Australia changes to holiday mode from the beginning of December. In 2023 I was still in Perth. This is usually not in my plans. Given the opportunity, this time I made it a point to attend the office Xmas party. Though I work for a company located in Perth at the time, I wannish back to my tropical heaven as soon as I find a chance. In fact, so many office colleagues have worked with me, but virtually. This Xmas party gave me the opportunity to see them in person.
After a lengthy silence, I visited Kuldeep, old buddy from Warwick residence. We were like partners in crime as we both got stuck in the time of Covid. He was delighted to see me and recalled good old memories such as the stupid fight irrupted with a guy from Peru who stole our beer! Covid restrictions made us spending relaxed time, share our stories and help each other maintain their good modes.
When I go for a sea swims, I text him saying which beach I head to and time to expect me back, So he can raise alarm in case I don't come. Beaches in Western Australia had a notorious reputation of shark attacks. Swimmers, spearfishermen, surfers and divers were the victims.
I have written about him in early posts, but one thing I couldn't mentioned was his amazing way of expressing things. Below are a couple of his statements, not only I remember still, but they have become most used idioms within my family conversations.
"Avocadoes are expensive for a reason"
"In Australia you can afford to buy exclusive brands. Then you feel like George Clooney, still you have to clean your own dishes"
Also I had to visit Adelaide a couple of times where I had the opportunity to meet my good friend Asitha, a well to do businessman, and family of my cousin Ruwan. Well, it was a luxury stay. I was picked up by a latest Range Rover and I was offered a sport car to use during my stay. I liked Ruwan aiya and Disna Akka's home since it was located in a very quite mountain area.
When I got back in December 2023, Sri Lanka was still experiencing rain. It was an indicator for crazy weather pattern we gonna experience. As soon as weather settles I did a couple of casual dives in down south just to indulge myself. Moments are precious. When I get old I started to realize it more and more. Each dive is special and I don't know how long I could experience it. I felt this may be the last time I see this beauty of the ocean. In fact, I always drew back on southern highway with heavy heart. It added extra high with a coffee I grab from Barista at the rest area.
I arranged a couple of family trips too. Time we spent in Sir John's Bungalow in Knuckles was a special one. It was organized to take my Aunt, Mala punchi, who also had come down from England. Some of the best trips I ever gone around Sri Lanka were with Punchi's family, long ago. I can remember my 21st birthday was celebrated at Belihuloya rest house during one such trips. In fact, I have all the reasons to take her with us a trip.
We all enjoyed the time spent under the mysterious cloudy skies of Knuckles mountain range. Playing Scrabble with girls in the evenings, in the colonial style settee, while having wine. It was a great atmosphere. We tried to imagine the old glory of the place while Sri John was still visiting. Given most of us had read the book Ecstasy of the Deep by Tony Buxton, we knew about the lavish life they had. Especially the playboy life!
As always, night spent in Galle Forte was so amazing as always. Apart from snorkeling at Hikkaduwa, we had the opportunity of feeding wild turtles who come to the shore. Girls were thrilled with that experience.
While I was doing many other things among diving, what missed this time was hiking and camping. For a change, I invited my University friends for drinks and dinner at home. It was well-timed one since most of them wanted to go back in memory lane to fun times we had as students. Most of them had already reached the pinnacles of their professions, but lacking the fun times due to busy life. It went very well with joking, singing and going back in time with good old memories. This was in to-do list for a quite a long time. Not a bad way to celebrate my 50th birthday!
Underwater Photography - my two cents
Our excursion to Kalpitiya was fun but shooting wasn't good due to bad conditions. I always plan few dives by end of the season since south western sea becomes really friendly for photography by increased visibility. This time I tried diving off Marawila for the first time. Mostly one of my friends, Supun, was always inviting me to join him for diving. Actually, it was a very good experience. Supun used a land master tractor to get the boat engine and gear to Marawila beach. Though there are no much coral, sea bed with different levels of boulders attract quite a lot of fish. Here I saw the biggest Sting Ray I have ever seen.
To end the season, I also dived the Cargo Wreck and Madufaru wreck off the coast of Colombo and that was the cherry on the cake! Visibility was wonderful and it was like having the luck in my side after many choppy seas that kept on testing my nerve. Here I managed to capture a photo of a big bate ball of fish.
Few days before I leave for Australia, I got a call from Department of Wildlife of Sri Lanka. Then informed one of my photographs had been selected for final round and those photos will be exhibited in Cinnamon Grand hotel in early May. They also invited me for the award festival. Hm..I knew I am not going to be at country for that.. I was happy and sad!
Though its not a big deal, I felt particularly thrilled since I had never seen underwater photos being recognized in general wildlife photography competitions so far. More than the high competition, I guess most judges in these competitions are still encapsulated within leopards and tuskers mind set. They at least must consider leopard population has increased in last couple of decades.
Once I attended to a program that organized to promote wildlife photography by conducting monthly competitions followed by comments by experts, where I learned their lack of knowledge on marine subjects. They were expecting facial expressions from fish just like land mammals. One well-known leopard photographer said he give very less marks for an underwater landscape since he doubts it may have been taken in an aquarium. Ironically, I took it in lotus barge few kilometers off the coast of Colombo. Same guy once said he would be happier to see some exciting action from a Frog fish I took in Bali. Frog fish is one of the rare fishes found within caverns and they seldom move.
Due to those disappointing comments, I had been very discouraged to participate in such competitions. Anyway, one thing I urge is I don’t want anyone to give credits for the hardships underwater photographer would go through, but I want fair judgment by someone know little bit about marine subjects.
I follow work by world-famous photographers like Alex Mustard, Amos Nachoum, Michael Aw and Simon Lorenz. It always teaches me how little I know and how poor my work is. In fact, it shows me the avenue of improvement.
Anyway, if you are after recognition, you wouldn't have come this far. In contrary, every dive and every click or even just attempt would make me feel better, challenged, and accomplished. Most importantly, underwater photography is a team exercise. There are boatmen who take you safely to unknown waters and dive masters and buddies who dive with you to make sure everything goes as planned. I may have explained how I narrowly escaped from oxygen toxicity with help of the team I dived with at Indonesia.
I have been reached by few young guys in last few years to get some mentoring and advise on shooting underwater. Some even said I am the only guy positively responded to their queries. Anyway, none of them continued in-spite of guarantee I gave saying I would do my best. Perhaps, new generations need quick results which unfortunately is a far cry in my field which I had to expose. May be it’s the unbearable cost of underwater gear and diving equipment.
Nightmare ride to Airport and heading to Australia for winter!
Going to Airport ended up being an eventful one. Chauffer who worked for many years was called and I didn't have any doubt about his punctuality. For some unknown reason this guys didn't turn up in time. I gave more and more time. Each time I called him, he assured he is on the way. In some point I fell bit odd. Perhaps he went somewhere and over drunken or something. I feel like I need to find an alternative. By the same time I saw a taxi stopped by the road. Without further delays I spoke to the guy and hire it for my trip to Airport. I also informed I am already late, you have to drive very fast.
I thought problems are over by now which is far from the reality yet to come. As soon as we entered the highway via Athurugiriya entrance, indicator for engine malfunctioning started to blink. Then I asked the driver to take the nearest exit, which was the Kaduwela one. Now I am in Kaduwela and only two hours to the flight. Then came to my mind that my brother lives nearby.
Then I called him and told.. dont ask questions, just jump in to the car and come to Kaduwela town to pick me. DO IT NOW! Then my brothers car appeared and he was just wearing a sarong and a T-shirt, also had a towel in his hand. Later I was told he was having a bath while I called him. Luckily, flight from Malaysia had been delayed hence I managed to jump onboard, probably as the last passenger! Thinking of what happened I really felt miserable during the flight!
Winter is not a good friend of mine. Spending gloomy short days without much social activities makes me feel homesick. So I was ready to taste the bitterness in this stay. Gloomy and lonely evening, coffee and memories of past.. perfect recipe for homesickness!
I was to share my flat with two others. One was Fred who is a matured Brazilian guy and other one was Reena, a young girl, student from Taiwan. Than many other occasions we gel together very well. We had movie nights and did some shared cooking to experience different authentic food. Once we realized all three have their birthdays in March. So we made it a point to have a party.
One thing I enjoy in my nomadic life style is having opportunity to meet people from different countries and backgrounds. When Fred says his childhood and life in Brazil, I was pondering how close their life to ours in Sri Lanka. Especially, the crazy things we did when young. Fred also had not-so -Brasilian nature which is his knowledge and passion about spirituality. Some times he explained me of Chakras of human body etc. explained in eastern religions and philosophies. It was like talking to Deepak Chopra.
In other hand, Reena was a typical example from young generation who is actually very honest, and very confused. No much friends or a boy friend or even crazy things in life like we do. Typical tragic outcome of an era highly influenced by social media. One dangerous thing is she has witnessed the aging, getting sick and death of her loving grandfather and started to disappoint about the life. It had shaken her so badly and had started to think of going to Switzerland or any other country at age of 40 to legally take her own life!
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