12/23/23

Busy in good way

Not to say I was tired and overwhelmed by end of the Underwater/ Land excursion done in east, nor any difference for others. Funny, but sadly Niro had travelled all the way to Monaragala again in a bus to obtained the drivers license after paying the fine as the bitter aftermath of the lengthy drive. Though it happened due to his own arrogance ignite sometimes while driving, we were guilty since it happened in “our” trip.

Gallery wall come alive!

One of my art projects in to-do queue was a gallery wall in the living room of the home. Though I have been collecting posters, prints, etc. for a while, I couldn't settle with any arrangement which I had tried so far. I am too choosy in these situations. I am so energetic in some days, but very lazy in other days to make a correct decision. Replica of the Degaldoruwa (දෙගල්දොරුව) temple painting, which I got an artist to do for me, was dispatched and already hung. I was really thrilled about this. In fact, my art curator gene was already aroused. Then I realized this is the high time I should restart the project and proceed with enthusiasm.

I was chasing MartineWickramasinghe Trust for a high resolution image of Mr. Wickramasinghe for months and didn’t have much hope because I felt my request wasn’t heard. All in a sudden, I received a positive feedback and it was one of the best portraits I have seen of Mr. Wickramasinghe who is my favourite writer. For me he is more a philosopher. By this writing I have read his book Kaluwara Gedara (කලුවර ගෙදර) at least 10 times.

The day I slow down this outdoor life, I envision me reading Mr. Wickramasinghe’s book while enjoying a strong black Ceylon tea in a colonial type veranda. At least it is in my plans!

Anyway, I managed to accomplish the project of Gallery wall. It was a mixed media type that contained posters, historical images, classics etc. along with two cross stich works with sentimental value because they have been gifts. One of them was a wonderful piece of art done by a close relative, a grandmother (නුවර ආච්චි), at her mid-eighties!

Gallery came to live very well. Mr. Wickramasinghe's portrait gave a deep contrast to the viewer. His portrait simply creates a modern icon on pillars of our own traditional foundations. That's what I needed.

Dambana (දඹාන) & memories of Gomba (ගොඹා)

Family trip done around Kandy, Digana and Mahiyanganaya was very refreshing for all. My main focus was to show the girls the history and heritage of Sri Lankan indigenous people, Veddas. It was amazing to visit Dambana (දඹාන) which is the main Vedda settlement. Luckily, my mother had arranged to meet a lady who is actually from Vedda community that gave an edge to our visit. Apart from opportunity of speaking to next leader of the community. Indhi was particularly happy to have a necklace made of elephant tusk (I didn't believe though!).

Our attempt of making connections with Coast Veddas (මුහුදු වැද්දන්) was a failure in the last visit to east and museum at Dambana had some limited details on them. Also I was bit emotional to see a photo of Gomba (ගොඹා) who was the leader of the Vedda community at Pollebedda (පොල්ලෙබැද්ද) who died few years ago. Fact that I felt sad was I knew how badly Pollebedda Vedda community was hit by the cruelties of poverty before he died. I remember I met him during one of my Nuwara gala expeditions when I was young, and Gomba was able to remind his memories with Dr. Spittle. He told us his desire at least to see Christine Who is the daughter of Dr. Spittle.

Catchups that took me back in time

In my youth, I was among a group of like-minded gang who were very keen in digging more about literature. We, as a generation, brought up with Russian literature and then of course our enthusiasm took us to contemporary literature. We had a practice of meeting at the public library of Colombo to borrow books and discuss about literature. These discussions sometimes grew to next level that force some to go and meet the authors in person. 

Some authors were our heroes. As I can remember, we had some contacts with Sunil Madhawa Premathilaka and Dr. Somarathna Balasuriya. I can vaguely remember that we discussed about the famous book, The Outsider by Albert Camus for many days. It had been translated to Sinhala as Pitastharaya (පිටස්තරයා). Youth uprising of 89 also impacted the writings of this era. Lost young lives and the violence we experienced as a generation was massive. 

Some of us were into writing, include myself! I can remember few Sinhala poems I wrote ended up in Kawmuthu (කව්මුතු) section of Divaina (දිවයින) paper. I only can remember below part of one of those poems.

..සිනා මල් ඔය මුවේ පලඳින්න

මේ කඳුලු මගේ තනියට දෙන්න

අරුනැල්ල ඔබ යලිත් අරගන්න

සීතල රැත්‍රිය මට දෙන්න!

Except for Daminda, we all had to take different paths in life and had to continue our literature journey only as a hobby. Daminda ended up being a journalist and even won state level awards for his writings.  

All these memories came to my mind since we all managed to meet in same place, aka Public Library of Colombo this year. It was at least after two decades. We discussed how our lives had changed. Its sad. We were looking at our younger-selves through a mirror!

Second meetup was with Pradeep, my school friend, who is a interesting liberal thinker. Not only he thinks that way, he acts that way. We were following each other in social media and one day we both wanted to update our life story in brief at a coffee catchup. While he admires my life with many sentiments and diverse activities, his life has been one hell of brave rollercoaster ride. 

Just to give some context.. while he thought university degree is not something he value, he has just left the university for good. He is cultivating paddy even today to make his old Mother happy by taking her memories back to old days. He has done countless different jobs in Sri Lanka and overseas because he hasn't thought twice before resigning if he finds any job is not suitable. 

I could memories, we were both playing cricket for school team selections. He was definitely clever than me. As a spinner I was doing alright in the matting, but in the turf. I also knew my cricket gear were too much of an expenditure for my parents. Most importantly, I wasn’t a good gel for the very toxic culture at cricket in my school. Due to this hundred and one reasons I gave up cricket, but Pradeep survived for few more years. He had met his legend during his career as a cricketer and it had been Pradeeps' one of the memorable moments. His legend is none-other than Sidath Wettamuni who was one of the best openers Sri Lanka ever made. 

Anyway, we agreed to stay in touch since we had more similar passions in life and similar quest of questioning our very existence!

By the beginning of September, I got the first signals of me being needed in Perth. That’s because my manager and a team member was heading to US for a Microsoft conference and some important digital transformation project is in high that need attention. I said Yes, because that’s what I am supposed to say.

A couple of camping nights 

Next thing I did was announcing my mates that I am going overseas for a while and I want to do another excursion before leaving. This kind of announcement seldom get unnoticed! Following week we met in Laabukellie Tea lounge at Mareena mall to plan the rest.

This trip to north-west of the island took us to Willpattu National Park via Eluwankulama. This ended up being a very good camping experience in the banks of Kala Oya (කලා ඔය). We spent quite a nice time talking by a bonfire in the night while keeping an eye on Elephants and the Crocodiles those popped up from the water, time to time, like submarines. Crocodiles in the vicinity couldn’t stop us dipping into the welcoming waters either. There was a Leopard sighting too on the way to the campsite.

We also joined team of Wild life officers who wanted to go inside the park via Kala Oya in a small boat, in search of any illegal activities. Some of the officers were students of our guys during their diploma and keen to have us knowing they are going to learn something new in the field. On our way back, engine of the boat broke down and it forced us pull the boat manually using two long sticks. 

On our way back from Willpattu, we hired a boat and had a quick ride to explore the eco system of the coast where Kala Oya meets ocean. We experienced high winds in the lagoon and I was quite worried since I had doubts on the young boatman who didn’t show much expertise.


Going back to hibernation in southern hemisphere

Back in civilisation, I had to hurry up with travel plans to Australia. Cruising through Kalaoya is already becoming a memory. Itchiness resulted by tick-bites left in few spots of my limbs are the only real evidence.

Since Christmas is around the corner, hardly able to book a flight, but for a very high price. Always it needed some extra strength to make my mind to leave the island, but this time I was less worried since I was looking forward to the Summer and that’s my season of choice. 

When I was in transit at Kuala Lumpur Air port, I felt very board. I jumped into a coffee shop. While having a "Dilmah" Tea I was reading a Sinhala poetry book by Ilasksha Jayawardena who is a great poet from new generation.

In a while I was deep in my poetic world and heard a heavenly piece of music which was very familiar of course.. Then I realized this is none other than a great song of C T Fernando!

පරවුනු මල් නැවත නැතේ පිපෙන්නෙ..

Then I saw a middle aged lady playing the piano in the air port lobby. I thanked and said how much I enjoyed her performance. She smiled and said "I have a long transit.. felt very board.. so started playing"

That music is still echoing in my ears.. I am just wondering how this kind of unexpected elements could makes you feel good...  thank you dear unknown pianist from Sri Lanka. wish you reached your destination! ...if you didn't have that long transit I wouldn't have the opportunity of listening to that heavenly music..