Many of the vast crowd of devotees who came to Kandy, some from far off places like Hambantota for the Tooth Relic exhibition, had to wait long hours in the several queues disregarding the weather and failed to enter the temple before closing time and so remained in the queue till the afternoon of the next day, and yet being disappointed, because of their religious favour, remained in the queue next day too. But for the kind-heartedness of the citizens, many would surely have collapsed and even died.

Moved to pity, these citizens and organisations came to their succour. Some of them got loaves of bread and had them made into sandwiches with Sambol with the help of hotel-owners, some got biscuits, some boiled gram, etc. and some also got fruit drinks, tea, coffee and water etc., and had them served or served these themselves, even throughout the night.

This would indeed have gladdened many who, in view of the heinous crimes committed in the country today would have thought the milk of human kindness had dried up. But what of the equally indispensable other physical needs of these people! There were only the road-side drains, nooks and corners and the already polluted Kandy Lake for those in the queue by it. This is indeed a sad reflection of the City Fathers and the executives of the Kandy Municipality.

Crowds coming to the city is not something new to them. It had been the practice to erect temporary toilets during the Esala Perahera. When the crowds were daily increasing and the queues becoming long, it should have surely struck them that they could get even mobile toilets! People cannot be blamed if they consider this insensitive, indifference on the part of the authorities.

The suffering of these devotees did not end at that. Some police officers were rude and in civil. They wanted these people to behave as if in a parade during these long hours. Some in the queue including children were taken out and put at a point at the back of the queue. There have been instances of assault too. Further, there are witnesses to the arrogance and disrespectful behaviour of some high-ranking officers amounting to sacrilege in the hallowed premises of the Maligawa. This is certainly not to say that all police officers behaved in this way. Anyway, in the public interest, these misdeeds need investigation.

However that may be, the organisers may be patting themselves on their backs that everything went off very well, while some of those devotees are feeling happy that they gathered more merit to the extent of suffering they endured than those who had VIP and ordinary passes. For the others, this pilgrimage to the historic city would not have been full of happy memories.

Tissa Amarasekera
Kandy