It's a miracle,it's a mystery, yet...

Few years ago, well before dawn, bath ing in the Manickka Gangai's placid cool, diamond like waters, a thought -or is it a feeling at the bottom of my stomach I don't know-flashed through my mind.

Days significant and holy to Buddhists- in relation to the Buddha are equally significant to the Tamils in relation to Lord Skanda- Vesak or Visakam, Poson or Poosam, Poya or Pournami…

From that day Sinhala-Tamil unity has become an obsession with me. I am unable to escape from it. Unable to escape from it I go on consuming a poison like Siva Himself. And yet I go on living, it is the miracle, the mystery.

Take anything; religion, language, social framework, culture and arts-is there any point, in which these two blessed (cursed?) communities do not meet? or link up? Two communities so close yet so far. Why ? Why? Why?

New Year: a Sinhala home or a Tamil home - I mean - authentic Sinhala or Tamil homes will have a copy of a Panchangam..

Panchangam rules our people's life as nothing else does. If you turn its preliminary pages, whether it is a Sinhala or Tamil version it doesn't matter, all relevant details of the New Year-when, at what exact time it dawns, when and how you should bathe, what you should wear and when you should light the hearth, etc. are to be found.

As a person who speaks Tamil-as they say- who has lived down south- again as they say- for more than a quarter of a century, I have never failed to get a big, ,very big plate-thattam as we say- of cakes of kiribath, Konde Kavung, Asmi, Kokkis, ….

My family members have never failed to enjoy everything.

Those kiribath our paal puttkai, Asmi our kolukkaddai, kokkis something like our pal rotti, Kavung our ariyathiram etc….

I also hope no Sinhala home ever fails to receive a full plate of sakkarai pongal your kiribath, pal rotti your kokkis, kolukkaddai your Asmi, etc….

Let this state of affairs continue forever. The New Year, can be a truly national New Year. -Yakgnavalkya

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