October 14th, 1971. The year in which two people fresh from an arranged marriage moved to Japan, a strange and beautiful foreign land where they spent a year getting to know this fascinating country as well as each other.
October 14th, 2011. Forty years later they returned, along with their grown up daughters to knock at the door of old memories as well create new ones.
1971
A young couple
Suvesh was going to embark on a post-doctorate fellowship to do research at the prestigious Tokyo Institute of Technology with Prof. Furuta. We arrived in Tokyo in the late evening at the end of autumn 1971 after a long flight from Kolkata. Fortunately we had two refuelling stops, first in Bangkok and then Hong Kong. The last stretch was longer and except for a pair of companion wing-lights blinking at the tips we were piercing through the darkness until Tokyo’s neon skyline came into view. One of Prof. Furuta’s student, Ken Tomyama came to receive us at Haneda Airport and brought us to the hotel. Looking through a window on the 10th floor Tokyo looked like a dazzling fairy land. The next day, Ken and Professor Furuta took us to the tiny one room flat which became our home for a year. Our initial reaction was shock. Just one room!!! It was a very steep learning curve but surprisingly it did not take long to feel completely at home in our little nest.
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