In Conversation

I cannot forget this man easily.

He started off by asking me if I would like a drink or anything. Here was a man who occupied one of the prominent seats in the conference hall just the other day asking me if need a drink; and there was no way I could have dared to say yes though a beer would have been just wonderful to start with.

“Very glad to see you”, he tells me as I extended my firm handshake.

After a good half an hour of conversation he declares, ‘We will shift to the bar across the street after sometime’.

What started as a personal interaction and dialogue with him ended up with a dinner invitation as ‘his guest’ for the evening and which I accepted since I did not have anything else to do that night.

Dinner preceded with a few drinks at the Irish Pub. And there we continued our conversation.

We talked like we have been friends since many years.

He explained to me how things work with the international system and how best we can make us of it. The experiences of his peoples were something we can take a leaf out of.

When he went to pick up another drink at the bar, his colleague pips in and tells me, “Is not he interesting?”

I responder her with a smile and nodded. I could not have agreed more.

“We have lost that case. But, we have won the war” he tells me of the watershed year when he fought the case for his indigenous people against the state in this northern European country. The government went on to build the dam but things have changed drastically ever since. What was a lost legal case proved to be a victory for his people as it united them like never before and which eventually sparked a successful movement for his people.

“Our people and yours are relatives now”, he informs me.

“You know how?” he then asks with a smile.

“Yes, yes of course”, I add just as immediately happy that people in this part of the world at least know about my people thousands of miles away in South east Asia.

He talks and then takes a sip of his drink. Then, he smiles. And in his smile I can see a childish glow of contentment. The journey would have not been easy for him and by the look of it he now seemed contended if not completely satisfied with what they have achieved over the years.

“Our journey has not been easy”, he tells me. “We have not got everything yet” he says of his peoples struggle for their rights in their country.

Over the course of the few hours at the hotel lobby and at the bar and then at the Italian restaurant we talked about our own people and our own experiences in our respective parts of the world.

‘I will tell you one thing’, he continues.

As I wait for his next sentences to come out he pauses for a moment and then continues, “This is a good sign. It’s a good start for you”.