February 27, 2006 From Sri Lanka to Cochin, for yet again another most rewarding visit with astrologer Ramesh Nayak followed by a few days of Ayurvedic oil treatments, after which I flew north for another week in Benaras. On my train journey back from there to Bombay, seated temporarily in a side berth, I found myself staring at a gentleman seated cattycorner from me, reading a book whose spine displayed a Sanskrit title. Introductions followed, and I discovered that he (his name, sadly, I cannot recall) is a professor of Sanskrit who writes books that examine how subjects mentioned in India's classical scientific literature stack up against today's science. At the end of a fascinating conversation that lasted until just before he reached his station of destination, I noticed another gentleman, seated cattycorner from me in the opposite direction, staring intently at us. That gentleman, Manasa Maharathi Tyagi Maharaj, began an even more fascinating conversation with me; he turns out to be the guru of a friend who is a professor specializing in the Ramnami sect (which is another story entirely). Tyagiji and I spent several very pleasant hours together in discussion, at one point examining the horoscope of a gentleman who was seated cattycorner from him. I look forward to rendezvousing with Tyagiji again on my next trip to India.

On reaching Bombay on February 18, at the invitation of Zenia Lawyer & her cousin Farida Irani, I attended a navjot, a Zoroastrian coming-of-age ceremony, at the Colaba Aghiary. I had known Zenia peripherally from the Bombay race course 30 years back, and most of the people there were horse owners and trainers, including two of Vimalananda's good buddies from that time, Jimmy Nazir (who remembered me immediately, though I hadn't seen him in at least two decades) and DPC "Dinshoo" Kapadia (who remembered me after a few moments). Both Jimmy and Dinshoo looked fit and healthy, and I was pleased to see that Dinshoo, who had been our tailor for some years, dresses as nattily as always, down to the fresh rose bud in his coat's buttonhole. Though I did catch a glimpse of trainer Bezan Chinoy, I just missed Cooji Katrak, our own former trainer, and wife Tina, who departed a few moments before I arrived. Curious synchronicity: Zenia's family owns Bombay's London Pilsner brewery; Prafull Daftary, whose home I had lived in off & on for years when in Bombay, and whom I had met again in Delhi just a month previously, had for some years been that brewery's managing director.

After Bombay, Oxford & then London; and on the 27th, back to the USA, ready for the next phase ...

February 13, 2006Late in January Rose & I bid a fond farewell to Claudia & Sarada, to Dr. Ramkumar & associates, and to Mahabalipuram, and proceeded to Sri Lanka, where after a quick night in Colombo with the multitalented Manik Sandrasagra & his family we set out on tour. In Kandy we found noted bon vivant & Kandyan prince Asoka Ratwatte reveling (despite his various protestations to the contrary) in his new-ish role as hotelier. Should you visit Kandy, the only place for you to stay is under Asoka's roof at Stone House (book online at www.stonehouselodge.lk). The food and service are excellent, the view superb, and the ambiance superior; and Providence alone knows whom you might run into there. In our case it was Ranil, whom Rose knew from years ago; he has most recently been focusing on disseminating a simple method for desalinating water wells made saline by the tsunami.

A sad fact: few individuals, and almost no governments, are truly altruistic. Also, enthusiasm is no substitute for practicality. In the rush to provide assistance after the Great Wave many areas obtained far more in donations than they really needed (one village we visited lost 7 houses but received 85 new ones in return), and others far less. Much of what was received was unusable, like the fancy desalination machines that lie idle in various locales, awaiting the arrival of some spare part or experienced operator before they can begin to work. They are there because the governments in question elected to use their aid money to purchase equipment from factories in their countries, whether or not that equipment was appropriate for conditions in the tsunami zone; and there they sit, rusting away, while methods more apt, like the one Ranil described to us, languish for want of resources...

Driving from Kandy to Bibile to Arugam Bay, a hornbill flew low over us, a harbinger of wildlife sightings to come, like the five lean and hungry-looking foxes that trotted by us under one midday's sun. Jagath, our driver, was a keen spotter, and it was thanks to him that we enjoyed our most rewarding sighting, on the next midday. We had just walked out a kilometer or so along a track along the edge of a marsh, getting as close as we dared to an elephant mother & calf, and as we drove away Jagath abruptly stopped the car, reversing it a few meters to where, just off the road to the left, we could spy a "cascade" of eleven pachyderms of all sizes, looking for all the world like giant animated boulders, playing peek-a-boo with us from the underbrush. We remained gawping at one another for several minutes until the two largest among them-the matriarchs, presumably- lifted their trunks to signal departure to the others, and then the troop lumbered serenely into the jungle...

The end of that day's travel brought us into a different sort of lovely environment, at Koslanda, Manik's latest project. Though the property is in the midst of development, what has already been accomplished there under the direction of Manik and his partner Lucy is impressive. We had the pleasure of Manik & Lucy's company, and that of their two young daughters, for the first night of our stay there, and the next day acquired personal experience of the breadth of their vision for the entire valley, a vision that found one of its first extensions embodied in the Koslanda Rural Knowledge Centre. Some NGO had decided that Koslanda should be given high-speed internet connectivity in order to enter the info age, and that two developmental birds could be bowled over with one project if that equipment could be managed by people who might otherwise find it difficult to obtain employment. When Manik met the three exceedingly attentive sufferers from dwarfism who are running the Centre they were losing thousands of rupees a month; Manik thereupon contracted with them to guarantee adequate utilization of their capacity, and all parties are now mightily pleased with the results. May common sense continue to spread!

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