My good friend, Biswas, the Bengali Fisherman

The days I was in middle school, in a remote part of Maharashtra, where a gigantic Cement Factory had grown up from dust and a colony of people from states all over India had settled down in a sleepy village; we had a regular visitor to our house.
Biswas was a poor fisherman, a resettled Bengali who brought his ware of fresh fish caught from the local water reservoir almost once every week.
And since a lot of locals didn't eat fish, we were one of his favorite clients. So this man of moderate means wearing just a dirty cloth across his waist was a welcome sight at our house.
Once watching me play chess with my brother, he politely asked if we could have a bout of chess. I nonchalantly agreed.
I must say that those days I was not a bad chess player myself and easily defeated my brothers, my teacher father, his brothers, and even my father's other teacher colleagues when they came visiting.
So Biswas, placed his basket of fresh fish by the side of the door and became totally immersed in a game of chess with me, forgetting for a while his fare and business.
To my surprise, Biswas was an excellent chess player. The first game he wiped the board clean like an expert would. We decided to go for another game, on my insistence, and this time too he took the award.
That season saw many games being played, and most of the time I turned out to be the loser.
One fine day we decided to visit the reservoir for a picnic. Seeing a couple of tents on the bank of the reservoir I enquired about Biswas from a stray fisherman. And pat, there he was smiling his friendly grin exposing pearly white teeth. He suggested a boat ride for us on his fishing dinghy. We earnestly agreed and we boated free to the middle of the lake and back.
Manners maketh a man and looks are only skin deep, I had to conclude.

The Ones that did not make it to Wiki Leaks!

The recent Wiki Leaks was truly hilarious in some ways.
One that took the cake was that the Saudi King suggested released Guantanamo Bay detainees be implanted with electronic chips to keep track of them, like they do horses and falcons - sounds like something out of a Hollywood block buster!
The other cables seem to indicate that US diplomats are a genteel lot considering what potential secrets could have been passed on through those secure cables! Here are a few that could have made it to the list.
Cable from the Italian consulate in Delhi to HQ: Looks like India has better Italian leadership than Italy has.
Cable from the Chinese embassy to HQ: Looks like the Chinese are not going to have an erection.. er. election any time too soon..
Cable from US Secretary of State to US Consulate in Pakistan: We will let the Pakis continue to support the suicide bombers in India; that way they will be more busy bombing Mumbai and Delhi leaving us alone in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Cable from Kenya to HQ: I strongly recommend that the President rename the White House to some other, for instance, Black House, because Kenyans and many Africans refer to the loo as their White House. It's truly disgusting.
Cable to HQ from the US embassy in Delhi: The Consulate has run out of toilet paper. Please expedite the process of sending the necessary item immediately before the Consul General is forced to use an adult diaper!
Urgent communique from the US president to British PM visiting South Asia: In India the agenda should be to blast the Pakis out of their wits and when in Pakistan give the Indians a good blastng. That's true diplomacy. As they say be a Roman in Rome!
Cable from a US diplomat on tour of Iran: Just found out that the Iranian president has a soft spot for Mickey Mouse movies and wears Mickey Mouse adorned underwear. Recommend that we put an embargo on these two items as well, if we already have not.
US Consul official on hotline from Saudi Arabia: URGENT: Our stock of Bloody Marys destroyed when US fighter jet carrying them over in a diplomatic pouch got shot while flying over Kuwait. Recommend express delivery of the same!