It is time the whole world knew that the territory of a neighbouring country was used to plan and carry out the terrorist attacks on Mumbai - Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India

The Old Fox was as punctual as he was when proclaiming the birth of a Dharmishta Samajaya after his sweeping electoral victory, although his punctuality and adherence to method did not take Sri Lankan society to such a state of sanctity or righteousness. But Junius Richard or JRJ was up early as usual at his floating abode far away from us, but very much in contact with a link that is far superior to the Internet of today

His first reaction was shock. He couldn’t believe what he heard and saw. He did some re-tuning of the ethereal wavebands to see and hear it better. Good gracious, it was true…he was not dreaming. It was not a case of his age playing tricks with him even after passing away from his old favourite playground that Sri Lanka was.

"That’s incredible…..incredible….It’s the Prime Minister of India himself….. who is he… I remember him, although he was not so important in my time…Manmohan it is….that’s right……Manmohan Singh…..It’s too good to be true ….he’s accusing a neighbouring country of letting its territory to be used to plan and carry out terrorist attacks on India……

JRJ paused to think…..to recall….there was something familiar about all this….now why did this sound so familiar? He was peeling away the layers of time to understand what was so familiar in what Manmohan Singh had just said…..and was ringing bells in his mind……

Aha…..he recalled July 1983…… those terrible days when he let Cyrilic mobs go on the rampage for a couple of bloody days…..it was not a pleasant recollection…..there were too many fingers pointing at him; but he had to get at the root of that familiar ring in what Manmohan Sing was saying.

And, suddenly he saw it all, almost in the raw…..yes in the RAW…..that was it…RAW, RAW…..He suddenly broke into song –" Raw, Raw India…." He sang, as he sprang from his floating haansi putuva and took a dive across the ethereal Palk Strait. He manoeuvred well in the absence of gravity, and did the equivalent of what we have seen on TV as teleporting. In less than a nanosecond he was at the floating pad of J. N. Dixit…..the Viceroy as he was called in the days of the Parippu Drop and the Great Humiliation of JRJ….

"This is a real surprise"…..the crafty old Brown Injun said. "I’ve not seen you move about so early old Foxy…..and looking as mischievous as you do…. Just like the old days, when you had Sirimavo tied up in her own sari pota as they said back in Colombo. What brings you floating so early….the day has hardly dawned?"

"Now come on don’t try your Fixit – Dixit stuff anymore……

"Look my fixit days are long over just like your Dharmishta days. Why talk of such things when it’s so peaceful here. I enjoy having nothing to fix anymore……especially in Sri Lanka. Things seem to be going as badly as I would really have liked for that Vanni Tiger….

"Now don’t tell me you were not tuned to AIR or NDTV or any of those hundreds of other channels that keep blowing this way from you old place….there’s no point in trying to hide your wicked interest in what’s going on over there, and regretting you are not there to do some fixing, " said Junius.

"Believe me I just finished my yoga……you arrived before I could start tuning in…a little yoga is good even I these parts…..

"Well if you have not heard ….that bearded Yankee Sikh, Manmohan is singing for the whole universe to hear that the territory of a neighbour was used to plan and carry out the attack on Bombay

"You mean Mumbai….?"

"Well I still know it as Bombay. But the name is not the issue. It is the use of the territory of a neighbour to plan and carry out terrorists attacks…….doesn’t it ring a bell or two….not those little bells you hear inside kovils…but the larger bells you hear at cathedrals…..

"Now come on….don’t tell me you want to rake up all that dirt, after so long….I have almost forgotten those days," said Dixit looking somewhat helpless.

"Come on Fixie-Dixie, I didn’t do any digging. It’s what Manmohan just dug up for me. I can kick my ageing ass at not thinking of that when it was happening to us…..

"What are you talking of?" Dixit looked worried.

"Now don’t look so dumb…..I am angry at not telling the whole world just as that Manmohan fellow is doing now, about the territory of a neighour being used to plan, train, arm and carry out terrorists attacks on my own territory… and all the while you and that Paratharsathy and other arm-bending intermediaries knew all about it. You all knew it in the RAW…."

"I have still not heard Nuclear Manmohan sing that song. Maybe he’s singing out of tune…

"No, no. Who is that Rice woman…..Condoleezza…she’s singing the same song too…it’s quite a chorus….strange you haven’t heard it yet.

"Well I wonder what Benazir will have to say to all this," Dixit said. "Surely the neighbourly territory can’t be anywhere other than where she got blown up and transported here at great speed.

Junius sensed the diversionary tactic in Dixit’s talk of Benazir. He was still living in his fixit days. "I’m not interested in what Benazir thinks….What I want to know is what Indira has to say. "Raw, raw, India" he began to sing again, and was soon on his way to Indira Gandhi’s pad.

She was combing her hair, making sure the streak of grey was in the right place…..There were no signs of the Sikh shooting that did her in. She did not have many visitors, unlike in the past, and seemed pleased to see Junius, even at that early hour.

"What a pleasant surprise Junius, you are still so agile…."

"I didn’t come so early to talk about my agility…..I came to talk about what you did to me and my people…..

"Your people…..but don’t they have their roots in the Coromandel Coast? What’s all this about?

"Let’s not talk of my ancestry or yours….I just heard what your successor from the Punjab said about Bombay.

"You mean Mumbai…….?"

"Cut the trap Indira. It’s Bombay to me, and you’re not the uncrowned Empress of India anymore. That Yankee Manmohan is singing away about how the territory of a neighbour was used to plan and carry out the attack on Bombay – Mere Hai. He says that the terrorists who targeted Bombay were trained on a neighbour’s territory…."

"So why tell that to me…….I’ve was washed my hands off India after Rajiv was killed by that tiger from your country….I have no one to weep for anymore….

"But I still have cause to be angry….I recall that the tiger from my country that killed your son Rajiv was trained and armed by you, in your territory….hardly an act of good neighbourliness…..

"But isn’t that all in the past," she asked.

"No. Not for us. Our boys are still fighting those tigers trained and outfitted in your territory in your day…..and Tamil Nadu is still up to a raw deal to support the tigers and their terror…..it is easy to blame the neighour’s territory when Bombay burns……But Manmohan must not forget where all this started, when it boomerangs on Bombay.…What do you call it now ….Mumbai. Well, Mumbai is burning and Manmohan is blaming the neighbour. Damn too familiar, isn’t it?"

"He wants the whole world to know how a neighbour’s territory was used for that dastardly attack. I’m cursing myself for not telling the whole world when I could have, of how we were also the victims of such strange neighbourly actions. I hope the whole world gets the raw truth even now…..