If it hadn’t been for Munich 1972, Arun Pal might never have made it to Colombia. This epic story is served up at his new restaurant “India Gourmet”.

1. When did you first arrive in Colombia?

I was traveling around the world on a bicycle and passed through Colombia on my journey, where I came to know my wife. It was thirty years ago.

2. You traveled around the world on a bicycle?

I was working in a steel factory in Calcutta. In 1972 I told my boss I wanted to leave to visit the Olympic games in Munich and then return to India. He referred me to his superior, the general manager, for the ‘permiso’. I was a sportsman. In those days when you left India, you were entitled to three dollars. My superior told me ‘I will give you nothing if you go to see the Olympic games. But if you go around the world, I will give you a paid leave’. I said okay.

3. Did it take you long to get to Munich by bicycle?

From the next day I was told not to return to the factory but to prepare myself. It took three months of preparation and I left Calcutta for Bombay. It was my first time outside India. I felt very encouraged. Every day I learned a new language, a different culture and it was a great experience. In the end, it took six months for me to get to Munich.

4. Did you end up seeing the games?

When I arrived in Munich I had an accident. I was hit at a street corner and it was my fault. I was senseless and ended up in the hospital. In the evenings the man who hit me came and visited me. He was a French military man. After seventeen days in the hospital, I finally managed to get 15 tickets to see the games.

5. Were you a witness to the terror attacks?

I saw it on television. I was on an adventurous trip and I didn’t understand why these people had taken hostage the athletes from Israel.

6. So you continued on your travels that would lead you to Colombia?

I had to pay for the hospital expenses, so this friend I had met in Germany, Warner Olineck, helped me get a job in a car factory in Ingolstadt. The moment I paid for my hospital bills I continued on to Italy, France, Greece, Denmark and Sweden. From England I flew to New York, rode my bicycle to Miami, California, Mexico and south to Panama. It was 1974 when I finally arrived in Colombia.

7. How did you feel being away from India?

It was not easy spending time away from my family. I managed to send cards through the Embassy and there were very few phone calls.

I loved Italy. I felt people were jolly and friendly. Everywhere you’ve got good and bad people, but Italians are very friendly to tourists… on a bicycle.

9. Did you like Bogotá when you were passing through?

Back then Colombia was less problematic; it was a very green country. Colombians seemed very similar to Italians. They were jolly and energetic. I found an ashram with yoga in Teusaquillo, next to the Colegio Americano. At night, I would go for food to this local restaurant, with lots of students. It was there that I met my future wife. As I like to say, ‘if you have something destined, you cannot avoid it’.

Yes. This was destiny. Before I continued on to Perú, I asked Maristella to marry me. I came back to Colombia and married her. Then I decided it was time to return.

11. So your trip was over by then?

I continued my bicycle expedition in northern Africa, but I had to return to India. Maristella accompanied me but everything had changed. I didn’t want to go back to work in the steel factory anymore and my boss was no longer there.

12. So what did you do?

I started a store near my house in Calcutta. My wife joined Mother Theresa’s Missionaries of Charity and taught Spanish. It was volunteer work. But it was difficult for her to adapt because of the heat and the humidity. For 10 hours a day we had power outages, so the fans didn’t work. Bogotá, I could remember, was always a pleasant 14 degrees.

13. So when did you officially decide to return to Colombia?

In 1981, after five and a half years, I thought it would be difficult for Maristella to raise our daughter in India. It was good for her to be near her family. I didn’t have a clear idea of what I would do, but I had studied chemistry, physics and mathematics in India and I always had a liking for business and adventure.

14. As a former cyclist, was the bicycle industry part of your interests?

Yes. I started to represent some Indian companies and decided to bring bicycle parts to Colombia. Not the parts for racing bicycles, but for common ones. All the bicycle people here began to know me. But contraband affected my business and I had to leave that line of work. I then started importing Indian handcrafts, women’s dresses, linens and brass items.

15. From arts and crafts to a restaurant. How did that happen?

Well, traveling on my bicycle, I stopped in England. I spent two months there working at this famous Indian restaurant in London called ‘India House’. It was snowing all the time and I found that I had a good hobby in cooking. When I started up in handcrafts I was the only one back then, but when everyone decided to bring things from India, I had to change lines of work again. So I started cooking for friends and opened up my first restaurant, in La Macarena, called Surya (‘Sun God’).

16. And then you started expanding?

Well, my costumers were mainly from the north. So I got a very small place with a couple of tables on the Cra. 8 with 46. I called it ‘India Express’. My wife Maristella runs it now. From then on, I opened a couple of other places, including ‘India Gourmet’.

17. What has the restaurant business taught you?

I found out that a lot of people like my food. I have a lot of foreign clients, especially Canadians. As I grew up on the coast, Bengal, I like to cook with fish. My food is very healthy and whatever you get in India, you can get here except for good spices.

18. What is your favorite place in Colombia?

Bogotá is good, because it is cosmopolitan. Medellín has a good climate and the paisas are not lazy. Cali and Barranquilla are more relaxed, people here are good and very genuine. When I want to get away for the weekend, I like Melgar. Cartagena and Santa Marta for more than a week.

19. Do you think Colombians have a taste for Indian food?

They are learning to eat with spices. When I start with a new client, I cook the dishes very light. Now I have costumers asking for spicier things. The Indian community is growing here, too.

20. So Colombia has been good to you?

Yes. Colombia is my second country.