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The Journey
Sri Lanka Report
I. Caste System
If you ask any Sri Lankan, be it a judge, a chauffeur, a professor, a government official or a stranger on a street corner (all were asked) whether the caste system still exists today in Sri Lanka, you will receive the unequivocal answer that it does not. That is why it is so surprising to find in a recent edition (Daily Mirror, page 2, Wednesday, December 1, 2004) the following article:
Friends, relatives and villagers clash over
'Romeo and Juliet'
A clash yesterday, between villagers in Gurunagar and Thirunagar, resulted in injury to ten persons while twelve houses in Thirunagar was set fire to and completely destroyed. The injured persons were admitted to the Jaffna Hospital.
Jaffna Police sources said that a youth from Gurunagar was having a love affair with a girl from Thirunagar, which the girl's parents opposed, due to differences to caste and, asked the youth to give up the affair, which the youth refused. On one of his visits to the girl's house, her family assaulted the youth. The youth went back home and returned with a group of friends and relatives, armed with clubs and swords and set about assaulting family members of the girl, erupting into a major clash, with the youth's party setting fire and destroying twelve houses in Thirunagar.
Special police teams rushed to the spot, fired tear gas to disperse the crowd and brought the situation under control.
Obviously, somebody failed to get the message to either Gurunagar or Thirunagar that the caste system was a thing of the dark past!
II. A Social Event
The Department Head of English and TEFL at Kelaniya University, Dr. Manique Gunasekara invited us to her birthday party. She lives in the most exclusive and fashionable district of Colombo (Colombo 7). This is, without any question, the address to have in Colombo. The American Ambassador's residence is across the street. There are several other embassies and diplomatic residences on the same street. The non-diplomatic residents of this area do also benefit from the extra safety provided by the Sri Lankan security police in continuous presence in the area because of the many diplomatic residences!
Her house was built in the 1920's by her father (a Cambridge graduate) for her mother to entertain. The design emphasizes large, wide open rooms with high ceilings, many patios with overhanging roofs that provide shade and protection against the rain. Remember, Sri Lanka is only about 7 degrees north of the equator and it does rain here frequently even though we are not in the Monsoon season! The style is identified as "Island, Colonial." The garden is a tropical paradise with huge trees and an abundance of shade. Its design provided a cool ambiance before the advent of mechanical air conditioning.
We met a cross-section of the upper crust of Colombo. Most of the members of the "older generation" were educated in Great Britain. Even Sandhurst (the British equivalent of West Point) Graduates were present with the attendant British "stuttering" displayed, so typical of the more select British Society. The younger generation now prefers to study in the United States and, amazingly, they are not afflicted by any stuttering impediment. Manique received her Ph.D. at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
The food was catered and typical Sri Lanka food and definitely on the spicy side. There also was a TG with a lot of modern music. We all did get into the dancing mode! The fashion displayed ranged from the elegant and traditional "Saris" to the latest from New York, Paris and Milano! (See photo tour).
In Manique's circles, they all speak English with each other. As Manique's sister, a journalist explained: "Mommy and Daddy spoke English to us - we only learned Sinhalese in school, but we only spoke Sinhalese to the help in the house!"
I am slowly starting to understand some of the country.
Best regards, Herta M. Keilbach,Ph.D.