Academic Goodwill Trip to Srilanka-Part One

Right from my Paris Trip, towards the close of 2009, I have been travelling to different places in the country on official and personal visits in 2010. To keep the passport alive, I made a trip to Dubai and Abudabhi and while returning back, there was a transit halt at Srilanka and we spent a few hours in the capital, Colombo city and took afternoon lunch in a star hotel opposite to the Sea, unmindful of the fact that Srilankan cricket team wicket keeper sitting by my side and eating the buffet lunch. In the hot Sun I went near the beach, which was neat and clean and felt that I was in a typical Kerela Sea environment .

On many occasions, a colleague of mine in the parent department also accompanied me. Some of the memorable trips are the second visit to Andaman Islands and my long dreamt trip to Mahe near Telicherry, the place where I started my career. It is my misfortune that I didn’t carry the camera to recapture my old college, which was housed in school building then. I also could not spend more time near the park which was coming up around the backwaters of Arabian Sea. The Tirupati trip was neatly planned by one of my PhD students, hailing from the region in consultation with his professor, a retired professor now associated with IIPA activities. By divine intervention, my one time MIM student, Santosh also came over there to spend time with Lord Venkateswara and me.
In my sixtieth year and while completing my fortieth year in teaching, I had a rare privilege and honor to address in the campus of Sri Venkateswara University and the next day in old S.V.Arts College , Tirupati. Santosh and Ramesh made the travel to the hill temple and stay there, a comfortable one and I was just wondering how there has been a great deal of transformation in my approach and attitude towards Lord Venkateswara in the last forty years.I still vividly remember my first trip tp Tirupati when my eldest daughter was just eight months old and while going with family I was mildly scolding the God because of the heavy rush and the lengthy queue.

The first LTC trip to Kashmir and the most recent visit to Madurai, Rameshwaram, Kanyakumari, Kutralam Falls and Papanasham hills was the most unforgettable experience. I do fully realize that life had really begun at sixty and I fully understand the opportunity cost of my time which is simply hijacked by some routine administrative duties and many other unpleasant side effects of the position.
The New Year 2011 began with my preparation for one week lecture trip to three universities in Srilanka. The New Year day had its own sense of excitement for a different reason too. Seduced by one of my PhD student’s casual observation that French beard could be tried, I had my own uneasiness and discomfort while going to the nearby Saloon. I was also slightly scared of my first son-in-law, given his traditional and conservative mindset what would he think of my experiment. At long last I overcame my shyness and all the uneasiness. When the job was finally done I looked like a replica of Director Mani ratnam of Tamil movie industry. As there are many visitors, colleagues and former students, virtually the time was running out and I could not assemble the things needed for travel. For the first time my youngest daughter helped me in putting things into the travel bag.
The academic goodwill trip to srilanka was first conceived by my colleague in the parent department in a different context altogether. But later it was hijacked by another colleague, formerly head in another department, through a series of networked relationship via phone calls and e -mails in two , three universities in srilanka. The tickets were booked in advance even before the finalization of the tentative lecture schedule.
To catch the morning flight at Chennai on 2nd January, we had to leave puducherry around one hour past midnight and virtually my sleep was gone the whole night. The driver was fine and we reached airport quite early and with the usual customs clearance and security checking, we had ample time to dream and ruminate over the one week trip to the island country .