SADARANA MUDALALI'S STORY

Sadarana Mudalali of Mahiyangana who gives petrol dansela for Wesak Poya ...pays electricity bills of temples

     Sadarana Mudalali who holds a kerosene oil dansela for villagers every year on Wesak Poya Day, did so this year too. He is Tissa Hewawasam alias Sadarana Mudalali of Kuruvitenna, Mahiyangana. He is a person who sets an example to everybody. This exemplary act he commenced by paying the electricity bill of the temple in the village and by now he has 85 temples to his credit. Sadarana Mudalali who has targetted  paying electricity bills to a 100 temples also carries on a business in a fair and justified manner. He runs a kiosk and adopts a system where customers themselves could weigh their own food items.

    "I was born on December 6th in 1959. My home town is Ampitiya in Kandy. My mother's hometown is Kandy and my father's is Induruwa. Our family has 6 brothers and sisters altogether. My father sold items of clothing at various Polas or bazaars as a means of living.

     I studied upto the 7th standard at Kuruvitenna Maha Vidyalaya. That was the time when there were JVP problems. Father started an eating-house in Kuruvitenna. I was washing dishes there. I also did trading activities. At that time my age was about 17. After some time I followed a course on welding at the Youth Services Centre. In 1981 I joined the Tank Restoration System and worked there. I worked at the Minipe Ela Project for 2 years. After that I went to work at the Milk Board in Bambalapitiya. In this period, I accidentally broke my leg in 1991 by trying to cross the road at the yellow line by getting knocked down by a bike".

    It was from that point that his life had taken a different turn. It was while returning home after taking medicine that he had met his future partner in life. Three months after that he had got married to her ... Soma Dissanayaka. He then took over the business of his father which the latter had been doing for some time. This way he was progressing well.

   "Our father passed away on January 1st, 1999. That same year itself I undertook to pay the electricity bill of the Kuruvitenna Temple on Wesak Poya Day. I have taken over 5 temples to pay the electricity bills upto the year 2099 (100 years). This news spread around by word of mouth and by now I have been paying the electricity bills of 85 temples around the country. My target is to pay electricity bills upto a number of 100 temples".

    He had secured in his possession the counterfoils of all such bills he had paid. The weight of the bills alone is about 8 kilos.

    He has an aspiration in life. That is, that with all this merit and charity, there would be world peace. Without stopping at paying these bills, he also conducts a kerosene oil dansela on Wesak Poya Day every year.

    "I started this new activity on the 1st of January in the year 2000. There are 270 bottles in a kerosene oil barrel. In this case I issue kerosene oil to those who don't have electricity. By this time I have carried on this issueing of kerosene for 13 years".

    He reminisces the past and looks at the future. He somehow or other pays an electricity bill of a temple daily. Or else he at least considers the letters he receives requesting him to pay an electricity bill.

    In the meantime, he attends to his duties at the shop or kiosk. It is not a big shop as such. However, everything from a pin to an electric torch, rice and related  commodities together with pens, pencils, books and essential items are available there. If anybody comes there and asks for some item and if it is not available in the shop, he makes it a point to bring it to the shop the next day. It is actually a sort of mini-supermarket. The customers come ... they weigh their food items by themselves and keep the money on the table and go away. He has got his own house made and attends to the educational requirements of his children and also conducts activities in his shop in a successful manner. Though his earnings from the shop is not a big sum, he allocates about Rs.35,000 for a month to pay the electricity bills. At one time, he has distributed small safety-lamps together with kerosene oil. He then at another time given coconut oil from a barrel.

    At the end of all this, what he expects is world peace. His next motive is to bestow merit on his mother and father.

    "It may have been about a half-hour before my father closed his eyes. I went near his death-bed. I asked my father to give me  a mandate. Father was breathing with difficulty ... but he told me that he would give me a mandate for me to live well in society. I got that mandate in a complete way. Today it is with happiness that I live. Now I do something productive to society. I have verbally promised to pay the electricity bill of the 5 temples I undertook  initially for a 100 years. To fulfil the promise, I would be depositing a certain sum of money in the bank for each such temple by the year 2015.

    Not only Sadarana Mudalali of  Sadarana Stores but his only son too is thinking of putting into action the principles of his father. If ever some village woman who comes to Sadarana Stores goes away without making the payment because she forgets or otherwise takes something more than she should, Sadarana Mudalali does not despair.

    "With what a lot of problems in their domestic life do they come!  Though they go ... they will bring again .."

     What he thought was correct. The woman took away something more than necessary ... goes some distance ... turns around and comes back to his shop asking for pardon. That is how Sadarana Mudalali thinks.

Narrative -- Inoka Samarawickrema / A.M. Gunapala
Pix            -- Wimal Karunatilleka