Sarinda’s eyes ~ Malinda Words

Sarinda Unamboowe, it can be argued, always had his eyes on the ball. He kept wickets for his school and that should say it all. He was also the wing three-quarter of the rugby team. He had to know where the ball was and where he had to be to collect it. He was an athlete and that also called for focus.

But there are eyes and there are eyes. Seeing and vision are not exactly the same thing. ‘Having the eye on the ball’ refers to focus. It’s about knowing what is most important. It is about determination and courage, regardless of the odds stacked against you. Sarinda has such eyes.

Those close to him would know best how these eyes have gazed upon them, upon the world around him and the lives and livelihoods he encountered. His indefatigable efforts with the Wheels for Wheels Foundation way back in 2014 was far more public.

Sarinda, along with 11 others decided to ‘go around the pearl,’ i.e. Sri Lanka, cycling some 1350km in 10 days to raise awareness and funds to purchase 1000 wheelchairs especially designed for children suffering from Cerebral Palsy who were from rural areas and belonged to poor families. Just to make their lives a little bit more comfortable. By the time they completed the ride, they had received enough money or pledges to obtain 700 wheelchairs.

Sarinda said at the time that he had never cycled for more than 80km in one go. I still remember the daily updates he faithfully posted on Facebook. He captured the terrain, travels and trials vividly.

Two years later, along with Nathan Sivagananathan, Sarinda organised the second of two marches, from Point Pedro to Devundara Thuduva (the first was from Devundara to Point Pedro in 2011). The first was to help build a cancer hospital in Tellippalai, Jaffna and the second to build a 'twin facility' in the Southern Province. Literally tens of thousands of people accompanied Sarinda and Nathan on these journeys.

Back then I wrote about the second journey as follows: ‘“The Trail” is an exercise of love, loving kindness, reconciliation, unification and a lot more besides; in other words much more than a long walk from the Northernmost point of the country all the way down to the Southern tip to raise money for a cancer hospital.’

It took eyes. Sarinda had them. And he would be the first to object. ‘Not just me, I was one of many,’ he would say I’m sure. Indeed. I couldn’t find a single picture on Facebook where Sarinda was alone, except for some photographs taken at a media conference. He brings people into pictures. He brings pictures to people.

There’s enough written about the Sarinda of ‘The Wheels’ and ‘The Trail.’ What made me think of his eyes had nothing to do with fund-raising. Spirit-raising perhaps, but it had nothing to with money. The Facebook post was as delightful though and as revealing of the man’s enduring celebration of all things wonderful, hopeful and laudable in this world, of his steadfast refusal not to be brought down by squalor and decrepitude, deceit and skullduggery. A ‘Mixed morph Paradise Flycatcher.’ In his garden.

There are lots of birds in this country and in the gardens of almost all homes. Not everyone notices. And not everyone who notices dwells on these winged wonders. And even if they did, they rarely take pictures and share, rarely delight in telling someone, ‘I saw and it was beautiful.’

Sarinda did. Here’s the caption: ‘Today needs a beautiful birdie…’

Poetic. Philosophical. So simple and so profound. Captures among other things the very remarkable eyes of Sarinda Unamboowe. Simple, unpretentious, beautiful. And funny, come to think of it. Yes, Sarinda can be quite the clown, his friends will tell you that. That’s how he was in school and how he is now.

There are days and moments when ‘a beautiful birdie’ would help. There are birds all around us, but we don’t see them, let me repeat. Sarinda does. He has the eyes for such things. The positives. The possibles. Happily, he also has the heart to turn possible into probable and probable into reality. Not alone of course, but sometimes it takes a man with eyes to open other eyes. Sometimes it takes a man with vision to live his life in a particular way because it makes others think, ‘that’s possible, I see!’

It comes down to a lot of self-reflection, much contemplation on the world we live in and the human beings who people it, their strengths and weaknesses, exceptional qualities and invariable frailties, and resolve not just to see but to do.

Such a beautiful birdie, yes. 'Today' needed it. I needed it. Maybe others did too. Sarinda Unamboowe has given this world a lot of birdies. The world is privileged.

He would probably dismiss it all, as he did when I texted him a few hours ago to get permission to use a picture to go with a story about him: ‘monava kiyannada bro (what's there to say)— [just an] old bugger living quietly in a corner of India.’

['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is a new series. Links to previous articles in this new series are given below]

22 June 2023

Sarinda’s eyes

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