I was back to my seat and asked for a cold drink which was promptly served. Soon after, the big jet landed at Nairobi, Kenya. Many passengers left the cabin and few remained and there we went up again for a forty minutes flight to reach the source of the Nile river where the great Victoria Lake, the biggest fresh water lake in the world, lay, gently touching the fringes of Entebbe airport. At last I came down on earth and my perils just began.

My appointment was at Lira, three hundred kilometers from the Capital city, Kampala, which was about thirty kilometers away from the International Airport, Entebbe. First I stayed in Kampala for few days before I set off to Lira, a small town of farmers. Later, a cotton mill was erected by the Russians. It was a full night bus journey by road, stopping at few similar towns on the way. Between towns most of the places were either swampy, water logged land areas or thick forests on both sides of the road. Mine was a night ride and darkness spilled over the roads immediately after the bus had left each town. In the bus, I was the only human being whose skin was fair. I waited for the sun rise, and the town of my employment to reach.

Kampala was mistaken for an Indian city at the first sight on any one’s arrival because one would see only people of Asian origin and hear familiar Indian languages – Hindi, Gujarathi, Marathi etc. All the shops, restaurants, Cinema halls had Indian owners. The cars were driven by fair colored men, and sari clad women to accompany. Africans were there like black spots on a white canvass, who worked as manual labors and taxi cabbies? The other exceptional sight, very unusual even in a more prominent and affluent country, was the soldiers, brandishing fully loaded automatic machine guns, and their vehicles moving frequently up and down the streets.

Until recently it was a civilian head who was the president, Dr.Milton Obote, who had lost his throne for his Military General, Idi Amin. Since then the country had witnessed Army men loosely moving around the cities and towns and at any other places they could step in. People felt oddly uncomfortable as they had been enjoying a life freely and unhindered until Amin came to power. I heard that frequent arresting on suspicious grounds had been going on and those who were picked had never seen their homes. I wondered at first if I would ever get into their hands. The only consolation was that I was a bachelor ready to take any eventualities of life or face any risk to survive. After all I had no liabilities left behind if I had to face an end ill-desired.