By Shireen Senadhira
The doorbell rang many times and there were shouts of selling fruits, vegetables, coconuts and fish from time to time on the road and then I realised the change had occurred. It was like way back when all vendors came to the door plying their ware in a pingo carrier, in wickerbaskets on their heads, push carts and cycles. Here in Colombo, it was rarely that vendors arrived at the door. The new activities began when the Covid 19 virus patients were found. When the second patient was identified the schools were closed immediately. It was mid March and the school holidays were imminent, therefore this didn’t make too much difference. A week or so later when we were going about our normal life, tho’ asked to be careful due to the new virus, then boom! The transformation came as a whole day and night curfew was imposed on us by the health authorities because of the danger of this particular virus to the people and there was no other way of curtailing it. We are still in locked down situation and I do wonder whether the vendors will continue to do ply their wares like this in the future when we are free of curfew?
That’s how we are now. All in the house. Our travels are from room to room and to the entrance door or gate. The life style changed little by little. The usual daily activities of a househole has come to a standstill. Active children were left nonplussed. Some of them got their study packs so that their mornings were busy for them. Otherwise, there was too much time to plan what next to do. Working people and working places had many adjustments too. The whole household routine tumbled upside down. A very important item in life is food. Locked in, it became an enormous poser. Food was ordered or the vendors came to the door. It took a few days to settle into this new routine as there was no way of going out. Another aspect that took a right about turn is religion. Religion is important in the way of life of Sri Lankans. People want and need to visit their temples, churches, kovils and mosques. This April and May were full of our festivals and this is the first time that the places of worship were empty. However, television and radio broadcasted the ceremonies to alleviate the loss of religious services. People did adjust themselves commendably and thus prevented the spread of the disease muchly. The news of the day gave the report of the disease. It became a monotonous existence.
Common place happenings
We know there is change always in life. Nothing ever remains the same and therefore the change is inevitable. As can be seen change has taken place in the dress of the Sri Lankans. 25 years ago, ladies were wearing saris everywhere whenever they went out of the house. To go to work, to buy their groceries and medicines, to visit their places of worship or visit a friend or relation. Now it is quite changed as one sees fewer ladies wearing saris and they wear dress, skirt and blouse and trouser suits. It is also due to busy pace of life, wearing anything other than a sari takes much less time. Also it is practical to run to catch a bus or train in any dress other than a sari.
Look around Colombo, there are no or just a few flower canopy trees on the sides of the roads as there are no flamboyant trees flaunting their flame coloured flowers lavishly like previously. Thus, the pavements are not carpeted in red with the abundance of fallen flowers. Where are all the trees spreading their branches giving gentle shade to the passers by? No more parapet walls that show off green lawns of the gracious bungalows. The parapet walls where the boys we knew hurdled over to meet their friends in their exuberance and their mighty hurry. These walls are now very high like prison walls and most of the residences are offices, shops and eating places. In the past, up to 1980s there were colourful bougainvillea which tumbled down over low roofs while creamy flowers of the frangipani trees dotted the velvet lawns of these houses. Vivid red hibiscus grew in hedges, luxuriously, as they do in the tropics and vied with the glorious hues, crimson, red, orange and yellow of tall cannas and beds of zinnias. Fragrant perfume of the jasmine wafted over in the evenings when azure skies turned into blood red by the setting sun which later mellowed into orange and amber in the afterglow till the indigo of the night took over. It was a veritable artist’s palette. The sky colour is there but the where have all the others gone?
The scene does change. The entire face of Colombo as we have seen is changing right before our eyes. The high rise buildings are springing up like mushrooms and we can see them everywhere we turn. They are coming up at breakneck pace too. The gracious homes and gardens are giving way to these high rises. It is the process of progress and it prevails.
The dress, food and transport too have changed. Although the mode of dress consisted of both traditional and western, it has changed considerably now. Whereas the sari primarily was the form of dress for most women for every occasion, from wedding to going shopping or for work has changed to mostly pants, and blouses or dresses. The colourful sarongs and long shirt are hardly seen in towns as the men wear trousers and shirts. Part of this change is for convenience. Hurrying up when walking is easily done in pants for a woman than in a sari. In the food scene, a few decades ago eating out in Colombo, was only in hotels and a few restaurants and cafes. Now there are numerous eating places and coffee shops found everywhere in town and they do come up at the drop of a hat. The advantage of obtaining a meal is easier nowadays than before. In the past we relied almost solely on home cooked meals, now, take-away meals and eating out is feasible and convenient. Thinking of groceries, how did we obtain our groceries in the past? Either from the small grocery shops in town or from the market places where vendors invite you to visit their stalls in loud voices and where the conversation from one stall to the opposite stall flow over your head while you are buying your vegetables and fruit . You exchange small talk with the vendors and there is a general bonhomie in your known market place. This has now been replaced by the supermarkets that flourish giving mostly all your needs. No more conversations with your butcher or fishmonger. No longer can you find out news of how they have been or about their children.
Formerly, there were the private vehicles, bus or train and a few hired motorcars. Waiting for a taxi was a long planned event. Now, the taxi service is only a phone call away and quick. Added to the above modes of transport, there are the three wheeler taxis aplenty. It takes only a phone call to get such a taxi or one can hail it on the road as it passes by. The three wheeler taxis serve as the fastest to get you anywhere in town, though it could be perilous too, as sometimes they weave in and out of traffic lanes and takes the bends at such a speed, much to the exasperation of the passenger and other vehicle drivers.
Roads have changed their names to such lengthy ones that one cannot even write an address quickly or the long names cannot fit into the face of a small envelope. Formerly the country managed with main roads and by ways but now in addition, there is such a change as highways get you to faraway places in double quick time and more highways are in the making. Driving along these highways beautiful scenic views of the country’s terrain that hitherto had not been seen by most people can be enjoyed now as the highways traverse cross country.
Change of plans
There are hardly any travel plans now, no holiday plans and visits to see parents, friends and relations living far away and who need to be visited. No travel abroad as airflights are minimized or cancelled. All travel plans changed overnight with the new Covid 19 virus sickness.
Weddings that were to take place had to be to be postponed. Also meetings and long awaited reunions. No arrival of visitors and houses filled with usual laughter, hustle and bustle became sullen and silent. A few weeks ago when able the queues were so long at the groceries that some standing in the long rows for hours collapsed in the heat.
The daily wage earner had no way of earning money and they all were left high and dry. It was as if a huge rock had fallen on them and squashed them all. There, of course, should be some formula set up to help them in their living in such situations.
In these times many locked in the homes do not even like to handle the change money from the vendors at the gate. They either keep it in the sun before takiing it in or in quite a separate place. This is the money that usually went into the handbag or purse and kept secure. I know some people who don’t even like to touch the newspapers that arrived only after many weeks. At this rate these people may not even want to meet with their friends due to interaction. The virus has certainly changed the outlook of daily life. The usual routine has flown out of the window. On the other hand, there is more time to spend with little ones, plant a vegetable or two in a pot or garden, listen to the birdsong that always got lost in the mighty rush of a morning routine. Another simple example is finding new friends somehow even being locked in and that is a great experience in life that comes out of change
How to face change
All of us experience change in our lives. There are changes that we look forward to and changes that we fear. However, one thing is for sure, things will not stay the same no matter how much we would like them to be so. When in life a change occurs, we have two choices in how to respond. We can despair that a change has come and assume that things will be worse, or we can look with excitement at the new possibilities that the change presents.
Winston Churchill would have benefitted with change to utter the following words: “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”
Change is puzzling at first but becomes better as times goes by. If one holds on to fear or prejudices there will be no new experience. People should not get fixed on the past with their wonderful memories but make the wonderful memories an impetus for newer wonderful events. We, of course, must be willing to change then with new perspectives, we can change ourselves and change the world too for better.
However, there is the grief of the moment and the plaintive resilience of the people who are struck by what has happened now and how it altered the world for them. We must be mindful of such and certainly not of the banal debating aura on the political issues and outcry of nationalistic slogans but the dignity that inheres in the struggle of ordinary people to survive, to make sense of their lives, to keep strong the memories they inherited of a more peaceful and purposeful way of lfe.
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To Shireen Senadhira, writing, especially essays or poetry is an action that moves her urging her to write. A member of the English Writers Collective in Colombo, Sri Lanka, She has written to the Lanka Woman magazine and has done nature and wild life poems and essays for the Loris magazine.
Her book Ehela Ablaze, a collection of short stories and poems was published locally. In this book she expresses her keen insights and draws parallels with life and nature and shows that she is a keen nature enthusiast. Her book, Musings of Culture is a collection of essays.
She has travelled widely and lived in Geneva, Switzerland for many years. She paints too in her leisure hours and also writes children’s stories. Her poems have been published in the magazine of Tower Poetry Society in Canada, Pennine Ink Magazine in UK, American Anthology of the American Press Association and Great Poems of the Western World. She writes free lance for a variety of newspapers.
