Why good morning, why not Ayubowan?

Once I was in an audience listening to top communicator Renton de Alwis who convinced us that we should start greeting with ‘Ayubowan’ instead of good morning, good evening or good night. To wish someone long life is so meaningful, he said. In addition, Ayubowan is essentially Sri Lankan just as other countries have their own forms of greeting in their own language.

Renton de Alwis, most of the readers may remember, was Head of the Tourist Board a few years back, having come back from an assignment with PATA. He had clear ideas of how tourism could be developed and started doing a good job until he had a clash with the Minister and quit. The loser, of course, was the country. In fact, he had a wealth of experience on tourism having being involved both here and abroad for nearly three decades.

Renton used to write in English and he brought out a publication ‘Random Thoughts – A socio-political commentary of our time’.  He later wrote an interesting little book in Sinhala titled ‘Me Ape Rata – This is Our Country’ on Sri Lanka’s tourist industry. It’s written in a simple style using the language we use in chatting. It’s the type of book one can enjoy reading once in a way – a chapter or two at a time. This is exactly what I did a few days back. I remembered he had written about the use of ‘Ayubowan’ and I wanted to refresh my memory.

The chapter title he has used is ‘Ayubowan da? Good Morning da/’. Although ‘Ayubowan’ is a form of greeting to us Sri Lankans, we tend to greet another person in the usual English way. ‘Why is this?’ asks Renton de A. He first lists out how others greet. Take a few Asian countries. In Thailand it is ‘Sabaadi’ uttered in a most polite manner. In Malaysia they greet you ‘Salaamath Pagee’ if it’s morning or ‘Salaamath Malam’ in the night. In Bali it’s ‘Shanthi’ or ‘Om Shanthi’. In Bhasa Indonesia the greeting is ‘Dheerghayu’.  They are all indigenous greetings.

He promotes the use of ‘Ayubowan’ since it conveys a wish for long life. The wish need not be restricted to the person you meet but can spread to a much wider crowd. It can mean ‘Long life for all living beings’ thus conveying a wish covering all living beings in the universe. He stresses it’s a fine way to address the tourists. He is so passionate about the idea that he says the word sums up our culture, our heritage, our bondage, our upbringing – the whole gamut.

Along with ‘Ayubowan’ we put our hands together and greet a visitor with a smile. Consciously or otherwise the practice has gained ground now. The answer we receive when we telephone many institutions is ‘Ayubowan’. Renton de Alwis should be happy.