Suresh parks his vehicle near Rahumaniya Hotel, Town Hall,
i.e. opposite the Davatagaha Mosque. He
lives down a small lane known to residents as C.W.W. Kannangara Road. I’ve know Suresh for almost 7 years now and
although I don’t spend as much time near Town Hall as I used to, whenever I
stop at Rahumaniya for thosai or a cup of plain tea, it is customary for
me to see if he’s around and if not inquire after him.
He and I never haggled over the fare. He would say ‘kemathi gaanak denna’
(give whatever you like) and I would respond by offering a note that was large
enough to exceed the fare and say ‘kemathi gaanak ganna’ (take whatever
you like). He would give me some notes
by way of ‘balance’ and say ‘kamak nedda’ (is this ok?). ‘Hari, hari,’ (ok, ok) would be my response,
followed by ‘ennam, budu saranai’ (May the blessings of the Buddha be on
you; I will come again). He would say ‘God bless, Sir’ in return (he’s a
Christian, wears a cross and in my opinion more a child of Jesus Christ than
those who scream and shout about faith and call non-believers heathens).
I’ve been to his house.
It was about 4 years ago, late at night.
There were no ‘wheels’ in the park.
I asked someone to direct me to Suresh’s house. I had to wade through puddles along the
broken pathway that led to the 7 or 8 ‘houses’ on that 28 perch block of land
few know about, one of the 550 plus slum areas or wattas in and around
the City of Colombo. It was a tiny house
with a low roof. The light was too dim
to make an assessment of the building material.
All I gathered was that Suresh and his family was making ends meet with
a lot of difficulty. Suresh crawled out,
greeted me warmly, and invited me in as is customary among friends. I was in a hurry. He put on a shirt and took
me to where I wanted to go in this vehicle.
Suresh ages fast, I noticed.
He seemed young when I first met him but the last time, about 6 months
ago, his was almost completely grey. I
went to see him this morning (March 6, 2011), after my thosai breakfast.
There’s a car park just behind Rahumaniya and off the CWW Kannangara Road,
a road, by the way, which is less than 10 feet wide. I had my thosai and went to the car
park. An old man sits at the entrance
industriously making bulath vita (betal, arecanut, chunam and tobacco,
all rolled in a piece of paper). Before I could ask him about Suresh, a lady
who was chatting with him spoke to me. She said ‘oya reporter kenek neda?’
(You are a reporter, right?). I said I wrote to newspapers and putting two
and two together asked if she was Suresh’s wife. She said yes and before I asked said that
Suresh was away. She had a story to tell.
There are 7 families living down that lane. Four of them pay
rates. Suresh’s family have been living
there for more than 40 years. The
property was originally owned by a Tamil person. Somewhere down the line someone (a Muslim,
according to the lady) had forged a deed and used the tensions of ’83 to
threaten the owner into silence regarding the validity of the claim. He had
subsequently secured a court decision ratifying the claim.
The ‘owner’ has offer Rs. 200,000 to each family to leave
without a fuss. They can take it or leave
it and be evicted to boot. None of them
have the resources to take up the issue in any court of law. I don’t have to talk about the land value in Colombo 7. In fact I
cannot because the magnitude of any figure that has over 5 zeroes at the end is
beyond comprehension.
All I can say is Rs. 200,000 is a pittance in comparison not
to mention. All I know is 40 years is a
long time in a man’s life. All I know is
that I might never see my friend Suresh again, for I have no idea where he
would go and what he would or would not do tomorrow. All I know is that he’s an honest man who
does not drink or smoke or engage in any illegal activity, that he works hard
to feed his family, that even he if had no legal claim to the few square inches
of earth which he calls ‘home’ he remains a citizen and deserves a status other
than ‘homeless’.
I have no idea what
to do right now. Perhaps President
Mahinda Rajapaksa would know; he is, after all, by assertion and in terms of
officer, custodian of all creatures, human and otherwise, on this land.
Including Gopalaswamy Anthony Suresh.
This was first published in the 'Daily News' on March 7, 2011, exactly 5 years ago. Malinda Seneviratne is a freelance writer who can be
reached at malindasenevi@gmail.com
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