I spent a few days from the 1st to 4th June at Ratmale, where I only used public transport to get there and back. I had Sagara come with me on the bus from Pettah at dawn on the 1st as I promised to attend Hasantha’s wedding at home on the 1st. After having bought the supplies for the few days, and got settled at the house, I showered and changed and Disa, a neigbour took me in his tri-shaw.
I had to first meet up with Mahesh and give him his wages, and nothing more as I could barely scrape up that and then went on to the wedding house at about 12.30. There was a huge crowd of about 200 at his home.
There was a place for men who were imbibing in alcohol and for the rest, there were plenty of bites as well. The trousseau was on show outside, on a clear dry day and was not that hot as the garden had plenty of shade and there were also the small umbrellas to shield people from the sun.
The lunch was plentiful, and I as usual now do not have a huge appetite unlike most of the people there, struggled even to eat the little I took for myself. He had the whole affair catered. Then there was a band that played throughout and a video cameraman too recording all the incidents.
I had a chance to walk to the back of the property where the father had built a little room more like a mud hut which had some charm on the other side of the paddy fields. I stayed on till most of the guests left as the invitation was from 10.30 to 2.30 and so left around 4pm on a tri shaw that one of the guests charged by Rs700 to get home.
Apart from a Sunday quick run to Hingurakgoda, to give Sagara money from the ATM to go home, and then a short trip to the pola to meet all the familiar faces there, I spent the rest of the time at my place and to Rajah’s when I went to charge the lap top. Now Rajah has both his kids and his grandson at home, so he is not lonely, unlike the time he was on his own.
There were no highlights of the few days except the time when Upali had confronted Sagara, and at the instigation of his wife hit him in the head and thereabouts leaving him with a gash on his head, that led to some profuse bleeding. That was because he had fooled around with his daughter Dilkie who is 17 and still a minor and besotted with him!
