In 1976, I met Lord Louis Mountbatten (an uncle of Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth). Being a somewhat naive and straightforward young man, I was curious if this "super-hero" had a more human, personal side so I innocently asked him: "Sir, you've obviously led a successful life, being First Sea Lord (UK's head admiral) during World War II, Governor-General of India, etc but what would be your singlemost biggest regret in life?"
Without hesitation, he replied "To have permitted the partition of India."
A pregnant pause followed, almost unbearably long, before he changed the subject by asking me a question: "Where did you learn to speak such good English?" to which I promptly replied, tongue-firmly-in-cheek: "We get Dallas on TV in Malaysia, you know!"
Well, that broke the ice.
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
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