Wednesday, July 4, 2007

How to be a star in Sri Lanka?

Sunday night I was watching Sirasa super star while I was having dinner. When everyone was watching it with much pleasure, I started thinking of something else. That is the tragedy face by our youth.

Younger generation of this country is very much talented. But do they have a proper route to show case their talents and abilities? Can they be a super star even though they are capable? One mother who brought her daughter for the super star contest said that she wanted her daughter to come for that, not because she dreams to make her a super star but wanted to show her talents to some audience. That little girl’s school teacher has stated that she will not let her participate in any school concerts. According to that mother teacher’s daughter is also studying in the same class and due to that she hates other talented girls. My old grandmother who was a teacher says teachers will never say such things. May be it has happened in the “golden past” era which all of them talk about. But not these “unfortunate” present days. But I have seen many similar incidents while I was schooling. I had a friend who is a captain of a basket ball team of a famous school couple of years back. Under her captaincy they won the all island under 19 schools championship. This school emerged this championship after 20 years. She was awarded as one of the best players of the tournament. But the teacher in-charge didn’t let her participate in the official school photograph with the team. Her excuse was simple. She publicly stated I don’t like that girl. That’s it. Even the principle was so scared to talk against her. This is the so called “democratic education” our society is talking.

We have ministries and ministers and hell of a lot of staff allocated for the subjects such as culture, national heritage, Buddhism and education. In such country isn’t this a curse? In that case can we consider the service done by Sirasa super star as so simple? If not for that we would never know this very talented bunch of youngsters.

What will happen if the government sector organizes such a thing? Well… for the very unfortunate we’ll guess that government organized this contest. Then other than practicing to sing, these stars will first have to go behind departments to get forms and files and fill the other documents from “Grama sewaka” to the head of departments. Going behind the ministers and their henchmen and more necessarily giving “something” to officers and organizers. Does our government sector have such creative minds to think of something new? I know it’s quite similar to “Idol” programs around the world. But still to organize something like this and re produce it to suite the Sri Lankan contest is not so easy. I used to work for an event management team for some time and therefore I can imagine how difficult it is to handle 57,000 applicants. We all remembered that one cabinet minister’s recommendation about the so called graduate recruitment scheme.

I’m quite surprised of another thing too. This country and its people always talk about culture and good conduct. But when an injustice happened to another person, such as this mother’s daughter, no one speaks against it. Is that the virtue of this country? What does it shows? Are we still living with colonial mind set? Or are they scared to talk? But if government or any other organization is trying to do something lawful for the betterment of the country, definably our union leaders and some NGOs will go to the Lipton circle or Fort Railways station. Wonderful country! Today Susanthika Jayasingha is in track because she spoke for herself. Muralidaran is there, thanks to Arjuna.

I don’t know much about this super star program. But I know that it’s a good chance many talented people to show up. I have heard that when H R Jothipala started singing, critics were insulting him and laughed at him. But what is the situation today with his songs? Can anybody easily copy his talent? There are no duplicates for him. Simply because he was talented and people love him. Thank god he was brave enough to face those and he had a way to come up. But there are many people in many organizations many fields that are really talented but people don’t know them. Some places, these people really work hard and those who are in the field know them. But people are famous in those fields and people who appear in news papers are not these real people who are really talented and work with quite dedication and by heart. But since they do not want to go after the publicity, they are never known by public and they do not get what is deserved. Why does it happen?

Change is the only thing that never changes. Our institutions should understand that they have to face rapid social change. Due to globalization and information technology there’s a impact on the society and we will need to change according to that. Therefore government institutions should understand that they need to help the community and cope up with the people to overcome their difficulties and problems. But still we can see that the power robbed and gave to Colombo by John Doyle’s cunning system. By not giving this power back to the people who really deserve this power shows that our government servants are still the Doyle’s commoraders rather than commoraders of this country.

In the break of the Super star program , I saw the close ups of the charming little girl Sarala Kariyawasam (Chuyya)’s smiling face. When those pictures gradually fade away , I remembered the famous song by Nanda Malini.

“Ane api kawadaka awidimuda ee sande”
(When can we walk under this moon light?)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very true. Agree with you.