KOCHI: The globetrotting spirit of K R Vijayan, the late owner of Sree Balaji Coffee House, who became famous for his world tours, lives on. Usha V Prabhu, Vijayan’s elder daughter, is set to embark on a foreign visit with her husband Muralidhara Pai to “fulfil” her late father’s cherished dream of visiting 50 foreign nations.
“It was my father’s dream to visit at least 50 countries. However, he could visit only 26 countries before he breathed his last on November 19, 2021. Since I could remember, my father was taking the sorties to foreign lands along with my mother Mohana. Even for small outings, my father insisted on having my mother’s company. Now, we will go globetrotting as much as we can and hope to visit at least 50 countries. We will first fly out to Vietnam and Cambodia on September 15,” says 48-year-old Usha.
Like Vijayan, Usha and Murali too would meet their travel expenses with the revenue from the tea stall established in 1996 at Kochi’s Gandhinagar, which is famous for evening snack items. “If met with a fund crunch, my father used to take loans to meet his travel expenses. We too have similar plans. We could always come back and repay the loans from the money from the shop, which is now being run by my husband,” she adds.
Murali has accompanied Vijayan and Mohana on several of their explorations. He has helped Vijayan handle the tea shop business since 2011. “I have accompanied him to 11 countries. He was an avid traveller. I too enjoy such trips abroad now, thanks to the many sorties with him,” says Muralidhara Pai.
While Usha was not interested in running the tea shop which saddened Vijayan, he found his accomplice in his son-in-law. “I didn’t even know how to make a cup of tea. He taught me everything. Now I manage the shop and my wife assists me whenever she has time after her job at a hospital nearby,” Pai adds.
Vijayan and Mohana started their adventures back in 2008, with their first visit to the Holy Land (Israel, Egypt, Jordan etc). “Everyone in our family loves travelling now. My daughter Amrutha is pursuing an MSc in BioMedical Science from Manchester, UK. We sent her to the UK as father insisted, saying he could visit the UK frequently if she were there,” Pai said.
While Vijayan loved Switzerland the most, New Zealand tops the list when it comes to Pai and Mohana. The family also has many cherished memories of their travel with Vijayan. “Once we were stopped by the customs officials at the airport after visiting Australia. They asked my father to stand aside. We got nervous and I even asked father if he was carrying any liquor bottle to which he said no. Then the officer came up and requested a selfie with father. Our anxiety instantly turned to laughter. People used to recognise him. For instance, when we went to Russia, a Malayali who ran a hotel there took great efforts to find and meet us. He even took us to his hotel,” Pai added.
According to him, traveller Santosh George Kulangara was Vijayan’s inspiration. Industrialist Anand Mahindra sponsored his trip to Australia and New Zealand in 2019, when he came to know about Vijayan’s zest for travelling.