“He went to Germany 14.12.56” – This is what it says behind the small square photograph, given by one of my aunts. Taken in front of 596 Scindia House, Vishveshwarapuram, Dad was being given a fond send off by his mother, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews and other well-wishers. At 25, he was the first of the Nagesh Rao Manay children who was travelling abroad, and it must have been a proud time for the family.
L to R: Nivedita aunty (Pillu), Indirabai aunty (Akka), Bhaskar uncle, Venkoba (Dad), Sujiya aunty, Narasingh Rao (driver), Grandma Muthubai, Indirabai’s four daughters Rajni (tallest), Pratibha, Kalpana, Kanya (shortest), Geetha aunty, Bhooma uncle, and little boy
The journey to Germany was going to be a long one. First Dad would need to make it to Bombay. From Santa Cruz Airport, on 20th Dec early morning, he was going to take TWA flight 903, one of several actually, to eventually reach Munich on 23rd Dec.
Bombay -> Rome -> Geneva -> Zurich -> Munich. Geneva was included in a supplementary ticket as a detour between Rome and Zurich… there must have been some issue with the flights. All this as “Tourist” fare was for $280.00, paid as IND Rs 1334/-. 1 USD = 4.76 INR in 1956!
Dad had saved the tickets in the original TWA sleeve. Don’t know if he did a city check-in or an airport check-in, but he was allotted aisle seat 15C.
Dad did not return to India for several months. He subsequently lived in Germany for quite a few years and we always knew it was second home for him! So much so that when Lufthansa started its direct operations from Bangalore to Frankfurt in September 2001, he was on the inaugural flight. In December 2001, TWA ceased operations and became aviation history.
arathimy 
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