"Athak Dunna fun Ekak" *

You and I would think that the heart is important than anything. There is membrane. There are valves. If you sob and sob, membranes might break. Because they are too tender. Yes. Heart is important. It is what keeps us alive.

Day before yesterday SriLanka Law College celebrated one of its prestigious events in the academic calendar. It was “Vihangasara”, the singing competition of the year to select the best voice of all those in Law College. I was once a competitor for” Vihangasara”. That was last year. But this time I decided to become a spectator and listen to one of my favorite voices in Law College. That is Nissanka Ayya’s. Many eminent artists were there. There was Nadeeka Guruge and even Upul Shantha Sannasgala. Sannasgala’s speech was somewhat remarkable. This is how a part of it went.

“We all have hearts. It pulls blood in and pulls out blood. We hear the lub and dub that occur in sequence with each heartbeat. Heart murmurs are generated by turbulent flow of blood. Heart is a lump of tender muscles. But I wonder if all SriLankans have hearts. Majority in this country live with conspiracy, lie, anger and hatred. I see that many are heart less. I don’t call every lump of muscles a heart. I think that those who feel the pain of others and those who care others effortlessly are the ones with a heart. “

His words took me to a few days back. Aluthgama created horror and disgust, fear, threat and arguments. Some thought we were heading to another ethnic conflict. Some said it is another Black July. But it happened in June, by the way. In the middle of all these things, there was a significant change in profile pictures on Facebook. Many changed their profile pictures that picked up the line “Stand against Racism” or something similar to this sentiment.  There was hand, fingers spread out. And a tiny map of SriLanka on its palm. It was a simple implication of “No!”. Most of these profile pictures came in a yellow background. Later I came across the same picture with both green and yellow. No doubt, the colors are an indication of Buddhists and Muslims, where both communities were in conflict. Whether it’s green or yellow, do we need colors to represent us?  . We don’t mind our best friends being Sinhala, Muslim or Tamil. Sometimes we only realize that a friend is Muslim or Tamil or Sinhala when they invite us for their festivals. A Muslim won’t simply become friends only with a Muslim. A Sinhalese won’t only become friends with a Sinhalese. Friends are friends. There is no choice of race, nationality or color for friends. The brilliant thing about this country  is the different cultures we share. So many festivals and different lifestyles. Colorful and vibrant. A rare composition. Need I say more?

Let’s leave away this heavy politics and conflicts. While browsing through Facebook, yesterday I came to know of a Community group called “Athak Dunna fun Ekak”. The creation of this group was a result of the” hand” that went viral among the SriLankans against Muslim – Sinhalese attacks. Looking at the page advertisement in my newsfeed, my first thoughts were that as usual people are trying to cry, weep and stand on Facebook on behalf of an entire country.

I was wrong.

The content was different. It was nothing but “atha gana katha”. There is atha (hand) and many sayings related to “atha”.

“Atha bala sasthara kiyanu labe” , “Atha dennata pakilenna epa” , “Atha kasanawa” , “ Dawasata  pas sarayak atha hodanna” . There is so much to do with hands. Hands talk.“Dhana rekhawa” on the palm of a hand will forsee  ones wealth. “Iri thuna” ( three lines ) down the little finger would tell the number of marraiges that a person will go through.  Interestingly “atha” comes in songs too.

“Atha mita kasi panam honda hati thiyanawanam”

“Nona mata atha wananawa- api okkoma eyata ba kiyanawa”

“Athata atha dee  hithata hitha dee , ralla wilasin enna perali”

“Atha dennam thaththe wandi gewanna”

We use our hands so much we never think about it. We use hands to push, to pull, even to measure length or width, to count or keep ourselves organized. We use hands to say hello, goodbye, to show reverence to God, to worship or praise or to show appreciation at a concert. Hands build or destroy, heal and hurt. There is touching, grasping, feeling, caressing, sexual pleasures and more. Hand is common . Often used to imply things . We hear people say “athe sathe na” (no money in hand) when they are running out of money.

Of all things  I have heard ,some say “ eya nathiwechcha eka hariyata nikan athak nathiwuna wage” (Loss of a person is like losing an arm)Loosing hands or having injured hands would cause trouble. It will be hard to accomplish even daily activities like drinking and eating. A loss of something will always cause frustration . So you see , there is hand as equally important as the heart .

I remember an old Sinhalese proverb . “Thama hisata thama athamaya sewanalla”. There is nobody who really helps but one’s hands will. Haven’t you noticed when you get caught in rain without an umbrella, automatically  your hand covers the head?

(Featured in "The Nation" on 6th July 2014)