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Thursday 18 April 2013

Aluth Avurudda

Recognized in customs
togetherness and giving
sharing and forgiving
new clothes and freshness
holidays and holidaying
the solemn and carefree
overflowing gladness
and burying of inconsequentiality 
this Avurudda
the true New Year of the nation
is a solidarity marker
where auspicious 
is wrought of oneness
a one-moment match-strike
a one-moment partaking
one-moment anointing 
from Devundara to Peduru Thuduwa
across random boundaries
and fantasy line,
it’s a Sinhala thing, a Tamil thing
but not forbidden to anyone else
either in observation of receipt 
of kindness and gift,
it is the annual renewal
of nation and citizenship
affirmation of history 
and heritage
the foundation 
of all our tomorrows.

[Inspired by the photography of Rukshan Abeywansha, and published in THE NATION, April 14, 2013]