Sunday, June 8, 2014

Yakku saha Boothayo* ( Devils and Monsters)



After hearing to an year’s family law stories, he is very much ready to reveal  his stories on Administrative Law. He says, “they were lessons, not stories”. He fondly remembers the days.

Mr. Nawaz is currently a Deputy Solicitor General. He is busier than a bee , naturally , a Royalist , scholarly and well read. A voracious katha malla too. It’s a blessing to have people like him who are experienced and well exposed.

Two days before he was talking about loose heads , being loose headed and  yaka . In his words it was “yaka nagina hati” . Yaka rises unexpectedly , no signals or warnings given ahead. Yaka is such an interesting fellow. We hear “bootha Katha “too. I’ve heard some people say bootha kiyawanne nathuwa inna (don’t talk weird things). Boothaya is thousand times better and calmer. I think like that. Yaka is good at messing things, flipping things upside down and chopping things completely.

We live in a society where we all compete for food, shelter, money, good jobs and even a good education. Basically we struggle for every good thing because there is only little good available. There is living rage within us. Yaka rises when we don’t receive what we have been expecting. Just think, long queues, traffic jams, computer crashes or crowded buses make us see a red mist. These are little things, but we’ve lost control. Yaka has lessened the discipline within us.

Mr. Nawaz regrettably said that he argued a Policeman on the Vesak  day.

 “I was wrong, I knew. I did not see the No U turn board. The Policeman tried to take me to Prison . I stopped the car . I didn’t reveal him that I was a Lawyer though . There was an exchange of angry words. I shouldn’t have done that. I was too foolish”

Yes, we lose our heads at times. Just like those Commissioners who terminate licenses for no reason. Funny at times. But they can be disastrous.
His story was followed by another. It was thought provoking.

“I was in the second year at law College. Many were coupled at that time. There was a girl in our batch whose boyfriend was one of my best friends. One morning I was heading to lectures in a trishaw. I saw my friend’s girl walking all the way. I stopped and gave her a lift too.  I didn’t know that my friend saw his girl getting down with me. I just helped the girl who was walking to College. Two days after I got to know that they broke up. It was 3 years for their relationship already”

“So, the yaka within my friend signaled that I was trying his girl”. This was his story.

This is no surprise for us . Today, girls and boys chat on facebook, meet up, sleep together and break up the next day with all sorts of rude text messages and phone calls. All happens very fast. The underside is that we are not ready to hear anybody. We don’t like to hear what others have got to say. We assume what we see to be correct. We blast at people not knowing the true facts of an incident. One may think that it’s a waste of time to gather the truth. If you think that time is precious, you are too selfish.

“You shouldn’t be the judge of your own case, neither you shouldn’t be one sided. That’s injustice, you know” Mr. Nawaz exclaimed.

I just got to know that natural justice claims a part in our lives. Injustice can even make us lose people we love. Is there anything for us to learn from this? Or have we learnt already? I like to think that we know these already. It’s just that we don’t bother applying them in real life.

Has a partner left you with valid reason?  The dramas that all drama kings and queens script has no reason at times. It is the anger that makes the other to pull strings away easily. We own nothing in the end, but some blood boiling inside us with big bubbles.

Do you know now that there is a yaka within you, playing all things? Boothaya is much better. They  only scare you .



 ( Published in "The Nation" newspaper on 08th June 2014)

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