The Pardoned Turkeys

We are all now more than aware with all our Indian brethren living in the US of A, that Thanks giving Day is a National Day in the US and of course a holiday, when people gather with family & friends to give thanks for the harvest and the blessings of the past year. It is widely associated with a celebaratory meal where a roasted Turkey is served. Every Thanksgiving while thousands of Turkeys are consumed by families,two birds are officially pardoned by the President of the United States and these two birds live out their life in peace never to be eaten. How did this practise start ? it was early in the 19th century that people sent Turkeys as gift to the President , who chose to spare the birds rather than eat them. In fact the story goes that it was Abraham Lincoln’s son who asked his father to spare a Turkey that was meant to be served at the Table that the idea of pardoning a Turkey started. But it was November 1989 President George HW Bush who started the tradition of Presidential Pardon , so that the birds did not end up being eaten, thus formalising the custom. Ever since then every American President held an annual Thanksgiving ceremony in which two Turkeys were publicly pardoned and sent out to live their lives in a farm. This sporadic act of mercy has turned into a national tradition. Now if you are wondering how these birds are selected , you have a story coming! Every Year the President of the US National Turkey Federation selects a farm in the state the president of the US belongs to raise a dedicated flock of birds of about 20 to 40 birds for the ceremony. They are acclimatized so that they remain calm to the music, lights and noises, which would take place in the Pardoning ceremony. Out of this the 10 – 20 best looking & best behaved birds ,the two finalists are chosen and sent to Washington. They stay at a hotel and appear at media events before the ceremony. It is after that, during the ceremony the two birds are granted the Presidential Pardon to live out their lives in peace in a farm never to be eaten. Incidently the Two Turkeys pardoned by President Trump this year, were named Gobble & Waddle.

An Unforgettable Christmas

The Chief Minister of Tamilnadu MG Ramachandran died on the 24th Dec 1987.The city of Madras came to a standstill. There was rioting on the streets by the people who could not control their grief. For them MGR was God. Surprisingly that event left its impression on me for reasons other then his death. I happened to be in Madras that day having driven from Bangalore where I had taken up an assignment. I had come to visit the Madras on business. As it is has always been the minute I informed Col Rao I was immediately invited to their home ,the whole family refusing my plea that I would stay in a hotel since I came on business. I had first met Col HM Rao first when I joined my regiment as a 2nd Lieutenant , my first posting.He was a Major then and incharge of a Battery, a senior office in the regiment. He was well known for his joie de vivre and the good things in life.He was one of the first officers in the regiment to have a personal car, which in those days was considered a luxury.He loved to tipple, played a mean hand at Bridge and have a swing at Golf.Even when the Regiment went for exercise his vehicle would have a Cooler Box which among other things contained coconut water. My first visit to his home was a formal visit or a calling on as it called in the services, had one drink or maximum two and excused your self. At home I met Mrs. Rao and their two young daughters, Chitra & Lalitha and their son Babu ..Mrs Rao was very kind to me and both she and the children took a liking to me. As time grew we often met socially and I had developed a fondness for the family which was reciprocated.Col Rao’s hospitality was munificent .This continued after my marriage and through my entire years in the army and therafter when I left the Army. The struggle for me to resettle from an Army life to the Civil life is a story by itself. But I did succeed and through the years I kept in touch with the family,which was stationed mostly in Chennai ,because of the children’s education while he served out at various postings.I kept in touch with the family through the years and was always a welcome visitor to their home which is why I landed up in their home on 22nd Dec 1987. Back to the events of 24th Dec 1987. As I mentioned the city of Madras was in complete lockdown. I could not go back to Bangalore to be with my family and informed them I was safe and in Col Rao’s home. The next day was Xmas.Col Rao the ever hospitable host that he was was concerned how he would give me a Xmas lunch. The next morning ,he disappeared into the curfewed city and after a few hours appeared with chicken. At what price he bought the chicken only he knew but I am sure it was expensive as the city was shut, but more than that going through the curfew to get a chicken was beyond words.Mrs Rao turned as usual turned up delicious meal and we all enjoyed the Xmas meal with a lot of spirits to lubricate us. But more than the Xmas meal the love & affection he and the family showed on that Xmas day , is something which stays to this day.

African Sourjon - Mission Mode 1

Mission Mode -1 All of us in marketing are aware that most of the jargons now used have originated from the armed forces.Starting from Strategy , Tactics , Guerrilla Marketing, outflanking, and now helicopter presentations and many I have not mentioned. But the most important is the Mission Statement which most organisations have adopted.This is most definitive action of the armed forces. I have to narrate the story of how before every exercise ( practice missions), of going into an attack, the Commanding Officer addresses his whole battalion and asks “ Hamara Iraadha Kya Hai”. ( what is our Mission) Almost instantly one of the jawans stands up and says “ Hamara Iraadha Grid Reference 123456 ko saverey saadhe chaar baje thak Kabsa karna hai.”( Our Mission is to capture Grid Reference 123456 by 4.30 am ) There is absolutely no ambiguity there. It is crystal clear.Every Jawan going into the battle is clear of his objective and has been trained for it. In a similar fashion, having been from the armed forces my objective was very clear too.. I had to establish a company, acquire land from the Government of Mozambique, Recruit the necessary staff, arrange the equipment, get the necessary labour , get the land cleared ,and ready for sowing all within five months. I had landed in July and all this had to be done by November. The main reason for this is that it was rain fed agriculture and the rains started in November.All this in a country which had a “Take it easy” policy of which was very well brought out by AR Rahman in his song - Urvasi Link given ( do watch in Tamil for original effect) So there you go. A flat was arranged by my sponsor, which was my office cum residence and from there I started my operations. The first task was to form a company. I filled up the necessary forms which were in Portuguese with the help of a local liason man given to me by the sponsor. This form along with the necessary fees was submitted to the office concerned . I was assured by the office that all the paper work would be completed including the equivalent of Articles of Association require to start a company. A week passed , on enquiry I was told that work was progressing. i was waiting patiently as i ticked off my dates on my target sheet which I had made for myself. So after a fortnite i decided to visit the office on my own ( mind you without an Interpreter) I landed up at the office . The offices were pretty modest. I asked to see the Manager in English and broken Portugese ( helped by a phrase book in my hand). I was informed that the Manager was sitting on the mezzanine floor. I went up the mezzanine floor, only to see a stocky Mozambicano lady wearing a black skirt and a jacket.She got up from her seat with a smile on her face and extended her hand and said, welcome to Mozambique ,I did not realise that at that time ,it was an ominous warning of the things come. i shook her hand , and politely refused the cafe she offered me. I then gently broached the subject of the progress of work on the documentation. She smiled and said , Señor Raj, in Mozambique things do not progress fast. You see our resources are meagre. we do not have a computer, infact the Articles of Association will have to be written by hand in Portugese. It will take a further fewdays… For a moment I was flabbergasted. I had no words.Swallowing my deep anguish I then requested her to hasten the work, as I had deadlines to catch, other wise I will miss the sowing season and a whole year would go waste. ( more on that later). having said that, I thanked her and excused myself . in my head i was furious , wondering how the Articles of Association could be hand written! and i climbed down the stairs from the mezzanine floor and walked across the floor; directly into a glass wall shattering it. The whole office was stunned.So were the people outside ,since the glass wall looked out to the pavement outside. There soon was a crowd outside. people rushed to me to check whether I had been injured in someway. Luckily i was not.Nary a cut or a bruise. I stepped onto the pavement , composed myself and rang up my sponsor. His calm voice came on the phone . I told him in a rush as to what had happened. He first asked me whether I was hurt, or anyone else was hurt, when I told him in the negative, he said , just wait there Im sending you a vehicle , I will handle the situation. I stood there with people staring at me, till my sponsor’s representative came, He told me he will handle the matter and asked me to leave. I went to the sponsor’s office where i met him and informed him of what happened in person… He smiled and told me , take it easy Raja.. things move at their own pace here…Dont worry I will take care of it. That evening just to see the situation ,I walked passed that office to see that a security guard had been posted outside and the whole office frontage was exposed. It took a few days for the frontage glass to be replaced , since the glass sheet had to come from the capital Maputo. What a beginning ! with a crash bang I thought… But soon enough I got the word that a company was formed finally.

African Sojourn - Issufu Nurmomade

Issuffo Nurmomade An hour’s flight from the capital Maputo brought me to Nampula, where I was received by a representative from the office of our sponsor. I was lodged in a Pensao ( guest house) named Prima Verra. It was an old quaint building from the Portuguese times . The next day I was taken to the office of Mr. Issuffo Nurmomade one of the biggest cultivators of Cotton in Nampula . He had named his company Sanam ( in hindi it means beloved) which was an acronym for Sociedade Algodoeira de Mozambique . It reflected his Indian origins. He was among the early Gujarati emigrants who came from Daman & Diu which were Portugese settlements in India.They spoke Gujarati and still followed the same customs. The muslims were of course Bohri Muslims and the Hindus continued with Garba during Navratri. Of course all of them had Mozambique passports with a christian middle name.Many of them of them subsequently also accquired Portugese passports which was their gateway into EU countries. Issuffu , who was in his fifties had a luxurious villa with a swimming pool and a fleet of cars which included a Prado & a Lexus and upscaled Toyota pickups. He was always in a jeans & white shirt with a cigarette in his mouth.He had two sons Dilawar & Faisal, the elder incharge of the cotton operations & the younger incharge of retail business. Both were characters of their own, Faisal was the flamboyant playboy ,an arrogant person with a fancy car and the latest Nokia mobile , often riding rough shod on many. Dilawar was a more mature person, calm and more balanced in dealing with people and maintaining a quieter lifestyle. Nampula Itself was a province in the North of the country and had fertile soil where the main crop was cotton . There were also Cashew trees of yester years, introduced by the Portugese from where cashew was harvested. During the season many buyers from India came for buying the cashew nuts to be send to India for processing mainly to Quilon district in Kerala. There were other crops like Pigeon Peas/Sesame Seeds ,which were also grown. Nampula was also host to many NGO’s from all over the world ,US AID being one of them which helped the farmers by making co-op societies, giving seeds and buying the produce from them. There were many other NGO’s who were engaged in this agri business. There were other NGO,s like HALO ( made famous by Princess Diana) who were involved in de-mining operations in the nearby province of Cabo del Gado, adjacent to Nampula. This was because of a decade of civil war between two warring political factions of Renamo & Freelimo when the entire cattle & wild life had been killed & eaten and the entire infrastructure, including the railways , built by the Portuguese were decimated. The all famous Medicine Sans Frontiers ( Doctors without Frontiers )also had a presence, along with the UN Food Programme. One could run into many of their representatives in the street side cafeterias in the evenings which served Cafe ( strong black bitter coffee served in a small cup along with a chilled glass of water , which was a chaser) . Of course there was beer and soft drink. One also could get a slice of pastry and yes ,our own samosa though with meat filling. The town also had a sprinkling of cafes with pool tables where most of the young hung out which were quite popular and served dinner, which invariably consisted of Chicken, Meat & Fish served with Pau.Yes one could get French fries to go with the meal. The Portuguese ,when they ruled Mozambique owned vast tracts of land in which they cultivated Cashew & Cotton and food for themselves, They had huge mansions in the middle of their lands and some even had airstrips.They had generators for lighting and lived a comfortable life.They unlike the British mingled with the local people of African origin , married them , which resulted in a mixed racial soceity. Most of this Infrastructure was destroyed during the civil war. Nampula Town itself was a quaint town with four main roads. The Cathedral of Arquidiocese de Nampula stood prominently with its towering spires reaching out to the sky. The town had a hospital , with basic facilities . Most of the expats had medical insurance , which enabled them to be airlifted to nearby Johanesburg for more serious ailments .( Mostly it was Malaria, which one could not escape.If serious It went to the head which was serious. Of course there was the scare of AIDS )There was a post office and a telephone company called Teledata, which offered phone service and dial up Internet services. Surprisingly enough mobile service were available, the main service provider being Vodafone. It even had a restaurant called Aurora,which served Indian food.There were a few colleges even.The town had a lake which was the main source of water supply. There was a growing middle class in Nampula with the same aspirations like the middle class all over the developing nations,but majority of the local people were of very ordinary means , but surprisingly enough quite happy as most had a transistor glued to their ears ,listening to Portuguese songs played by a local radio station.The local municipality collected a radio tax along with the electric bills . It was in this environment , I landed up after all that hustle bustle of Dubai.

African Soujorn - Amelia Paunde

AMELIA PAUNDE – Africa Sojourn-2 ( 2001 - 2004) On a quick thinking why only Domingo was a name and other days were not named ,could be that the other days were named as Segundo Fiera,Tierca Feira,Quarta Fiera , Quinta Fiera, Sexta Fiera & Sabado. Now this would translate into , second Day, third Day fourth Day fifth day , sixth day & sabbath.Now take your pick.Domingo also had another religious conotation – “of the Lord.” After Domingo left me at the hotel . I checked in settled down and came down to the small restaurant in the hotel.I looked at the menu which was all in Portugese, and was wondering what to eat. Luckily there were some pictures , which I still could not decipher. So then I started a dialogue with the waiter and showing the picture I would ask what the dish was ? ( gesture + english) .After going through the whole menu, the conclusion was pretty simple. The main courses were 1. 1.Galinha Chicken 2. 2.Carne di Cabrito Mutton 3. 3.Carne di Vakka Beef 4. 4. Peixe Fish All this could be fried 0r grilled ( Frito/Griladho) This would be served with potato finger chips and of course Pao ( yes, the very same Pao which was introduced by the Portugese in all their colonies including Bombay. When I asked for Rice ( Arroz) & vegetables( Vegetal) he nodded wisely. What was finally served was Chicken with a small helping of steamed rice and salad leaf . when I asked for vegetable dish pointed at the salad leaf…. I also came to know that a pint of water / a bottle of coke / and a pint of beer all cost the same. The local beer( cerveja) was a brand called Doishem ( 2M) So from that day on for the rest of the stay in Mozambique it was either Coke or 2M. So on Secunda fierra (Monday ) after fixing up the appointment with Amelia Paunde, a lawyer at KPMG, I left with Domingo in the yellow taxi to meet her. As I had already rung up, Amelia came down her building ,she was a black lady ,probably in her late 30’s smartly dressed in a formal skirt & blouse.She was very kind to receive& take me to her office on the first floor. In her office over a cup of coffee with milk( cafe - con - latte ) This phrase had interesting connotation which I came to know later) Have to specify or the norm was black coffee. So we went over my mail which I had sent earlier about establishing a company , acquiring land , and doing a pilot project of cultivating Urd Dhal ( Black Gram)in the northern province of Nampula . She explained to me the various rules & regulations on how to go about opening company & acquiring land. She said she would initiate the process. Over dinner that evening which she insisted on taking me , sipping a South African white wine ,she shared the fact that she was a Mozambicano a single mother who had a young daughter and how she had studied in the local university and her progress in her career to finally join KMPG a multinational consulting firm.More on who was a Mozambicano later. She then said she would fix up an appointment with the Minister of Development who looked into the investments coming into the country, so that we could brief him. The next day Amelia Paunde came to my hotel and in Domingo’s yellow taxi we went to the ministry. After due formalities we were shown into a conference room, and just a few minutes later entered Mr. Reface Mohammed. He was more asian looking and looked natty in his suit. We formally exchanged cards and shortly thereafter I explained the project to him , the benefits it would accrue to the nation ,in addition to the work for the local people and our collaboration with one of the prominent personalities in Nampula , Mr. Ibrahim Issuffu. Of course he knew Mr.Issuffu. He was very happy about the fact that we had come to Mozambique, and he would ensure that he would arrange full co-operation to me and my team and wished me luck. Thereafter we left to Amelia Paunde’s office and after lunch she explained the next course of action. The rules dictated that I submit my proposal for starting of the company to the Provincial authorities in Nampula. She would depute a person to help us through the process. Having thanked Amelia , I decided to leave for Nampula the next morning. More coming…

African Sojourn - Domingo

DOMINGO It was a balmy afternoon when I landed in Port city Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. The airline which brought me was LAM (Linhas Aereas de Mocambique) the national airline of Mozambique, from Johanesburg ( Joberg as it is popularly known)in South Africa, to where I had flown to, from Dubai by Emirates Airlines. 

If you are wondering where Mozambique is , you have to look up at the map of Africa . It is to the south of South Africa and is blessed by long beaches. If anyone talks of Africa , they may talk of South Africa, Tanzania , Botswana but never Mozambique, because it was a forgotten country living on the dole of European union & the Vatican . Mozambique was a Portugese colony as a result, the lingua franca of the nation is Portugese,but of course the local dialect is Macua which is spoken in remote villages. The country had a period of communist influence for sometime. A decade plus of Civil War between the two political parties Freelimo & Renamo supported by various interest groups outside the country ensured that the complete infrastructure of Mozambique was destroyed , the forests plundered and the wild animals killed or eaten. The country with EU intervention brought about peace and elections were held with Freelimo winning the elections and ruling the country. 

Mozambique is a country with a rich soil . Its main crop was/is cotton , cashewnuts and it has a vast coast line steaming with fish. One would be surprised to know that most of the raw cashew nuts gets exported to Quilon in Kerala , India. Infact most of the raw cashew fro other parts of Africa like Guinea Bissaue etc also land up in Quilon  in Kerala ( India)where it is sorted and segregated/reprocessed and exported. It is said the expertise in sorting out the cashew is unique to Quilon and only women do the job. Cotton is another crop which get exported out of the country.The country is rich in minerals and gemstones as is in most African countries.Most visitors to the country are buyers of these products.In the yesterday years an island known as Ilia de Mocambique was a trading place of slaves. 

So what was I doing in Mozambique? The commodity trading company, I was working for in Dubai decided that they would like to do a pilot project to produce URD Dhal ( ullundhu in tamizh) which was in much demand in the sub continent.They homed in on Mozambique because they had traded in some commodities with a influential man in Nampula which is the north of the country,( with rich soil) who gave a lot inputs as why the country was good place for investment. So there I landed up in Maputo, capital of Mozambique, with a project report in my hand , and a phone number of a consultant in KPMG whom I had contacted after a extensive search ,because they could speak English. All the rest spoke in Portugese, which of course I could not speak.

 The airport was very basic, like what we used to call aerodromes in India during the British days. In my anxiety of landing in an African country, I forgot my passport in the seat pocket in the aircraft , and walked to the Immigration when I realized that I did not have a passport, I rushed back to the aircraft with a few security guards chasing me as I managed to go to my seat and collected my passport. Now that was a great start I thought and managed to get through immigration and customs with a little bit of greasing of the palms as was the custom those days. 

As I exited the airport , there was a scrawly black man who approached me and in basic broken english if I wanted a taxi. I accepted his offer , and asked him to take me to the hotel which my consultant had suggested. The taxi itself was a semi battered old Toyota car, yellow in colour.As he was driving I asked him what his name was? He said it was Domingo. So I asked him, did his name mean anything. He said it meant Sunday, and went on to say he was born on a Sunday and his parents named him Domingo. 

So then Domingo started in the telling me in the same broken English, about Maputo and the areas we were passing through.The city was dotted with old Portugese styled buildings which had seen better days. He also gave me a lot of cautionary advises to move in the town. Finally the hotel arrived and he helped me with my luggage, and asked me whether I would like to have the taxi the next day.I answered in the affirmative and took down his number and said I would call him after fixing my local appointments. Little did I know that Domingo would be our chief contact in Maputo in the later days. More coming……

 HOLD ALL

 

The mention of HOLD All during a recent get together of friends, brought back so many memories of journeys done.

 

Before we go further we have to clarify what an HOLD ALL was , because the new generation and the genx will have no clue about it.

 

It is basically a compartmentalised bedcover with flaps , only that it is made of strong canvas material with edges stitched in leather and good metal buckles to secure the inside flaps.

One could put inside a mattress with sheets and pillows and knick knacks of all sorts which you forgot to put inside your box , and invariably a  flip flop  nicely wrapped in a news paper.

 

The hold all was then rolled and two leather straps with metal buckles were put around it and tightened. The hold all would then be a be a big roll of secured baggage.with a leather handle  connected to the two straps to carry.

 

Now this hold all was an essential part of the luggage of any service officer , and their name would be stencilled on the hold all.

 

The Hold all was often used as a roll out bed on the floor of the train  when sleeping berths were hard to get, and of course on the berths as in those years there was no bed rolls giving in the trains.

 

It was an integral part of our lives.Little did we realise after all these decades it would a be a HOLD ALL of memories of many journeys we made, the reason we made it and the joy associated with it.

 

It was definitely an apt Name .

 

 

Visit To Jaffna - 2005

It  was year 2005. The Tsunami had devasted the coastal districts of India and more severely in the coastal districts of Sri Lanka , more so in the northern province of Jaffna, where many lives were lost in the coastal fishing villages which were predominently Thamiz ,with the LTTE in charge.

 Lot of aid was rushed to Sri Lanka from all over the world. The Sri Lanka Govt called for a tender for emergency housing . At the time I was heading the boards division of NCL Industries Ltd., a cement company which manufactured  cement boards, which had water resistant & fire resistant based in Hyderabad. These boards were used construct prefab houses, and the company was a leader in Prefab Houses. To participate in the tender ,we had managed to get a tieup with a company which was owned by a family member of a prominent political family in Sri Lanka.

 

We were invited to make a presentation in Colombo, along with other companies from over the world . Along with my technical executive, I  landed up in Colombo. This was my first visit to Sri Lanka, the pearl in the Indian Ocean as they say. We stayed at the Continental Hotel overlooking the Indian Ocean . A beautiful place and the food was no less exotic with its sambal.

 On the appointed day we  gave a presentation of our prefab house in the Housing Ministry and subsequently decided to put up a demo house and after obtaining the required permissions we rushed a container with the material from Hyderabad to put up a model house of 500sft in the premises of the Housing Dept under a week. We invited the various stake holders to visit the model house and evaluate it.

While this was going on , I proposed a visit to Jaffna  to look at the possibility of supplying prefab houses.

Before I go further let me give an update on the political situation at that time. For the previous two years there had been a ceasefire between the Sri Lankan Army and the LTTE. The  position at that time was that Jaffna was controlled by the Sri Lankan forces, while the area outside Jaffna leading upto it is a narrow strip of land and the whole island  connected to the main land by a bridge known as the Elephant Pass controlled by the LTTE.They also controlled the town of Killininochi( a look at the SL map will give you some idea.

 

My sponsor was dismayed at my suggestion, as not many from the mainland visited Jaffna. But I convinced him, since  there was a lot of prefab house requirement in the coastal district areas and had information that the rebels were doing major purchases. With great reluctance he agreed and send me a Sri Lankan Tamil who was working with him. This person had not visited Jaffna in years and was not too sure of our safety. But I reassured him , since we both spoke Thamizh and nothing was likely to happen.

 

Getting into Jaffna was by air or by road. By air one flies from SL territory to SL territory, but by road a few miles from Jaffna it was LTTE controlled area. So at the end of one road was a Sri Lankan check post and further down an LTTE check post. They checked everyone entering their territory and collected Tax from all commercial vehicles carrying material into Jaffna.

 

So we took the easier way out by taking to the air.

 

The take off to Jaffna was from an Airforce station in Colombo called Ratanmala. It was originally the Colombo airport ,till the present new International airport Srimavo Bandaranaike Airport had come up.Like any airport , one gets dropped off at the airport. Only here the airforce took over ,checking your baggage,frisking, and  bussing  to the aircraft.

 

The journey to Jaffna was about a hour and 10 min.The aircraft was a Fokker 27 was operated by LION AIR ( I have the boarding pass Stub with me still) The flight we went as full with NGO,s and the Jaffna residents from Europe/Canada visiting their hometown.The flight for the whole time flew over the sea.

 

It was only when we landed in the Pallali airbase, in Jaffna ,that the fact that you were entering some sort of protected zone dawned . The whole Pallali airbase was heavily guarded by the SL army. There were pill boxes around the air base,manned by armed soldiers.We were deplaned and directly put into an Army bus. We passed through some heavily wooded area into another holding area guarded by the army. After the luggage has been checked it was loaded onto a civilian  bus, and then it was a one hour journey into Jaffna.

 

Just as we go out of the airbase there are further check points of the army on the way. and some pill boxes with armed soldiers. As we drive along one saw war ravaged ghost villages with not a roof or a wall standing. As we near Jaffna city slowly the signs of life showed up and surprisingly enough, houses with people living in them.

 

Then the town itself was like any other town in Tamilnadu with almost all sign boards in Tamizh. The bus stopped at a point. We got down and looked around looking for a transport, which turned to be – auto rickshaw - (Hamara Bajaj Of course)The driver was in white dhoti speaking tamizh of course, took us to a lodging house – approved by the tourism board he said. Since he knew his way around town , he was to be our guide for the rest of the stay.

 

Since we had started out in the morning, we had over half a day left with us , so we decided to visit the main NGO’s who were working there.Armed with a list of NGO,s we set out to meet them and continued the next day. One after the other we met them.Among them representatives of the Swedish & German government. All had only one thing to say- take the blessings of the LTTE if you have to do business here. It their implicit nod which would get various agencies and the actual users to deal with us.

 

We were left wondering how to meet them. But as we continued visiting the NGO’s we came across one of them who were working closely with the LTTE and the director there said he could arrange a meeting with them.He gave us a name and an address of a person who was a representative of the LTTE, to which we went with the help of our auto guide.We were told at that place the gentleman was not in town and had gone to Killinochi and would return back only after a few days.

 

We explained the situation to our sponsor and  sought permission  to extend our stay , he flatly refused

pointing out the risks involved especially since he was involved, and asked us to take the next flight out.So with a heavy heart we took our flight back to Colombo.

 

But all was not lost, our company had a buyer in Colombo who used to off and on purchase material from us. To my surprise he turned up at my hotel to have a discussion with me. He said he would arrange a meeting with the Prime Minister  so that we can brief him about our project.

 

I was surprised , but also saw an opportunity to apprise to the highest authority in the land about our prefab houses.

 

In a day we received the call from our contact to be ready as he had the appointment with the PM. He took us in his vehicle to the Prime Ministers Residence called the Temple Trees . On reaching, we were subjected to security checks and held in the waiting chambers.

 

After a while we were ushered into the office of then Prime Minister Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa. After due courtesies , we explained the versatility of our Prefab houses,the speed of erection and the safety . He listened carefully and then with a smile told us why don’t you erect one in my constituency Hambantota.

 

Of course reassuring him that we would endeavor to do so, and thanking him we exited his office.

Our contact then said that he would be in touch with us to take this further.

 

From the situation as we understood was that there was lot of lobbying from many countries and agencies for this contract for which we too had tendered and the result would be more or less be based on political basis, especially for the North East.

We visited many NGO's and Architects to promote our project and later left back for Hyderabad.

 

 But the short visit left me with so many unforgettable  images:

 

-       The famous Nallur Murugan Temple – not a bomb had fallen on it right through the wars

-       The effort of the people getting back to their normal lives, in a war ravaged town.

-       The bombed out Jaffna Railway station which stood as a silent monument to all that has happened there

-       The war memorial the LTTE have built. Over 2000 of the warriors lie buried there. 

The representative of the LTTE told us that the  whole place was raised to the ground by the SL army, but was painstakingly rebuilt after the ceasefire was declared two years ago.Flying there was the world famous Pulli Kodi ( Tiger Flag)

He then then told us in a reverential tone - Thamizh Ezhathikku uyir kodutha erandu ayiram ithayangal ingu urungugirargal.( here sleep the 2000 brave warriors who gave their lives for Thamizh Eelam.)  For a moment I stood , assimilating it.They had died for a cause they believed in.