The death-wish of a wall
 When
I was in Grade three among the essay topics we had to choose from at the
Second Term exam for Sinhala was one titled ma kurullek nam(If I were a
bird). At the time I felt it was a strange and yet fascinating topic to
write on. I can’t remember all things I would have done had I been
endowed with wings at the age of seven. I remember mentioning that I
would make use of the facility to watch cricket matches for free. Later,
I realized that this was a ‘usual’ topic given to children of that age.
I know children asked to write about what they would or would not do
if they were Head of State. I doubt if children are asked to image
themselves as reptiles or thieves, petty politicians or terrorists,
mendicants or those who have eschewed worldly pleasures. They are asked
to imagine themselves as birds and butterflies, fairies and kings. I’ve
often wondered what kind of thoughts walls would have, if they did have
the capacity to think. So here’s a short essay on a topic of my choice:
Ma thaappayak nam(If I were a wall).
Domestic units
I write as the Secretary of the All Walls Association (AWA). This is
our breaking-the-silence communique. AWA represents all walls, long and
short, high and low, made of all materials, thick and relatively thin,
those separating domestic units from one another, those demarcating
different functions such as sleeping, bathing, watching television,
parking space etc. We surround the high and mighty as well as the poor
and humble. We encase the convicted and exclude those who believe they
are free. And a few years ago we broke into the Internet as well. Just
think about it? Do ‘windows’ make sense if there were no walls? And how
can wallpaper exist without us?
We outnumber the world’s population many times over and if there’s an
ounce of kindness for each brick that make each of us the world would be
war-free and indeed wall-less.
Love and betrayal
 Our
tribe watches the world that passes by and the world that occasionally
glance at us. We know so many secrets but are sworn to secrecy. We are
civilized and therefore keep silent. Suffice to say that we can
embarrass a lot of people, not only on account of the villainy they’ve
conspired in our midst but the fact that they are hardly the heroes they
claim to be.
We’ve seen love and betrayal, murder and sacrifice, agitation and
meditation. All in silence.
People probably think that we are face-less. Perhaps this is why they
frequently cover, uncover and re-cover us with all kinds of faces. Maybe
they think we don’t have names, for they not only give us ‘face’, but
give us ‘name’ as well.
We are the marketplace of self-promotion. The general public is
called upon to look at us and make a choice between this tuition class
and that, among bars of soap or perfume brands, this film or that and so
on. Some people probably we are ashamed of our nudity or that a coat of
paint is outrageously flimsy. So they cover us. Not with an extra coat
of paint, but with words, lines, colours, faces, all kinds of goods and
services. Sometimes the burden of carrying the world, other people’s
world that is, is enormous. We are weary.
Natural deaths
Some believe we are spittoons. Some think we are urinals. Some lean
on us for support and others to make hurried love. And some crash into
us, die upon us. We get no thanks. No apology.
We share this worth with extinction-resisting, immortality-seeking
species. We ask for nothing and are given things we really have no use
for. This is our first and last communication. This is just to say,
‘this is it’. We are suffering from what we’d like to call
species-exhaustion. We can take rain and sun and die the natural deaths
imposed by the play of time and elemental energies but not all the
things we mentioned above. We really cannot take it any more.
Take us down. We have nothing to lose but spit, urine and a lot of
braggadocio that lead parasitic existences on us. Without permission.
Take us down. Yes, all of us. All walls. Extinct us.
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