Sri Lankans at a concert

H1's play school held their annual 'Concert and Graduation Ceremony' last Friday. In true Sri Lankan style the invitation card said, 'Please don't be late' after the time. So there we were half an hour before the start and guess what, we were like the second family to arrive. Hubs and I was escorted to the front rows as H1 was 'Graduating" and our guests (H1's two grandma's, Puncha and Nanda) were asked to sit a few rows back from us.

We waited for the rest of the parents to arrive...we waited...and then we waited some more. The concert was supposed to stat at 3.45 p.m. By four most parents had come and now we were waiting for the Chief Guest to arrive. We waited....and waited...and...waited....aaaaaaaaaaaaaand waited. Then we were asked to arise to welcome the chief guest. So we all got up and waited and waited and waited for about five minutes when another announcement was made to say that "Oh dear we are so sorry but the chief guest is still on the way and would take about another ten minutes to arrive." So we placed our well worn butts back on the chairs and well, waited. A good one hour after the actual time the concert was to start, the honorable chief guest, who was a former teacher of the head of the play school and who should have known how difficult it is to keep a bunch of kids and parents waiting, arrived.

While we were waiting for her Lateness to arrive,  there was a family sitting behind us (ma, pa, grandma and sister). Let me call them AH for short (figure out what it stand for). The director of the school came over and kindly told them that these seats were reserved for the graduating student's parents and would they if they don't mind please move to the seats allocated for them. Once the directer left, the Pa half heartedly told the wife, 'I think I better go back.' to which the Ma replied, 'Ane don't aney..don't worry. There's plenty of room,' and none of them budged an inch while the couple who was actually supposed to sit there had to be seated in the corridor because there wasn't enough room. Even seeing this, the AH family didn't budge and even had the galls to complain 'Ane hari kathai ne cheif guest parakku una eka.'

While the concert was going on, whenever their child came on stage, the grandma would say in a rather loud voice, 'Ours is the smartest noh? See, she looks better than the other kids.'

When it was time for refreshments, I went the car to feed H2, so was a little late in getting in the line for food. By the time it was my turn, there was no food left as everyone in front had not only taken the food bags for them selves but for their kids at home, the neighbours and the family cat. The grandma of the AH family was a little ahead of me and when she realised that her fat tummy wasn't getting fed, she went off in a huff looking for a teacher to complain to. Those poor teacher's had enough on their plate looking after restless kids, but one said she's so sorry she'll see what she can do.

I am being unfair when I imply that Sri Lankans are all like the AH family because 95 percent were conciderate people, but just like people notice the black dot on a clean white paper, I could only forcus on that indiciplined family of visigoths.