First Week at the University
Lilani’s Facebook wall is almost like an online diary. She is sharing her Facebook status with us, the status from the first week of her university life, the beginning of a new chapter in her life away from her hometown in Baddegama, Galle.
14/02/2017
වහිනකොට කොළොම්පුර,
අහස සී සී කඩව,
වැටෙන වැහි පොද බරව,
වදින හිරිකඩ සැරයි.
බලන්නට කොහෙවත්,
දිය පාරවල් සැදුනු,
පෙනෙන්නට නෑ උඩින්,
කොන්ක්රිට් කුණු කානු.
වැහි පොදට සිඹින්නට,
තණ පළස් නෑ ඉතින්,
උසම උස ගල් බිත්ති,
හැම තැනම වටළලා.
කොළොම්පුර මහ වැස්ස,
කවුළුවෙන් රිංගලා,
මතක ගෙන හද තෙමයි,
ගමේ සුව කොයි කියා.
20/02/2017
A woman: No, she’s not your dice to roll on, not your coin to toss, not your pawn to bet. Neither a tool to use, nor an animal to toil for men.
21/02/2017
Ragging is just a reflection of the need for attention and dominance, which often ends up in the reverse, with distaste and disrespect. When a group of people organize themselves against a group of fellow people, in one way it is terrorism itself, where violence collaborates with discrimination. Where there is coexistence, there’s no need to demand attention or respect. Harmony creates it.
However, what the majority or perhaps, a once-ragged minority believes is that suppression should cascade. Whereas it should not. A hurtful ragging season is not how you should promote equality. That’s what the August seniors of universities should know (however, we are lucky here, at UOC, because still no one bothered us).
23/02/2017
University of Colombo, so far so good. College house canteen is just wow!
And yes, I get lost all the time trying to find out the lecture rooms. And yes, I’ve found people with the same mental disorder. And yes, our whole English class stood up for the tech guy, thinking he was the lecturer, and then didn’t stand up for the actual lecturer.
We did drive the IDC people mad. And, so far so good. Super cool. Plus, there are cats and dogs.
24/02/2017
At my home, every morning is like this.
My cat: (at about 6.15 or 6.30) Miow miow miow
Me: Kiri.. Still sleeping dude. Go away.
My cat: (scratches my sole and more loudly) mioww
Me: Nooo.. Not yet, a bit more.
My cat: (tries biting my leg, it doesn’t work, starts parading around the bed) miow…
Me: OK, I hate you. Shut up and curl up if you are jealous of my ability to sleep well.
My cat: (now becomes violent and bites hard) MIAOWWW…
Me: Gosh!! I’m up I’m up!!! Good morning!!
Now I do miss this back at the boarding house.
Lilani will be sharing more of her thoughts in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
