The queues are ubiquitous — and orderly. To get five litres of gasoline, auto-rickshaw drivers wait calmly in line for as long as five days. People have been queuing up for cooking gas, milk powder, and meals at soup kitchens, without fights or friction. Each day, essential workers, in hospitals, sanitation, post offices and banks, tolerate cramming into buses, one of the only means of transport with an assured supply of fuel.
“Without hanging? It’s 110 people,” bus driver M.P.L.K. Saman, 32, said about the number of passengers he packs in for the 15-mile journey between Colombo and Dompe in the east. “With hanging? 150 people.” The country is running on patience, even as the political and economic crisis intensifies. The former President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, went into hiding after protesters stormed his residence and office last week, and then he fled the country on a military plane.
