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What Ajith asw a shed near a canal. He realized that this was the area near the Delkanda Junction. Just as reverend Subuthi had suggested, he entered the shed and looked all around and then looked at his own self. This was the dark skinny man had seen earlier in his dream. He wore a white sarong and a T-shirt. Inside the shed were stacks of newspaper, bags made of hemp and bottles. At one end was a bed and on the bed a small child. He picket up the little boy.

“See what your name is?”

“Sun…..Sun …..Sundaram,” Ajith blurted out.

“You don’t have to answer me. Just remember everything that you experience,” the priest reminded him once more.

Now Ajith saw the Tamil woman outside the shed cooking something over open fire and a little girl who sat nearby. “Janaki…… that was his daughter …….. He was a Timil man named Sundaram in his previous life and he was a ragamuffin man collecting bottles and old newspaper. Janaki was my daughter.”

Now he could see the man walking to the canal with his two kids. Everything appeared like a movie.

After this he saw himself worshipping inside a Hindu temple and then sleeping with his wife in the shed. Then Ajith saw Sundaram with a large wicker basket on his head going down a road collecting bottles and newspapers. He saw the man coming home holding the little girl’s hand.

“Now let us come to the moment of death in that lifetime. You will not feel any pain. Float away and up, away from the body that was a burned. You will not have any more attachments to that body.” Ajith heard the priest’s voice. “See what happened to that body?”

Ajith saw a whole lot of people surrounding him on a hot afternoon. What he saw next completed his dream sequence. The men who surrounded Sundaram, poured petrol which they took from a nearby bowser, all over his body. The next instance he could smell the petrol. His throat had a burning sensation. “Anadawaney, aandawaney, ‘ he muttered without thinking. Ajith fidgeted on the bed but he could not escape this situation. The tears that filled his eyes seeped out from under the close lids and flowed down his cheeks. “Please, sir, don’t, please, don’t,” A flame came from somewhere and enveloped him. He felt an uncontrollable anger towards the men who was torturing him.

“Now, sir, come out of that situation. Look at it all from the outside. That body was only a temporary situation. Float upwards without any pain or sorrow of fear and come to the present moment. What I count to three, you will open your eyes without any pain, weariness or hurt. One – you are very close to waking up. Your body is very relaxed. Two – you are getting ready to wake up. You feel very comfortable. Three – wake up.”

Ajith opened his eyes and wiped away the tears from his eyes.

“Reverend, for a while I could not breathe.”

“What did you see?”

I was a Tamil man in that lifetime, reverend. His name was Sundaram.” He wiped away the tears that were still following from his eyes. “That was a very sad death, reverend. It was during the fight between the Tamils and the Sinhalese. This man was burned to death after petrol was proud all over him.”

“In fifty nine?”

“I think so. That Janaki is this Sundaram’s daugter.”

“See how it all work out, sir. In one lifetime we are bron Tamil. In another lifetime we could be born Sinhalese or in some European country. or else we could be born Chinese, Japanese or to some other race. So, sir, why do we become so proud saying we are this race or that race? All what we have received Physically, genetically through heredity. When we go none of us can take the skin color or the race.”

“We must be taking the memory and when we go, reverend. That Sundaram was very good at adding figures. I am also very good at math. Just like that Sundaram I like to eat Vasey. I just remembered, when my mother was pregnant with me, she said she had a great desire to eat those chili doughnuts.”