Oh! Colombo 

There is nothing new about bad mouthing others but the one who does the bad mouthing actually does not want the person who is being torn to shreds to know about it. Very few have the courage to actually admit that they bad mouthed a person and stick to it. It is even worse when one is a professional in a business with top notch clients being caught in the act of bad mouthing them. 

Recently, at a well-known boutique hotel where all is quiet and sedate, Cindy had planned to meet up with a friend in its quiet intimate restaurant. Cindy, though Sri Lankan, looks more like a beauty from the Mediterranean. Having come in early she was enjoying a Martini in the comfortable, well air conditioned restaurant of the hotel. In waltzed four persons, one of whom was a renowned professional in the arena of beauty who has a list of well to do clientele in the city of Colombo. They settled themselves at a table, ordered some very fancy starters and then proceeded to malign Colombo’s so called elite, who also happened to be the beautician’s clients, to two of the guests at their table who happened to be of the diaspora status. Cindy almost choked on her Martini when she heard names of people who she knew very well being torn to shreds. The foursome obviously thought that Cindy was a guest staying in the hotel carried on carelessly in loud voices about all and sundry. It reached a point that Cindy could not take anymore and she chose to walk out to the café outdoors not even minding the sweltering heat;  she could not take any more of the conversation she was overhearing and also feared that things may be said about her friend she was meeting up with. 

Tina who walked into the restaurant a little later walked in to the restaurant to see that Cindy was not there. Being a woman from Colombo, she recognized two in the maligning foursome, who went very quiet and became almost pale when she checked with them whether they had seen Cindy. In the café outdoors Tina found Cindy six shades paler than what she was who related to Tina what she had overheard. The two ladies had a wee snack and drink and left the premises. I wonder whether Tina will ever walk into the beauty parlour again after she heard this story. 

A lesson to be learnt. Never malign people in a loud voice in public because one never knows who knows who in this small fish pond of Colombo where all are trying their best to be big fish.