Friday, October 13
THE DAYS AFTER I have not had a drink in ten days, I declared to my close friends, spilling the news as well to a fellow passenger on the bus, and earlier to birds I greeted as I sauntered off into the day with a constitutional by the graves. I am also a creature of habit, ingrained practice, wine, cheese and poems, raw chillies for the delicious hot sensations, poll sambol with Maldive fish, rice and pumpkin, parippu, island tastes I associate with basic, overwhelming desire, but not a drink, now that I have decided to follow the path of my late grandfather the doctor who drank tea and Tamil and never ever wine or scotch. My father enjoyed his drink and all poems, and devoured every novel written, but I let this part of the legacy go. He loved his father and everybody else. He was intensely kind and will understand that I raise my glass to him now, filled with sparkling water. (Indran Amirthanayagam)