30 June 2023 09:35 am Views - 97
Remember the films, especially the black and whites, based on the Cold War and countries behind the Iron Curtain, where the cities were drab while its inhabitants seemed desperate. The city of Colombo, in the evenings and at night, will take your mind back to such movies. It has lost all its luster.
Three of us had been invited to dinner at a so-called luxury hotel in Colombo recently. The Hotel had lost all its previous glamour and seemed shoddy and unkempt. The entire interior looked tired and the Band in the Lobby was depressing, playing with no enthusiasm but merely to be paid for their gig. The shops in the vicinity had changed its bulbs to energy saving fluorescents, which brought the tone down of the place. In general, the entire place looked very tired and bleak. The staff were no better. They rarely smiled and did not show any enthusiasm for their job. In fact, many city hotels are the same.
Driving back home, along the way, everything looked drab with many empty shops and the buildings cheerless, most of them not having seen a coat of paint for years.
Reading the front page of the newspapers every morning also has turned out to be a downer. Most of the page is about the murders island wide, lack of medical expertise in hospitals, pharmaceuticals not being available owing to the shortage of money, are some examples. The exodus of our professionals and experts in the various fields is contributing to the huge setbacks we have to face in many establishments. Add to this, the nonstop texts from nearly every hotel island wide offering huge discounts or room rush offers. This is not for the love of us and it is obvious that the rooms are not selling. It is always the locals who finally support these hotels to survive. Chatting to some employees working at these hotels, they say that they are grateful when they are tipped by the local clientele because many of the foreign guests who check in are quite miserly.
Certain supermarkets and high end stores are constantly having huge sales or discounting their prices as they are looking for cash simply to roll out the monthly wages that have to be met. When making purchases you will notice that the date of expiry of many items are cleverly concealed by the price tags or the name of the product in the local language etc. Even social media has become dull with not many pictures of joyous occasions uploaded. Sadly, the bragging has lessened too. There are many pictures uploaded of grand openings of shops that soon shut down. Rates of depression and suicide are said to be soaring and so are robberies of many forms.
All of this and more does not paint a bright picture and what we can hope for is the good times, bringing back its luster where everybody can be happy, are around the corner. The only joy most people have are getting together at home with friends to enjoy some good times with loads of laughter.