Silibiris Marooned at the Big Match

 

 Have you ever been surrounded by thousands of noisy people but you felt utterly alone because you don’t recognize anybody and nobody recognize you? The only recognizable constant is the school flag. Even that seems to be a different shade of Maroon and Silver.

 

 Silibiris looked forward to the 85th Encounter between Ananda Nalanda, albeit not at the old Wanathamulla Oval not even at Colombo 7 SSC but at unfamiliar surroundings at Khettarama Stadium. The promise of meeting Lella, Jora, Kelaya, Myna, Hadda after 40 years, or the possibility of coming across the teachers who were pretty young things at the time and even the odd older one who commanded so much respect may still be alive was enough to be at the ground nice and early.

 

 Finding Kehettarama Stadium, only previously seen on TV, would have been a challenge had a life long friend Kosalaya volunteering a lift. Even he had not been to a Big Match for over 15 years. Anura Bada flatly refused his call to join in saying he had better things to do and a million to earn.

 

 Five rupee student entry fee in ’74 now inflated to five hundred rupees charged at the gate for old boys was an indication of changes ahead. Brothers tent, a symbol of camaraderie of boys from similar backgrounds in the years gone by, was generously priced at Rs1750 for good measure.

 

 Car parking inside Gate 5 appeared highly sought after. The reason became apparent when approaching all those cars with the boots open, surrounded by old boys. The boot was a veritable bar full of Scotch, Gin, Rum, Vodka, Pol, VOSA served on the rocks, with Coke or just neat.

 

 The school prefects checking tickets at the turnstiles looked fresh faced primary school kids. Did we look like that too when we ushered those old uncles to their seats at the Colombo Oval? The old uncles of ‘70s didn’t stay seated in their seats for tool long. In no time the old classmates found each other with no SMS required, proceeding to play the merry devil dancing to the songs of dirty baila like “enna yanna nangi aney galak kapanna…..ara mahaweli ganga ainay…” while the nangis sitting near by pretended to look annoyed but horengli side eyeing the potential suitors amongst the bachelor uncles.

 

 Looking around the ground today, those dirty baila singers thronged by crowds clapping and dancing appeared to have given way to , Papare Bands, Big Bands with rows of trumpeters, drummers or DJs mixing Dance House music in front of massive speakers. The dancing youngsters would have been right at home at a Stereo Sonic Concert in any western country with all the moves.

 

 Stumbling on Kings on a stage led by Chandral Fonseka of Golden Chimes singing 70s hit songs in front of the Brothers tent was akin to coming across an oasis in the desert of the massive concreted stadium. Inquiring from onlookers as to who the familiar looking lead singer and the band was returned shrugs of “don’t know”. The boys seemed to be more attracted to the dancing girls on stage than the songs which were on lips of everyone in a bygone era.

 

 After the lunch break, and a few sips of Scotch and Coke openly smuggled in, some uncles did find their voice and the courage to break into some traditional Big Match songs only to be drowned out by the deafening sounds of DJ music. An uncle from the Class of 85 did come across and have a chat with 29+++ Silibiris sans his classmates who must have been home taking diabetes pills, blood pressure and Cholesterol tablets eating paralu pan drinking Koththamalli.

 

 Incidentally, there was some high quality game of cricket happening in the middle. An Anandian fast bowler look alike of P Dayapriya bowling his heart out and a spin bowler with an unusual “puhul hora karen danay” type action trying to break a developing 3rd wicket partnership that was taking less fancied Nalanda team’s total closer to a surprisingly low score of 170 all out made by the favourites of the season, Ananadians.

 

 Silibiris standing amongst the wildly cheering Nalandians when they passed the Ananada total for the loss of 4 wickets was gob smacked when the Nalandian boys didn’t know the name of their own school’s batsmen batting in the middle.

“Why uncle, can’t you read the score board?” was their reply.

 One sheepishly did volunteer that they could not recognize the batsmen from that far. This is the generation of TV cricket children who have grown with the luxury of close ups, replays, stats on screen and commentators telling them the same thing the watcher can see on the screen.

  Never mind the lack of familiar faces, sounds of dirty baila songs, school boys having the stats of their school’s  players at their finger -tips and enough spectators to even half fill the vast stadium where old Colombo Oval would have looked full to the rafters.

Thank God for small mercies.

 Annasi vendors still carried basins of neatly arranged pineapple pieces, balanced on their heads . The price of a piece had inflated 100 times but the sweet taste remained the same.