Description
Now this is a character one needs to meet. Lurking behind his eyes I saw a bit of a rebel. Now the thing about a rebellious kid is, he is either a trouble maker or a great leader in the making. With Osama I’d like to think it is the latter. He immediately engaged me, first observing me, sizing me up almost; then breaking into a pleasant smile and easy talk.
Hailing from Atulugama itself, my first impression was that Osama is not quite sure why his Mother placed him at the GLH. He has an older brother and a sister who live at home.
Comfortable to some extent with English, I found him fluent in both local languages. He spoke animatedly about school, voting both Islam and English as favorite subjects, unwilling to pick one. He speaks of playing Chess at the home and trying to beat ‘Father’ at that game. Husni, a fellow chess player we met earlier, is his best buddy.
He thinks the GLH is good. They are kind and they teach him well. He loves to eat biriyani and is very happy that they serve a yellow rice with special dishes on Fridays. It took some coaxing to find out what he did with himself in his spare time, but he finally said he likes to draw art and that he generally liked all the activities at the home.
“I will be a Computer Engineer” he told me before we wrapped up, giving the camera I held, a serious look.
