Up to a hundred shirts fit into a suitcase. The trip was worthwhile with two suitcases. Then a person flew fully officially to Denmark.
I also made a trip and visited my parents and daughters after delivering the suitcase.
All were happy but there were also some surprises for me, which were not so pleasant. My estranged wife dropped another bombshell again. Mother and father were relieved to see me because there were matters to clarify. Chitra had sued me through a lawyer for alimony to the amount of 43,770.68 Deutsch Mark.
A bailiff had already contacted my parents but he had to withdraw without even having had some success.
Now I had to defend myself and had an appointment with Chitra's shyster.
I announced to him that a backlash would come from me if he did not stop this nonsense.
Chitra's lawyer was also her client at the same time, and for her labors of love, Chitra received free defense - she told me so herself.
I brought some things to light at the public prosecutor office, the immigration authorities as well as at the criminal investigation department through my lawyer. It was a messy struggle, as to which one of us would gain the upper hand.
I was ready for it after my mother showed me some letters from the years after our marriage, i.e., the time when I had the restaurant. I still did not understand how I had got fooled like this during the time! Again it was proof that love or being in love made you blind.
There was a letter dated December 23, 1965. Just exactly at that time, Chitra had written me that she needed money for a doctor. The letter, which Mother had found in the possession of Chitra and now showed me, contained a bill from a Dr. Sinnatamby, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, a doctor in Colombo. This bill, translated by our family doctor at that time, stated literally the following: I have investigated Mrs. Chitra S. today concerning infertility. The result is a retrocession of the uterus, which probably prevents conception.
It would be very worthwhile, if the husband would undergo a checkup as soon as possible and get a finding of the sperm fluids. It is possible that the husband is infertile. Invoice amount 500 Rupees.
On January 9, 1966 we had written to the German Embassy in Colombo and asked for help because Chitra's mother Nancy had supposedly died and Chitra had flown to Ceylon. The answer came back from the embassy in Colombo with this message:
After the telephonic conversation between me and Mrs. Nancy, on March 22, 1966, the address of Nancy is still the same one known to you. Mrs. Nancy is alive. I have personally seen her with her daughter shopping. Sincerely A.T. Jajakoddy, Second Secretary.
And then there was yet a letter dated March 20, 1966 from the radio operator of Arsterturm, on which I had taken Chitra as my wife in those days to Germany along with me
This radio operator had also been at my wedding then and later in Colombo, and had written a letter to my mother from there.
Mother gave me all this material to read only during this visit so many years later.
She said that I had been so much in love in those days that it would have been pointless to talk to me about this subject. She also would have never shown these things to me if it had not been necessary now, so that I could defend myself.
The following was written in the letter from the radio operator:
> When we had arrived in Colombo for the first time almost three months ago, in December 1965 on Christmas Eve, after our time in Germany, the captain announced to me tauntingly with almost malicious glee after his first shore leave that Chitra was here in Colombo. In the same way, the carpenter came to me with these "news". I do not know why people did this to me with so much of malicious glee. I first doubted the truth of these reports. But the very next day
the agency located in Colombo and the ship dealers etc. told me about Chitra's return. As a believing Christian, you cannot change the marriage covenant once made like a dirty shirt. But in my case, it was welcome.
It is sad to have to see how Chitra goes about with the trust given to her and the chance for a better life and how she practices prostitution here. As a good friend of your son, I appeal to you: Please have understanding for his mistake. Please help him further! He is a good man. I have seen and got to know how he adored this woman and certainly loved her with his whole heart very much, those days. Your son is good but Chitra deserves only a spanking!
The radio operator from the Arsterturm had written this to my mother. If she had shown me the letters at that time, I would have dismissed everything as lies and conspiracies and would have only quarreled. But now I myself knew that everything was true. In those days, I had been only blind but also very naive. At the latest after my return from Greece I knew I had married a whore of the cheapest variety. For me as a sailor, whores were always something like sisters or similar pals with whom you could have great fun.
But my whore turned out to be the last thing you could possibly know. How could a person change so much?
In short, it had turned out as follows:
In June 1965, we got married. In September we arrived in Bremen. In October, the restaurant was opened. In November Chitra's mother allegedly died and by the end of November 1965 to June 1966, Chitra was in Colombo.
On December 23, 1965, the medical findings of infertility were obtained.
On January 9, 1966, Mother received the letter from the radio operator that Chitra was whoring around and that she was noticed on 24.12.1965. Chitra returned in June 1966.
The daughter was born in October 1966.
Now I could explain the whole time span and what happened in between. I also knew now who the father of the daughter was: Salim from the Gem - Office. On the one hand, this whole thing made me sad and on the other hand, very angry and aggressive.
Most of all, the girls, who had never had parents, suffered. In the meantime, they were 10 and 11 years old and went to high school. Both were in the same class. My mother was able to push this through with the school management. It was the best for all concerned.
But in the meanwhile, the girls knew now what made their mother did in Frankfurt and how she earned her money. They tried to convince me that I should stay with them. But I could not; they had not been able to understand this, which made me feel very sorry. I had to get away.
I could not be reminded of Chitra by all this.
I had then indeed searched for job in the surrounding area but it was not long that I was out of job again because the inn where I worked as a cook, closed down. The employment office could get me any work in the vicinity, only in Frankfurt once again.
But I did not want that.
In that case, I could have stayed in India. But as often was the case in life, it turned out quite different to how I had planned it. A friend and neighbor brought me a brand new edition of the "Bild am Sonntag" with an interesting story on the front page.
There was a very big article in it about a certain Mrs. C.S., born in Ceylon, who was married to a German and had been sentenced to 5 years in prison because of human trafficking and prostitution!
It was also mentioned that Mrs. S's husband was working abroad as a cook and that the two daughters were living in a small town in Hessen with their grandparents. This was exactly the shit that nobody wanted to have! The girls were accosted in the school not only by stupid, but bloody stupid people !
They were shunned by their girlfriends at the behest of parents and boys were contacting them already for a date when they got a little older.
It must have been like running the gauntlet for both of them.
Since I did not want to get involved in this, I decided to fly back to Nepal.
Of course, I had gotten money for a return ticket already at the departure to Denmark.
I knew that people would despise me for my actions and for running away.
But I could not help being very far away from Germany. I had never thought about whether it was cowardice or it was escaping from my responsibilities.
For me it was simply the freedo
m that I had to have!
Free from every pressure and also from every responsibility! Only in Kathmandu I was back to being what I wanted to be, a free man!
Again the accusations came, which I made to myself time and again. I should never have married at the age of 24. My life that I had lived until then, had been so untroubled until Chitra came and had completely muddled my life.
But I did not want to blame anyone for this except myself, since I had to live with it.
Since my flight was via Delhi, I made a stop. I visited Mimung's girlfriend and told her to inform Mimung that I was back in Nepal and that she should come there.
I left money for a ticket from Delhi- Kathmandu with Mr. Goya of the Student Travel- travel agency.
I did not have to wait for Mimung for even a week and I could pick her up from the Tribhuvan Airport. Our joy of reunion was great and also the desire to unite our bodies. My little Maharani tried to imitate everything that she remembered from Khajuraho and the figures at the temple. She was successful in some of these art positions, but I failed in them then! As a European, I was not agile enough for such acrobatics.
I was welcomed by my Danish friends again and I heard from one of them that a hotel owner was looking for a representative, a European hotel manager. I met the hotel owners of the Hotel Eden - a somewhat strange hotel and also a funny owner. He opened up the conversation by saying that he wanted to sell or rent out his hotel.
Mimung and I looked at the good place.
We also found the restaurant, which was said to be at the highest location in Kathmandu, at least the prospectus said so. We were also able to read more information in it. It was situated close to the city, directly at the Hanuman Dhoka Square with the Royal Palace. A single room cost $ 6 and a double room 9 dollars per night. A suite cost $ 16, extra bed $ 3
There was an individual special discount for guests who wanted to stay longer. The tariff was valid from 1. 4. 1977.
Our hotel owner suddenly did not want to sell but wanted to rent the project to us for $ 5,000 per month.
As the hotel had only 20 rooms and it looked as though the rooms were all over each other and not built in floors side by side, one might think that a long towel had been made into a building. If there was an occupancy up to 100%, all as double rooms, just $ 5,400 of income was generated.
Then there was a chaotic restaurant with an even more chaotic kitchen, all in Nepalese style. The cleanliness was also of the Nepalese variety but the owner wanted to have American dollars. But there was something even more incredible.
Using an elevator, which actually worked, our hotel manager and owner took us to a kind of cellar.
There was a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling and we could see a room full of hand-pressed, black oval flat hashish balls.
I thought I was not seeing right!
There had to be hundredweight of these hand-pressed, light oval bundles or also small plates stored in this room. It was a fortune there, if you could bring them to America or to Europe. If I could not buy the hotel and did not want to rent it, then I should buy these goods from him at a low price, our hotel owner told us. He needed cash very urgently.
I thanked him and promised him that if I found prospective buyers, whether for the hotel or for his hashish, I would send them over to him. He did not give up and said he would bring the stuff also up to the Indian border and deliver it quite cheap. There were approximately 300 kg and I could have everything for $ 5000 in cash.
He also told me then that these small round bundles were manufactured in prison. The detainees had to rub and knead the pollen so long in the palm till the stuff became slightly oily and got stuck together. This kind of prison labor should be introduced in Europe and America!
There would be definitely enough volunteers who would want to go to jail! The owner told us that the pollen were guaranteed to be pure and the choicest. I did not doubt that for a second. He also said he didn’t mind if I took some oval, flat balls with me, as samples for my friends or perhaps buyers, he said.
All this was a little too difficult for me. The matter was a little too ambitious. Where could I travel with the stuff? Where were the buyers?
To Europe, but how? The only possibility would be to bring the stuff to Goa. There would be enough buyers there. Maybe I should send a message to Yaniv, the Israeli and he could bring it to the man or to the woman with the suitcase with a small profit for me.
No, I dismissed the thought and said goodbye to our hotel owner. We sat in a small restaurant and ordered two Changs, a Nepalese specialty.
These are small beads of grains, on which boiling hot water is poured and kept covered for a few minutes to simmer for a few minutes. A process is set in motion, in which these balls, perhaps millets or something similar is fermented and alcohol is produced. Cheap but capable to get intoxicated.
Mimung and I went every night to "Foottapper", a disco, where everyone knew everyone else. We had a blast with my business friends and the people you got to know over time like this. Our business with the silk shirts flourished. Also we had added some products in our range. The women in Denmark were able to buy silk blouses and silk skirts because we supplied them. Only I could not fly to Europe because I would be away for too long.
Now and then, Mimung and I flew to Delhi.
Mimung, the little devil, had registered herself in a business school, so that she had a reason to be able to stay for a longer period in Delhi. She was able to convince her parents that she now needed to be in an administrative school after the practical training. A kind of private business school. She had to go for classes once and even more, so that she could write her exam.
So we flew from time to time to Delhi.
Time went by very quickly, so also the money. If you were a traveler like me, you don't have a bank account, but traveler's checks or cash, mostly US dollars.
And this meant the beloved green notes were getting less and less like the green traveler’s cheques from American Express; they also were getting increasingly less, although the business was running.
The time for Mimung’s examinations came, which meant she had to go back to Itanagar.
Her attempt to take me failed, also this time due to my resistance. She had understood that it would not happen so fast or perhaps never that I would go with her to the jungle although I was acquainted with the jungle in Nepal. Mimung and I had booked at the Royal Chitwan National Park and stayed in a tree house with double bed, shower and toilet for a weekend. We did not have other indulgences! The fun cost $ 100 per day in the Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge.
It was very expensive, but an experience, you could not have every day and didn’t forget for a lifetime!
The flight for this cost only $ 30 per person.
The money still went its way, the way of becoming less! But as long as Mimung was there, it was only: Don‘t worry, be happy! We were happy every day - of course also in the night, till the day came, on which Mimung had to fly back to her secluded world once again.
Life in Kathmandu was not so nice without Mimung. But I had to get used to it. Our business died down somehow, things could no longer be sold so well, the market with the shirts and blouses was exhausted, especially now that I had once again spent everything.
To console myself, I visited a friend, whom I knew from Foottapper times. He worked in the office of the Sherpa Society in Ram Shah Patt. There I booked a trekking ticket for 14 days for a total price of 250 dollars, which would be sufficient for the Annapurna up to the Basic Camp.
So it was 18 dollars per day for all-inclusive meals, cook, porters, all the equipment, the transport and also for the Sherpa Guide.
It was also informed that there was no refund for a canceled tour, for any reason whatever. In addition, you had to pay an extra rescue costs in case of an emergency. I was not afraid of that because I had an emergency every day!
My trekking attempt on Annapurna
It meant not getting weak and endurance.
We were a group of 6 people, two older Austrians, probably a couple, two sisters from New Zealand, a Norwegian and myself.
On the way, we met Nepalese women, who were so loaded with wood that you did not see the small, delicate creatures, but only a walking woodpile.
Our porters were also so loaded with tents, blankets, food and who knows what else that I could not believe that they would even walk hundred meters up the mountain. I was very disappointed in this regard; not only the Afghans were so tough and untiring, these small people were also very tough, a mountain tribe.
Since I'm honest, I must confess that I had not made it to the base camp. After a week, that is, at the half of it, I joined a group that came from the top, and went with them back to Katmandu. The older Austrians and the sisters were better than I was. Disco and a decent bed suited me better. I had enough hardships during my time as bus driver.
Trekking was not for me.
I talked with my Danish friends on how it was to continue now. The silk business was no longer interesting enough and it needed a new idea. Of course, I knew that the Danes were no angels and were also in the drug business, only they had not talked about it to me.
That's why I was surprised that now this topic came up.
There was some stuff on the market, which I had to try, they told me and I got a cigarette with hash oil for the first time. The advantage over the plates was the reduced weight, since it was a concentrate, I was told. Even smuggling it was easier, because you could pack it in condoms and transport in the stomach, which no one could see. My leprechaun on my shoulder told me that that was a good idea.
By now I knew that if the little imp wanted to tell me something, then I listened to him and made him responsible for any eventual damages. So I could disclaim any responsibility on my part. It was nothing more than to be kidding yourself and the worst part was that I believed it.
So I asked how much returns I would get. After a few phone calls to Australia, it was confirmed that I would fly for four thousand dollars, with the deduction of all costs.
My Dream to Be Free Page 35