How We Grew Up In Sri Lanka
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL WHO WERE BORN IN SRI LANKA IN THE 1930s,1940s, 1950s, and 1960s (and maybe even in the early 1970s)! As for the rest of you, this is for your information to read and enjoy!
First, we survived being born to mothers who did not have medical checkups while they carried us, and we lived in houses made of asbestos. Our mothers took aspirin, ate coconut, raw egg products, and processed meat, tuna from a can, untreated water, and milk straight from the cow – and didn’t get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer…
Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright colored lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, prohibition of hitching rides with anyone in the neighborhood.
As children, we rode in cars with no seat belts or air bags. We drank water from the garden hose and the tap at the top of the lane (NOT bottled water)! We shared one bottle of soft drink with four friends and NO ONE died or got sick.
“Take-away:” – our ‘fast food’ was patties, rolls, pastries, and vaddais, with malu pan or rose pan (no Pizza Hut, McDonalds , KFC, Subway, or Nando’s).
We had no Easter Eggs or Hot Cross Buns at Easter … Wasn’t February 14th Independence Day?
Even though all the shops closed at 8 P.M., and most of them didn’t open on the weekends, somehow we didn’t starve.
We could collect old drink bottles and Sunday newspapers, and cash them in at the bothal kade and buy toffees, chocolates, bubble gum and some fire crackers to have fun with (and no one got blown up).
We ate prawn vaddais, spicy raw mango, pineapple ,& boiled kadala (often full of dust) from street vendors (Duwana Geeri Hotels) without needing Pepto Bismol.
We ate sponge cakes, white bread with real butter, and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren’t overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING! We would leave home on Saturday morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. Then church bells start ringing at 6:30 P.M.
No one was able to reach us. And we were okay. During our vacation, our parents never saw us the whole day, not even for meals as we ate at whatever house we were at during mealtimes. No one thought of compensation or asking for money.
We would spend hours building our kites or go-carts out of old prams, and then we’d ride down the hill only to find out we had forgotten the brakes. We built tree houses and dens, and played with matchbox cars. We played cricket on the streets amidst the cars, and hide-and-seek using the whole neighborhood as our playground, and no one complained.
Our homes were always open, and the car keys were in the car.
We did not have television, DVDs, Playstations, Nintendo Wii, X-box E360′s – no video games at all – no 999 channels on SKY, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms … but we had such imaginations and we never found ourselves bored.
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
Only girls pierced their ears.
We shooed away flies hovering over our food, and probably swallowed worms in our fresh fruits, and the worms did not live in us forever – we just built stronger immune systems!
We didn’t get air guns or air hockey on our 10th birthdays – just one new set of clothes, as well as for special occasions (the New Year, Easter, Christmas).
We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them. We didn’t have to arrange play dates or make appointments in advance to see our friends.
Many of our mothers didn’t work and we survived on one salary, BUT there was always food on the table.
Rugby and cricket had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that! Getting onto the team was based on MERIT, not because of connections.
We had rulers landing on our hands or where ever the teacher could reach, and they didn’t get reported to the School Board!
Colleges were mostly unisex – but, this did not affect us psychologically or emotionally because we always managed to find girl friends and boy friends.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law, and we were punished a second time when we got home!
Our parents didn’t invent silly names for their kids.
We had freedom, failure, success, and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
And we survived and became contributing members of society despite it all.