This island has been my home for most of my life.
Never have I seen anyone standing on the sidewalk of a busy street asking for a handful of rice. The only chants have always come from street side vendors to buy their goods, The pleas that came from beggars were always for money, never being specific for food.
But here
was a living being weeping clutching on to the only few notes and a few coins
in one palm, while the other hand is moving to wipe the flowing tears from a
pair of very tired eyes.
An expression of utter
misery, frustration at the inability to no longer be able to fend for his
family was written across his face, He struggled to find the strength to
express the fact that he cannot afford to buy a handful of rice and other food
to take home to his kids. They called him to tell him they are very hungry because
they have not had any food since the previous night.
I chose not to capture this
individual from my camera lens through respect and also saw no purpose in
marketing poverty or crisis ridden desperation, when we too hte hopeless 20 million +
civillians have all been struck with the same misery in different shades and
shapes.
He was a very old frail looking
man. His luminous coloured garb let me know that he was a street sweeper. As I
passed him on the street, the only words through sobs were “madam please help
me to buy some rice for my kids”. I went a few steps ahead but walked back wanting
to take a look at the face from which the voice came from.
It is a rare sight to see a
man weep continuously. I studied this living being closely. A sun dried stick thin old man with calloused limbs peeping
out of his garb stood before me.
I am never the one to be
carried away with these kind of frill and fancy tales, because we islanders know better how any
crisis can market poverty with great rainbow tales. The golden rule is to
always dig deeper for any red flags.
Digging deeper I found that
this guy lived in Moronthuduwa (45.5 km from Colombo) and he worked as a street
sweeper on the 120 route. He commutes by train daily as he cannot afford the bus fare of LKR 200
each way. Every day after he is done with work, he buys some food and gets home
to his family. His pay wasn’t the best but it kept all of them going until the greatest economic disaster struck our beloved island.
The rise in essentials
experienced in the ongoing crisis has makes it impossible for him to buy even
the bare necessities to keep his family fed. He acknowledges that it is extremely tough for
everyone but said “I stand by the street hoping I will be able to collect some money to at least be able to buy
a handful of rice, we could have it with a sliced onion”.
Is it ignorance, callous,
short sighted full blown stupidity that dragged the “granary of the east” to
this total collapse?
How does one fix this ? where and when does it begin?
