ആകന്ക്ഷ ടി- ശശി തരൂര്‍ അഭിമുഖം

AT: What were the deciding factors for twinning Barcelona with Thiruvananthapuram?

ST: I came to Thiruvananthapuram which is the state capital after all of a highly literate state, technically Kerala is a 100 percent literate for everybody over the age of five which is unique in India and is in-fact pretty unusual in the world, it is a higher rate of literacy than the United States so to have a place like that and discover in how many ways people are still blinkered about the rest of the world, the extent to which they haven't fully opened up their eyes and their minds to global currents was a fairly sobering experience. In my election campaign, I talked about throwing open the windows of Thiruvananthapuram to the world and one of the ways in which I thought we could do that was by finding a worthwhile twinning partner with comparable potential for relationship. In other words, Trivandrum is a coastal city, Barcelona is a coastal city, Trivandrum is a state capital, Barcelona is a state capital. Trivandrum has a reputation for being a centre of cultural excellence and Barcelona has the same reputation. The people of Trivandrum are football crazy and Barcelona is the home of Barca! Trivandrum has drinking water issues, Barcelona has overcome its drinking water issues and indeed Barcelona is now the leading water company in Spain. Trivandrum is about to develop a port, Barcelona has not only a major port but has actually got a port company that works in port development. The number of areas of potential cooperation except that Barcelona is five times as populous and probably hundred times as rich as Trivandrum is and therefore that gives us the opportunity to seek their help and advice in a constructive way.

AT: A question about Barcelona can't be complete without mentioning the 8 Barcelonian players who were at this year's World Cup. Did you catch the game?

ST: I didn't have time to catch the game but I did tweet my joy that like a new bride Trivandrum had brought luck to Barcelona and Spain because you actually found that people in Trivandrum had an extra reason to celebrate that the country from which their potential twinning partner was coming had produced such a successful team and with so many players from that city.