While their sisters are not allowed to
go out and play, lest some child molester in the village will have their way,
the mother’s make sure they are protected from prying eyes, and make sure they
get on the school bus and come home straight after school.
Lo and behold, six months before the
daughter sits for her A levels, she runs away with some jobless young man who
somehow seems to have a motor cycle, shocking the supposedly conservative
household into reality, that NO AMOUNT of cloistered imprisonment can prevent
the hormonal urges of the day.
Then what do I find out? The daughter
only lives by example, and knows while her Dad is slaving away in Colombo as a
driver, the mother, who keeps the daughter home is having an affair with
someone half her age, and the daughter knows, and waits for the chance to take
her revenge!
This is the state of the state, and I
see this daily with my own eyes, as the whole village, a microcosm of a Country
of 20,000 villages, comes trundling through my home, on their way to the
village tank for a bath, daughters in tow, looking very innocent when with
their mothers, carrying the washing!
It is 2018, add Smart phones to this
equation, and the mothers have no clue what their little charges are getting
into with all sorts of communication tools, they don’t understand, and all they
are thinking of is the weekend Bodhi Pooja, which for them is an event in
itself so they can gather for a local gossip.
Of course I dare not mention when the
mother works in the Middle East, what happens to their children, many of whom
go astray, and are left without the protection of mother’s love, so are let
loose to do as they please, being long distance parented by way of material goodies,
(bicycle, motorbike, three wheeler, jewelry for the daughter, hopefully money
in her pass book) and without a purpose in life, easy prey for the latter day
drug pushers with new and more elaborate means of getting the youth unhinged
with GULIYAS!
This elaborate charade, in latter day
two children households, where kids are spoiled, creates competition amongst their
generation to have more than their friends, not make do with little. So mental
illness is exacerbated in youth, where those who have less, feel inadequate, as
it is not exam results that matter, but relationships with the most desirable
guy around!
No wonder then that the Barber shop is the best business going in
the village!
6 comments:
in my opinion the highest earner in the village is the barber, after the money lender! excluding those who live off inherited wealth, they have leveraged into businesses of one sort or another
Another case in Sri Lanka, where Nero fiddles while Rome burns
Yes its the boys, those spoiled by their mothers, who have a fettish about their hair. In days of old, it was mothers who took a pair of scissors and cut the boy's hair short.
Now hairstyle is a statement, and it is a big business, and when wearing school uniform, it is the hair style that stands out, get noticed by the girls. The girls have no choice as they have to have their hair platted, so in true Peacock form, the preening is done by the males, not by females as is traditionally thought.
Where are we heading?
At some point I will write a sequel to this story, as the girl is accepted back by the parents once she gets pregnant, and the boy is unable to fend for her, and she realizes the ruse and the mistake she has made.
However by that time the life is ruined, her future uncertain, and parents wonder how come they did not know what was happening right under their noses.
I have seen this repeated multiple times in my 15 years of living in Ratmale and can recall almost every girl who before she came of age, seemed to engage in this practice
On the positive side, the money circulates in the village in a service industry, adding to the GNP of the Country. What the barber does with his new found wealth is also at issue though. Does he buy a motorbike? three wheeler? then there is leakage to imports. If he constructs his home there is an element of imported material, but then he uses local labor for building and local brick too, so there is a multiplier effect.
an anthropologist doesn't judge, but rather seeks to understand. if we try to understand the male thinking, they're still trying to do what they've always tried to do which is find a mate. in the olden days they'd have to have a productive enterprise or a suitable income source to attract a mate, however these days the women are earning all of the money through their productive enterprise leaving the males trying to court the females in a different, and more easy, way. sitting in the salon beats toiling in the fields or homes of strangers any day, from an energy exertion perspective! so the question is how to tilt the village males toward more productive enterprise? these village males clearly need guidance. teach them how to be productive. let them learn how to turn raw materials into intermediate goods and intermediate goods into finished goods. they seem to have creative minds. let them unleash their creativity into something more than the hair on top of their heads!
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