Friday, May 22, 2009

18th May, 2009


On 18th May, 2009 the Sri Lankan Government declared its victory over the rebel Tamil Tigers after almost three decades of war. The streets of Colombo broke into celebrations, processions, flags, fire-crackers, drums. And, we were there witnessing probably the biggest day in Sri Lankan history. Many years from now, I shall be recounting this and saying, “I was there, experiencing the historical moment.”

Amidst celebrations, the cynics wait and watch on how the President and his Government find a political solution to the situation. But it was our house-maid, Karuna, who came out with real words of wisdom.

She said (in her broken English), “It is not nice to celebrate so much when so many people have died and been displaced in the road towards victory. People should also maintain five minutes of silence for all the lives lost in the process.”

I couldn’t help but agree.

15 comments:

thecorporatehippy said...

Thoughtful Karuna..

ALIen said...

mixed emotions
Cheers!!!!!

mathew said...

that was a amazing thought to come from when the temptation to be euphoric about a war victory might be overpowering...glad to see people who can think different!!

Pooja Nair said...

Perhaps it is important to also mention that this cleaning lady is Sinhalese, and not Tamil

rahul jauhari said...

Doubly interesting if you count in the meaning of her name.

meraj said...

true, Mr Jauhari!

thanks for that input, Pooja.

you all can also read an insightful artice on the subject from TIME magazine over here:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1900888,00.html

Anonymous said...

dude, someone has copied your blogpost: http://theniceblogs.blogspot.com/2009/05/sri-lanka-18th-may-2009.html

vishalc2005@gmail.com said...

http://resistancerebellionanddeath.blogspot.com/2009/05/truth.html

some thots

Smiling Dolphin said...

what a great post, meraj, and some shameless woman has blindly coped it. hope you could contact her and give her a piece of your mind!

meraj said...

thanks for the appreciation, Dolphin!

actually, i'd rather ignore this person. in fact, most of her posts are a lifted straight from here and there.

anonymous,
thanks for bringing this to my notice

Bhaskar Khaund said...

just wrote on this on the better half's blog ...you guys are there in the midst of this huge phase in SL history - Karuna couldn't be more right...too many lives lost on all sides...she said it all ..(though adding a "nidhi" to her name will add soundbytes of a more virulent nature :-)) ..was also interesting to see the effect this whole thing had on the election campaign in TN ...stay safe ! peace - B

Bhaskar Khaund said...

btw why this owner approval thing on your blogs , guys ? let a thousand opinions bloom , nahi ?
:-0

meraj said...

thats because, some useless bloggers started putting up some very unnecessary comments full of expletives, rude words etc.

cheers!
m

Queen from Another Planet said...

Hmmmm...Certainly we should observe silence for all those who have had to sacrifice their lives.

And all those posters, cutouts etc are completely unnnecessary. But what's wrong with a few celebrations? We suffered for 30 years because of the LTTE, and achieved a victory everyone said that we would never be able to.

We've had too much negativity, too much interference, and a whole world saying that we couldn't do it. I dunno...I think a few celebrations were in order.

meraj said...

With you, Queen. Thx for dropping by. Cheers! m