The sad story of the nation in one commercial

The sad story of the nation in one commercial

Recently I saw a commercial on derana channel that I feel sums up the sad story of our nation.  The commercial captures the dreams and desires of three generations in less than one minute and they believe in  one common path  to the desired end. And that common path stinks.

The father , looks like a government servant probably a clerk , anyway a blue collar worker steps out from the house that smacks of poverty with a carrying bag that has his lunch box in it, is first reminded by his wife about acquiring  their own house that she longed to move into one day. This reminds us of the families especially mothers who do not have houses of their own and long to move into one someday.

Then he is asked to not to forgot about his mother or mother in laws Budhist  pilgrimage to  to India. How many old people in this country must be wanting to go to India but they cannot afford it because whatever money they have had have  been spent on their children and grand children.

Then his son reminds him of the tuk tuk that he is dreaming of. The sadness in this request is this grown up son wants to become a three wheel driver and his family has no objections to it , also  his fathers concern is not his son wanting to become a three wheeler driver but son wants the father to buy it for him.

Daughters desire is for a TV, probably to watch Indian soap operas like everywhere else in sri lanka.and the grand son wants him to buy a mountain bike which is the only request that doesn’t add to the sadness of the commercial.

And at the end of the commercial we  learn  that all these family members are giving cards to be posted to derana TV for a draw so that they might win one their desired object from a lottery in which  odds are   probably 1 to million , even smaller.