Once upon a time in lanka land

“Once upon a time in our beautiful land called Sri Lanka the people were completely unhappy with their way of life. The year was 2008, and the country was still entangled in a civil war that has been going on for more than 20 years. The most frustrating thing for the average citizen was that they never wanted to fight with each other, but still they were forced to live with the constant fear of death and destruction. Lunatic fanatical forces (terrorists for some eyes but rebels for British newsreaders) claiming to be the protector of the minority population in the country fought their way from the north while the equally lunatic, power and money hungry politicos kept them at bay with the lives of brave and unflinching soldiers of democratic Sri Lanka.

What the world did not see is that the average and sane Sinhalese and Tamil people were living their lives in harmony in Colombo. They didn’t want a war. If they could have one thing it was peace. They needed a better standard of living, better jobs, better hospitals, better schools and better everything other than a war fought with better weapons. But this wasn’t a reality those days. Cost of living was high, people were starving and new diseases broke out and on top of it all natural disasters were aplenty.

But this didn’t affect the politicos or the top hierarchy of the terrorists. NO, because as long as there was a war they had plenty of bounty to exploit and only the average citizen, Soldier, and terrorist conscript had to suffer in a plight not so different from hell. You must understand that not every terrorist who fought in the front lines or blew themselves up did it on his free will; in fact many of them were forced to be a terrorist because of poverty or because their families were held hostage by the criminal lunatics who posed as defenders of the Tamil race.

One cannot forget the sacrifices made by the soldiers, sailors and airmen of the armed forces. The semblance of sanity left in the country was because of them. At the same time one cannot compare the accomplishments of these brave men to the power hungry politicians who took all the credit for things they will never do in hundred lifetimes. When a battle is won the politicos came to the battle front to take photographs but when one was lost an officer was sacked or transferred. Those days Politicos were living gods, or devils one could argue.

So that was how our beloved country survived, along time ago. But eventually people realized that the country’s future should be in their hands and not in the hands of some charismatic aristocrat who could smile better than his opponent. The younger generation who wanted better things in their life other than constant check points and crappy jobs decided to face the enemy within and start a new chapter filled with peace and prosperity.

They worked hard, not settling for what they already have, they ignored the resistance for change, they minimized poverty and with it destroyed the terrorists (for when the people were wealthy no one wanted to fight against the state) and to top it all they weren’t scared of the “superpowers”. That is how today our country is a leading nation not handicapped or answerable to any other country. So in this independence day of year 2023 we shall remember what the people of Sri Lanka went through and remember what peace can bring to a nation and the world. That is all for today children go play virtual cricket or something”…high school teacher, year 2023

Every word in this article could be fiction… (Hope I don’t get shot) :-)..