Thai's,

Amongst our S.E Asian neighbours,I feel a natural kinship with the people of Thailand.

I have felt this close affinity with the Thai's since my primary school days, during my stay at Mysore. I befriended several SE Asian post graduate students--Japanese, North and South Koreans, Philippians's and Thai's.I remember that I got along famously with a Thai PG student. There was simply no barriers[cultural] between us. He could have been from one of our North -Eastern states. He was just like one of us.

I still remember his name --Suchon Nimmanit!Years may roll by and one may gather multitudes of experiences,yet some experiences, faces, names and relationships from the various halts in this long journey called life are preserved, ever fresh in memory ,like a snapshot,freezing that point of time and place.Some what like the woolly mammoth ,that was dug out from its frozen grave in the ice sheets of Siberia,with its fur and all organs intact , 50,000 years later!

I lost contact , when my father was transferred to another state within a couple of years . I often wondered as to what might have happened to him .And I never forgot the kinship.

In recent times my interest in Thai's perked up when I happened to watch programmes about Thailand on National Geographic and Discovery channels.

Their customs ,festivals and practises seem quite familiar and are very interesting.I am totally fascinated by the nonchalant attitude of a group of villagers towards the king cobra.This huge snake that has the venom to kill a full grown elephant in one single bite ,is treated as casually as one would a pet dog and is allowed to live along with them in total harmony!

The sight of Thai Buddhist monks rearing tigers in sprawling monasteries and handling full grown tigers as one would a kitten,stunned me . It was like a video of R.K.Narayans novel 'A tiger for Malgudi',a touching story, in which a yogi calms and befriends a tiger!

I find the great lengths they go, to organise a grand ,sumptuous buffet for monkeys,amusing but also unique and humane.

A recent TV show revealed that Assam was ruled by Ahom's since the 13 th century,for 600 hundred long years..They were originally from Thailand. They were enlightened rulers, very flexible, adaptable and mingled freely with the local population. in course of time they became Hindu's under the influence of a great Vaishnavite saint of 16 th century Srimanta Sankaradeva.

He was a scholar , socio- religious reformer and is credited with introducing and propagating Vaishnavism ,through debates,writing Bhakthi poems like Kirtana gosha and establishing Sattras or monastries.He preached 'Eka sarana '--surrender to one god --Krishna, to be worshipped by singing his several names like 'Hari', 'Rama', 'Narayana' and so on.

The instinctive kinship I felt with Thai's in my childhood has been strengthened and reinforced over the years.

An descendant of Ahom ruler's remarked in an interview to NGC ,that it was difficult to find a suitable royal match for his daughter , is pained to see her unmarried status and concluded it by posing a query ''Will a lion eat grass ,though it may be starving''?. Sounds familiar, yes?