While I Wait For the Shelling to End

On my way to Batticaloa, our car was stopped just at the outskirts by Sri Lankan army troops. The soldier told us the road was closed as the Tamil tiger rebels were firing shells towards an army camp.















We had to wait for over 5 hours before shelling ended and we could move. Just near the place our car was stopped, I met Jivaraj and his father at their small open air foundry.He asked his wife to get a chair from inside the house, when I told him I was from India and wanted to talk to him. His daughter ran in and got me a glass of water.

"I know a few words of Hindi you know. The Indian army was here in the 80's and I worked with them." he tells me.
" I come from a family of goldsmiths, but we hardly deal in gold now...mostly make knifes and other small iron implements. I make about 500 rupees a day. Enough to feed my family and send my children to school." he adds.

His father asks me to stay on for lunch. "We are not very rich, but you must stay and share the simple food that we have. We have a lot of respect for people from India. We Tamil look at India as our motherland too" he say.

I ask Jivaraj if the recent fighting has had any impact on his business. He looks at me for a while and then gave me this diplomatic answer.

" I am a poor man with a small business, my business has not been effected at all. I still make enough money to feed my family and care for my children. I do hope the fighting ends and the people live like they did before."