Some of my happiest years have been spent in travel. 60s and 70s, it was far less common to go abroad for a holiday, due to restrictions on Foreign Exchange… 1973, my Wife and I… from Tahiti, we flew to South America. I remember, Chile had come under American sanctions. They had no wool, no matches, no spare parts for their cars… I had a brightly coloured matchbox, which I had kept on my table as I was smoking at that time. Every time the waitress came to the table, she would pick up the matchbox, look at it and put it back. When we were leaving, I gave her the matchbox…
In La Paz, which is at an elevation of 15,000 feet, we were told not to exert ourselves for a day and I was not supposed to consume alcohol. However, at the Bar, an American Guest and I drank more than a bottle of beer each. The next morning, I felt I was on fire… Manager said, ‘I will send you a tea, you drink it and tell me whether you still need a Doctor‘. He sent up a large teapot with leaves floating… and once I drank a cup of it, my head cleared like magic. I later found, the leaves were coca leaves, from which cocaine is derived.
As somebody once said, ‘We travel not to escape life but for life not to escape us‘. I have always been intrigued by China. During my first trip in 1988 I visited Hangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing. The silks from Hangzhou are famous and it is said of Hangzhou: ‘If there is heaven above, there is Hangzhou below‘. 2014 was the 8th visit. In this Delegation was my Son, Krishnan Venugopal, Senior Advocate, along with his Two Friends from Karnataka High Court. The last, and 9th visit, was in October 2015, which was a private visit along with my Daughter, Lakshmi, and her Husband, Anand. They really enjoyed Shanghai… We stayed at the Peace Hotel, which had been built by Sir Sassoon, who was supposed to have made a fortune from opium…
Whenever I travelled, I would collect things. Today at my Farm, which I feel tempted to call the ‘Frozen Zoo’, I have life-size wooden sculptures of Elephants, a Tiger… To collect all this is a temptation which is sometimes irresistible. I even have the Sword of Aurangzeb certified under The Antiquities and Treasures Act, 1972.
– K.K. Venugopal with Suhasini Sen, An Accidental Lawyer – My Adventures in Law and Life, [Penguin Random House India, 2025].
