mama. To see us off at the
S S Kampala Kamal mavshi, Nana and Raju had come. In those days security was
not very tight and all of them were allowed to board the ship. The ship was
quite huge to my child’s eyes and of course we were very excited. I was excited
for the long sea journey, even at that young age of 11 years I loved the sea
voyage. But my heart was very heavy because I was to leave my Baba and go
without him. I was very much attached to him and I always wanted to be like
him. He seemed so powerful, so wise and so loving. At about 9 o clock they
disembarked the ship that is Kamal mavshi, Raju, Nana and Baba. Baba in his car
must have dropped them and he went alone to an empty home where his loved ones
would not be there. But he had promised us that on the next day he would come
to the shores to wish us good bye. The bay of Dar-es-salaam is such that there
is a small creek through which the ship used to pass and we could see people on
the coast or the beach and as promised we three i.e. Aai Deepak an I went on
the deck of the ship and Baba was there standing beside the car and waving out
to us. That was my last view of him. It was with a very heavy heart that I
wished Good bye to him, not knowing when I would meet him again, because there
was uncertainty all through. But since I was very young I adapted to this
situation very fast and I began to play. We were in the 1st class
cabin. Aai and Deepak had one cabin and I was in the adjoining cabin to be
shared with another lady, but that lady never turned up, so we had the cabin to
ourselves. But I always slept with my mother and Deepak in their cabin.
R2
Our ship left at about 7 o clock in the morning on 20th
June 1964. Our first stop was going to be Zanzibar. Zanzibar is a very small
island off the coast of Tanzania. It was full of clove trees and it was an
island which was in the hands of Sultanate of Oman, but it had gained its
independence and hence it was now a part of Tanzania. Tanganyika plus Zanzibar
was Tanzania. Zanzibar got it independence along with Tanzania in 1961. After
seeing Baba off we went to the cabin. All three of us cried embracing each
other. I was now the man of the family, since Baba was at Dar. It was on my
small shoulders that there was the responsibility of taking care of Aai and
Deepak. Deepak was a very naughty boy and hence I had to take care of him. My
mother was very sensitive and since she was not that well educated I was in charge,
a young boy of 11 years studying in the 6th standard was now head of
the family. The day began nicely Suresh mama, Sudha mami and Vimal mavshi were
travelling in the 3rd class, and hence they were given bunks. Bunks
were large dormitories at the bottom of the ship. S S Kampala was a passenger
as well as a cargo ship and lot of cargo was also loaded in the ship. Since my
father was a British government officer we were all entitled to 1st
class cabins. The cabins were fantastic; they were quite big with independent
beds for each of us. But I remember that since the ships were old i.e. I am
talking of 1964, the ships used to roll a lot and for the first three days the
ship rolled very heavily, with the result that Vimal mavshi felt sea sick and
she was taken to the bed. We youngsters that is Deepak and I like monkeys used
move around the whole ship. The rolling of the ship had no impact on us and we
were not sea sick and we really enjoyed the sea. We had access to every part of
the ship since we were 1st class passengers. There was quite a crowd
of young boys with us in our age group. We were a group of 10 to 12 boys. Most
of them were Europeans and two of us Deepak and I were Indians. We had opted
for non-veg food i.e. Deepak and I. Aai had vegetarian food. Vegetarian food
was Gujrathi thali delivered to her cabin. Whereas we were required to go to
the dining hall. The dining hall was huge. There were big long tables. One
table was kept exclusively for us for the children of the 1st class
and there was a matron who took care of us and who over looked all our
requirements. You can say that she was sort of baby sitting for us. She was the
one who used to arrange lot of programs, take care of our meals and ensure that
we were all comfortable. I remember that after that we used to go to the deck.
The deck was very huge and there was an enclosed hall of about 30 feet square.
There were 2 table tennis tables there and there were go carts and toys. There
was a library and all things of comfort and luxury were provided to us. I had
already started playing table tennis to some extent at Dar-es-salaam and I
liked the game. I came into this game because basically in Dar-es-salaam our
Maratha Mandal Mukund Padhye had just returned from India and he along with
Vilas Natu boasted in front of me, that you cannot play the game and they used
to literally buly me and I used to just sit on the sideline watching them play.
Perhaps that was when the seed of playing table tennis entered my mind. In the
ship I earnestly started playing and I had a flair for the game. Our matron had
arranged one small tournament and I came
out to be the winner, the champion of the ship. I was given a small desk
calendar as a prize for my victory. We had lunch in the afternoon and I siesta
after that and Aai used have lunch in the cabin, either alone or with Vimal
Mavshi, Sudha mami and Suresh mama. They were not permitted to move all over
the ship since they were 3rd class passengers. But they used to
enter our cabin on the sly and since we had 2 cabins we could easily
accommodate them during the day. During the nights strictly they were not
allowed in the 1st class.
