The Sri Lankan profession (Novel): Chapter - 28 - Before I close my eyes...

Hamdha Mohideen’s diary

“I wanted to see you getting married before I close my eyes, that’s what worries me”, my father repeated the same stanza three or four times this week. At first, I felt pity for him, but at last, I got angry at him today, “dada, stop this nonsense. You talk as if you are going to die tomorrow”.

Literally, my father sounded as if he was going to die. He did not take my anger seriously. I have never yelled at my father before. The feeling of pity towards him made me angry. But, he took my anger as a hilarious comedy, and he laughed loudly. He uttered to me with the same kind empathic tone: “I couldn’t save enough wealth for you, darling. But, you have a sound education to look after yourself. I am happy about it”, he said.

The Sri Lankan Profession (Novel) : Chapter 27 - The hope of a winter sun

Minhaj Firdaws’ diary

Today is Friday.

I am spending my weekend holiday in Umm Salal Muhammedh, Qatar.

I am lucky. I came to Qatar at a time of the year closer to the winter. My main concern before I came here was about the climate. I could not even think of the tropical desert weather.

Sri Lanka, of course, being situated close to the equator, is a tropically hot country. However, the temperature in the hill country is somewhat lower than the average temperature of the rest of the country, and it is a cold place by national standards.

It is one of the main reasons many tourists prefer hill country in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan Profession (novel) : Chapter 26 - Demise and Downfall

Mohideen Haajiyar’s Diary

Last time when I visited Marudur, there occurred the kidnapping drama and I got arrested. Afterwards, for several months I did not visit my native village ever again. Though I occasionally visited Vijayapura, I refrained from visiting Marudur which was situated within a kilometre of distance from Wijayapura. It felt like a spiritual vacuum for me. My chest often hurts when I suddenly wake up from deep sleep in the middle of the night. I find it difficult to fall asleep again if I wake up in half this way.

The Sri Lankan Profession (novel) : Chapter 25 - The collective forgetfulness

Minhaj’s Diary

It’s several months since it flooded Marudur. The fast pace of time frightens me. The thought only leads me to realise we have only a limited reserve of time left out in our earthly life.

Marudur people, who were directly affected by the flood, have almost forgotten the disaster. The agony of the flood has faded away from the folk's memory. Many people behaved as if the flood never occurred in the first place.

Over time, the flood will remain a distant memory that has nothing to do with the present. Is this what we call “collective dementia” or “collective forgetfulness”?

When I think of collective forgetfulness, I am unable to forget the fate of my geography teacher, Mujahid Sir. I was at my Advanced level at the time. I feel a collective guilt till this moment for what happened to him though I have no share in his fate.

2022: A year without writing?

A well-known saying attributed to a companion of the Prophet goes on: ((Hold yourselves to account, before you would be inquired)).

This companion reminds us that there will be a day when the heavens and the earth will perish as God Almighty created them before. It is the Hereafter and the Day of Judgement. And we will get brought into account on this day, and we will receive our records in our right hand or our left hand (May Allah give us them in our right hand).

This day is the day of reward for our actions, and there will be no opportunity in our hands to act.

The Sri Lankan Profession (Novel): Chapter 24 (Part 02 ): The Approaching Evil

Shibly’s Diary

Today is Wednesday. Not a rainy day. Sun shined for the first time in the week.

The school functioned as usual today.

"Usually" means that the staff and the students attended the school in the morning and left in the afternoon.

The school functioned as a matter of formality. Apart from this, nothing else was usual. Whenever teachers and students met each other, they talked about the Principal's disappearance.

The Sri Lankan Profession (Novel) : Chapter 24 (Part 01) : The toy flood

Tuesday.

It was noon. The clock in the Vijayapura police station said 12.44 pm. Usually, a hot hour with blazingly burning sun. Yet, today there was no sunshine. The sky was elegantly wrapped with thick rainy clouds. The blowing wind was chilling the body as if sitting in front of an opened refrigerator.

Inspector Ajantha's mind was wandering around the case of the missing incident in Marudur. The missing school principal or his corpse has not yet been found.

The Sri Lankan Profession (Novel) - Chapter 23 (Part 03) - The Arrests

The news of the Principal's disappearance had spread throughout the village by noon. The news had triggered different sorts of speculations.

Some people thought he might have been kidnapped.

Some others thought he could have drowned in the floodwater.

Some people thought that the Principal ran away from the village to save his face after his bitter argument with Engineer Rashadh.

Facebook and Youtube competitions: Some ethical loopholes

I have a selfish interest for writing this column. My son is a toddler right now. He will soon be one among the sets of kids about whom I am discussing in this article.

I want my child to compete with his fellow kids alone, not with their parents (if he ever wants to compete with anyone).

The Profession (Novel): Chapter 23 (Part 02) - The Cousin Brother and The Elder Brother

Hamdha’s Diary

Life in Colombo was so different for us from our life in Marudur. In the evenings after attending lectures at the university, I was home . We had our privacy in our Colombo home, as my mother always wished to have.

This Colombo house of ours was my mother’s share of inheritance from her father.

My father did not have any community responsibility here, at least so far. He had plenty of time to fully concentrate on his business activities. For my mom’s joy, he had become a full-time businessman again.