Embracing the Stereotype by Senuri Vidanapathirana

My favorite thing to do as a child was to watch TV. Like almost every other child born in our generation, I too had the brilliant talent of sitting in front of a screen for hours on end, positively marveling at the moving pictures. And if I’m quite honest, there was absolutely nothing else I wanted to do with my life other than to be able to watch endless amounts of television. My sole goal in life as a child was to get all of my work (the work you can expect of a child, of course) done as soon as possible, just to be able to watch my favorite shows. My family, however, associated this habit as me being lazy. In their eyes, watching television and reading books are things that lazy people do, as opposed to all of the other things one could be doing. Ie, folding clothes and scrubbing drains. It was a genuine concern of theirs. I realized this when my mother started praying (quite aggressively, I might add) about my laziness during family prayers.  And thus, the word became a part of my identity. Senuri is lazy.

It’s only recently that I realized just how vastly the Sinhalese people have been associated with that word. Upon coming across a textbook which highlighted the way the colonizers viewed our people, it was to be noted that while many of the other communities were viewed as hard-working, the Sinhalese themselves were viewed as lazy. (Note- direct any offense you may have from this towards the colonizers, please). But, imagine that, a group of extremely lazy individuals still existing with centuries of history behind us, and we’re still here. 

Stereotypes themselves can be quite harmful; I still view myself as lazy even though I work non-stop and that is something I’m working on. Alternatively, maybe stereotypes aren’t that bad after all. 

15 years later, not much has changed. I still schedule all of my work to be able to go home after work and fall asleep watching a sit-com and hold movies to a pedestal to the extent that one of the only instances I admit to being a prude is with regards to movies (I am a perfect human being aside from that). So, maybe being lazy isn’t that bad of a thing after all. Yes, my eyesight has never been this bad, but, the possible years (now) of screen time has somehow led me to this spot…coming up to almost 4 years of working in a field I love, but have no qualifications in. All to the credit of my very Sinhalese attribute of being lazy… you know, from watching movies all the time.