Vinay Lal, historian at UCLA, has written a fine obituary for the 255 year-old tortoise Adwaitya that died last month in Calcutta. Adwaitya was reputed to have been the pet of Lord Clive, the man often credited for having won India for the British. In commenting on how Adwaitya outlasted Clive, my dear friend Vinay finds a delightful end to the clash of civilizations:

Many will read in the story of Adwaitya, “Clive’s pet”, the tale of the tortoise and the hare writ large. Eternal tales will surely continue to come down to us in new incarnations. What other point is there to Vishnu’s avatars? We might even be tempted into seeing in Adwaitya’s story a parable for our times as the lumbering giants of Asia, the Aldabra and Galapagos tortoises of our times, India and China, make their way past the hares that had all but won the race.

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