Are We As Rich & Famous As We Had Been Told ?

We met a Greek family on our recent flight to the USA and had a long chat on the 10+ hour flight from Athens to the USA.

I knew by looking at them they were in their retirement. I asked them what they were doing during their working life. The answer really surprised me.

The gentleman had been working as a bartender all his life and his wife was a homemaker.

They were going to the US to see their son and grandchildren, whom they had not seen for awhile due to travel restrictions imposed to combat the spread of the virus.

And when they wanted to know where we were coming from, I was happy to say that we were from Sri Lanka, but unfortunately, they had never heard of a country called Sri Lanka before.

Bringing the tea into the conversation would stir their memory of the famous Ceylon Tea brand name, too, was met with the same response.

This made me think of two important things.

The first one was, "Can a bartender from Sri Lanka afford to pay for airfare to visit someone living in another part of the world?"

The answer to that would be a resounding "NO."

And the second question was, are we as famous as we had been told?

The answer to that question too would be a resounding "NO."

This was further affirmed when I had to borrow someone’s phone on landing in the USA to make a local call. The gentleman who was kind enough to lend his phone had never heard of a country called Sri Lanka (neither Ceylon).

I think our education system, politicians, and clergy are making too many ostentatious claims and assumptions about our country, simply to fool people and for their own survival.

 And most of our countrymen are duped into believing such ludicrous claims solely because of their frog in the well and bogus patriotic mentalities.