The Bridge Between The Diaspora Youth And Their Country Of Origin
Thisara Devasurendra
Rather than quoting empirical data, and authors or complex theories, today I will speak to you through my experiences.
As far as I remember, like the majority of my Sri Lankan friends born during the eighties, I have always known my parents’ country as a country in war. And even if the conflict is over since a few years now, I frequently get reminded that there was a war. Especially when I meet someone new, and they ask me where I come from I naturally respond to them – Sri Lanka.
To the majority of people that I have told about my origins, many are clueless, and I just don’t insist. For those of whom are accustomed to living in very cosmopolitan areas of the world or are slightly more aware of the world will ask me, “there’s a war there isn’t it? So are you Tamil or Sinhala? So who are the real bad guys?” All these questions awakens horrid memories that I witnessed as a child during my frequent stays in Sri Lanka. So yes, it makes me upset that this beautiful country had undergone one of the bloodiest wars that even I witnessed, leaving a real meaning to the word ‘gruesome’ in my mind.
Truth be told, I have lived in Sri Lanka, and I go there as much as few times a year since birth, yet I have only been to the Northern part of Sri Lanka during the summer of 2011, and before that the most Northern point I had been was Trincomalee in 2005. It is when I went to Jaffna in 2011 that the feeling that something wasn’t right started growing in my mind. Witnessing all the chaos that ravaged Jaffna and seeing this for the first time gave me chills in my spine. I was then on a family holiday with my parents, aunts, uncles and my grandmother who also lived until the mid-60’s in Jaffna and left like many others during the 70’s. Then I thought to myself, war is certainly over politically speaking, but what if my family background had its roots in Jaffna, and it was the first time I was able to visit my grandmother in Jaffna?
What would one feel coming to visit his or her grandparents or family for the first time and see all the monuments destroyed by bombing or even bullet ridden walls on their family home if not completely destroyed?
