Thanksgiving time for Sharon

The history of the Jewish community in India is said to date from 1000 BC when Jews took off from the Straits of Hormuz and landed in the Malabar coast. Both Kerala and Konkan are still littered with Jewish sites, although most records were destroyed in turns by Muslim overlords, the Roman Catholic Portuguese and Dutch colonialists. Sharon may or may not visit the Keneseth Eliyahoo synagogue in Colaba (there are 7 in Mumbai), the Sassoon Library or the Sassoon Docks — a Baghdadi Jew named David Sassoon who emigrated to Bombay in 1832 built these landmarks with the money he made serving the British empire — but he is expected to thank the people of India for showing tolerance towards the Jewish community over the centuries.

Lahiri lengthens Sibal’s tenure

And so the grapevine on which hangs the story about India’s next Foreign Secretary gets longer and longer. This week’s version has it that present incumbent Kanwal Sibal is likely to get an extension — or contract, or reemployment, as the MEA will have it — beyond November, when he should have retired. Seems as if the decision to give India’s Ambassador in France Savitri Kunadi another six months (she was to retire this month-end) till March, was what helped tip the scales in Sibal’s case. Next in line after Sibal, Dilip Lahiri, is now likely to go to Paris when Kunadi finally gives over. Also around March, India’s Ambassador to the US Lalit Mansingh ends his three-year tenure, which is when the race for Washington will hot up again. By then April would have arrived, and that as we all know, is the cruellest month.

How Anju could’ve stumbled

To think that Anju Bobby George, India’s world-class long jumper, may have never got a shot at her bronze — and India’s first athletic medal — if the MEA’s San Franscisco consulate led by S. Vishwanadhan had been allowed its callous routine. On the other hand, if Minister of State in the MEA Vinod Khanna’s secretary Arun Malhotra and Gurjit Singh, India’s Deputy Chief of Mission in Rome, hadn’t gone out of their way to help Anju get her visas to compete in the European circuit before the world championships, she would have been just another girl from India’s picturesque Kerala backwaters. Turns out that about a month ago, while training at the US with the world-class long-jumper Mike Powell, Anju was told it would be a good idea to compete in Rome. Since she didn’t have an Italian visa, she sent off a fax to the San Fransisco mission, following it up with a call. We haven’t received any fax, an officer at the consulate told her, please try Delhi. At the Sports ministry, she drew a blank. Finally, at the end of their tether, she tried Khanna’s office. Directions were sent to Viswanadhan, who finally delivered. Once in Rome, Gurjit took over, helping her out with visas for nations where she was to compete. His efforts enabled Anju to get there to thrash the competition. That’s how in Paris on the weekend, she was brimming with confidence — and why she did India proud.