Ambergris Millionaire.

Ambergris Millionaire.

Rathgama a boisterous little coastal village south of Sri Lanka inhabited mostly by a fisheries community with a dialect unique to themselves was my birthplace. Even though we spoke the same native language of Sinhala, the dialect with a slight drag attached to each word raised eyebrows and led to mockery which, in most cases ended up with a brawl with others who are not used to our dialect. By nature, we are a restless, brave and a pugnacious community. Just a few words coming out of our mouths is sufficient for any Sri Lankan to brand us as natives of Rathgama.

At 16, I was taller than my other colleagues and had all the qualities to make me a fully fledged native of Rathgama baptised at birth with the distinctive dialect. My over 6-foot tall giant of a dad was a go-getter and was my hero. I loved taking risks in whatever situation I was in and in most of the cases emerged the winner. Karate was my favourite pastime and on numerous occasions, kids were hurt and the childhood brawls never instigated animosity amongst the elders mainly due to the reputation my dad had within the community. He was not respected and feared by the villagers for his pugnacious demeanour but for being very sensible and just in his judgements. He was rich and always helped the poor.

My dad collected and exported fisheries products of value to Singapore and China. He was not interested in fish but had a far-flung knowledge on other products of the better value of the ocean. As a child listening to my dad explaining his tricks of the trade, I gained considerable knowledge of the products he collected for export. Even if I lacked the hands-on experience I was fascinated by the elaborate explanations he gave my mother on his collections and successful sales with huge profits.

It was a Friday and just after school I was walking back home with a mind full of playful activities to be accomplished over the weekend. A game of softball cricket was on the venue for the Saturday. Since my pocket money weighed the most, I was unanimously appointed to organise the soft drinks for both teams. Last year the rival team bore the expenses. My dreams of winning tomorrow's match were suddenly shattered by an uncle of mine who was relentlessly fighting poverty to keep the fire at home burning. Most of his daily earnings never reached home and a handsome portion retained at the local illicit liquor joint.

He interrupted me to inform me that he had found something unusual at the beach and since my dad was away he wanted me to have a look at it. It was obvious that greed for a quick hefty booze by outsmarting a young lad is worth the try than waiting to be given a better-but-late offer by my dad. When he described his findings my instincts ran haywire. Hiding the enthusiasm erupting like a volcano within myself, I agreed to go and inspect it. I could not believe my eyes, a large chunk of yellow AMBERGRIS was on his table. I instructed him to look after it and left. No sooner I turned the bend I was frantically running home. Panting like a stray dog after being hit by a car, I asked my mum for Rs.5,000.

In the early seventies, a labourer earned only Rs. 5 a day and I was asking for the equivalent of a thousand labour days. Although I knew that the large amount I asked is not a problem for my family I had a lot of persuasions to do. When she obliged after much explanation my next stop was to the nearest shop. Having bought a few yards of clean white cloth I wasted no time to be back at my poor uncle's house of meagre belongings. I handed over the money to him and asked him to wrap the soft clay like stuff in the clean white cloth and took it home promising more money once my dad came home tomorrow.

When my dad came home the next day we wasted no time to travel to Colombo in his Austin Cambridge car to sell this stuff. It fetched an exorbitant price of Rs. 200,000/- and my dad handed over the money to me and said “ Son this is yours. Start your life with it”

PS: Ambergris is a solid waxy grey flammable substance produced in the intestines of sperm whales popularly believed to be the aborted fetus or the placenta of whales. The Protagonist of this little write up is no more in my list of contacts due to my frequent travels abroad and I deeply regret it.