From: m1pkd00@fed.frb.gov (Prasad K. Dharmasena)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka
Subject: Re: Just rambling!!!
Date: 21 Dec 92 18:42:31 GMT


Sarath using <uunet!acs.ucalgary.ca!eknchan> account writes:

> When I was growing up in LANKA (about 50years ago) fair complexion =
> beautiful for girls and fair complexion and tall = handsome (`` SUDU
> USA KOLLA'').  Has anyone heard a good reason for this behavior other
> than SL was a British colony blah blah blah?

That is the only reason.  SL culture still, even after gaining 
independence from the Brits, worships Western (read: White) societies.
The flip side of the same coin is what I brought up over the last
summer.  That is, for a lot of Sri Lankans, mostly older folks,
who are living in the US, American is synonymous with White.  Blacks,
Asians, Hispanics, etc who are legitimately American are not quite
"American enough."  

Though there are songs about Kalu Kella (ie: "Kalu Kelle Oba Harima Hadaii")
"the whiter the better" attitude is sort of like written on stone. <sigh>
Then there are the terms like KKK ("Kalu Katha Kella").

>  If you looked around
> here in NA for guys handsome= musclebound tall guys, but having pretty
> face does not count. I guess endurance in doing certain things (I mean
> like jogging :-) counts a lot, I wonder whether it is same in SL now.

Endurance in some "other" thing counts a lot too, but you can't tell 
that by looking at someone.  <smirk>

Having a crooked nose is important too.  Look at Kevin Costner
and Harrison Ford.  (and a nice butt, not that *I* checked them out
or anything :-))



> (like don't outstand son come come understand..) and I think Amitha 
> Abeysekara was doing it for a living? Is it common only in our culture?

Nope.  Once I saw a graduation card with Peanuts characters.  Charlie
Brown says to Snoopy "You are outstanding!"  And on the inside "Come
on in and sit down."  But "Don't do can't things, Abram" is unique to SL.


> In TELE NATYA (can I call them soap's?) why do they always try to
> tell the countryside (or rural areas) is better? I mean the writers
> live in Colombo, actors do not look like they are suffering from
> malnutrition and then they try to preach how good the life in 
> the country.

Maybe it is!  Do you really think that everyone in rural areas of SL 
suffers from malnutrition? 

Seriously, there maybe few reasons.  One: it is easier to shoot the Tele 
Drama without too much trouble on a remote site than on Bambalapitiya
Junction.  Remember, SL TV/Movie industry is not all that hi-tech. 
Two: the writers are trying to impose their warped sense of "family 
values" on the SL society.  Three: The writers get their first draft 
from up above...  the people who write the "first draft" see the real 
life only through the tinted glass windows of their 300SL's when they 
dash from one bungalow to the next.


> A few months back ``Silumina'' paper ran a fiction, I don't remember
> the name, but the story goes like this. A guy goes to US for his
> studies and bring back an American girl and then she wash his and his
> fathers clothes with her hands !!!. He teaches good things about
> SL culture(?).  It was really funny!

Like I always say, if you want culture, then go get some yoghurt, huh?
BTW, was this guy on SLNet?  :-)  ;-)

prasad

--
Prasad Dharmasena      Internet: <pkd@fed.FRB.GOV>     UUCP: <uunet!fed!pkd>