Avurudu lessons from grandpa :

Happiness in the New Year

Punchibandara Ellepola was busy writing when Angelina knocked on his door. He signaled her to come in.

“Hope I didn’t disturb you, sir?”

“No, not at all. What makes you come here Angelina?”

“This is about the assignment you have given us, sir.”

A pillow fighting contest (Kotta Pora)

“Traditional customs of New Year?”

“Yes sir.”

“Okay, so?”

“Sir, I have a grandfather in my village. I want to introduce him to you.”

There was silence for a while. The assistant lecturer was staring into his student’s eyes, thoughtful.

“I know,” the student continued following the brief silence, “this can sound so weird for you. I mean it’s not nice to ask this from you. But sir, I think you should meet that person.”

Punchibandara removed his spectacles and put it on the table. And he looked at Angelina seriously. He was thoughtful. “Okay. When can we go there?”

“Any time possible for you. I can adjust my schedule.” Then they discussed a suitable date, and decided to hire a taxi to the said destination. It was a journey of eight hours. During the journey Punchibandara came to know Angelina was given that name by her parents despite her upbringing in the village. She was encouraged so much to get through the University entrance somehow, which was the only chance to see and feel Colombo. Some famous celebrity has visited the village once, and her father had remembered her and named after his daughter. Angelina Therese Tikira Hennadi - that’s how her name sounded. But for administrative purposes she was T T H Angelina.

They first went to her place, which was a moderate place now with a slight modern touch. They had tea and dinner afterwards, and Punchibandara wanted to have a sound sleep after a tiresome journey. The following day Angelina took Punchibandara to her grandfather’s place. It was just walking distance.

Soon they entered a farm of moderate size. There they could see an old man working hard in the field. They got closer to him.

“Ayubowan grandfather, this is my lecturer at the university.”

The old man stopped work and greeted the both collecting his palms together.

“Ayubowan. Did you bring him here to teach him how Avurudu used to be in our times?”

“Yes uncle. He gave us an assignment on traditional Avurudu celebrations.”

“Oh that’s great. Why don’t you come in?” Saying so, the old man walked towards his hut. Teacher and the student tagged along.

“In our times, we worshipped the sun and earth. We didn’t ask for anything, because they were already giving us prosperity. We worshipped them to show gratitude. We worshipped our parents and teachers because they taught us how to live. We worshipped the monk in the temple because he taught us the way to happiness. We were waiting for the New Year with respect and gratitude. Because it was like one more turn in our life cycle.”

Punchibandara was puzzled. He didn’t quite get what the old man said.

“I know this is something strange. But the monk constantly instructed us to contemplate on death. So we were always thinking of death, even more when the New Year greets us. So we were so happy. A lot happier, my son.”

“Can you explain it grandfather?”

“I’m Weragoda Appu by the way. How old I’m do you think?” “It’s difficult to say...”

“Believe it or not, I’m 115 now. When you walk out of this village, you will meet a few more centenarians. I’m the eldest of them. That’s why Tikira has brought you here.”

“Now I think I have a question. What’s your secret?” “Happiness, my son, what else? When you are happy with the little you have, that’s what matters. For that we have to realize death might strike us any moment. We were sort of looking forward to death too whenever New Years comes.” “But a New Year is supposed to renew your hopes?”

“Who said it is not? Contemplating on death helps you a lot for that. You have so many benefits.”

“Such as?”

“You never fight with your neighbour or with anyone else, because you know you haven’t got much time to live. We shared our harvests with each other. In fact we shared the best, because we had it together. We didn’t make many sweat meats, because we shared with each other. We always greeted each other Ayubowan - Long Live! - with a smile. You know frequently contemplating on death makes these things easier. We hardly did any bad things. So nothing could make us sad.” “Do you think things are changing now, grandfather?” “Yes. You cannot control it anyway. That’s mainly because you people have so many comforts and have become lazy.

That evolves with generations. You know my son died recently at 92. His son, my grandson, died at 70. Only my great grand children are alive. This is because they move on to some new technology, and they forget to contemplate on death.

Hence they have forgotten not to fight with their neighbours.” Ellepola stood up and worshipped the old man.

“You know grandfather I was so depressed and anxious for the past few days, may be because of the things I see around me. So thank you grandfather for teaching me this. I will definitely keep these in mind.”

- Sachitra