“Sayonara sayonara…Kal phir aaungi sayonara” This song from the movie ‘Love in Tokyo’ where Asha Parekh wearing a kimono and holding a Japanese fan, is my earliest memory of Japan. Those days wherever you look you could find Japanese electronics gadgets. And for me, the most fascinating thing was the Japanese Gudiya, a doll which used to close and open its eyes. When you make the doll lie down it will close its eyes and when you keep it up straight it will open its eyes. It was the most magical thing I had seen ever in five of six years of my life. So, Japan as per my tiny six-year-old brain was very much a part of India.
Coming to Kerala for vacations were always the happiest moments. Meeting the cousins, going to relatives’ places, going to beaches, rowing through the rivers, trekking to uncle’s house, climbing on the trees, everything was exciting. So, this time we were coming from the remote North Eastern state Assam, where my father was posted. The journey in the train itself was so exciting. It takes five days and three changeover trains to reach my destination. Even after getting out of the train, you will feel the running motion of the train for one day.
Along with my cousin’s, we climbed on trees, threw stones at neighbours’ windows, plucked flowers, and used to run away, call funny names to other kids and the list went so on. Our squad leader was the eldest cousin who stayed at Calicut only, and who was almost 10 years elder to us. All the above said things we did on his command. We got many punishments from our grandfather for these naughty things. He used to tell us stories and we were awed by his tales which included demons and vampires.
Those days the neighbourhood was so known that even if we venture out three to four kilometres, all were known, people. Everyone would know us by our ancestral house name. Even the parents never cared where the kids have sneaked out, as they knew we would be safe.
On one such fine day, the eldest cousin gathered all of us and asked us, “Have you all been to Japan?” We all shook our head no. He looked scornful at us as if we were menial beings as we have not seen Japan. He stood on a makeover podium and for the next fifteen minutes, he was explaining the beauty of Japan, how the people there are so hardworking etc. etc. We listened to him with our eyes and mouth open. And yes, we felt bad now for not being able to visit Japan till then. Then comes his announcement. He is going to take us to Japan. We were all excited and so thrilled. He said follow me. We walked behind him. We walked for kilometres and kilometres. Through small muddy pavements, across the lush green paddy fields, then rocky pathway and finally reached the end of the land. The land ended into a huge mass of water. The whole place looked magical. He said this is Japan. And we too were as proud as Columbus when he discovered America. We played there for some time and then returned home, feeling proud of our achievement. When we reached home, all the elders in the house were waiting for us to be back. Not seeing us for quite some time they searched for us around the neighbourhood. And not finding us anywhere around they were worried, so when we got back, we had to hear a series of scolding. But it didn’t matter to us as we had accomplished greater thing. And none of the elders paid heed to our mentioning that we went to Japan and back.
Anyways for the next few years, we still believed where we went was the ‘Japan’. To add more to it on my return to Assam and going back to school, I told everyone that for vacation I had been to Japan. A few years later, when we grew up and the second set of cousins were of seven to eight years, we did the same with them. We took them to the same spot and told them, we are in Japan.
To end it up as someone said: "the journey matters more than the destination." Yes, the journey was a memorable one indeed!
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