Writing letters was a big thing in my youth. I wrote hundreds of letters to my parents from Dubai. Here’s the thing, my parents were great record keepers, and they stored all my letters, filling up boxes. These nostalgic letters are now here with me in Sydney. They demonstrate the strong bond I had with my parents and kid brother.
You may wonder what this odd title of this story is. Back in the day, it took time for letters to reach their destination, often more than a week. By the time a reply to my previous letter reached me, I had written my next letter. To avoid being cross-wired in correspondence, being the super organised family we were, we sequentially numbered each letter. Each party replied to a previous letter, the one before the last. There was no longer any confusion with the sequencing. Now you get the gist of these numbered letters, an art only the Jayasinghes, my family could invent and keep to it.
Denzil with his parents and kid brother during a visit from Dubai
I now reproduce my 158th letter to take you back to the early eighties. I have substituted some Sri Lankan words with English.
158th letter.
Dubai.
Dearest mum, dad and kid brother,
Hello everybody at home! How are you all? I am getting on all right, as usual. I received your letter posted on the 12th on 17th of this month. A friend of mine is coming down today, I held the reply to be sent through him as it would be quicker.
Through Brian, I sent a pair of track shoes for Rohi (kid brother’s first name). He can keep it without wearing it if he still uses the ones I gave him in December. I wouldn’t be shipping anything in September. So, I would not send anything useful like this in future as it would cost a lot of money to airfreight these items. Please note the pair of shoes were not included in the list I gave you or Brian.
Philip (one of my friends in Sharjah) gave this typewriter to me for some time, and I make full use of it by typing my letters. I am glad Dad went for a medical check-up at the hospital. How about Mum? She, too, should go for a medical check-up. We earn money to live, so we must take care of our health. I wouldn’t complain even if you go to a private hospital for check-ups.
Did I write to you about the curtain cornice to be made by the curtain maker? I discussed it with him. I suggest all windows should have cornices. I don’t know if more modern cornices have been introduced in Sri Lanka, but I think that’s economical and would look neat. I am not sure whether his carpenters can do this job. Anyway, ask him and see.
About the colour of the wall, I prefer it to be grey. But as you only know the practical implications, the final decision is yours. I think grey might match the black gate. Besides, the house having a white finish would match with all these colours. Your comments?
I hope by now you have managed to get the cement that was in short supply some time ago, as written in your letter received on the 17th.
Original letter
Now leaving the house build matters, I will give some news from here. I think I wrote to you about the little party we had on the occasion of Sinhalese New Year and Easter on the 15th. There was nothing extraordinary during this week. On Sunday like every Sunday, I went to church. That day children were confirmed by the Bishop who had come. The bishop for the whole Gulf resides in UAE, in Abu Dhabi. By the way, Batu’s wife and children have come to UAE once again for a holiday and I have heard that Batu is in the seventh heaven. Pandi is coming in June for good. Even Roy may come down. Meanwhile, they are trying to fix his son, Rohan a good but yet unfortunately Roy hasn’t been successful. (Batu, Pandi, Roy and Rohan were friends of the family)
Today off-day, I cleaned my whole room thoroughly, re-arranged the furniture, washed my bed sheets etc. The room looks a whole lot better, and you know I am all for cleanliness and I feel very happy. Every Friday I clean my room, but today was a massive clean-up. What a change?. I mean in Sri Lanka how lazy I was to wash my clothes and help dad with the housework. Now proudly I can say I am the one that takes the lead in housework, calling everybody to join me. Also, without prejudice, I can say that I am the cleanest out of all my flatmates. It must be in our blood, for I have never seen dad and mum being lazy.
So that’s it for this week, Until I see you in another let me say goodbye
May God Bless you all
Your loving son and big brother.
No letter was complete without a political commentary about the state of affairs in Sri Lanka. There, news against the government was censored. Here’s what I picked up from a Dubai magazine and conveyed at the bottom of my letter.
I read in a WEEKEND magazine that Anura Daniel, an MP, is the culprit who was caught smuggling gold. Also that they are investigating the activities of Minister E L Senanayake
This is another letter, 143rd in sequence, written a few months before the above 158th letter.
143rd letter
Dubai
Dearest Mum, Dad and Bro.
I arrived safely in time this morning and went to work today. Hope you got my telegram. After sending the telegram, I learnt that Pandi had already come back to UAE. You may keep that brown tie. We’ll see about it later on. I have enough ties here.
I was upgraded to first-class on my flight. (You may remember that last time I came back, I flew first-class). The treatment was royal. I got a lot of gifts from AirLanka as a 1st class passenger.
From tomorrow, I am working from 0700 to 12 noon only. The whole afternoon will now be free. From tomorrow, I will sleep early and get up early., The other operator will take on the afternoon shift from tomorrow.
I got a double increment this year. I am one of the only three bank clerks who got double increments in the whole bank. That is an achievement. That was the good news on arrival back.
I may send you a bank draft before the end of the month. In that case, I will make it an identification draft. Dad can go to Union Bank of the Middle East Colombo with the draft and identity card and get the money right away. I feel now you need liquid cash, and two weeks of clearance time through the banking system may be too long.
So my dearests, I conclude.
May God bless you
Your loving son/brother
Denzil in his room in Sharjah at the time of writing this letter
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20 quick-fire questions * If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be? Your life would not turn the way that you planned. It is OK to be naïve and stupidly young. What do you like doing in your spare time? Writing and reading. Both complement each other. What would you change your name to? My family's name is Jayasinghe. ජයසිංහ in Sinhala in the original script. Phonetically, it is pronounced Jaya-Sinha in Sri Lanka. But in English, through generations, it was spelt Jayasinghe, which sounds differently in English. I would change its spelling to Jaya-Sinha to align it with its original sound. Perhaps my grandkids in Australia could do it. What’s your favourite time of day? The morning hours. I am most productive in the mornings. What is your biggest weakness? I could get carried away with what I could be doing. Sometimes, I must pinch myself to stop what I am doing. What is your favourite colour? Green. Always from my kid days. Would you believe I had...
6 min readJun 27, 2022
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