Index
Americas
Northern circle of Canada
A college senior, Indra, introduced me to photo expeditions to the Himalayas. But I was grateful to his father, who taught me how to enlarge photos. The process was simple. A black-and-white negative was placed on a projector to expose photo paper. It was then fixed in a hypo-filled tray, where the image came alive.
Unalaska to Alaska
Juneau is the capital of Alaska. It has been on my mind since I first saw Glacier Bay pictures. I flew there in a ten-passenger seaplane, a new experience for me. The plane had wheels and pontoons for floating. We taxied from a gravel tarmac in Juneau but landed on pontoons on a lake in Glacier Bay. The National Park Service issued a free two-night camping permit in a remote corner called Scidmore within the Glacier Bay limit. I boarded the tourist boat, which dropped me on a rocky shore.
Last few nights and the first flight
When I dropped the keys to my room for my uncle, I had nothing left in Chicago. I had an exuberant feeling and a strange confidence that I was free from all worldly ties and realised why hermits were always full of joy. I boarded an el (elevated) train and gate-crashed into a friend’s apartment. They were students at the University of Chicago and shared a three-bedroom apartment in a ghetto south of Chicago. I decided to have a frugal life in the United States for the rest of the few days.
Europe & africa
Soviet Union borders
I made a mistake that I should not have done but I did. As a result, I ended up with some hardships like police interrogations, and solo trekking in Tundra, but finally, rewarded, with a once in a lifetime experience, soaking in a bathtub in a secluded backyard under the arctic white sky with a fully naked blond but sorry – still শুক্তনি without ঘী – no romance or sex at all! জটায়ু would have titled the story “লাপ্পীনরান্টায় লারে লাপ্পা”
Middle East
An arc through the middle east
After days of Gurudwara Halwas (Sweet dish) in Nicosia, I longed to hit the road again. My Sardarji hosts informed me that Middle Eastern Airlines has resumed service to Beirut after a lull of political unrest. Sardarji’s network gave me a tip about Irish charter flights. During the tourist season, Aer Lingus, Irish Airways had a hopping charter from Dublin to Gatwick and then to Nicosia and Beirut. It was the cheapest way to get out of Cyprus.
Like most of the Middle East, Cyprus had its problems. There was a civil war about five years ago when the UN force moved in. They divided the country into Turkish and Greek factions. The busy Nicosia airport sat in the buffer. It was abandoned on a day’s notice. I hear it has been lying useless since then for half a century. They had to open a new airport in Larnaca hastily. It still needed to be completed when I flew out. Aer Lingus used small-sized 737-200 jets to suit the runway. Most tourists got off at Larnaca. New passengers were charged less for the remaining leg to Beirut.
Israel the promised land
I pulled up a crime, a cold-blooded one. It was meticulously planned for months and hatched across continents. It had to be executed in the hottest bed of terrorism. Everything was done precisely, but my knees started wobbling when crossing the bridge. I was about to commit the crime.
I felt the neck chain with the dog tag where my Kolkata addresses were engraved. If unlucky, these soldiers were trained to open fire in the blink of an eye. But they were professionals. They would dutifully send my dog tag with a note. My mom, in Kolkata, would receive it through diplomatic channels. She will at least know I will never return. That didn’t stop my wobbling knees on that rickety steel bridge. Now, let me explain why I had to do it.
