The Hindu Business Line : Sacred surprises

The Sea of Galilee on Israel’s Mediterranean coast is not the spot where you can even remotely imagine that the India tricolour would be unfurled and the National Anthem, composed by Rabindranath Tagore, sung to the surprise and appreciation of visiting Indians. But planet Earth seldom ceases to surprise, to whichever corner one goes, as such pleasant events do occur to enliven our existence and lend some moments of pure joy!

Taking a day’s break after the end of the official conference of the India-Israel Joint Business Forum, this correspondent, along with a few officials from FICCI, went to the holy City of Jerusalem to get a feel of the biblical era at its timeless best.

Visitors to this sacred spot are told “there was found in the Sea of Galilee a wooden boat from the time of Jesus, and people call it “The Jesus Boat”.

A private sailing company, Holy land Sailing Ltd, has the ingenuity to reconstruct such a wooden boat for visitors from near and far so that they could experience their Master’s ride on the Sea of Galilee centuries ago. They say that it was from Nazareth that Jesus entered the boat, made the crossing and came into his own town, called Capharnaum (Gospel of Matthew).

Such is the sacred significance of the place and the boat that everybody would love to take a journey on it. As soon as we got into the boat and began the journey on the Sea of Galilee, amid the rising waves in the blackish-green water, the operator of the boat, Abraham, gave us the Indian flag and said we could unfurl it against the mast. Before we could even applaud the boatman’s gesture, there sounded loud and clear the strains of our National Anthem in full-throated glory, making us stand and salute.

Why can’t we extend similar gestures to visitors from abroad at important tourist spots in our country? It would be an experience that any tourist would cherish for long, perhaps, forever. When I asked Abraham how many flags and national anthems he had with him, he somewhat shyly admitted that he had as many as 150 countries’ flags and more than 50 national anthems!

That left us quite speech-less.

G. SRINIVASAN

More Stories on : Economy | Domestic Travel | Impressions

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Stock market and global cues

Sacred surprises

Palm oil for soap which ended up in ghee and shackles Detaxification

Banking on the future

A rational view on penalties

What are books of account?

Low tax collection costs – myth or reality?

Irregular vs illegal

Rupee appreciation