Life is strange here as well as elsewhere.
In Sri Lanka
"One is compelled to ask the obvious as a form of greeting which may sound strange to a non-native speaker. For instance, when one is rushing to work in the morning, one hears the question of ‘vedata yanawa-da?’ (engl. Are you going for work?) many times as long as one meets someone on the way. Similarly, one experiences several occasions everyday where the redundant questions are asked and one answers in the affirmative.

Eg.: (1) In a supermarket – badu ganna aava- da? (engl. Did you come to buy some stuff? )
(2) At a book fair . pot ganna aavada? (engl. Did you come to buy books?)
(3) When one is on the way laden with goods: kadee giyaa-da? (engl. Did you go to the store?)

In rural areas one still goes to the river or to a bathing well for a bath. When one carries a bucket, towel and a change of clothes, one hears the following greeting

Eg.: (4) naana yanawa-da? (engl. Are you going for a bath?).

This question seems to be used very often as seen by the fact that even a parrot raised in a house in one village (where the path to the river leads past the house) asking everyone going with a bucket and a towel towards the river ‘naana yanawa-da’?. What may appear even more strange is when one is having a bath in the river one is asked the following question as a form of greeting (Disanayaka, 2005).

Eg.: (5) naanawa-da? (engl. Are you having a bath?) "

N.C. Premawardhena - How diplomatic can a language be? The unwritten rules in a language: an analysis of Spoken Sinhala