All That Glitters....

 It was by pure chance that my wife and I went to Sri Lanka. Had it not been for Sri Lankan Airlines who offered a free 3 night package en route to any destination as a tourism building measure during the time of the ceasefire brokered by the Norwegians between the Government and the LTTE, I probably would not have ventured to the previously conflict ridden land.

We were put up at the Galadari hotel in the heart of Colombo which was a lovely place and had all the usual facilities and tantrums of a good five star deluxe business hotel.

The Location: MGM Casino on Galle road…the place where we were spending the evening. A medium sized but plush place with no relation to its namesake in the US but with a good collection of gamblers.

As a rule, if we go to a gambling destination we put aside US$ 100 a piece to try our luck and spend a fun evening with top quality liquor and food that is usually included and encouraged if you are on the betting tables.

The wife, being the sensible one, pocketed her 100 dollars for shopping and I proceeded to encash mine for about 10000 Srilankan Rupees and felt pretty flush while parking myself on the roulette table with the round casino coupons of Rs. 100 each.

A Japanese senior, A Scandinavian woman, Lady Luck, the two of us on one side of the table and three portly East Asian guys on the other. We were the lambs of this table with the betting getting pretty high. But, Lady Luck was on our side and in about 20 minutes and 2 whiskeys down we were up to about Rs.150000. What ever we bet just kept going our way.

Just then an elderly Sri Lankan woman, very well dressed and dripping with diamonds and maybe close to seventy, joined our table right next to us. The wife at this point suggested we make an exit and cash our booty. My reaction: “One more Glenfiddich and Grey Goose and we’ll leave”…

The Sri Lankan lady was pretty friendly. She kept making witty jokes and just diverting our attention from the table. Somehow she was so smooth that unwittingly our bets just started getting bigger and more reckless. She just kept chatting softly about her experience at the tables and how her system worked for her most of the time… and we just kept betting.

She excused herself about half an hour later to go to the washroom and that was the last we saw of her and our money. We had lost all but Rs.2500 during our interaction with her and her stories.

The wife, now adamant, made me get up as we finished our drinks and food that they had generously served us and got our balance encashed. The smart wife then came out with the initial Rs.10000 that she had unknowing to me taken off the table and kept aside in her bag following her gut feel.

On our way back to in the hotel car that we had hired the driver asked if we had been lucky that night. And I told him about the happenings of the night describing the Sri Lankan lady and how we felt that she was somehow mixed up.

He just smiled and said.. “She owns the place…Didn’t she tell you that?” “Sri Lankan residents are not allowed to gamble in the casinos...”

Moral of the Story: Behind every successful man is his wife...but you have to listen to her...





Offical entry for http://www.expedia.co.in/ as part of indiblogger

Touché

On my third trip to London and my sister's first my father thought it wise to give us a cultural tour of the city, most of it on foot though as the London Eye had not yet been built.

After the usual sights like the Tower Bridge, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace it was the turn of the Tower of London.

We took in the grounds, the white tower and saw how the old monarchy had lived and even saw two of the six resident ravens, the widely believed custodians of the British Monarchy, sipping on water in the warm August sun.

Then the piece de resistance, the crown jewels... the main reason behind spending the £18 per person ticket, to see what our history books had told us.. The Koh-i-noor. It was exciting to enter into the jewel house with the tall and emotionless beefeaters standing guard. In the vault like display room as we were being urged by the ushers to "keep moving" but as we saw it we paused just a while longer at the Koh-i-noor. The world famous diamond at 105 carats and the star of the Queens crown. We truly were in awe.

My father in a moment of proud patriotism pointed out the diamond and said in Hindi; just to be sure that he puts his true feelings across to his children without drawing stares from the rest of the tourists,.."yeh hamare desh se chura ke laye the"..(they stole this from our country) . Just at that moment one of the Yeomen Warders who was right next to us says in chaste Punjabi " Himmat hai te ley ja wapas"....(If u have the guts, try to take it back).

The three of us were so stunned that we were left open mouthed like a fish out of water. We didn't know what hit us..we were like rooted and paralyzed as my father just kept staring at the bearded elderly beefeater refusing to believe what he had just heard.

It must have been the longest 30 seconds of our lives...as the beefeater smiled and said "Been married to a Sikh for 30 years and she didn't want to learn so I had to.....keep moving"... The look on his face of having taken the mickey out of us with his wit and element of surprise made us get back to reality and smile.

This event has been the highlight of my many visits to London and made me understand the level of penetration and integration of various immigrant cultures into mainstream British Life. Even today while saying anything in Hindi or Punjabi anywhere in the world I do always look around expecting a comment from the most unexpected quarters...Once bitten..Twice Shy..


The above is an official entry for the http://www.expedia.co.in/ and indiblogger contest.