EXPERIENCE OF A TAMIL CHILD! 

“On a quiet day in August of 1977, the night mail train from Bandarawela was making its way to Colombo. On the winding journey to the capital the train routinely stopped atNawalapitya at around 1.00am to take in passengers. Breaking the still of the night were blood-curdling shouts from people embarking the train looking for Tamils. This was followed by screams from hundreds of people who were being pulled out on to the platform and beaten mercilessly. The train left the platform leaving behind some fathers and husbands whilst their families were released after being beaten and robbed. It was heartrending as children were torn from their fathers and some were moaning perhaps for the last time. The screams continued and they began to grow, mile after mile and station after station throughout the night as a bloodied train made its way to Colombo. My sister was 14 and I was 12yrs old and we were on that train. We understood nothing but numbing fear because we were Tamils. We survived the attack unscathed only because we had Sinhalese friends who enveloped us with their care and protection but above all prayer which saw the attackers mostly miss our carriage when they passed by. There were times when they boarded our carriage and flashed their torches right in our faces asking “themela the?” (are you a Tamil? ) Miraculously their lights blinded them from us being identified as Tamils.

Two months after this experience we saw ourselves seeking refuge in Jaffna.  Leaving my school S’ Thomas’ College and being torn from dear friends who were mostly Sinhalese added to my trauma. I could never understand this move until my father explained it many years later. Unknown to me and my sister we had carried the screams from the platforms of Nawalapitya to our home in Bambalapitya, waking up in the night screaming for help. As a father he could take no more and Jaffna became a justified move.What was planted in Nawalapitya was fear and we spent the next few years in Jaffna, in an environment where we sadly saw that the resentment towards the Singhalese. that eventually caused a war. A war that would last 30 years.