It is no easy to build a city but it is millions times
easy to ruin a city this is my this morning thought.
I guess I was about five or six years old back then. We
lived in Ragama ihalagama area. My grand
mother is a very famous character in preparing offering for Goddess Pattini and
in this particular year my mother visited her native place to participate in this
religious event or the offering that My
Grand mother had organized at her place.
Generally during this pooja we have a house full of
konda kewum, munkewum, hendi kewum, kiriya, all sorts of other keweli pewili
that we make with so much of respect and having faith in our minds on the pooja.
The tradition is to offer this special pooja
on a Saturday or on a Wednesday. Generally
it takes about two and half days to finish preparing the sweets after cleaning
the house for weeks having vegetarian meals avoiding the other meaty stuff. That
is the accepted way of doing this.
‘
jeewancha rakkitha pathibbatha dibba matha
Athena
sidda pathinithi suladda naama
Punnani
mani anumodiya chitta maada
Palethu
man satta sata suka wahantho’
This is the sloka that we chant after offering the
pooja for the Goddess Pattini for giving us the happiness and peace and harmony
and other expected things in life and at the same time we say because of the
help you gave we believe that one day that the Goddess Pattin will become a ‘Buddha’.
So this sloka/ gatha is chanted for that particular purpose.
Pin anumodan karanawa. Every good deed you engage in
will get good results this what it really teaches us I think.
‘punnani mani anumodiya chitta maada’
My mother
generally used to take the Kandy – Colombo Intercity Train to come and go from
these two places. So she generally brought
few bags full of kewili peweili ( Local sweet meats) after every such event and on this particular
day that she was returning from her home town participating the event by train
she had met few Japanese families who were coming towards Colombo on the same
train after visiting the Sri Dalada Maligawa etc. They have exchanged sweets my mother has
given them these sweets that my grand mother prepared with the help of all the relatives and friends and neighbors.
I remember she brought home a lot of Japanese sweets and we ate them as kids we
enjoyed them we still remember not the sweets but the incidents and events like
this .
They became friends and exchanged letters for some time
to come. If my memory is accurate the lady who became more close with my mother
was ‘Ms. Sesuki ’ my father used to write what my mother wanted to say to this
family he became the mediator.
And, ‘Please tell me if you want something from us’?
They have asked my mother.
She has asked for a wrist watch for my father. They
sent a one for him. That was a Seiko product.
I remember my father was happily wearing it. That was a good quality one I remember he was
saying that.
Also I remember once he had to get it repaired but he
could not find necessary parts for the wrist watch. I remember he was saying that he wrote to the ‘Company’
‘Seiko’ in Japan asked for the necessary part. They have sent it to him for
free.
Unfortunately the wrist watch is not with us and the
person who wore it with a smile is no more with us now but we have the memories
‘you kept a smile on his face’.
That is the wonder of gifts and friendships.
And the things that we exchange with friends become
parts of our memory. It does not have to be an expensive gift even
a flower that you exchange with your friends red or white or otherwise has some
value those are very dear and near moments and also for sure very tenderly
moments that we will never forget in our life sometime to come may be we will
never forgets such moments.
I still have a lovely necklace once one of my dear
friends gave a ‘stone n string’ my friend had bought it from the stone n string’
shop in Kandy. They have ‘a very good collection’ of ornaments there visit and
see they are our products I guess. This happened
during my university period. Books and pencil cases are other memories I have
in memory of our friendships except very dear and near occasions.
But I believe at the same time if some memories harm
your future better forget and should keep them only in one’s ‘within’ other
wise those things may ruin your future because we don’t always collate good
memories in life. I strongly believe that there are some memories that we
should keep somewhere for everyone’s sake and move forward, move ahead these
things will prevent unnecessary issues in everyone’s lives.
Yes I agree with Peni walalu we should improve the
abilities of saying, staying with positive mind in everything related to
development of a society.
‘Yes we have ice
cream, what flavor you need madame/sir’?
These are not just words these are power words I guess in relations to
development of a field.
We have the flavours that we make in our own country.
‘The Highland Ice cream’ ‘Elephant house
Ice cream’ let them taste their preferred flavours but you need to guide them
because you are the citizen of this country and they are our visitors who comes
and go liking the things that we own within our country and take our words to
the world and to their native cities. That is how we can do ‘natural
advertising’ just spending few words only.
It is NOT good to say ‘NO we don’t have’ ‘Yes we have’
is one of the good mantras that we should chant
for better relationships or even in business in every field. Promote our flavours those are the chances
you get sometimes. May be you are promoting a product of an unknown but they
are our country products that is what important here. If you are a good country developed in every
aspect that is we all who will benefit from those things our children, next
generations to come. May be one of your children will get a job opportunity in
one of those companies in the future who knows. Think of these things in a
broad minded way not in a very narrow minded way.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki took me this far in walking
along with my memory path give me little more time before I take you to these
two memorable cities.
There are times that we should not say ‘Yes we have’ ‘No
we don’t have’ that is common sense I believe. If a child comes and ask you
something that is not good for them you should say ‘No we don’t have and you
are not allowed to use’ ( i.e)
Ice cream is everyone’s favorite.
Hospitality industry
is a marvelous and a fabulous industry I believe that we should improve and
protect. It is not just a responsibility
of a just a department or a section of a institution, resort or a ranges of
hotels we have from Habarna to Polonnaruwa and country wide.
I know I wrote at the beginning of this piece of essay
that it is no easy to build a city or re-built a city but easy to ruin.
My mind goes back to Hiroshima and Nagasaki’ and to the
things that I have heard of these two generous cities and the history of these
two cities.
The world history says how and what happened to these
cities years ago. These two cities are
not just cities full of memories of War ruins I have heard how the people and
the children of these two cities suffer from different ailments as a result of
bombing the worst thing to happen. We
understand this is not just because we experienced such things in every part of
our country for decades.
These two cities showed us how they rebuilt these two
cities facing all the challengers of war results. Some cities teach us lessons Hiroshima and
Nagasaki are two of them. Nuclear is very clear evidence on such hate side of
wars and there is no good side I don’t have to tell that. These wars and bombing only teach us lessons
on ‘the bad affects or the side effects of such things.
You taught us lessons on many things. Courage and Unity’ can re build the ruined
cities and we proved it here in our country. do not forget to visit Jaffna city next time
when you come also see it yourself how great the ‘ Kalladi paalama’ looks, smiling,
appreciating for giving some encouragement for his friendly people. I saw the new improvements there.
We don’t want
new cities what we want is to protect the cities we have and improve them
giving a brand new look like you exactly decided to give a fresh look to the Maligawatte housing flats’ the two
schemes. Congratulations for achieving
the results facing the challenged challenges that no one had thought of re
colouring to help the residents there to recover their lives from outside views that is after 39 years (?) the ‘wimasuma pitapatha of ITN News reported’ . You
have a palace in your area now so be happy.
So dear Nagasaki we are doing the same thing that you
tried back in few decades after facing such numbered wars of the world. Let’s not number any wars here after.
If you concentrate on every village and every city the
whole country will bloom naturally. If
you are thinking of your country the whole world will think of you. Building a
single country you can build the whole world.
Take care Hiroshima, Nagasaki; tell me how is ‘Tokyo’
these days and please give my kind regards to Mr. Tanakura Family and to so
courageous Oshine.
Let me close my eyes for a moment or so thinking of ‘Sakura
flowers’.
Let me wish you all a ‘flowerfull’ and a peaceful of
joyful life ………….
