monk-eying

An anecdote from the Anuradhapura monk who's a bit of a rockstar amongst people here. All sorts of politicians and leaders visit him, ostensibly to get his blessings but really for the positive media, fawning coverage that accompanies them on such visits as they prostrate themselves before the monk. Anyway he was telling our team about drug use in the area and the various locally-mixed chemical confections that produce certain hallucinations, sharpness of mind etc. all for a fraction of the price of Western drugs.

And then he was telling our team how a Minister (Boghalande who attended the Geneva peace talks) came to visit him and he was telling the Minister about Room to Read, who turn up in a broken down van (when we went to visit him, our van had sprung a leak, and our seat was broken: what can I say; cost efficiency) but do really good work unlike other NGOs who turn up in Pajeros that are fresh off the boat (literally) and hem and haw and don't do adequate needs assessments and the like... haha). Then he spoke about women and dieting and how he was counselling a woman over the phone and she collapsed and he rushed over and she told him the doctor had told her to lose one inch and so she had started not eating and then had collapsed and the monk had told her: at the point of collapse, what is the point of being one inch more or less thin or fat?? And then he was talking about being in London, on a bus, in front of a couple that was busy engaging in the 'industry of love' and that no one else was concerned, but he, being Sri Lankan and therefore possessed of an innate desire to interfere in other people's business kept turning back and then surreptitiously viewing the couple through the bus' rearview mirror! Hilarious! LOVE IT. Buddhist monks rock.