King Coconut Vendor - He is our Kind

“I have never tasted thambili (King Coconut in Sinhala)” said no Sri Lankan. All of us in Colombo have tried a thambili from a vendor with a thambili yet no one ever saw the tears behind that man’s genuine smile. Have you ever wondered where does he come from? Or where he heads back when the sun is not seen? Here is an essence of it.  All of us wanted the best thambili from him not knowing that he puts his best to quench your thirst.

Ayya starts his day with “Malli thibahata thambili ekak bomu?” which is indeed his verse of survival. He has his own customer base in Colombo from business tycoons to youngsters who are heading Colombo in search of jobs. No one knows his name. but he can be the best doctor of Thambili. He would refuse to offer thambili when you are in cold, which none of the other vendors do. Ayya is kind, soft hearted and of course a hard worker with stained hands.

Ayya knows the art of cutting the thambili with less than 3 seconds. You gotta see it. It’s simply mind blowing. Ayya starts the day by worshipping his trolley, expecting to sell his lovely Thambilis to be sold within the day. “Thambili Thambili” raises his voice during his journey to the location anticipating someone will purchase prior to his destination. Ayya carries the packet of straw with pride since, that’s his tool of customer service apart from his cloth to wipe the thambili off.

He is in fact the best person to consult, if you are lost in Colombo streets. Google map should be your second option when Ayya is with you, coz Google doesn’t address the shortcuts and one way roads in Colombo. Ayya will guess the journey duration considering facts like Vehicle, time of the day and location. You ask for a street, I assure he concludes with a genuine smile flooding throughout his face. Apparently, you will not miss his betel chewed reddish set of teeth.   

Colombo isn’t his hometown. Yet his small trolley touches every possible road of Colombo. Ayya wears his dusty check sarong and the shorty beneath, with a brownish vest during weekdays. In fact, Ayya’s thinking is strategic. He doesn’t miss his best light blue t-shirt during weekends, knowing the fact that impression matters to his upper class audience who comes out to walk in the parks. Parks with walking tracks is his location to sell his maximum thambilis in the weekend mornings.

That red cloth on his shoulder takes various roles in a day. It is his turban during the day, his face towel at the end of the day. Yes, the thambili is wiped (before cutting) from the same cloth too.

Ayya’s breakfast usually is 2 Halapa (Sri Lankan food made with Kurakkan (Ragi Flour) and Honey) or 2 lavariya (Food made with coconut, jaggery and string hoppers) with a glass of plain tea. Being so Sri Lankan he will never miss the Red Rice and Pol Sambol (Coconut sambol) dish in the noon. However, Ayya would survive till late night with such meal.

By the time sun sets down, Ayya rushes back to his Thambili Supplier to settle his transactions. The day is not yet finished. He walks back to his small house by the lake with his cloth on his shoulder drenched in sweat. It’s his small family residing there. The two small daughters waiting for their father to serve the dinner under the candle light. Ayya has his dinner, planning for the next day of his life with a plucky budge.

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