Take 2

Unahapooruwa a remote village in Hambantota was my next stop for a live interview with a woman who had truly wanted to learn the art of sewing all her life but had no means to learn the craft. I cross questioned my project colleagues about the woman, her background, village, livelihoods of communities, and all the snippets that would nicely cushion and pad the story I was supposed to spin based on pure truth of course.

I stepped into a compact house and was greeted by a wide grinned round woman who made us sit and enjoy fresh tea with biscuits. A spanking new sewing machine sat somewhere in the living room, with fabric falling over, spools of thread placed on some unfinished garments and some snipped up thread bits and fabric.

I began my usual tonic of ‘comfort talk’ before I proceeded to getting the facts from her for my story. The flow of conversation flowed without boundaries until I spotted the mark to cease casual talk and divert her attention to my mission.

My colleague was gearing up with the video and I was briefing her how she should begin her tale. She nodded to signify understanding and sat in preparation to churn the wheels of the sewing machine just for us. Video lights came on, I clicked the voice recorder and stood back with a notebook and pen to jot down any interesting things that may shoot in between her recital.

“Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeow” a loud cat’s screech was heard and a noise of some live thing jumping from behind the seamstress. The interview turned towards a different dimension, with a shoot for a funny video in full force. Our seamstress was standing on the chair with a measuring stick. I lost control and burst into a fit of giggles. I am chuckling as I write this for Asia Digest, recalling the hilarious episode. My colleague was serious for a while and seeing me in hysterics burst out laughing too. We created a racket and a big one too apart from the cat who decided to chase a rat and waited for the moment where the interview and filming was about to begin.

‘Take 2’ didn’t happen for a long time. I had to really come back to my usual sombre ‘work’ mood and I can tell you it wasn’t easy, because I was scotting on the floor and laughing my head off. Our seamstress had got off the chair and she too joined us in our fits which didn’t seem to go away for a long time

The rat kissed goodbye to dear life and a jubilant cat pounded to it’s mistress showing it’s might, holding a limp rat through snarling jaws. Our seamstress patted its head as if to congratulate him and continued giggling.

We took a break not getting enough of the sudden amusing episode. I managed to bring myself down and walked over to the seamstress with voice recorder as the video lights came on. ‘Take 2’ did happen this time, for real.