Visiting US ambassador was stumped when a constable attached to his security detail asked him for a US currency note
Visiting US ambassador was stumped when a constable attached to his security detail asked him for a US currency noteA policeman, who was part of the security detail for visiting US ambassador to India Timothy Roemer, took the ambassador by surprise when he asked him for some US currency.
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NO WORRIES, MATE: US diplomat Timothy Roemer shakes hands with Constable Sharaniaa. Roemer was in Bangalore to view a demonstration of fuel-efficient stoves. PIC/VINOD KUMAR T |
Roemer was in Bangalore for a demonstration of an American company's product that would minimise health problems among women in rural areas. Towards the end of the function, when Roemer was entering his SUV, he noticed some policemen waiting to shake hands with him.
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Less smoke, more heat: US ambassador Roemer with his wife at a city-based enterprise which has developed a fuel efficient stove. |
He shook hands with themu00a0 and said "Thank you for providing the security."u00a0 However, one policeman, Constable Sharaniaa, attached to the Ramamurthy Nagar police station, shook Roemer's hand once again. He then asked the diplomat for some US currency, a request that Roemer did not understand.u00a0
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| Southern spice: At home in India |
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Mrs Timothy J Roemer loves spicy Indian food and feels India is different. She said, "I see new people, new culture and food at every corner. Coming from the Southern US, where the food is spicy as well, the food here reminds me of home." |
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Sensing trouble, an aide got off the vehicle and lambasted the cop in Kannada, "Don't you have any sense?u00a0
Just go away."
'For my collection'
The motorcycle-borne policeman then went back to his bike to lead the convoy. Explaining his act, Sharaniaa said, "I only wanted a note for my foreign currency collection." Earlier, the ambassador had viewed a demonstration of fuel-efficient stoves andu00a0 interacted with end users.
He spoke about the inefficient cooking stoves being used in rural areas in India, which pose significant health risks, especially to women. "It's like smoking two-and-a-half cigarette packs everyday," he said.
Calling the Indo-US relationship "a geo-strategic and indispensable partnership," Roemer said he was pleased with the outcome so far. "This relationship bodes well foru00a0 closer cooperation between the two nations in the future as well," he beamed.
Incredible India
Mrs Roemer, who accompanied the ambassador to the demonstration, loves spicy Indian food and thinks India is different. She said, "I see new people, new cultures and different food at every turn. I come from the southern part of the US, where the food is spicy as well. The food here reminds me of home."
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| No 10u00a0USDu00a0for Castro |
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Constable Sharaniaa can take comfort in the fact that others have not been any luckier with Americans. As a boy, Cuban supreme leader Fidel Castro wrote to US President Franklin D Roosevelt asking him for 10 USD. "If you like, give me a ten dollar bill green American, because never, I have not seen a ten dollar bill," wrote Castro, mentioning his age to be 12 years, though other sources claim he would have been 14 at the time (November 6, 1940).
As far as is known, Castro never got the ten dollars, "green American."
Maybe, Americans had a problem with the English of Castro, just as ambassador Roemer did not understand what Sharaniaa was saying. Castro began his letter saying, "My good friend Roosvelt I don't know very English, but I know as much as write to you."
He added that he was very happy learning on the radio that Roosevelt would be president again.
Signing the letter, Castro said: "Thank you very much. Good by. Your friend, Fidel Castro." May be, if he had got that 10 USD, the history of the world would have been a bit different. |
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