This is not about all Ceylonese but the majority living abroad.
Good example is Nagananda Kodituwakku, self acclaimed saviour of Ceylon.
You just ask him with your VISA formalities and he will quote you thousands of rules and regulations, some of them are not yet in the statutory and refuse to help you.
The same guy will ask you to contribute money to save mother Lanka and hoodwink you.
BEWARE!
Quite similar is Sepala Amarasinghe who pretends to be neutral but a "Cat Paw" of J.V.P.
I think he gets money from J.V.P.
I call him the Baka Panditha!
Both are playing a dangerous game!
Professor Niomal Devasiri Ranjith is the one who can get US out of the deep political pit but he cannot do it by himself and current university structure is completely dysfunctional due to various reasons.
Please do not get caught to these digital guys.
They come up like mushrooms!
Politics is volatile in Ceylon and I believe
Dharshana Hapangoda is different and he is the First Guy who introduced the independent and alternative channel for Ceylonese.
There is another channel run by a few of Colombo university graduates who have no understanding of Ceylon beyond probably Kaleniya and Ragama.
I call this the Gossip Channel and do not watch them.
I am off the target but generalization is one of my techniques.
1. Do not believe these guys when they come home during winter.
They cannot afford the bills and come home to hibernate.
The VISA probably is pending.
I met a guy in Kandy. He was 2 years junior to me in colleague and could not enter the university.
He pretended not to know me.
I thought, he wanted to have a cup of tea.
He could have easily join me.
I had just finished my cuppa but I did not clear the table for him.
He vanished.
I am planning to write a long essay on how the air industry changed over the past 40 years.
My first hand experience in UK which I cannot include in that essay is dished out here.
My first visit to UK was tense.
My brother had left UK and he was in Kuwait.
He deposited a big sum for me to last at least 3 months in UK but without a job I did not want to go on a spending free.
I did have few friends and none of them were established in their own fields.
Rest of them were in USA and I had no intention of going to USA.
I worked with a guy in Ceylon who was 10 years senior and two of his brothers were in UK.
He said he could ask one of them to pick me at the airport and I could stay a couple of days with him.
He was married to an Irish airline hostess and they were living in near Heathrow in Hounslow.
The Council House was small and I had to share the toilet with the dog.
The place was filthy and after 10 days I decided to move to a residence of a doctor who promised accomodation for a few days.
He was Colombo graduate and he was named "Kota Uda Doctor".
That was his favorite Sinhala phrase when things go wrong.
His wife was a doctor (she craftily joined my unit in General Hospital, Colombo) and she went to UK before me.
Her plan was to get the VISA formalities attended in Colombo while working in General Hospital.
She had no understanding in haematology and I had to do all the bone marrow biopsies and venipunctures.
By the way, by shear accident I diagnosed a case of Red Cell Leukaemia!
Her mother could not speak a word in English and I was coerced to accompany her.
I said yes.
One day this old lady came to me and said Vi Ka Ra Ge.
I was puzzled and the street name was Vicarage Road.
First Kota Uda and now Vi Ka Ra Ge and I kept myself self amused.
On the 10th day this woman (lady part is dropped now) gave me the Eviction Notice (on a Saturday).
I was shocked!
I paid a courtesy call having secured a job and they had moved out of Vicarage Road, Watford.
I never so them again.
I stayed in two other places and I was dished out in 4 days and 7 days unceremoniously.
So never trust a guy who offer you help abroad.
I packed my things quickly and on Sunday morning went out looking for a cheap motel.
I found a nice Italian, Bed and Breakfast Hotel in Surrey Garden and moved in, the same evening.
Then one evening I gave a call to our principal's sister in law looking for a cheaper annex.
She was working when I called her.
She understood my plight instantly.
She asked me to pack the things and you come and stay with us until a suitable place is found.
After work she came with her husband and picked me up.
First lesson was to cook my food and gave me simple instructions like raw milk for coconut milk.
She found me an annex for 150 pounds (half the price of the hotel).
I had to put 50 pense for the heating in the night.
Month's expense with food was 200 pounds.
After the breakfast I come out to spent the day inside the tube (train) for heating.
The tube was filthy those days.
Coffee was the worst and Kentucky and Macdonald were non existent.
Chinese fish and chips with food additives were cheap.
Changed to Yorkshire fish and chips later.
I really enjoyed the two month sojourn in the city of London and all the bookshops, computer shops and stamp (philates) shops.
Tottenham Court Road was my favourite.
It had Indian Kashmir Sari shops from where I bought two saries for my mother and my mother in law for our wedding.
Within two months I found a job in Yorkshire and never had to look back.
I made good friends too.
I went to New Zealand for two decades later.
There I met lovely Ceylonese friends who helped me in various ways throughout my stay.
I do not like New Zealanders and never went back.
Now I am in a third country in my retirement.
Thursday, November 9, 2023
Ceylonese abroad, how they treat you
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