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| Sunday, 24 July 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Mother's
love knows no limit
by Lakmal Welabada
Just after a week of giving birth to her third baby, Indika Priyanthi was back on the pavement, in front of Lake House, as she has to tend for her three children. She begs for her living with a grim hope for the future. However she has managed to send her elder daughter, Sanduni Nisansala (9) to Gamini Vidyalaya, Peliyagoda about whom she talks with little pride. Indika was first seen on the pavement with her second daughter Jayanthi Abeysinghe (1). Every morning they move to the pavement and sit beside the bus halt, opposite the Regal Cinema. Once the office crowd disperse, the beggar-mother and children move back to their little hut covered temporarily with polythene covers along the Pettah railway track. In the evening, once again, they move back to the pavement and sit in front of Sambuddhaloka Viharaya, Fort, and stretch out their palms with hope. They eye on the office crowd bussing down the road. But, no one has time to stop to actually look at them. When darkness falls the young mother and her children return to the polythene covered 'palace'. After giving birth to her youngest baby, Indika has been facing much difficulty. Things have become harder for her. But she has no alternative. "I tried to keep the second daughter, Jayanthi with my neighbour (the shoe mender's wife) until I beg for the day with the youngest one. But she cries a lot when I go away. So today I've decided to keep both children with me though it is difficult," she said. Both children are being breast-fed. Jayantha, her second husband has been jailed for two and half years for a drug offence. "He has to serve one and half years more as he couldn't pay the fine. If I had Rs. 5,000 I could have released him," she laments though she acknowledges his weakness. The big burnt scar on her scraggy neck and flat chest is evidence of an attempt to set fire to herself during her first marriage to Shantha. Her parents, four sisters and brother live at Peliyagoda. They are engaged in an illegal business, which most downtrodden folk believe is the best way of earning living. "My family ask us to come and stay with them. But I don't want to go as they insist that I should leave Jayantha," she said. "My elder sister wants to adopt my elder daughter. I will miss her, but I have no choice. If I don't do it she won't be able to continue her schooling," she says. "I wanted to get myself operated for unfertilisation when I gave birth to the third child, but the hospital informed me that I was too young for that. The operation is done for women over thirty years. I am still twenty five," explains the beggar-mother. Indika has never stepped into a school. "I like to do a job, but who will take care of my infants during my absence?," she questions. Indika loves her children. Proving a Sinhala proverb, Vale Gedi Velata Bara Nehe, which means like a creeper bears its fruits without a grumble, this beggar-mother doesn't feel her children a burden. This tells the story of people below the poverty line. |
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