March 21, 2012
A swimmer from Kerala, Muralidharan, who used to work as a pool cleaner in Mumbai has managed to swim across Palk Strait that lies between Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu. He started the expedition right after 1 am in the night from Sri Lanka and covered the 31 kilometers to reach Dhanushkodi in Tamil Nadu in under 15 hours. He couldn't break the fastest strait crossing record because of some technical difficulties and slight direction change that happened enroute.
Things haven't been going swimmingly between India and Lanka since the time of the epics. I am sure the ocean has tried to create enhanced separation in the couple of thousand years that passed since Rama and his south Indian monkeys built an epic bridge to get to the island. If it was monkeys then, it had been tigers raising hell in the island recently. And now though a military victory has been declared by the state in the island, looks like India will support an upcoming UN resolution against the Lankan government. The tension continues, as it supposed to perpetually, between all neighbors!
Long time ago, in an introductory telephone conversation with a chartered accountant in College Station, a grand old septuagenarian, I had used the word "swimmingly". He laughed heartily. "I haven't heard that word in a long time," he said, "do you use it frequently in India?" I told him no and proceeded to brief him about India's whimsical relation with swimming pools and holy dips since the time of Indus Valley's Great Bath. It was a free chat, he wouldn't start charging a retainer till next time, so I could afford to ramble. "Mark Twain used to love that word!" I remember him telling me. I continue to remain impressed by the man who remembered the affinity his favorite author had towards particular word.
Bibliophilia is the theme of latest Mathrubhumi weekly and they have dedicated two articles on P. G. Govinda Pillai, veteran communist party leader whose personal library has over 25,000 books on all subjects ranging from Christianity to nanotechnology. EMS Namboothirippadu, himself a voracious reader, had once remarked that if he had read half as many books as P.G. he would have taken over the world. Gone are the days when the communist party was packed with such self-taught scholars and selfless teachers. Today, even as in the heartland of capitalism, couple of dozen books on Marx make it to the NY Times best seller list in a span of two years, here in Kerala the communist party has been reduced to a clamouring bunch of empty pots.
Swimmingly isn't how I would term most of today as I was stuck negotiating a business contract. In India, contracts are still amorphous entities. Frequently people get offended when asked to put things in black and white. Discussion of numbers leads to the whole gamut of human emotions from shyness to outright depression. Clarifications sought transform into daggers driven deep into the flawless but delicate characters that some men seem to have been nurturing for decades!
Much relief in the evening with an hour long walk around the Maharaja's gold. The current king of Travancore turned 90 couple of days ago. When he turned had turned 80, nobody cared. But then the $22 billion dollar treasure was discovered. So for his 90th birthday, people and organizations have been falling over each other to felicitate him. He looks amused in most of the recent photographs. A businessman gifted him a Rs. 3 crore worth Rolls Royce which he promptly refused. I am really looking forward to the Wayanad trip this weekend.
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