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A
Sri Lankan, visiting the land of her birth after 45 long years. shares her
observations in the form of a 'Letter to Mother Lanka", which she
considered to be the ideal format in which to put together her thoughts and
feelings.
A poignant and beautiful literary composition of praise and adoration to our beloved Motherland, so eloquently expressed, with such perceptible sincerity.
A poignant and beautiful literary composition of praise and adoration to our beloved Motherland, so eloquently expressed, with such perceptible sincerity.
A Sri Lankan, who, similarly, emigrated to Australia many years ago, commented, "Whoever Yasmin is, she has put my thoughts in words; we are blessed children of our Motherland. May we live long enough to see our wishes and dreams for Sri Lanka come true. May I be blessed to be re-born as a Sri Lankan again." I cannot but endorse these sentiments, as I am certain many others privileged to have been born in this resplendent island would.
What a wonderful country this would be, if not for its politicians!
“Dear
Mother Lanka
There
was a sort of unexplainable “sacredness” that walked with me, and permeated and
surrounded my being, as I journeyed to rediscover you and reconnect with you
physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, after almost 45 years.
After
20 days on this Fairest Isle, the joy of rediscovering you could only match my
thrill of reconnecting with you: the land of my birth, the land of my
father and my mother, the land of my ancestors before them, the land that bore
me, nurtured me, moulded me into the type of person I am today....
Resplendent
Isle, graced with unsurpassed natural beauty of hillside and plain, ocean and
river, warm winds and rain....
Just
to walk on your soft golden sands, feel the warmth of your wind in my hair,
your soft rain upon my face.... to hear your mighty ocean roar, watch the
luminous power of lightning spread its tendrils across your darkened sky; the
familiar rumble of thunder overhead and the crash when it peaked far above in
your clouds beyond your hills; to witness again your heavy tropical showers, to
hear the pelting rain upon the roof as it fell to the earth again, to water
your land and transform your hills; to wash your leaves, and polish your
flowers until they shone with a brilliance rarely seen....
To
meet with your people, the salt of your earth...gentle souls that overflow with
love, hope and the warmest of welcomes....their generous hospitality that
overflows in abundance in city, town,suburb, and village, never
changing......their smiles that greet you, and their smiles that bid you
goodbye...
To
visit with them in their homes and to share with them their longings and
strivings, hope and dreams, successes and failures, smiles and tears....and to
partake of their hospitality in terms of food and drink, warm hugs and genuine
concern for the weary traveller within you...
To
see you in your diversity....of animal and bird, of foliage and food....to see
exactly how nature intended that they march or fly, two by two, or sometimes as
a herd, or a swarm, or a flock, to travel across natural forest tracks at
sundown, after a hot, humid day, to drink long and peacefully from the same
waterhole....
And
then to watch the sun go down on this Paradise Isle...brilliant sunsets of red
and yellow, pink and orange, dark purple and magenta.... as your tall, slender,
palm trees cast their silhouette against a deepening sky.
Mother
Lanka, ravaged by civil war, wrecked by monsoons and tsunamis, burnt by
unrelenting sun that beats down from cloudless skies, day after day....
Your
riches lie on your fertile earth where green tea bushes dot the landscape, and
where trees of clove and cinnamon, teak and rubber, sandalwood and pine, and
plants and flowers of every hue, flourish and grow over your undulated hills
and stretch further out into your flat, green plains: and deeper still into
this same earth, where rare gems and precious stones lie, unequalled in beauty,
sparkle, texture and value.
But
most of all, your riches lie deep in the hearts of your gentle people. A
hardworking people who ask for no more than what is due to them....a just wage
for a day’s work, hope for the future, freedom of speech, and peaceful, safe
surrounds in which to raise their families....
They
do not ask for, nor do they deserve, inequality, exploitation, poverty and
suppression, unrest and despair.
With
proper, fair, honest and transparent financial management,
proper channelling of resources into your roads, public transport,
infrastructure, schools and hospitals, and a totally new and
revamped fair system of education without discrimination and
with equal opportunity....perhaps less millions spent on
unnecessary gigantic billboards displaying smiling images of egoistical
politicians at almost every street corner and hillside, and more spent
on the very necessary, important and urgent things that really matter....will
see you, once again, regain the top spot in SE Asia, and excel as the ‘Pearl of
the Indian Ocean’.
Mother
Lanka, it was my great honour and privilege to meet your acquaintance once
again after all these years, and I know I will come back again to you some
day.”
Yasmin.
March
2014
In
the morning, fill us with your love.
We
shall exult and rejoice all our days.
Give
us joy to balance our afflictions
for
the years we knew misfortune.
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