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  නැවතිච්චි- For 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

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

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.