Nick has this fascinating post up and I thought that I would join him in going back to my very firsts too.
First vacation: I was about seven years old and was living with my uncle and aunt in Chennai while my parents were in Bombay. My uncle and aunt decided to take me to meet my parents and I distinctly remember the trip by train which was very exciting and the week or so that I spent in Bombay with my parents.
First car: I was eighteen and in Hyderabad when I bought a much used pre war DKW as a favour to a friend who urgently needed cash. I had no intention of keeping the car and in fact sold it off at a profit to professional dealers in used cars within a fortnight.
First job:: On the assumption that in this case, job meaning a proper one with an appointment letter etc, as a Field Inspector for a General Insurance Company in Hyderabad when I was eighteen. I worked there for all of nineteen months before I quit to move to Madras.
First crush: Was when I was in Fourth Standard. Her name was Rama and that is all that I remember now about her.
First kiss: I have written about that story here and here.
First flight: A joy ride in a Tiger Moth off the Madras Meenampakkam airport when I must have been about twenty or so. The first ever commercial flight that I took was in 1967 from Bombay to Calcutta and back in a Caravelle aircraft.
First fancy dinner: By fancy, if wearing a suit is meant, it was the dinner that I wrote about here.
First apartment: As a bachelor in Hyderabad with my first job when I was eighteen, I had rented a single room above a garage in a compound with a bungalow in it. I had to come down to use the bathroom and it was a nuisance when I entertained friends.
First record: Elvis Presley’s 45 RPM Apron Strings.
First pet: While I grew up with dogs at home as a boy, my own first pet had to wait till I was 32 years old. A dachshund/terrier cross named Mala, she was a delightful companion for about three years. When we were transferred to Bombay from that location we decided to giver her away as in Bombay living in a flat would have been cruel to the dog. She went to a very caring home and I saw her on a few occasions later too.
First concert: Duke Ellington’s Orchestra in the Madras Music Accademy in 1963. The only concert that I ever went to with my brother Arvind.
Wow! That was fun writing. Brought back so many memories. Thank you Nick.
So at 18 you were already a budding businessman, ready to turn a quick profit on a used car! Very impressive. But that was the end of any entrepreneurial aspirations?
Far from it Nick. I had borrowed money to buy the car on an impulse and found that it was a white elephant. I thought it best to dispose it off and clear my debt.
You have a better memory than I do!
Cheerful Monk recently posted..Crazy Weather
You are being modest but I can assure you that when I go on my nostalgia trips my memory functions just fine. It is short time memory that bugs me like forgetting to take the food from the freezer to thaw in time.
Lovely post, Rama. Imagine if you and your first crush had got it together? Rama Ramana? LOL
I have often speculated on it Maria and inevitably came to the conclusion that what happened eventually was a better option.
not sure my brain is up to this today…but on the other hand, I just discovered that the first real home I can remember living in – is now a carpark (for what reason do not know…); found it via Google maps, when an Auckland family member was down their visiting and I suggested she visit it!
Four years ago on a trip to Delhi I went to see the first ever home that we lived in after our marriage and also the bigger one that we lived in subsequently after 11 years. Neither had changed in any way. I somehow never got to see the first above the garage place on many subsequent visits to Hyderabad.
I have enjoyed both yours and Nick’s posts of ‘firsts’ Rummy.
the biggest first I remember is the year I was 17 and the first time I flew in a commercial jet to NY.
the beauty of it! the clouds were like a field of cotton balls. I sat by one of the wings. and when the automatic flap started moving I thought in a panic that the wing was breaking. thank goodness I suffered in silence for the few minutes it took for me to realize we were not falling through the air like a rock! 😀
tammy j recently posted..moving on old bean
The Tiger Moth experience and my first ever helicopter ride in 1969 among the clouds are two flights that I will never forget. I was also in a flight once when one engine failed and we returned to the take off airport which was another eerie experience.