Thursday, March 1, 2007

A Beautiful Mind

Couple of our mates went for an assignment at a company near Central bank. There was a girl who joined recently to our group. She was a Tamil & her origination was at Jafna. We’ll call her Kalpana, though it was not her real name. In the outbreak of the war, she came to a refugee camp. Then moved from one camp to another & them managed to come to Colombo with the help of some rich relatives in Colombo. During some snacks, we were singing & enjoying our selves. Then it was Kalpana’s tern to sing a song. Obviously she sang a Tamil song. It was a beautiful song. We have heard many Tamil songs, but not this one. So we asked her from which film she picked that song & who sings it? Then she told us it’s the National anthem of the LTTE. We felt sad that she sang an anthem belongs to a killer organization. But since we didn’t want to hurt her, we remained silent. She complained that army guys out side checked her ID. I told her, they checked my ID too. It was the road next to Central bank & presidents’ house. So it’s obvious they check. But she hated when they check. It was just a matter of showing the ID. I did it with pleasure. But her attitude her ego was different. It was a shame to her. That’s how LTTE has taught her. I tried to explain it’s not discrimination. They her the same way they checked me. But it’s difficult to change what’s in their head. It’s how they were taught from childhood. Have to die for Tamil Elam.

The next day morning we completely forgot the national anthem part & it was normal day today work. While we were working, I got a phone call from a friend of mine. It was for the arms giving for her father who died from the Central bank bomb. I was telling my friends how sad that innocent people die from the bomb attacks. Then suddenly Kalpana speaks up. She said

“No we should kill Sinhalese. Then only the government will feel the pressure”

I couldn’t believe she said that. All of us were Sinhalese. We worked together. We played together. We eat together. Studied together & lived together basically. How come a person is so rude like that? We were really frustrated. But still we didn’t say anything. Because we knew it’s not her fault. Its how they have made her up. She was from a LTTE controlled area & they were brain washed. They were not building up in an open environment like we do. Her imagination is very little & she was always in her little frame. She was not a bad person. She was very good with us. She helped people a lot. I think with the time we managed to change her attitude & anger towards Sinhalese. But we could never be sure of that. They didn’t have a childhood. What more can you expect from them?

But that doesn’t mean that every Tamil is like that. There were very nice people. The good families bought them up under good conditions. I had so many friends like this. But there was a difference. They were not suffered with LTTE. They were not from war areas. They lived happily & peacefully at the other government controlled areas. Some of these people have so good qualities, which I never ever saw with other nationals.

Same as this problem is vice versa. There are many Sinhalese people with lot of bad qualities. They are not affected by war. But they had to live with lot of difficulties. It is not about belonging to a particular nation. It is about how people brought up. What was their environment? What was their family background? & Education also affected little bit.

Some time back I worked for an audit firm. We had to go to a NGO. This belongs to the key NGO activitist in SL (Sinhalese). Auditors get access to all the documents & basically they can sense the atmosphere when they work with a client. Since I have to respect my professional ethics I cannot disclose most of the things we revealed there. But every time when he & his team comes & sell the “Peace” in television I feel so sad for the people who believe in their nasty peace. I saw how they got money & how they spend money. I am not surprised. When a person gets such a large piece of chunk, you have to be more than human to say NO. It’s not about being a Tamil or sinhala. It’s about personalities. There would be favorable affects. There would be more weighting to some sides by some nationalities. But in my opinion, it’s all about how people think. How their mind set up are.

For a fact Tamils set up all the bombs in the metropolitan areas with the help of sinhaleese. That’s the tragic truth of it. That’s why building a person’s mind is very important after all. Even though people think its non of their business to change the way people think, there would be a day it will be their business.

There were many Tamils in Sri Lanka who tried to do this. Lakshman Kadiragamar is one example. But LTTE killed all of them starting from the Mayor of Jafna Dore Appa. Let this be a tribute to those who really tried for real Pease, unlike the NGO agents who support terrorists in the name of Pease. Let this be a tribute to real Heros of the process of brining peace to my motherland.