Trying to break free
View(s):Trapped in a web of debt and cascading poli (interest) — this is the plight of a family of four, precariously living on the edge of an abyss that threatens to swallow them up.
Earlier, A.L. Inoka Nilakshani, husband Nilantha Ranasinghe and their daughter and son were leading a simple hand-to-mouth existence before tragedy hit their family. Nilantha was a daily worker at a noodles and pappadam factory close to their home in Mabima, Makewita in Ja-ela.
Inoka and Amandi in pensive mood-- what does the future hold? Pic by M.A. Pushpa Kumara
Vimukthi, their son, was diagnosed at birth with the serious condition of ‘Transposition of the Great Arteries’ (both the aorta and the pulmonary artery) and the battle to keep him alive began then. A battle that was highlighted by the Sunday Times of April 6, 2008 (headlined ‘A heart-felt appeal’), which helped them to collect enough money, due to the generosity of our readers, to take the little boy abroad.
Vimukthi had eight major issues with his heart and what was needed was a complex operation called an arterial switch.
It was a battle that the family lost, because Vimukthi, just two years and six months old died in Chennai, India in June 2008. The family, meanwhile, had run up massive debts as the boy had needed urgent medical attention and long hospitalisation in a private hospital, before he was taken to India.
Having brought Vimukthi’s body back and buried him, grief-stricken Inoka and Nilantha had attempted to salvage their wrecked lives, but the huge loans they had taken, borrowing from anyone who would help them, could not be repaid however hard they worked and whatever sacrifices they made.
While looking after their older daughter, Buddhini, their lives had been uplifted by the birth of their younger daughter, Amandi Shastrika, on May 29, 2010.
Amandi helped to fill that gnawing emptiness in our hearts, says Inoka, adding that she looks just like Vimukthi and in fact has a mark down the middle of her chest as if she has undergone surgery. Both have birthmarks at similar places on their bodies, she says, hinting at rebirth but not vocalising the thought too much. “Putha wagemai,” says Inoka, as the tears well up.
When the family was struggling to meet the medical bills of Vimukthi and were not able to pay the rent, Inoka’s sister who is a migrant worker in Egypt had invited them to share her home at Mabima. But as time went by, the insults, sarcasm and vituperation on the phone as well as during her three-month holidays back in Sri Lanka, have increased to such an extent that home has become a living hell for this family of four.
“She scolds us, using obscenities and has given my husband marching orders before she sets foot here in August,” weeps Inoka, with no place to go to and no one to turn to. “We can’t cough, the children can’t laugh and my husband can’t even watch the news on TV, without drawing the ire of my sister,” she says, on the verge of desperate measures even with regard to her own life.
Their debts too keep mounting, with this family borrowing more and more money just to meet the poliya (interest) each month which is about Rs. 80,000. “We pay about 8% on the initial sum of Rs. 1.5 million which has added up since our son’s illness and death,” she says.
While their elder daughter would be sitting the Ordinary Level examination next year, both Inoka and Nilantha are struggling to keep the home fires burning.
Their day starts very early and ends late at night. Getting up at the crack of dawn, Inoka makes ready to send their elder daughter to school and prepares 50 packets of food which her husband would distribute to workers in two fast-food outlets. Nilantha has now taken up a job as a security guard in the home of a doctor and spends the whole night there, while Inoka too, after her labours at home goes to the same house as a domestic help, cooking, cleaning, washing bathrooms and ironing a heap of clothes.
Grateful for the income that they get as it covers their living costs, Inoka and Nilantha are desperate to settle their debts, rent out even a single room, away from the diatribe of her sister, and build up their family.
Even with the dawn of the Aluth Avuruddha, there has been no respite for this foursome. There was no money in the home and Inoka had been compelled to pawn their younger daughter’s pancha udaya and their older daughter’s tiny gold ear-studs to keep a few eats on the New Year table. The pieces of gold jewellery that Inoka had possessed are long gone, pawned and lost (“sinna wela”) as they have not been able to redeem them.
Bleak times seem to be ahead for this family not only in the months that follow but also the years to come.
| What you can do for them
As Nilantha watches mutely, “apiwa nayen nidhas karanna”, pleads Inoka, seeking a release from the vicious circle of overwhelming debts and poli they are faced with. Generous donors may send their mite to the family’s Account No. 239200130001182 at the People’s Bank, Ja-ela branch in the name of A.L.I. Nilakshani (Inoka). The family may be contacted on Nilantha’s mobile: 0778354179. |