First Overseas trip to India
Sobhag’s trip to India by Visa Oshwal boarding was memorable. With 40 boarders, the trip began from Nairobi to Mombasa and took a steamer to Seychelles, then Goa and then Bombay.
From Bombay, their journey was in a steamer train to Jamnagar, Srinagar, Delhi, Kolkata (Howrah), Kanyakumari in the south and back to Bombay. The steam train journey took 3 months, in the day they visited places and at night the train used to move from place to place. Sobhag’s father paid Rs. 600 for the whole trip.
One of their teachers took the students to Baroda at his brother’s place, where all students stayed in his house and explored Baroda.
In Delhi, they got the opportunity to meet Indira Gandhi and Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister of India in January 1966, a year after Sobhag’s trip. Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was the second president of India.
He also got an opportunity to visit the village ‘Kajurda’ near Jamnagar. Sobhag’s family comes from this village. Two to three of his mates on the trip were Memon – a Muslim community from South Asia. Sobhag learned that they originated from Okha in Kutch and can speak Kutchi Gujarati. This is where he realised that his family is originally from Kutch as well and the younger generations have converted their language to Gujarati.
