Past and Present Life style of Sri Lankan Tamils

Sri Lanka was blessed with good environment , clean and enjoyable with good weather and excellent beaches around. During those days the ladies never wore swim suits and had never had any knowledge of swimming apart from the men. But, now everything has changed and able to see a different life there.

Past and present Sri Lankan Tamils Life style.

Sri Lanka is a tropical country, the northern part of the country is at the southern part of India, which is a traditional homeland for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. I was born and grew up in Jaffna, and when girls are growing up they are expected to show a combination of these qualities such as, shyness, fear and modesty. In Sri Lanka when the children are young, they are highly adored, fondled and indulged by everyone and in particular the mother will have the full responsibility for the child. In Sri Lanka the education was highly valued and I was educated totally in English medium, and. I was able to do the accountancy examinations ran by the accountancy institutions in England. I was successful and most of my colleagues were not able to pass any of the exams.

Past Life Style in Sri Lanka.

I got a job and met my husband at my workplace and after 3 years we got married in 1977 in Jaffna, as we had to move to Jaffna, due to the outburst of communal riots in Colombo. We had a very traditional wedding, and husband is a person who is conscious about the respect and social status, as the male is considered to be the leader of the families. Accordingly, I never made any attempt to go anywhere on my own without my husband and it was considered as cultural issue, which women are being accompanied by someone when they go out. There has been a time that the close families were either living together or lived close by, were able to help each other without travelling from one place to the other.

Present Lifestyle in Sri lanka

But, after years, lots of changes have taken place and almost all the women go out to work and this seems to be a first step forward towards the improvement in the freedom for the women. But, having said that, even if the woman has got the financial independence the control and decision making power seems to be with the leader of the family which accepted by everyone in each family circle. This mostly applies to the families where not much of education and belongs to the same cultural background which was in the 70s.

Life in Colombq in Nights.

Many night clubs, bars and restaurants have come in the recent years, giving an opportunity for the men and women to indulge in various activities in Colombo. These night clubs cater mostly the young adults but these places are very much popular with the mature clientele. A wide choice of food is made available in these place, certainly people are sure to fill their new friends and memories. But, in some instances for the people who are still used to the old Sri Lankan life style will find it difficult to accommodate these changes, will eventually face with marital problems. As a result, there are more families facing separation or going for divorce mostly raised by the women.

Life outside Sri Lanka

There are lots of Tamil people have left Sri Lanka because of the communal problems and living in every part of the world. So, the people are adopting themselves to every countries culture and many languages are spoken by this small community of Tamil people. During those days, the eldest son will look after the parents, the sisters and brothers, he acts like a father to the younger ones. He looks after their education and make sure that the sisters are getting married with the right partner, he will also be responsible for the dowry system. In today’s day & age, the most of the people have moved out of the country and there is a tendency to forget their own country and that happens among the very well educated families. Those days the people will not get married outside their religion or the caste, the caste system was in force in those days.