Rajpal's Column

12th March2000

A tale of two Asian cities

By Rajpal Abeynayake

That's hopefulness too. The radio's emanated tinny sounds about a shoot-out in one of Colombo's swanky areas. Patients interviewed in city hospitals wailed and talked about a bomb blast. Death had short circuited 19 lives. The hopefulness in Colombo would necessarily be a different sort than in Bangkok.

In Bangkok, some argue, the industry ( sex ) at least earns millions, and sustains the construction of overpasses, super highways underpasses and electric train tracks. In Colombo the war industry merely enriches Non Governmental Organizations.

In Bangkok, also, death is courted by the reckless or the hopeless. Prophylactics are used sometimes; and those who don't use them know that having anything to do with the world's oldest profession can be lethal. In Colombo, death can short-circuit the most conscientious. ( not just those who don't use condoms, but nuns, perhaps — or plain Mr. Clerks whose idea of excitement is to go home and remove their tight pants.) Life is ephemeral, and in Colombo that's taken with a Buddhistic stoicism that would put Bangkok's " careless hopefulness '' to shame. But, stoicism wouldn't be the correct word. Instead of meditating on the vagaries of life, people just go for cabarets.

Pico Iyer would have said that that's Colombo's romance. He says of Bangkok that "it's not for the squeamish.'' Colombo then, is not for the faint-hearted. There is a constant adrenaline burst, and anyone does not have to carry a condom in his wallet, unlike in Bangkok, to get that dose of excitement. In Thailand, government has been quite self effacing about the problems associated with Bangkok's two million who practise the oldest profession. There is an acknowledgment, and a liberal Buddhist nod at the sex industry . Government accepts the industry as one of the country's necessary and useful pastimes , but the Buddhist ethos goes one better and ignores the whole business. That's because Thailand is Buddhistic to the core — and live and let live is practised, not preached.

In Colombo, there isn't this kind of liberalism associated with the state religion. Nobody speaks of Colombo's hopelessness in a self- effacing way — least of all the Buddhist monks. Everybody, generally has a solution to the problem and wants to solve it . This, in contrast to Bangkok, where the problem remains, like the unswatted moth on the wall. But, if Bangkok is careless about its problem, Colombo is careful to the extent that everybody is dead serious about solving it. Then they all go along and have a good drink. ( Ranil Wickremesinghe brought William Hague, an eager mediator of the Sri Lankan conflict to the Mustangs' tent at the Royal- Thomian match last week. Both had just knocked off a good bout of discussions.)

So if Bangkok is careless, Colombo is insouciant. For good or for ill, everybody takes a big thrill in recognizing that the problem is big — and then telling it to shove off. Nothing can tangle with real life, which is a matter of cabarets, parties, and such occasions, which when strung together make an average year in this city.

"One begins to wonder whether hope is not truest in the proximity of fear,'' states Pico Iyer, finally musing about Bangkok. About Colombo he would have probably said that life is at its fullest in the proximity of fear — and probably gone off thereafter with a local guide to see a school big match. In Bangkok, the proximity to danger can be minimized. In Colombo, it cannot. Unless every Chief Executive, government clerk or school teacher lock themselves up in their toilets, danger lurks around every corner these days in Colombo's sweltering March heat. But, in Thailand in the final analysis, the response to death is disorganized.

In Colombo, the response is organized. There is a seminar about stopping the war in every corner. Pundits lurk in every high-street , YMBA and assembly hall. They all have solutions, like a thousand prophylactics. In Bangkok, there is a use for prophylactics. In Colombo, there is no use for solutions. They pile up, like a thousand unused rubbers. But wait a minute. I have written 899 words already; quite enough. And its getting late for the stag night.

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