Illagaththa Shirt Ekak

A borrowed shirt, two torn-up Bata shoes,
I had them, I remember..
two threadbare denims, a double-zero phone,
I had them, I remember..
in my life….

Today, a tie fastened, choking around the neck,
we have come to Colombo and sold ourselves to the white man’s ways.. //

A boot that pinched hard,
one I loved from the bottom of my heart,
a lecture we doubled up and bunked, I remember…

An empty purse by evening,
a heap of nothing, not a cent,
a bug-infested, creaking bed, I remember…

Back then, with no cash, we were full of chatter and free…
there wasn’t even a dog to look at our faces…
enduring that peacock’s arrogance to the very hilt…
swallowing a good hard time, we went off to campus…

Today, a tie fastened, choking around the neck,
we have come to Colombo and sold ourselves to the white man’s ways.. //

This is a wry, bittersweet look back at poor student days, and at what getting ahead costs. The singer inventories his old poverty with something like affection: a borrowed shirt, two torn Bata shoes, threadbare jeans, a bottom-of-the-range double-zero phone. I had them, I remember, he repeats, the memories fond precisely because they were so bare.

The refrain is the sting. Today, he says, with a tie fastened choking around the neck, we came to Colombo and sold ourselves to the white man’s ways, that is, to a Westernized corporate life. The tie becomes a small noose; success feels like a kind of surrender. Around it he keeps cataloguing the old days: a boot that pinched, a love held in the pit of his heart, lectures happily bunked, an empty purse by nightfall, a bug-infested creaking bed.

The last verse turns the poverty into freedom. Back then, broke, they were full of chatter and free, not a single dog would spare them a glance, they were nobodies, and they swallowed the arrogance of the rich peacock and got through a hard time to reach campus. Set against the tie-choked present, the memory carries a clear verdict: they had less and were freer then, and climbing into Colombo’s suited world has cost them something of themselves. Written and sung by Sanjeew Lonlies, it is a nostalgic, faintly rebellious song about class, striving, and what we trade away to belong.