Sunday, November 24, 2019

Can a Tamil walk freely in Sinhalese dominated parts of Sri Lanka without getting attacked in some form?


Naren Selvaratnam, 
Lecturer of Psychology



I am mixed and I went to school in Galle during the wartime. 
I was fine.
My dad is from the north and he has worked in Galle, Hambantota, Badulla, and Kandy.
Even now we live in Kandy where all our neighbors are Sinhala. We are great and get along really well.
Edit 1:
Since some people do not agree with what I have mentioned, I decided to add some more of my experience here. This will help you to decide the accuracy of my claims.
During the 90s and early 20s, we lived in Karapitiya, Galle. Every person in the town knew my parents. We lived in a street where all our neighbors were Sinhalese and Buddhists. All of them visit our home very often and we did visit them too.
You know in the new year, usually, we invite someone to come to our homes first and try the food and make some monetary exchanges right? This is a Sinhalese tradition and is known as “Gey aleya kireema.” One of the known Sinhalese gentleman used to always invite my dad to “aley” his home every new year. This gentleman is a very close friend and also he used to work in the Navy.
This gentleman is Sinhalese and Buddhists. Three of his friends are Tamil, and during Christmas time, all of us get together in another uncle’s home in Galle town. He was a Tamil Christian, died two years back. All the kids play from morning to evening. Some folks are Sinhala, some of us are Tamil. Some gentleman worked in the police, some in the hospital, some in other forces. Also, when we play in this uncle’s house, there were many Muslim families around, and their kids would come and play with us as well. We were a very happy small community.
This uncle who worked in Navy even took us to show the Navy camp in Galle. This uncle worked during the wartime, and he is a good friend of my dad. See these relationships are made of trust with each other. One of my best friend’s dad worked in Navy too, and I went to Math tuition at his place.
Let me tell you this. When I was in school, our Sinhala teacher in grade 6 asked, is there anyone in the class whose mother tongue is not Sinhala. Some students pointed at me. To be honest, Sinhala is my mother tongue and I was not very conversant in Tamil. Our Sinhala teacher told me, “oh why cannot you speak such a beautiful language?” That was his reaction. He got upset that I cannot speak Tamil.
The same happened in grade 11 where our Sinhala teacher said everyone should master the Sinhalese language. Then he paused for like two seconds and had this look at me. Then he smiled and said, “Putha (son), it is not mandatory for you, but I would be very happy if you could master it well.” During this time, I was a very weak student. Just before my O/L, I went to meet him. After I am done worshiping him, he casually touched my head and said, “son, you will be great, and you will do really well I am sure.” Turned out, I did really well academically once I left school.
I do not understand how much I want to write, but nobody every attacked. There were some oddballs here and there. Also, it does not mean that every Tamil guy that we have met were always welcoming. A person’s ethnicity has nothing to do with the mannerism and values.
Karapitiya used to be a very small town when I was a kid. Everyone in the town knew me and everyone was very friendly and they embraced me as their own.
Just because some people do bad stuff, it does not mean everyone is bad. In my opinion, Sinhalese people are a jovial bunch of people. The people you meet in South are far more welcoming and awesome than Sinhalese of any other area. Also, do not have this false belief just because some racists type stuff on FaceBook.

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