Nil Manika Lyrics by Sanjeew Lonlies

No less than the lovers of Isurumuniya,
matched to perfection, that is how they were, once
the boy was like a butterfly,
and they built, in the mind, a small mansion or two
as the fire of a memory blazed up crackling,
it was we ourselves who burned, fallen together against a closed door

It is true, from those days on, forever scraping a living out for others,
it was through the churning of life that I saw a love ripening
somewhere in that story,
the girlfriend was selected into campus
is the university a gem-pit, o gods,
sorting out the blue gems that catch the light?

No peacock-mount, no crab-claw tool,
we were very poor, we who dig the gem-pits
hiring out a beaten-up van,
we came from the village at the crack of dawn
one glance would have been enough, never mind more,
just to bring their two pairs of eyes close together
just to see even one happy tear,
before the funeral of a kinnara

Go, little sister, this once,
gaze into the boy’s two eyes,
come, breathe out one breath, then go,
there is nothing else I ask of you

That was the whole crime we committed, not one second had passed
before batons rained across our bodies, from the police, right after

For days the boy had heard, in his dreams, about the blue gem,
even a sleep that ran from one dream into the next carried a great weight
one day, before the sun could rise, the gem-river had woken early,
and at a certain spot in the water, a swan had shed its wings

This is a small tragic story set to music, written by Timran Keerthi, about two poor young lovers from a gem-mining village. They were, the singer says, no less than the lovers of Isurumuniya, the famous stone-carved couple, matched to perfection; the boy was light as a butterfly, and together they built little mansions in the imagination. But the memory now blazes like a fire, and it was they themselves who got burned.

The heart of the story is class and separation. Living hand to mouth, always scraping a living for others, the boy watched a love ripen through the churning of ordinary life, until the girl was selected into university. Is the university a gem-pit, he asks the gods bitterly, one that sorts out the shining blue gems, picking the precious ones and leaving the rest? She has been chosen; he, the poor gem-digger, has not. The blue gem, nil manika, becomes both the girl and everything out of his reach.

The last movement is devastating and dreamlike. With no peacock-mount and no fine tools, just poor pit-diggers, they hire a rickety van and come from the village at dawn for one thing only: to bring the two lovers’ eyes close for a single glance, one happy tear, before the funeral of a kinnara. Go, breathe one breath and look at him once, is all that is asked. And for that whole crime, within seconds, police batons rain down on them. The song closes on the boy’s recurring dream of the blue gem and a final image, the gem-river waking before dawn and a swan that has shed its wings, an emblem of grace broken, of love and hope destroyed. Sung by Sanjeew Lonlies, it is a quietly furious ballad about poverty, love and the violence done to the powerless.