Suffered in the hands of good governance | Sunday Observer

Suffered in the hands of good governance

1 December, 2019

The day was November 15. The day prior to the Presidential Election. I live in a flat with my sick child. He wanted to drink some tea in the evening. I switched on the gas cooker hoping there was enough gas to boil some water to make tea for my sick child. But my heart stopped when the cooker did not ignite after several attempts. We do not have any electrical appliances at home.

I went to a shop closeby to buy a cup of tea. But all of them were closed down due to nonavailability of gas. Then I went to a house nearby and begged the lady, explaining my situation. She poured some water into her rice cooker and boiled it.

I thank god for saving the life of my child until November 18 because he did not get some medicine prescribed by the doctor. My child is suffering from a blood cancer (leukemia) and receiving medical treatment. A 39 old mother living in a flat at Jawatta related this story to me.

Some time back, my father fell sick. He was residing in Kandy with my aged mother in my ancestral home. I was working in Colombo at the time. When I received the call, I immediately decided to visit him. I called my wife and asked her to get ready with the kids.

There was very little petrol in my car. I had to fill the tank in order to go home, pick my wife and children and start the long journey to Kandy. There is no expressway and we had to drive through the ordinary road which consumes a lot of time.

I waited in one petrol queue for over an hour and decided to join a shorter queue to save time. I was very unfortunate. All petrol queues were very long. I had to go back to the same queue again and park my car at the end. By that time another 75 or 80 vehicles had taken my place in the queue. I waited in the queue in vain, thinking about my father. Everything came into my mind. How he took me to school on his old motorcycle. How he took me to see the doctor, and how he cried when I fell sick with a hole in the heart.

After waiting for over 18 hours, I managed to get some petrol. By that time my father was in the ICU at the Kandy General Hospital. I could not take the bus or train because my children suffered from dengue and were discharged from the hospital the previous day.

My wife had fever by then. I did not go home to pick up my wife and children. I went directly to the ICU to see my father. He passed away one and a half hours before I reached there.

I will never ever forgive who prevented me from seeing and talking to my father for the last time. I cannot sleep now.

It was due to my guilty conscience. I voted for the swan symbol in 2015! The story was related by a young executive who works for a reputed mobile company in Colombo.

These are only two short stories among hundreds of similar stories related to me by my relatives, friends and colleagues. Some of us, who are rich or powerful or had the right connections to the right places, had the chance and good luck to survive.

But how about the poor and helpless? We all know that our religions protect us. Mother Nature always keeps her eye on us. The god above us and Mother Nature cannot be bribed.

They cannot be misled with lies like ordinary human beings. In 2015, a 92 year old grandmother of my best friend told me something surprising. She said “Daughter, do not worry.

A very strong, powerful, intelligent, religious and well-disciplined individual will be endowed in time and save mother Lanka from destruction. It is proved in the history and it will be continued as stated in Sri Lankan history.

Therefore do not worry. Live your life. Keep faith in your religion. Love your motherland and serve it honestly. When the time comes, the individual I described will come and save you all.” Although she passed away in 2017, her prediction has become a reality today.

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