The above question was asked by a soldier a few years ago in Kandy. I was a resident of Kandy for fifty years, living in the heart of the town since 1948. My native town is Jaffna.

During the Kandy Esala Perahera, security is beefed up around the city and outskirts. Every junction and every lane is manned by the army and the police to search people and to check their National identity cards. I being a man of the area, walked around the city frequently to attend to my day to day needs.

Once during the Perahera time I was walking along Colombo Street. The time was around 2.00 pm. A soldier stopped me and started asking questions.

On seeing my national identity card, he turned it around and around several times. Then he gave me a very hard look and said, "Are you a Jaffna Tamil?"

I told him, "Yes son! My birth place is Jaffna. Sixty years ago my parents had a small game in Jaffna –not in Kandy. That was the reason my birth place was Jaffna. Now I have a son even older than you.

Many people around and some of the senior officers of the forces heard me saying this. All looked at me, a Tamil speaking like that.

Later they all burst into laughter and the senior officer told me "Annai maathiya yanda !" (Sir, please go!)

Any person who owned a National Identity card with Jaffna address as birth place had ‘extra special treatment’ from the security forces.

Those persons were asked to stand out for further questioning. Many law abiding Tamil citizens of the country had to keep standing like a bunch of naughty school children.

Today, the same thing is happening to all Sri Lankan passport holders in many countries at airports.

Those with the Sri Lankan passports are asked to queue up separately and directed to a place for further examinations.

Many distinguished Sri Lankans face such unpleasantness similar to the Jaffna Tamils at the immigration counters in many countries.

At some counters it is very often said "Oh you are from Sri Lanka-?