Letters to the Editor
13th February 2000
There was beauty, but where was the pain?
A most artistic exhibition of old-style black-and-white photography was put on at the British Council, which focused on pictures taken in Ceylon during the 19th century. It was a beautifully effective chyme to British photograhic skills of the all-powerful colonial era. The very first of the pictures dated from around 1850, was astonishingly sharp and clearly defined. These were an excellent manifestation of the human mind's creative capacity for scientific perception and expert timing in capturing shutter-bug reminiscences in detail. But almost none of it was a reflection of pain!An ubiquitous factor was the regular presence of "appropriate" headgear on all of the men, women and children of all strata, whether at social occasions in public places or even within their own home gardens! However, pain was portrayed in just the one instance of two dark-skinned damsels in their miserable hovel on an estate, who had the only tortured eyes.
How many had the eyes to perceive this suffering?
Elsewhere there was a remarkably farcical manifestation of this abnormal obsession with headgear which ranged from females with scarves to males in their smooth "bowlers": behold, there was the wiry and sweaty, old bare-bodied carpenter at work over his tools in genuinely honest creative output. But, some clown or the other (methinks it was the cameraman) had placed a bowler hat on his cranium!
Could even Billy Bunter have capped that? no wonder that Titanic sank!
Rohan Jayawardene
Grounded airline passengers and pandemonium
I wish to place on record the travails a person who decides to fly the national carrier SriLankan Airlines, has to undergo. This is not an exception but has become the rule, since of late. Those in authority appear to be the least worried.My daughter who is studying at Madras University decided to fly SriLankan Airlines on her homeward journey and back. As she travels alone we always try to send her by a morning flight to Madras. On June 23, last year we took her to the airport by 5.30 a.m., said goodbye and came home. The scheduled time for departure was 7.35 a.m. We assumed that by 8.00 a.m. Indian time, she would have reached Madras.
At 9.30 a.m. to our utter dismay, she phoned us to say she was still at the airport. She starved for three hours as the flight took off after a three- hour delay.
Passengers had been told that the delay was due to some technical problem.
However, on inquiry at this end, it was revealed that the flight was delayed to collect some transit passengers coming on a U.A.E. flight from the Middle East.
What a situation! In the end the Sri Lankan passengers suffered.
The second episode was on Saturday, December 11. This time my daughter was returning to Madras after her vacation.
We tried to get a seat for December 11, two weeks ahead and she was at first waitlisted. Finally she got her ticket confirmed or reconfirmed to fly on the 11th morning.
Then SriLankan Airlines went on strike maybe to celebrate a millennium break at company expense in a foreign land. All flight schedules were disrupted. Though we had a re-confirmed ticket I checked with flight information person-to-person on the 10th at 10.30 p.m. and the 11th at 4.30 a.m. I was told the flight would be delayed till 10.00 a.m. and to report by 7.00 a.m. at the airport.
We reached the airport by 7.15 a.m. There being no queue at the counter, we stayed in the lobby. Later, seeing a crowd at the counter we too went across only to be told that UL 121 to Madras was over-booked and seats had been allocated on a first come first served basis. Now the flight was full. I could not believe my ears. It was fresh in our memory that only recently an expensive computer system had been installed to prevent malpractices.
There were offers of hotel accommodation till the protesting passengers could be put on another flight, wait- listed for the evening flight or the IAC counter opened by 12 noon to seek seats there.
What a mess! It was worse than fighting for a reserved seat on a long distance bus at the Pettah stand.
There was pandemonium and allegations were thrown around of ticket rackets and even deliberate attempts to spoil the name of the government.
A few gave calls to VIPs and were quietly pushed in, followed by vociferous passengers who too were accommodated.
We refused both hotel accommodation or a place on the evening flight and finally got a seat on the morning flight of the 12th.
By this time all stranded passengers were shepherded to hotels-that too Tamarind for the locals and Hilton for the foreigners. We were about to leave when an airline staffer said one more passenger without much luggage, could be accommodated. My daughter was the last to be given a boarding pass. From Madras she informed us that there were four seats vacant in the economy class. Whom were they reserved for? Who did not turn up? Will those responsible reply?
A.S. Selvaratnam
Colombo 6
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