90’s – a decade of Imperfection, Bollywood and Cheesy Romance…

Dedicated to my 90’s girls, the absolutely beautiful souls I was blessed to grow up with <3 span="">

Do you remember the 90s?

The landline phones – no CLI, you have no option but to recognize who is on the other end… so many prank calls. The free tattoos that came with bubble gum wrappers. The cassette tapes where you always have a blank tape inside so you can record your favourite song on radio.

If someone asked me to describe the 90’s in one word, I’d say ENERGETIC. No decade can ever beat the energy that the 90’s people had, even now… I will bet you anything on this.

It is the best, anyone who disagree have not lived the 90’s. The Bollywood in 90’s is something you cannot get away from…

Everything is over the top, overrated, loud and dramatic… A rich girl falls in love with a poor boy, then they dance around a tree for a song. Boy’s mother falls sick, then there is a song. There was a song for everything, there was a dance for everything.

Past few days I ended up doing a Bollywood dance with my batch mates in school for a school fundraiser. Not a dancer at all, the level of commitment I had to put in for it was high. I wanted to opt out few times, but I felt guilty. With the commitment and the level of energy the rest of them brought in, I was in no position to back off. While some of them packed their children to their inlaw’s house on the days of dancing, some of them left their children and came from Gampaha, some of them who are doctors came for practices after night shifts and some of them even practiced the dance at hospitals between patients. Some might think its crazy, yes that too was a consequence of being a 90’s girl.

Bollywood have taught us a lot, it taught us about loving your parents, loving your best friend (wink), respecting elders… it taught us the value of relationships, of letting go and holding on. It taught us to sympathise and empathise. No one could do romance better than them and no one could bring out emotions as much as them. In a funny way it has taught us about life and 20 years down the line, it still has that impact in us.

Crazy, naïve, overly romantic and silly. We didn’t have Justin Bieber back then, we had Prince William. Thanks to sweet valley obsession we made a love portion with soft drinks and ice cream from school cafeteria and swore and drank it saying ‘’William’’ the point was that Prince William needed to marry one of us. Well it was supposed to be a secret or the spell would break, I think the spell and our hearts both broke when he married Kate anyway. (One of my friends accidently said ‘’Wilson’’ instead of ‘William’ :P – only if Wilson uncle knew this)

I think we are one of the blessed decades to have received love letters (hand written ones, with scented paper) and although we might not have ‘literally’ danced around trees, we were lucky to enjoy the cheesy romance. The movies to songs, everywhere there was emotion. Heightened emotions. Even the lyrics were dramatic. ‘Najane mere dil ko kya, ho gaya… abhi tho abhi, kya abhi ho gaya….’’ Or ‘’quit playing games with my heart, I should have known from the start…’’ or ‘’my heart will go on and on…’’

90’s was not cool, it was not sexy, we didnt ‘duck face’ for photos. We had embarrassingly ugly pictures of ourselves, we had natural hair, we had imperfect shapes and tanned bodies. We didn’t have Kim Kardashains (thank god) or Edward Cullens. We had Shah Rukh Khan, we had Leonardo de Caprio (we loved his haircut – mushroom style from Titanic until every guy on the road copied it) We grew up watching real people, we were fans of people who actually inspired us.

One of the best thing about 90’s was that nothing was perfect. We never tried to be, we never tried too hard, we never tried too much, we were just ourselves.

90’s was about living the moment. It still is, even if it’s a mom with two kids or a wife – we still have that in us to live for the moment. It was a mixture of energy and emotion…

90’s was the decade which was meant to be real not to be perfect ;)

Are you Sri Lankan?

A speech I wrote for a very dear friend :P

Everywhere we travel in the world, we are questioned ‘are you Indian?’ we say NO WE ARE SRI LANKAN. No, we do not get offended because we are called ‘Indians’ but offended on the fact that we are not known as ‘Sri Lankans’. Why? Because there are so many things that make us who we are. Yes surrounded by the Indian Ocean, we have inherited many from our neighbors. From beliefs to religion or fashion to movies to food. We have inherited many by Portuguese, British and Dutch too, and the culture we live in today is a blend of all these strong nations with a flavor of our own and a spirit which can only be our ancestors’.

We love rice and curry, one thing we cannot live without. It is not about food only, whereas farming has been one of the oldest and most respected professions in my country rice and curry brings our people close. In school, during intervals, every classroom has one big parcel of rice where everyone digs into. As simple as it sounds, that has been the first step to friendship for many of us in school.

Food is a huge part in our community, food is about sharing it’s about giving and it’s also about showing your love to another. If you visit someone, in suburbs specially, there is no possible way you could leave the house without having lunch or dinner or atleast a cup of tea. It is in built, and it is a practice that you don’t leave a house without a super sweet cup of tea.

Sri Lankans have large extended families, which can be annoying sometimes when it comes to inquisitiveness of relatives for marriages and exams. We don’t travel in big packs as much as Indians, but the close knit community we have brings out the spirit and liveliness to us every day. Sri Lankans do NOT mind their own business, a bit too nosey, sometimes it is good. Because if there is a wedding or a funeral, and when your family is unable to take care of things on your own there is a whole community who would have your back, and a huge extended family to lean on to.

Talking about Sri Lanka, one thing we cannot forget. Cricket! Heritance from the British, cricket is in us, it is a part of our lives, you go to a housing scheme in any corner in the country you will see a bunch of boys playing cricket on a road, on the beach or somewhere where there is a little bit of space. Cricket is something which we were proud of, which brings us together, which used to be our stress relief from everything. Cricket is in our blood.

Sri Lanka, during the past 50 years have faced many hardships. We have lived through a war which lasted 30 years, we have lost many. Not only lives but a lot more with it.

I remember the central bank bomb blast in Colombo, it was the parents’ day in school and most of the girls were crying standing near the school gate waiting for delayed parents to turn up (not knowing if they would)

Then in 2004, we faced a tragedy– tsunami which swept away more than 30,000 lives. Recovery was hard, very hard. But we survived. Even today if you talk to a Sri Lankan about terrorism we can sympathize, we’ve known it, we’ve seen it, we’ve been through it, and we’ve survived it.

We are emotional yet tough, we are sensitive yet brave. Sri Lankans are very friendly, fun loving, quite real and extremely fierce. We live for today not for tomorrow, we cherish every breath of our lives because we know better than anyone that sometimes tomorrow might not exist.

Next time if you see someone having paint all over a face and dancing for some crazy trumpet music, or if you see a bunch singing loud offkey in a language that makes no sense,

Or if you see someone smiling through tears, laughing through the pain and defending a friend very fiercely…

Tap and ask… ‘Are you Sri Lankan?’

Happy Independence Day Sri Lanka !

Are you Sri Lankan?

A speech I wrote for a very dear friend :P

Everywhere we travel in the world, we are questioned ‘are you Indian?’ we say NO WE ARE SRI LANKAN. No, we do not get offended because we are called ‘Indians’ but offended on the fact that we are not known as ‘Sri Lankans’. Why? Because there are so many things that make us who we are. Yes surrounded by the Indian Ocean, we have inherited many from our neighbors. From beliefs to religion or fashion to movies to food. We have inherited many by Portuguese, British and Dutch too, and the culture we live in today is a blend of all these strong nations with a flavor of our own and a spirit which can only be our ancestors’.

We love rice and curry, one thing we cannot live without. It is not about food only, whereas farming has been one of the oldest and most respected professions in my country rice and curry brings our people close. In school, during intervals, every classroom has one big parcel of rice where everyone digs into. As simple as it sounds, that has been the first step to friendship for many of us in school.

Food is a huge part in our community, food is about sharing it’s about giving and it’s also about showing your love to another. If you visit someone, in suburbs specially, there is no possible way you could leave the house without having lunch or dinner or atleast a cup of tea. It is in built, and it is a practice that you don’t leave a house without a super sweet cup of tea.

Sri Lankans have large extended families, which can be annoying sometimes when it comes to inquisitiveness of relatives for marriages and exams. We don’t travel in big packs as much as Indians, but the close knit community we have brings out the spirit and liveliness to us every day. Sri Lankans do NOT mind their own business, a bit too nosey, sometimes it is good. Because if there is a wedding or a funeral, and when your family is unable to take care of things on your own there is a whole community who would have your back, and a huge extended family to lean on to.

Talking about Sri Lanka, one thing we cannot forget. Cricket! Heritance from the British, cricket is in us, it is a part of our lives, you go to a housing scheme in any corner in the country you will see a bunch of boys playing cricket on a road, on the beach or somewhere where there is a little bit of space. Cricket is something which we were proud of, which brings us together, which used to be our stress relief from everything. Cricket is in our blood.

Sri Lanka, during the past 50 years have faced many hardships. We have lived through a war which lasted 30 years, we have lost many. Not only lives but a lot more with it.

I remember the central bank bomb blast in Colombo, it was the parents’ day in school and most of the girls were crying standing near the school gate waiting for delayed parents to turn up (not knowing if they would)

Then in 2004, we faced a tragedy– tsunami which swept away more than 30,000 lives. Recovery was hard, very hard. But we survived. Even today if you talk to a Sri Lankan about terrorism we can sympathize, we’ve known it, we’ve seen it, we’ve been through it, and we’ve survived it.

We are emotional yet tough, we are sensitive yet brave. Sri Lankans are very friendly, fun loving, quite real and extremely fierce. We live for today not for tomorrow, we cherish every breath of our lives because we know better than anyone that sometimes tomorrow might not exist.

Next time if you see someone having paint all over a face and dancing for some crazy trumpet music, or if you see a bunch singing loud offkey in a language that makes no sense,

Or if you see someone smiling through tears, laughing through the pain and defending a friend very fiercely…

Tap and ask… ‘Are you Sri Lankan?’

Happy Independence Day Sri Lanka !