The Interview Meme

Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better.
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. 

As interviewed by mrsmosley:

 

1. What do you like about Lois and Clark?

I’m a hopeless romantic, so I love the pure, unwavering, ideal kind of love that Lois and Clark share. It’s a truly legendary love story, the occasional cheesiness notwithstanding. Almost Disney, really, which was a plus point at the time I started watching it, as I was just ten years old. Strangely enough, my initial fixation was not with Dean Cain, but Teri Hatcher! Her eyes are amazing. I had a great fascination with her, in a my-favourite-Disney-Princess kind of way, and she made Lois Lane one of my role models; a sort of feminist ideal. Later on, in around the third season, when Clark suddenly went completely sexy and GQ, and I turned 13, my interest shifted. <g> Also, I love it for its innocence, its brightness, its hopefulness and its humour. Plus their sizzling hot chemistry. Plus the sheer lovability of Lane Smith. Best Perry White ever! I can’t get enough of this show.

 

2. How many languages do you speak? What are they?

Only two languages; English and my mother tongue, Sinhala. Or Singhalese, as my Microsoft Word spell checker keeps insisting. I’m actually a bit more fluent in English than Sinhala, since I’ve been a copious reader of English novels since the age of eight. So it’s a bit weird to me that English is technically my second language. I maintain however, that cursing in Sinhala is a lot more colorful than in English. Our ancestors seem to have had some graphic imaginations! =D Also, Sinhala is more flowery and musical.

I’d also say that I know a smattering of Hindi and Tamil, only I can’t because my sister would pounce on me. She’s quite fluent and now writes poetry in both languages, having learnt entirely by watching Hindi movies since she was twelve, and downloading the alphabet off the internet. So it’s no small thing to practice using your knowledge of broken Hindi, when your know-it-all sister is always at your shoulder, sniggering and correcting you at every third syllable like a walking automatic grammar check application. I’ve given up.

Still, I maintain that if the Faerie ever spoke a human language, it would be Hindi.

 

3. What is your favourite thing about the country you live in?

Well, it’s two things really. The weather and the food.

Cooking is a very lengthy and serious affair, in my country, and most of the great cooks scorn the modern oven and gas stove. All the food is heavily seasoned, laden down with spices and herbs, and cooked well with copious amounts of coconut milk we squeeze ourselves. Vegetable salads are a purely Western invention. I never feel I’m eating real Sri Lankan food until I eat at my grandmother’s house. Villagers are very traditional about cooking, and more than one house has a small thatched hut, with a clay floor and roofed with dried coconut leaves, wherein reside an open hearth for cooking. The smoke, insulated within the hut for long periods, adds flavor to the curries being cooked on the huge clay pots atop the roaring brick stoves, in a way that no city-dwelling chef can manage. My most enduring memory of my ancestral home is of the small cooking hut, which stands outside the kitchen. It always smells of earthy clay, the crisp smell of burnt coconut leaves and dry wood, a thousand elusive scents of spices and my grandmother’s love.

Actually, it’s only in a tropical country that Sri Lankan food can be properly cooked. That’s because all those spices and cooking creates a pungent aroma that rapidly turns stale and odorous if not allowed to waft outside and disperse. Houses in tropical countries have lots of ventilation, with large airy windows standing open all months of the year. Houses built in colder climates are pretty much sealed in so the smell and the smoke would become unbearable.

The visiting European or tender-tongued American should beware, though! When we say “hot”, we mean HOT! It takes a lot to burn the typical Sri Lankan’s seasoned tongue, but not many foreigners can bear even the milder of dishes. As Dr. Thomas Cornell, a specialist in world culture who has visited Colombo put it, “the food is like molten lava!”.

There is an urban legend going on about the time President Rajapkshe had hoppers and chilli sambol served to President George Bush who was a guest at the President’s Mansion. Apparently, President Bush had thought it was chutney….

As for the weather, I never much cared for it until recently, thinking it boring and tedious to have only either hot sunshine or torrential rain all year round. And then I visited Canada.

I thought Canada was the most beautiful place I’d ever seen, but there was no denying that it got really cold, whenever the sun wasn’t up. I am one very cold creature, and once I went into the theatre at Carleton University in the afternoon and stepped out only once night had fallen. It was bloody freezing! Dressed in only my satin and net saree (we had had a cultural presentation) I thought I was gonna die, during the fifteen minute walk back to my dorm.

The real downside? It was only the tail-end of the summer.

Suddenly I’ve realized why tourists in my country lie in skimpy swimsuits on beaches for days on end, as though being fried alive was one the greatest joys in life. I’ve always thought they were complete nutters. But by the time I once more set foot upon my lovely tropical homeland, I’d have gladly done the same!

Some people can’t stand the humidity here though. When we were in Florida, many Americans from different States were quite uncomfortable with how humid it was there. Which was weird for us, as Sri Lanka is actually a lot more humid, and we were suffering from dry skin and peeling lips as a result of the lack of wetness we were accustomed to. Still, the sunlight seemed harsher and rather unfriendly to me. I chalked it up to the UV rays I’d heard about, ridiculous though that might seem. Sri Lanka may not be the cleanest of countries, but at least we don’t need to use sunblock or consult graphs on air quality.    

No wonder we are such a lazy nation. We lack the impetus of having to struggle against the elements. Persistent danger zone for natural disasters? No. (One tsunami does not a disaster zone make. The majority of the country didn’t even know what a tsunami was until we got hit by one. Although some of the inland provinces do have floods nearly annually.) Fatal drops or increases in temperature? No. We just get hot enough to complain about. I’ve never even heard of anybody getting sunstroke. Dangerous snow drifts and ice? Nada.

It’s like the weather here is an indulgent and generous parent and we’re a bunch of ungrateful kids.

 

4. Do you play sports?

Nope. Nada. Zilch. Never. I’m about as sporty as a plum pudding.

Although ballroom dancing is classified as a sport, I hear, in which case, yes, I do. =)

 

5. What is you favourite color?

Although I have not been entirely able to give up my fixation upon all things purple, I would have to say my current favourite is red.