Chapter - 30

Sunburnt Home - an Australian-Sri Lankan novel

'I want to take a few good books home!' :

By Sunil Govinnage

Though the time was nearly ten o’clock, Udara’s wife Nishani who was waiting for their arrival, opened the door with a smile and greeted them.

“Oh, at last you both are here! I was bit worried. Why it took so long? When you called me, it was just after 6’o clock and I was expecting both of you around 8.30 for dinner!”

“We stopped on the way a few times to have tea and argued about living and life in Sri Lanka and Australia!” laughed Udara.

“Didn’t I call you again, after I told you that I would bring an Australian home? We are hungry. You said there would be indi-appa with a goat curry?”

****

Jayadeva woke up and around 4.30am in the morning and realised that it was still 6 o’clock in Perth and asked himself ‘why he felt sleepy like a drunken sailor?’

After another two hours of sleep, he woke up again, and went out. Waves of hot breeze came uninvited and embraced his humid body.

Anda gala sat motionlessly at a distant like a dead giant eel, as the name of the rock suggested. As he was gazing at the large flat rock, Udara came with morning tea.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, I slept like a log except I woke up two hours ago as I normally wake up at 6.30 in Perth. Sri Lanka is two and half hours behind Perth. Malini and children must be getting ready to leave home, and I must give them a call about my where about.

I told her that I would stay behind a few days after the funeral and meet old friends and visit Kalutara, but I’m still in between!”

“So you are meeting one of your friends and Sri Lankan is not just two and half hours but light years behind Australia!” said Udara and laughed.

“How pleasant this place is, and you can sit on that bench and write poetry,” Jayadeva pointed out a wooden bench under a sepalika tree with fallen flowers.

“Oh, poetry is like my youth and I haven’t written a single poem for years! I now read nutritional planning and project management books and write notes for my staff,” confessed Udara.

“As life changes, we change the focus of our priorities. Life is a continuous problem solving process,” said Jayadeva.

“Our Sumana is cooking Appa this morning, and I hope our Sri Lankan breakfast is okay with you. We can’t give you Australian breakfast. Food will be ready in any minute. We normally have all meals together, and join us as soon as you are ready.”

“No I’m not a great breakfast person, and hoppers are good. We rarely have appa for breakfast”, said Jayadeva and took a deep breath.

It was a great family breakfast which reminded Jayadeva their way of having morning meals in Perth. The Gamage family rarely had time to enjoy breakfast or received support from a lovely and matured servant like Sumana, as Jayadeva and family had their breakfast on the run, or ate toasts or muesli with milk on different times.

When Jayadeva realised that the fish curry and lunu miris have been enriched with high doses of salt, he started eating plain hoppers.

Udara and Nishani served him Appa and curry constantly, showing their affectionate Sri Lankan hospitality. After a while he was not worried about the salt saturated fish curry and lunu miris, despite Perth medical advice about the need to reduce salt, as high-salt diet contributed to high blood pressure.

Udara’s two children; daughter Upeka, who was thirteen and son, Channa twelve years of age joined them at breakfast and Jayadeva noted their courteous manners.

After breakfast two children got their school bags and stepped down and worshipped their parents first, and then Jayadeva.

Jayadeva was frozen for a moment and tried to recall the last time his two children worshiped him or Malini, before leaving home in the morning.

“Jaye, there is no hurry for me to go to work. If I go just after nine, that would do. You can either stay at home and read or relax, or you could come with me to office.

The house would be hot, but you have two fans in your room. We have a good air-conditioned library and a training room in my office, and you can sit there and read. Then we could come home for lunch. By the way, what do you like to have for lunch?”

“Do you both come home for lunch every day? Yes, anything would do for me. We normally take a sandwich for lunch, and rarely eat rice,” said Jayadeva looking at Udara’s prodding belly.

“Yes, after Nisha got her promotion from Colombo to the Regional Health Director’s Office here, we both come home for lunch”.

“What is she doing there?”

“Now she is the Additional Secretary in charge of finance and admin; an easy job for a top civil servant.”

“Tell me … what you like to eat. You eat chicken no?” and Udara didn’t give Jayadeva time to respond, and he ordered,

“Sumana, cook some chicken and few vegetables, and make a good karavala beduma. I don’t think one could have good Kalpity karawala in Perth!” said Udara and laughed.

“Jaye, do you know Siri Wickramasinghe in Perth? He is from Wehara no! He went to live in Perth over fifteen years ago. Do you know him? Have you met him?”

“Yes, I have met him a few times. He used to be the editor of our Cultural Society during its early days, and he has become very quite recently.”

“The gossip in Kurunagala is that he got married to a Tamil girl, and apparently got divorced recently. His mother, a retired old school teacher is desperate to find a good woman for her son to marry. We know her, and she came here one day to ask Nisha’s help to find a good woman for her rich Australian son!”

Although Jayadeva knew Siri and his failed marriage to a Tamil woman from Melbourne, he didn’t want to add further gossip or information about Siri Wickramasinghe as he knew any news that he would pass onto Udara would spread like a wild fire in Kurunagala in no time.

“I think he is a good bloke, and he will one day marry soon.”

“Isn’t he getting closer to late thirties now,” said Udara.

As Jayadaeva didn’t want to continue on the subject, he tactfully changed the tack.

“Udara, could you suggest a few good English books to take home. I want to take a few books home for our children, and unfortunately, they don’t know much about our history or past glory.”

“Oh, you are still interested in our past glory, ah! Be careful, you know what happened to our friend, Prasanna who was buried yesterday. He was also interested in our past glory?”

“So what really happened to Prassa and how did he become sick?”

“Prassa was one of those who desperately looked for our past glory and perhaps went to the extent of becoming a Sinhala chauvinist. He used to travel all over the North-Central Province visiting old temples and abandoned tanks built by ancient kings. There are a few stories about how he developed diabetics and kidney failure.”

“Prassa is too young to develop diabetics and kidney failures in his forties!

What did he do? Jayadeva asked curiously.

“I wouldn’t go into details of his life! It’s no good to talk about bad things of the dead.”

“I’m really curious about your remarks that Prasaa ended up as a Sinhala Chauvinist. He was a Marxist during university days, and how come such a person ended up as a Sinhala Chauvinist?”

“People change, don’t you know that?”

“Yes, I know that, but for a person like Prassa to go to that extreme! I can't believe your story!”

“Yes, he went to extremes. His one wise was alcohol and apparently during his visits for work and for his passionate project to learn about the past glory, Prassa had to visit remote place. The story is that he been eating local fish from tanks and Nelum ala, and did all sorts of other things during his field trips… ”, and Udara didn’t want to complete his sentence as he was reluctant to reveal what he knew about Prasanna Silva’s character and behaviour, particularly the last few years of his life. Udara changed the tack voluntarily.

“You said that you wanted buy few books on Anuradhapura and Pollonaruwa to take home, no? Do you know Professor Anuruddha Senarathne? When we were in the uni, he was just a young assistant lecturer, but now he is a full professor. He had written a few good English books, and I have a few of his books in my library. You can take them with you. I think he wrote about 70 books on Sinhalese culture both in Sinhala and English. His works includes Golden Rock Temple Dambulla, and another book on Kandy. You must see his latest book ‘Sunset at the valley Kothmale’ ” Fascinating stuff.

“Yes, I knew Anuruddha. So how come Sri Lankan academics find time to do research and write good books. I thought all of them run tuition classes!” Jayadeva said sarcastically.

“So that’s your silly and arrogant Australian attitude. There are still a few good university academics who don’t live to conduct tuition classes on weekends! I have his books on Dambulla which he wrote in the early 80s, and the one on Kandy. I think he wrote two books; one on Anuradhapura and another on Pollonnaruwa. You can take my copy of his book on Anuradhapura.

After all you who came to find the ruins and our past glory. I could drop you at Samudra Bookshop and it is a good air-conditioned place. You can sit and read, and I’ll pick you up for lunch.”

* * *

By the time, Udara came to pick up Jayadeva, he already had bought about ten kilos of books.

“I think you may have to pay for extra luggage for all these books, and you would better send them by air or sea mail. So you can read all these reference books on your lost glory leisurely!” said Udara and laughed.

“I also brought you two kilos of good karawala also to take home!”

After a heavy lunch, Jayadeva decided to take a nap, and he dreamt visiting the ancient temples in Anuradhapura.

Hot, but refreshing waves of air from the ancient rocks that guarded Udara’s city came through the open windows, one after another, like pilgrims who circumnavigate Ruwan Weli Chethiya, and settled in Jayadeva’s lungs.

Glossary of Terms

Indi-appa - A famous Sri Lankan dish made of rice flour

Sepalika - (Nyctanthes arbor-tristis). Sepalika, also known as “coral Jasmine” is a popular garden flower and has white petals that emit a pleasant fragrance.

Appa - Hoppers are unique to Sri Lanka and few other countries in South Asia. A regular hopper is similar to a bowl shaped pancake with crusted outer layer, and usually consumed for breakfast.

Lunu miris- This spicy Sri Lankan dish is made using a grinding stone or a mortar and pastel to make it, like a salsa mixture, made out of red onions, dried chili flakes, (dried (Maldive) fish, salt and lime juice.

Nelum ala –Lotus roots.

Karavala beduma – Fried dried fish.

Kalpity karawala– Dried fish made in Kalpitiya.

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

For feedback and readers' response: [email protected]