Last night I had an extra hour of sleep when the whole North American continent changed its clocks back by an hour at 2 AM. And I really needed that sleep. The previous night out at lab was good but tiring. Watched a couple of movies, did some report and slept for about 2 hours. And the next morning at 6 AM I was off to house only to return back after 4 hours to finish the report. The bread I had in the break fast was spoilt I guess which made me a little sick by the end of the day. So much for grad life.
From today I move from Eastern Daylight-savings Time (EDT) to Eastern Standard Time (EST) or winter time. This system of day light savings was introduced to save electricity. In summers, higher latitudes like Canada and US have sun sets as late at 9 PM. So to make use of this sunlight and reduce dependance on electricity, they switch forward by one hour in Spring. This gives more evening hours and lesser dark working hours. Of course this system doesn't make sense for equitable tropics like India where the difference in Day time between summer and winter is very much. Still India used daylight savings during Indo-Pak and Indo-China wars in '62, '64 and '71. Not to save electricity, but to make people switch of their lights and go to bed early so that hostile war planes do not spot cities.
Today I embraced grad life in its crudest form- went to Gurudwara and packed a whole basket of chapatis(my staple diet now- free food). Made a whole big vessel of sambar to last for the entire week. As the climate gets colder, going home itself is a big pain, leave alone cooking after that. And today I could see the signs of what Canadian winters are capable of. When we went for the usual grocery shopping in the morning, storm like winds almost blew me off my feet as I struggled to carry all the stuff. It feels like -8 degrees though its quite close to zero. For the whole week, Ottawa has storm warnings.
More on environment, the incumbent conservative federal government, released the Clean Air (Air Pure, in french) act last week to reduce green house emissions to 2000 levels by 2050. Canada along with US contribute to almost 70% of all CO2. And green house problem is the biggest prick in Canadian politics. Of course, though each successive government promises to meet the requirements of Kyoto protocol, practically they admit its very very tough to do without any drastic implications on economy (Kyoto requires emissions to reduce to 1993 levels). There is a new method developed by scientists in Univ of Calgary where they pump in CO2 deep into the ground. Petroleum companies are quite interested in this because they can use this injection of pressurized gas into the ground to raise the level of crude oil reserves (oru kallile rendu maanga). But this is still in its testing phase as there are many risks involved, even a tiny leak can cause massive earthquakes.
Now to last weeks frosh party organized by Tamizh Student Association. It was conducted in a rented Hall outside the university. I was invited to sing which I did. They also organized all the usual fun games associated with these parties like musical chairs and eating contests. Technically being a fresher, I was forced into these competitions. When I was standing there on the stage playing those games, for the first time I realised the magnitude of my own age. I was just too old for all this. I have spent 4 years in college having fun and I have been through all these stages. Being forced back into the same old situation was kind of awkward. The creepy feeling of being a mature adult got into me! And yes, adult life is boring. My only solace was that most of the people there in that party, though under grads, were much older than me.
Then came the thing I was there for- food! They served puttu and kaththurikka poriyal ordered all the way from Toronto. After dinner we were sitting there chatting when commotion started. Guys, obviously drunk, stormed into the hall and picked up fight with the board members of the organization. Filthy verbal duels (incidental, all in Tamizh... while most of the compering during the party was in English... mother tongue is sure has a specific place in our conversations!) soon gave way to physical fights. The president of the association- a guy named Satish- showed some maturity and put an end to the mess and dispersed the gathering. To be honest, I was terrified to my guts seeing all the this. Prakash obviously sensed it. Holding my hand he asked, "Yenna Aravinth... bayandhuttingla? Indha maari Chennaila nadakkadha?". I just stared back at him not able to believe he even asked me that question after all this.
"Ithu ellam inga romba sagajam", he continued. "Naanga pudhusa vanthappo innum mosama irundhadhu, ippo konjam paravayillai". He dropped me in his car back home and on the way he was recounting the episodes during the previous frosh parties when some times police had to be called to intervene. All these fights had roots in the association politics. He ended by saying, "Tamizhan yenge irundhaalum anga pirachchanai varum! Yena namakkullaye, ottruma illai".
The next day when I narrated this incident to Gurpreet, he was stupefied, "I thought only we Punjabis drink and fight" !!!
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Ghost of Christmas '84
Gurpreet and Harjot took me to the Gurudwara of Ottawa for Langar (it is the traditional feast organized by the authorities of Gurudwaras everywhere. Volunteers, day and night, cook chappathis and dhal for visitors, travellers and devotees. In India, it is organized everyday. For obvious reasons, it is conducted only on sundays in Ottawa). After the usual 5 min prayer, we went into the dining hall (the reason we were there!). I was eating on the floor right under a huge banner which was screaming in large bold font- "LONG LIVE KHALISTAN OUR HOMELAND".
I look around and see really old folk limping around helping with the serving and cleaning of food. Most of them have been here since the darkest days of their life. After I was done, I went around to see the photos and paintings on the walls there. I could see a couple of life size portraits of Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale- the military and the spiritual leader of the Khalistan Liberation Army way back in the 70's. There were the photos of the other prominent members of the Liberation Army with the same quote inscribed under each one of them - "XXX attained martyrdom at the hands of the Tyrant Indian Army in 1984". At the end of the long row photos was one of a woman shown to be visibly assaulted and a newspaper clipping dating to some time in November 1984. Something was written in Punjabi which I asked Harjot to translate for me- "This woman, XXX was raped and murdered by the Hindu Government Police and her whole family was wiped out. These are but a few of the atrocities committed by the Government of India".
Most of the people who were present in the Hall with me at that time were directly or indirectly the victims of the anti-Sikh pogroms administered by the Nehru-Gandhi family loyalists in Delhi. They had been there, seen it. It sends a chill into my spine to even consider being a a victim of government organized violence- I mean, how on earth could anyone escape the carnage if both the police and the goons are on the same side? And may, for a moment, even make the hatred for "Hindus" among these folk seem justified. But is it?
Canada has done its part well in this world of eternal conflict. Sticking to its policy of multicultural coexistence, it has served home for many a flock of refugees- Sri Lankan Tamils, Palestines and Lebanese, Sikhs and the list goes on. But it has gone too far on its commitment toward tolerance to allow extremist propaganda rule its soil. I'm not saying this because I'm a practising Hindu. I would say the same about most of the Hindu temples in Toronto which serve pamphlets of Prabhakaran's speeches to the visitors. Providing refuge to troubled folk is one thing, harbouring extremism is another. No wonder many banned terrorist groups around the world have built a strong financial base in here. The silver lining is that the incumbent conservative government in the Parliament led by Prime Minister Stefen Harper has cracked down on many active operating terrorist cells and confiscated their resources (okay... for once I agree conservatives are right even if they have more notorious reasons like racism inspiring them to to this!). And not surprisingly, most of my Tamil friends hate this government.
This kind of propaganda, which I'm more or less used to seeing now a days, made me ponder into an even more fundamental question- about relevance of religion itself. Canadians (in general, the westerners) are known to be the most intolerant people. In spite of all the nice greetings and pleasant talk like "Hi"s, "Bye"s, "Good Afternoon"s and "Thank you"s, these people love their cats and dogs more than they love their siblings. Parents even after 80 are on their own. Silly things like one person's stuff getting into another person's desk in an office creates the most ugly arguments. The average time a graduate student spends working on his PhD thesis is TWICE the average life of a marriage (no wonder advisor-compatibility is more crucial than spouse-compatibility here!). How on earth, then, are they able to exist peacefully with so much diversity (in terms of religion, culture, ethnicity, language etc) around them? May be because their intolerance is "well directed". Meaning whenever they get angry, they get angry at individuals and not at the religion that those individuals represent (of course, all that has changed since 9/11).
The situation is quite the opposite in India. People go great distances to save marriages, I wouldn't mind my friends borrowing my stuff even without asking me and we respect people more than animals. Yet, we are being hypocrites when we claim that we have "unity in diversity". No community in India can boast of being clean of blood stain.
Religion was the reason behind 1984. Religion was the reason behind the Gujarat riots. Religion instigated the perpetrators of 9/11. Religion is guilty of 1993 Mumbai blasts and what followed it. Religion is stopping the schools in America from teaching Evolution. Religion is standing in way of life saving stem cell research. Religion tore a nation apart and a Religious fanatic assassinated a great soul in 1948. All this for what? A super human sitting above in the skies whom no one has ever seen or heard? Or are we completely out of our minds? When some one, say a Muslim, assaults my family and, if I'm an average Indian Hindu, I would go looking for ANY other muslim family (preferably women and children as they are the easier targets) to assault them back. In a more saner and rational world, I would have looked for the PERPETRATOR and try to bring him to justice, or in case where law fails, I would probably administer the punishment myself on HIM depending on the level of my maturity. It is amazing to see how easily we associate a whole religion with the actions of an individual. How easily the Gurudwara here associates "Hindu" with all the crimes committed against them.
May be religion made some sense say 10000 years back when it brought the cave man out of the forests and made him profess civil life, in fear some supreme authority above him. But today, religion is driving us toward the same madness it once shunned. It is driving us back into the caves. It is high time when we stopped acting as spoilt children claiming to act according to the directions of a "Holy Father" and started behaving as responsible adults. Its time we kept religion in its place- inside our houses.
Probably instead of teaching our kids how Jesus died for the Jews or how Lord Rama killed Ravana, if we teach them how great men like Issac Newton and Charles Darwin sacrificed their lives to give some meaning to our own existence, this world would have been a much safer and better place to live.
I look around and see really old folk limping around helping with the serving and cleaning of food. Most of them have been here since the darkest days of their life. After I was done, I went around to see the photos and paintings on the walls there. I could see a couple of life size portraits of Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale- the military and the spiritual leader of the Khalistan Liberation Army way back in the 70's. There were the photos of the other prominent members of the Liberation Army with the same quote inscribed under each one of them - "XXX attained martyrdom at the hands of the Tyrant Indian Army in 1984". At the end of the long row photos was one of a woman shown to be visibly assaulted and a newspaper clipping dating to some time in November 1984. Something was written in Punjabi which I asked Harjot to translate for me- "This woman, XXX was raped and murdered by the Hindu Government Police and her whole family was wiped out. These are but a few of the atrocities committed by the Government of India".
Most of the people who were present in the Hall with me at that time were directly or indirectly the victims of the anti-Sikh pogroms administered by the Nehru-Gandhi family loyalists in Delhi. They had been there, seen it. It sends a chill into my spine to even consider being a a victim of government organized violence- I mean, how on earth could anyone escape the carnage if both the police and the goons are on the same side? And may, for a moment, even make the hatred for "Hindus" among these folk seem justified. But is it?
Canada has done its part well in this world of eternal conflict. Sticking to its policy of multicultural coexistence, it has served home for many a flock of refugees- Sri Lankan Tamils, Palestines and Lebanese, Sikhs and the list goes on. But it has gone too far on its commitment toward tolerance to allow extremist propaganda rule its soil. I'm not saying this because I'm a practising Hindu. I would say the same about most of the Hindu temples in Toronto which serve pamphlets of Prabhakaran's speeches to the visitors. Providing refuge to troubled folk is one thing, harbouring extremism is another. No wonder many banned terrorist groups around the world have built a strong financial base in here. The silver lining is that the incumbent conservative government in the Parliament led by Prime Minister Stefen Harper has cracked down on many active operating terrorist cells and confiscated their resources (okay... for once I agree conservatives are right even if they have more notorious reasons like racism inspiring them to to this!). And not surprisingly, most of my Tamil friends hate this government.
This kind of propaganda, which I'm more or less used to seeing now a days, made me ponder into an even more fundamental question- about relevance of religion itself. Canadians (in general, the westerners) are known to be the most intolerant people. In spite of all the nice greetings and pleasant talk like "Hi"s, "Bye"s, "Good Afternoon"s and "Thank you"s, these people love their cats and dogs more than they love their siblings. Parents even after 80 are on their own. Silly things like one person's stuff getting into another person's desk in an office creates the most ugly arguments. The average time a graduate student spends working on his PhD thesis is TWICE the average life of a marriage (no wonder advisor-compatibility is more crucial than spouse-compatibility here!). How on earth, then, are they able to exist peacefully with so much diversity (in terms of religion, culture, ethnicity, language etc) around them? May be because their intolerance is "well directed". Meaning whenever they get angry, they get angry at individuals and not at the religion that those individuals represent (of course, all that has changed since 9/11).
The situation is quite the opposite in India. People go great distances to save marriages, I wouldn't mind my friends borrowing my stuff even without asking me and we respect people more than animals. Yet, we are being hypocrites when we claim that we have "unity in diversity". No community in India can boast of being clean of blood stain.
Religion was the reason behind 1984. Religion was the reason behind the Gujarat riots. Religion instigated the perpetrators of 9/11. Religion is guilty of 1993 Mumbai blasts and what followed it. Religion is stopping the schools in America from teaching Evolution. Religion is standing in way of life saving stem cell research. Religion tore a nation apart and a Religious fanatic assassinated a great soul in 1948. All this for what? A super human sitting above in the skies whom no one has ever seen or heard? Or are we completely out of our minds? When some one, say a Muslim, assaults my family and, if I'm an average Indian Hindu, I would go looking for ANY other muslim family (preferably women and children as they are the easier targets) to assault them back. In a more saner and rational world, I would have looked for the PERPETRATOR and try to bring him to justice, or in case where law fails, I would probably administer the punishment myself on HIM depending on the level of my maturity. It is amazing to see how easily we associate a whole religion with the actions of an individual. How easily the Gurudwara here associates "Hindu" with all the crimes committed against them.
May be religion made some sense say 10000 years back when it brought the cave man out of the forests and made him profess civil life, in fear some supreme authority above him. But today, religion is driving us toward the same madness it once shunned. It is driving us back into the caves. It is high time when we stopped acting as spoilt children claiming to act according to the directions of a "Holy Father" and started behaving as responsible adults. Its time we kept religion in its place- inside our houses.
Probably instead of teaching our kids how Jesus died for the Jews or how Lord Rama killed Ravana, if we teach them how great men like Issac Newton and Charles Darwin sacrificed their lives to give some meaning to our own existence, this world would have been a much safer and better place to live.
Friday, October 06, 2006
A Refugee's Diary
Last weekend was quite hectic. Saturday we went to a movie named "Aani Vaer" running in a near by theatre. Almost the whole of Tamil diaspora in Ottawa had come to see this one day show. I had some prior idea that this movie dealt with the ethnic conflict in Srilanka. Nevertheless I was in for a shock- this 2 hours venture was one of the biggest and the most intense propaganda I have ever viewed on large screen.
This is the story of a journalist from Chennai who goes to Jaffna to document the human rights violations. And she happens to meet a doctor named Nanda in an LTTE medical camp. Recorded true incidents of the army atrocities on the Tamil community have been recreated with the protagonists' story in the background. But that's what it is. The other side of the issue hasn't even been discussed. Infact, in the whole movie only once the word "LTTE" is heard. The director, who is an Indian, claims that this movie was conceived to arouse the Indian Tamils to the burning issues in the island nation. But he has gone too far depicting the government as fascist regime and LTTE as an angel. Nevertheless, like most other Srilankan Tamils here, my friends here go by the word of the propaganda.
After we finished the movie, was the Saraswati pooja in a big classroom in the university organised by the Tamil Student Association here. figures of Amman, Saraswati, Lakshmi and Pillayar were placed in front of the black board and we kept our books infront of it on a table. The function started with Saraswati invocation and then pooja rites were performed. Then was dinner time and we had Chakkara Pongal, Vadai and Sundal (all after a very long time!), after which it was cultural programmes.
It was almost 8 PM by the time it all ended and I needed a lift back home. My friends from materials class offered. But they had to finish some assignment before that so I waited in their lab as they were doing their work. Boopalan, one of them, (name changed) and I started talking about the movie we watched the afternoon. He told me that all those gory incidents had in fact taken place while he was in Ceylon, albeit were chronologically inconsistent with reality. He narrated his family's history(all conversation in Tamil), which I'm penning down here in his own words...
"My parents moved to Colombo with my elder sister soon after I was born. But I stayed back in Jaffna with my grand mom. In 1982, my dad got offers to work in Dubai and he left leaving my sister and my mom alone in Colombo. Me and my grand ma used to visit them every year. But after the war broke out in 1983, I stayed back in Jaffna for while and then moved to Colombo to live with my mom in 1986.
My mom used to tell me the stories of what they went through during the riots of 83. There was one day when this Sinhali mob was scanning our area. My mom and my sister lived in an apartment. They took refuge in the opposite flat where a Sinhala family lived. When the mob knocked the door, my mom was hiding under the bed, and the man of the house brushed them off saying there are no Tamils in this locality. I was too young then to understand anything she said.
After I moved to Colombo, I joined this Christian Missionary school there. Within Colombo there is no problem between us and the Sinhaleese. In fact in our school Sinhala:Tamil ratio was about 6 to 2. We coexisted without any problem. But yes, sporadically there would be some suicide bombings in Colombo and the situation would get tense. I remember once, when we were playing cricket in our school ground, the tigers hit the national bank across the road. That was my first bomb blast. Soon after these blasts, there would be frantic phone calls all over the city with everyone enquiring the safety of their friends and family. But after 5 hours or so, every one would be back to business. It has become more or less the norm of the city. We have learnt to live with them.
But we had our share of fun. I remember how we used to mass bunk classes for the annual cricket tournament. Our teacher was a Tamil and the principal a Sinhala priest. We were sort of in good terms with the principal. So whenever our teacher punished us for bunking classes, the principal used to let us go that would start a fight between them and we used to have fun watching it!
We also had a gang of friends at home. We used to play hell lot of cricket in a huge ground near my house during our O-level (12th Std) year. On the other side of the house was the house of a Sinhala girl who was also in my class. Whenever our match got loud and ugly, her father used to come out and complain that his daughter is not able to study. One of my friends was really fluent in Sinhala and he used to throw back, telling him that even we were in O-level and still we come out to play and don't study all day like your book worm daughter. If she wants peace, let her go some where else to study.
There were times when the ball used to land in their house and the old man wouldn't return it.The next day, we used to buy a huge box of balls, place it on his compound wall, take out one ball at a time and stand in front of his house so that he can see them! That guy was always pissed at us. My mom however used to beg me not to fight with neighbours. Probably because she was living without my dad, she wanted to be in peace with everyone around there and not attract problems. The week before the final exams, that old man cursed us, "None of you brats are going to pass this year!". We wrote our exams, and the results came. Most of my friends passed wit ha an 'A' average. Some friends got 'B' grade. We all went to the old man's house with our grade sheets and shoved it to him,
We (in Sinhala): "We got 'A' average, what did your daughter get?"
The Old man: "'C' average".
We: "You know something... if you had let your daughter play cricket, she would have fared better than that"
And we left. He later remarked to my mom, "these are nice chaps you know..."
To be frank my grade wasn't that good. But then I still could have secured admission in Colombo. But I didn't want that. Neither did my dad. There was just too much of harassment in there. Everyone in Srilanka is given a Photo Identity card and a police address proof. We have to carry it where ever we go and still, the police used to stop us and accuse us of being terrorists. They would give lame reasons like 'your photo doesn't resemble your face' etc. When my sister got married, they had to face lot of issues. It was that some of the college mates of my maama had joined the LTTE. And so the police used to knock their doors in odd hours and ask them questions. My maama couldn't take it anymore and he found a job in Toronto and left with my sister. After that, the police started coming to our place and started questioning my dad. I remember vividly, during my O levels, the police came home at 3 in the morning and started shouting at us. This constable came into my room where I was studying and asked me where my sister was. I told him they have moved to Toronto. Then he shook me threatening of dire consequences if I lied.
My father called me one day and told me, "You leave this country. Go to Canada to your sister. I'll join you later". And that was that. I packed my bags and left Colombo for good. Now, it is my duty to join some firm soon after I finish my final year, earn enough money and sponsor my parents to immigrate. That's the least I can do for them."
There is nothing to question the authenticity of the above story. There IS a huge problem there. And yes, Tamils are at the receiving end. But giving that as an excuse for counter-violence is by no means justifiable. Boopalan and all his compatriots here regularly read TamilNet news and consider the LTTE's propaganda as God's own truth. Boopalan told me how one of Prabhakaran's editorial in TamilNet justifies Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, "Rajiv Gandhi wanted to exploit the LTTE's causes so that he can extend India's influence beyond its borders. In fact, the atrocities that we saw today in the movie was also committed by the IPKF's soldiers. LTTE wanted some revenge".
To say that LTTE is the true representative of their grievances is a gross misjudgement. May be they were justified back in 70's when all the peaceful Gandhian agitations organized by the Tamil leaders were met by hostile reaction from the government. May be force was the only thing that brought the government to table and made it even consider that this is an issue. But the tigers lost their relevance there. What can explain suicide bombings in Colombo? What can explain the hypocritical stand of the LTTE in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, where they don't officially accept involvement, but justify it in TamilNet? And god forbid what can explain massacre of the other Tamil groups in 1987 by the LTTE under the banner 'uniting all the Tamils under one roof'?
What ever the answers for the above questions, I learnt one important lesson from Saturday- When people immigrate out of India they give reasons that India is inefficient, poor, illiterate and corrupted... but we still have a choice to go back home. These unfortunate souls don't.
This is the story of a journalist from Chennai who goes to Jaffna to document the human rights violations. And she happens to meet a doctor named Nanda in an LTTE medical camp. Recorded true incidents of the army atrocities on the Tamil community have been recreated with the protagonists' story in the background. But that's what it is. The other side of the issue hasn't even been discussed. Infact, in the whole movie only once the word "LTTE" is heard. The director, who is an Indian, claims that this movie was conceived to arouse the Indian Tamils to the burning issues in the island nation. But he has gone too far depicting the government as fascist regime and LTTE as an angel. Nevertheless, like most other Srilankan Tamils here, my friends here go by the word of the propaganda.
After we finished the movie, was the Saraswati pooja in a big classroom in the university organised by the Tamil Student Association here. figures of Amman, Saraswati, Lakshmi and Pillayar were placed in front of the black board and we kept our books infront of it on a table. The function started with Saraswati invocation and then pooja rites were performed. Then was dinner time and we had Chakkara Pongal, Vadai and Sundal (all after a very long time!), after which it was cultural programmes.
It was almost 8 PM by the time it all ended and I needed a lift back home. My friends from materials class offered. But they had to finish some assignment before that so I waited in their lab as they were doing their work. Boopalan, one of them, (name changed) and I started talking about the movie we watched the afternoon. He told me that all those gory incidents had in fact taken place while he was in Ceylon, albeit were chronologically inconsistent with reality. He narrated his family's history(all conversation in Tamil), which I'm penning down here in his own words...
"My parents moved to Colombo with my elder sister soon after I was born. But I stayed back in Jaffna with my grand mom. In 1982, my dad got offers to work in Dubai and he left leaving my sister and my mom alone in Colombo. Me and my grand ma used to visit them every year. But after the war broke out in 1983, I stayed back in Jaffna for while and then moved to Colombo to live with my mom in 1986.
My mom used to tell me the stories of what they went through during the riots of 83. There was one day when this Sinhali mob was scanning our area. My mom and my sister lived in an apartment. They took refuge in the opposite flat where a Sinhala family lived. When the mob knocked the door, my mom was hiding under the bed, and the man of the house brushed them off saying there are no Tamils in this locality. I was too young then to understand anything she said.
After I moved to Colombo, I joined this Christian Missionary school there. Within Colombo there is no problem between us and the Sinhaleese. In fact in our school Sinhala:Tamil ratio was about 6 to 2. We coexisted without any problem. But yes, sporadically there would be some suicide bombings in Colombo and the situation would get tense. I remember once, when we were playing cricket in our school ground, the tigers hit the national bank across the road. That was my first bomb blast. Soon after these blasts, there would be frantic phone calls all over the city with everyone enquiring the safety of their friends and family. But after 5 hours or so, every one would be back to business. It has become more or less the norm of the city. We have learnt to live with them.
But we had our share of fun. I remember how we used to mass bunk classes for the annual cricket tournament. Our teacher was a Tamil and the principal a Sinhala priest. We were sort of in good terms with the principal. So whenever our teacher punished us for bunking classes, the principal used to let us go that would start a fight between them and we used to have fun watching it!
We also had a gang of friends at home. We used to play hell lot of cricket in a huge ground near my house during our O-level (12th Std) year. On the other side of the house was the house of a Sinhala girl who was also in my class. Whenever our match got loud and ugly, her father used to come out and complain that his daughter is not able to study. One of my friends was really fluent in Sinhala and he used to throw back, telling him that even we were in O-level and still we come out to play and don't study all day like your book worm daughter. If she wants peace, let her go some where else to study.
There were times when the ball used to land in their house and the old man wouldn't return it.The next day, we used to buy a huge box of balls, place it on his compound wall, take out one ball at a time and stand in front of his house so that he can see them! That guy was always pissed at us. My mom however used to beg me not to fight with neighbours. Probably because she was living without my dad, she wanted to be in peace with everyone around there and not attract problems. The week before the final exams, that old man cursed us, "None of you brats are going to pass this year!". We wrote our exams, and the results came. Most of my friends passed wit ha an 'A' average. Some friends got 'B' grade. We all went to the old man's house with our grade sheets and shoved it to him,
We (in Sinhala): "We got 'A' average, what did your daughter get?"
The Old man: "'C' average".
We: "You know something... if you had let your daughter play cricket, she would have fared better than that"
And we left. He later remarked to my mom, "these are nice chaps you know..."
To be frank my grade wasn't that good. But then I still could have secured admission in Colombo. But I didn't want that. Neither did my dad. There was just too much of harassment in there. Everyone in Srilanka is given a Photo Identity card and a police address proof. We have to carry it where ever we go and still, the police used to stop us and accuse us of being terrorists. They would give lame reasons like 'your photo doesn't resemble your face' etc. When my sister got married, they had to face lot of issues. It was that some of the college mates of my maama had joined the LTTE. And so the police used to knock their doors in odd hours and ask them questions. My maama couldn't take it anymore and he found a job in Toronto and left with my sister. After that, the police started coming to our place and started questioning my dad. I remember vividly, during my O levels, the police came home at 3 in the morning and started shouting at us. This constable came into my room where I was studying and asked me where my sister was. I told him they have moved to Toronto. Then he shook me threatening of dire consequences if I lied.
My father called me one day and told me, "You leave this country. Go to Canada to your sister. I'll join you later". And that was that. I packed my bags and left Colombo for good. Now, it is my duty to join some firm soon after I finish my final year, earn enough money and sponsor my parents to immigrate. That's the least I can do for them."
There is nothing to question the authenticity of the above story. There IS a huge problem there. And yes, Tamils are at the receiving end. But giving that as an excuse for counter-violence is by no means justifiable. Boopalan and all his compatriots here regularly read TamilNet news and consider the LTTE's propaganda as God's own truth. Boopalan told me how one of Prabhakaran's editorial in TamilNet justifies Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, "Rajiv Gandhi wanted to exploit the LTTE's causes so that he can extend India's influence beyond its borders. In fact, the atrocities that we saw today in the movie was also committed by the IPKF's soldiers. LTTE wanted some revenge".
To say that LTTE is the true representative of their grievances is a gross misjudgement. May be they were justified back in 70's when all the peaceful Gandhian agitations organized by the Tamil leaders were met by hostile reaction from the government. May be force was the only thing that brought the government to table and made it even consider that this is an issue. But the tigers lost their relevance there. What can explain suicide bombings in Colombo? What can explain the hypocritical stand of the LTTE in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, where they don't officially accept involvement, but justify it in TamilNet? And god forbid what can explain massacre of the other Tamil groups in 1987 by the LTTE under the banner 'uniting all the Tamils under one roof'?
What ever the answers for the above questions, I learnt one important lesson from Saturday- When people immigrate out of India they give reasons that India is inefficient, poor, illiterate and corrupted... but we still have a choice to go back home. These unfortunate souls don't.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)