Sunday 4 November 2012

There is a crocodile up in a tree - රඹුටන් ගහේ කිඹුලා


"Putha, Get ready!" my mother tells me "We are going to your grandparents place soon". She then grabs my three year old younger brother by hand and rushes inside the house probably to get him ready first. The baby must be sleeping inside the house; there is no crying for sometimes now.

I like to play with my younger brother in the front yard full of sand and pebbles under the tall Rambutan tree that never bears any fruit. Sometimes we get into fights – after all I am just thirteen months older than him - and my mother does not like that at all. The baby is just a baby turning two in a few months time. He too can join us when he grows a bit more.

My brother comes out dressed up. My mother calls me again from the well in the backyard. I can see she is pulling water out and filling a tub for my wash.

My mother calls me again.

I look at the crocodile. The green coloured toy my mother got me from the village fair. I see the thick string that is tied to its neck and the stone attached at the other end – all my handy work – amply supported by my brother. I pick the crocodile and throw it up in the air towards the canopy of the Rambutan tree. It falls back to the ground. I succeed in my third attempt.

The crocodile now hangs from a tiny branch of the tree with the string wound around it.

I run towards the well; I must get there before my mother gets angry.

After the wash, while getting into fresh clothes inside the house, I see all our clothes are packed up in a few suitcases. The kitchen is clean and all items neatly packed as well.

"We are going to be living with your grandparents from today" my mother says "we are not coming back to this house ever again". She sounds sad. Sad to leave this house or sad to move in with her in laws I cannot say. May be it is a mixture of both.

A lorry and then a car pull up into the front yard. I recognise the hire car. My father gets out of the car and a couple of guys jump out of the lorry. Within half an hour or so all our belongings – a couple of beds, 'an almirah', a study table, the dining table, a few chairs, the lounge suit, kitchen stuff and the suitcases – are all inside the lorry or in the 'dicky' of the car.

The car pulls away from the front yard with the lorry following us. My mother is rubbing her wet eyes off. I take the last look at this tiny house in the middle of about two acres of coconut plantation. My eyes catch the Rambutan tree.

“My crocodile!” I shout, “my crocodile, on the top of the Rambutan tree!!”.

No one seems to hear. The car leaves the property. I cannot see the Rambutan tree anymore.

I cannot see anything. My eyes are blurred.

-Kathandarakaraya

සන්ඩේ ස්පැෂල් ඇක්ස්ට්‍රාවක් ලෙස ප්‍රකාශිතයි!

Glossary:
Putha = Son
Rambutan = A fruit tree grown in tropical regions
Almirah = A wooden cupboard used for clothes
Dicky = Car boot

(image: http://tapirgal.blogspot.com.au/2009/08/plastic-toy-australian-crocodile.html)

26 comments:

  1. very sensitive story. you know we all have this kind of stories which related to our childhood. i could flashback my childhood through this one. thank you mr.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ඔන්න ඔන්න ඉතිං
    කකා අපිට හොඳින් ඉන්න දෙන්නෙම නෑනෙ
    මල පන්නනවා උදේ පාන්දර
    dafaq

    ReplyDelete
  3. All of a sudden why did you made this change?

    ReplyDelete
  4. ඉස්සර විදියට කියනවනන්

    "කවුරුහරි සුද්දෙක් උදේ පාන්දරම කතන්දරට .. ...! "

    - සනාත

    ReplyDelete
  5. මේ වගේම කෙටි කතාවක් කියව්ව කොහේදි හෝ. ඇත්තටම ළමයින්ට විශේෂ වන දේවල් ගැන වැඩිහිටියන් සුළුවෙන් හිතන්න හොඳ නෑ. කතන්දරකාරයා කඩ්ඩෙන් කොටල ක්‍රොකඩයිල් කතාවක්.

    ReplyDelete
  6. කෙටිම කෙටි කතාවක් නේ??

    ReplyDelete
  7. Very sensitive story....

    I was thinking kaka wrote another so called poems of his and found this....
    touched the very soul...

    ReplyDelete
  8. කතා හිංගලයන්ට කතා ලියලා ඉවරයි වගෙ. දැන් ලියන්නේ අර කුරු දිවයිනේද මොකේද එකේ අයටද කොහෙද..? අර සමනළු පියාඹන තැනත් මඤ්ඤං.. අවුලක් නෑ අපිත් මේ ෆුල් මඤ්ඤං වෙලා ඉන්නේ. මඤ්ඤං කියන එකට ඉන්ගිරිස් වචනෙ දන්නෙ නැති නිසා ඕන් හිංගලෙන්ම කෙටුවා..

    එතකොට ඒ පේන්නැතුව ගියේ ක්‍රොකඩයිල් ටියර්ස් නිසාද...?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ඒකනෙ බන් කියන්නෙ
      කකා සාමෙන් ඉන්න දෙන්නෙම නෑනෙ

      Delete
  9. When i see this post in mrning my frist reaction was 'wt dafaq'
    but then i thought np its gud one this is the most better story rather than kai kathandara

    ReplyDelete
  10. //There is a crocodile up in a tree - රඹුටන් ගහේ කිඹුලා//

    ඔක්කොම ඉංගිරිසි, ඒත් රඹුටන්වලට ඉංගිරිසි වචනයක් නැහැනේ :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. සැම් ට පෙන්නෙම අහඹු ඒවා නේද?
      http://manasindiviyata.blogspot.com/

      Delete
    2. රඹුටන් කියන්නේ රඹුටන් තමයි ඉංග්‍රීසියෙන් . සුද්දන්ගේ රටේ රඹුටන් නැති නිසා .

      Delete
  11. ෂෝක් කතාව කියලා වැඩක් නැහැ තනි තැන ඇඩෙනවා.එත් මාට වචනයක්වත් තේරුනේ නැහැ.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. කතන්දර බ්ලොග් එකේ නමත් වෙනස් කරනවද the story's කියලා?

      Delete
  12. Rambutan is not a Sinhala word( though it seems so). It's from Indonesian language( where the fruit is native to,apart from Malaysia) meaning hairy. The world knows this fruit by this name. just google this name and you can know that.


    ReplyDelete
  13. පව් ඉතින් පොඩි එකා

    ReplyDelete
  14. අයියෝ බයිට්ස් !

    ReplyDelete
  15. kaka, is there a crocodile in your pants?

    (this is an advertisement)

    ReplyDelete
  16. please tell'em is this a sinhala blog or not ?
    kaka, please do not make us angry !

    ReplyDelete
  17. ට්‍රාන්ස්ලේට් වර්ෂන් එක ඉක්මනට දාන්න කකා ප්ලීස් . .

    ReplyDelete
  18. KOHEDA YAKO RAMBUTAN GAS WALATA KIMBULAN NAGINNE

    ReplyDelete
  19. Nice story. Why don't you write more in English?

    ReplyDelete

මා ලියූ කතන්දරයට අදාල නැති කරුණු ඔබේ ප්‍රතිචාරවල ඇතළත් නොකරන මෙන් ඉතා කරුණාවෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමි.

අදහස් වාරණයක් නොකෙරේ. කුණුහරුප සහ තුන්වන පාර්ශවයන්ට නින්දා කෙරෙන ප්‍රතිචාර ඉවත් කෙරෙනු ඇත.