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WAITING FOR GODOT OR ANY GODSMACKED FOOL READY TO RULE- There was a time not too long in our post-independence history when we were drawn to Samuel Beckett. Like many of his other admirers, we were waiting for Godot.

Gradually that fascination faded away as the old order rotted away and Godot gave way to the new and desecrating politicians as they fulfilled themselves in many ways—in fact, in so many ways that even the deity had not conceived in their spare time.

So today we wait not for Godot but any Godaya to pass by or even do a forced landing as some of their predecessors did in the past with bags full of parippu, now covered in a more respectable veneer better known north of Velvettithurai as the “Bharat Basher” to many of our daydreamers.

Moreover, there are many who believe that manna is dropped from the skies each time a generous Indian passes our way, as they seem to do so frequently these days since the economy collapsed around us and Gota beat a hasty retreat while waiting for Godot to arrive to elevate him to a modern Hitler, as a few overexcited religious enthusiasts encouraged Gota on his birthday, urging him to pick up Mein Kampf, having imbibed too much of the Hitlerite decoction.

Thankfully, Good King Gotabaya the First was not foolish enough to have been inured by Beckett, bucket, or misleading historical instructions and so avoided Mein Kampf, his kampf or some other kampf as those wishing to turn Gota into another Heil Hitler failed to do.

Yet there are those hovering around with seeming ambition who still appear to dream of an empire state harking back to the times when imperialism and expansionism ruled the waves, and sometimes those close to our shores waved the rules.

In point of fact, though imperialism and the use of force to subjugate the weak—militarily, economically or diplomatically—are not dead, we are now seeing more tsars, near and far, arise in the quest for regional, if not world, domination.

But as Mark Antony said of the slain Julius Caesar (more to temper Caesar’s intentions than show his temerity, as he wanted the Roman citizenry to see his friend), “Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.”

So now the country is agog with stories of one kind or the other, not to mention how our dear neighbour is looking for more new space to plant its expanding population. But this is nothing new. From the time I remember, Mother India has been trying to grow—grow what I don’t quite know, though it might well be anything it would lay its hands and kathi on.

If I remember correctly, it was sometime in the early months of 1973 that Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was due on an official visit to Colombo. It was an interesting period in Indo-Sri Lanka relations. It was a time when Colombo was a leading member of the Non-Aligned community, and so was India—both founder members and participants at the first NAM summit in Belgrade.

Naturally the Western world, some ridiculing the whole concept of non-alignment and some others—particularly the left socialist ones adding a wise voice to the emerging movement.

I was then with the Daily News, writing on political and foreign news, among other things. I was also a correspondent for the Guardian (UK) newspaper. I had a message from the foreign desk asking me for a piece on the Indira Gandhi visit with a look at Indo-Sri Lanka relations as a curtain raiser.

This I did with some enthusiasm because one of the key international issues bringing the two neighbours close was Sri Lanka’s forthcoming proposal to the UN General Assembly for an international zone of peace in the Indian Ocean that would keep the big powers out of that part of the important and busy ocean.

The Guardian, to coincide with the Gandhi visit, made it the lead story on page 3 or 5 (I quite forget which, but I have the clipping somewhere among my papers) with a headline that created quite a stir with my byline.

It said Prime Minister Gandhi to allay Lanka fears of expansionism.

As though that was not enough to bell the cat, the next came at Mrs Gandhi’s press conference at Temple Trees, where it was a tight fit, and I was right opposite her on the other side of the writing table.

After a few preliminary loose balls that had Mrs Gandhi batting with the dexterity of a Vijay Merchant, I thought I should pop one too. So I bowled a ‘Chinaman’ that I had been using since my schooldays.

With a gentle full toss, I said Sri Lankans and others are thankful to India for backing the Indian peace zone proposal. But do you think that if the major powers are evicted by the peace zone, it will be dominated by one Indian Ocean?

The so far quiescent prime minister blew into a rage as though I had bowled a bouncer at the helmetless prime minister. Her face turned red and then purple, and she yelled almost into my face, saying, “I know who you are referring to, India. We don’t want to dominate any region in the making” and a further load of invective….”

I went into deathly silence, not wishing to anger a new superpower victim. But she was not finished. Her next was my brother Mervyn, who quite innocuously asked about the clashes in the Congress Party. That took the Gandhi goat. She banned Mervyn from asking any more questions.

That drew the curtain on question time. It was clearly kaput. But certainly not to our writing on our closest friendship that is being built up today with Sri Lanka ready to fall at the feet of a country that once hoped to lead the Indian Ocean and does not appear to have abandoned its ambitions under new czars.

(Neville de Silva is a veteran Sri Lankan journalist who was assistant editor of the Hong Kong Standard and worked for Gemini News Service in London. Later, he was deputy chief of mission in Bangkok and deputy high commissioner in London).