Waking Life

For those of you who have a philosophical bent, but haven’t seen the movie called “Waking Life,” I highly recommend it. In any case, one part of that movie is that the main character is never really sure if he is awake or dreaming. Regardless, he often encounters a stranger quite randomly, they connect and discuss some interesting philosophical topic, and then they part ways just as suddenly. I feel like I’ve had my own Waking Life encounters here. Especially when it comes to a certain young man I met last week. Coming back from Angampora class one evening, I was waiting on the bench for the train to come. When I look up, there are these two individuals sitting there next to me, and before I know it we’re engaged in conversation. The quieter of the two is the one that interested me most. He speaks very good English (as well as Tamil and Sinhala), and he has this way of speaking: clearly, simply, and without any tension in his voice. He seems just as likely to speak about ethnic tensions and politicians as about the age of the railway system or Sri Lanka’s rural areas. When my train came, I got on but he remained sitting. When I looked for him out the window, he was gone.

Friday I had another encounter with the same person. I got off the train at Polgahawala, and he was there sitting on the bench again. Again, we met randomly and suddenly, had intermittent conversation about this and that, and parted ways just as suddenly when my train came.