Victim to breadwinner
A toddler hurtles towards the front door of a small home in Katukurunda, curious about the visitors who have come a-calling.
The visitors are taken by surprise too – for the little one is the mirror-image of another boy, whose life they have followed in the past 10 years.
2004: The face of the tsunami in Sri Lanka
As we meet just-turned two, Ayesh Shashmitha, we realise that the boy whose tear-streaked and agonised face became the symbol of the tragedy, death and despair of the tsunami of December 26, 2014 in Sri Lanka is now a father. He has ‘graduated’ from the tough and trying university of life.
When the Sunday Times highlighted the plight of Asitha Fernando and his family, aid flowed to them, not only in cash and kind but also long-term support. While one donor undertook to fund Asitha’s school career, showering him with presents such as a bicycle, another bought them the house they are living in.
Ten years later, Asitha in his last teen year, is the father of Ayesh, husband of Shashinika Srimali and has become the breadwinner of not one but two families — his own and the extended family of his older married sister, Ashani, her two children and his second sister, Bunty (Ruwangika).
For, their troubles have not eased since the tsunami wreaked havoc on their humble lives. It has been 10 years of ups and downs with fate dealing another unexpected blow just this year. Fortunes have changed now – whereas it was Ashani and her husband, Tharanga, who looked after Asitha, now it has become Asitha’s lot, which he has taken up willingly, to be the man of the house.
Tharanga, along with his brother, is in remand at the Kalutara Prison. Tearful Ashani explains how Tharanga went to his brother’s aid when the adopted son of their Loku Amma with alleged links to the underworld and drug mafia, attacked him. He was at the wrong place at the wrong time – having gone there to borrow some money to clear a log-load that he had selected for his timber business from Kurunegala, which was to arrive in Katukurunda
‘Graduated’ from the university of life: Asitha with his wife Srimali and son Ayesh. Pix by M.A. Pushpa Kumara
that fateful morning.
When his brother and the other man were “pora bandhinawa” (grappling) in a deadly fight, Tharanga had rushed to the scene, while neighbours watched without interfering, and picked up a mol gaha (pestle) and felled him, killing him.
Everything had been over in moments, with the police arriving just awhile later as Loku Amma had run to the police station seeking help when her adopted son attacked her first.
Within a few minutes, however, the lives of Tharanga and his family had changed their course drastically, going out of control. Court hearings have followed, with no bail for the brothers. The trial is to be taken up by the Panadura High Court and Ashani is now trapped in a mesh of debts to find fees for the lawyers to fight the case.
Ashani and her sons, aged 10 and four, and Bunty have now become Asitha’s responsibility, one which he takes very seriously. “Asitha nethnam, polawe pus kanna wenne,” weeps Ashani, pointing out that if not for Asitha they would have to eat soil.
Their home is abuzz when we arrive mid-morning accompanied by their ‘guardian angel’, Sr. Jacintha Silva of the Sisters of Charity, Jesus and Mary from the convent close-by whose protection they have relied on even before Asitha’s mother died in the tsunami and his father fell off the train just a year later.
Asitha is not at home but at “‘lee irana weda” at a sawmill nearby, unloading heavy kotang (logs) from lorries. Bunty, who still attends the special-needs school run by Sr. Jacintha, is sweeping the hall of breadcrumbs that her three nephews have spilt.
The photograph of Ivan and Ranjani displayed on the wall of their home
It is a day different to the usual, with the home full of the aroma of freshly-prepared food. Ashani and her sons are awaiting some relatives to go along with them to pay a long-overdue visit to Tharanga at the Kalutara Prison.
She has borrowed money to make a good meal for her beloved husband – rice, polos and a spicy kukul-mas curry.
As she leaves the house, with containers packed with food, Asitha comes home, after his wife Srimali calls his boss, requesting that he be sent for a short while.
Surprised but happy to see us, Asitha, the boy who has become a man too soon is all smiles. As he chats with us, his son climbs on his lap and hugs him.
Matter-of-factly Asitha says that he has work only for about four days a week, with his earnings amounting to anything between Rs. 800 to Rs. 1,000 a day.
While Srimali says that Asitha comes home weary and spent in the evening, when asked he laughingly adds that he has a beer once in a way but does not smoke.
There was no cake for Asitha’s 19th birthday on October 2 but for his son’s second birthday which was on December 5, they did buy a tiny cake and took one photograph at a nearby studio.
Earlier, efficient and practical Srimali has let us in on their routine. Times are hard, but they are managing with Asitha’s wages, while she also
Ashani: Will my husband be home for Christmas?
acts as Bunty’s chaperone whenever Ashani is running around with the pressing matter of getting her husband released.
“When we don’t have food in the house, I take the baby to my mother’s home,” says Srimali and her mother who runs a small boutique feeds them. Ashani too goes to her in-laws home to get some food for her boys.
Both Ashani and Srimali are doing a little garment work, stitching elaborate pockets on shorts etc, at home to bring in a few hundred rupees at least to ease Asitha’s burden.
Amidst their rigorous routine of looking after three boys, it takes about three hours to do 10 pieces, says Srimali, adding that each piece brings Rs. 12.
They are ever-grateful to their benefactor, as otherwise they would be on the streets, while they say a big thank-you to the donor who helped Asitha up to the Ordinary Level examination.
With Christmas and New Year round the corner, there will be no celebration for these two families – only hopes and fervent prayers that Tharanga will be home for Christmas and worries and anxiety how they would face the money issues of 2015.
| Memories of a mother Smiling Asitha becomes still and sombre as he remembers his dead mother. A tinge of sorrow and a hint of tears, quickly masked they may be, are detectable even 10 long years after the tsunami. There is no money for an alms-giving in memory of both his mother, Ranjani, and his father, Ivan. But Asitha is planning to spend part of his hard-earned money to get some food, prepare it at home with Ashani and Srimali and give a few packets of rice to some beggars. Asitha has still not converted this ‘Ithuru Mithuru’ account that his mother judiciously opened to save a few rupees for him whenever possible, when she was alive. |