Denzil's Stories

The Elephants and the Teapot A colourful heritage from Sri Lanka Denzil Jayasinghe 2 min read·Oct 19, 2022 Why am I fascinated by elephants? Is it because they were part of the landscape when I was growing up? When my kids were little, I drew elephants with them on their drawing pads. I bought elephant-themed toys for them. Elephant safaris were on our itinerary when we travelled to Sri Lanka. To top it up, my brother’s in-laws owned an elephant. My fascination with elephants continues. Now, I draw elephants with my grandkids. How did I come to own the two ceramic elephants above? I encountered them in a departmental store in Colombo a few years ago. With their fine array of multi-colours, I saw them as a great décor item for my house in Sydney and purchased them immediately. The teapot is a different story. A year ago, Rachel, one of my co-workers, was leaving. She gifted this beautiful teapot with its colour and regalia to match my colourful décor. The thoughtful gift of a bright-col

   First times, last times with… 2nd of the series Denzil Jayasinghe 4 min read·Oct 18, 2022 The first time you won a competition? I was fourteen years old. It was a quiz show organised in school and recorded by the sole broadcasting company in Sri Lanka. I was part of the audience of hundreds of school kids. Seeing me raising my hand for many questions that were put forward, the compering host took pity on me and called me to the stage. I won a range of toiletries, fragrances, soaps and shampoos, all luxuries back then. The last time you won a competition? J ust before Covid-19, I attended a conference hosted by a tech company. There was a quiz to guess how many jellybeans were in a jar. Out of the one-hundred-odd entries, my entry was the closest. I won a Bose Bluetooth headset. That became handy during Covid-19 induced lockdowns. The first time you had a haircut in a saloon? In the sixties, when I was a few years old in my home village. A sarong-wearing young man with jet-black hair

The smell of parathas Glympse of a small-time restaurant in Dubai in the seventies Denzil Jayasinghe 2 min read·Oct 7, 2022 2 T he smell of paratha and egg heated up in corn oil was in the open air. Mixed with tomatoes and coriander leaves, and green chillies. Simple meals were shared with people that fought each other not so long ago. The Indians and the Pakistanis, Afghanis, Baluchis, Iranians, Yemenis and Iraqis. Males wearing multi-coloured turbans, salwar kameezes, striped shirts, and kanduras against the Arabian heat. As everyone ate brunch in this corner shop run by Kerala Indians, covered from the desert sun, I thought about the people I was surrounded with — a hotchpotch of nationalities and races from all parts of Asia. I now worked with the conquerors of them all, the British. Breaking paratha into bite-size pieces, gulping them with Lipton tea, harvested from India and packaged in England, talking in many regional languages and all the while listening to a song by Lata Mang

  Jockstraps How jockstraps became a symbol of maturity for a teenager Denzil Jayasinghe 5 min read·Oct 6, 2022 T he title of this story may shock you. It is not about what you may suspect. But about when flaming jockstraps played a significant part in a boy’s growing up. At the cusp of my early teen years, leaving middle school was painful enough. I was now dealing with a new high school and a boarding school. From a sleepy suburb, I was now in a whizz-bang school in the heart of Colombo. I was a rookie in unfamiliar surroundings. Dealing with bigger boys was way beyond my league. Those tall boys wore long pants. The ones wearing short pants had leg hair. Some had wispy moustaches. They were more confident than my mates from middle school. These boys walked with a swagger, speaking differently in their slang. They spoke better English. Everyone was addressed as bugger. ‘ This bugger’  and ‘ that bugger’  were in their regular vocabulary. My new classmates were into sports, rugger, cri