Memorable end of year catchups

Some of the travel photos I posted in this blog have been captured by Kusum (aka Roshan). He was my partner in crime: we were in same path in studies to professions to outdoor activities. When I first moved to Australia he moved to New Zealand. I came back in 2018 and eventually pursued my hybrid life. Last time I met him in Sydney. That's because he (and Nilantha from Melbourne) paid a visit when I said I am going back to Sri Lanka for good. We spent few days with nostalgic memories. Now in 2024, Kusum said he is coming to SL for a holiday after seven years! I asked what you want to do.. he said everything! Hiking, wildlife photography, diving and chilling.. It wasn't easy to convince someone coming out of the country how difficult to do all you plan in Sri Lanka in limited time.

In fact, I have a absurd feeling that time would have a un-invented property that would control how many things you can do during a given period of time. If such thing exists, that number is low in Sri Lanka! 

Few decades ago, myself and Kusum was outdoor addicts. We did camping, hiking and what not. In university times, once we get the Mahapola (i.e. මහපොල) scholarship money, we got into a bus to Hikkaduwa and spend days snorkeling the reef. After obtaining the PADI license we (along with Devana) extended our expeditions to much deeper waters. This outdoor craze also put foundation to much wider group.  

Nilantha too came on a holiday by end of the year. What really didn't work was the timing of Asitha. Due to his business plans, he had to make his very short trip just before Kusum and Nilantha.

Asitha was investing on a Sinhala movie in Sri Lanka and was busy with that project. I too was invited for the inauguration ceremony of the movie at Waters Edge. It was an event full of Actors, Actresses and media personals. In some point I felt I am in a place that I am not belong to. Anyway, I liked the experience. I spoke to a couple of pretty girls and learned they are the most famous actresses of young generation today. As a new producer, Asitha caught the attention of everybody. A lot of media personals were trying to corner him for a short interview. 

More than anything I felt bit emotional contemplating Asitha's journey and where we all started at schooling time sharing same tea at Salgao bakery. He wasn't born with silver spoon in hand, but he conquered the world to achieve what he wanted. He was always target oriented person. High achiever who obtained the degree from the University of Life!

Same evening we had the school get-to-gather which had been organized in grand scale since its the 50th birthday for our batch mates. It was an extravaganza.

It was great to see Kusum after a long time and a lot to update; personal stuff and passions we share. I arranged a dinner at my home and it was an amazing catchup. Among the usual invitees, I invited Indunil who was a batch mate from school. Though we didn't have much connections in recent past, he was in our gang and was crazy in outdoor activities as much as we did. Indunil too was so pleased to have a reunion at my place with good old friends. 

Kusum brought me a very special gift which is two high quality photo prints. Those were captured by him in two different occasions in my presence. 

First one was a portrait of a man who is actually a hunter called Vijey (i.e. විජේ). He was our guide when we hiked Nuwaragala in 2002. At that time, hiking Nuwara Gala wasn't a joke since no one knew if there are land-mines or area is occupied by terrorists groups. We used the window opened with the ceasefire agreement in between LTTE terrorists and SL government to make our move. Vijey was a peculiar and a strange character who reminded me Silindu (i.e. සිලිඳු) of novel Beddegama (i.e. බැද්දේගම) by Leonard Woolf. Often he spoke to himself. His instinct about the jungle was wonderful. I have never seen anyone who read the minute changes of jungle and predict things so accurately. Vijey's portrait taken by Kusum was a photo I admired always and it reminded me of the adventurous hike to Nuwara-gala. 

Second one was taken in Sydney when we met last time in 2018. One of the unique pubs in Sydney was the The Botanist. Myself, Kusum and Nilantha was walking to the pub that evening. There was a pretty girl awaiting by the side with a bunch of flowers and Kusum picked it as a great subject to photograph. After getting consent, he captured few great street photographs of her with flowers. I liked that one too.

Chamila (aka KK) too was in the country. He comes on vacation every yearend. An outing to Weheragala (i.e. වෙහෙරගල) (technically Block 5 of Yala National Park) had already been organized by Devana. It was great. Mornings were spent searching for wildlife and photographing. Nights were full of fun: drinks and chilling. Kusum was thrilled since he managed to photograph a leopard.

I also brought Kusum for a couple of dives in Unawatuna. Anyway, conditions were not the best. As I observed, Kusum hasn't done much diving recently resulting air consumption underwater to be poor which is far cry from his real diving times. This made dives shorter. 

Nilantha also invited us to a party he organized for his 50th Birthday. Like cherry on the cake it went very well and caught up with a lot of old friends who we went to pubs and night clubs in our youth self. Nilantha and I too have a lot of history in that department. While we both worked in WTC Colombo, in most Fridays we started boozing in Deli Market or SSC and ended in Rhythm and Blues night club. Some of the Nilantha's friends of travel trade became my friends and vice versa. So it was great to see some of them after a couple of decades. Life had changed us significantly. Some of the stupid things I did in my past usually had a connection with Nilantha somehow. One expedition nearly killed me of Leptospirosis. I narrowly escaped since my family doctor new about my outdoor lifestyle which helped early diagnosis. I owe Dr. Pani Somarathne a great deal of gratitude for saving my life. I still see him regularly and get medical advises relevant to me in this age.

Ironically, myself and Nilantha also had the taste of changing the world and thirst to go after different political groups, particularly in socialist stream. This is where I met Dara (pseudo name).

Dara is the most honest civil activist I had the pleasure of working with. I don't comment on practicality of his ideas though. I will write a different post on his story of courage and narrow escapes from government led paramilitary groups due to his voice against unjust. After I lost connections with him, his life had been real roller-coaster ride. Given he protested against drama of killing of detainees, he became a primary target. At last he fled the country with his wife for his own protection and had a unimaginable life in India and Malaysia. I heard all these stories of Dara only when I came to Sri Lanka in 2018. Now we stay in touch and talk about life, society and politics once a while. Our usual spot of meeting is the rooftop of Colombo City Hotel. Dara still believe in a fair society and working towards it in his scale. 

One notable characters Dara introduced to me was Premapala Hewabatage. Prem Aiya is close comrade of Wijeweera and had been in same cell in prison after unsuccessful coupe in 1971. He was a living encyclopedia and a man with a golden heart. When we met him his ideas were different from JVP but still fighting for social justice, living in poverty. Life do bad things for good people! Connections can go on and on...

Whatever said and done.., Nilantha is the one who introduced me to Dara.

Anyway, after all those nostalgic catchups Kusum had to head back to Auckland and Nilantha to Melbourne. Before long I too was given the indication that I am required in my clients office to plan next phase of the project. With heavy heart I left the Island in early January 2025. It was the Summer in down under. In fact that summer was extra-sunny and long.

Borella never change!

I was so relieved to be back at home because I was experiencing the bitterness of winter, in Melbourne, at its best. We really should be admiring the sunlight we enjoy in tropics. In other hand, Sri Lanka was experiencing un-ending rainy season. 

I started my life as usual. I spent some days at my coworker place near Borellla. Though Borella is an important hub within the heart of Colombo, it hasn't changed for few decades. Look and feel was just like the times we were going to school passing the same roads. 

Given there are no many options, I used to drop in by Ananda Bhavan (i.e. ආනන්ද භවන්) or Mihiri bath kade (i.e. මිහිරි බත් කඩේ) for lunch during my work. It was quite a contrast to the Swedish cafe, called Miss Maud, which I go for coffee while I spend time in Perth. Though its not reasonable to compare, I always think of the contrast of flavors of south Asian and Western food. Given we have all the best spices of the world, getting flavor in a dish is no drama. In fact, we used to demand it since childhood. When a westerner eat them, they get overwhelmed. Sometimes I cook fish curry, but with minimum available spices and serve my Australian friends. They start admiring its taste, but for me they are below average in terms of flavors.  

This time I organized a family trip to Anuradhapura. Since girls had already studied about ancient kingdoms of Sri Lanka, they had a good time exploring ruins and etc. As I guessed they liked Jethawanaya and Abayagiriya, since those venues are much more peaceful and the structures remain as real historical monuments without any modern touchups or colors. I too like less crowded places. Anuradhapura is a gem for someone like history and Buddhist heritage of Sri Lanka. You can spend months watching different historical sites.

We also visited Soma Nanda's (i.e. සෝමා නැන්දා) place. She was my mothers close friend (a relation too) in schooling time. Soma aunty has a great romantic story. She had run away with her boyfriend to start a new family in Anuradhapura. So why Anuradhapura? because both of them had read a lot of novels written based on historical events of Anuradhapura. So both of them were obsessed with those stories as well as Anuradhapura city itself! Isn't it an interesting story? Her "romantic" husband, Newton uncle was seen feeble and aged, but happy. I have also heard that he was once abducted by LTTE terrorists during his carrier as a guard in CGR (Ceylon Government Railway). Guard is the head (like captain) of a train. When we were leaving their place, he was impatiently waiting to see next Cricket match in television: his time passing activity of old age. Life happens! 

Shanjeewan from top of Kilimanjaro!

May be I told you previously, the strange way I came to know Shanjeewan. I simply bashed into his jeep while reversing my car after few drinks in the Christmas Party of Sub Aqua Club! Our connection was built in spite of an unorthodox (..an embarrassing!) way we met. For some reason I guess I am among first few people he talked to, when he laid his plan of Summit Sustainability project. I was bit surprised as well as thrilled to see his super human ambition. I was like ..you bugger really going to climb 7 summits! He said Yes Aiya..I will try. I not only encouraged the project but supported financially too.

By the time goes and didn't here anything from him, I simply felt may be its too much of a challenge for this young lad. All in a sudden Shanjeewan messaged me saying he made it to the summit of Kilimanjaro. He has also thought of me for my support and decided to take a photo of my picture within the background of the mountain. Such a nice way of gratitude. I felt so proud of this beautiful soul. I wished him all the luck for coming challenges including mighty Everest! 

Diving at Trincomalee

I was too lazy and wasn't too sure of what to do for eastern diving season this time. Usually I sketch a rough plan in my mind before any season and this time it didn't happen for some reason. Perhaps I wasn't very happy with the diving experience in last season. Most of all I was in utter confusion on identifying the best time for underwater shooting in east coast. Both diving excursions planed last year to Trinco and Kalpitiya were not as good as I expected. When I say not good, its about my wrong judgment of sea conditions.

I had only small window which I could afford to go out due to various reasons. Top on that, there was a forecast of a hurricane in bay of Bengal. This made my decision much more difficult. I ended up calling department of metrology to find out more. Well, in tropics predictions are pretty much a complex equation of probability, only statistician would understand.

Some relate visibility of ocean in Trincomalee area with the sediments carried by mass of waters flow from Mahaweli river. This connects inland rainfall to conditions of diving sites in east. Some deny this theory categorically since its not that significant. 

I made my mind, called Devana and said I am heading to Trinco this week for diving with least expectations. First he wasn't interested, but when I said I am catching a train for a change. So it was quite an experience to go in the train to Trincomalee. It was faster than we expected. 

Since it was a short stay, we decided not to go to Nilaweli side but to do a couple of dives with Ashen near Trincomalee town. First I was bit nervous to see boatman struggled to locate the site to anchor the boat, but it ended up quite well. Visibility wasn't great, so I was restricted to shoot macros. I was also thrilled to dive Swami Rock historical site for the second time.

Once I ascend to the surface after a dive, I noticed a familiar looking boat passing with foreign divers which I recognized as the dive boat of Blue Deep. Blue Deep diving station is like my home and most of the crew knew me. I was staying and diving with them last season for days. If they see me in water at this moment they would think what the heck Sumedha Aiya doing here without telling us. I felt bit guilty. Without much thought I covered my face with the mask again and dip underwater until they go to a descent distance! Moral of the story.. you can encounter a known person even when you are in sea nowadays.. behave yourself!

Once I was casually roaming around the beach, I saw a familiar looking guy passing by. Then  I recognized Ram who is a diver and photographer running a small diving operation in Trinco. We both knew each other through social media but this was the first time we had the chance of chatting to each other in person.

Last day of diving I felt like having a drink. After telling my desire, Ashen arranged everything for a great beach catchup. He arranged us an upstairs of a modern looking apartment facing the ocean with all what we needed. Buddhika who is a dive master from Kalpitiya who was freelancing in Trinco for the season also joined us for drinks. It was a great catchup and good way to finish the quick diving trip to east. We headed back to Colombo in a bus.

To my surprise one of my macro shots of a clownfish captured near Middle reef got a lot of attention and was commented as a good shot.  

Guru Geethaya film with Bada

When I heard Guru Geetha movie is out, one who came to my mind was Bada aiya (බඩා අයියා), namely Sanath Hittiarachchi. Sanath has been in senior batch while I was a university student and we had pretty similar taste about arts and literature. Actually we two had to plan and execute most of the cultural and art programs those days. Sanath was the biggest fan of the book Gurugeethaya (The first Teacher by Chinghiz Aitmatov). Devana was the one who always did the hard part when Sanath come up with a big idea. So after many decades we three got together to see the movie.

More than the movie, meeting three of us to see the movie of our most loved book was quite a nostalgic feeling. Movie was good and we really enjoyed the evening.

Afterwards we spent sometime in Galle Face green eating Isso Vade (ඉස්සො වඩේ) and drinking cardamom tea, talking about literature and good old days within the vicinity of lights of five star hotels nearby. We also talked about how life happened to us with the rat race, started after finishing our studies. Talking about your plight with like-minded friend itself is a healing.

Matters at home.. & tough times to face

Matters at home were going ok. We  had a party for Amma's eightieth birthday. I couldn't believe she is eighthly. Since she wasn't a traditional mum, it is always difficult to imagine her old version. Though she turned 80 she is active as she used to be. My brother and I were struggling to keep her in right balance in terms of activities since we knew her character. Just stay at home and go to temple is not her. That's a far cry from her style. In contrast, though mind is youthful, too much action in old age can be bad. Anyway, it was quite a nice party we held at home with her favorited relations and friends.

All other things came to a halt, when Sawanthi had to go through a surgical procedure to remove a stone in kidney. More than anything recovery process wasn't as smooth as doctor promised. She was going through a massive pain and there was only little we could do about it. When she recovers her father got critically sick which shook all our lives. After spending one month in hospital, most of it in intensive care unit, he passed away! Doctors and hospital staff of Sri Jayawardenapura did a great job, but it wasn't a battle nature would allow us win!

Day before death, Sumangala Thero along with his head monk visited the hospital and did a mini pirith preaching which gave a good spiritual energy to thaththa. Sumangala thero, then Wasantha, and I have a long history. I met him in my first job which I did nigh shifts during my university days. Since then we were friends. Later on he started to show interest in religious life and eventually ended up been a Buddhist monk! I had to call my mate, Sumangala Thero since then!

Sawanthi's fathers death took me back to the day I lost my father, how shocking it was to me and how long it took me to heal the emotional wound.

It will take long to heal.. especially for my girls, they experienced a death of a close person for the first time.. I saw they put papers with hand written messages to their grandfathers coffin. 

Dolphin watching at Kalpitiya

With all difficult times we passed, I wanted to take girls out of this negative environment to refresh their minds. No one was ready for a big trip with jolly mode but they agreed to my idea of spending a couple of lazy days in late back Kalpitiya. So I head to Kalpitiya with family and it gave us the most wanted change of mode. We spent time walking in the beach.. dipping in the pool..

I arranged a dolphin watching trip in a small single engine boat belongs to Shanaka which enthralled the girls. We stayed in a better hotel with a swimming pool which is a much more luxurious place than Romesh's where I used to stay during my diving trips. We also had a wonderful dinner out side of the hotel. Place is not a usual restaurant, but actually a humble looking extension to a traditional house. Sea food was fabulous and it really went well with Spanish wine we brought with us. Later on I came to know its the home of Shanaka's uncle. 

Just as last few Christmas times, there were few interesting catch-ups in store.

I used to say Borella doesn't change since last ice age! In spite of my claims, one day I saw a little, but modern looking coffee shop opened in Cotta Road. Now I can have a real coffee break while working in my co-worker space. let's do a coffee catchup was becoming a favorite phrase in my vocabulary! 

As per this writing, May 2025, Shanjeevan should be busy arranging stuff for his next climb which is Mount Blanc of Europe. Let me send him a encouraging message before going to bed...

Walk into history of Veddhas in Rathugala

If we plan too much with too many options, chances are that hike or excursion would never happen. For some reason, plan of going to Rathugala (රතුගල) surfaced pretty quickly and all were set. All were more than enthusiastic on the opportunity of walking in the ancient Vedda's trials. Like cherry on the cake, Devana has arranged present Vedda chief of Rathugala, Suda Wannila Aththo (සුදා වන්නිල ඇත්තො) to guide us. 

We all were in thirst of gaining more and more knowledge on Vedda's culture. We all had read fair bit of literature on the subject. I personally have had the opportunity of meeting former Pollebedda Vedda chief, Gombha (ගොඹා). When we were in Batticaloa two years back, we made all our attempt to make contacts with Coastal Veddas (මුහුදු වැද්දො). Rathugala tribe is one of the remaining real Vadda populations which I didn't have the opportunity of meeting so far. So this is not an opportunity to miss by any mean.

After all the preparations, we head to Rathugala department of wildlife office where we had connections with. Though it was only Niro, Channa, Devana and myself were planning to go, Ramani joined in the last minute. Though I had met her a couple of times before, I was bit uneasy of having a lady at first but soon it was proved she is a great company and share the same passion on nature. Ramani had extended knowledge and experience in hiking in Sri Lanka, Borneo and many other countries. She was strong and a good hiker. 

Officers in wildlife department were friendly and helpful. They not only provided all the essential information about the hike, they had prepared us a delicious dinner. After having it we all slept on the verandah of their bungalow, listening to various calls of nocturnal birds.    

We rushed to the Rathugala Vedda's heritage center where we were planning to meet Suda Wannila Aththo. Until chief comes, we explored the historical artifacts and ornaments displayed in the center. One of them also performed a unique music instrument used by Vedda people in old days. That sound was bit close to a violine. It was beautiful, yet for some reason extremely sad to listen. May be its not just the music it produce but our thoughts on questionable future of Vedda community made us sad!

After leaving our van at Wannila Aththos' home we started walking on the main road and later entered the bush that took us to one of the most beautiful natural beauties we have ever witnessed. 

Though Niro is our official navigator, he was pretty much released from usual duties since Wannila Aththo was guiding us. He was navigating through pathless jungle like someone walking in his own backyard. Anyway, Niro always got the coordinates and mapped the path for future use. Perhaps it can be important for department for their work one day. 

All the caves we saw were very primitive looking caves those closely associated with the history of Veddas in Rathugala. Balumgala (බැලුම්ගල) was one of the ridges we passed and it was outstanding with scenic beauty. After walking about 6kms, we reached Heenwala Wadigala (හීන්වල වාඩිගල) to spend the night. This is actually a peak with surrealistic beautiful scenery of Senanayake Smudraya from far. Sunset was out of this world! 

Suda Wannila Aththo is a friendly person with wealth of knowledge ready to be shared. It was much more encouraged after he learning that we had some knowledge and a lot of questions for him. He shared folk storied, songs and details about Vedda's culture with us. When it comes to the dialog on current situation we understood there are disagreements in between Veddas and Department of Wildlife on current forest conservation activities. It is very complex. Protecting the forests, dealing with indigenous people and adhering to law are a hell of a challenge authorities face nowadays. I wonder who can find the right mix to make everybody happy.  

We started walking early on the following day since we were planning to cover more caves. Our enthusiasm made us going out of the way to reach some of the remote ones too. In one point we met a couple of Vedda's who had come to collect some leaves (බීඩි කොල) they could sell. They were surprised to see their chief. They also warned us of an aggressive elephant on the way.

Second day was tough since terrain was difficult and stretch was too long. To add more challenge, we confronted a wild fire on our way. This is the first time I experienced a wildfire that closer. Anyway, we had to change our direction for own safety. 

After walking about 10 kms, we reached the Kaballe Bokke (කැබැල්ල බොක්ක), a place by a stream surrounded by thick forest. If was very appealing due to the easy access to water, yet we all felt its not the safest to spend a night. Place was surrounded by thick forest around. If not the difference of atmospheric characters we felt like in a rain forest. So having a bonfire seemed a must. 

We collected enough firewood to have two bonfires from both sides. One sandy area was cleaned for sleeping. As usual Devana directed us for what is needed for preparation of dinner and superb dinner was ready in no time. Having a bath in that waters was a heavenly relief. As soon as we had the dinner sky got cleared and moon started to appear like a dream. Spending a night in the jungle under the full moon is always a best feeling any nature lover would ask for. Here we are enjoying the very moment!

Though I was tired after a tough day, night was too beautiful for me to leave behind and close the eyes.. I remember I was humming one of my favorite songs while looking at sky.. I also heard Niro and then Devana joined the same.. සඳ හොරෙන් හොරෙන් හොරෙන් බලා.. වලා රොදක සැඟවිලා..

In the morning, Wannila Aththo said that he had heard a noise made by a bear from a distance and he managed to strengthen the bonfire. After having some good breakfast, we started the last leg of the hike. Luckily we didn't encounter the elephant we were warned of. On the way we didn't forget to dip into Rammbukkam Oya (රඹුක්කම් ඔය) and got refreshed before entering the village again.        

After spending little time talking to Wannila Aththo's family, we started our return journey back to Colombo. It was one of the most enjoyable hikes for all of us. 

The forest areas we covered actually belongs to dry zone, but with a difference. This particular area got quite a lot of rich streams full water throughout the year. This made jungle full of lush green vegetation. Some areas were thick and rich: hard to say its dry zone. It was quite clear why ancient Vedda people selected this area as home. In some point, Dr. Spittle has mentioned this area as one of the most beautiful jungles in Sri Lanka. We are not surprised. 

Today I am writing this post while in Australia: memorizing and fantasizing the memorable time spent in jungles of Rathugala of Sri Lanka....In television, I see full report of cyclone Alfred soon to be hit Northern New South Wales and Queensland...