Friday, April 13, 2012

Best Wishes for Sri Lankan New Year

Best wishes for the Sri Lankan New Year, Not Sinhala/Tamil New Year.
Like Chinese New Year, not Hakka or Cantonese New Year.
The YouTube below is from Sunil Shantha singing in Sinhalese and beautiful art work.
Wish I knew enough Tamil  to pick an equivalent.

My young years from age 5 to 12 were growing up in Koralaewella (98 Vinitha), Moratuwa.  My father ( a Tamil)  built three Swings on the trees in the garden.  The easy swing was wide and the top end of swing 5 feet off the ground, that held three kids. The top of the best swing was 12 feet off the ground, and my sisters and me  could get it to a good sixty degrees off the ground. Then how many Colombo School students knew how to get swing moving without a push and getting it moving to sixty degrees off the ground. It was much more "cool" to know how to play cricket or rugby even then.

How many Colombo (Kandy, Galle etc) school boys or girls wanted to be Avurudu Kumara/Kumari even in the 70's  Among the Diaspora Sinhalese or Tamil, its only recent immigrants who want their children to compete in the local Avurudu Kumari.  As a good friend said  "There was a time that rural people of Sri Lanka were conservative enough to keep the beauty of the village and village life intact.  We lost this little by little, but still could find a remote village to go to and enjoy the village life even in the 80's".

Just as much as my friend , I too have lived many years in other countries and we would love to see  the "old ways".  Maybe we should emulate  "the colonial masters, English in particular, who go to great pains to preserve their country side".  
Simple things, beautiful life which we are loosing.



Other  Avurudu videos
http://videos.info-lanka.com/sinhala-avurudu-awa-amaradewa/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8NR7xovZ54

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