Nepotism

 

“Kage Kauwda?

Gama Koheda?

Eya, Meya, Areya;

Oyata, Kauwrun Wenawada?"

I sat still … amazed,

disgusted.

The truth is,

I knew,

the answers.

Yet,

I didn’t care

to know.

I never dared to remember.

I loved

my ‘Amma and Thatha’.
Heard

of my Seeya and Aacchi.
in my childhood.

They are,

or were,

but

now,

long gone.

Met

my cousins,

a few other relatives,

and Loku Amma,

clan’s matchmaker,

who,

then amused me with her,

tales,

of the whose-who’s …

and

Sudu Nenda.

She often came

to see me

with a bag of Kirala.

I moved on in life.

Loved them all,

never, carried

them,

on my back.

Until,

this day,

when,

I sat across,

this round table,

at the

wedding of my friend,

with the socialites,

in their

Sunday best,

dolled up,

smelling

of incense like perfume,

chose

to inquire.

Play God,

to stand

in judgement,

if I,

should be offered,

involuntary,

honorary membership

of their CLUB.

I chose

to sprint away,

away,

away from it all,

in my mind’s eye,

to be free,

be freed,

from the shackle

of their chains.

For,

what matters,

is not,

whose-who, I am,   

but

who, I am. 

Written by Renton de Alwis in June 2009

Foot notes:

Opening stanzas in Sinhala - "From which village are you? Whose who are you? So and so and so and so; How are they related to you?"

Amma , Thatha - Mother and Father

Seeya, Achchi - Grand father and Grand mother

Kirala - A fruit (mangrove) that grows in abundance at the edge of lagoons and/or close to river mouths