Saku's Stories

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by

Sakunthala Ransrini Peiris

When I was small, I lived in a village. At least until I was ten, when I passed the government scholarship exam and moved to a school in Colombo. Even afterwards, almost all of my weekends and holidays were spent in the village. Our house was large, the garden even larger, with plenty of space for kids to run around in.

My childhood was spent playing outside with my sister. It was spent climbing trees and scaling walls. It was spent clambering to the rooftop for fun and cycling by myself through the village streets. As a child, I was unafraid. I was adventurous. I was wild and free and I ran rampant.

The days which weren't spent at home are still a too touchy a subject, and with your pardon I will broach it at some point in the future.

When I was halfway grown up, we moved to Summit Flats, smack dab in the middle of Colombo. And I got used to it. Used to the easy access to everything. Used to the enclosed space. Used to the tiny kitchen. Used to not living in Makandura under the vast open skies. And I got used to thinking that this was the way it should be.

After coming back home from work, stepping out for any reason was hardly ever done. I didn't even help thaththa cook or clean. I watched tv and ate and slept in the big dark room with my siblings.

Don't get me wrong. It was a good life. But I had forgotten the sky, the trees, and the grass.

Even after I got married and moved out, and into our own place, my thinking didn't change. We had a small garden, but I hardly stepped out.

And then battling with depression, being inside the house and being inside a room was immensely easier than stepping out anyway. For me handling that small space was somehow do-able than facing the green and the grass and the large mango tree in our garden. There is something comforting about being in a manageable space when you're battling with depression.

What didn't realise was that I was crippling my children, especially my eldest. My eldest with his heart of gold, my little philosopher, my little empath. My eldest, inside whom my heartbeats. He too was now getting too comfortable not stepping outside.

As for my little flower child, my little princess, who's got a piece of my soul, she follows her brother in everything.

We moved. We moved to a new house a month ago. Now we have a green green garden with grass to cushion little feeties. We are planting trees. And my babies are outside, all the time, just running about and playing. My eldest does his wizardry and hero prancing in the garden. He reads in the garden. My youngest runs around the garden with her lovely curls bouncing around her face.

They laugh when it gets windy. They run through the rain. They jump in puddles. They listen to birdsong in the mornings and admonish the little red-vented bulbul that comes inside the kitchen to peck away at their fruit.

And I watch. And now, with each step outside easier than the one before, I run outside and chase my children under the blue blue skies.

#sakurambleson