Menike On My Mind

‘Menike Mage Hithe’ the world-famous song sung by Yohani Diloka De Silva surpassed 101 million views on YouTube within a very short time – three months – and world famous figures such as Amitabh Bachchan have praised it. This is the very first time a Sinhala song received such a big international recognition. The video song also marked the first major breakthrough in viral marketing in Sri Lanka. The song is most popular in countries such as India, Bangladesh, Maldives, etc. But this column today is not about that. It is about the children of high-ranking state officers, politicians and VIPs.

 Menike Mage Hithe is very special for us Sri Lankans because of certain things. While many children belonging to high-ranking state officials, politicians and VIPs sling mud on Mother Lanka and tarnish the image of Mother Lanka, this young girl, Yohani Diloka De Silva, who is the daughter of a retired high-ranking officer attached to our heroic Armed Forces gave international recognition to Sri Lanka in the middle of COVID-19. That is the topic we discuss here today.

 If Sri Lankans remember things for more than two weeks, they would remember how some of the children of some of the Sri Lankan politicians belonging to all political parties and some of the children of some high-ranking state officers behaved during the past few decades here in Sri Lanka. Many of them hit the night clubs and got drunk. Some of them still do. In addition they killed and harassed Sri Lankans and foreigners. Roaming all over Colombo city and making trouble for others, especially innocent people, is their hobby. No matter which Government in power, this is the behaviour of some children of some of those high-ranking state officers, politicians and VIPs.  

 The people still remember how they harassed some foreign women and how they ran down and killed some traffic police officers who were on duty on the roads at midnight. Some of those children crashed into

Amitabh Bachchan’s Tweet on Menike Mage Hithe

vehicle showrooms in broad daylight and damaged them. The bottles of liquor transported inside the luxury vehicles of some politicians suddenly became water after miracles performed by invisible powers. Some children abandoned their marriages and destroyed the marriages of many others just to have fun and benefits. Those children who can be called ‘brats’ have the power to do anything after committing any offence. The number of people killed or harassed by those children, the number of private properties they destroyed after getting drunk or to take revenge, the number of rules and regulations they violated in broad daylight is uncountable. No child of a VIP got punished for what they did in the past several decades under various Governments belonging to various political parties.   

Those children acted like thugs and got away with whatever they did. People started to say, “This is Sri Lanka and it is usual to have such ugly incidents.” Being a child of a VIP has become a curse for those children when it comes to their reputations, etc. and it is a blessing for them when it comes to the luxurious life they get. The fortune they receive as a bonus is the very short memory of Sri Lankans which lasts only for two weeks. Therefore, those children can do whatever they want, contest in any election, win and come into Parliament without any problem after some time.

 The two-weeks-long memory of Sri Lankan voters was proven when the JVP contested 39 seats, as part of the United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA), and won 36 seats in the 2004 General Election. This is after in an earlier avatar, they killed hundreds of very popular politicians, scholars, artistes, state officials, ordinary people and placed some of the severed heads of those murdered people on the fences in front of their houses for display in 1988 and 1989. After 15 years of doing all those things, the people of Sri Lanka voted for them and sent 36 of them into the Parliament. Therefore there is no need to talk about the memory of Sri Lankan people and their vision for the country.

 The song, Menike Mage Hithe and all who are connected to this song, especially the singer Yohani Diloka De Silva is very special when it comes to bringing the name of Mother Lanka to the international level. In addition there is another significance in this whole episode. It is the language, Sinhala, which won the hearts and minds of the people all over the world. Tamil is also a state language and the world has known about it for several decades because of Tamil Nadu in India and the Tamil community which lives all over the world. The Tamil Diaspora gave a huge publicity to the Tamil language all over the world.

 The Sinhalese are just over 15 million from the world population of 7.6 billion. It is a micro minority. How many Sinhalese know this bitter truth? Did we hear this bitter truth even once in the past? Who spoke about this bitter truth in the past at least during election periods? Without any shame we still speak broken Sinhala while speaking broken Sinhala is being treated as an honour while speaking broken English is treated as something shameful. We forget Sinhala just after landing in another country. Thereafter we speak broken Sinhala.  

Indian superstar Madhuri Dixit also danced to Menike Mage Hithe

Because of Yohani Diloka De Silva now the world knows our main state language, Sinhala. Now the entire world sings Menike Mage Hithe in Sinhala. They pronounce Sinhala words with their own accent. They learn the meanings of Sinhala words. This will encourage the entire world to examine the Sinhala language and culture further. The entire world knows the beauty of the Sinhala language by now after Menike Mage Hithe.

There is another significant factor about this world famous Sinhala song. It is the words and the language of this song which does not consist of even a single word of ‘filth’. When we examine similar Sinhala songs, we can see the majority of them contain a lot of ‘filth’ and we hardly find songs at least without one word of ‘filth’. ‘Filth’ is being used to popularize low-quality Sinhala songs. The other tactics used by some artistes to popularize their low-quality songs is doing an attractive music video. There is a common factor in all those songs. All of those videos contain visuals of pretty half-dressed or naked young females and visuals with double meanings. This is another very popular common tactic used by present-day young artistes without any talent.

But we find nothing similar in the song Menike Mage Hithe which only contains very decent words and visuals. No half-dressed females … no filth … not even complicated ideas and words. Anyone can listen and enjoy this simple song. If anyone criticizes this song in a negative way it is because of pure jealousy and there is no other reason at all.  

The song became an internet sensation within a few days after its official YouTube video release. The song was later dubbed in many languages including Tamil, Hindi, Punjabi, Nepali, Bengali, Bhojpuri and Malayalam by different artistes due to the huge audience response in many countries for the song which was originally produced in the Sinhala language. The Tamil and Malayalam versions of the song were unveiled on YouTube on August 28, 2021.    

An Indigo stewardess dances to the catchy tune.

The entire nation should be thankful to Yohani Diloka De Silva, the young songstress who sang the song and also the team – Satheeshan, Chamath Sangeeth and Dulan for taking the name of Mother Lanka to the international level in few months in the middle of COVID-19. Yohani is an excellent example for the entire young Sri Lankan generation, especially the children of politicians, high-ranking officers, VIPs, etc. We, Sri Lankans rarely find this type of talented, decent and young artistes. She proved to the country and the entire world that the world can be won without ‘filth’, without nakedness, without negative publicity and especially without being a legend. The Daily News wishes her all the best for all her future endeavours.