by E.M. Palitha Edirisooriya
Translated into English from Sinhala by samodH Porawagamage & Kasun Pathirage
MAY 23
Yesterday was Wednesday - the mid-week fair day. A day for us to rake in the dough. This is the day the ones who do cooking, laundry, yardwork and gardening get together and gossip. They share three-wheelers in groups of four and go home carrying groceries.
If the prices stay high like this, they say they will walk home from next week. And use the fare money to buy some food.
Oil prices have spiked in the international market, but how can we hike our fare after hearing these complaints? We all still struggle alone.
JUNE 07
Usually, we three-wheelers don’t like to drive past eight o'clock at night. There’s no difference between day and night though, with what’s going on in the country. Quiet, but sinister.
I had to take a pregnant mother nearing labor to the hospital nearly at midnight. That novice mother’s whimpering, wailing and agony reminded me of my own mother. Oh, what suffering do mothers undergo because of their children?
May boys who make girls into mothers by trickery be cursed! May all children born be blessed with a father’s love!
SEPTEMBER 20
I could not help looking at the long-winding road. Two maroon-robed monks near the lottery booth. The waiter in the eatery threw dishwater onto the street. A crow in the air, a dog on the ground, both trying to make a move on the slop. The speeding Chaly crashed on the brakes. The dog and the man sprawled on each side of the road. The crow flew away. The water must have evaporated in the sunlight. The monks and I had the best view of the incident. There haven’t been many trips today, so I wrote what I saw.
Why do you walk away as if you didn’t see…
MONDAY
Courtroom drama. Fiddle your thumbs until your case is called. More than ten maintenance suits. They make kids, pay women money and let go of their responsibilities. Not paying bank loans. Selling moonshine, distilling, drivers breaking road rules, dealings without licenses. The punishment for the guilty is always a fine that can be paid with cash.
The lights aren’t enough with the gloom of rain clouds. They even had to light a candle in front of the judge’s seat in the Minuwangoda courthouse.
How much harder it is to follow orders than it is to give them. I drove the passenger who paid the fine back to his village.
JULY 09
A trip to the government press to fill out the forms for school uniforms. One to hand it over to the school. Another to the divisional secretary's office. Small but several fares.
“They must be thinking schoolchildren are orphans. If they’re giving it free, then give it free without wasting our time. Would we send our little ones naked to school if we don’t get their rags?”
Right..let’s go uncle…
Emperor’s new clothes.
E.M. Palitha Edirisooriya is a farmer and a three-wheeler driver. He has also been a columnist and contributor for several national newspapers. In addition to "Life on Three Wheels," he has authored a book on gammadu, a traditional ritual of rural Sri Lanka.
samodH Porawagamage is the author of the poetry collections becoming sam (Burnside Review Press) and All the Salty Sand in Our Mouths (forthcoming from Airlie Press).
Kasun Pathirage is a freelance writer and translator based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He is working on his first book, a collection of Lovecraftian horror with a Sri Lankan twist.