I won’t easily forget August 29, 1969. It was the day I landed in the Philippines and the next six months in that country changed my life.
I had reached the Philippines as part of the World Congress of Poets which was having its conference there.
I had Rs 1,000 in my pocket because that was the maximum amount allowed to a departing Indian tourist by the RBI in those days.
It was around this time that I took to visiting the offices of the newspapers in Manila on my own initiative to introduce myself and my astrological work to them.
They must have liked something about me or my gift of the gab because several of them enlisted me to write astrological pieces for them.
The editor of one of them was very impressed with my skills because he gave me an astrological column on the front page for 11 days running! And all this to a visitor who had set foot in their country for the very first time just a few days ago.
That job offer was really the turning point in my life. Not that I took it up but because this whole episode gave me so much confidence in myself and my abilities.
That exposure to a foreign land and the unbeatable feeling that I could conquer a foreign country on my own have remained with me as a very pleasant and thrilling memory.
