Once, I was dispatching a Colombo-bound flight in the middle of the night, and Mona oversaw the rear cabin on that flight.
Just before I closed the rear passenger door, I told "Mona" I needed a favour”.
She was always very obliging and asked, "Tell me, what is it?"
I knew well that there would be Sri Lankan newspapers' uplift from Colombo for the return sector, so I asked her,
"If you get time, can you secure a couple of local newspapers for me, please"?
She happily said, "No issue" and the flight was released on time because I had to come back again the following morning to handle the arrival as well.
When I met the aircraft and opened the rear door, she was beaming and gave me a thumbs-up to confirm her action.
After all the passengers alighted, she came to the front with a heap of local newspapers, and immediately I realized that there was something wrong.
All she managed to collect were Tamil newspapers, and not a single English or Sinhala paper was among them.
In true Sri Lankan spirit, I thanked her profusely and accepted them.
As the saying goes, never refuse even a Tamil newspaper if you are receiving it free of charge from someone.
නිකන් ලැබෙනවා නම් දෙමළ පත්තරේ වත් එපා කියන්න එපා.
I think the word "local" killed the bird on that occasion.
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