Kumar: A Short Story

The story starts from the open road. I’ve been traveling around on my Royal Enfield and I was gathering stories, meeting people and just enjoying the simple pleasures of a bike ride.

Road to Watawala from Kandy takes some kilometers to shift the scenery from a good to breathtaking. Only when the squiggle road starts to appear in front of you, you start to feel that you are riding through the mountain roads of hill country. Till then it’s just the mild weather.

It’s my third day in central province and certainly the longest ride within the three days. But there is nothing to complain about it except the great views of the mountain vistas and arrays of tall tree heads. Even in the morning the chill didn’t penetrate through my leather jacket and the climate was quite comforting and appealing. And that climate made the cuppa I had in a roadside “Tea Kade” taste richer than your average home brewed cuppa. Yes, the surrounding and climate can do that!

The name Watawala always makes popping up an image of a tea leaf or a tea bag or a cup of tea inside your head. That’s understandable since Watawala tea is a big thing not only within the country but overseas as well. Nevertheless the town just 11 kilometers ahead of the road ‘Hatton’ wouldn’t remind you any tea leaves but the ‘Shri Padaya’. Hatton sounds appealing but today my journey is to Watawala.

Those fancy names of hill country lands could confuse you with Europe. For an example, Carolina estate sounds more like British than Sri Lankan, wouldn’t you agree? And those are the visible traces of the colonization I guess.

I arrived to Watawala just in time to meet people who gathered for a Praja Mandala meeting. While the meeting is going on, Premasiri-the president of the Praja Mandala had a chat with me.

“We have worked to resolve the water related issues in the area. One thing I like to highlight here is that we have the manpower when it comes to ‘Shramadana’ projects and such. This is a famous pilgrimage route and environmental pollution by throwing away waste and non-decaying garbage roadside is a serious matter here. Hence we annually clean the roadsides to reduce the pollution caused by non-decaying waste and garbage such as polythene and bottles. And we have been able to reduce the costs of village development projects by rendering our free labor. Pradeshiya Sabha also supports us and with our mutual understanding, we can get done more work with less funds.” He explained to me. Then he introduced me the secretary, Kumar. He agreed to roam around with me to see the village.

Kumar lives in one of the little adjoined housing schemes in the plantation he works. His wife also works for the plantation and the couple had three girls together.

“I contested to the local government election last time but ended up being the candidate who scored to the second best. But I’m not upset over it. I contested with two rich candidates. They are millionaires. I’m a simple man and I never had serious money to spend for an election. All I had was my reputation and connection I made over the course of my life. And being able to score 988 votes was quite satisfying for me hence I’m still doing community work while having my job here as well.” Kumar recalled, looking at the plantation factory and the background mountain range. And he looked at me with a wide smile.

“And I will contest again!”

We came to the living quarters belong to the estate. The vicinity is less hygienic and I could see roosters roaming everywhere. They even went inside the houses like it’s a normal thing. The housing potions are adjoined by sharing single walls and one complex had around ten houses. It’s not the perfect living condition but it was a roof over the heads. I understood that.

“This is a beautiful area. There are Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslims living together without any conflict or dispute. Lives are hard but lives are hard for all of us. So we all are in this together.”

Kumar had a vivid, positive take on life.

“Bringing up three kids isn’t easy, especially with an earning like this but that’s my responsibility. Their grades are good and I think the elder one will probably pass the ALs well. But I already told her that university is a far away dream for us. I mean even with the state grants, we need to endure a substantial cost to send one to university. Then the next girl will be ready for her ALs and we wouldn’t be able to afford all the costs. So I told my elder daughter to pass the ALs very well so she can go for a good job. I can get a good job for her through my connections. But from there, she needs to do her higher studies on her own. In that way they will be independent and we will be able to secure all three daughters futures. I believe that’s the practical play here” Kumar indeed is a practical man.

When I see his family together, I realized how wise Kumar’s decision is. He wants all three of his daughters to win the life, not just one. And in the process, he will teach them to face the hardship of the life as independent, strong girls.

That’s Kumar’s story.