An 'auspicious' day or date can be put to good advantage

The date 02-02-02 found me in India. I had stayed a couple extra weeks on that particular Motorola business trip because we needed to sign a business partnership agreement with the province government on that particular day. By “we” I mean the director of Motorola's engineering software center in Hyderabad and me, representing Motorola's headquarters in the U.S. The 02-02-02 date was considered a positive and auspicious day, so that's the day they all wanted to sign; it had the right pattern and harmonious repetition of numbers.

The Hindu elephant god Ghanish sits outside most executive office doors in India for good luck success in business. These symbolic matters are very important, just as all cultures have their symbolic customs. Even the high-tech Motorola software development center in Hyderabad, which is managed and staffed by local technologists, observe these customs, of course. We were establishing a new software engineering college in Hyderabad. The government had donated use of the land and building. Motorola was renovating the old structure and donating the curriculum. So I was staying to sign and help seal the deal.

Actually this idea of an auspicious date is widely observed across Asia. Such dates are considered good luck for many unions and special events. Lots of weddings and business deals happen on such days. An interesting mix of religion, tradition and even superstitions, I suppose.

Those were the days when I spent about half my time in India on Motorola business. It was all fascinating. And I was fine, ensconced in a four-star Sheraton where water was all filtered and pure, and most of the food was flown in from abroad. Westerners weren't accustomed to the local food and water. Thus the rise of western “business” hotels. It works. And the hotel was right in the heart of town, not isolated at all. Sometimes Baheej joined me on these India trips, but usually I was alone. He learned a lot about the local cultures, always exploring. He got himself invited to a wedding, visited temples, and we went to a Sikh temple.

Hyderabad was mostly Hindu, but had a large and very old Muslim population, as well as a historic neighborhood surrounding the Charminar, a monument build in 1591 and now surrounded by an outdoor market with traditional clothing and goods of every kind.

However, on my first trip to India, which was in the summer 1998 or 1999 and also with Baheej, I came home with dingy fever and landed directly in the hospital. Baheej was OK. On that first trip, we stayed in local hotels and I was going around wearing open-toed sockless flats while he was wearing shoes and socks. However, the trip was especially interesting because we traveled around a lot. Went to the Taj Mahal in the north, and then to south central India, the former Mogul area/and era, where we stayed in an old Mogul palace near Mysore, which had been converted into a local hotel, beautiful and regal. During the day, we were out there in the villages looking around where I was obviously bitten by dingy fever-carrying mosquitoes. But I didn't notice at the time.

The trip was glorious but I learned to be more careful regarding my health after that! Because the night before leaving for the airport to return to the U.S., my feet and legs were covered with red dots, the first manifestation of dingy fever, which is a lot like malaria. Yipes.

But the point is: 2-22-22 is coming up, so that's another auspicious day in February. I must give some thought to this. It would be a good day to do something special or turn over a new leaf, or start a new project.

I think when bereaved we should always be open to new opportunities to strengthen our coping mechanisms, and ideas come from many sources. So tomorrow — we shall see.

• Susan Anderson-Khleif of Sleepy Hollow has a doctorate in family sociology from Harvard, taught at Wellesley College and is a retired Motorola executive. Contact her at sakhleif@comcast.net or see her blog longtermgrief.tumblr.com. See previous columns at www.dailyherald.com/topics/Anderson-Kleif-Susan.