They are not shell-shocked, the bands are still playing

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, JULY 28. Did someone say religion is the opiate of the masses? In Sri Lanka, make that cricket.

As hosts Sri Lanka played India for the second time in the current one-day triangular cricket series, there was no evidence to show that only four days ago, the country had been plunged into yet another crisis with the LTTE attack on the Katunayake airbase and the adjoining Bandaranaike International Airport.

The stadium was not as packed as it was during the last India-Sri Lanka encounter, when the Indians caved in for their second defeat in a row, but this had less to do with the destruction of half the national carrier's Airbus fleet and a significant number of the Air Force's deadly Kfir fighters planes, than with the fact that the outcome of this match would not affect Sri Lanka's fortunes in the triangular.

The thin crowd notwithstanding, the bands played the baila with gay abandon, beer flowed unceasingly and at the afternoon drinks break, the only cloud on the horizon seemed to be that India, at 142 for 2 to Sri Lanka's total score of 183, might actually win the match.

In fact, India did go on to win the match by seven wickets and that seemed to evoke more disappointment than was seen on Sri Lankan faces on the day of the attack, when except for a thinning out of traffic on the airport road, everything else was as it usually is. In the capital, the streets were crowded, parking was at a premium, the shops, restaurants and casinos were full.

Only the most prescient would know that 35 km north of downtown Colombo, the LTTE had blown up aircraft worth millions of dollars affecting the operational capability of the Sri Lankan Air Force and its national carrier, jeopardised the country's tourist industry and dealt a severe blow to the economy.

This attitude of serendipity, which in the past gave the island the name Serendib, is probably what the CEO of Sri Lankan airlines was referring to when he said at a press conference on Friday that he had never stopped being surprised by ``how quickly Sri Lanka returns to normal'' after incidents like the one last Tuesday.

The LTTE may carry out the most devastating attacks, targeting political leaders and vital installations, but its biggest frustration must surely be its inability to get under the skin of the average Sri Lankan.

A commentator of the Island, a daily, wrote today that if the LTTE was one day defeated, it would not be through military skills, but through the sheer indifference of the people.

``The foreign media and the international community probably think the Sri Lankan polity may now be literally tearing their hair in anguish over the air-base attack. But those living here will know this is hardly the case. The Sinhalese public have become totally de-sensitised to LTTE terror,'' the columnist wrote.

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