{"id":64376,"date":"2019-05-31T03:02:25","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T07:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=64376"},"modified":"2019-05-31T03:02:25","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T07:02:25","slug":"the-enchanting-experience-of-being-stationed-in-sri-lanka-as-a-foreign-correspondent-from-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=64376","title":{"rendered":"The Enchanting Experience Of Being Stationed in Sri Lanka as a Foreign Correspondent From India."},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Months ahead of the general election in India, friends in Sri Lanka would eagerly ask me: \u201cSo, do you think Narendra Modi will come back?\u201d As someone following the polls only through media coverage in India \u2014 some shrill and some sane \u2014 there was little I could say that they may not have already known. I did not predict the number of seats the BJP would win or speculate much on how Tamil Nadu might vote. It was not just difficult, it was impossible to sit across the Palk Strait and attempt astute readings.<\/p>\n

As avid news trackers, these friends are often disappointed that I have nothing \u201clatest\u201d to add. In fact, often they are the ones alerting me to news breaking in India, or to political analysis that they think offers nuance.<\/p>\n

This sort of eagerness hit me harder during the string of Assembly elections in 2018, when they wanted State-specific updates and, worse, trends comparing past results. I found it hard to keep up.<\/p>\n

I have noticed over the last few years that their interest or familiarity isn\u2019t confined to Indian politics.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got a range of useful pointers from my Sri Lankan friends on lesser known bookshops, quiet cafes and reasonably priced handloom outlets in different Indian cities. I have also received YouTube links \u2014 for instance, to a Farida Khanum ghazal, a brilliant rendition by a \u2018super singer\u2019 contestant, and a newly released cover version of an Ilaiyaraja classic.<\/p>\n

One day I got really lucky; I was treated to home-cooked pav bhaji that my friend made virtually from scratch, following a recipe from a big cookery book with glazed pages that lay on his kitchen counter. \u201cI didn\u2019t get coriander leaves to put on top,\u201d he said apologetically.<\/p>\n

Cricket buffs bring another degree of intensity to this India acquaintance. It isn\u2019t just about Virat Kohli\u2019s last innings. They want to discuss lapses in team selection and BCCI controversies. I know the World Cup has begun, but there is little else I can bring to the table on this subject. I do even worse with Ranveer Singh fashion updates. Often, I wonder if Sri Lankans know more about India than Indians perhaps know about Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s another dimension to this that gets tricky. After a significant development in Sri Lankan politics \u2014 be it elections or a political crisis like last year\u2019s \u2014 some keen analysts of politics and policy invariably ask, \u201cWhat is India thinking?\u201d They mean the Indian state and mostly the government of the day. \u201cDo you\u2019all support him?\u201d some quiz me on India\u2019s position on a political leader. \u201cCan\u2019t you\u2019all push?\u201d they ask about New Delhi possibly pressuring Sri Lankan polity on delivering on the promised, but much-delayed constitutional reform.<\/p>\n

In an extension of this line of thinking, I have even been credited for an Indian government-backed development project. At a recent background briefing with a Colombo-based diplomat, a civil society member was arguing passionately that all that friendly countries do must not be viewed through the geopolitical lens. He spoke of \u201cIndia\u2019s good intentions\u201d in Sri Lanka, pointing to its big housing scheme in the Tamil-majority north and hill country.<\/p>\n

Suddenly turning towards me, he said: \u201cYou have built 50,000 houses in the north, no?\u201d I had to break it to him: \u201cNo, I haven\u2019t built a single house.
\n
\nCourtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Meera Srinivasan Months ahead of the general election in India, friends in Sri Lanka would eagerly ask me: \u201cSo, do you think Narendra Modi will come back?\u201d As someone following the polls only through media coverage in India \u2014 some shrill and some sane \u2014 there was little I could say that they may …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘The Enchanting Experience Of Being Stationed in Sri Lanka as a Foreign Correspondent From India.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64376"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64377,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64376\/revisions\/64377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}