OLYMPICS DIARY

A chance encounter with a security guard from Puducherry

I was sitting on a bridge over the River Seine to watch the opening ceremony of Paris 2024 when the sky opened up. The media pavilion was set up on the Pont Alexandre III, a deck arch bridge flaunting huge pylons crowned with magnificent gilt bronze sculptures.

As the rain refused to abate, I left the bridge and took shelter under a big umbrella used by private guards overseeing security at the Games Village. It was when I noticed someone who stood under the umbrella speaking on the phone in Tamil. I smiled at him and asked him his name. "I'm Krishnamurti. The French call me Kichanamorti," he said and laughed heartily.

Hailing from Puducherry, a former French enclave, Krishnamurti has been living in Paris since 1981. He moved to France after passing out of a polytechnic college in his hometown. He did an accounting course after coming to Paris and worked at the accounting section of a local university. He returned to Puducherry after fifteen years, but came back with his family and settled in Paris.

When Krishnamurti first arrived in France, it was mandatory for youth to serve in the armed forces for at least two years. When I asked him how tough it was to do compulsory military service at that time, he narrated his life story. His father Meenakshi Sundaram had served in the French military during World War II. After finishing his military service, Sundaram returned home and worked as a contractor executing public works for the local government.

As Krishnamurti did his schooling at the French international School in Puducherry, he learned French from an early age. When I asked him how the French pronounced his father's name, he paused for a few seconds, recollected his thoughts and replied: "Minechi Sundera"!

Although Krishnamurti lost his job at the university when he went back to Puducherry, he was employed by Airbus, one of the largest commercial aircraft manufacturers in the world, in his second innings in France, thanks to the polytechnic diploma certificate he possesses.

"I work for only twenty-days a month. When Paris was chosen to host the Olympics after a century, I was keen to be a part of this mega event. It was when I came across an advertisement in the local newspaper looking for private security guards to help keep athletes and spectators safe during the Games. I submitted the application along with my military service certificate, and luckily, I got the job," Krishnamurti said.

Krishnamurti has two children. His son works as an IT professor at the Paris-based Sorbonne University while his daughter is an employee with the Bank of France.