SriLankan airlines boo down

To the land of sarees and back. In one piece with not much of collateral damage. I am pretty sure that I shall burst out crying if anyone so much as mentions sarees within the next few weeks. The things I do for my brother!

I felt like kissing the non-urinated, non-desecrated, betel spit unstained ground at arrival in SL. The suffering had been great, both in-flight and abroad. But good cultural splash nevertheless. Even after years of living there seems I have not quite gotten used to certain factors of that life. 

Was thinking of the decline of the Sri Lankan Airlines over the years. Glorious were the times when food was served in elegant porcelain dishes and tea was served in beautiful porcelain cups and the staff was alluring and courteous. The food itself was quite tempting and tea, more than just drinkable. But this must have been about 10 odd years before. Now at this declining day and age, appalling food is served in plastic vessels and a bland lame excuse for tea (in a country that is renowned for its tea, this is what they serve in-flight??)  is served in weirdly shaped plastic cups which is a huge turn off in itself. The food is uneatable and the crew rather impersonal and self-important. They used to be warm and inviting, familiar and welcoming. How things have changed! If this is what they call the "best of Sri Lankan hospitality", they do leave me wondering about worse case scenarios.

Last year an air hostess poured hot tea over my fingers scalding them pretty badly. Turned out that my horrible tea cup had been cracked and nobody noticed. They did not even apologize, rather turned up the nose, brought another cup and left. Being a peace loving person I did not complain. Everybody said that I should have. Well next time, I'm determined. 

Unless you happen to fly business class, its quite hard for a local to get some respect from these overpaid in-flight waiters and waitresses. Regardless, we always end up flying SriLankan out of loyalty. 

Come to think of it, I think its a Sri Lankan thing. Even in a restaurant, the white skinned get served first and in a more polite and courteous manner. At a local shop, the foreigner gets the undivided attention while we have to hang around in the background until somebody bestows their precious attention on us poor local folk. Its pathetic really. Seems we have not gotten out of our colonial mentality just yet. 

I beseech you to please take a look around the world to see how loyal other nations are to their own kind. We Sri Lankans suffer the discrimination as we travel the world when the nationalities concerned would always favor their own. In our own country we are discriminated for being locals. And yet we go about posting "Sinhala Buddhist" rants on social media. Think we are just bored and we want somebody to hate. 

A good lot of Facebook patriots we have become. My wall is overflowing with racist and patriotic material while we get discriminated in local restaurants and local airlines because of our Sri Lankan origin.  

Coming back to the topic of Chennai, couldn't help but compare their food culture with our very own. Theirs is an unmixed food culture. Even with a samosa they would give their own gravy whereas we would pour half a bottle of ketchup over a perfectly beautiful dish here in SL. Its like we are neither here nor there whereas they are well aware of where they stand. Comparatively, their sense of culture is much stronger than our own whereas we are like sponges ever ready to soak up anything and everything that is trending in the world today.  

Nevertheless the maximum amount of days you can eat their food is one and half. After a while it starts tasting the same and bland. I got myself craving for hot Sri Lankan chicken curry and that is novel for someone such as myself who is not the world's greatest spice fan. So I hand one to Sri Lanka in their culinary skills and the flavorsome dishes of a wide variety which never really bores you even when you've pigged out on them your entire life. 

Also, why is it that these people never smile? They have a perpetual frown on their faces that rivals the painful constipation evident on the face of Kristen Stewart. Also it seems that they have scared away the stray doggies from the roads with their own horrendous excrement. Its not an uncommon sight to see a man with his zipper down just peeing away at an unsuspecting wall or a woman with her saree hitched up, squatting on the ground doing their business in broad daylight. What you have to look out for while on these streets is not dog poop but human waste. Ten points for Sri Lankans for common decency, their easy smiles and cleanliness in general. 

All in all, its a part and parcel of the experience and India would not be India without the entire hullabaloo of madness and chaos. Its charming all the same, quite unique I should say. However, SO glad to be back. Seems that even years of living in India has not really got me integrated into their chaotic system just yet.  

Coming home is always pleasant when you have got someone waiting for you. Its an absolutely beautiful feeling. The fact that you've been missed brings a whole new definition to the life that you have been living so far. Suddenly you realize that you do matter to someone and even if it is just one person, it means the entire world. That is one good thing about travelling, there is always that warm and fuzzy feeling to come back home to which makes your entire month. But sometimes when expectations shatter even for a little while, it does sting quite a lot. That's the beauty and ugly of travel. You don't really know if you will be missed. Or if anyone even noticed you were gone.