Family names

“Ranasinghege Gamalathge Weerasinghge Mudiyanselage Jayawardanege Herathge Punchinilamege Wickramasinghege Senanayakege Bandaranayakege Podisingho” was their family name.

These names have been in existence from the days that the British ruled, and traditionally mentioned with pomp and pageantry in the annals of this little Island country in the Southern Indian Ocean.

Sirisena, the lanky gentlemen, was the father. He had this walking stick made from Teak, with an engraved artwork of a lion along with eyes embedded with tiny blue sapphires, given to his great-grandfather as a gift from the ancient city of gems. The family’s Initials were set up in gold on the handlebar.

Sirisena was called the Head Sir of the village, even though there were high ranking government officials detailed to his village. The Head Sir loves his walks around the village on a daily basis, merely for the exercise and mainly to be recognized as the unofficial headman. In retrospect, to establish his self-acquired noble authority on the unsuspecting country dweller, which was customary by his great-grandfathers.

He owns the most amount of land in his village, and the villagers rely on the Head Sir to provide his lands to them for their farming. In turn, the Head Sir gets one-third of the finished product.

Sirisena has many a time narrated the story of his long family name. His understanding is that his forefathers believed in taking all their noble wives’ names to establish a strong presence in society, to which they are unconditionally respected by all in this small country. Sirisena was a very proud man and considered his clan to be the unofficial ruling family.

Seetha is the mother. Daughter of a village headman from the Central part of the Island country. Quite rounded physically, she takes pleasure in being attired in colourful saris and the inherited rich jewellery, even if she has nowhere to go. Walking, like her husband, was not her pastime.

Seetha takes a great amount of enjoyment in talking to the villagers who visits her husband’s ancestral large house. She sits on her high-back leather chair in the veranda and the villagers sit on the floor.

She never misses mentioning the long family name inscribed on the cement pillars of the main gate, which were made by her father who was very proud of his daughter’s marriage to Sirisena. Seetha’s father believed these names to be in existence from yore, through proud heritage, respectability and tradition instilled in the family that Sirisena derives from.

Seetha never cooks nor cleans the mansion. The villagers take turns in attending to those duties.

Nalaka, the ever-sleepy skinny son, was in his early thirties and constantly in his dark large room in this large house pretending to study for his medical exams. When he was schooled in an aristocratic college in the large city, his ambitions were to dwell in the village and experience the surrounding people’s lifestyle whilst helping them in any way possible. He cherished the farming culture. There had been times when he had mentioned getting married to a well-mannered village person.

Apparently, Seetha and the rest of the family had other plans and sent him away to a foreign country for his higher education. Medicine was not his forte but made every effort to fulfil his family’s wishes. A few years into his studies, he came back home, fabricating a story of how he wants to be back at home and accomplish this goal of becoming a doctor.

Nilmini is married to Bimal, who by profession is a lawyer. Nilmini gave up her practice to tend to their two sons who are studying in the same school that Nalaka attended. Nilmini and her family live in the city and rarely visits her parents in their village. Bimal, whose mother was a schoolteacher and father being a government servant, pursued his law degree through sheer determination to overcome the hardships his parents had to undergo for survival. The marriage to Nilmini was a result of a long-standing love affair developed during their days in the university.

Nilmini’s parents were no fans of the son-in-law, as he has many a time tried to criticize the egoistic lifestyle of Sirisena and Seetha at family functions. When Sirisena had once suggested that the grandchildren should carry their proud family names for future references, Bimal had retorted claiming it only makes it difficult to write on any application which tends to waste valuable time and space on the paper.

One fine day with the sun shining, Nalaka who is normally unseen in the mansion, decides to take a walk in these vast lands owned by his parents which would eventually be his. The rubber plantations give him that much-needed shade from the long walks along the paddy fields, where he met Jagath. Jagath is an old friend from the village whom he knew from his days of strolling down the estates as a little child. Nalaka had an emotional attachment towards Jagath, that he never carried for anyone else he ever met before. Jagath was with his three kids.

Jagath, whose father committed suicide when he was in his teens, lost his mother soon after due to various medical complications. For the rest of his life until marriage, he lived with his aunt, who worked the farms given to them by Nalaka’s father. He tells Nalaka that he lost his wife when their third child was born.

It is common knowledge amongst the people that Jagath’s great-grandfather was a wealthy landowner and was a warrior against oppression, who won the hearts of many villagers. Jagath’s great-grandfather mysteriously disappeared.

Happy to see Jagath, Nalaka yearns to talk to him and indulges. Jagath sends the children to play…

Dear Mother and father,

Did you know that Jagath’s family name is “Mudiyanse”, and his great-grandfather owned many a land in our village?

That being said, I must admit that I never wanted to study medicine, nor did I want to be a nobleman. I merely wanted to live a peaceful life amongst normal people. I am gay and developed an addiction to drugs in that other country that I went to study medicine in.

Sometimes I wonder, if I were allowed to live with the love I developed for the village, I would have been telling you a better story to you personally right now.

Dear Father,

We too have a “Mudiyanse” in our long family name, and now I know why.

Your great-great-grandfather was a horrible person. He gossiped and spoke badly about the village people to the rulers of the empire at the time. He dishonestly acquired their wealth by betraying them and taking their names. Hence, the reason for our long names, a vast number of land and our names ending with the letters “ge”. He was a traitor to the village folk, and they hate our families to this date.

Dear Sister,

You have taken the correct path by disengaging from this dishonest family of ours. Please teach your children to live the life they desire and not a mockery like what our parents wanted us to be.

If you check my passport, it says “Nalaka Podisingho” and not any other. I was never proud of our traditions, nor will I ever be.

If Bimal agrees to it, please try to get a legitimate solution to the land that we have deviously taken from all the other families in the village and give it back to them. I know it would be a difficult task.

I sometimes think…did we own any of what we had. 

I will be thinking about you from wherever I am.

Love,

Nalaka