His parents were from Kerala. And while Peter Varghese doesn’t know Malayalam, he can speak Swahili though he grew up in Australia. He went on to became the Australian PM’s diplomatic advisor, and head of the apex Australian agency for intelligence assessment. He also loves Indian cuisine and likes listening to the music of Pandit Ravi Shankar. Meet the new Australian High Commissioner to India.

Born in Kenya, where his parents migrated in 1942, Varghese moved to Australia as an eight-year-old. “In 1973, I came to India as a 17-year-old and stayed here for five months and met relatives in Kerala. We were in a place near Kochi, where my parents came from. We travelled to Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur and Udaipur and saw all the tourist spots,” Varghese told The Indian Express. “For me, it was a fascinating journey. I have fond memories of train travel, which I enjoyed the most. You could see the extraordinary kaleidoscope of life as the train moved from one place to another, unlike in Australia where you would see much of the same thing during train travel,” said Varghese, who still has relatives in Kerala.

While the five-month stay in 1973 was the longest duration he stayed in India, he has been visiting India intermittently in the past decade or so.

Ask him about Indian cuisine, and his face lights up as he says, “I have a weakness for biryani and tandoori dishes. I have grown up on curries — appam and duck curries, and fish dishes are among my favourites.” His appreciation of things Indian does not end there. “I am very fond of Indian dances. In fact, I was on the board of an Indian dance company in Canberra once.”

... contd.