Serendip, the old name of Sri Lanka, before Ceylon, was the word that gave the English language ‘serendipity’. The word means the occurrence of beneficial happenings by chance. But certain events that occurred during my official trips to the island many years ago made me feel like I was watching a Hitchcock thriller. The jolt (read blast) would come when you had least expected it.
Samar, our institution’s Sri Lanka manager, made it a point to receive me at the Katunayake airport and drive me to the hotel in Galle Face. While driving, he would keep his ears pricked up for the sound of a distant bomb blast, or the blare of an ambulance or a fire engine, both meaning trouble. After the 1983 riots, when we were travelling towards the city, he asked if I would like to stop for chowmein and banana fritters at the Chinese restaurant, just as we did during the previous trip. When I nodded eagerly, he said gravely, “We can’t, because it had been razed to the ground by a bomb, the next day of our visit. Had we chosen to eat the next day, people will be referring to us in past tense.”
Once, a mechanic from our firm, while passing through Sri Lankan immigration was enquired about a blue packet in his suitcase. Without second thoughts he said, “Balm, sir.” The official was shocked, armed security guards rushed in. I stepped in to do damage control. “What he meant was a balm, a pain balm for his migraine. Not a country or cluster bomb.” With abundant caution, I opened the pack and allowed the official to sniff it. He did so cautiously and backtracked, crestfallen at his faux pas.
Never will I forget my departure from the Katunayake airport that summer night, when Samar and his wife came to see me off. Suddenly, Samar’s wife snatched the boarding card from me and walked away. “Not by this flight. You postpone the trip,” she said sternly after spotting a few Tamil leaders travelling in the same flight. I said if my call came from the Headquarters above, none could prevent it.
Nothing happened to me. I am still alive since there was no bomb on the flight. But not so lucky were the hundreds who were killed and hurt by terrorists in Lanka on Sunday. The attackers, brainwashed by invisible players, have targeted innocent men, women and even children. Phew!