In his book Charred Lullabies, Valentine Daniel tells the story of J.D. Immanuel, a retired Tamil school principal in Sri Lanka. Immanuel boarded a train to Kandy. There was one other passenger in his compartment, a woman dressed in a typical Sinhalese sari. Anti-Tamil riots had erupted in Kandy. Sinhalese rioters boarded the training yelling “Get the Tamils out! Kill them! Kill them!” Immanuel could hear the screams of victims being dragged off the train and beaten. As the rioters came to his compartment, the woman moved from her seat and sat next to Immanuel. She took his shaking hand in her hand and didn’t say a word. The Sinhalese men looked in the compartment and shouted, “No Tamils here!” and went on to the next compartment. The woman held his hand until her station. Neither the woman nor Immanuel said a word, but for long after whenever the trauma came back to haunt Immanuel’s dreams, thinking of her holding his hand calmed him.
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