{"id":189273,"date":"2018-03-30T00:24:29","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T18:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=189273"},"modified":"2018-04-01T23:55:18","modified_gmt":"2018-04-01T18:25:18","slug":"not-golden-but-the-beginnings-of-an-aathal-age-of-television-for-sri-lanka-measured-by-cups-of-tea-koombiyo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/not-golden-but-the-beginnings-of-an-aathal-age-of-television-for-sri-lanka-measured-by-cups-of-tea-koombiyo\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Golden, But The Beginnings Of An Aathal Age Of Television For Sri Lanka, Measured By Cups Of Tea – Koombiyo"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Renuka Satchithananthan (Mendis)<\/a>\u00a0\u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Renuka Satchithananthan (Mendis)<\/p><\/div>\n

They eat katu karawala, d<\/i>rink plain tea, and play cricket inside their abandoned garage home.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since when Weinstein was fully exposed recently and the arrival of #MeToo I have walked away from much of Hollywood and especially North American entertainment media. Truth be told the walk-away started well prior but this sealed the deal. We may or may not still be in the West\u2019s golden age of television but the alienation felt as a woman who is neither economically privileged nor white made TV and their gold and silver intolerable. The stories have been amazing and I have obsessively followed some but the time had passed to let it go. It does not serve or reflect my reality even by a stretch. My time is better spent away from screens and with novels mostly. A more humane experience. Great novels will always be written. It has been a good holiday away from irrelevant realities, with even less time on YouTube \u2013 being cut off from manufactured reality on line I guess. The situation was further compounded by drastically reduced Facebook time after Zuckerberg\u2019s exposure in data mining. I plan to stay away.<\/span><\/p>\n

Living in far off Canada, had I not shared the same speech and drama teacher in Kotahena with Peter D\u2019Almeida long ago I would have missed everything. I am no fan of Ted Talks but accidentally encountered D\u2019Almeida\u2019s Ted Talk on YouTube. He has not changed one bit. The same fellow who I heard recite bits of Shakespeare et al<\/i> on Bloemendhal Lane in our early youth. Along with the usual obeisance and sir\u2019ification of D\u2019Almeida, Koombiyo<\/i> was mentioned in comments and I had to look. The timing couldn\u2019t have been better. But I did not come here to talk about Peter D\u2019Almeida except, if not for the long ago connection Koombiyo<\/i> might well have passed me by like a private bus for I would never have seen that Koombiyo<\/i> on line comment. So I went looking.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Priyantha and Jehan (played by Thumindu Dodantenna and Kalana Gunasekara). From Koombiyo. (Photo credit www.itn.lk)<\/p><\/div>\n

Fifty-seven thirty minute episodes with the finale in Sri Lanka on March 17, 2018. The first episode premiered in August, 2017 and I had no idea this had been going on. Everything is on YouTube (horribly interspersed with ads which you learn to tune out as you binge, binge, binge). That\u2019s what happened to me and I found a world which I inhabit in my heart. A world not made of puffy sofas, neatly kept homes, newly painted walls, draperies, fancy cars and constructed class privilege in big tall houses behind high walls.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is only an introduction and a memento to how easily I would have missed this movement. Api okkoma than koombi kaala inne. Harima aathal.<\/i> I could write a book and sit at Galleface with other koombi<\/i> and talk till the cows come home. Yet bills have to be paid, dishes must be washed. So I am not going to get into political theorizing but mention a few things that stole my heart and stood out. <\/span><\/p>\n

Let us start with Jehan. Here he is \u2013<\/span><\/p>\n