Malik Samarawickreme is the leisurely Royal College type of old boy, who would never want to rock the boat even if he has to. Therefore, lobster with Thamilselvan must have been for him like old pre-independence politicians dreaming of having high tea with the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

But reports are that while he was being indulged at Thamilselvan's ashram, there was the loud report of a LTTE boat blowing up with suicide cadres somewhere in the Delft.
Did Malik choke on his lobster, and did Thamilselvan spill the gravy on Malik's khakis?

Such thoughts are not good. Someone steeped in the spiritual might say that they need to be banished, the way the enlightened banish temptations on their march towards Nirvana.

It was all over the wire services, just before that round of talks in Oslo that Tamilselvan had never seen snow (or was it Karuna?) and that the two buddies had got into a snow fight all for the heck of it, as soon as they got out of the cars transporting them for talks.

Malik Samarawickreme had seen enough snow, but he had not hitherto seen the baked terrain of the Wanni -- he is a baked Alaska type of man, not a baked Wanni type of bloke.

But yet, the man who was captivated by snow was seeing one of Royal's rugger for dinner (and breakfast and lunch) types, over a pot of lobster in the Wanni. Such perfect bucolic pictures cannot be disturbed by a little thunderclap in the Delft.

Who goes in some bum boat and gets himself blown up, is a wretched man, when Malik and Thamilselvan are enjoying lobster in the Wanni.

Those who were lobbying grenades are now eating lobster.It would be a neat headline, and Malik would have probably spoken to BBC's correspondent Frances, who may even think of a headline such as 'Grenade lobster Thamil now serves lobster' -- something along the lines of all the snazzy headlines that have appeared since the ceasefire began, such as 'Tiger's peace purr', 'Tiger's Thai tango' etc., Just lobster eats lobster sounds nice for me though, like man bites dog?

But Malik has sacrificed for the country. For instance he has gone from his familiar 'lobster Thermidor' to 'lobster Thmailselvan', which is quite a trip for a man from the top drawer of Royal. If his name was Chandrika Kumaratunga, he would have surely said "I even had to suffer eating lobster with that Thamilselvan all for the cause of peace for my dear people.''

Thamilselvan has also assuaged Malik's feelings of being suspicious about being feted with the lobster special, by making it clear that 'you are a party leader which is why we are treating you this way.'

Of course Malik will identify with that because there was lobster whenever he threw a party at any swanky location in Kandy. Thamilselvan has a knack of getting it right -- lobster indeed for a party leader, salute to the best traditions of all.

But courtesies need to be returned, and if Malik the Chairman does not invite Thamilselvan for a banquet at Earl's Regency and golf at the Victoria Golf Club, then , Thamilselvan would say love's lobster lost? Sorry love's labour lost…

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