‘
Rupan jeerathi majjanan nama gottan najeerathi’
Following is a conversation took
place between a guy and a girl I do not know where and when and I have never
met this couple before. I am sure that you are very familiar with this
dialogue, or you may have heard this before in different explanations on
different things academic and non academic explanations of life.
Makkei
nangi dodan neththe? -Why are you
not talking to me sister? That is the rough
translation of the Sinhala dialogue and apparently that is what the guy meant.
But he received completely different answer from
the girl.
Me
dodan awarene aiye –Because ……. this is not the season brother.
These two individuals are from two different areas
of our country. The dialogue gives us few hints for us to have such an assumption
or come to such a conclusion.
The ways of speaking, ‘tone’ of the language, ways
of expressions (? rarely), accents, nature of words that one is using, say hundreds
of things about ‘a person’ sometimes ‘the levels of education – this not particularly
about the ‘academic qualifications’ that one is holding, the language that some
people use is also gives us some information on ‘status of mind’ of a person. I
do not know whether ‘the educated use ‘kunuharapa’in a different way. (These
words exist in a society generally, but this is known as ‘unaccepted words’ (horrid
words) of a society)
The lesson that this conversation teach us is that
‘the Language has/shows area differences’ ( spoken)
Shall we turn towards a fruit forgetting the conversation?
What is your favorite fruit?
Lets take ‘annasi for instance to explore our
thinking towards a different direction. Shall we go to ‘Nawala’?
‘ Nawala annasi ( the pineapple which grows
especially in Nawala area, I do not have to tell you that Nawala is not the
only place that you can grow ‘Pineapple’) is a special variety and may be it
tastes differently, lets say ‘the flavor is little different’ from the annasi (
pineapple ) that grows close to ‘Gampaha’ distirct. Have you heard about ‘the murusi
annasi’ what is this variety? I have a little knowledge on this but I can say
that it is little sour than the other varieties and this particular variety
that I have tasted before is ‘sweeter’ compared to the other qualities that
grow in other parts of our country. That is about annasi.
I do not know whether ‘kotte’ dodan ( kotte was
one of the Kingdoms of our country ‘athulu kotte and pita kotte these two were
the gates which could let people to enter in to the kingdom and exist from the
kingdom) Am I right ‘Professor Keerawella sir (head of the department of
History, University of Peradeniya)
Do you cultivate orange in Kotte? ( I have never
seen any cultivation here in Kotte) I am not aware of the area specialties of
different fruits of different varieties.
Ah! I am sure that ‘rambutan’ (what is the English
word for this) grows in Biyagama area, you can buy good quality varieties from
this area. I think that is a good source of income. If I m correct you can earn
nearly 100,000 – 150, 000 rupees from each tree if you take care of the fruits
from the naughty ‘parrots’ and from their pariwaara yaaluwo ( accompanied
friends) ‘ battichchan, maliththan’
‘ I do not think that they are afraid of
the ‘takaya’ any more’ ( takaya is something made of steal kind of thing which
produces a heavy sound and in the ancient times our people used this technique
to scare away the birds not because they hate the birds ‘JUST TO PROTECT THE
HARVEST’ FROM THIS LITTLE NAUGHTY ONES’ that is all) because now they all live
in noisy town thanks to the ‘idiots’ who burn the trees, forests, little bushy
area, ( can we bring them to Galle face and hang them till they die- I really
mean this they are equal to the child rapists) and forest is not the hiding
place for you and smoke a cigarettes and throw the remaining part (kotaya) in
to the forestry areas you ‘criminals’
The outer shape of a fruit, and the colours of it,
the look of it changes during the period of ‘maturity’. Just think a while
don’t you feel that it teach us something or tell all of us ‘the similarities’
that the human body and the fruits holds.
Think of a baby fruit, the young life of a fruit (the
life time of a fruit is not equal to the life time of human beings that is true
still ……) and the ripe ones.
If you notice all these stages of a fruit how do
you feel? The taste or the flavor of a fruit is different during different phases
am I right? And I think that same theory can be applied to the ‘look’ of a
fruit. The look of a fruit may change gradually. Flowery age of a fruit tells
us a different story of the age of a fruit. take mangos for instance ‘think of
the colour difference of the skin from time to time.
‘
rupan jeerathi majjanan nama gottan najeerathi’ - (
sorry is this the right pali gathawa, please pardon me if I have written it
incorrect way) so these fruits teach us that lesson practically in a brilliant
way I personally believe.
(This is the rough
meaning of the ‘gathawa’to my knowledge- ‘the physical appearances changes over
years and after ‘death’ you will not find the same ‘figure or the appearances,
shape’ of a breathing body. There is no truth other than the following.
“The
born the becoming, the produced.
The
made, the compounded, the unstable
Subject
to decay and death, ……….. ( Iti vuttaka 43)
But if you live a good life (not materially rich
life) doing good deeds to the society you live (there are many ways you can
contribute your knowledge and your good thoughts of your heart to the society
you live) the people will remember you forever. Not only among your own
generation but also your name will be written on the pages of good papers (the
hearts of people) and that can not be erased or deleted for any reasons. So
finally it is the name that will last in the minds of your people not the body
that you take care of thinking of the ‘beauty products world wide’ that will
not last ‘forever’ your body my friend. There will come the time that we all
have to leave this place without informing or you informing you. (happy to hear
that all the beauty products that have produced testing on animals is banned – (tested
on animals if you see this label of the beauty product you buy avoid buying it
that is not good for your skin) and they say that it is available in the
current market the year of expiry of most of those products is the year ‘1213’
better be careful. This is not
applicable I guess those who produce things ‘nature’s way using the leaves,
fruits komarika, kaha margosa etc.
What will last ‘forever’ is your good name nothing
else. So lead your thoughts for a good deed. Those other things will bring more
money in to your ‘accounts’ but if you do so you will not lose money but other immeasurable
as a result of sing your good thoughts for a different purpose.
‘The fruits taught me these lessons’
And the fruit juices (I love to have) bring the
daily requirements of VITAMIN ‘C’ and they, the fruits are enrich in ‘vitamin
c’. Hey buddies don’t use spoiled fruits ‘to make fruit juices’.
Ha ……. I
love the way that ‘Juicees’ make their juices. (I have once or twice visited
one of your outlet close to ‘Dambulla(?) and I had a ‘a huge glass full of mango
juice just for 100 rupees but that was little time back. What is the ‘now’ price?
Let me come
back to the first and foremost explanation of this note ……………
(The conversation)
If
you don’t understand the language that the people of your neighboring village speak
that will give you some trouble, can you think of why? And I believe that it generally
distract people from one and another to a certain extent. For a better
understanding one needs to understand the style of language that other use both
in written and spoken languages. I believe.
Let’s turn back to dodan
For most of us ‘dodan’ is orange but for some
‘dodanawa is speaking/talking. Dodan is the shortened form of dodanawa in
Sinhala in the dialogue above. ‘Dodanduwa’ is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from
dodanawa/deduwa( past tense of the word dodanawa). ‘duwa’ is a dupatha ( am I
right) and Island. Is our country is the only place which grow different
qualities and varieties of oranges? From where do you import the ‘orange colour
variety?’ That is not a locally grown variety. And that ‘dodanduwa’ is famous
for fisheries I believe. (This is one of the areas of Galle- was (Gaalu thotin)the
district that ‘Lorenzo De Almaida stepped in to this country and it seemed that
it was not a well planned visit/tour to this country but that was an accident. (can
you remember how the ‘Portuguese went around ‘kotte’? at that time? (Parangiya kotte giya heti) all these happened
after his visit no?
Again sorry L. De Almeida distracted my thoughts
for a moment…….
So the girl thought that he was asking something
about ‘orange’ from her and gave him a different answer. For her dodan is
orange. ( even I think the same ‘dodan is orange’ – green outside and orange
colour inside. peni dodan’ is the most
famous locally grown variety I do not like ‘ ambul dodan which is so good and
most commonly used for medicinal purposes for ‘cough’ etc with adding some
‘thal sukiri’( sorry I do not know the English word for this but this is an
ayurvedic medicinal thing that the ayurvedic doctors use for many ailments of
human body – non alcoholic, and no harm using this but you need to know the
relevant ‘maathrawa’ ( the dose – 100 mg, 500 mg etc but friends in ayurvedha
you need to weigh the medicinal herbs or other things to know the maarthrawa I beleive(
using a little very cute scale especially manufactured for this purpose to
weigh the medicinal herbs) Aha! And finally it is so good if you can add some
‘honey’ bee honey to get the maximum result to over come the difficulties of
‘cough’. NO it is not possible to use the same scale for you to get the
‘niyamitha maathrawa’ (the required dose) in ayurvedha I am sure they have a
particular thing to measure the syrups etc.
Sorry this time it is ‘honey’ took my thoughts
away from this page, the conversation of the guy and the girl …….
So her answer was …… ‘This is not the season’
(that is why there is no orange to be found around you, this was what she meant).
Do you think that we should try to understand the
colloquial languages that others speak? Do you think that it helps us to
maintain a better relationship between our friends or with others who live
different parts of our motherland?
In Thanamalwila ( in about year 1994 professor
‘Karunatissa Atukorala’ took us to this area for the first time of my life) they
say ‘indikatuwa binduna’ (the needle is broken- is this the correct English)
but we ( most of us) generally say ‘indikatuwa keduna’ am I right?
Api bindinne ‘mati (clay)kala’ ( pots- that we use
to store water- you can always keep your water in a cooler condition if you use
a kale or a ‘guruleththuwa’- a handy clay pot) –( guruleththuwa is similar to
labu kate ( diya labu and labu are varieties of vegetable which grow in a
different climate and weather conditions) NO I do not think that it is a fruit,
the doctors say this special variety of vegetables help you to have and
maintain healthy ‘lever’) that is what we break yes you are write ‘the glasses’
(veeduru bindinnath puluwan’ No I do not like to talk about ‘hith’ ( minds) Oh!
Yes we pol bindinawa ne. samaharu pol gahanawa which is very bad I believe. Some
people think that ‘pol gaha weradi karanawa kiala’ (according to the things
that my grand parents ‘pol gaha kawadaawath aparaada( crime) karann neha’ – the
coconut tree never engage in any crime) it is stupid to expect something good
engage in such activities ( pol gahana)
In matara this is how they remove the coconut husk
‘pol oyanawa’
But what do we do here? api pol leli gahanawa’ (any opposing ideas?)
This has nothing to do with fruits but I thought
of sharing my thoughts just to give you a better picture of what I am trying to
say ?
Back to fruits …….
what do you think now? do you think that it was a very fruitful conversation between the guy and the girl?
Every fruit has it’s own colours, own shapes and
sizes, and demands ‘guna’ (nutritious stuff - good for your health and for a
healthy body) aguna ( not very nutritious for some but very nutritious for some
other you know some times ‘the tuna fish is not good for some of the people who
are in different health conditions, so some of the fruit may not give you
better or expected results some times , bad for your health)’ it is like ‘some
of the chaarithra’ of a society ( the things, lets say values and customs that are accepted by the society you live
that is ‘chaarithra’ vaarithra is something that are not accepted by the
society) vaarithra is not really the taboos but harmful in some way. (recently I
watched a tele- drama, the scene was this, during a wedding ceremony the bride
and the bride groom was pushed in to a closest swimming pool’ none ( I believe)
can swim and that was unexpected situation for the couple. That is a bad habit
of a group of friends. Those are vaaritthra and you can think of many.
Let’s walk around the nearest fruits market for a minute,
shall we?
The truth is my friends ‘we refrain from buying
‘the spoiled fruits’ we love to buy only the fresh fruits. Who likes? Me? no.
I do not know how this can be applied to the
realities of life. How about you? let me think of this part some other time.
So the fundamental truths of life never changes
and this too we can learn just looking and observing a fruit that is there in
your refrigerator or in a wattiya (this we locally use to store and bring and
take and keep things made of ‘pung’ we have a centre somewhere between
Polonnaruwa - Colombo route if my memory is accurate- the wonder of Asia)
watakeiyya- leaves of a tree )or of a welenda - trader/seller.
Just take the fruit out of the refrigerator and
observe how it going to change.
Fruits are not very expensive here in this
country. Diwul (woodapple- the most beautiful apples that we grow here in this
soil) have you tasted the MD- Woodapple jam’ a better quality I do not mind
saying it to the world.
Heen naran (a small/tiny varieties of oranges-
green skin)
‘Veralu’-
Veralu
gediya hari hatakata kapagena kotahak nokaa deguruntath bedagena ……
‘Veralu
gediya hari hathakata kapagena’(sharing equally – just one fruit with seven
members) kotahak ( a share/ a portion ) noka deguruntath bedagena’
……..( keep another share without eating for the parents degurun – the parents)
Veralu is a local fruit it is so tiny this will
easily slip from your fingers if you do not think of holding it tightly. You
know that ‘if you know to share this little fruit with about 7 members what is
the fruit that you can not be shared with others. Tell me friends if you can?
Who taught us this’ lesson ‘ the love and warmth
of sharing what is available with your friends, country mates ( what I meant
here is the available, or limited resources we have) our ancestors’ our muthun
mitto. (Our grand parents, great, great (no doubt no) grand parents etc) they
are the greatest of all, the grand parents. It is true that we think
differently compared to the way that they think on certain matters/issues/
things of the present society. But I guess finally they win. I feel happy not
all the time though (how come that they win all the time)
‘lowi’ and uguressa’ the outer colour of these two fruits very
stunning and a very sexy and unbelievably tasty (is it alright to use the word
‘sexy?) this fruit will produce a little sourly taste there is a solution for
that if you like to try it out eat them with some salt ‘you will feel
wonderful’ I mean the taste. Do not try to brush your teeth after eating sourly
fruits it is not possible (joke) just go to ‘Nugegoda pola’ the new market
building, built very recently look so spacious and free to walk and choose what
you want. You can buy 100 grams of this fruit for just 50 – 60 rupee range.
Nelli – my love fruit :)
Soooo rich in vitamin ‘c’ and a herbal fruit that
can do wonders from head (hair) to toe of your body, for a healthy body. This
is a lovely tree. Have you seen a picture of this tree before at least? Very
small leaves the fruits generally look as a good team. And sometimes not
visible but enjoy looking at their people over to the little branches of the tree
. And you ill encounter a little seed
inside lowi, uguressa and nelli fruit. They all similar or slightly different in
shapes and sizes ( nelli with rasakinda is a wonderful herbal drink)
Gal siyambala – come to nuwara during ‘perahera’
(who am I to give you an explanation on ‘nuwara perahera/kandy parade? You know
better than me for sure)to try this fruit. Dark in colour (black) brown inside
(the eatable and fruity area of the fruit) and little seed within is a tasty
fruit.
You know how tired I am now?
This fruits and life talk I never can end for sure
….. shall I note that this explanation is to be continued …… ?
Let me take a little break with a ‘munchee sudu
apple’( Munchee Apple puff)
Baba
mama genath anawekiyak kianna puluwanda ……… ? :)
Baby …… (Sweet heart) what can you predict about
me? …….( PLEASE)
have a fruitful month ahead! .......
