Owath Wadada Malli Lyrics by Gypsies

Listen up and take it in, I won’t tell you people any lies,
I roamed all over the world, planting my flag wherever I went,
and then I came back to see my own country,
and once those folks abroad realised how valuable I am,
they begged and begged me, bowing, to stay

Is that even a job, little brother, is that even work?
to hand you a royal chore, are you some royal-legged VIP?
think it over, look into it, in your coffee-break, your idle fool’s hour,
and go tell all that to the topknot-tied Chinese

That terrorist who terrified the whole world,
to go and catch Bin Laden,
George Bush, they say, came to me,
telling me, catch him and hand him over for me,
but I don’t go poking my nose
into international affairs,
so that’s why I said no

Is that even a job, little brother, is that even work?
to hand you a royal chore, are you some royal-legged VIP?
think it over, look into it, in your coffee-break, your idle fool’s hour,
and go tell all that to the topknot-tied Chinese

Meeting the queen of actresses in the city of Hollywood,
“Sunil, why stay on in America, come, do a photoshoot with me,”
Julia kept pestering and pestering me…
but if the missus back home found out,
Julia would be a goner and there’d be a funeral,
so that’s why I said no

Is that even a job, little brother, is that even work?
to hand you a royal chore, are you some royal-legged VIP?
think it over, look into it, in your coffee-break, your idle fool’s hour,
and go tell all that to the topknot-tied Chinese

Madonna, the most popular singer in the world,
saying “you simply must sing a duet with me,”
came chasing after me for days on end,
but ah, Sri Lanka’s lady singers would get jealous if that happened,
so that’s why I said no

Is that even a job, little brother, is that even work?
to hand you a royal chore, are you some royal-legged VIP?
think it over, look into it, in your coffee-break, your idle fool’s hour,
and go tell all that to the topknot-tied Chinese

“Bring the cricket World Cup home to Sri Lanka,
it can’t be done without Warne, brother Sunil, you have to come,”
[even] Sanath cried and cried and begged me,
but coaching is no simple thing, there’s always trouble inside the board,
so that’s why I said no

Is that even a job, little brother, is that even work?
to hand you a royal chore, are you some royal-legged VIP?
think it over, look into it, in your coffee-break, your idle fool’s hour,
and go tell all that to the topknot-tied Chinese

This is a much-loved comic song by the Gypsies, a tall-tale in which the narrator, playing the band’s own Sunil, brags with a completely straight face about the absurd honours the whole world supposedly begged of him, and how he modestly turned every single one down. He opens insisting he won’t tell any lies, then claims he roamed the globe planting his flag and came home only because everyone abroad, realising how valuable he is, bowed and begged him to stay.

Each verse is a bigger, sillier boast. George Bush, he says, personally asked him to go catch Osama bin Laden, but he doesn’t meddle in international affairs, so he said no. Julia Roberts pestered him in Hollywood for a photoshoot, but the missus at home would have made a funeral of it, so he said no. Madonna chased him for days for a duet, but Sri Lanka’s own lady singers would get jealous, so he said no. Even Sanath begged him, in tears, to bring home the cricket World Cup alongside Shane Warne, but coaching is a headache full of board politics, so, of course, he said no.

The joke lives in the refrain, a friend cutting him down to size: is that even a job, little brother? are you some royal-legged VIP? mull it over on your coffee-break, your idle fool’s hour, and then go tell all that to the topknot-tied Chinese, a comic Sinhala way of saying tell it to someone who will actually believe you. The whole song is a gentle, self-deprecating parody of the boastful humble-brag, one of the Gypsies’ famous crowd-pleasers, made purely to make people laugh.