Denzil's Stories

  Cuckoo Achchie A boy’s struggle with his mentally ill grandmother Denzil Jayasinghe · D enzil was a happy and adventurous boy who lived with his big family in a big house. He had a mother, a father, a sister, a brother, and two grandmothers. He loved them all, except for one: Achchie, his mother’s mother. She was a loud and crazy woman who had a mental illness. She always yelled at everyone and said strange things. She made Denzil’s life miserable. Achchie was on the front porch, shouting at the neighbours. "I am the granddaughter of Apolonia; don't you know my pedigree?" she boasted, stretching her legs and hanging her hands over her shoulders. "Don't mess with me!" She said, trying to impress them. Denzil wondered who Apolonia was. He had learned in school that Apollo was the name of the spaceship that had landed on the moon, carrying men who walked on its surface. Was there a connection between his great-grandmother, Apolonia and Apollo? Maybe Achchie w

  Ghosts Ghosts of Sri Lankan flavour W here I grew up, people believed in all kinds of weird things. Devils walking in the night, dead people haunting their relatives and enemies, man-eating ghosts. It had odd-looking symbols in its religions. Gods that are animal shaped, like elephants, rats, and monkeys. One Goddess had eight hands. Sri Lankan culture was and still is embedded with unnatural stories and ghosts. The day started at school with a period dedicated to religion. One of the first lessons was how a devil in the guise of a snake tempted Adam and Eve. Then our attention was drawn to Mother Mary’s picture of a trampling devil in the shape of a snake. Added were the stories of Lucifer and an army of angels who turned into devils — unbelievable stories, yet designed to impart fear onto innocent young minds. A boy studying science in a Catholic school had to deal with the juxtaposition of societal beliefs against modern science. These myths and odd stories did not make sense. It