Mama Enne Dubai Rate Indala Lyrics by MS Fernando

I’m coming back from Dubai
after earning good money.
The money I earned is right here with me,
I’ve built a really nice little house,
put in a TV and a radio,
the money I earned is right here with me.
Back when I didn’t have a cent in my hand,
when there was no one to ask for my hand,
I lived with a heavy heart.
I’m coming back from Dubai
after earning good money,
the money I earned is right here with me.

Erandathi was the one who showed me love;
her mother and father wouldn’t even look at my face.
Now they come looking for me, asking after my troubles and my comfort,
so what is it that has changed?

They say she waited the four years until I came back,
that she prayed for me to do well.
Once I became rich, suddenly I became a fine man,
and the ones who used to look away, that’s what stings the heart.

Two or three marriage proposals a day now,
and how many aunts and uncles have come around.
What is all this showing off meant to prove?
So then, my heart, when it comes to Erandathi…

This is one of MS Fernando’s storytelling songs, the kind that wraps a sharp little piece of social truth inside an easy, almost cheerful tune. It follows a young man coming home from Dubai after years of labour abroad, his pockets finally full, and it quietly skewers the way people around him change their tune now that he has money.

The story is simple and bitter at the same time. When he was poor, with not a cent in his hand, no family would offer him a girl and he carried that shame around in his chest. The one person who actually loved him through those empty years was Erandathi. Her own parents wouldn’t so much as look at his face back then. Now that he has built a nice house and put in a TV and radio, the same people who turned away come knocking, asking sweetly how he’s been, sending two or three marriage proposals a day, with aunts and uncles trooping to his door. Nothing about him has changed except the money, and he knows it.

The lines carry a very Sri Lankan social weight. A man going to the Gulf, the “Dubai rate,” to earn and come back to build a house and finally be seen as a worthy match is a story repeated in countless village homes. The little house, the TV, the radio are not just possessions here, they are the badges that suddenly make him “yahapath,” a good and respectable man in everyone’s eyes, when before he was nobody. The detail of relatives wishing him “asiri,” blessings, and praying for his success only after he is useful to them is the song’s real sting.

What lingers is the ache underneath the swagger. He notices that the ones who once looked away are the ones it hurts to remember, because their sudden warmth proves they never valued him, only his wallet. And his heart keeps circling back to Erandathi, the one who stood by him when he had nothing. The song leaves you holding that quiet question it never fully answers, now that everyone wants him, what is all the showing off worth, and is it her he should turn to after all.