Thursday, January 31, 2013


Where is the Miracle?

http://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/where-is-the-miracle/


"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest"- Confucious


As I rapidly approach the half-a-century mark on my birthday calendar I have a choice of three ways to sum up my life; so I opt for the third “......and third by experience, which is the bitterest". Like those of my generation thirty of fifty years I have known only war, bloodshed and communal hatred. Shortly before that my school classmates and I were ripped apart and shoved into compartments labeled the Sinhala, Tamil and English stream. Somewhere during this time my mother kept complaining about bread queues, kerosene smelling fabric and everything being rationed. I also recall my parents having to pull strings, grease palms and creep through back doors to obtain the requirements of my annual school book-lists. I had no toys (I still envy those kids today) so I ended up loving books instead, which was a good thing; but I still would have loved to have had a few toys.


That more or less sums up my fifty years as a Sri Lankan and I’m still looking for the much-trumpeted but evasive Miracle Sri Lanka! I envy those who lived before me in the not-so-miraculous days of our country. It had to be better than this. So in my eternal quest to discover the miracle I have returned to fables that I loved so much as a child!