Monday, August 28, 2006

Last wishes from Ammi

Sri  lankan  family  in  Nugegoda  was  puzzled when the coffin of theirdead  Mother  arrived  from  Canada.  It  was  sent by one of the daughters settled  in  Vancouver.  The dead body was very tightly squeezed inside the coffin,with  no  space  left  in it! When they opened the lid, they found aletter on top, which read as follows:"Dear brothers and sisters,I am sending our mother's body to you since it was her last wish that: She should be buried only in the cemetery of the All Saints Church in Borella - Colombo. And also she told me to tell all ofyou that you should use A.F. Raymond for embalm works not Barney Raymond or Jayaratne.  For  Alms giving she said not to invite the entire town and the distant relatives. She said to order (only for our 4families) 65 packets ofMutton  Biriyani  from Hotel Buhari at Maradana and open only 12 bottles of special Arrack for the guys and only one case of Three Coins for theladies. One  more  thing  she was very particular about the Hearse,which her coffinshould  carry  from  our  home  to  Borella,  should  be  2002  model Buick Automatic.  She  doesn't  like manual gear old vehicles. DON"T FORGET THESE  UNDERLINED  REQUESTS  ARE FROM HER LAST WISH. Sorry, I could not come along as  all  of my paid leave are consumed and hopefully this time the God will look  at  us  and blessed with a boy. Ajith is working like a donkey for 20 hours  a  day  for  3  companies  to  save  some  money  for the dowries of girls..................let's go back to Ammi's funeral business. You will find inside the coffin, under Ammi's body, 12 cans of Kraft cheese,10 packets of M&M chocolates, 1 box of Kit Kat, 8 packets ofWrigley's Chewing Gum, 6 tins of Corned beef, 24 packets of Maggie instant  noodles  and 12 packets each Jelly & Custard powder. Please divide these  among  all  of  you. On Ammi's feet you will find new Pair of Reebokshoes  (size 10) for Mangalika. Also, there are 2 pairs of Shoes for Rosy's and  Bernard's sons. Hope the sizes are correct. Ammi is wearing 6 American T-Shirts.  The  large  size  is  for  Mangal  ika and the others are for mynephews. Just distribute them among yourselves. The 2 new Levi's Jeans that Ammi  is  wearing  are for the boys (lanka & Nilanka). The Swiss watch that Lakmali  wanted  is on Ammi's left hand. The silver colour bangle on Ammi'sright  hand  is for Lakshmi who becamea big girl five years back. Josephine Aunty,  Please,  Please remove and take the necklace, earrings and the ring that  you  are  waiting  for  the  past 20 years saying that Ammi had takentwenty five  thousand  rupees against them for my Akki's wedding.Aunty , I will beg you now to stop telling every one about this money matter. These gold worth more  than  that  and  I can get fifty thousand from Hetti Uncle if I go toJayalalitha's.  The  6  white  cotton  socks  that  Ammi is wearing must be divided among my teenage nephews. And also there are 4 Bras Ammi  is  wearing.  Give  two  to  Seelawathi  who  is our servant lady andtheremaining  two  you  can give  one to next door Charlet aunty and one to Doby Nenda.
Please  distribute all these uniformly and if anything more required let me know,  since  our Thaththi (Father) is also not keeping well nowadays; so Ican  send  with  him  the  same way. This way is much easy, cheaper and you don't need to worry about customs, too. bye........