MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
In Sri Lanka, Buddhists and Hindus marked their new year on Tuesday. NPR's Diaa Hadid was on hand to see the celebrations in the capital, Colombo, where she says people are feeling the effects of the Iran War thousands of miles away.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DIAA HADID, BYLINE: In a field, a band plays for New Year's.
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HADID: Kids play games. Blindfolded boys are fed yogurt by girls - licketysplit - then they race to a finish line.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
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HADID: New Year's is about fun. In Sri Lanka, it's also about timing. Tradition holds that there's auspicious times to perform certain rituals to bring prosperity into the New Year. Astrologers decide those times. The Ministry of Culture announces them. So for New Year's, nearly everyone does the same things at the same time, like the Rambukkana family, who live in a tidy, working-class alley.
Hello.
They invite us in.
(LAUGHTER)
HADID: Shiranti Rambukkana has set up a literal bonfire in her living room. At precisely 10:51 a.m., she lights a match, gets a fire going, and soon a clay pot of milk resting on bricks boils over. Rambukkana rushes back to the kitchen, a nook behind the staircase, pours coconut milk into her rice cooker.
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HADID: That's for a traditional rice dish, eaten at 12:06. Rambukkana's wearing red. It's the auspicious color this year. Her table groans with sweets. It's to feed a dozen neighbors. All this has cost her over $300.
SHIRANTI RAMBUKKANA: (Speaking Sinhala).
HADID: Rambukkana says she spirited the money away for this all year in this.
So this is a old milk powder box.
S RAMBUKKANA: (Speaking Sinhala).
HADID: Rambukkana has cut a slot into the top.
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HADID: It's smothered in tape, so she can't just open it whenever she likes.
S RAMBUKKANA: (Speaking Sinhala).
HADID: Rambukkana says, she had to show her kids a good New Year.
S RAMBUKKANA: (Speaking Sinhala).
HADID: Last year, they didn't celebrate. Her brother had just died. Her husband was in hospital.
S RAMBUKKANA: (Speaking Sinhala).
HADID: But saving money became much harder after America and Israel declared war on Iran in late February. That's blocked a key shipping route and pushed up the price of fuel and fertilizer. It's had a cascading impact in Sri Lanka, which relies on imported energy from the Gulf.
S RAMBUKKANA: (Speaking Sinhala).
HADID: And that's pushed up the price of everything. So the Rambukkanas are eating less because food is more expensive. They're eating cheaper food, watery curries, dried fish, rice. They cook less. She says, cooking gas cylinders are up 20%. Yet they're lucky. In Sri Lanka, the World Food Programme says a third of all children are malnourished, and experts here say there'll be more hunger, more poverty as this war grinds on.
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UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing in non-English language).
HADID: Rambukkana's toddler is playing with her mom's phone as the minutes tick over.
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UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing in non-English language).
HADID: It's 12:06. Rambukkana pulls out her tray of rice milk.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: Her husband scoops it with his fingers and pops a bit into Rambukkana's mouth, then into the mouths of their four children. They respectfully touch his feet. He gives them money. An elderly aunt walks in. She lives across the road.
INDRANI RAMBUKKANA: (Speaking Sinhala).
HADID: OK. And what's your name?
Seventy-year-old Indrani Rambukana says she doesn't speak English, but she does speak Farsi.
I RAMBUKKANA: Irani speaking.
HADID: For 20 years, she cared for an elderly Iranian woman who lived in the Gulf state of Bahrain.
I RAMBUKKANA: (Speaking Sinhala).
HADID: She still keeps in touch with the family. She says, they're doing fine.
I RAMBUKKANA: (Speaking Sinhala).
HADID: She says, they're in the war, and they aren't suffering. We are thousands of miles away, and it's nothing to do with us, and we are suffering. Diaa Hadid, NPR News, Colombo.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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