Nara Somaratne
The moving story of Silver Bangles and Gold Bangles is an insightful exploration unveiling the dark side of a once exemplary, brilliant young man who has become Sri Lankan culture. When the young man reacts negatively to his father’s offer to buy gold jewellery for his young daughters, the father is distraught. How could his son not understand the importance in Sri Lankan culture for a father to provide for his family in this way? With tears flowing, the father remembers how his mother’s only jewellery were two silver bangles and how they helped the family survive through the most difficult of times.In Be My Daughter, a once lovely, innocent daughter is angry and rude towards her father, disregarding how much he has sacrificed throughout his entire life to ensure his children get the best of everything, are taken good care of and protected from all kinds of dangers and challenges in the outside world. It’s also a tale of the breakdown of family values across cultures. Somehow, the father’s love and ’sweat’ are forgotten in the face of the daughter’s arrogant attitude. The story ends with the father expressing his never-fading love to the daughter in four beautiful verses.The Deeds is a sad story from the 1930s where a greedy elder brother cheats his illiterate youngest sister, who is just 16 years old, out of her home. When the sister falls gravely ill, the brother asks for her thumb print as signature on some documents, which she thinks he needs to get medicine. What in fact he has done is had her sign the transfer papers for her house and land over to him before she dies. However she doesn’t die ... and the effects of this scoundrel act of cheating is passed on through successive generations of the family.Navigating through Loneliness and Aloneness is my own experience of being broken-hearted and battered by a loveless marriage, followed by a break-up after 35 years when I am abandoned to live alone. This leads to a powerful depression that comes close to suicide. It is the fear and loneliness that cause the feelings of isolation leading to my depression, and it’s only when I discover the power of the mind and meditation that I manage to achieve an amazing recovery.
