Chaos, confusion and complexity - Sri Lanka saga!

High inflation, mismanagement of government funds and total disarray...Sri Lanka is currently in an acute economic and political crisis. The last few weeks have been extremely dramatic, with the country being in a state of Emergency. While the situation is still tense in Colombo, Sri Lankans in B’luru speak to Monika Monalisa about the ground reality

Ahaana Khosla, entrepreneur
My maternal grandparents’ home is in Colombo and my grandfather moved to India just before the pandemic. We visited the place in December ’21 but we could see the beginnings of what was happening so we decided to lock up our home in Colombo. There is a huge shortage of medicines and medical facilities. We had plans to visit Colombo in August, especially for my grandfather who gets the update about the situation from his close friends who still live there, but now we have cancelled the plan. I used to visit the country during my school holidays and it’s painful to see what people are going through currently. More than anybody else my grandfather is really affected by it because for him it’s his home.

Christina, marketing professional
Before the mismanagement of government funds and theft, the upper-class citizens could live uninterruptedly in Sri Lanka. Since corruption has officially robbed the country in various legal and illegal ways over time, everyone but the politically affiliated have fallen below middle-class standards and anyone below that, even lower. Our income does not meet the expenses. My monthly travel expenses were LKR 24,000 a few months ago but now they are LKR 60,000. Therefore, I have no choice but to work from home most of the time. This has been the case for the past three months. I am lucky as I can do my work remotely, because most others struggle daily with the lack of transport due to the fuel shortage. A gas cylinder costs LKR 4,910 which was under LKR 2,000 earlier.

Dinushan Shanmuganathan, musician
Recently, I was supposed to travel to Colombo for a schoolmate’s wedding, but none of us could make it since there is no transport from the airport to the city. I was in Sri Lanka around a month ago, and we had to plan everything from where we were travelling, to the resources we needed for the trip. Simple amenities like this were not readily available. We had to wait for 12 hours for our taxi to come. But having said that, it is pretty safe for civilians and tourists. The protest is completely against the government. The simple logic is that tourism is a source of income for them, so they are quite welcoming to tourists.

Diganta Chakraborty, entrepreneur
Around three years ago, I was working in Colombo and visited again three months ago. So, I have seen Colombo in its days of glory, when the turmoil started, and now. I have seen people standing in queues for
kerosene and petrol. The affluent families in the country might have had enough resources to sustain themselves in the beginning, but that’s not going to last forever. When I was there, electricity was a major issue. Sri Lanka as a country used to be spick-and-span, but it’s not the case now since garbage collectors can barely do their jobs due to the lack of fuel. Due to the import ban, most restaurants have very limited source of supply and they have designated timings to run because of electricity issues. I have a special place for Sri Lanka in my heart. I had made some amazing friends there and my heart aches to see what people are going through there.