On days when the catch is large, hurullas are cheap. Women in the houses get down hurullo and salt them.

There were about a dozen fish in the earthenware pot which Akka had given the servant boy to bring some sea water.

"From where the devil did you get these herring?" she asked angrily.

"When I was filling the pot, they came with the water."

"Liar!" said Akka, curbing her mirth with effort. "You have gathered the herring as they escaped the net. Take all the ones that are still alive and throw them into the sea."

The boy took the seven fish that were alive and went towards the sea shore.

Doctor and two others went to the watch hut which was on a high point on the shore. After some time he brought out a niranchi set and started playing with another person.

Doctor, who excelled at idle gossip, was also a joker. When he laughed, his belly and the loose muscles on his body would shake, as though these too were laughing. A middle aged man, his forehead was in the shape of one half of an upturned plate.

"Do you know of how heen vedamahattaya treated an eye ailment?" he asks looking at us, and then turns his eyes towards the sea once again. He does this out of habit.

He looks at us again and laughs, "Heen Vedamahattaya went to Atanikitha to treat an eye patient. One of his eyes appeared to have sunk inside. Only the pupil was visible and this too only barely. He examined the patient and said, ‘the patient must go outside the house and stand, his back to the threshold’. He went to the carpentry workshop, took an atakoluwa and wrapped it in a piece of cloth. Holding the atakoluwa behind him he brought it down with all his might on the patient. The patient cried, "Amme"! The eye popped right out, along with the veins and sinews. Veda washed the eye with medicine, placed it in the socket and hit the patient’s forehead."

His entire body shaking with laughter, Doctor moved a piece on the niranchi board.

Since it was growing dark, someone lit the lantern that was hanging from a cross bar on the roof. The lanterns of the boats anchored far out on the calm sea are like a row of lamps. The wind, sweeping over the fish scales strewn over the sea sand, brings a decaying smell. The sky with its twinkling stars is like a reflection of the sea, dotted with boats carrying lanterns.

The bare bodied fishermen feel the cold. Doctor and a couple of others move closer to the fire that has been lit outside the hut. The fisherman who have bathed and were wearing new sarongs start emptying a bottle of arrack to warm their insides.

"Saradiel fills half his glass with arrack and observes, "Doctor doesn’t drink arrack even on a day like this". "I was in the water from ten o’clock in the morning. My body is still shivering."

"When you down that drink you will stop shivering."

Doctor, warming himself by the fire, chews on a piece of hakuru as he gulps down coffee. Suddenly some sparks from the fire are caught in a gust of wind and they rise towards the sky. They burn out and disappear. The sky and the sea no longer appear as separate entities. There were two bolts of lightening. The sound of thunder breaks through the darkness. A rough wind bends the tops of coconut trees. I take the hand of a grown up and run towards home.

After sitting the exams in the Sinhala school I entered the Ahangama English School. The school building was a pol athu hut. It was located in front of the Sinhala school. The deputy headmaster did his best to convince me that I should not leave.

"Why are you leaving, Martin? You have a lot of potential. It will be a great loss to the school if you left."

"Mother says that I should attend the new English school."

"If you want to learn English, I will give you lessons after school."

I did not feel any particular happiness on account of the fact that the teacher paid me special attention. It was after discussing the issue with my older cousins that Mother decided that I should attend the English school. I was not opposed to this decision. At the same time I was reluctant to hurt my teacher’s feelings by disregarding his advice outright. Not understanding the reasons for my silence, he went on to talk about the various shortcomings in the English school: most of the English teachers had not been trained; they were inexperienced teachers; when the hut collapses, in what hall would the children study?

After listening to his tirade, I said "I will ask Mother and let you know."

Mother, accompanied by a cousin of mine, handed me to the head master of the new school. A bachelor, his name was Dias. He was tall and lean. Endowed with a sharp set of eyes, he appeared to be one who was intellectually alert at all times. Perhaps pleased with the answers I offered in response to his questions, a faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth and he looked directly at me.

Before she left, Mother kissed my face and looked at me fondly. I felt embarrassed because I saw some boys and girls smiling. I was never bothered by the question, "Why am I taking the trouble to study?" The village boy marries a girl chosen by his parents. I felt that education was also something like that, something that followed the kula siritha. I have heard grown ups say that my cousin Darli went to school in Galle with the idea of becoming a proctor. Even on such occasions, I did not wonder what kind of vocation I was studying for. I cannot remember a single moment when I thought about the future while I was a child and right up to the time I got married.
(Translated by Malinda Seneviratne)