Sunday Times 2
Aluth Avurudhu beats
Be positive’, was the advice of an optimistic presidential supporter when we heard of the savage announcement of a 10-hour power cut on Tuesday night. “Look at the brighter side, there will be a continuous supply of electricity for 14 hours,” he pointed out, in impeccable logic. There will be eight hours for sleep and six hours for work and attending to incidental matters such as toilet etc. Be patriotic, after all the Government is providing you with 14 hours of continuous electricity…..’
We didn’t ask whether the Rajapaksa Government invented electricity since we were more interested in how Wednesday was to be spent.
“Look at the brighter side of things” was what we were told most of our life and we looked out of our window down our road and the picture was indeed bright.
Bougainvilleas were bursting out in fury in all colours of the rainbow in a garden and in another Temple Trees laden with Araliya flowers were gently cascading down laying a carpet of flowers underneath them, the green Jasmine bushes by the road side were white with flowers emanating tantalising scents while a mango tree was drooping with fruits waiting to be plucked next month as squirrels chirped around greedily…. Sorry, if we sounded like a Tourist Board bulletin but that was like the scenario which a British missionary of yore (I forget his name and exact words) said: This is Paradise Enow–Like the Garden of Eden, Only Man is Vile….
The villainous nature of Man, further up in our usually austere neighbourhood was evident on the main road we were told, where never ending queues spread out for petrol, gas, and diesel. The bread queues and queues for other food were no more, people not having money to buy them. Angry men and women were hurling expletives at their leader and Government whom they claimed they voted for who were responsible for the prevailing state of affairs.
‘Rata bankaloth, Mona Avurudhu dha’? (Country is bankrupt, what New Year?) a woman screamed.
Yes, indeed the Sinhala and Tamil New Year (Sinhalayas celebrating it with much more vigour) is just two weeks ahead and this is the time preparations begin. Gifts are bought, city workers plan to take leave to visit their villages not knowing when they will return, and women folk commence preparing the traditional foods. It is the only festival, the harvest festival, which they celebrate with gusto.
They gorge themselves with the Ks—kavun, kokis, kiirbuth. kolikuttu and many other Ks in addition to many As– asme, athiraha, aggala, anamalu and bottles and bottle of arrack, play a game of ‘Asking-Hitting’ (Booruwa) which is much faster than Poker. In the past two years, Covid 19 halted the festivities and this time it also appears to be non-starter unless of course Indian generosity comes within the next two weeks.
The Indians were promising billions of dollars in the past few weeks but still it has not come. Gas and fuel queues are lengthening while prices of foods are now reaching global levels of inflation and pharmacies are running out of stocks of vital drugs.
Of course nothing is free in this globalised world, certainly not much publicised international loans. Narendra Modi with his New Delhi Brahmins and Pukka Sahibs are demanding their pound of flesh in international deals, this time in strategic interests–ports, airports, Trinco Tank Farm and implementation of the Indo-Lanka Agreement which was never an agreement but an arm-twisting exercise followed by the landing of a so-called Indian peace keeping force.
New Delhi can be a game changer in the political games of Sri Lanka. It is now convenient political amnesia on both sides of the Palk Strait that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa publicly accused the Indian intelligence agency, RAW, of staging a political coup against his government in 2015 and ousting it from power.
The Indo-Lanka games continue and in 2022 India appears to prop up the Rajapaksa government while everything around it appears to be collapsing.
Nonetheless, it’s Avurudhu time in Lanka and it now appears to be a photo finish on whether the promised billions of US dollars from New Delhi will reach Lanka in time for Avurudhu to be celebrated. If not it will be ‘Kaput’ for the Rajapaksas, soon or in the long term.
But Sinhalayas–at least some of them–are preparing for the Avuruddha as usual.
Last week we heard a new tune of a traditional Raban (drum) beat being practised behind closed doors in the neighbourhood.
It went something like this:
Modi-ge gedera nondi kakula
Avurudu messeh Lokuma Kakula
Kakula, Kakula–Kakula, Kakula
Modi-ge Nondi Kakula.
Sinhalayas are still strictly Non Aligned. We heard another Raban beat behind closed doors from another house nearby;
Jingping–Pin, Pin Pin
Jingping–Pin, Pin, Pin
Jingping nathuwa Avuruddha hulang
Dunna apita Chinese Yuan
Jinping–Pin-Pin-Pin–Siddha Wewa.
Letter from a schoolboy
The following letter was sent to us by a school boy from Oxford College for Advanced English:
Gahenwatunagama Dellgama.
Sir,
Every day Minister Lokuge says ship with gas is coming.
But no gas coming to our village Gahenwatunugama
Are ships coming or going. Or are they going and coming.
We don’t know but laughing is also coming and going.
Tell me Sir, is Lanka coming, going or gone?
Shake S Pearera
Editor: Keep going Shakes. Keep Going. Be positive.
(The writer is a former editor of The Sunday Island, The Island, and consultant editor of the Sunday Leader)