Jaffna through my eyes..

I had waited so long, almost my whole life in fact, to get to Jaffna. I will spare you a lengthy nostalgic intro about the three decade long war and the destruction it has wreaked. This blog post captures some interesting observations I made during our three day crash course there. To be precise, at a glance, it looked quite like a less crowded Pettah. Anyway, we got down from the Lake House luxury bus and headed towards the trishaw park. I soon realized that Jaffna’s three-wheeler drivers were different from those back in Colombo. When I asked him to take us to the GTZ guest house within a 3km radius from the city, while friendly, he was completely clueless as to it’s whereabouts, stopping every few feet, to ask for directions. Much to our surprise, many of them did not know about what was down their own street. In fact, that was one of the spicy truths about the Jaffna people. They can’t seem to find their own arse, if they had to give directions to all the spicy food they swallow a few times every day. Subsequently, we hired two other three- wheeler drivers, including our charming and friendly hotel owner, who volunteered to show us around. They all lived up to this reputation.

While it is the ultimate taboo for the fashionistas in urban circles back here, the Jaffna girls like to dress alike. But for these young girls, it is a form of bonding and they take great pride in it. It is not uncommon to spot girls walking down the streets, hand in hand, with their ‘dressed-alike’ friends. It is really cute to spot them everywhere. Just as much as the girls do, the guys too, have their own thing. Five out of five of them would very likely be found wearing stripes. My guess is, if you spot anyone in a stripeless shirt or tee, chances are, he is not from Jaffna. I also reckon paint companies will do really well in Jaffna. Everywhere you look, from their walls to their clothes, it’s likely you’d see odd combinations of bright colors. The Jaffna women, especially, would be spotted wearing jazzy clothes, full of shiny beads and sequins. Completely ignoring their skin tones, they will boldly mix shades of pink with blues, like the Tamil movie stars do. And it will take quite a while to sell our low hung, butt cut pants there, I guess.

If you think your typical media plan will reach Jaffna, forget it. They are bombarded with South Indian TV channels. What is nice about these people is that, all the exposure to these channels hasn’t significantly influenced their behavior. Their body language tells us that they have a very formal type of relationship with their spouses and the concept of co-habitation hasn’t really hit them hard. It may well be that their priorities were different during hard times, forcing them to put all their romance on hold. And it still seems to be on a long break, so there are a lot of opportunities for brands, especially those that promote the idea that delayed romance is better than no romance at all. By nature, the husbands tend to be dutiful, working diligently towards the welfare of the family while putting aside their own individual priorities. The culture still emphasizes the importance of the family, unlike the developing trend back here in Colombo, of putting self before everyone else I hope it stays that way.

It’s also possibly a great second hand market for a lot of things. A quick look around will show you cars, made in the 40’and 50’s, still working perfectly in Jaffna. They have learned well, to preserve and take care of what they have. So who knows, you may get a better offer there, for your second hand car.

Jaffna is still infested with security people, which could be annoying at times. It was strange to find that the locals were appreciative of their presence or may be they just said so to please us, taking us to be the stereotypical inquisitive southerners. However, like most of us, they try to avoid contact as much as possible. Strangely, we also found most of the cops there, friendly and co-operative, save for this one vindictive cop who was horrid to our three-wheeler driver, for no reason.

I saved my most interesting observation for the last. On our way back, we boarded our bus on time. Shortly, a heated argument sparked up between two parties, over their seating arrangement. I was surprised because there was so much room for every one. But one party aggressively insisted they get the two seats they were allocated. It was getting out of control, and then the next thing was, I burst out laughing when they started to swear in Sinhalese. Their enunciation and delivery of what was not their mother tongue after all, was really funny, but for a moment I appreciated their attempt, until they started exchanging punches. So, it seems, when the Tamils there get really pissed off, it is likely they would talk in Sinhalese. They delayed our bus by at least an hour and a half.

Now is the time for reconciliation and befriending our long lost pals. But it all starts with understanding their deep rooted habits and behavior, appreciating and celebrating their differences, and accepting them for who they are. There are far too many people who want reach out to them and to sell to them. So understanding their psyche could be really useful at all levels. I recommend that everyone takes a trip there, for there is much to see, learn and experience.