DARKMARKET

the capital, triggering a sustained civil war, which only came to an end twenty-six years later.

Sitting tight in Colombo as Sinhalese gangs marauded through the city was no longer an option, and so Renu's parents packed up and took their three children to Jaffna, the main centre of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka. Lying at the northern tip of the country, Jaffna was separated by only fifty miles from the south-eastern coast of India. It was also the stronghold of militant Tamil guerrillas. Resistance to the Sinhalese-dominated government in Colombo was growing.

It was not long after Renu's move that the unpredictable violence of civil war and insurgency started to creep ever closer to his new home. By 1987 government troops were laying siege to Jaffna, battling with various armed groups, notably the LTTE, the infamous Tamil Tigers. The number of refugees streaming from the city into southern India across the Palk Strait reached a critical mass, persuading the government in New Delhi that it had to act. In a deal reached with the Sri Lankan government, the Indians sent a large peace-keeping force into Jaffna to oversee a peace agreement.

Before long, relations between the Indian peace-keepers and the Tamil Tigers had broken down and once more Jaffna became one of the most dangerous cities on Earth. In October 1987 Indian troops were responsible for the massacre of several dozen innocent civilians in the city's main hospital, the only incident during a quarter of a century of civil war that united the Colombo government and the Tigers in their outrage. For Renu and his family, the risks of staying in Jaffna were too high and so they trekked back down south to Colombo.

One afternoon, Renu's father asked the young boy to buy some groceries. Renu had never seen so many rupees and he stuffed them in his pocket, along with the list of things to get. On the way to the shops, he spotted a man by the side of the road playing a game. There were three pots and underneath one of them was a pebble. Renu watched as people placed their money against one or other of the pots after the deft entertainer switched them around at lightning speed. Renu was mesmerised and shocked that the players consistently failed to find the pebble, and yet he had guessed right every time. He wriggled his way to the front of the queue and pulled out his father's crumpled banknotes. One by one they were scooped into the man's pocket as Renu failed to guess the right pot, just like those before him.