Rise all: Need a strong AM system
3D printing has a future — but India needs an integrated approach to keep pace with global manufacturing
Madame-Sir
M adame-Sir — the title's certainly intriguing. And here's the story behind it. When Manel Abeysekera, Sri Lanka's first woman career diplomat, was posted as the ambassador in Bangkok, Thailand, women diplomats were a rarity. So imagine the shock and puzzlement of the driver assigned to her, P. Sompis, who wasn't sure how to address her. Since he usually called his male bosses ‘sir', he settled for ‘madame-sir', much to Manel's amusement.
“I thought this form of address was charming and decided that if one day I write my memoirs, this would be the title. So here I am, with my book Madame-Sir,” says Manel. She infuses humour in small, but potent doses, as she recounts her years as a diplomat in the Sri Lankan Foreign Service.
The amusing title apart, the book also takes a serious look at the challenges and daunting tasks of diplomacy. Manel's first job as a career diplomat was a tough one. “Soon after I took this posting, a Sri Lankan youth, Sepala de Silva, hijacked an Alitalia Boeing with 169 passengers on board at Bangkok airport. Nothing in my training had prepared me for this particular contingency, but I was able to convince the man to free the passengers after hours of pleading and speaking,” she recounts.
Her tact and understanding in tackling difficult situations shine through her memoir, making these events come alive to readers. “The Non Aligned Conference held in Colombo in 1976 was the most daunting assignment I handled, as Chief of Protocol,” she reveals. It went off without a hitch despite the hundreds of tasks and emergencies to be dealt with. Manel was able to take on the challenge in her inimitable style.
Though she has “never considered myself to be a feminist”, several incidents in the book show her to be one in the true sense. During her recruitment, for instance, one of the interviewers wondered whether, after being trained at the Government's expense, she might marry and leave the service. Her quick response: “If any man you recruit could leave at will, there is no stipulation in the conditions of the service that a woman could marry and not remain in the service. The choice, therefore, is left to me and whoever I married!”
It was certainly not just Manel's smart repartee that got her selected as her country's first woman diplomat — she had all the necessary qualifications, including a Cambridge education, the support of her educated parents and a favourable climate in the country wherein the then Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike himself was interested in foreign affairs and wished to steer towards a new, progressive course.
“Though I had always claimed that I was not greatly interested in gender matters, when I accompanied Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world's first woman Prime Minister, to the United Nations' first World Conference on Women in Mexico, it awakened my interest in gender issues and the cause of women,” she recalls.
Madame-Sir gives glimpses of the many curiosities that Manel came across during her postings in world capitals. Manel has the knack of seeing the bright side in the grimmest situation, and the ability to laugh at herself, which greatly enhances the readability of her book.
Alongside the easy banter and interesting anecdotes, the reader is introduced to important world events, the political climate of Sri Lanka at the time, the ups and downs of politicians, the making and breaking of political systems, and the intrigues and idiosyncrasies of life in the 1970s and 1980s.
Manel has avoided the trap of being overly nostalgic or slipping into sentimentality, thanks to her gift of being able to laugh at the little pinpricks that came her way.
© Women's Feature Service
3D printing has a future — but India needs an integrated approach to keep pace with global manufacturing
Researchers at IIT Madras’s ‘Initiative for Biological Systems Engineering’ (IBSE) are poring over millions of ...
Social media influencers are flipping the rules by first getting followers and then launching products and ...
Paneer, once alien to the South, has found a lucrative market in Chennai
With initial public offerings galore, we give you a cheat sheet to score some good grades
The key indices have retreated from theirs record levels; downside pressure could continue
Biggest risk in selling funds in a rising scenario is exiting early and missing out on further gains
Go for a standard vector-borne diseases policy if you don’t have a regular health plan
After facing severe droughts for several years, farmers in western Maharashtra have turned the corner through ...
Studies have shown that dance exercises may help people cope with chronic lung problems
It’s the birth anniversary of star Indian footballer Jarnail Singh who captained the Indian team in the 1960s.
The protesting farmers’ act of planting saplings marks a high moment in the political practice of ahimsa
Its name is the starting point of a brand’s journey and can make a big difference in the success sweepstakes
Sober spirits are the in thing
A peek into where ad spends went last year and where they are headed tomorrow
Can Swiggy Instamart disrupt the ecommerce groceries space, currently ruled by the Amazons and Big Baskets? ...
Three years after its inception, compliance with GST procedures remains a headache for exporters, job workers ...
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of companies are altering the prospects for wooden toys of ...
Aequs Aerospace to create space for large-scale manufacture of toys at Koppal
And it has every reason to smile. Covid-19 has triggered a consumer shift towards branded products as ...
Please Email the Editor