Life in technicolour

Yasodhara Pathanjali uncovers the rationale behind her famed mural and parental choices

What I find shocking about Sri Lankan parenting is the almost postcolonial thought process Yasodhara Pathanjali

Q: You came into the limelight and gained popularity because of the mural you painted. Could you tell us how that came about and what inspired you to paint it?

A: It started off as a joke! While I am super colourful, my husband is mainly interested in architecture and muted colours.

We have this huge plain white wall outside our house near the entrance; and simply to wind him up, I suggested we paint a massive mural on it with all my colours. He agreed that it was a really good idea and said he’d make arrangements for me to paint it.

And then I thought to myself: ‘Oh great! This means I will have to do all the painting myself!’ So that’s how the wall came to be – all because of a silly joke between husband and wife.

Q: What brought on your unique parenting techniques?

A: What I find shocking about Sri Lankan parenting is the almost postcolonial thought process.

The belief that the best thing they can do for their children is to get them educated and send them out of the country is horrifying! How can you expect to develop the country if you plan on sending your kids away?

And that has been the goal of almost every parent I’ve met. Their form of achievement is to be able to look back when they’re 50 and say: ‘I did a good job and managed to send my kid to Australia, the UK or Canada, or some other place.’

That’s been very tough for me. I’ve already told my kids that they’re not leaving the country – not even for education. I spent 25 years of my life fighting to move back to Sri Lanka because I felt that my parents made a horrible mistake moving abroad in the 1970s and ’80s.

What’s worse is that now, you see the negative side to it. You see some parents in elders’ homes and others who don’t know what to do with their land, homes and everything that they’ve built over the years. It’s all abandoned now.

And we see a massive brain drain as well, and lack the experts, specialists and talented people needed to uplift our country. My question to the parents out there is this: How are we supposed to be okay bringing up our children like that?