Jun 22nd, 2001
Sri Lankans in Sri Lanka
Esala has been sitting quietly on the deck for the past five hours and I’m not entirely sure why.
Throughout this trip of ours, the three of us: Esala, Mansur, and myself, have developed a friendship.
It begun strangely enough, with a conception of employer and employee, seeing as how Mansur was actually being paid to drive through the country and Esala to accompany me.
As a result, decisions regarding intent were somehow delegated to me and answers did not come easily. Gradually, I came to understand that the situation was about my experience and acted commensurately, and only then, I realized that the situation was never really about my experience, but about the experience and it was then that things began to flow.
It was the first time that any of us had visited the Kandalama, the only difference being that both Esala and Mansur had lived in this country for all their lives. After what seemed like an endless span of time spent traveling on a winding dirt path surrounded by jungle, we finally emerged onto the Kandalama grounds and all of us rejoiced. As we drove up, we were greeted by men in pristine white suits who grabbed our luggage and then disappeared into the hotel with it.
An attractive Sri Lankan girl led me to a deck and presented me with a fruit drink. Suddenly, Esala and Mansur disappeared from sight and mind and I basked in the pleasure of the luxury that surrounded me.
Then I realized that for the first time in several days, I was without Esala and Mansur and I curiously headed back into the lobby. They were standing at the front desk, arguing with the lobby attendant, who was insisting that they stay in the servants quarters.
I responded that Esala was accompanying me on the trip. The attendant nodded and murmured some words to Esala and Mansur. Shortly thereafter, Mansur headed back to the van and drove off.
Later, I found out from Esala that Mansur had gone to stay in the servants quarters. and from a hotel employee, I found out that the servant’s quarters consisted of a single bed in a shared room with two meals/day, which essentially consisted of rice and curry.
Less than three hundred feet away, Esala and I were dining in the hotel’s five-star restaurant and I was delightedly heaping gourmet cuisine onto my plate while Esala contented himself with a simple plate of rice and curry.
Today, I spent time at the hotel spa and later, drinking cocktails by the infinity pool while Esala stayed in the room with his school books.
Now he is out there, sitting out on the deck, staring into the jungle. Perhaps he feels uncomfortable in this hotel. Perhaps it is the fact that Mansur is confined to a Spartan one-bedroom accommodation while he is confined to the accommodations in the most glamorous hotel in all Sri Lanka that bothers him. Perhaps he feels uncomfortable because he has never been in a place like this and doesn’t know how to enjoy it. Perhaps it bothers him that all of the employees in the hotel are Sri Lankan while all the guests are Europeans - perhaps it bothers him that the most beautiful accomodations in Sri Lanka is not for Sri Lankans.
