තුන්සිය අසුවකදී..

"Excuse me අයියේ, මට seat එකේ තව පොඩ්ඩක් ඉඩ දෙන්න පුලුවන්ද එහාටවෙලා ?"

I was baffled to see how this small kid could not sit on almost half the space of the seat..

"මල්ලි ඔයාට පේනවනේ මේ seat එකෙන් බාගයක්ම ඉඩ දීල තියෙන්නෙ, තවත් ඔයාට ඉදගන්න ඉඩ ඕනද ?"

I squeezed myself to an exact half of the seat (I am fat indeed and the seat too small) and unleashed my harsh tone on him. Infact I was pissed off by this little brat and with all the other things depressing my mind it just found a way through my words to burst out!

But I could not stare out from the window for long. I felt guilty for what I've done and the tone which he spoke to me, something was not right..

Maybe the kid is sick and that’s why he wanted some more space and the poor fellow, what could've he felt from hearing those words from me in a monstrous tone.I could clearly see that he was not crying but the face was so red, he could break any moment now.

"මල්ලි තව පොඩ්ඩක් මෙහාට එන්න, දන්නේ නැද්ද මේ බස් වල seat ගොඩක් පොඩියිනේ ඉතින්." I shifted myself to the ultimum trying to pat him on the back at the same time.

"නෑ අයියේ කමක් නෑ , පොඩ්ඩක් ඉඩ තිබ්බනම් ඇති.."

Now I'm trying to smile at him as innocently as possible. Poor kid, I should've thought twice before being harsh on him.

"අයිය මාකොල ද බහින්නෙ ?"

"නෑ, කිරිබත්ගොඩ "

"මට පොඩ්ඩක් මාකොල දී කියනවද? මන් කලින් බස් එකේ ඇවිල්ල නැහැ , තාත්තට අද ඔෆිස් එකේ වැඩක්ලු , වෙනදට class ඇරිලා car එකේ එන්නෙ "

The slow guilty tone he spoke made more sympathetic, and now I know the reason for his strange tone and behaviour. At his age I would sit on an inch of a seat and would sleep safely hanging on a footboard. But he haven’t had such a "luxury" in his life for sure.

"මාකොල Town එකේද ? බහින තැන මතකද ?"

"නෑ , වෙනදට හරවන හන්දිය නම් මතකයි" and the timid look on his face..

Holy Macaroni..!

"කමක් නෑ ,මාකොලට ආවහම මම කියන්නම්, අපි පාර බලාගෙන යමුකෝ.."

I wanted to comfort him a little bit more.

"මල්ලි මොකක්ද ඉස්කෝලෙ ?"

"Asoka College"

"මම Royalist"

"අයිය තාම ඉස්කෝලේ යනවද ? නෑ ඉස්කෝලේ ගිහින් ඉවරයි නේද ? Campus ද ?" ( Naa.. I'm way too old for all of it kiddo tongue emoticon )

"මම දැන් කැම්පස් ගිහිල්ලත් ඉවරයි "

And then he was relaxed enough to ask me all his little little questions.
First he wanted to know what campus I went to and then what subjects I did. But I don't think he understood why I could not do engineering even going to Moratuwa. And he was amazed that we don't offer Accounting there (Not yet :P )I got to know his father is an executive level manager and he has a cousin whose father is a lecturer in University of Peradeniya. He said his future ambition is also to go to Moratuwa University. But he is still in grade 9.

One of his prominent questions were how many "A's" I've got in my school days for subjects. Perhaps it's his perception of ability to get selected to a University.
Another question was

"කැම්පස් එකේ Maths වලට තියන විබාග ගොඩක් අමාරුද , ඒවා pass උනේ නැත්තම් Engineer කෙනෙක් වෙන්න බැයිද ?"

Now, how do I explain him the way our universities work?

 frown emoticon

"ඒවා ටිකක් අමාරුයි ඉතින් .. හැබැයි ඒවා පාඩම් කලහම pass කරගන්න පුළුවන්, pass වෙන්න විතරයි ඕන ,O/L , A/L වගේ ලකුණු මදි උනා කියල ඉස්සරහට යන්න බැරිවෙන්නේ නැහැ"

(But dude! you have to know what O/L 's is first ! tongue emoticon )

"ඔයා ඉස්සෙල්ලම OL විබාගේ හොදට කරන්නකෝ , ඊට පස්සේ AL හොදට pass උනහම campus යන්න පුළුවන් .. එතකොට ඔය සේරම තේරෙයි !"

He wanted to know where my father works, and I told him "තැපැල් එකේ " and then he asked me whether he is living abroad.

What?!
I said No! He works in Colombo.

"මන් හිතුවේ ඇපල් එකේ වැඩ කරන අය සේරම පිටරට කියල.."

"නෑ නෑ තැපැල් එකේ.. ලියුම්! ලියුම් !!"

If my father's working in Apple, what on earth would I be doing in this damn 380 Dumbo?!

He showed those symptoms, typical to his generation and I did not worry much about them.

"විද්යාල හන්දිය බහිනන බහින්න .."

"අර එහා හන්දියෙන් තමා හැරෙන්න ඕන , මට මතකයි .."

Good! Phew!! 

smile emoticon

"ආ.. හරි එහෙනම් , හොදට ඉගෙනගෙන campus යන්න..!"

I gave him a pat on the shoulders again although I didn't feel that I fully recovered from being harsh on him.Al least I tried my best to be nice to him the rest of the time.smile emoticon

He got off from the next halt, and I tried to make a smile on my face and wave him good bye. The little one did stay to receive it with a timid smiley look in his face.I didn't feel neither good nor bad about what happened for a second and then noticed several drops of sweat on my forehead.I don't usually sweat, and I was on the window seat.

Maybe those were some drops of shame or maybe that kid’s confidence and innocence are responsible.
You never know...