Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Avurudhu Wishes to you all


I wish all my readers a blessed and prosperous New Year and like so many who have wished me, hope that our country will see the light and pursue an honest path to peace and prosperity for ALL and not a select few.

I have been by myself in Minneriya from the 9th as my staff have all gone to their home villages for the Avurudhu season and have not yet returned, as there has not been a bus service, contrary to all the pronouncements in the media that special buses and trains have been laid out. Another reason to be totally skeptical in Sri Lanka on what the official news media, be it newspapers or tv says and we in Sri Lanka must rely on blogs for the real news. Sadly, the blogging community within Sri Lanka appear to me, and forgive me if I am making the wrong generalization, to be composed of intellectual poets if they are female seeking an audience for their output, or idle chatter about some inanimate object if they are male. Of course there are exceptions to this rule and I am merely trying to encourage a few real world contributions, to make up for the void created by the media disinformation both by the private and state media.

In today’s village traditions, sadly the raban and avurudhu games are reserved for the special fairs organized in my locality and not the spontaneous home-grown events of yesteryear. In my neighborhood, every auspicious time, be it during the day or at the dead of night seems to be heralded by a cacophony of lighting fire-crackers, disturbing the peace of the frightened animals as well as the domestic pets. Somehow the sound of the fire-crackers were louder this year than in the past. I suppose it is the technology stupid! Don’t forget fire-crackers and fireworks are different things, it is the sound that we go for in this case.

Sadly to me the worst aspects of this season, watching the goings on around me, was an excessive consumption of alcohol, especially moonshine as all the liquor selling outlets have been closed since the 8th. This is followed by the card games and I don’t know the English words but a few other games played on the bare patches all for chance and I personally know people who have lost a lot of money, which I would have thought for them would be a fortune.

Accordingly, young and old have been involved in this but one tradition that still remains is that the girls and their mothers have been busy laboring away in their kitchens turning out some of the most delectable eats, traditional to this season, with mung kavun, konde kavum and kokis being my personal favorites. Obviously it is unheard of here to serve a guest anything other than what was made in your hearth, and I have certainly had my fill. The other tradition is to go to one’s neighbors and relatives, bearing eats along with the obligatory Kolikuttu, hopefully from your own home garden.

Being here alone, I was spared doing the cooking, but my neighbors took care of my food and many visited me with so many eats, that I had to give away most of them, not wanting to see them go to waste once the three dogs and cat had their fill. I have also had to take care of the two cows and the bull, and have my paddy fields all ploughed up.

The daily view while I bathe in the water, the waters eye view

9 comments:

Kalusudda said...

Happy New Year to you too! That indeed sounds like you had a good break! Looking forward to see the photos!

Anonymous said...

Ranjit, I wish you much success in the upcoming Lankan year. Please keep this blog going, as it offers great insight into the rural world from the eyes of a 'gentleman farmer.' I hope you can find a way to generate some revenue from your blogs as this will surely motivate you to write more often.

Rajaratarala said...

thanks my readers, I am no gentleman farmer. I wish I was, but when I have to do the nitty gritty and no one to delegate to there is not gentlemen about that, it is taking care of business.
Yes I need to earn some dough to keep blogging that is unfortunately true as I am at a neighbour house trying to upload photos and struggling due to the speeds

Anonymous said...

"composed of intellectual poets if they are female seeking an audience for their output, or idle chatter about some inanimate object if they are male."

I could not agree with you more on this Ranjith and thank you for putting it so succinctly. There are many posts about mundane things and yours is one of the very few blogs that talk sense.

The female ones definitely are the worst. A complete waste of effort and resources. Disgusting.

Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka said...

Now own up to your identity and dont hide under anonym. I would like to have a seperate discussion. If you r my Cambodian, send me your email. I have also lost your blog add!

Anonymous said...

we anonymous commentators wish not to be known, hence the chosen identity. you will only have to guess by our text.

very nice picture of the birds.

Anonymous said...

Nope, I am not your Cambodian :)

Just like my annon status as the blogging world is crazy and is filled with all kinds of people.

There is no mystery here for you to guess. Just a visitor that is all.

Do blog about your family and how they are adjusting to the changes !!

Rajaratarala said...

I have no family of my own. I would not have been even able to dream of this life if I had to take care of a family. I can barely take care of myself at the moment, though about 40 people directly depend on my enterprise to live. Its funny, I am able to satisfy all of them, but have none left over for myself at the end of the day. I hope to change that in time as all that I am attempting is with a profit motive and to fund my life. I am not that altruistic as I have no other source of income! I have to build an income stream so I can enjoy what I am doing without working 24/7

Kirigalpoththa said...

Dear Rajaratarala,
Wish you a happy and prosperous new year! Hope this year will reap better yields for you!!
BTW it is a great place to have a cool bath :)