The address of the Prime Minister of India A.B. Vajpayee to the 53rd UN General Assembly on September 24, 1998

I first addressed this august Assembly of the UN as Foreign Minister in 1977. Since then I have had the privilege to come for the General Assembly sessions for many years but it was without ministerial responsibility. I acknowledge with gratitude the confidence of successive Prime Ministers. To me it also signifies the consensus on national interests and the foreign policy of India. When I addressed the General Assembly in 1977, it was the turning point in many ways in the history of India. The Janata Government was a coalition of many factions who united in the restoration of our peoples’s faith in democracy. Since then we have had many changes of Government but the people’s political awareness and their faith in the institutions which uphold our constitutional system has been unwavering.

Today, when I come to this podium as Prime Minister I come on behalf of another coalition. India has demonstrated that democracy can take root in a developing country. I am confident that the Indian experience will prove that democracy can also provide the basis for stable, long-term economic growth in developing societies. This is the path that the people of India have chosen and I stand before you today as the symbol of this new resurgent India.

The world of the 1970’s has receded into history. The shackling constraints of the Cold War are gone. The distinguishing feature of the last two decades has been the spread of democracy worldwide. By force of example, we have been one of the authors of the triumph of democracy. From this flows our desire to see democratization of the UN itself. An international body that does not reflect, and change with, the changing international realities, will inevitably face a credibility deficit. We, therefore, support a revitalized and effective UN, one that is more responsive to the concerns of the vast majority of its member States and is better equipped to meet the challenges ahead of us in the 21st century.

Fresh blood
The Security Council does not represent contemporary reality; it does not represent democracy in international relations. Following the end of the Cold War, it has acquired the freedom to act but experience shows that the Council has acted only when it was convenient for its permanent members. The experience of Somalia does not do credit to the Security Council and there are other examples too. Peacekeeping operations cannot be a reflection of ulterior political priorities and perceptions.

There is only one cure — to bring in fresh blood. The Security Council must be made representative of the membership of the United Nations, Developing countries must be made permanent members. It is a right to which the developing world is entitled. Presence of some developing countries as permanent members is inescapable for effectively, discharging the responsibilities of the Security Council particularly when we see that the Council acts almost exclusively in the developing world. It is only natural that on decisions affecting the developing world, these countries have say, on equal terms.

Along with other measures, the Security Council too must be reformed, expanding its non-permanent membership so that more developing countries can serve on it. But this alone is not enough. Because as long as effective power in the Council rests with the permanent membership, the interests of the developing world will not be promoted or protected unless developing countries are made permanent members, on par with the present permanent members. Only this will make the Council an effective instrument for the international community in dealing with current and future challenges. The new permanent members must of course have the ability to discharge the responsibilities that come with permanent membership. India believes it can, and, as we had said before from this rostrum, we are prepared to accept the responsibilities of permanent membership, and believe we are qualified for it.

It will be a great day when democracy becomes the universal norm, and when the UN reflects this democracy in its institutions and functioning. However, open democratic societies have one scourge to contend with — terrorism. The challenge before countries like mine and other democracies is to maintain our openness, safeguard individual rights, and, at the same time, give no quarter to terrorists. Several speakers before me have recounted the terrible toll, worldwide, that terrorists have exacted, taking advantage of he trust that characterizes open societies.

I recall that the G-7 Summit almost two decades back had identified terrorism as one of the most serious threats to civilised societies. Events since then including the blowing up of Air India Kanishka, the Pan Am Airlines over Lockerbie, to the recent bombings in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam — have only established the correctness of that judgment.

Terrorism is one threat that affects us all equally. Terrorism takes a daily toll across the world. It is the most vicious among international crimes, the, most pervasive, pernicious and ruthless threat to the lives of men and women in open societies, and to international peace and security. In India, we have had to cope with terrorism, aided and abetted by a neighbouring country, for nearly two decades. We have borne this with patience, but none should doubt the strength of our resolve to crush this challenge, its tentacles have spread across the world, Today, it has linkages with illicit trade in drugs, arms and money laundering. In short, terrorism has gone global and it can only be defeated by organized international action.

Let us make up our minds once and for all — terrorism is a crime against humanity. Unilateral steps can hardly stand scrutiny in an open society, let alone in the eyes of the international community. It should be the primary task of all open and plural societies to develop collective means for tackling this menace. At the summit meeting in Durban, the Non-Aligned Movement has called for an international conference in 1999 to develop such a collective response. We urge that the 1999 conference launch the process of negotiations for an international convention to provide for collective action against States and organizations which initiate or aid and abet terrorism.

In this fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, there is a growing realization that economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights form a seamless web. Analyses carried out in recent years by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees amply reflect the vicious cycle of how violations of economic, social and cultural rights inevitably lead to violations of civil and political rights.

In defining its index, the Human Development Report gives a higher weightage to economic criterion for developing countries, this weightage is reduced for developed countries, highlighting the importance of the right to development for developing societies. It is therefore a matter of concern that the absolutism sought to be advocated in the promotion of human rights is often at the cost of the right to development.

Indian proposals rejected
India has ratified both the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Covenant of Civil and Political Rights. Other institution in our country — the National Human Rights Commission, a free media, an independent judiciary — all serve to assure that the international human rights statutes are enjoyed by all citizens. We also remained convinced that unless progress is made on economic, social and cultural rights including the right to development, the world will continue to witness international conflict leading to migrations, displacement of people and human rights abuses.

In the closing years of the 20th century the challenge of nuclear disarmament is another of the priorities facing the international community. We have successfully prohibited chemical and biological weapons in recent decades. The present century has witnessed the development and the tragic use of nuclear weapons. We must ensure that the legacy of this weapon of mass destruction is not carried into the next century.

For the last half-century, India has consistently pursued the objectives of international peace along with equal and legitimate security for all through global disarmament. These concepts are among the basic tenets of our national security.

Continued tomorrow

Gamini Fonseka on his row with president
by Prasad Gunewardene

North-East Governor, Gamini Fonseka, says that the action taken by the President to direct him to cancel the said ‘Transfer’ of an official in his Province was unconstitutional and has caused humiliation to the office of the Governor, personally to him and it is also a degradation of the status of the office of an appointee by the President herself.

This, he claims, had been stated in his reply to the President following the Presidential directive to cancel the said ‘transfer’.

Mr. Fonseka in an interview with ‘The Island’ at his Ekala residence on Monday afternoon pointed out that he did not ‘transfer’ the said officer, but only made ‘shuffle’ in the duties of the officer in question.

Explaining further, Governor Fonseka noted that at the time this officer had been appointed, the President herself had requested him to carefully monitor this officer’s conduct and in keeping with that directive Mr. Fonseka had found that this officer was indulging in maladministration and corruption as the subject of Education came under this officer’s purview.

Following are the excerpts of the interview.

Q: So after you found out that this officer was upto mischief what did you do?

A: The correct political action was to remove him from the North-East Provincial Council. There, too, I decided to be more humane and took into consideration that the punishment basically had to be deterrent. I had no desire to hurt his family or his dependents. Therefore, I decided to order a ‘shuffle’ in his duties. I merely removed the subject of Education from him which had in built temtating at various levels and invited political interference from the highest, mid and lower ranges in politics. I reiterate, that it was not a ‘transfer’ as wrongly stated in the President’s reply, written in haste by the office of the President with the President’s signature ordering me to cancel the ‘transfer’ of the said officer.

The following morning I complied with the demand and the ‘shuffle’ was cancelled.

Q: If your action was correct why did you cancel the ‘transfer’ or the ‘shuffle’?

A: I had to comply with the Presidential directive as the President in her letter ordered so and also requested me to submit a report on the conduct of this officer which I complied with and sent to the President the very next morning. In my report I explained that I took the step to ‘shuffle’ this officer’s duties as a result of the President ordering me to keep an eye on this man at the time he was appointed.

I also mentioned that my action were based on the powers vested to me as Governor by the constitution to which I wanted some form of response from the President. She had enough time to study and reconsider the action taken by her to direct me to cancel the ‘transfer’ as described by her.

Q: Have you transferred any other official in your Council earlier?

A: Yes...He was a Sinhalese and a trap was laid, as told me the CID. Immediate facts available were fair enough, to my mind, that he should be removed from the administration of the Council to enable me and the Council to function smoothly. No Sinhalese, Tamil or a Muslim uttered a word against his removal except no one former SLFP MP who came to appeal on his behalf. This MP’s ground for the appeal was that the man was a Sinhalese which I dismissed. This was no qualification to indulge in corruption or nefarious activities. My intention was that he being a Sinhalese should have conducted himself in an exemplary manner having to deal with a population which numbered more than the Sinhalese in that Province.

Thereafter, I appointed a Tamil officer to act for him and this Tamil officer was due to retire within a short period. While President Kumaratunga was searching for the correct man with credentials after the retirement of this officer a second officer was appointed on a temporary basis who was also a Tamil.

Meanwhile, a nominee of an important minister and the nominee of a Tamil group which was a part of the PA had named their men for the post. The Tamil group nominee was found more suitable to be appointed to this post in the Provincial Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports.

Q: Is he the man in question now?

A: Wait....let me tell you clearly as I do not want you to make a mistake. It is obvious that he is the man in question as you asked. President Kumaratunga herself had reservations about this man at the time he was appointed. She instructed me to have a close watch on this man. I mentioned to her that one should not jump into conclusions and the man’s conduct should be watched and monitored carefully for satisfaction. I also told the President that officers should not be dealt on hearsay which was detrimental of justice and fairplay.

Q: Was this officer’s conduct good after he took office?

A: After having studied the man and his conduct very carefully for two years there were justifiable reasons for me to take necessary action against him and I decided to act. Therefore, I ‘shuffled’ his duties and relieved him from the subject of education.

Q: Did you have concrete evidence to prove that this officer was indulging in corruption, bribery, maladministration and nefarious activities?

A: Yes....certainly, otherwise I would not have acted in that manner. Heaps of material regarding the conduct of this officer was being directed to me by various sources. These encouraged me as the Governor to take appropriate action. These evidence regarding his conduct had been explained in my reply to the President.

Q: What more evidence do you have regarding this officer after you sent in your reply to the President?

A: This officer appears to enjoy ‘super’ privileges. He is now publicly showing himself off to save his face from the allegations of misconduct, bribery, corruption and maladministration in the area. The President is also aware of this. It’s four months since I sent my report on him to the President for which I received no acknowledgement.

Q: Are you prepared to face the consequences for the rightful action that you claim to have taken against this officer who is still in that position having got his ‘transfer’ cancelled from the highest office in the land?

A: Yes, I am prepared. This is somebody trying to hide somebody’s embarrassment. All in all this officer concerned has been allowed to violate the government’s establishment code to hold seminars, Press conferences and various other meetings, making critical remarks at the PA Governor’s actions. Furthermore, leading Tamil newspapers have published colour photographs of occasions where this officer was seen accepting gold chains and sovereigns which is a blatant violation of the establishments code practiced with impunity. Isn’t this a pathetic situation?

Q: Is it correct that this officer had submitted Bills for approval for monies expended for seminars conducted by him without your approval and knowledge?

A: Yes, he had also ventured into that dirty path. He had submitted Bills where amounts are very heavy are highly questionable. I have refused to approve them and I shall not approve such highly questionable Bills.

Q: Mr. Fonseka, you left the UNP and joined the PA in 1994 with great expectations. Isn’t it correct?

A: You are wrong, I am not a member of the PA and therefore your statement that I had great expectations is absolutely wrong.

Q: Anyway you are today a governor in the PA administration. Isn’t it?

A: Yes.......that does not mean I am a member of the PA. Let me explain how I came to that position. Prior to the 1994 General Election, Mrs. Chandrika Kumaratunga sought a meeting with me and requested my support as President Premadasa did in 1988.

When she offered me the Post of Governor in the North -East I gave a great deal of thought to the offer and I discussed with her in great detail and asked for time to think about it. Having accepted the offer in principle subject to certain conditions, I was last person to take oaths as a provincial governor.

Q: What were your conditions?

A: Firstly I said that I did not wish to be an ‘Arm chair Governor’. Then she said she was happy as she wanted a person to participate in the development of the North- East and its rehabilitation process.

Q: Having known that you were an ex-Deputy Speaker of the UNP, didn’t she mention about party politics in that province?

A: She was very fair and she even told me that I could get the services of officials who were my UNP friends as there was a lot to be done in that area. She claimed that earlier there was no work or little work done in that area. The President told me, ‘Gamini, you may retain even UNPers who have not been playing rare politics’. This was a very sensible statement and to me it looked like a true quality of leadership. Therefore, having given much thought I took my oath as Governor in December 1995.

Q: What were the other conditions?

A: The President was keen to clean up the administration , I said it was my intention too to run a clean administration . She admitted that the administration was corrupt in that area and without a governor for the six months prior to my appointment the officials is the Council had taken over the reins and as a result there was rampant corruption and maladministration.

Q: What were the facilities afforded to you as Governor to carry out your duties?

A: The President assured many including an official residence in Trincomalee and Colombo and circuit bungalows in Batticaloa, Ampara, Mannar etc...etc. However, there were not in existence when I inquired. I was neither provided with an office in Colombo and I had to live at my private residence in Colombo where I still continue to live.

Q: Then where did the earlier Governors live while they performed their duties?

A: The earlier Governors in Trinco were always in the safe custody of the Navy. Therefore, it could not be called a residence for the Governor. There were no offices for the Governor in Trinco and Colombo.

Q: But, you have a office in Colombo at Gregory’s Road, Isn’t it?

A: It was me who found that office space. I searched for a building for months and months being eager to get on with the work. The Housing Ministry offered to accommodate my office there, but the rent and furniture expenses could have run into millions of rupees if I had accepted it. The North-East Council was non-revenue earning and there was no way to take that offer.

Having seen thirty locations in Colombo one Mr. Fernando agreed to give his house at Gregory’s Road to me. The others were not prepared to have any dealings with the government. Mr. Fernando was confident that I would look after his premises.

Q: So the officials in the North-East are compelled to travel to Colombo to meet you?

A: They claim that it is much easier to travel to Colombo as those in Mannar, Ampara, Batticaloa, Jaffna and other areas found it difficult to reach Trinco in time due to security checks and other obstacles.

To my mind it is a major risk to assemble top officials and senior security officials in Trinco for meetings and to this view credence was given in the recent bomb explosion in the Jaffna Municipal Council. The security situation has not much changed in those areas for the past three and a half years.

Q: Have you been given adequate security as the Governor?

A: At the start I was given eight men. Later it was reduced to five the local police gave day and night security at my residence gate. The security was gradually reduced and today you can see only a blue shirted Khaki trousered young man who says he is from the ‘Police Sahayaka Balakaya’ at my gate other than my personal security.

Q: What about the security at your Colombo office?

A: It is worse as you may have seen. There’s no security at all. Once in two months I see a constable hanging around for few hours. There’s not a single permanent constable except for the only traffic cops on duty opposite the D.S. Senanayake Vidyalaya during school hours.

Q: Haven’t you brought this matter to the notice of the IGP as you as the N-E Governor is vulnerable to an attack at any moment?

A: A number of reminders to the former IGP fell on deaf ears. Even some Ministers and MPs who come to my office have reminded the former IGP.

Q: Finally, has any former Governor acted in an unfair manner.

A: Yes...There was one Governor who had created a fifth ministry violating the constitution. That particular ministry dealt with some engineering section. I disbanded it upon taking up office.

Q: Mr. Fonseka, now that you appear to be at loggerheads with the President, is it correct that you may rejoin the UNP if removed from the current post?

A: There is no dispute between me and the President. I seek justice and fairplay. I have carried out her instructions. The ball is in her court to ensure justice. I am neither in the PA nor the UNP. Let us wait and see the future.

About the author E.C.T. Candappa was one of Sri Lanka's been feature writers in the mid-fifties till the seventies. He was an outstanding journalist at Lake House and distinguished himself as a reporter and feature writer. He is now domiciled in Australia but still very much interested in his country of origin. He visited Sri Lanka last year and interviewed many of the personalities featured in this book.

Continued from yesterday

Chapter 17
The air was crisp, and there was promise in the growing light of the early dawn. But it smelt dank, heavy with chlorine and antiseptic and clammy with a sense of illness and death that clung to the walls.

It was much like a prison at dawn. As Raj walked along the deserted corridors to the chapel, he missed keenly the sense of a new day.

A few nuns and a sprinkling of others were already in the chapel. He could tell the patients from the visitors by the contrast of their clothes.

Some nuns were preparing the altar for Mass. Raj knelt on the cushioned kneeler. Soon he felt the peace envelop him. He felt life here, too, as he had often felt on mountain tops, in the deep stillness of forests, peace, sometimes strangely by surging rivers. The cream, silk habits of the nuns, impeccably laundered, heightened their gentleness and sanctity. Who could possibly tell, Raj wondered, from these celestially serene figures, that they could wash the most loathsome sores, tend the most obstreperous patients with the utmost patience, and in the particular context of public hostility in the political arena, retain their glowing love and concern for all in need of such? They were known as mauwanse, mother in any tongue, and aptly so in the context of maternal solicitude offered to the wounded and the vulnerable.

Was political gain such a blind pursuit, Raj asked himself, that it could sacrifice any good for personal advancement?

At almost every level of the public sector after Independence, hardly anything moved unless greased with a bribe. But the Catholic nuns were so highly motivated that their own shining dedication demanded a similar response. Or, at least, it maintained levels of service and efficiency at all State hospitals and private nursing homes administered by them. The power of their gentle presence was patently stupendous. Everything that had to be cleansed was spotless, everything shone that had to be shined.

The Mass proceeded and ended in a glow of sanctity informed by the nuns’ singing, evocative, it seemed to Raj, of the vaunted choirs of paradise.

Raj returned to his ward cleansed and uplifted and nourished and deeply grateful.

As he passed the matron’s office he saw Miss Hapangam, aglow with health, all starch and readiness. Raj paused at the door and said: "Thank you very much for finding out the time of the Mass for me. I’m just returning."

A great smile, like the sun across a paddy field. That could have meant you’re welcome, glad to have been of some help, don’t mention it, I like doing favours, I like you that’s why I did it. Or whatever. But that’s all.

Raj drank it and moved on.

"The buggers must be in a shitting funk!" was how Jayasinghe, the Health Ministry man interpreted the news, released shortly after breakfast that morning, that four patients in this ward would be taken off for surgery the following day.

Raj, however, shrewdly surmised that Jayasinghe’s observation had merely been a projection of his own feelings. The four patients were Patil Lalchand, Haniffa, the 72 year old Moor, Murrel the dark Burgher with the mocking smile, and Ranasinghe, the young government clerk.

The atmosphere of the place changed instantly. The other patients could only guess what was going on in the minds of those who had been chosen, for they were stricken very silent indeed.

Raj walked across to each of the elect in turn and said much the same to each, "Good to finish it off and get home." Each of them nodded and smiled bleakly, and each of their hands was icy cold.

In the afternoon, one of the attendants (a male, mandatory in a male ward) came to prepare them for surgery which meant shaving their nether regions as all of them involved surgery in the middle anatomy.

And the nurse who came was the one they called Dracula. As he entered the ward, the brightness of the sun outside appeared to dim and the temperature in the shade to fall. The regulation clothes that he wore, the coarse, white cloth wrapped around his waist and the loose ungainly shirt of the same material, hung loose on his cadaverous frame. This afternoon, because of the special function he had to perform, he also wore a clean white apron and bore in one hand a galvanised pail with water and in the other a large basin and a towel draped over his arm.

On his face he wore a dark scowl.

He swept the room once with bloodshot eyes (opium, thought Raj, remembering the rumour) and probably muttering under his breath: "I’ll get you all in the end."

He went first to Murrel. He pulled a wooden screen around the bed. Soon, there was the hitherto unheard sound of the ancient patient giggling. This was followed by a deep growl from him advising Dracula to keep his hands off whatever his hands were on.

Dracula then made a withering remark about a shrunken object which he named. All in a loud voice.

There was no laughter attending that remark from the victim or from the recumbent bystanders. Instead, only a sweaty silence which heightened by a hundred per cent the acoustic qualities of the room. Soon, the sound of vigorous application of soap on a rough surface was heard and then the sound of a razor scraping over hair. This was punctuated by occasional grunts of protest.

After a while Dracula emerged with ill-concealed disgust on his face, carrying the basin. He took it into the bathroom where he emptied it, and returned, this time to the Indian next to Raj’s bed.

The screen was pulled around his bed, and only Lalchand’s head and his black beady eyes shining with fear were visible.

Lalchand turned round and saw Raj looking at him.

Then, quite bluntly, the Indian said: "Why don’t you have a nap?"

"Well, I don’t feel like one," said Raj, startled by the suggestion and its suddenness.

Nevertheless, he understood and turned over.

With Lalchand, Dracula was cruel. He made many disparaging remarks about the area under treatment, and worst of all, about its distinctive Moslem appearance. Usually such levity is only one-sided, as circumcision is a matter of religious significance and not the subject of crude humour.

The third patient was Ranasinghe, the government clerk. He was a humble lad and in social status quite close to the male nurse. So there was not much conflict there.

They conversed on mundane matters, much as one would have conversed with one’s barber operating from the other end.The fourth was Haniffa, and out of feference of boredom the male nurse did that chore in silence. About an hour later Dracula shuffled out. The smell of antiseptic soap and a sense of relief hung in the air.

That afternoon, during the visiting hour, the conversation around the beds of the patients to underdo surgery the following day was animated and grave.

Raj expressed his impatience to his parents and to the other visitors among whom were Noel and Don from Clarion Mansions.

Noel was a newcomer, a lean man with a gaunt face, a head of black wavy hair and a large drooping moustache which he was prone to tug at frequently. He reminded one instantly of an idle, upper-crust Englishmen who would have made an instant character for Wodehouse. Rumour had it that he had at one time been a monk in an old English monastery; and his inclination, also, to repair to the nearest pub at the slightest provocation did not deny that possibility. Or affirmed it, rather, depending on the kind of monk you were thinking of. It was also hinted that he had an artistic background, a supposition buttressed by his bohemian manner and attire: he wore slippers instead of shoes, wore a bush shirt over his trousers, abhorred hats and ties, and declared to anyone who would listen that in the privacy of his high-walled garden he gambolled in the nude. And yet with all that he was excellent company capable of providing innumerable surprises, had an insatiable appetite for an argument: he never ever yielded a point and when quite defeated ordered more drinks until the matter ended in an alcoholic haze of back-slapping bonhomie.

Don, an ex-sergeant major of the Sri Lankan army, who had seen service in the Middle East during World War Two, was a dark, tubby man with florid taste in clothes, a guttural voice and gargantuan laughter. Army language became him as did his belligerent manner if things did not go his way. He was blessed with what they call the gift of the gab. He could talk his way through any bureaucratic obstruction. Raj remembered the time they had been sent out once at midnight to cover a possible case of arson when a government plane serving the Air Academy had been set ablaze at the main, Ratmalana airport. (That was almost two decades before the international airport was opened at Katunayake.) Raj was quite a junior reporter on night duty when he and Don had been sent to bring a picture of the burning plane.

When they had arrived, there was a strong cordon around the place. Don muttered to Raj, "You keep your f.....g trap shut and follow me." He stalked ahead with his equipment slung over his shoulder, camera out of sight. A policeman came and said tersely, "You can’t go in there."

Don gave him a historic mouthful in Sinhala which suffers in translation. "Why the devil can’t I go in? It’s my plane that’s burning." And he brushed the man aside.

Raj trotted behind, blindly, wondering when they would be summoned back. When they were out of earshot Don had muttered: "After all, it’s my plane isn’t it. I am a f.....g tax payer."

True, true, thought Raj. They took all the pictures they wanted and stalked out. The Clarion was the only paper which had the pictures with Don’s by-line.

That afternoon both Noel and Don were subdued. Raj complained that no surgeon had come to see him.

"Shall I go and have a word with the bugger?" Don volunteered.

"Won’t help," said Raj. "I hear he has taken a two-week vacation."

"So you wait here and relax man. Pukka holiday, what do you say, Noel?"

Noel for his part was in a deeply reflective mood. It was the first time, as far as he was aware, that he had visited anyone in hospital let alone one on the verge of surgery. The prospect had horrified him, so much so that he had taken the rest of the day off to ponder the mortality of human life. And since, for him, no pondering was possible without some alcoholic inducement, upon leaving the hospital he had stopped by at the Press Club where, Raj later learnt, he had to be taken home in a taxi, having passed through the three classic phases of intoxication, the bellicose, lachrymose and comatose. His friends, as befitting friends, had borne him out.

Chapter 18
A hush hung over Ward 37. The patients for cutting lay in a state of almost suspended animation and sterilised readiness. They had been starved from the previous evening and not allowed to drink anything from morning.

Rectified spirits had been vigorously rubbed around the areas where they would be operated on and they passed the time listening to the ticking of the clock in the tower nearby, sometimes muffled by the sound of their own heartbeats.

Even old Murrel was silent.

The two female nurses on duty were Miss Gunawardene and the tall, dark one with the large brown eyes, whose name by now Raj had learnt was Miss Andradi. He had also overheard her being called Vijitha, but patients wouldn’t dream of calling them by their first names.

Diminutive and frail
They were both gentle beings though one appeared to be more so because she was diminutive and frail while the other being blessed with an abundance of health, among other more obvious assets, was more vigorous and bustling and seemed to lack the delicate touch.

She tried to get a cackle out of Murrel but failed. As understanding was part of her training and more of her nature she took one of his bony hands in hers and looked long at him very tenderly.

Then she bustled away and had a word with the other two, Patil and Ranasinghe right at the other end of the room.

Patil asked for a sip of water and received a smile instead. And then, enter Dracula.

And the only way to describe the way he looked then was to say that he glowed.

His face was freshly shaven, and glowed. His hair was sleeked back with coconut oil, and it glistened.

(c) E. C. T. Candappa

Continued on tomorrow