Sri Lanka essay (:

Name: Elizabeth Ekundayo

Class: Integrity 3

Topic: Sri Lanka

“Mother, I’m back, and I’m seriously starving!” Navina shouted from the front door of the house, or more likely a hut-house. Navina was only ten years old, while her brother, Adhi, eighteen years of age.

“Oh dear, welcome back. Your food will be with you soon, get to your room and wash up ok.”

Their parents weren’t at all well to do, they had no education and their “job” didn’t in any way make any difference to their livelihood. Adhi was already doing his best to keep his family up and going, and in terms of his academics, he did more than his best, but even with that, it didn’t help an inch. They were Indian Tamils not Sri- Lankan Tamils, so what rights do they have? Nothing.

The Tamils had no rights whatsoever in the country. Nothing to make them feel belonged. It was always the Sinhalese who had everything. Was it education? Was it jobs or housing or the rights to vote? All of these citizenship rights could mostly be achieved by the Sinhalese only. Accompanied with the University admission criteria, they didn’t favour the Tamils in any way, not like in the past, when all students, whether Tamil or Sinhalese, were given admission according to their results/merits. This greatly affected Adhi. He was not able to take the course he had wanted to take, as he had to score higher merits than the Sinhalese to be able to take that particular course. He was greatly shaken by this, he had worked really hard, but he also had his family to worry about. All these didn’t only affect Adhil’s family, it affected all the Tamils. They were riots that led to deaths. Also, under a policy known ‘Resettlement’ the Sinhalese peasants were transferred from the densely populated southwestern and central areas to Tamil areas. The Tamils were not happy as the Sinhalese peasants were not the only ones who came to live among them. Buddhist monks and the Sri Lankan Army which compromised mostly Sinhalese also came to occupy their lands. All these finally resulted in the conflict between the Tamils and the Sinhalese.

“Wait, Navina! Don’t move another step! Adhi shouted very quickly.

“Don’t go any further, that, I’m sure is definitely a bomb, we better run, it can blow up anytime, Navina! Run!” Adhi Shouted even louder as he immediately grabbed the hands of his sister, who still was in shock of actually standing barely a stone-throw from a bomb.

As she ran together with her brother, she could feel the tight grip of Adhi on her. They kept running, and even though they weren’t sure where they were going, all that Adhi could think of at that moment was to be somewhere safe with his sister. Suddenly, they both heard the terrible blast from the bomb they had luckily escaped from. They both looked at each other and ran even faster.

“It’s ok Nav, I think we are safe for now” Adhi told his sister, who seemed to want to puke.

She managed a faint smile, and held on to her brother a little more tightly. Adhi was beaming with joy inside, he tried not to show it, as he thought, this probably wasn’t the right time to be happy, but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t let the only person he has as a family be out of his life again. Not again, he thought. Both his parents had died from this endless, horrible war. Now, his only family, a moment ago, was incredibly lucky to have escaped death. He shuddered from the thoughts.

Finally, they found a suitable hide-out, more like a cave, Adhi thought. The cave entrance was dark and dank, but they had no choice, so they stepped inside reluctantly. The cave-like hide-out had several holes in it, which obviously came from all the shootings. After a while, they were tired of wandering around the cave, so they decided to sit beside each other, both of them terrified of what might happen next. They had no idea, they just had to wait.

“What a life!” murmured Adhi.

Suddenly, and unexpectedly, his eyes drifted to the hole right in front of him. He moved nearer towards it, his sister joined him in curiosity. They both wanted to scream, but they could not, they knew how dangerously they would be endangering their lives.

“That’s Saahan, look Nav!’” he whispered in astonishment to his sister who was as surprised as her brother.

Saahan was Adhi’s neighbour, and also his best friend. They were so close that Adhi couldn’t imagine himself letting his one and only best friend roam about like that, when he knew, Saahan was also looking for safety. The horrified look on Saahan’s face said it all. It was worse than fear. Nobody with him. Just him alone. Adhi looked at his sister in disbelief, and whispered, “We have to do something!” While he was thinking, his sister’s voice – which was a sound of some very familiar sign he and Saahan used, when trying to get each other’s attention. The next few minutes, Saahan was inside the cave with them. They were so glad to see each other but were soon crying together after looking around them and seeing how their once peaceful country had become an unbearable place to be.

Word count: 898