Fading Lights of An Evening.
Author: Saadut
•9:43 PM



__ would stare at the window endlessly, circling fingers over the ridges of the coffee cup, lost in some oblivion and then in measured movements sip the cold coffee over long intervals. I would be company, some odd times, sitting in forced silences, looking out at the spaces of natural green far beyond the window, those ended somewhere by the horizons of the hills in the faraway distance. Most evenings these distances turned from hazy green to light golden, then burning ember red and subsequently fading into an escaping dark. Such mosaic filled evenings our conversations were limited and our silences extending with the expanse ahead of us.
One of such evenings, while we watched nature changing glasses to beam different colors over a receding day,  __ broke the rule of silence and quipped, “do you realize why the day is in such a hurry to change form?” I shrugged my shoulders, not knowing what to reply. We sunk into silences for many more minutes, __’s fingers circling slowly over the borders of the coffee mug, and then suddenly stopped.

“The day is actually a laborious human,
Burdened by the toil of fields.
And just when toil has turned to harvest,
It’s time for farewell and time to leave”

By that time the lights were already burning ember red, arch shaped flames glowing from behind the distant hills, where not a speck of green or any other hue was visible now. I often thought our placement decides our opinion and our light, like the diminishing of sun in one part of world would be the closure of a day while in the other part of the world the same would be day break.
Soon it was dark and in the arcs of evening, taillights were fleeing over lines of road, roads without addresses those ran like veins without blood. There was still some coffee left in __’s cup, turned cold by the fading evening light. Sipping one last potion of that evening cold coffee __ broke the silence “And the night?”
I waited for the answer from the seeker, again.

“Darkness is the cloak of night,
Giving refuge to those escaping light,
And when our toil has burned away,
The darkest hour will lead to twilight.”

For many of the following years I sat alone at that window, watching the day end in flames, but none to break the silence and tell me the meaning of these changing colors. _ never came back for that unending night, searching for a twilight in some other world.


~S~
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‘Neighborhood First Diplomacy’ India helps Maldives survive water crisis.
Author: Saadut
•12:09 PM

 


With India becoming the first country to answer the distress call from the Maldives, following the total destruction of water supply system of the island nation, leaving its population without any water supply resource, the ‘Neighborhood First Diplomacy’ of India is enhancing its leadership stature in the subcontinent.  

 


After one of its worst water crises encountered by Maldives, following a massive fire in the Male Water and Sewerage Company complex on December 4, 2014, India immediately carried out ‘Operation Neer’ and flew multiple sorties of large aircraft ferrying hundreds of tonnes of drinking water to the island nation. Close to 150,000 Male residents were left without water in their homes after the generator unit of the Maldives Water and Sewerage Company caught fire and was destroyed. 


 

The spontaneous effort by India was undertaken after External Affairs Minister Ms. Sushma Swaraj was called up by her Maldivian counterpart Dunya Maumoon and requested for help. Within no time, Ms. Swaraj got in touch with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and got clearances from other authorities. 

 


Being the first responder at this critical time for Male, the first Indian aircraft with portable water had arrived within 12 hours of the distress call request of the Maldivian government. 

 

Following up on the air sorties, two Indian Ships INS Deepak and INS Shukanya also arrived in Male and delivered around 2,000 tonnes of water, brining much needed relief to parched Maldivians. Two naval warships, the INS Sukanya and the INS Vivek will purify water through Reverse Osmosis (RO) systems, and will remain berthed off Male harbor until the desalination treatment plant in Male has been repaired.

While the Maldivian government put out similar calls to the U.S., China and Sri Lanka as well, India was the first, and best placed to respond. 

Maldives is strategically placed in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), hardly 70 nautical miles from the island of Minicoy in Lakshadweep and 300 nautical miles from the mainland's western coast, at the hub of commercial sea lanes running through IOR. And it would in the interest of both countries to have diplomatic, economic and security relations between them further strengthened. 


It is this ‘Neighborhood First Diplomacy’ that puts India ahead of all other countries in the region and gives it a decisive leadership role in Asia, particularly in the subcontinent.




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