Anton Chekhov's visit to Paradise on Earth

Anton Chekhov, one of the leading short story writers in the world called Sri Lanka, a Paradise on Earth

Walter Jayawardhana in Los Angeles

Chekhov is quoted so in a biography written of the famous author by his younger brother Mikhail Chekhov, the English translation of which has been just published in the United States.

In Anton Chekhov - A Brother's Memoir the famous writer is quoted having said, "The island of Ceylon, however made up for all the difficulties. It was Paradise on Earth - an exotic fairy tale setting..."

In this biography the difficulties referred to are the terrible experience Chekhov faces during a troublesome trip he made to Sachlin Island, a penal territory belonging to Russia in the Pacific Ocean. He came to Colombo on his return to Russia.

Chekhov had unprecedented experience while traveling by ship in the Indian Ocean. "In order for him to bathe, the crew would throw a line down the ship's stern. Anton then had to dive off the bow, grab the line as it came past, and hold onto it while the ship kept moving. As soon as he got into the water to wash off, he saw pilot fish and a shark swimming toward him."

Elsewhere it is recorded that Chekhov stayed in Colombo in the Grand Oriental Hotel (GOH) and how he fell in love with a beautiful woman and made love to her under a coconut palm during a moonlit night.

From Sri Lanka he took a palm cat and a mongoose. When his family met him on his return December 7, 1890, the two creatures were with him.

They took the animals to Moscow to live in their apartment for some time. Actually , the palm cat had been sold to Chekhov by a Hindu by swindling him since that also looked like a mongoose.

The palm cat hid itself under the bookshelf and only came out to get food, but the mongoose felt right at home in Moscow and "immediately established the master of the house. Endlessly curious he would stand on its hind legs and poke his pointy nose into every gap and opening, nothing escaped his attention."

"Unfortunately living with a mongoose and a palm cat in a small apartment in the winter turned out to be inconvenient. The mongoose launched fierce attacks on the palm cat, scared Chekhov's visitors, and ruined so many things during his hunting expeditions for flies and spiders that none of us could wait for the summer, when we could let the mongoose roam free."

"The palm cat never got used to humans at all. She had constantly, except when the floor polisher came. He worked barefoot and the cat would suddenly jump out from under the shelf and seize his foot. The poor man would drop his broom and wax,grab his foot, and scream, "Damn cat! I hope you die."

"The mongoose and the palm cat had accompanied us to Bogimovo, and that July the mongoose treated us to a first class show. A large group of us were seated under a Linden tree in the park when a three foot snake suddenly slithered out of the bushes. The adults were horrified, while Kiseliov children quickly jumped to their feet. "Bring the mongoose here! Quickly!" Chekhov cried, and I fetched the animal and set him on the ground. As soon as he saw the snake, he inflated himself into a round ball and froze. Sensing an unfamiliar enemy the snake coiled up and lifted its head. They silently squared off , almost hypnotized. Suddenly, the mongoose leaped onto the snake, grabbed its head with his teeth, chomped down , and dragged the body into the grass."

It was becoming more and more difficult to live with these Sri Lankan creatures. "The mongoose escaped and got lost; and we had almost forgotten about him when somebody found him in a stone quarry about five miles away. The mongoose was still fat and healthy and went willingly into the hands of the man who found him. Our patience lasted until the winter back in Moscow, at which point he gave up and wrote a letter to the zoo, asking them to accept our animals as a gift from him. I remember that it was a biting cold day when a young man in gold rimmed spectacles arrived to pick them up. From then on, the mongoose and the palm cat were attractions at the Moscow zoo. My sister Maria Pavlovna visited them there more than once."