Had He and I but Met

Today, I decided to come to the restaurant at the Hotel I am staying in Zürich, Switzerland called 80/40 restaurant:bar.

As I suspected when I passed by the restaurant before…

I thought…
I thought…
I thought…
I saw a Sri Lankan…

Just like Tweetie Bird, I was right 💁‍♂️

I introduced myself, and he did the same. I Hi-Fived when he said his parents are from Sri Lanka. He was born here, and spoke the language, Swiss-German fluently. He also spoke English fluently.

He is from the Tamil community, where as I am mixed race Sinhalese, and Malay. He asked me if I spoke Tamil for which I answered in Tamil “I understand a little”. After a while he had to leave me to attend another customer.

This got me thinking about the poem, The Man He Killed, by Thomas Hardy, which I studied for English Literature when I was 15 years of age in 1995 for my General Certificate Ordinary Level Examination.

I was mostly raised as a Sinhalese, I didn’t speak Malay or Practice Islam growing up, so I belonged to the Sinhala-Buddhist community.

This is not to say that every single Tamil person supported the LTTE, or the War, or every single Sinhalese hated Tamils, and Supported the War, but the truth remains, we had a war during my entire years spent in Sri Lanka.

So it is natural for me to think, if I was a Sri Lankan Government Army soldier and he was an LTTE soldier, and we were in some Forest in the dark during a war time, we would have shot at each other instead of having a lovely old chat. Just like Thomas Hardy tried to explain.

I was never really a racist, as I really can’t be one being mixed. But, It is only when we step out of Sri Lanka and experience a little racism towards us, we start to feel how bad it makes one feel.

I especially feel sorry for the Tamil community who would have felt this again in a “White World”, even for a little. I do thank the Swiss, Australian, and many other governments for giving us the opportunity to migrate, either through educational qualifications, job openings, or as refugees. But, I do feel for them for having to go through some discomfort again.

I do not like to discuss this topic much, as depending on how you look at it they may see what I write as “biased”.

I support the humane human community!

And I don’t care if it’s the Government, or LTTE, or anyone else,

I do not support two Sri Lankas, and I strongly support One World!

For Sri Lankans, I’d like to remind,

It doesn’t matter whether we are Sinhala or Tamil, or something else, we become “Indian” when we get to these countries most of the time. Indians, Sri Lankans, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Nepalese, all become “Indian”. It doesn’t matter if Sri Lanka was a seperate nation for 2500 years of written history!

So please, even if there is some slight racist thoughts, try to address the beliefs they stem from and get rid of them.

And definitely, please don’t start this bullshit all over again with the Muslim community. These are all Political tricks. Just get rid of the 225 in the parliament and get in some educated, wise, and diverse group. Please don’t vote the same way we’ve been doing in the past.

We will be ok!

These bullshiters have wasted and harmed enough of our lives.

– Nim –

The Man He Killed by Thomas Hardy

“Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have sat us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!

“But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place.

“I shot him dead because —
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
That’s clear enough; although

“He thought he’d ‘list, perhaps,
Off-hand like — just as I —
Was out of work — had sold his traps —
No other reason why.

“Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You’d treat if met where any bar is,
Or help to half-a-crown.”