10 December 2011

Appachchi

The song starts with a slow drum beat  and a  long “appachchi” . Stretched enough to capture in the length , breath and the tone , the love , the awe , the affection and thousand other feelings one would have when addressing , thinking about one’s father. (May be I am wrong , but the two syllable “dad” does not quite cut it for me). 

While the whole song was brilliant . Four lines from the lyrics stood up for me , and below them mind flashes that lit in my head.





ඒ ගිනි ගෙන අපේ උණුහුම සාදවා - Soaking up the heat to give warmth 

Picture a man, who has toiled the day .
Maybe a man who works for for day’s pay . Yes picture such a man.
Him coming home after work with  a ton of problems and mere handful of cash to sort it all out.
Picture him hugging each of his children at the wooden gate and handing over a few toffees from his top pocket and walking towards the house holding their hands. 





  
සද්ද නොකර ලොවේ අරුත කියා දුන්  - In silence he teaches the lessons of life

A father and  son sits in the veranda . The son is newly married , and lives nearby . This evening , unnecessary words were exchanged . The cause and reason of the argument were insignificant as in most arguments. Words were exchanged , emotions flared up, hearts were broken , tears fell a door was slammed loud , and now a lost, (yet still somewhat irate)  man sits in the safest place he knows. The verandah of his childhood home. 

Earlier the mother has whispered
 
“ පුතාලා රණ්ඩුවෙලා අන්න ඇවිල්ලා ඉන්නවා  “ (The children have argued and he is here)
 and the father has  poured a glass of water and come and come and sat at his planters chair.
For  a long half an hour he has sat there silently .
The father has not been much of a talker . He has preferred to resolve issues with silence . 


පුතා  කෑම ටිකක්  කාලා යන්න ඉන්න ”  (Son wait for dinner) a mother tells loud from the kitchen . That is her  instinct to guard her brood over any outsiders , still alive.

At that point the father looks up 
පුතා ගෙදර යන්න දුව බලාගෙන ඇති බඩගින්නේ ”  “Son you go home , your wife must be waiting for you without eating” 

The young man realizes it is more than a suggestion . It is a command , it is a solution , it is wisdom , and without the earlier period of silence it would not have made that much sense 






අපි වෙනුවෙන් සංසාරේ වන්දනාවේ  නැවතිච්චිFor us he stopped in his pilgrimage of samsara 

 පුතා කාමරේට යන්න  මටයි සීයාටයි කතා  කරන්න  තියෙනවා  “
 Son go to the room , I need to talk with Grand pa . 

A mother sends a curious 7 year old away so that she can talk in privacy. 

 අප්පච්චි මහන වෙන්න ගියාම අපිට මොකද වෙන්නේ  
Dad when you become a monk what would happen to us 

පොඩි දූ  , මම තනියම උඹලව උස මහත් කළා. දැන් මගේ යුතුකම් කරලා ඉවරයි . ඉතින් මට බණක් භාවනාවක් කර ගන්න ඕනේ ." 
Daughter , I have done my duties . Now it is the time for me to devote time towards spiritual things 


ඉතින් ඔය භාවනා ගෙදර ඉඳන් බැරිද අප්පච්චි 
අනික අප්පච්චි මහන උනාම කෝ මට අප්පච්චි කෙනෙක් 
So can’t you do that at home ?  When you become a monk , I loose my dad  

She knows she sounds like a little girl hanging on her fathers hand . Then that is what she is , her father’s little girl. She feels it is good that  this conversation is over the phone , lest her father would see her tears . 

But ofcourse he sees . And Seeya  knows, he has to stay. 




PS:  May be it is because I am counting down the days for my visit home , this song hit me deep , and cried out to write something 


And here is the link for the song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QgOfeGAbwE

07 December 2011

රෙද්ද තමයි

එක නෙමෙයි මචං , රනිල් පාර්ලිමෙන්ට් එකේ  ප්රෝටෙස්ට් කරලා , ටයි එක ගලවලා

නෑ..

නෑ මම මේ හිතුවේ , හොඳ වෙලාවට රනිල් ටයි කෝට් අදින්නේ නේ?

ඔව් , හැබැයි  සාටකේ උනත් ගලවන්න පුළුවන්නේ විරෝධත්වය පාලා.

ඔව් හැමෝම දැන් සාටකත් දානවනේ ....හැබැයි එතකොට සාටක නැති අය?

රෙද්ද තමයි

04 December 2011

Some Games you can’t play/ බැරි සෙල්ලම්


Kumar closed the youtube window that was popped up in his PC .
The small clip of the heavily spun ball  pitching on the on dust and turning a way in slow motion , repeats  again in his mind.

 “ There is pus rising” he could hear the voice of the Master Blaster .

 What Siri said earlier at lunch  was correct. This fellow should have stopped at  his fastest 50 , fastest century, fastest marriage (or was it two) &  shortest retirement. This commentating business is driving it too far.
The grand old lady of the British monarch has been murdered then and there , the pride of a nation has been shattered by bad pronunciation.

Kumar’s eyes stopped at the photograph on his table , of a younger self holding a soccer ball with his proud father hugging him . Young boy of early teens had a small trophy in his other hand . His only achievement in the sporting arena , player of the game in a U15 interschool match. His  mind travelled a few decades back and stopped at one Thursday  evening . A young boy waiting near the wooden gate  for his father to come from work .

"තාත්ති  ලබන  සතියේ  අපේ  under 13 ටීම්  එකට සිලෙක්ෂන්  තියෙනවා . සර් කිව්වා බැට් එකක් , පෑඩ් නම් කාගෙන් හරි ඉල්ලා ගන්න පුළුවන් , හැබැයි අනිත් ඒවානම් තියෙන්නේ ඕනේ කියලා.  සපත්තු , සුදු කොට කලිසමක් , සුදු ටී ෂර්ට් එකක් , බෝල් ගාර්ඩ් ....තාත්ති අපි සෙනසුරාදා  ගිහිල්ල ගමුද ඒවා ?"
 (Dad, we are having selections for our under 13 Cricket team. Master said we could share the bat and the pads , but we have to have the other equipment. Can we buy them on Saturday?)

Then spread silence , like a drop of ink spreading through a glass of water . Water was never the same .

 He could remember his father looking at his mother and his mother turning her eyes to the ground .
පුතා මට ලිස්ට් එක දෙන්නකෝ  , මම හෙට Chands එකේ බලන්නම්” 
A helpless father’s attempt to end an uncomfortable conversation .

The next day was long as a day would  get, when a 11 year old boy waits for something .  Kumar was  dreaming of the  future of sixes and fours that were all his.
He did not remember what time his father came or  what he asked .
All what he could remember was his father handing him a soccer ball , stroking his head and saying

"මට හිතෙන්නේ ලොකුට  වැඩිය ගැලපෙන්නේ  ෆූට්බෝල්  කියලා , ක්‍රිකෙට් වලට වඩා  , අපි  ඊළඟ  සතියේ  සපත්තු  දෙකක්  ගමු ”
(I think Football suits you more than Cricket . Let’s buy the shoes next week)

Then while his whole world went through an eclipse , he faintly remember hearing his parents talking

මට කාගෙන්වත්  ඉල්ලගන්නත්  බැරි  උනා,  පඩි  වලටත්  තව  දවස්  අටක්  තියෙනවනේ , මේක CWE එකේ තිබ්බ . හැත්තෑ පහයි ”
(I could not borrow from anybody . Salary is also 8 days away . I bought this at CWE  for seventy five )

ලොකු ලොකු  ඉස්කෝල වලට යැව්වට ඔය ඔක්කොම සෙල්ලම් කරන්නත් බැනේ . ටික දවසකින් එයාට අමතක වෙයි .  “ ( We can not afford all this . I am sure he will forget in a few days ) 
A wife tried to help the beaten father get over bitter aftertaste the reality of the lower middleclass kicks in one’s within.

Back to the future and Kumar is typing a comment in singlish on the facebook, below the place where the video was  shared .
“ Ane Sana  ana ganniy . bari sellam nokara hitin”  
(Dear Sana , please don’t go to play unknown games)

And he presses share.