— Kedarnath R. Aiyar

Mumbai

A hero’s height

• with the death of Sir Edmund Percival Hillary at the age of 88, in Auckland, India lost a true and beloved friend. The shy but plain-speaking Hillary, along with Tenzing Norgay, was the first to scale the Everest, a heroic exploit that ranks with the first trek to the South Pole and Lindbergh’s non-stop trans-Atlantic flight.

What remains a mystery is — who had reached the peak first, Tenzing or Hillary? Even when the king of Nepal announced that Tenzing had been the first, Hillary refused to comment.

Finally Tenzing himself revealed that Hillary had reached the summit first. It was only after Tenzing’s death in 1986 that Hillary broke his silence, confirming that he had been about 10 feet ahead. Such is the character of this great man who was a beekeeper by profession, and also the high commissioner to India. Hillary enjoyed enormous goodwill not only in Darjeeling but also in Nepal, where he devoted his life to helping the Sherpas.

The world is poorer for the loss of such a great man, and we salute him.

— Bidyut K. Chatterjee

Faridabad

SPG envy

• Former prime ministers, incumbent prime ministers and their families enjoy the privilege of having the country’s most elite SPG security cover. So then maybe it is fitting that an aspiring prime minister or a prime minister-in-waiting (leader of the opposition) also get the same privileges? Even though these protective covers cut off the dignitary from his or her roots, their ambitions find fulfilment.

... contd.