No monkey business

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee tried to reach Orissa chief minister’s home by climbing trees, reports Nilova Roy Chaudhury.

An unforeseen consequence of global warming that the 190 countries taking part in the Bali Conference would not have taken into account is the spectacle of government leaders trying to reach destinations by emulating monkeys by climbing trees!

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On his recent visit to cyclone-ravaged Bangladesh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee related a previous experience on how he managed to enter the premises of the then Orissa chief minister’s home in 1999 that was submerged under water.

“I remember we had a similar type of cyclone along the Orissa coast and the entire city of Bhubaneswar was completely destroyed. I was telling this story to my counterpart that when I visited the town, it was the third day after the cyclone. When I tried to enter the residence of the chief minister I couldn’t walk down, not to speak of going in a car. I had to take support of a branch of a tree, jump from the trunk just like a monkey travels from one tree to the other. In that way I had to enter the chief minister’s residence in the capital city of the state!”