Silibiris and Sivapalan completed the formalities of
accepting the post of Peon at the Ceylon Department of Irrigation and
Agriculture. They were to be paid a princely monthly salary of Rs. 148.37
Sivapalan had already
worked out how much he can save to send to his parents in Jaffna. Silibiris of
course had no idea how much it will cost him to live in Colombo let alone how
much he could save.
Not to worry, he will live life to the fullest and worry
about the savings later, he thought.
They found an unoccupied table in the canteen. Silibiris
ordered two yards of plain tea and made sure the tea maker displayed the whole
yard when pouring the tea into a glass.
Kolonnawe temple abiththiya had given Silibiris a generous
lunch packet, more than enough for two people . No meat. Silibiris was a bit
peeved but Sivapalan was extremely grateful as he was a vegetarian.
They shared the lunch packet chatting away like two school
boys under the mango tree in the school yard, ignoring the strange looks from
the other diners.
Sivapalan was two years older than Silibiris, from a Hindu
family in Nallur Jaffna.
He was the only son in an onion farming family with one
older sister of marriageable age with 2 other sisters still schooling.
Silibiris realised Sivapalan had a single goal in life – to save money. He
needed to collect enough money for his sister’s dowry and pay for the schooling
expenses of his younger sisters.
“ Aiya, where you livu in Colombo?”
“Oh Naan sleep in uncle shop floor. He say I help after work
in his saiver hottal and sleep free, shapadu free. I can walk to office and
save money’
“Where you livu thambi”
“Aaa I stay Kolonnawe temple but but I havu to find a place.
That room scarier than our Ambarawa jungle”
They chatted excitedly about their homes in the village. They
Promised each other to show Ambarawa and Nallur and their folks.
After the lunch break, they resumed work doing nothing much.
They only had to hurry to a clerk’s desk
when a bell summoned them to carry a file from that desk to another desk only a
few feet away. Silibiris wondered why the clerk could not just get up and walk
a few feet over to the other desk instead of summoning a peon. Perhaps, that
was why the clerks had pot bellies.
Never the less, he was happy to have a job in a government
as his mother always dreamt for him.
Well before 4pm, the officers started deserting. Sivapalan
and Silibiris took the cue from the bosses and signed out as if they had been
there for another hour longer.
The streets were full of green electrified trolley busses,
Austin, Humber cars and hundreds of bicycles. Well dressed women hurried home.
Sivapalan bid good bye and walked in the direction of his uncle’s saiver hotel.
Silibiris suddenly realized he did not know the way back to
Kolonnawe temple. Abiththiya had not shown him how to get back.
He panicked. He didn’t even have the address. All he could
remember was Kolonnawa Raja Maha Viharaya. He looked around. He felt very alone
amongst thousands of people.
Noticing the Beetle leaf seller sitting on the pavement
doing a brisk trade, he bought a bulath wita and inquired if the vendor could
tell him which bus to catch to Kolonnawa Raja Maha Viharaya. The vendor laughed
showing his red stained teeth telling Silibiris he was from Matara and had no
idea where Kolonnawa was.
A man on a bicycle
who had stopped to buy a bulath wita asked Silibiris why he wanted to go the
temple since it was not the Poya Day. Silibiris told him the story. As
Silibiris luck would have it, the man was from Wellampitiya who knew the
Kolonnawe temple all too well as his sister lived behind Kolonnawe temple
parapet wall.
The man offered Silibiris a ride home but in return must buy
him a drink. That was a fair deal,, considering the man from Ambarawa was
utterly lost in the city of Colombo
Silibiris hopped on the bicycle cross bar after promising to
treat Gune Aiyya a shot of “Kasiya” once they reached Kolonnawa.
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