7 April 2013
More festivals at the temple. Only that today is being sponsored by my cousins who have been carrying on a tradition that started more than 100 years ago. With my connection to the temple, my female cousins roped me into carrying The Lord Ganesh around the temple. You quickly realise that being tall does not help. My cousins owe me a shoulder massage. We posed for a few photos and then began our tour of Karainager, our island homeland.
We drove around looking at various houses that belong to relatives we know but now deserted. We stopped at our cousin’s grandfather’s place first. This was typical of most deserted houses. The house was built in the 1940’s but now in a state of decay.
One of my cousins remembers staying here as a kid and recollects how she enjoyed the time here. We moved on from here to see my grandaunt.
She is 83 and lives alone in a house built by her grandfather in 1923. She runs a crop farm and seem very independent and healthy. I told her I would come back later that evening to spend some time with here. We then moved on to the village where my mother was born and where my mother’s maternal grandfather lived. The village is called Kovalum and the prominent feature is the lighthouse.
We also took in a glimpse of our ancestral land that is waterfront and now owned by my uncle in Malaysia who has no interest in coming to Sri Lanka. A few cousins are thinking of taking on the task of building something eco-sensitive on the land.
We saw a few other places before retiring to the hotel for a wash and rest. While the others headed off to the temple again, I was dropped off at my grandaunt’s as I wanted to spend some time with her. I spent about 4 hours with her. I have great affinity with her as she was also born in Malaysia like me. Except that when she married my granduncle in 1956, she moved to Sri Lanka. It was just amazing talking to her and she enjoyed talking as she liked my company. She was a school teacher in Malaysia before she got married. She also lived through the Japanese occupation in Malaya. She could remember all the Japanese she was taught in school. It’s incredible for a woman who is 83. She also could clearly remember all the atrocities the Japanese committed in Malaya. It was very vivid in her mind. As a little boy, I knew her parents well. She also remembers the time as a teacher, when she made a goodwill visit to Japan. She visited Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo to name a few. She said that the Japanese were welcoming, honest, orderly and clean. They were all very friendly towards the touring teachers but some how she could not forget the ill deeds of the Japanese in Malaya. We also talked about relations and this was helpful as I wanted more information to fill in the blanks on my family tree. I concluded the night by telling her that I would come back again with my cousin.
