One one things

Was in Nuwareliya last weekend, along with half of Colombo. I came across a phenomenon i had never seen before. There’s this big lake in nuwareliya (its probably famous and probably has a fancy name but i just call it the lake) and we went for a spin around midnight and there were about 50 vans parked on the shore and ppl were sleeping in them (well at least i hope so..for hygiene’s sake). Some of the vans had a bit of a music and were hosting mini parties with boys in banians dancing with bottles in hand and girls in frocks looking shy and swaying a bit. The rest of the town was dead hehe actually the only happening thing was a funeral which is hugely ironic. The next day the van phenomenon was alive in daylight. The van’s had migrated to the “pavements” of the main road and the music was on in the vans and the passengers outside, drinking and dancing. There was a group of chaps dancing on the road to some dodgy hindi song, a funny sort of dance really, it resembled running on the spot with arms flaying about as if attacking multiple mosquitoes. But hey im not one to talk, i can’t dance if my life depended on it, im more of the sort who’d sit at the table and pretend to be the drummer or guitarist. Anyway it was all good fun, not the stuff we say in day to day colombo (other than at galle face) Im sure someday the folk of nuwareliya will exact revenge and come to colombo in drones in December and give us a taste of cultured udarata natum.

We stayed in a pukka place, the hill club. Now this is the last sort of place my family goes for holidays. The dress code requires dinner jacket and tie after 7pm!!! My father was keen to go bc his friend invited us and we figured it’s the crowd more than the place that makes a holiday. So off we went, dinner jackets and all. In the end it wasn’t too bad. I can now imagine what it feels like for girls to dress up dolls (and themselves as they get older, then their kids as they get even older) it was quite fun playing dress up! The last time i wore a dinner jacket was in uni..and i HATED it! bloody formal dinners, the scourge of my 3 years. hehe and for the first time inmy life i actually had matching socks! (heh just checked today’s fair, it’s black and dark blue ). But it was fun, i get along well with my parents friends and it was one big party bc everyone in the club knows the other (either royalists in the 1960’s, or golfers or bankers - yes, real working class folk ) it was a totally new experience bc my family hardly ever socializes, we go for our weekly dinner at seeya’s place but thats about it! Also managed to terrify the kids (all of age 10-14) with some classic nuwareliya ghost stories, spiced up bc the poya day, and got along with them fairly well too. It wasn’t the recipe for an ideal holiday, posh place, nobody my age, 4 long days and not much to do in nuwareliya, but it turned out well, guess it all depends on your mindset, i could have easily decided that im not going to have fun and sat in my room and waited, but im glad i decided to keep an open mind.

hehe had another interesting experience while i was there, had my first introduction to a girl by one of those aunties! Now i’ve been teasing my elder brother for ages saying that the next wedding he goes for he’ll be introducedto the bridesmaids and what not, so i felt a bit sheepish that the ball was in the other court. So this aunty (who barelyknows me, she had mistaken me for aiya a short while ago) comes with a girl to where i was sitting with about three 14 year old kids talking about ladies college, and says..

Aunty: “Putha, have you met this girl?”
me: smiling, “No”
girl: smiling, looking exceedingly bored, “Hi”
Me: “How?”
Aunty: to 14 year old boy sitting next to me, “putha move aside and let this akki talk to the aiya”
Aunty: “this is so and so (i honestly cant remember her name! something with M i think), she’s studying in the states.” looking at me, “this is so and so, he’s studying in the UK” (again a blatant show of aunties ignorence, i finished my degree last year, i’ve been in sl for the last year!)

I sat there, ginger beer in hand whilst the girl made herself comfortable, then i waited somemore. So we talked a bit about uni, she does archaeology and it’s a always nice to find a Sri Lankan who didnt do medicine, law, engineering or econ. Then as all Sri Lankan conversations do ours shifted to common friends and happily enough found that my buddy lives in the same apartment complex as she does, and then worked out that she lives in the apartment complex down my road. It wasn’t the most electrifying conversation, she seemed exceptionally bored, and i felt very formal and wasn’t in one of my chatty moods, still embarassed and taken by surprise at the circumstances.
At least i’ll be prepared for the next time an aunty comes and utters the dreaded words, “Puthaaa! have you met so and so?”