Hybrid Slippers!

I have to say, I have always made fun of people who seem to "blog away" their lives on this "space" we commonly refer to as the internet. However, given the sort of experiences that "life" as we know it, has chosen to throw at me this past year, I can’t help but think--maybe it is a good idea to express thoughts into a wilderness, which seems oh so untamable. Call me a hypocrite, for seeking the very medium that I rejected for so long?

As I sit down to write this first and entry, nothing seems to come to mind. And I am not a fan of publishing my personal life on the net (that is, assuming I actually have one). Maybe I should start with something that I am currently working on in terms of my honors year thesis, which is on the Internally Displaced Persons in Sri Lanka due to the ethnic conflict. So what about them? well, for starters, its amazing how, when most people think of Sri Lanka, they either imagine stereotypical images of clear blue beaches or a "bloody" war. Of course, and to tell you the truth (if there is such a thing), Sri Lanka has been on the news for all the wrong things of late. And by "of late" I mean the past twenty years or so. Emerging from the colonial construct of the "model colony", it seems to have gone to the "model case study" when it comes to understanding "ethnic conflict" in modernity. Yet, and running the risk of sounding truistic, the picture of warred bodies is more complicated than that. But that is a topic best left for another day.

The aim of this blogspace or blog or whatever it is that you may choose to call it, is to actually produce a "systematic" (but in no ways hegemonic) critique of the "Sri Lanka story". For after all, what is this idea of Sri Lanka that we all have? And as this blog seeks to highlight, we must look to explore alternative conceptions and understandings of "Sri Lanka" that don’t seem to make it into the news. Let me address, first of all, the idea of Sri Lanka by moving away from its territorial boundaries. In other words, what does Sri Lanka mean to those living abroad?

The notions of "Diaspora" and its related theme "Identity" have been explored heavily by academic discourse; and intellectual constructions of such problematic categorizations is far from complete. For instance, one postcolonial critic by the name of Rey Chow asks the question: Where have all the natives gone? By this Chow is referring to the idea of 'how', for instance, people in the Diaspora produce an imagined and at times romanticized idea of the "nation" which seems to await them back home. Whether such an imagined homeland is true or not, is anybodies guess. Yet, until they return home, certain other mediums and bodily extensions begin to emerge, so this sense of longing can be quenched. Temporarily at least.

Now why am I talking about such amorphous theories? Are you bored? Hold on, it just gets interesting here--I think.

Well, let’s take Slippers as an example to explicate my point. Yes Slippers, the rubbery things which you and I wear and walk around when we go about our business. As I choose to label them, slippers represent the true "wretched of the earth". So here is the story of a slipper called Health... Two friends and I were seated sipping on our "cuppsa tea" (excuse the expression--postcolonial hangover :p) couple of weeks ago, and we noticed, that for many Sri Lankans living abroad, the idea of wearing HEALTH SLIPPERS is very appealing. Personally, I admit buying a couple of pairs every time I go back, and it would be very hard for you to spot me around campus or Singapore without them. (Now at this point, some of my readers may just reject this stupid nonsensical observation and claim that it just means "nothing"--or by the most convenient question--SO WHAT?) But hold on just yet!

This is what I think---Why most Sri Lankans do wear this particular brand of slippers is that, even though they are living away from home, they would still like to "think", to rationalize, and to "imagine", that they are "grounded" in Sri Lanka. Let me make this clearer. The tingle one gets, when those little spikes prick away--is Sri Lanka! The comfortable numbness is a sense of "psychological identification", helping the person wearing the HEALTH SLIPPER "feel closer to home"! In other words, I am Sri Lankan, hear me step!

The most amazing thing about these slippers is their "hybrid" identities. Yes! Yes! These slippers are "alive" in the most liveliest of ways. Despite what’s going on in Sri Lanka today, the slippers are worn by every Sri Lankan. No racial or ethnic boundaries seem to matter. It seems to me, the slippers have enabled us to transcend petty ideas of primordial ethnic bonds! Now don’t deny it, but how many times have you spotted a "Lankan" by his slippers? These slippers, to use a most apt Backstreet Boys quote, are: Larger Than Life!

As such, this roaring of Health Slipper Fans all around the world, I suppose, is a reconcilation of some form of a Freudian frustration of "identification"; that we all, as Sri Lankans living abroad attempt to negotiate at one time or another. For after all, we are all, in some sort of an "exile", and the longing to go back home is ever present. Right?

Until then, health slippers, where are you?