tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45109159502816251012024-02-18T22:01:23.429-08:00Some birds can't fly!Some unrelated stories by Sumedhasumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-64651198981620711962023-12-23T17:53:00.000-08:002024-01-02T23:47:14.054-08:00Busy in good way<p><span>Not to say I was tired and
overwhelmed by end of the <a href="https://sumedha7.blogspot.com/2023/11/another-excursion-at-east.html" target="_blank">Underwater/ Land excursion done in east</a>, 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.</span></p><p>
</p><p><span><u>Gallery wall come alive!</u></span></p><p><span>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 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degaldoruwa_Raja_Maha_Vihara" target="_blank"><i>Degaldoruwa</i> (දෙගල්දොරුව)</a> </span><span>temple painting</span><span>, which I got an artist to do for me, </span><span>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.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhWtqTNDQxsDvpvBMABUj-A_MXzlzNmlmDtLpx02NkCFasFPSxycJH82WOZL7JliWfgEplDmlHhtWkeokXyaxRd6x9HfPTdXN7xlWhqepW6qAxAMSEUvd2Fj0a34_NQav_BP9f2yFca8LjD5QK4i-FG8SenAfSBBm6DZq1PE5at2gIdjwHzsVgbOMJjeQ/s480/X1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="365" data-original-width="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhWtqTNDQxsDvpvBMABUj-A_MXzlzNmlmDtLpx02NkCFasFPSxycJH82WOZL7JliWfgEplDmlHhtWkeokXyaxRd6x9HfPTdXN7xlWhqepW6qAxAMSEUvd2Fj0a34_NQav_BP9f2yFca8LjD5QK4i-FG8SenAfSBBm6DZq1PE5at2gIdjwHzsVgbOMJjeQ/s16000/X1.jpg" /></span></a></div><span><p><span>I was chasing </span><a href="https://www.martinwickramasinghe.info/english/trust/fund.htm" target="_blank">MartineWickramasinghe Trust</a><span> 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. </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Wickramasinghe" target="_blank">Wickramasinghe</a><span> who is my favourite writer. For me he is more a philosopher. By this writing I
have read his book </span><i>Kaluwara Gedara</i><span> (කලුවර ගෙදර) at least 10 times.</span></p></span><p></p><p><span>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 </span><span>veranda</span><span>. At least
it is in my plans!</span></p>
<p><span>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!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><u><span><i>Dambana</i> </span><span>(දඹාන)</span><span> &</span></u><span><u> memories of <i>Gomba</i> (</u></span><span><u>ගොඹා)</u></span></p><p><span>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, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedda" target="_blank">Veddas</a></i>. It was
amazing to visit <i>Dambana </i>(දඹාන) which is the main <i>Vedda</i> settlement. Luckily, my
mother had arranged to meet a lady who is actually from <i>Vedda</i> 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>I didn't believe though!</i>).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMIwch8vEsgQW4VAnFanT3rYmQOuyhg9JK4Ho6N-BRLJgNpCT1-ihZATUQbUjo4kyWFmk2T6UPsBWtNYO6c5K_FUMRtSZAT_ux7Zdx9mD_FWPoA9a4_w8rx2KKW49RxbUIQCFD9uK1nV6BXv42wgUEvGz-cqWa0hQ8TXvVD4ZkNum85nFziodcpFPoSu4/s490/X2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="223" data-original-width="490" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMIwch8vEsgQW4VAnFanT3rYmQOuyhg9JK4Ho6N-BRLJgNpCT1-ihZATUQbUjo4kyWFmk2T6UPsBWtNYO6c5K_FUMRtSZAT_ux7Zdx9mD_FWPoA9a4_w8rx2KKW49RxbUIQCFD9uK1nV6BXv42wgUEvGz-cqWa0hQ8TXvVD4ZkNum85nFziodcpFPoSu4/w400-h182/X2.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><span><p><span>Our attempt of making connections with <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast_Veddas" target="_blank">Coast Veddas</a></i> (මුහුදු වැද්දන්) was a failure in the
last visit to east and museum at <i>Dambana</i> had some limited details on them. Also I was
bit emotional to see a photo of Gomba (</span><span>ගොඹා)</span><span> who was the leader of the <i>Vedda</i> community
at Pollebedda </span><span>(</span><span>පොල්ලෙබැද්ද</span><span>)</span><span> who died few years ago. Fact that I felt sad was I knew how badly
<i>Pollebedda</i> </span><i>Vedda</i><span> community was hit by the cruelties of poverty before he died. I
remember I met him during one of my <a href="https://sumedha7.blogspot.com/2009/08/nuwara-gala-hidden-fortress.html" target="_blank">Nuwara gala expedition</a>s when I was young,
and Gomba was able to remind his memories with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lionel_Spittel" target="_blank">Dr. Spittle</a>. He told us his
desire at least to see Christine Who is the daughter of Dr. Spittle.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibvVaZO_JgxDAi-B66DwLFH3Oj8gBrRG0CXUVZBVPm3ysQ1_9BoJ4ZbOslFvYLm3Ivh0jxwctGSfvaTdwAot7XvF6KlcwC5vfV4K2kgMGFUTVpqi0sJcehgFAwcFjbrthXX2nJWzOaJiSYgToHyI5P_-v4MvEGXAxSFbBNlv1_B7K4CQfpLLRfHD6ky2s/s470/X3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="308" data-original-width="470" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibvVaZO_JgxDAi-B66DwLFH3Oj8gBrRG0CXUVZBVPm3ysQ1_9BoJ4ZbOslFvYLm3Ivh0jxwctGSfvaTdwAot7XvF6KlcwC5vfV4K2kgMGFUTVpqi0sJcehgFAwcFjbrthXX2nJWzOaJiSYgToHyI5P_-v4MvEGXAxSFbBNlv1_B7K4CQfpLLRfHD6ky2s/w320-h210/X3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><u><p><u>Catchups that took me back in time</u></p></u><p></p></span><p></p>
<p><span>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. </span></p><p><span>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, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stranger_(Camus_novel)" target="_blank">The Outsider</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Camus" target="_blank">Albert Camus</a> for many days. It had been translated to Sinhala as <i>Pitastharaya </i>(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. </span></p><p><span>Some of us were into writing, include myself! I can remember few Sinhala poems I wrote ended up in <i>Kawmuthu</i> (කව්මුතු) section of <i>Divaina</i> (දිවයින) paper. I only can remember below part of one of those poems.</span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span>..සිනා මල් ඔය මුවේ පලඳින්න</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span>මේ කඳුලු මගේ තනියට දෙන්න</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span>අරුනැල්ල ඔබ යලිත් අරගන්න</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span>සීතල රැත්රිය මට දෙන්න!</span></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p><span>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. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEincbwJhBaBjdxzCqZfxq1gBDaI3oML1kQquNTzdvgC41x0NRNnKlQgey0aCa2qbPtcJ8E4BiZo9CpovIl0f2r4H4PwwWk8asYOsna0N53kafIpbl5B6gl7qAxtjv2uDkEBTPb63x1CDR0OYihEZJvFHrcyWjumH1b7J8vLvmTP6xVa-u_dok7XZgIqrF0/s480/X4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEincbwJhBaBjdxzCqZfxq1gBDaI3oML1kQquNTzdvgC41x0NRNnKlQgey0aCa2qbPtcJ8E4BiZo9CpovIl0f2r4H4PwwWk8asYOsna0N53kafIpbl5B6gl7qAxtjv2uDkEBTPb63x1CDR0OYihEZJvFHrcyWjumH1b7J8vLvmTP6xVa-u_dok7XZgIqrF0/s16000/X4.jpg" /></span></a></div><span><p>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!</p></span><p></p>
<p><span>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. </span></p><p><span>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. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJXz0nJ0uli7HovzKHTYXBsxVUCvbkWQDVTFYT8YSeQcWtmQG7kRzfgofGeKH_6ILCCqeZEiRxh6iFK7DQDN8Jvw9qKn4Cix5O96jEyVHqidCJXB7wwezrSrSzSdysB9Ot5YDQ1QMTetCHqnISvqa35TuBWbeu4wJi2xnzEyc_xtEuX11s7oPMBdwzcuU/s460/X5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="344" data-original-width="460" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJXz0nJ0uli7HovzKHTYXBsxVUCvbkWQDVTFYT8YSeQcWtmQG7kRzfgofGeKH_6ILCCqeZEiRxh6iFK7DQDN8Jvw9qKn4Cix5O96jEyVHqidCJXB7wwezrSrSzSdysB9Ot5YDQ1QMTetCHqnISvqa35TuBWbeu4wJi2xnzEyc_xtEuX11s7oPMBdwzcuU/w320-h239/X5.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span><p><span>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. </span></p></span><p></p><p><span>Anyway, we agreed to stay in touch since we had more similar passions in
life and similar quest of questioning our very existence!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span><u>A couple of camping nights </u></span></p><p><span>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 <i>Laabukellie</i> Tea lounge at Mareena mall to plan the
rest. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span>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 </span>dipping into the welcoming waters either. There was a
Leopard sighting too on the way to the campsite.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3ASL8W5-bXEkKex8bAkWyqBG5OfbuHM09EU0cgBsYiolYEaCT9CXQyvso3U4_gjLdsW9dZnWYn8TlgQlEN_fMoMeb8c1x-oNlHT7pqghBDORHVOhfyficZBV3CFEXX_-KDh4LsHutmYCcE2MHLkGeEv2z5veOdV__Au0Oo8KVCXEaVyui0swM35fitZE/s480/X7.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="397" data-original-width="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3ASL8W5-bXEkKex8bAkWyqBG5OfbuHM09EU0cgBsYiolYEaCT9CXQyvso3U4_gjLdsW9dZnWYn8TlgQlEN_fMoMeb8c1x-oNlHT7pqghBDORHVOhfyficZBV3CFEXX_-KDh4LsHutmYCcE2MHLkGeEv2z5veOdV__Au0Oo8KVCXEaVyui0swM35fitZE/s16000/X7.jpg" /></span></a></div><span><p><span>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. </span></p></span><p></p><p><span>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.
<o:p></o:p></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg1IuP9PfvKu0wxtrpv8rnDLkWdvG6Zsc6wHeH4g-DLtHyev_DYm7tpiI-BsbaUmucT2jQEyYMy7jGPgkbpAz893gsjZDchGKce3_OfCMl8czt-wuP318yl8fbswEJD_S_HgiyjDEougJX0m4_T93R5MZG6KXma-1U4XG1M6viQ__stRHLIhK2M3Sm2Fs/s470/FullTrinco2023-IMG-20231110-WA0037.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="470" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg1IuP9PfvKu0wxtrpv8rnDLkWdvG6Zsc6wHeH4g-DLtHyev_DYm7tpiI-BsbaUmucT2jQEyYMy7jGPgkbpAz893gsjZDchGKce3_OfCMl8czt-wuP318yl8fbswEJD_S_HgiyjDEougJX0m4_T93R5MZG6KXma-1U4XG1M6viQ__stRHLIhK2M3Sm2Fs/w400-h266/FullTrinco2023-IMG-20231110-WA0037.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><u>Going back to hibernation in southern hemisphere</u><p></p>
<p><span>Back in civilisation, I had to
hurry up with travel plans to Australia. Cruising through <i>Kalaoya</i> is already
becoming a memory. Itchiness resulted by tick-bites left in few spots of my limbs are the only real evidence. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span>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. </span></p><p><span>When I was in transit at K</span><span>uala Lumpur</span><span> Air port, I felt very board. I jumped into a coffee shop. While
having a "Dilmah" Tea I was reading a </span><span>Sinhala</span><span> poetry book by </span><i>Ilasksha Jayawardena</i><span> who is a great
poet from new generation.</span></p>
<p><span>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! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span face=""Nirmala UI",sans-serif">පරවුනු</span><span> </span><span face=""Nirmala UI",sans-serif">මල්</span><span> </span><span face=""Nirmala UI",sans-serif">නැවත</span><span> </span><span face=""Nirmala UI",sans-serif">නැතේ</span><span> </span><span face=""Nirmala UI",sans-serif">පිපෙන්නෙ</span><span>..<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span>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>"I have a long transit.. felt very board.. so started playing"</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOzAszdCDTGA4e7Y9xyB4nh3UI6PeKy2ftXrO3yQyRSwmqioKbB8X7903hZ51QKaQniSwbHfELVQ4Yy76R4JoWQoFB4hZwZGAgPxYprilxlenfFHK2TXIAY44_Kj6xgiMPdCE3sRcscankUnM3UpgTjKg5ROxYLjG2wPnVYB23QwBJnhy8YQqelWL4vOY/s399/X6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="399" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOzAszdCDTGA4e7Y9xyB4nh3UI6PeKy2ftXrO3yQyRSwmqioKbB8X7903hZ51QKaQniSwbHfELVQ4Yy76R4JoWQoFB4hZwZGAgPxYprilxlenfFHK2TXIAY44_Kj6xgiMPdCE3sRcscankUnM3UpgTjKg5ROxYLjG2wPnVYB23QwBJnhy8YQqelWL4vOY/w241-h320/X6.jpg" width="241" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span>That music is still echoing in my
ears.. I am just wondering how this kind of unexpected elements could makes you feel good...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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..</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></p><p></p>sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-70785055295179085112023-11-04T02:50:00.004-07:002023-12-23T18:00:32.808-08:00Another excursion at east<p>I had all the intensions of diving when east coast season started in 2023. I couldn't do much in west coast season this time since Sawanthi went through a surgery and needed a lot of rest, leaving me to play the typical family man role, for a change. By June, I was more than ready. While we are based in Colombo, east course diving always comes with logistics issues. </p><p>When I prepare for the trip, both Devana and Niro volunteered to drop me and the gear to Trincomalee which I denied since its sounded too much of a ask to me. Then plan turned out to be a different one which is I am to take a bus from Colombo to Trinco but they will join me at the last day of diving so we all driving towards <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batticaloa" target="_blank"><i>Batticaloe </i></a>to continue our excursion on land. That's gonna be my first trip that connect underwater expedition to a land excursion which sounds fascinating.</p><p>I picked the early morning bus from Fort to Trinco and reached my accommodation, a shitty place called Natraj Guest House, just after midday. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm-FR0S7fVtHqvI30DJZ69YhsqNfXm8JYG5QUGbvbTHNgdGw_IqKHSaYpQ-8kU1_AKe326jeZwtN7WsOn_Q9WOlo7-7dzPxgpajXNom8oAOy5fKeHiLao0b21MTvF0MyAtfnrJR6Ug9tk7bOm9EVidW9cjHFtiCFFb-uhWt73mdunRTfnejoFAAkhqQFY/s613/E5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="460" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm-FR0S7fVtHqvI30DJZ69YhsqNfXm8JYG5QUGbvbTHNgdGw_IqKHSaYpQ-8kU1_AKe326jeZwtN7WsOn_Q9WOlo7-7dzPxgpajXNom8oAOy5fKeHiLao0b21MTvF0MyAtfnrJR6Ug9tk7bOm9EVidW9cjHFtiCFFb-uhWt73mdunRTfnejoFAAkhqQFY/w300-h400/E5.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p>Ocean had been pretty calm for weeks and had changed a couple of days before. I wasn't aware of the real ordeal until I plunged into the water. Surface swell was intense, but I managed to descend holding the floating mooring line laid by Sri Lankan Navy to reach underwater museum. Though it was a sunny day, beneath the water was dark since surface movement of the ocean obstruct the light. </p><p>After doing some shooting, in below average conditions, we entered a shipwreck where we felt sudden change of water temperature. I felt cold currents going through, but we were safely encapsulated inside the wreck. When we left the chamber and come out of narrow opening, we started to encounter the gale force of the current. I wasn't ready for that. I managed to hold a rustic metal railing still fitted to the wreck. My hand got cut and could see my blood flowing in curvy pattern. Blood was more maroon than red. Anyway, now I am stationed against the current. I had at least 90 bars of air in the tank. Then I saw our diving leader, Tharanga Malli as well as the Dutch diver who was the other member of the team were also hanging by the railing. </p><p>Then I saw Tharanga wanted to start swimming. I was sure that current was not something we can easily deal with. Then I signaled him to go ahead and evaluate it. I didn't want to drain my energy. While getting old, I always think of saving the energy since that is crucial, not like when I was in my twenties. After a couple of failed attempts, Tharanga too gave up the idea of swimming away. After awhile, we knew we were loosing air fast. Then we three hold by hands and let go of the wreck railing, resulted taken us very fast with the current. Though terrified, it was such a strange feeling. I felt like an astronaut on free fall towards the endless Milky Way!</p><p>After current is subsided, we made a surface marker and ascend to the surface. Since surface was choppy getting to the boat too was quite a challenge. I saw a couple of other dive boats in a distance and watching at the struggle we were going through. Later on, our skipper said they left the site saying conditions are too dangerous. </p><p>That was my first day of diving which tried my endurance. Came ashore exhausted yet feeling accomplished by the tough experience. Had a good lunch prepared by Kalu's team and done some resting which was essential. </p><p>My other objective of this trip was to explore the seabed near the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koneswaram_Temple" target="_blank"><i>Koneswaram temple</i></a> in <i>Swami Rock</i>. This seabed should be hiding all the past secrets of the events took place around the sacred area. As per the legend, Portuguese destroyed the temple and threw the sacred objects and etc. to the ocean in seventeenth century. This part of the story is connected with early <a href="https://sumedha7.blogspot.com/2008/11/legend-of-mike-wilson.html" target="_blank">expeditions of Mike Wilson & Arthur C. Clarke</a> which I have written about at least a decade ago.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh76Na2pNki_TyJ4707pCwdYdAf0Yqx6gSn3Nj72jHZnXBj-NcuNfVyV6WzU1ZbH6jd_RdodbcA0OsvTHt10ABAB6997GyfRrlwUPsUhIs_SXRAQmVA-fmq5zEC_teExoxHo9KFsQ1Cf3SEZFEeavFO_JiI-jgr-YYaYKcU2ECB7x0mS-K9bfOw8z6J5dc/s491/E2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="491" data-original-width="450" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh76Na2pNki_TyJ4707pCwdYdAf0Yqx6gSn3Nj72jHZnXBj-NcuNfVyV6WzU1ZbH6jd_RdodbcA0OsvTHt10ABAB6997GyfRrlwUPsUhIs_SXRAQmVA-fmq5zEC_teExoxHo9KFsQ1Cf3SEZFEeavFO_JiI-jgr-YYaYKcU2ECB7x0mS-K9bfOw8z6J5dc/w367-h400/E2.jpg" width="367" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: left;">Day before the dive, I visited the <i>Koneswaram</i> temple with Tharanga Malli. Scenery was splendid. Later on I had the opportunity of listening to a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5zqax8LfOE " target="_blank">talk by Angeline Ondaatje</a> who has explored this place extensively since her childhood and also done quite a research on history. One important fact she mentioned was this view had been a splendid one before recent constructions obstructed it. So beauty we see today is just the remaining of a big breathtaking picture.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K5zqax8LfOE" width="320" youtube-src-id="K5zqax8LfOE"></iframe></div><br /><p style="text-align: left;">Next day I dived the ocean adjoining the base of <i>Swami</i> Rock. Conditions were not the best, but much more manageable. Apart from fauna and boulders, we also saw some statues. What we saw weren't the historically important ones, which I am told by marine archeologist, Rasika Muthucumarana later on. Anyway, I was happy that I could explore a place I always wanted to. A couple of good underwater photographs I took were the bonus!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvQIPhI7jZpunVY6RyyeA_8WNMEO3nMptIbBdYmOoQm_bsQoxcSo6mi9ur7VMjkajweZ6nGN6KCsPG6C0lBh3Jfgs5_h22E5Xa4Cpf04tkMk8JclSGNsL9hf6fnbJd7QpTkGPKXO4CbYu11gWfyxz7z6UX1bN4UlP4h9KvzLaHtNSuE47uXNjhX2-ZlMo/s450/E1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="327" data-original-width="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvQIPhI7jZpunVY6RyyeA_8WNMEO3nMptIbBdYmOoQm_bsQoxcSo6mi9ur7VMjkajweZ6nGN6KCsPG6C0lBh3Jfgs5_h22E5Xa4Cpf04tkMk8JclSGNsL9hf6fnbJd7QpTkGPKXO4CbYu11gWfyxz7z6UX1bN4UlP4h9KvzLaHtNSuE47uXNjhX2-ZlMo/s16000/E1.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Same evening I joined our diving crew for a beer and learned more about the area and history. <i>Koneswaram</i> temple we see today is a very recent establishment. History we should be concerned about is something different. There are politics around this. Some Tamil leaders were behind the new establishments and some had opposed the idea. Nevertheless, importance of studying the history of this site is of paramount importance. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe3x4-DVhWOf328PQ7Pn-eQ83Q62k3wkqQgwUfHpL9bUj16un8l5dsw5U8_uSbYDErbc37ymhRtO3Mo3r3ToIeUKJ4zgzp-T7xvMNEAiYk4ZPAPTwjp1d1qR_hrOasdQDfHa3XJMbVnjaMPDrx-sj5BwS1vKgvr2QAkrv2r5c_aXjK4Vyh3B9dK2wFaxM/s460/E6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="460" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe3x4-DVhWOf328PQ7Pn-eQ83Q62k3wkqQgwUfHpL9bUj16un8l5dsw5U8_uSbYDErbc37ymhRtO3Mo3r3ToIeUKJ4zgzp-T7xvMNEAiYk4ZPAPTwjp1d1qR_hrOasdQDfHa3XJMbVnjaMPDrx-sj5BwS1vKgvr2QAkrv2r5c_aXjK4Vyh3B9dK2wFaxM/w400-h290/E6.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>As I finish the diving I was expecting my other collogues who were driving from Colombo to pick me and drive towards <i>Batticaloa</i> for the second leg of the trip, but on land this time.</p><p>As planned we headed to <i>Batticaloa</i>. Actually, I never been to <i>Batticaloa</i> before. Even the township itself had a character of its own. Jewellery shops and whatnot are open till late and the town was alive like a big city. Tharaka, a friend of Niro who is a high ranker in Petroleum corporation in the region, kindly allowed us accommodate in his bungalow. Not only that he also arranged a nice evening by the lagoon with drinks, so we all were indulged and had a great conversation. One other guy who met there was Dasun, who is a Army officer. While we were spending time by the lagoon, we saw small boats passing by those involve in catching crabs and fish with traditional methods. They only carry a small kerosine lamp. Boats were spotted from the far like scattered bunch of fireflies in the dark. </p><p>Our guys are interested in history as a fact. So they decided to explore a couple of historically important places. Given we didn't have much time, we could only explore <i>Thoppi Gala</i> (තොප්පිගල) and <i>Kusalana Malei</i> (කුසලාන මලෙයි). </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnsC9YVU1kPrtCXuOXrfqZqL8esr5EAL0nAWVboy6gmoEVXrK2beK6ILbvOaOVyqE7APUTW3GCWmVNo1jhFUwr8ALw6Ul6NuBzv1fWT_aWBmaANqCCbUkXIm0js7otSK9-ZvuQifFY82FR45O5MsUKFaFlnx2J7N6L1gWWlIqocm8w1FoOcuNJirbB41k/s607/E4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="607" data-original-width="460" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnsC9YVU1kPrtCXuOXrfqZqL8esr5EAL0nAWVboy6gmoEVXrK2beK6ILbvOaOVyqE7APUTW3GCWmVNo1jhFUwr8ALw6Ul6NuBzv1fWT_aWBmaANqCCbUkXIm0js7otSK9-ZvuQifFY82FR45O5MsUKFaFlnx2J7N6L1gWWlIqocm8w1FoOcuNJirbB41k/w303-h400/E4.jpg" width="303" /></a></div><p><i>Kusalana Malai</i> was a interesting site with ruins of ancient monuments mostly made of granite. It seems to have converted to a Hindu shrine in recent times. It sounds like some people wanted to reflect different picture. So this is directly connected to ethnic tension still irrupts time to time in eastern province of Sri Lanka. Anyway, we were warned to visit the place without getting attention of nearby communities. As we heard, they didn't like archeologists and journalists to visit these places because it can have adverse effect at their attempt of deformation of history.</p><p>One other objective of the visit was to make connection with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast_Veddas" target="_blank"><i>Coast Veddas</i> </a>to find out more about this. Especially, Channa had read and explored quite a lot about history of indigenous people of Sri Lanka and he was very keen on meeting <i>Coast Veddas</i>.</p><p><i>Coast Veddas</i> are supposed to be lower class of different <i>Vedda</i> groups in the island and their roots may have diverted from interior Veddas long ago. Like <i>Veddas</i> in <i>Dambana (දඹාන) </i>has closely connected with Buddhist culture, <i>Coastal Vedda</i>s had connected with Hinduism since their territory was surrounded by Hindu community. Channa's theory is <i>Coast Veddas</i> may have some ancient practices those were vanished from other communities long ago. </p><p>After knowing our enthusiasm, Tharaka introduced us to a professor in Eastern University who has been gathering information about whereabouts of this community and he gave some valuable clues where we should be searching for. Anyway, we realized its not a simple task that could do without spending a significant amount of time at it. We had to give up the idea, though reluctantly.</p><p>Following day, after having a great breakfast, we left <i>Baticaloe</i>, saying bye to Tharaka and Dasun for the great hospitality. We were actually thinking of returning in some point because its a different region that needs a lot of time to explore.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN46ayqP9wgKufthyKI5QbL12p3RqicFoinxykGMQAkuDqwrKSPhSITokXsy40Ur7XrZliloOS1vjLDQbGvPMJ-FfyskE4Lu5nsRsKjJWOHQ3fl3VLpFC2EOynjhH_jUt3euwB2PvKbX81dwZHn8zt4zexBd4u3kwqsHvL4AnHu1Dt14m1YO0MzvYWvLM/s460/E3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="344" data-original-width="460" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN46ayqP9wgKufthyKI5QbL12p3RqicFoinxykGMQAkuDqwrKSPhSITokXsy40Ur7XrZliloOS1vjLDQbGvPMJ-FfyskE4Lu5nsRsKjJWOHQ3fl3VLpFC2EOynjhH_jUt3euwB2PvKbX81dwZHn8zt4zexBd4u3kwqsHvL4AnHu1Dt14m1YO0MzvYWvLM/w400-h299/E3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Our team, except for me, are friends with officers of Department of Wildlife since they have consulted the officers during their diploma program conducted at University of Colombo. They thought it could be a good idea if they can pay a visit to <i>Yala Galge</i> wildlife range office on our way back and to see their "Students". Whatever said and done it was a very long route. That return journey was eventful!</p><p>Niro wasn't well and by the time we noticed he wasn't in good shape at all. Then came a tire puncture. Not to say we all were exhausted. After a while, Channa was vomiting by the side of the road. To add more bitterness, our van was stopped by Police and fined for speeding. Anyway, we made back to Colombo safely, but exhausted as could be.</p><p>Travel to east always add something special to the portfolio of experience and this was nor difference. </p>sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-21630993921080606972023-06-26T07:07:00.005-07:002023-06-26T07:11:50.874-07:00life goes on amid the crisis<p>When I came out of the arrivals door of Bandaranayake Airport, Sisira was there to take me home. Sisira had been my (un)official driver, for last few years. First he was the driver for me when I used to go to Shangri-la coworker space, called <i>Connect</i>, during the power cuts. I am back in my paradise with all the love, care, sunny days one can ask for. </p><p>Last time, when I was leaving Sri Lanka, fuel shortage was in its worst. Even by the noon of the day, I didn't know how I am travelling to Airport. When I call Sisira, his wife mentioned that Sirira went in search of fuel and didn't hear from him since then. Actually, he couldn't make it and couldn't take me to the Airport. He wasn't feeling good since he couldn't keep his word. As a matter of fact, he is punctual and keep to his word. Anyway, I gave one of the whiskey bottles I bought from duty free shop to Sisira.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4L2Vfzhw8ImAKOwCRaJbY-cyKY8KO_Ui6FLVeGIJ9Tzn7aoA845TAiXU4wRA3Rfs2Q7mD2b52pJZRsdTT3UyRGwr59cQ6q0RTB38iJnja1XyX6aldpQzGenvlt_aXYVAg6PqH6TLSlBC4BN11aYe0P_GAQ73itd1wlIPk_zJLTqx09WC4-3sCTPzO/s490/4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="367" data-original-width="490" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4L2Vfzhw8ImAKOwCRaJbY-cyKY8KO_Ui6FLVeGIJ9Tzn7aoA845TAiXU4wRA3Rfs2Q7mD2b52pJZRsdTT3UyRGwr59cQ6q0RTB38iJnja1XyX6aldpQzGenvlt_aXYVAg6PqH6TLSlBC4BN11aYe0P_GAQ73itd1wlIPk_zJLTqx09WC4-3sCTPzO/w400-h300/4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Same day that I came to Sri Lanka, Channa's exhibition commenced at Barefoot Gallery. Visiting the <a href="https://barefootceylon.com/collections/barefoot-gallery" target="_blank">Barefoot Gallery</a> was a good refreshing start for my next leg in Sri Lanka. After the exhibition we all spent time talking at Barefoot. We enjoyed special tea made of condensed milk call Kade Tea (කඩේ තේ). That's one of our favourites. </p><p>Sri Lanka was still in economic crisis. I really couldn't comprehend the real effect for the day-to-day life of the community. Most of the young crowd was planning to leave the country. Middle class had to cut down their recreational budget and lower class it was a struggle for survival. </p><p>As my friend Niro is a DJ, he is keeping in touch with local trends, in terms of music, in local night life. Under current economic crisis, it was evident Colombo social life was affected too. Once we hit a famous night club and we realized by midnight, it was only us in the club. Top on that its a Friday! </p><p>My memory goes back to twenty plus years.. where we all bachelors meet at Deli market of WTC and start roaming under covers of darkness of Colombo for drinking and partying.. one of our usual places was Rhythm and Blues club in Colpetty. As I write this I try to contemplate where those guys would be now.. Michael, Dakshina, Nilantha, Roshan, Niroshan.. They all are scattered in many regions of the world with their own struggles of life. Today we all have nostalgia for those days.</p><p><u>Christmas party with embarrassment</u></p><p>Though I am a member of SLSAC I don't know many of other members so didn't have much plans to go to the Xmas party. Anyway, Imran, who is an office bearer of the club, called and insisted me of participating the Xmas party. Not only that, he wanted me to be the photographer of the event which I kindly declined saying only if party happens underwater!</p><p>Party was fun and I was having a good time. Among the different people I met at the party was a young dude call Sanjeewan. He said he is from Baitcalloa and doing many ocean conservation projects.. bal..bla.. and he was a research assistant for famous marine biologist Asha. Anyway this guy was full of energy and enthusiasm so I got his phone number thinking it might be a good connection to have while I am also involved in maritime stuff here and there.</p><p>Once I left the party, drunken of course, I was reversing my car in pitch dark through the narrow lane in Mount Lavinia, which is the entry to the party venue, car banged into something!<i> Ooh..shit,</i> I had hit a jeep. Then I got down to see the damage and noticed jeep has a number plate of eastern province. Then I realized there cant be many attendees from east. I was correct, its Sanjeewan's jeep. </p><p>I ended up meeting him to say what just happened, utterly embarrassed and ashamed of myself. To my surprise, he wasn't worried about the damage but worried about me driving back since I was drunken. I promised him that I am going to pay the damage by any mean he wants and he wasn't seemed to care much.</p><p>Next couple of weeks I gave quite a few calls to Sanjeewan and noticed he is not keen on telling the damage or how he gonna fix it. Most of all, I realized, my calls seemed to be bothering him than the accident itself. So I told him I wouldn't trouble him calling again but whenever you fix it please tell me the cost, as a favor, which I want to pay.</p><p>Guess what, still I didn't get that call!</p><p><u>Catching up with good old friends</u></p><p>When you get old, you start think of younger yourself and feel emotional of what happened in distance past. May be due to that reason I too was thinking more of my schooling time recently. I wasn't that fortunate with many catchups, dinner dances and what-not happened in Sri Lanka in last few years due to my nomadic life. Always something cool happens, I am out of the country. </p><p>One of the best get-to-gathers ever done by OBA, was done in 2018. By then I was in Sri Lanka full time working for a local company in Colombo. So I was sure that I can attend to the extravaganza at last, but for some fateful reason I was assigned to make a visit to London for an official meeting in the same day. Not only I missed the great time of catching up with old dudes, my business trip too was one of the hateful ones I have ever done since the company I worked was a mess with micro politics and incubator for negative energy! I have never seen such egoistic youngsters in my life than the team I had to lead.</p><p>Whatever said and done, this year I had all the luck in catching up with many old friends starting from School friends to many other gangs I was in my younger days. Asitha's trip to Sri Lanka was extra special since it gave us the room to spend a quality time with my closest friends and their families. It was quite a realization that how far we have come since the times we shared a tea at famous Salgado bakery at Maradana.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjso1YYtGPWCfM6DcxbOr4wpfsTdpYGfNYTJGc9QLVr6zWHjSRhZJd99M8q2AUr-tRZB49cGmxcqPyGSGByJB6Ulkn34tUZyJkDMVOK-Y-z_99fM9onIxQM6ljE9CQ9aVQcGDRnzXXw9JBW4c-pMWbZYYB70dtTzPVD4x2cc4uJqvG7xbQz6rUlC4Po/s490/1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="406" data-original-width="490" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjso1YYtGPWCfM6DcxbOr4wpfsTdpYGfNYTJGc9QLVr6zWHjSRhZJd99M8q2AUr-tRZB49cGmxcqPyGSGByJB6Ulkn34tUZyJkDMVOK-Y-z_99fM9onIxQM6ljE9CQ9aVQcGDRnzXXw9JBW4c-pMWbZYYB70dtTzPVD4x2cc4uJqvG7xbQz6rUlC4Po/w400-h331/1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Also had the chance to meet, sing and laugh about all the university time crazy things with those mates and Prof. Premadasa who was one of the great mathematicians I had the rare privilege of being a student. Professor is now living in United states and I saw him at least after a decade.</p><p>Apart from my own neighborhood, I was included a gang at Kotte which started as an environmental organization. That was a youthful life we spent mostly hanging around Sri Jayawardenapura marshes. Some days ended with a naked swim at Diyawanna Oya. To be exact it can be more than dipping into water but playing a game which should be called <i>Water Rugby</i>. As you may be guessing its a kind of Rugby play in water. Your guess is correct with one more addition, someone's underwear was used as the ball ! Obviously, after the game that underwear can only be worn by incredible Hulk!</p><p>Not all acts ended well. Apart from narrow escapes from Police arrest, one such <i>excursion</i> lead me to infect <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptospirosis" target="_blank">leptospirosis </a></i>which I barely survived due to early diagnosis by our family doctor (Dr. <i>Pani Somarathne</i>) who knew about my<i> wild</i> life. Trade off was periodic administration of painful quantity of anti-biotics at Sri Jayawardenapura hospital. I can remember I was looking at Diyawanna Oya through the windows of the hospital.</p><p>So reunion of this group after a couple of decades came as the cherry on the top. </p><p><u>Night at Magul Maha Viharya</u></p><p>I was itching to spend more time in outdoors yet my work and family commitments wasn't very helpful. Among a couple of short excursions, one I liked most was Sithulpawwa one. On our way, we saw an Eagle hit by a lorry in the southern highway. We managed to catch the bird carefully which was still in good shape, but shocked with the impact. Then we handed over to the Wildlife office in Angunukolapelessa. </p><p>Sithulpawwa ancient site was frequently visited by few wild elephants who seems to have fed by people in the temple. This had raised some tension in between temple and Wildlife department. That's because domesticating wild animals usually doesn't end well for both animals and people. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgutzjKJUAs5CTUVWwpMPJNO1oFZHYMVGC5Ku_gIQwZ7SsxM15ri70WWReAkFnIAlRDXLnIA04TY2idPJjWkgWMdvF5S833e7y7Mz7exlAkgy3gFAqSJAOnzQASuDakDFsXlfyoYf2A98grn4SJyoN5GJKHkKd3iGSy62MZkWdXQYYBZupYF2q1gMND/s490/x5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="347" data-original-width="490" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgutzjKJUAs5CTUVWwpMPJNO1oFZHYMVGC5Ku_gIQwZ7SsxM15ri70WWReAkFnIAlRDXLnIA04TY2idPJjWkgWMdvF5S833e7y7Mz7exlAkgy3gFAqSJAOnzQASuDakDFsXlfyoYf2A98grn4SJyoN5GJKHkKd3iGSy62MZkWdXQYYBZupYF2q1gMND/w400-h284/x5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>We also spent one night in near by <i>Magul Maha Vihare</i> site and it was a memorable one. Spotting a leopard on the way was a bonus. </p><p><u>Taprobane East Wreck</u></p><p>I couldn't do much diving either, due to different other commitments. Anyway, a couple of good pictures taken in Unawatuna, Hikkaduwa and Colombo made the season productive. By the end of the season, I dived one Ship wreck, with unknown origin, in the coast of Colombo Called Taprobane East Wreck. It was a surrealistic experience in terms of great visibility and beauty. It reminded me of the beauty in Hollywood movie shot in Caribbean. All the divers, including a couple of divers from Australia and Europe was speechless after the great experience. </p><p><u>Replica of Degaldoruwa Temple painting</u></p><p>I am a big fan of classic temple paintings, particularly ones done in Kandian era. For last few years I was searching for a good one to buy. Problem I saw in painters I met lately was they use bright colors which completely jeopardies the idea. At last, I met one painter at George Kyet open air art exhibition who seems to be doing a great job. Dhammika and his wife Anusha both are great painters. I was sure I met the right artist for the assignment and requested to undertake it. As per this writing, Painting is still being done. I once visited Dhammika's residence at Polgahawela where Channa had a good look at the half-done painting and gave some advises. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2v4Hh1fpTl-bbN4nVS8B0SY7_SWQhsbqrDIbkBtsraenHhZOiec00P8LsV9NvjAEYHCdpQHoG7c221B5IF4EgrdxXnIPKvhghZz_tYae6Oj7jo9g3BUGy54f8iEbMYVjb5gdb6wug9wtVftSfIgPrjRBrVXhV_gu68OXqeye8vkU6LbuG-q-pwkJU/s490/x2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="490" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2v4Hh1fpTl-bbN4nVS8B0SY7_SWQhsbqrDIbkBtsraenHhZOiec00P8LsV9NvjAEYHCdpQHoG7c221B5IF4EgrdxXnIPKvhghZz_tYae6Oj7jo9g3BUGy54f8iEbMYVjb5gdb6wug9wtVftSfIgPrjRBrVXhV_gu68OXqeye8vkU6LbuG-q-pwkJU/w400-h271/x2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>All this Painting saga reminded me of my time at George Kyt foundation exhibition as a young painter about 20 years ago and that's where I met Channa in person. After a couple of decades I was visiting the same exhibition with Channa in search of a suitable Painting to buy.</p><p>Just before leaving the country I, with my family, spent one weekend in Galle Forte which I consider as the best place on earth. When I am in Australia I buy Lotto (i.e. Lottery) once in a while and was dreaming of buying a house in Galle Fort, in case of winning one. As per this writing, I didn't win a lottery! Still doesn't stop me visiting the Forte frequently. Among many beautiful shops and restaurants, we visited one extra ordinary Art Gallery called <a href="https://lankalivinggallery.com/" target="_blank">Lanka Living Gallery</a>. This artist of Norwegian origin is living in Sri Lanka photographing uncommon beauty within most common and abandoned things he see. His work attracted us. Simplicity of his work surprised us. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC1ovCnP_q3JPTpo24gbCoOko5KiGhp0rvACaQt0S4Okbk6a7DlbHdX7yJfUW9_N-nnOw8WE-nXFSRPwfTN0KTs1fPbYdaMj0_SQmYlAXMdN4suqKvoqgBJvvsFGrlw8eco77KzbxOF02qBNKKLshRdoU1G0E-GeirPLR-N4H6Dk-Qz-7_F6Z1hOGR/s533/x6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC1ovCnP_q3JPTpo24gbCoOko5KiGhp0rvACaQt0S4Okbk6a7DlbHdX7yJfUW9_N-nnOw8WE-nXFSRPwfTN0KTs1fPbYdaMj0_SQmYlAXMdN4suqKvoqgBJvvsFGrlw8eco77KzbxOF02qBNKKLshRdoU1G0E-GeirPLR-N4H6Dk-Qz-7_F6Z1hOGR/s320/x6.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p><u>Heading back to Australia</u></p><p>I was consulting to Western Australian Government agency for a digital transformation and always managed to play different tricks to work from Sri Lanka without going onsite. By April 2023, it was evident that I need to visit them to engage with them in person. Australia was shaken by a couple of serious <a href="https://www.upguard.com/blog/biggest-data-breaches-australia" target="_blank">cyber attacks/ data breaches</a> and protocols of accessing data was tighten. In my project I was the only person who access government data from a different country. I flew to Perth just before the Sinhala New Year, but very reluctantly. </p><p>It was like I plan to stay late autumn and winter in Australia. That means no diving which is sad. Anyway, I started exploring my usual hotspots like Fremantle, Rottnest etc. I did a solo bicycle ride around Rottnest island in one good sunny day. By the evening I was just walking in a jetty where I saw some kids in the water were excited with sudden appearance of a stingray. Something told me stingray would go passing the jetty and thought of capturing a photo. Assumption was correct and I clicked it. Angel of the evening sunlight on surface surge of water added a beautiful texture just like a strokes from a brush with oil paint on it!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIQvCmEocpIUBMdYirFyL5qm6WR7WBVn2kN6DG-wMyKS1MSHxEsUfmn8OTrT0htoQEJixCxihlVw6aFReejzDAxN20b8xpd7e2TFoBx53Rg8WiMJUf9ruf4E8OmY0_f4t232XHnmMqwImpTcj8OWvxcwb_4mfk-CLdm2D9rYyVqcVasD00BLxtanyM/s653/x1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="653" data-original-width="490" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIQvCmEocpIUBMdYirFyL5qm6WR7WBVn2kN6DG-wMyKS1MSHxEsUfmn8OTrT0htoQEJixCxihlVw6aFReejzDAxN20b8xpd7e2TFoBx53Rg8WiMJUf9ruf4E8OmY0_f4t232XHnmMqwImpTcj8OWvxcwb_4mfk-CLdm2D9rYyVqcVasD00BLxtanyM/w300-h400/x1.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p>I did a couple of excursions and hikes to nearby places, just because I was lonely. One day myself, Murali and his son Thushar did a decent walk in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth_Hills" target="_blank">Perth Hills </a>region which is around Armadale area. On our way, we ended up being uninvited guests of a small community event. There we were served some hot tea, which I was itching for, due to cold surrounding. In the gathering, we had the pleasure of enjoying a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didgeridoo" target="_blank">Didgeridoo</a> performance by a friendly elderly couple. We also met a lady along with her daughter playing very rare kind of musical instruments collected from very different regions of the world. Among them I noticed instruments similar to native American instruments and also one we find in Sri Lanka like <i>Thawalampota </i>(තවලම්පොට). This lady explained us how she use these music sessions to heel mental stress of listener. I tried a couple of drums and already felt great. </p><p>Staying alone in a city like this also gave me chance to interact with so many different people from different countries, different stages of life and with different expectations. Among the interesting characters was a Afghan doctor who just came to Australia to settle. He doesn't know at least how to heat a readily cooked meal. I offered some rice and curry yet he didn't have much desire for that. There was a lady from Singapore who handed over all her assets to her daughter she raised as a singe mother and planning to have a new independent life in Australia. Some backpackers were from Italy, Netherlands and Germany. </p><p>Afghan doctor once asked me a serious question which I didn't know the answer. "<i>In Afghanistan our leaders or people are not educated. Leaders are more like tribal leaders. So plight of Afghanistan is something I can understand, but Sri Lanka has a high literacy rate and educated community.. so how Sri Lanke ended in this unfortunate situation</i> " Do you know the answer?</p><p>I met one Sri Lankan guy, called Fancis, who work in a mining town in outback, thousands of kilometers away from a city. People who work in such remote places get one week paid holiday every 2-3 weeks. This is called FIFO (Fly In, Fly Out) jobs. When Fancis come to city he spends all his time making a distinct kind of Sinhala rap songs. When I say distinct, content of those songs are drugs, sex and some restlessness. Bohemian is a understatement. Song lyrics are nothing but filth. Obviously no media will accept those so he load them into Spotify. I spent a couple of evenings with Francis having a drink, and mostly "smokes" of all kinds. Even in that time he, along with some friends, were planning a music video to be shot using a hired yacht along with sexy models. He also mentioned how he lived in the car once, after dumping all his money to produce music videos.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhod56oDZ803nX7RMRDZboA0_GK2X6fDziN7Ab2B9JC-f59A1oUAfrWmb-h86X2tZN0XlA3zOf8ClbL_b2InAb0xWgl6PR4nmFIAwTRbDYyU-e8hQyk4-TA48aM9NyJecUw4Clkm5gaSeO4jJF1SMwenQzJcLVEFWtJ4g5LLJZaZ_pGXRdAZN5fKWXO/s597/x4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="597" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhod56oDZ803nX7RMRDZboA0_GK2X6fDziN7Ab2B9JC-f59A1oUAfrWmb-h86X2tZN0XlA3zOf8ClbL_b2InAb0xWgl6PR4nmFIAwTRbDYyU-e8hQyk4-TA48aM9NyJecUw4Clkm5gaSeO4jJF1SMwenQzJcLVEFWtJ4g5LLJZaZ_pGXRdAZN5fKWXO/w400-h358/x4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>This time room I stayed had a television which had only two channels. When I switch on the TV, late night, just before sleep, most of the time I see <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bourdain" target="_blank">Anthony Bourdain</a>'s <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bourdain:_Parts_Unknown" target="_blank">Parts Unknow</a>,</i> a travel documentary series focus on culinary practices, culture and communities of different countries. I always liked the carefree manner Anthony Bourdain presents a show. As a matter of fact, he was a great success in media than as a chef. His life shows he has been a carefree guy always. In contrary, I observed his search for life. Anyway, I cant digest what drove him to a suicide. Perhaps, I expect him to say the reason in his very voice! </p><p>I thank Anthony Bourdain , for keeping me company in lonely winter nights. </p><p>I am going home soon!</p>sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-28864711906826469412022-11-30T06:10:00.005-08:002023-05-30T06:09:28.140-07:00Wandering through the time of Covid<p>In a previous <a href="http://sumedha7.blogspot.com/2020/12/uncertain-times-in-isolated-city.html" target="_blank">post</a> I mentioned how I was stranded in Australia since federal government imposed a law stopping Australians from going out of the country during the Covid-19 pandemic. At last I was able to get a special permission to leave the country mainly through a letter provided by the management of the project I was working. It was a happy moment and my team mates were equally excited. So I had quite a number of farewells.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYdk-FifGRrm6AgWDb5weUU7NJMMUFMVk3VBC2vmOY409-rJTqOA_qm27g_nHNum9s3ML-DBmzAxAvOhbDZ6NXuy2o8TdKWGGfhGSUqJ0J_9dY9NkLLSsCR-ecb4l1XAq2ENQdAiTJWi0JBg5K-voQg23F9erf4PUUetTpu4YNCesaBlEgKG7E3Wsi/s490/4.1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="336" data-original-width="490" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYdk-FifGRrm6AgWDb5weUU7NJMMUFMVk3VBC2vmOY409-rJTqOA_qm27g_nHNum9s3ML-DBmzAxAvOhbDZ6NXuy2o8TdKWGGfhGSUqJ0J_9dY9NkLLSsCR-ecb4l1XAq2ENQdAiTJWi0JBg5K-voQg23F9erf4PUUetTpu4YNCesaBlEgKG7E3Wsi/w400-h274/4.1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Western Australia was managing pandemic comparatively well at that time. Travel to Sri Lanka required a number of documents such as Negative Covid test, permission letter from Australia, landing approval from Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka etc. When I prepare the documents, it reminded me of my first job interview which I carried all I could, starting from birth certificate.</p><p>Murali and Karen drew me to the Air port and we had coffee on the way. There were only few international flights out of the country and I had to first go to Sydney to board into international flight. It was quite surreal to see deserted Sydney airport. There wasn't any shop or restaurant open. I had to fetch a water bottle and a chocolate bar from a vending machine as my lunch.</p><p><u>Back in Sri Lanka</u></p><p>I landed in Sri Lanka in March 2021 in the midst of pandemic. From the airport I was taken to a hotel located at Anuradhapura for ten days of quarantine. I had the most extra ordinary birthday encapsulated within a hotel room. </p><p>I started working remotely to my client in WA and had all the flexibility of the world for my disposal. While staying with the warmth of the family, I had the chance to enjoying all I wanted: hiking, diving and of course partying!</p><p>Like cherry on the cake, one of my photos taken in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busselton" target="_blank">Busselton</a>, won a merit award in State festival of photography held in BMICH. That was the first time underwater photography was considered as a separate genre in a competition in Sri Lanka.</p><p>When talking of partying, one party ended up unforgettable for a wrong reason. It was held in a nice beach villa called Villa 69 at Ahungalla, owned by one of my friends. Party was on and everything went well. ..until alcohol influenced me jumping into the pool but to the shallow end! If you see my face carefully, you can see the scar even today in upper nose, just below the forehead.</p><p>My last dive in Australia was eventful. That day I was in my usual diving boat, called <i>Blue Destiny</i>, planned to explore a site called <i>Opera House</i> close to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rottnest_Island" target="_blank">Rottnest Island</a>. Highlight of the dive was cave of sharks. Ocean currents was extreme at that day. I was so eager to photograph Sharks so I was determined to dive any way. Once I enter the water, I simply felt like I am drowning. I quickly inflated the jacket which was the obvious thing to do, still I am being dragged towards the bottom. It was scary! While ocean currents were so strong, I couldn't reach the boat either. Others couldn't realize what's going on. Somehow I got into the boat. Though I was in panic state, I tried to contemplate what's going on. I wanted to try again. I left my camera gear, plunged again and same thing happened. I scrolled up onboard again. Boat captain noticed my puzzled situation, inspected my gear and found hose used to inflate air to the BCD jacket is not sealed. I was terrified. </p><p>Can someone be that irresponsible? Ian was the Dive Master sent by dive operator I hired the gear. He was just taking it very lightly.. honestly, this kind of equipment failures are unheard of these modern days. I still cant understand, how I controlled myself without giving him a punch! Diving was not for me that day. In addition, it gave me sort of PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) which I had to do many shallow dives back in Sri Lanka to get over. Anyway, that day was eventful for others too. Most of the divers were drifted away by the current. Tender (small powered boat usually attached the main boat as a backup) had to be dispatched to recover them. Anyway, it was a day I will not forget. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSCdNLGHyV0vr_zdlX0BeGyOzTy-ZWf3Bfv54SOeASV9kATP-I7sUbJ5JUsz_jObu438bCaph7XuQkC3iilfV_42laQYdjRY8l5TM745rEUsFP1UE7owEttojN1dxSstWz7f1vvnKeRo6ebqKAxKK4tLVIJXIl4Jr1KDSz3zSJusV6AJae73bQbPOL/s490/3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="367" data-original-width="490" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSCdNLGHyV0vr_zdlX0BeGyOzTy-ZWf3Bfv54SOeASV9kATP-I7sUbJ5JUsz_jObu438bCaph7XuQkC3iilfV_42laQYdjRY8l5TM745rEUsFP1UE7owEttojN1dxSstWz7f1vvnKeRo6ebqKAxKK4tLVIJXIl4Jr1KDSz3zSJusV6AJae73bQbPOL/w400-h300/3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><u>WOMBAT shipwreck</u></p><p>Back in Sri Lanka I had a great diving season. Apart from usual south western destinations, I dived in Tangalle and Kalpitiya for the first time and both offered some outstanding experiences. Most importantly, I started liking everything about Kalpitiya. It is no-rush place. More than anything, people of Kalpitiya were so friendly and helpful. This is a far cry from South where money is everything. I had a quick mental note this is going to be a place I am coming again and again.</p><p>Tangalle too offered great diving. I managed to shoot few good images of a nice shipwreck. Later on I posted one of those images in social media which attracted quite an audience. Interestingly, within the audience was the first person to dive the wreck, none other than <a href="http://www.rexidesilva.yolasite.com/" target="_blank">Rex I de Silva</a>. I knew Rex for a while and he is like an living encyclopedia on history of diving and wildlife. Actually, I wasn't able to answer some of the questions asked by Rex. Anyway, Dharshana Jayawardena (Shipwreck Explorer) who joined the conversation helped positively identify the wreck as WOMBAT ship wreck. </p><p>Here is the story as said by Rex I de Silva;</p><p><i>"This is the story of the WOMBAT. The “Wombat was under tow from Singapore with a load of mining equipment. In early 1975 it was off the south coast of Sri Lanka when, at night in heavy rain and rough weather, it was boarded by local fishermen who stole the waterproof canvas hatch covers. The barge slowly took on water and sank off Nilwella. The captain of the towing tug, a Korean, was armed and fired a few shots in the air, but the thieves got away. In early 1975 diver Maxwell Parsons and I were hired by the insurers to locate the wreck, which we did in a couple of days. In late March 1975 a Singapore salvage company arrived in their salvage tug to recover the cargo. Diver Howard Dias and I were hired to assist in the diving operations. However, salvage operations were abandoned in early April with the onset of bad weather. Only a part of the cargo was recovered. It was on the WOMBAT that I honed my skills in the use of an oxy-arc cutting torch. It is indeed thrilling to see the old “Wombat” after the lapse of almost a half-century."</i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwuki9lhbOamKazL1bix1e97QOdCGWu-KM5rWN_QVDUCA4sOegGAM5GSoKTPaXHTtt2dgJI_lTmw5GOoOKdCg2Hz1pGvv6fbAQ1wANIMqxrpyqZEEuw5IN07Y3nlH0XjhGNbV-UVo_OWasPb6TvGGcMrPYdMrSmIIIxSQnAyXi8VsUfAbGEvWAtHwa/s490/1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="367" data-original-width="490" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwuki9lhbOamKazL1bix1e97QOdCGWu-KM5rWN_QVDUCA4sOegGAM5GSoKTPaXHTtt2dgJI_lTmw5GOoOKdCg2Hz1pGvv6fbAQ1wANIMqxrpyqZEEuw5IN07Y3nlH0XjhGNbV-UVo_OWasPb6TvGGcMrPYdMrSmIIIxSQnAyXi8VsUfAbGEvWAtHwa/w400-h300/1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>All my photos of the wreck were willingly handed over to be achieved in <a href="https://nsd.ccf.gov.lk/index.php?fbclid=IwAR2c32VE0iLk-05NxV11Au_hgZkkjmeFe_zGp8BxA5EqWZxgI6McphoZaFY" target="_blank">National Shipwreck Database</a> prepared by Maritime Archeology unit of Sri Lanka for further references and studies. Rasika Muthukuimarana (Marine Archeologist) mentioned, he was about to conclude this wreck as "unidentified" and the conversation triggered with my photo had connected the dots in identifying.<p></p><p>After a couple of months, I met Rex at Sub Aqua Club talk. Actually, we had communicated with each other for many years yet hadn't met. I could also remember I contacted him from Sydney long ago just to identify a shark which I photographed in north of Great Barrier Reef. Later on I managed to secure a signed copy of <i>Sharks of Sri Lanka</i> book authored by Rex without meeting him in person.</p><p><u>Economic crisis and fuel shortage</u></p><p>By early 2022 Sri Lanka was badly hit by an Economic crisis lead by lack of foreign exchange and a set of usual stupid decisions by government. This pushed ordinary life to an edge. Twin brother of this crisis is energy crisis: A lengthy power cuts and shortage of fuel. This changed my life a lot. I had to go to different places searching for uninterrupted power supply, to complete my official assignments. Once I was supposed to support an important system deployment during a power cut which forced me to complete at a medical center as only place with generated power at the time! I started leaving home early to the co-worker space at Shangri-la hotel to perform my office duties which was a hectic travel. My comfortable life in Sri Lanka was derailing. </p><p>Fuel shortage was one of the biggest headaches. This forced an average person to stay up to 24 hours in a queue to get fuel for the car. Fun part is you may also come empty handed after staying 10 - 20 hours! These queues started to have its own character to sustain the lives of people who stay in the queue. People started to share a tea. One will have to trust the "Stranger" next to you and keep your valuable vehicle with him if need a break. </p><p>Most interestingly, people get to gather and started talking in groups. Main subjects are essentially, "<i>What happened to Sri Lanka</i>..", "<i>Will IMF help</i>.." and "<i>How to migrate to a developed country to secure the future</i>". Last topic was paramount. It was a time irrespective of young or old, men or women, everybody tried their best to leave the country. Once in a while, during those lengthy conversations in fuel queues, I mentioned that I do have the citizenship of Australia in a very casual manner. Then people were staring at me like they saw a crazy beast. Not to say what kind of comments were thrown at me.. :-)</p><p>Such a fool.. we are stuck here without a way to jump out of this country</p><p>තෝ වගේ පිස්සෙක්..අපි මේ රටින් පැනගන්න බැරුව ඉන්නවා..</p><p>So I just laughed saying some people are different and I am that <i>some people</i>! </p><p><u>My gypsy life continued! </u></p><p>My job was shaken when the semi-government agency of Western Australia, where I worked, sold its IP of the project to a big auditing firm. Auditing firms are full of shit, so called Processes. They reached out to me and sent an offer letter to continue the job, but didn't allow me working from Sri Lanka. Hence, I had to leave that engagement. Then I joined another consultancy firm who provide technical consultancy to WA government, who agreed to give me some flexibility, yet travel was inevitable. Given the situation in Sri Lanka, giving up a chance of earning $$ was not I would give-up. so I ended up in Perth again by August 2022! Anyway, landing into winter after spending great sunny time under the equatorial sun was a nightmare.</p><p>Now I am in Australia and its winter! When I left last time, WA was keeping its community safe from COVID, yet story was far different this time. Covid was spreading everywhere and my office was no difference. So I knew its matter of time. On 16th July I found my RAT test positive for Covid-19! I was living in a place belong a young Australian musician called Nethan. He was helpful and provided me a self-contained section of a house with my own attached bathroom and a kitchen. Thankfully, I recovered pretty fast and in two weeks time I was back with my routine jogging as well. I didn't forget to complement Nethan's help by sending a hamper of beer in my next pay day. </p><p>While I didn't plan any adventures or diving this time, decided to spend more time reading. I ended up spending most weekends in Perth City library and its coffee shop. I was bit worried thinking, perhaps, my adventure gene is dying since its not my character to spend time this lazy. I realized that I had two pains that distracted me from the peace of mind which is essential to capitalize ones ideas. One is, I knew most of my friends and collogues living in Sri Lanka are going through a tough life. Secondly, my job demanded a lot of new learning. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_HEQsm2oF296I-woKKSiYfVMI5DiINkp0gBzWTtv2K9WFnhHdTi5C7kRL1Etl0EkRnvSf-BRt8XveGr3K2hSBvPOKbJDFbxhyvV4uOtTv3yLYFYCPrdPV9BTuT5ccZnF7Tw20Q5GXb70f7itiKi1s8IHso_x2RH1D9Pg5Rh3GGxphwA33Jiy5gBQw/s519/2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="519" data-original-width="390" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_HEQsm2oF296I-woKKSiYfVMI5DiINkp0gBzWTtv2K9WFnhHdTi5C7kRL1Etl0EkRnvSf-BRt8XveGr3K2hSBvPOKbJDFbxhyvV4uOtTv3yLYFYCPrdPV9BTuT5ccZnF7Tw20Q5GXb70f7itiKi1s8IHso_x2RH1D9Pg5Rh3GGxphwA33Jiy5gBQw/w241-h320/2.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><p>I visited my beloved places like Rottnest Island, Fremantle and Hillarys boat harbor once weather improved. Whenever I go to Perth I usually visit Shipwreck Museum and contemplate the tragic of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batavia_(1628_ship)" target="_blank">Batavia wreck </a>where replica is made of real remnants. </p><p>Other usual place I visit without fail is Prasanna's (i.e. Gonsa) home. Prasanna is my university batch mate and to be honest, we were not close as friends at that time because he got a bad mouth which I wasn't that pleased with. Anyway, Prasanna's home became one of the few places I visit since started to come to Perth. His wife Anoma and kids too always warmly welcomed me. We usually spent time in patio, drinking and talking about good old days.</p><p>As I write this, I am looking forward to go back to Sri Lanka.. by now, more changes may have taken place due to difficult economic situation.. Whatever said and done I am pretty sure, Sri Lankans are capable of making a joke out of any damn life or death situation!</p>sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-22814272843351118172021-05-23T06:27:00.000-07:002021-05-23T06:27:26.650-07:00Thrilling historical connections in between Perth and Sri Lanka<p>In 1942, Japanese captured Singapore and cut off the air link in between Australia and England. By 1943, Royal Australian Air force started one of the historically important flights in between Perth and Koggala (south of Sri Lanka), Consolidated PBY Catalina under the banner of Qantas , which was a distance of 6,480km, took record breaking time airborne, around 28hours. It was to be flying for more than 24 hours allowing seeing sunrise twice. Especially, it was timed to pass Japanese held territory in dark. One of these flights still considered longest airborne commercial flights in history that took 32 hours and 9 minutes. Interesting part is navigation technology was not that developed at the time and pilots were to navigate using basic compass and stars. For the passengers who completed this flight were awarded a certificate called Secret order of Double Sunrise. One remarkable fact is this flight never crashed, in spite of its extreme measure. </p><p>Certificate awarded to passengers of double sunrise flight;</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMtLmhwf2ow-QBHdwr00B6B04INeTdGDnmTTPyHM6WD87_LVf-NNBacSEjbDBiWRY20iMjB9AxalnfRZ6qWWw2Hx71BE96jgyFNS2bPzEixVaUqKH15vICR2rEUPqWKrcnrAl5qX9fk44/s490/2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="362" data-original-width="490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMtLmhwf2ow-QBHdwr00B6B04INeTdGDnmTTPyHM6WD87_LVf-NNBacSEjbDBiWRY20iMjB9AxalnfRZ6qWWw2Hx71BE96jgyFNS2bPzEixVaUqKH15vICR2rEUPqWKrcnrAl5qX9fk44/s16000/2.jpg" /></a></div><p>This flight was later changed to a Consolidated Liberator that flew from Learmonth (near Exmouth) to Colombo, reducing flying time to 17 hours with better fuel consumption allowing more cargo. This was the first time; Qantas flew with its new famous logo we see today. *</p><p>Other story is rather amusing.</p><p>Gerd von Dincklage-Schulenburg was one of the pioneered diver and a spearfisherman, with German origin, lived in Sri Lanka. In 1955, he moved to Australia hoping to carry on with his passionate lifestyle with ocean.</p><p>Once Dincklage was drinking beer in Quokka Arms Hotel in Rottnest Island with his friend, Hugh Schmitt who was a journalist. When Dincklage was spending freely, Schmitt reminded that he needs to keep money for return trip to main land which is 19.7 km away. “Beer-influenced” Dincklage boasted that “in that case, I would swim back”. Rest was history! He didn’t limit his boasting to boozing time. He really made a solo swim from Fremantle to Rottnest in shark infested rough seas making the first ever-recorded swim through Rottnest channel. </p><p>Gerd, enjoying after completing the swim;</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9zvKHenYH4255wBHANS-mQiJlDO2EcXfHxZQOA0dyjw-XHimWxHm_mqJsZs_AwBZt9KpSN8lSF9jpg1f5o-9baqlWBRoXpLVx4dONxbINaon6XgYxLyd0VxHk_p0iiZik3Xaw2JSDrcM/s490/1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9zvKHenYH4255wBHANS-mQiJlDO2EcXfHxZQOA0dyjw-XHimWxHm_mqJsZs_AwBZt9KpSN8lSF9jpg1f5o-9baqlWBRoXpLVx4dONxbINaon6XgYxLyd0VxHk_p0iiZik3Xaw2JSDrcM/s16000/1.jpg" /></a></div><p>That gave the birth to one of the highly regarded annual ocean swims in Australia, Rottnest Channel Swim organized by Rottnest Channel Swim Association. Not to say, Gerd von Dincklage-Schulenburg embraced thousands of swimmers to follow his spirit of challenging the endurance. </p><p>Dincklage lived in Perth, got married and had three children. Later on, he moved back to Germany. In 2014, he returned to Perth as a guest of the Rottnest swim organizers.</p><p>In some point, he mentioned, “<i>The Rottnest swim was probably the longest I ever did, But I have probably been in the water for longer, particularly when I was spearfishing in Sri Lanka</i>” **</p><p>* <i>Details of this historic flight was first learned from a talk given by underwater explorer Dharshana Jayawardena at Sub Aqua Club of Sri Lanka.</i></p><p>**<i> I first learned about Gerd von Dincklage-Schulenburg through an article authored by Rex I de Silva on Diving history of Sri Lanka.</i></p><div style="text-align: left;">Further Read;<br /><a href="https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/how-a-boast-over-a-beer-lead-to-the-first-freo-to-rottnest-swim-ng-ya-116924">https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/how-a-boast-over-a-beer-lead-to-the-first-freo-to-rottnest-swim-ng-ya-116924</a><br /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Double_Sunrise">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Double_Sunrise</a></div>sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-13619077956473905552021-03-20T07:46:00.013-07:002022-11-30T06:16:22.629-08:00Going out of the city<p> As I mentioned in my previous <a href="http://sumedha7.blogspot.com/2020/12/uncertain-times-in-isolated-city.html" target="_blank">post</a>, Western Australia wasn’t hit badly by Covid. Though we were not allowed to go out of the state, travel within the state was possible during the period of jeopardy. In fact, I planned a couple of solo excursions away from Perth. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHLAPerlob7AKHK9tPGWgY3Jz5YfdAW2eKbk3mn_Gn3vpHEF8sVF5xGI7ePlyD256Un0A-5xUoagEk3P9bTyBz64C1SCM7VV5ls3F8MdKKlX5lwNrJAhQ98uJOyVkilzQNP58qJxTeSno/s305/3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="305" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHLAPerlob7AKHK9tPGWgY3Jz5YfdAW2eKbk3mn_Gn3vpHEF8sVF5xGI7ePlyD256Un0A-5xUoagEk3P9bTyBz64C1SCM7VV5ls3F8MdKKlX5lwNrJAhQ98uJOyVkilzQNP58qJxTeSno/s16000/3.jpg" /></a></div><p>In October 2020, I jumped into a Qantas flight and headed to Exmouth, a small coastal town located 1300 km North of Perth. Actually, there is no airport at Exmouth, so flights are landing in nearby military base at Learmouth. Jewel of Exmouth is the Ningaloo reef, which is one of the famous places for Whale Sharks. Just like Udawalawe or Minneriya is all about Elephants, Exmouth is boasting about Whale Sharks.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSu5Kc8HH0VMWxCU3NiewRpQnP86xkCAZa_dB6Lqe-DpQjBIX3Jg9hz5HG_TZZAnJJ9vek4NHBL2Cy47PUAw2QVF0Vrccct4eWs4whgnAQBsvAx47FvqtrY1b76E73rmICNxjyc3K77yA/s468/7.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="468" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSu5Kc8HH0VMWxCU3NiewRpQnP86xkCAZa_dB6Lqe-DpQjBIX3Jg9hz5HG_TZZAnJJ9vek4NHBL2Cy47PUAw2QVF0Vrccct4eWs4whgnAQBsvAx47FvqtrY1b76E73rmICNxjyc3K77yA/w274-h320/7.jpg" width="274" /></a></div><p>This town has been established in 1967 to support nearby US naval communications station, though this area itself is having a big history around World War II. Specially, Exmouth area was used as the base for iconic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_Special_Unit" target="_blank">Operation Jaywick</a>, which was deployed to destroy Japanese ships in Singapore harbor in 1943. </p><p>Interestingly, Exmouth still holds the remnants of US occupation. I heard Exmouth retailers accepted both US and AUS dollars during that period.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIJ6d6jVTrmVQkh6gZ2LCpieJ6C54WKg0zRKOuFI3wIZOsg5in1IS9ho_G4o-n50-W_v6UBhLTbmv3xjwgLjM45RSToGYuKqfyHz2b8-EDyPQ2C5eDLieFlsYJp7BO31zB6ro4aoR8ydQ/s490/5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="367" data-original-width="490" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIJ6d6jVTrmVQkh6gZ2LCpieJ6C54WKg0zRKOuFI3wIZOsg5in1IS9ho_G4o-n50-W_v6UBhLTbmv3xjwgLjM45RSToGYuKqfyHz2b8-EDyPQ2C5eDLieFlsYJp7BO31zB6ro4aoR8ydQ/w320-h240/5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><u>People met at Exmouth; Rheel, Renuka and Ema</u></p><p>I liked the township of Exmouth and its inhabitants who are stress free and sun loving. I just wandered around the city and ended-up in the Pub called Froth. There I met a matured person, called Rheel, who was spending half of the year in Exmouth with his wife after the retirement. He was spending his dream life fishing and enjoying the slow country life.</p><p>One day he was coming to the pub later than usual. Therefore, I said, “You are late Rheel”. He replied “Its Broom time!” That day I learned the meaning of Broom time. Broom is located further up, probably the last town up north, before starting the vast uninhabited land mass until Darwin. They say, in Broom, there is no value for time. People would do anything in their own phase. I like it! Pretty Sri Lankan too!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSljTNijo7MKJk_ACHxabqnx7YBXt921R_lTUOr-zdCKdrF4IaR6IMSvvyCeQDtKJDlM078bunQK_vNMkHGow_UdoliGmSS6pqX2CwH-0dGmEawrze4yPpE-6f_Nc1SdGlsGXzERn5cao/s593/6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="412" data-original-width="593" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSljTNijo7MKJk_ACHxabqnx7YBXt921R_lTUOr-zdCKdrF4IaR6IMSvvyCeQDtKJDlM078bunQK_vNMkHGow_UdoliGmSS6pqX2CwH-0dGmEawrze4yPpE-6f_Nc1SdGlsGXzERn5cao/w320-h222/6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>One morning, I got up and went to the shared kitchen of the lodge in my batik sarong on. I noticed one lady was looking at me with interest. When I got my morning tea prepared, this lady had already come closer to me and said;</p><p>“<i>This looks a nice Sri Lankan sarong</i>”</p><p>“<i>Thanks, In deed. I am a Sri Lankan</i>” I replied.</p><p>“කොහොමද? ආයුබෝවන්..” She said and made me surprised. </p><p>Meeting Two Sri Lankans means a chat, a lot of it! Then we introduced ourselves. She, Dr.Renuka Ranasinghe, had come to Exmouth in search of opportunity to swim with whale sharks as many others. In addition, I learned, she had left Sri Lanka during the dark age of 88-89 to pursue higher studies in UK, eventually ended up in Perth. She had been in Sri Lankan National Swimming squad, prior to famous Julian Bowling’s era. Anyway, it was her last day in the lodge and we greeted each other and move on with our own plans.</p><p>One of the attendants at the hotel, Ema showed some interest when I was preparing my camera in the lobby and asked, are you hear for diving. I said that’s right. Then we started chatting about diving and etc. I was told she is an experienced dive master yet working in the hotel since she was advised to stay away from diving for a while after a surgery. It was good to have someone to talk about what you like most. She gave me some tips before heading for diving. When she got some free time, we played a game of pool. </p><p>The day I left Exmouth she said, I wish you get a chance to fly back to Sri Lanka and see your family soon. I said, I wish you recover soon and start diving again. She also promised me to take diving in world famous Navy Pier, if I return.</p><p>I am sure; Ema should be diving within the cold waters of Ningaloo Reef by now. </p><p><u>Whale calling at Ningaloo Reef</u></p><p>Well, I loved diving in the Ningaloo Reef. Actually, most of the diving crew were back packers who were learning to be dive masters and they were so friendly. One assignment given to me was to dive with a trainee and make her life hard by doing all the nonsense, to evaluate how she handle the situation. I was thinking, I am your client and now I am giving your crew a training! :-) Anyway, they were some of the generous and friendly crew I ever came across Australia. (Sorry, Sydney you are way behind!)</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYr4rKUtN4Y2QMEzMALSthUZ91bXGbswb1jX4_nW3-x-qI7KCWkgprnrznXJvhJlIlOGGu9gZZa-THo8RPMeSbGDO1S2m7QOKVc7ECO9dpgdwEhLk2cr5K3GLHVBD4S5KI7nL4NdK8dF8/s490/2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="367" data-original-width="490" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYr4rKUtN4Y2QMEzMALSthUZ91bXGbswb1jX4_nW3-x-qI7KCWkgprnrznXJvhJlIlOGGu9gZZa-THo8RPMeSbGDO1S2m7QOKVc7ECO9dpgdwEhLk2cr5K3GLHVBD4S5KI7nL4NdK8dF8/w400-h300/2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>I was expecting a small version of Great Barrier Reef in the Nigaloo Reef, which proved to be wrong soon. Ningaloo Reef is not tropical as I expected, but sub-tropical with much colder waters. It got its own unique style. Anyway, I was having a love-hate relationship with cold waters. So I managed to dive after wearing an extra layer to cover my head and ears. I was wondering how Indian Ocean is taking different forms in different ends. It was like meeting a friend in faraway place, yet behaves strangely. </p><p>I don’t say my photography in Ningaloo reef was great in quantity, yet I managed to shoot a couple of great photos admired by viewers, including <i>Resting Turtle </i>which is my favorite. Most interestingly, I heard whale calling during my dives and that was an outstanding experience. (I should be trying this in Mirissa one day).</p><p><u>Diving under the historic Busselton Jetty</u> </p><p>When 2020 December was around the corner, it was evident that I am not going back to Sri Lanka soon and going to be alone during Xmas shutdown. One day, I read about the Busselton jetty and its marine life, which sparked my photography gene. During the Xmas time, I rented a car and drew about 200km south to reach Busselton. It is a touristic place. </p><p>The famous Jetty of Busselton was built in 1865 and it is still the longest timber jetty in southern hemisphere. It is 1,841m long. In fact, it is being preserved and attracts many tourists. One of the iconic things in the Jetty is submerged observatory where people can look at the marine life through the glasses of its chamber. </p><p>Well, I don’t see marine life without getting wet, so I contacted nearest diving center and hired diving gear. Water was very cold and I actually wore three layers of wetsuits to keep me warm. Actually, it was one of the most different dives I have ever done. Since structure of jetty obstruct the sunlight, you feel like you are going through a tunnel. Good thing is, they got abundance of marine life. Especially, the pillars of the jetty were heavily populated with soft corals so they look like X’mas trees. </p><p>Once we saw a Port Jackson shark resting on the seabed. Sadly, it had a fishing hook and a thread still attached to its mouth. We tried to remove it but it wasn’t easy with the available tools. My buddy, Jordan said he would return with needed tools. I know, a good hunter don’t leave injured animals. Not sure how that can be applied for fishing. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOWo23Jw3sptSgoxsNKuPrqi2O6uzdJSahmLEJMbbnv37cTiUUB4PY9CgMXO4rs0MidYy4OZOi3eYuQYPIkm2-kqXJdkuuujmnjvBv4QdLfiTgDX6GW01CijocAVCQ9Y39_QIP9XqDYVw/s490/8.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="367" data-original-width="490" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOWo23Jw3sptSgoxsNKuPrqi2O6uzdJSahmLEJMbbnv37cTiUUB4PY9CgMXO4rs0MidYy4OZOi3eYuQYPIkm2-kqXJdkuuujmnjvBv4QdLfiTgDX6GW01CijocAVCQ9Y39_QIP9XqDYVw/w320-h240/8.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>I stayed two days in nearest coastal caravan park at Capel. While there were many campers, I stayed in a room made of converted container. There I enjoyed a wonderful sunset. Actually, I didn’t enjoy sunsets when I was young, but now Sunsets are healers. Sunsets makes me sad and emotional. Is it because Sunset remind us of our ending?</p><p>Eventually, some of my photos were used by Busselton dive center to promote themselves. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj5TQSTuXhDxjna-nM8QPWu3DsmYEsInKQj_U2yX4Xivxkger0vbM0arNnXF49pk3_pJ6V1K2WyHcNV5fbxajXD8zUzzadn2I1tppaIozsjIGJgQteWuWkl9gnB_0X5b5qmCm118GpNhc/s480/1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="310" data-original-width="480" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj5TQSTuXhDxjna-nM8QPWu3DsmYEsInKQj_U2yX4Xivxkger0vbM0arNnXF49pk3_pJ6V1K2WyHcNV5fbxajXD8zUzzadn2I1tppaIozsjIGJgQteWuWkl9gnB_0X5b5qmCm118GpNhc/w320-h207/1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQczkiM_NZuvV3osPdq1SQlKMxtTRnW_r0GhClg3Ud7sT2YQbdU-P7YyWTnOIWsZJ2DsjhP3n8GLaaAe9rZ4KjpSvR_Q3Na3u68xZ-F2Yb9IHLbpxaAqhNEtI3-_Z9-MGzvgj0TtRkCt0/s608/4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="490" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQczkiM_NZuvV3osPdq1SQlKMxtTRnW_r0GhClg3Ud7sT2YQbdU-P7YyWTnOIWsZJ2DsjhP3n8GLaaAe9rZ4KjpSvR_Q3Na3u68xZ-F2Yb9IHLbpxaAqhNEtI3-_Z9-MGzvgj0TtRkCt0/w322-h400/4.jpg" width="322" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-68404810401592221202020-12-20T08:58:00.009-08:002023-07-03T09:36:11.484-07:00Uncertain times in an isolated city<p>In early 2020, I was in Sri Lanka with family enjoying all the comforts I can ask for. Not to say, while it was the west coast season, I also explored few shipwrecks in the coast of Colombo and Galle. One of the dive buddies I dived with in Colombo was <a href="https://www.simonlorenz.de/" target="_blank">Simon Lorenz</a>; I only realized later that he is a renowned Underwater photographer. He was kind enough to give me some valuable advises during dives.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7JFltdjElnfrndviC1X1x-c-TdKVKFRODnaIXCYb7s6eLK7n02Ga-YjzQz3_QPoeAqw3AU4afCUcE9F6tXlYXweCZZrJ846zYkOLPxAyIDW1GfBRNfNduGlasqRILwpVIuieqskQ9va8PEmbPTdY7tri5IzlRc-chFzDmdmWQDQqJQirDZNtNNhQZ4wE/s490/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="490" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7JFltdjElnfrndviC1X1x-c-TdKVKFRODnaIXCYb7s6eLK7n02Ga-YjzQz3_QPoeAqw3AU4afCUcE9F6tXlYXweCZZrJ846zYkOLPxAyIDW1GfBRNfNduGlasqRILwpVIuieqskQ9va8PEmbPTdY7tri5IzlRc-chFzDmdmWQDQqJQirDZNtNNhQZ4wE/w400-h293/2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>While I was in Sri Lanka, one of my friends back in Australia, Kin, called and asked me to bring some groceries like rice etc. on my way back. This was a complete joke for me. Who is going to bring such rations from Sri Lanka to Australia! Then I left to Perth in mid-March and realized how true the advice given. Australia was in complete jeopardy and super market aisles were just deserted. Nothing to buy! It was the time I realized the seriousness of Corona outbreak. Within a couple of days all the airports of Australia were shut, followed by Sri Lanka. Now I am stranded in Perth, most isolated city in the world!</p><p>Before leave Sri Lanka I promised my family that I would see them every other month and stop this nomadic life for good by end of the year. Fulfilling that promise was impossible with the Covid-19 restrictions around international flying throughout the globe. Especially, Australia enforced a law, restricting international travels, which was the only democratic country to impose such a law. My mind started to go a rollercoaster ride. One day I am good and next day I am so down, even the best coffee or beer couldn’t fix. </p><p>Western Australia is not a good place for me to get stranded in many ways. I didn’t have many friends or family. It’s not a big city like Sydney (or even Melbourne), where you have many things to do, but beaches and outdoors. There is a sunny side of the story. Since it’s an isolated place, managing of virus spreading was quite successful (as this writing). This gave me enough freedom to go out. Most importantly, my client wanted my consulting service to continue. Therefore, income source was there, which is a great relief. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFIvCeiqJlIhROt3dHGH6u_WKFrCVkTq7k4zN2ur68Wj7-IJdJkvxdFznN_1dzJw64TFFCptz0xaKaWZ2otmTCMOdDYqGYkMJGjKbmgaXkpzXh_hk5BFrxKc-Cx1t13Zo9dsicLyK2HPY/s355/1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="300" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFIvCeiqJlIhROt3dHGH6u_WKFrCVkTq7k4zN2ur68Wj7-IJdJkvxdFznN_1dzJw64TFFCptz0xaKaWZ2otmTCMOdDYqGYkMJGjKbmgaXkpzXh_hk5BFrxKc-Cx1t13Zo9dsicLyK2HPY/w338-h400/1.jpg" width="338" /></a></div><p>I also thought of using the time wisely, even in tough circumstance. Therefore, I started learning everything I was curious about, from forex trading to Yoga and what not. Started reading all the books from the best seller list, those I could find from library. Visited museums again and again. </p><p>I was tired of my own cooking some days and used to visit a Pasta place, ironically, ran by an Indian couple. They used to make especial one for me with many spices, a lot of them! Pasta – a south Asian style!</p><p>I became a frequent visitor in few coffee shops. In my local coffee shop I used to spend a lot of time, I met a mother and a son who became friends with me. Mothers’ name is Anna and son is Antonio. Antonio was my elder daughter’s age and he plays soccer. They usually visited the coffee shop on their way back from practices. He used to show me some pictures of his soccer moments and I showed my family photos back in Sri Lanka. Both mum and son was having an empathy on my situation. </p><p>Beach became my other place of refuge in summer. Whether I plunge into water or just spend time onshore, salty air and easy going beach dwellers made me feel better. As I mentioned in my previous <a href="http://sumedha7.blogspot.com/2020/01/what-temperate-waters-offers.html" target="_blank">article in diving in cold waters</a>, you cant just jump into the Indian ocean around Western Australia. Dangerous shark encounters were so frequent. Unfortunately, some were fatal. So its a matter of learning the shark sightings before heading to the beach if you wish to get wet.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvM4b2ge2N3rw-jeoM24bUMnerfe1UWjjGUslDXLGMkmx1DlZcaNebCZLPz7MP3PGkE6hzk60COjMk8hxdLGhKrKaOFyo_TohQuhSJAzVcdyWvF98FgOp2tfiD1vFOJhuBP8dr5wqTua0/s475/beach.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="319" data-original-width="475" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvM4b2ge2N3rw-jeoM24bUMnerfe1UWjjGUslDXLGMkmx1DlZcaNebCZLPz7MP3PGkE6hzk60COjMk8hxdLGhKrKaOFyo_TohQuhSJAzVcdyWvF98FgOp2tfiD1vFOJhuBP8dr5wqTua0/w400-h269/beach.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Some evenings I spent hours and hours looking at the Sunset above the Indian Ocean from Hillarys Harbor. I was emotionally contemplating my home is just other side of this mass of water. Then I was thinking something crazy. Perhaps I can sail back to Sri Lanka in a boat! How much it will cost to jump into a team of adventurers who would sail towards south Asia. It shouldn’t be hard finding a gang with such a crazy plan in Western Australia. If I do that, I will be the first person to enter Sri Lanka illegally from Australia in a boat! In addition, J. P Obeysekera’s (Siva Obeysekera’s husband) adventurous flight came to my mind. When passenger flights came to halt due to outbreak of World War II, he did a solo flight from London to Sri Lanka. Then I realized I don’t have courage, grit, wealth and anything J P Obeysekera had in 1948, though we share the same surname for some stupid reason and I am nobody!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbhf7g_jg1nUHfGMQmllqI9JCNQ3JkAEPZD0T8Zo7HNRHaQ-jlax6OquDcLY53LhnYLjQfnYh9QqnoEYssHkKueuyFJBcbc2Zr-iI8HasM9ZFnneblhn8hiA33ssq7AfH92UUkKEeIIO4/s420/2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbhf7g_jg1nUHfGMQmllqI9JCNQ3JkAEPZD0T8Zo7HNRHaQ-jlax6OquDcLY53LhnYLjQfnYh9QqnoEYssHkKueuyFJBcbc2Zr-iI8HasM9ZFnneblhn8hiA33ssq7AfH92UUkKEeIIO4/s16000/2.jpg" /></a></div><p>One guy I spent more time with is Murali who recently migrated to Perth and happened to work with me. Soon we became close friends. His sense of humor is remarkable. Most importantly his family, wife and son, too became close with me making it inviting to visit his place and have fun-filled time. They not only welcome me but soon considered me part of family. </p><p>When his wife and son coming from India to join him, I asked you should be happy and excited to have them with you isn’t it.</p><p>Murali: <i>Yep, Kind of..</i></p><p>Me: <i>Isn’t it excited man. you were alone all this time</i></p><p>Murali: <i>You should understand Sume… Not that exciting since its same wife and same son.. </i></p><p>So, I am not telling he is full of humor without a reason.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiJvYWMa5-Lc_2YNnjzIGPSgiKQbuZPf6_e0EdlHpswvSHdgM97wt4PrYJp03QKxApuucFJzkLkI8AidSe06fNSKM3vbo2-LjZ-NwAMOAlhmH8p51VXMj7_gTS2NkXiL7R_wFV7uBGr3vi8m4xfqQN4zNqZDWGB0JMCddHNDn2JU4lWHCuLXiRUZGh/s490/Murali_p1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="490" height="353" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiJvYWMa5-Lc_2YNnjzIGPSgiKQbuZPf6_e0EdlHpswvSHdgM97wt4PrYJp03QKxApuucFJzkLkI8AidSe06fNSKM3vbo2-LjZ-NwAMOAlhmH8p51VXMj7_gTS2NkXiL7R_wFV7uBGr3vi8m4xfqQN4zNqZDWGB0JMCddHNDn2JU4lWHCuLXiRUZGh/w400-h353/Murali_p1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Other one is Kuldeep, who is an Indian-Australian who is one of my flat mates. He is a good companion and got many stories to share with me. His biggest issue in the pandemic times too was the travel ban since he used to travel to Thailand a couple of times a year. That is his way of rejuvenation in life. He is passionate about perfumes! He knows a lot about it and maintain a massive collection of expensive perfumes. If he says about any interesting incident of his life, say dating a girl, he relates it with the perfume he was wearing. Quite unorthodox, isn’t it? Kuldeep’s passion actually infected to me too! Guess what, I ended up having few expensive perfumes from Giorgio Armani, Dolce and Gabbana etc. Perhaps, his passion flooded into me, but no other way around. He never join me in plunging into ocean!</div><p>I call my shared accommodation, a crazy place. People in this place belong to many different time zones. When I get up in the morning, I can see a guy just finishing his dinner after spending entire night playing computer games. There is another lady who wakes up at noon and start preparing the breakfast. I am actually thinking why I am not moving out of this mess.</p><p>Probably, part of me enjoyed the freedom came bundled with craziness. Rule of thumb in this house is, you don’t need to worry about others. No laws! Mates come at any time – go at any time – make noise even in the middle of the night – you hear others response saying f*ck off. Good thing about this place is I could wear my sarong and do whatever I want. Fry dry fish and make entire premises smelly. Thanks god – no law!</p><p>Anyway, this craziness wasn’t without any heaty situation in-between mates. One South American guy started to steal the stuff, actually beer, to be exact. First I ignored missing a beer or two occasionally. I learned this has been happening to others as well. One day, I came after something and really wanted to have a beer and found all in my shelf was gone. I was bloody angry and screamed at everybody in my best <i>Mariyakad</i>e language (මරියකඩේ බාසාවෙන්), in English of course. Following day, as a revenge, Kuldeep had thrown some drinks from that South American bastard. Obviously, he thought its me. Then he got angry and openly threatened all. Anyway, it was evident, he was targeting me. What I learned later on was, he is highly addicted to alcohol and unpredictable once boozed. Then came the times I sleep, keeping my diving knife under my pillow. </p><p>Now I am stranded in a faraway country; plus.. Got an in-house enemy to survive from!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjweSic8zaCrZi_70rDEYNdaOEOv_zWfmsuwfWz12JfsKwizg5X_V-JSZBVx2G9xsTsJD59xw25fVt1NneEN1J8CeieMFk4zuBmNihhXxCCnSFelj0ZHez6QCBtRqmi5eQIU1sc0A8-JQs/s497/xx.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="497" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjweSic8zaCrZi_70rDEYNdaOEOv_zWfmsuwfWz12JfsKwizg5X_V-JSZBVx2G9xsTsJD59xw25fVt1NneEN1J8CeieMFk4zuBmNihhXxCCnSFelj0ZHez6QCBtRqmi5eQIU1sc0A8-JQs/s16000/xx.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-43214889457312333022020-06-05T19:06:00.002-07:002020-11-23T15:57:11.274-08:00Life at Harbone StreetIn August 2019, I came to Perth. After spending first night in a hotel near the Airport I came to my next place where I planned to stay for next month.<br />
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That's how I ended up living with David and Kim. I already felt some character in their colonial and historical looking home. When I first came, slim old man, David, was there and he didnt talk much but gave me the keys. Kim had left a set of instructions written on paper, knowing her husband would not be of much help. Inside the home was dark and mysterious. My room was full of feminine character. Later on I came to know it was Miranda's room, kept as it was, to keep the memory of David's most loved daughter who met a tragic premature death. I liked this mysterious place and wanted to learn more of its past. It was my home anyway.<br />
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In my first week, once I was alone in a cloudy evening, having a great Ceylon tea in the kitchen while struggling with my lonely thoughts, all in a sudden a young girl appeared with a bottle of wine in her hand. She just smiled at me and said "<i>Don't even say Hi till I get a sip of wine.. I had a crazy day. Trying to recover from it.</i>" Then she introduced herself as Emily who had been a guest in this place first and now a frequent visitor. She was friendly and open-hearted. I started to like her company and having a sip of wine when she was around.<br />
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Emily is Thermal Imaging specialist, Guitarist and Remedial therapist who works in both Sydney and Perth. She also said <i>You know Sumedha, most people who come here as guests end-up being friends of Kim and David</i>,<i> just like what happened to me</i>. Also she advised me of one thing. <i>Please don't ask about Miranda from David. Yep, you are living in her room.. please don't move ornaments and stuff in it</i>. <i>Room you live in is like the living temple of David that reminds of Miranda</i>.<br />
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David actually started to talk to me more and more by the time that realized me of his knowledge as a senior professor. He was sound in science, philosophy, arts and what not. He was born in Cap Town, South Africa and has gone to 26 schools in his life! He had been instrumental in activities of Green Party in Australia. He is ,by all means, a workaholic supervising many Phd students at that time.<br />
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Anyway, David's story had very sad chapters. Miranda has been Davids daughter from his first marriage. She was so pretty, attractive and loved his father very much. When she was 18, as many young girls of western cultures do, decided to move from parents. So she planned to move to a southern suburb. She had missed David so much, while on her way, she stopped in a coffee shop and text David telling how worried she was about Dad being a person who work long hours and etc. After receiving those emotional notes from daughter, next he received was a call from Police to inform a fatal accident!<br />
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After this fateful event, David was in isolation, suffering from depression and started living like a dead man. He didnt speak to any one; didnt answer any call.<br />
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Back in Vietnam, Kim heard the news, about the unfortunate plight of the college professor who helped her during her studies in Australia. One fateful day she called David and something forced David to answer the phone. Rest is history: Kim did a great job by talking to David and help heel the wounds. As many other stories, David married Kim.<br />
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Kim is a very pleasant lady with motherly qualities. She looked after David very well and also cared for their guests. Kim is handling the renting of rooms for travelers, to help her nephew to come to Australia for studies.<br />
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She was so kind to me. Once she realized I was alone in Perth, she took the responsibility of looking after me like a mum! Her biggest advise to me was, you are working too much, you need rest. There was a point in her advise, since it was the beginning of my official assignment in Perth, I was working late frequently. I presented Kim and David a big pack of high quality Ceylon tea, which they accepted very sincerely. David was a big time tea lover. If Kim is not around David would easily skip a meal and drink tea. When Kim do the grocery shopping, she used to bring me a small chocolate. As I realized, Kim was very comfortable talking to me since she can open up "very Asian" conversation with me when she was fed-up with western culture.<br />
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David's sad story had more darker side. Not only Miranda, but both his parents had died in motor accidents! It was a very tragic thing to hear. David has a son too, Nick, who was a nursing coordinator in a local hospital. David always called Nick in evenings, specially on Fridays and Saturdays, to find out if Nick was in a pub. If he was in a pub, David would go any far to give Nick a lift. David didnt want Nick to follow the same tragic end by driving after a drink. Luckily, Nick realized fathers' agony and gave up drinking alcohols of all sorts.<br />
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By the time goes, I was just like a family member. Kim sometimes offer me a dinner. I too sometimes cooked Sri Lankan food for them. Unfortunately, David couldnt bear hot and spicy Sri Lankan curries.<br />
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David and Kim's place was nice and cosmopolitan where a lot of intellectuals gather. I realized I shouldn't underestimate the visitors of this home by their appearances. Just like David, some one who come in a humble-looking jumper, would be one of the scholars with multiple patents under his/her belt. I always liked listening to conversations of these critical thinkers; very informative and interesting.<br />
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Just like Emily, there were a couple of young people I liked. One of them was Wahib, who was born in Afghanistan and adopted by a German family.<br />
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Anyway, even after moving from this place, I visited David and Kim again. They welcomed me and so happy to see that I was doing quite well. I promised them I would bring more Tea and Gingerly rolls once I go back to Sri Lanka.<br />
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Some pictures I captured from nearby suburbs;<br />
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<br />sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-90972548219806191512020-01-16T03:44:00.000-08:002020-04-13T23:47:53.023-07:00What temperate waters offer<br />
We always see great underwater photos with clear blue backgrounds and that’s like a dream for any diver or underwater enthusiast. Those are tropical waters. As Sri Lankans we are blessed with such beautiful warm waters around our island. Anyway, ocean gets different character in different regions. Once you pass the tropical belt, go further away from equator, you find temperate zone. Here I am documenting experience of my underwater excursions in temperate waters. It’s the journey of green waters than blue waters!<br />
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I dived in Great Barrier Reef for the first time in 2012 which was amazing. The experience itself was pretty much the same as diving in Sri Lanka since it offers tropical waters. Anyway, I was based in Sydney. So I thought of diving around the temperate waters around New South Whales because I cant afford to fly to Queensland frequently. This is where the real adventure started.<br />
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Once I learnt the conditions, I knew this is a different game. Need to wear thick wetsuit along with boots, hoodies and what not to stay warm in 19 – 22 degrees water. Water of Tasman sea is heavily influenced by sea currents of Antarctic ocean currents. In summer, land temperature may be reaching forties, yet sea water remains cold.<br />
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<u>Plunging into cold water</u><br />
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My first dive was a disaster! I felt like I am diving in a green jelly: nor corals and much fishes. I thought, I would rather dive in <i>Beira</i> lake in central Colombo! One of the buddies I dived with was a tourist from Egypt called Ali. As soon as he surfaced, he asked <i>Why the hell people dive here at all?</i> I am not surprised since Red Sea, one of the most colorful seas, is in his doorstep. Anyway, my impression too wasn’t much different.<br />
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By the time goes, I read more, started to realize and appreciate the differences. When hiking, we never compare <i>Singharaja</i> Rain forest with <i>Wilpattu</i>. Though you don’t see tropical fish, you would find some other great fauna like Sharks, Seahorses, Rays, different kinds of fishes and slugs. Though you don’t see coral reefs, you find kelp forest which is another different experience. I started to like this underwater greenery.<br />
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Lack of fauna is not the biggest complain I had here, but the challenging conditions. Visibility was so poor and sea currents are a norm. When it comes together, each dive in temperate zone was throwing many more challenges at me. In fact, I felt great after each successful dive. I simply decided to obey the rules wisely. When Australians do two dives, I was satisfied with one because that seemed more than enough for me in terms of exhaustion. By the time goes by, Guys in Manly dive station knew me very well due to my significance; I was the only dark-skinned diver, I was skinny, and I was on my own. I had to catch the early morning ferry to get there. <br />
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I can remember one experience explained by Tony Buxton, a pioneer diver lived in Sri Lanka, in his book <i>Ecstasy of the Deep</i>. Once he joined a team of adventurers in Sydney and started to sail around the world. As soon as they started sailing, they were hit by a gale that put Tony in to great panic. So, he was so concerned and started talking to others about the situation. Other Australian mates had told him that these are normal conditions, gales and hurricanes are yet to come. So this was the same experience I had in diving.<br />
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One of the favorite sites I dived was the Shelly beach (belongs to Cabbage tree bay aquatic reserve) in north of Sydney. It was close to famous Manly suburb. Usually, we walked to the shore and dived from there. One thing I enjoyed here was a friendly grouper named Harry. I always wanted to go and see it season by season. This fish usually preferred to swim along with me for a while.<br />
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I continued diving in summer and autumn though I was always adhering to my limitations as a skinny Sri Lankan boy, not as a giant AUSI bloke. <br />
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<u>Sharks at Nelsons Bay</u><br />
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One of the remarkable dives I did was in Nelsons Bay, which is more than 200 km drive from my home. I had to leave around 3 am to reach there and meet the buddies. Anyway, that’s where I saw many sharks in one place. I spotted around 10 Grey Nurse sharks in same dive.<br />
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I was watchfully resting in a small canal shaped naturally made set of boulders to photograph the passing sharks. Dive master was ahead of me. Dive master suddenly turned at me and started to stare at me seriously. I was puzzled and thinking what’s wrong with me. Then I realized he is not merely looking at me, but his eyes were focused on something behind. My instincts said not to turn around and Dive master signaled the same. In a fraction of second, about 2-meter-long shark quickly passed few inches away from my face. As I learned later, there had been a shark resting in the other end of the channel. One young diver had seen it there and started to swim away as fast as he could, disturbing the creature. Shark had no other way to escape but to come towards my end. On land or water, same theory applies; We should not make animals excited by our behavior. It’s their territory.<br />
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Once I came to the surface, dive master was laughing and told me..<i>hey buddy you collected something to tell your grand kids</i>.. <i>didn’t you!</i> Anyway, it was not that adventurous. I knew Grey Nurse sharks do not have a reputation of being aggressive. Still they are wild creatures; sharks. Mostly panicked ones.<br />
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Nelsons bay is a place where warm water meets cold water. Unfortunately, the water of Nelsons bay wasn’t good that day. Murky water doesn’t help photographers much. Though we saw many sharks, none of the images came out to be in the level of satisfactory.<br />
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As we were finishing the dive, I experienced the so-called Washing Machine effect of the currents for real for the first time. This is nothing but water was taking us in circles in a great force, just like you are in a washing machine. I was staying calm. My biggest worry was I could clash in to another diver resulting injury.<br />
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<u>In search of Seahorses</u><br />
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In 2015 summer, I had a self-assignment to shoot a seahorse. In fact, I dived in few places, but my last dive planned to do in, more promising, Chowder bay. That day I was lucky to dive with a buddy who was very supportive and knew what my target was. This ended up being the pay off day! At last we found amazingly tiny seahorse. I was equipped with my macro lens and managed to click about 20 shots before I was forced to surface since air level had gone beyond 50 bars. One of these images are still one of my best photographs. I see this Seahorse everyday since this became my choice of wallpaper in my laptop.<br />
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In 2nd July 2019, a Shark attack was reported in Shelly beach, Manly where I was diving frequently. I read this while in in Sri Lanka. To my surprise, I learnt culprit was an "innocent” Gray Nurse Shark! This was an eye opener – any harmless looking creature can become aggressive in some point.<br />
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<u>Other side of Indian Ocean</u><br />
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In late 2019, I arrived in Perth, WA. As usual, my hand luggage was nothing but underwater camera equipment. Once I got familiar with my official assignments, I started to learn more about diving.<br />
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Before I plunge into the WA dive sites, I had the opportunity of diving into the biggest man-made tank in AQWA aquarium in Perth. Though I had already dived in shark infested waters of NSW and QLD, this gave me the opportunity to have a decent closer look at few different shark species. Since I first went through basic diver training, long ago, in a swimming pool at <i>Hikkaduwa</i>, this is the first time I dived into a man-made tank. It was an interesting one.<br />
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One of the easily accessible dive sites I came across was Rottnest Island. Honestly speaking I expected much warmer and clam waters in this area, since photographs taken from surface showed amazingly great - peacock blue waters. Anyway, underwater currents were always a fact to consider. Not like in NSW, great thing in WA is it offers a subtropical fish. WA located in much warmer region of temperate zone resulting both corals as well as kelp forest, which is a rare combination. WA also offers you to see Indian Ocean in a different perspective.<br />
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Since all my dive gear was in Sri Lanka, this time I had to rent things from a diving company. Since I am a small-made guy (at least compared to Australians!), I always ended up wearing a loose wetsuit that exposed my body to cold waters. Once I had to postpone my second dive because I thought I would get hypothermia. By that time, I had a bitter experience with hypothermia, and I knew what it can do to an average human body. Overall, I wasn’t very happy with the poor equipment supplied by my diving operator. Anyway, I really liked the dive instructor, called Ian, who lead our team. He is friendly, talkative and knowledgeable person. He is a videographer and a photographer. He took photos of his team underwater and I also ended up being an “actor” in some of his underwater videos published in Aquatic Australia page.<br />
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“Sharks” is a big subject in Western Australia. Threat was always there for spear-fishermen, surfers, ocean swimmers and for divers. I always believed, divers are the last in the list. Since divers stay underwater, sharks see the real size, much bigger thing once diving gear is attached, that makes divers not-an-easy prays. (Which proved to be wrong soon, when it comes to Great white sharks!) Ian had an electronic device to produce an electric field to distract the sharks if a life-threatening encounter occur. Anyway, we didn’t get a chance to check how effective that was. As an amateur photographer I was searching for sharks.<br />
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Rottnest island is a very beautiful island to explore on land as well. One of my colleagues, Neil once offered me to join their boat tour to the island and explore it on bicycles. It was a great experience. Neils’ family and his extended family members were planning their 2019 Xmas holiday in the island. Skipper of the boat was Neils brother-in-law, Dru, who was a very nice gentleman. Though I didn’t get to dive that day, managed to swim in many bays around the island. Anyway, Neil informed someone had seen two Bull sharks near Geordie bay, the same day.<br />
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<u>Tragic death of a diver </u><br />
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2020 started with a sad news. A diver was killed by a Great White Shark near Esperance, WA. Just like Nelsons bay in NSW, Esperance is also a place where warm water meets cold water resulting an abundance of sharks and different other fauna. While I am writing this, victims’ wife, who saw the horror of fatal shark attack is in hospital due to the shock and police is still unable to recover the body. This incident made me think, how badly I under estimated the threat of Sharks in WA. Biggest mistake I did was I measured it in terms of the threat level in NSW or QLD. I was disappointed about my maturity.<br />
<br />
<u>Temperate waters… mystery, beauty and a challenge</u><br />
<br />
I don’t think, I could really understand the temperate waters within my limited dives but managed to grasp some decent experience in cold waters. To be honest, there were few dives I finished thinking <i>I am not going to dive in this shit again!</i> Yet, I plunged into the same water next summer. In a way, I am pretty proud of my grit. After all, I know water is not always blue, but can be green too!sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-69757054604653651692019-12-15T05:27:00.001-08:002021-11-02T06:11:23.082-07:00All started from Adams Peak for us<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It’s been 20 years since this happened and I was in the
university.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Janaka told me Dr.Nihal wants to meet you. <o:p></o:p><br />
අන්න නිහාල් සර් උඹට හම්බවෙන්න කිව්වා</div>
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I said “<i>I don’t know him… what’s the reason</i>”<o:p></o:p><br />
ඒ මොකෝ.. මම සර්ව දන්නෙත් නෑ</div>
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“<i>well, he is planning an expedition to Adams peak via a pretty
unknown direction. He is searching for suitable guys who can join him</i>”<o:p></o:p></div>
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“<i>There are two other bio students who have already teamed up
with him</i>”</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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“<i>Someone had told him about you</i><br />
”සර් සිරිපාදට හයික් එකක් යන්න ප්ලැන් කරනව, කට්ටිය හොයනවා.. බයො පොරවල් දෙකක් සෙට් වෙලා ඉන්නේ.. කවුරු හරි උඹ ගැන කියල</div>
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Then I realized this is going to be something worth checking and directly went to the department of zoology to see Dr.Nihal. Then I was
explained about his map and expedition he is planning to carry out. Then I was
more than thrilled with the idea and recommended Kusum who is also a physical
science student, yet passionate in hiking. None of us thought this is going to
be a starting point of lifelong friendship and path to the fruition of our
common passion on wildlife, hiking and outdoor enthusiasm. Other two biology
students who were in the team was Sudesh and Prasad. We 5 were a good team and more than ready for the hike.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It was one of the most exciting hikes I have ever done. Going
to Adams Peak via <i>Mukkuwatta (මුක්කුවත්ත)</i> road, just before the season, was not anything I
had heard of. So, I didn’t have any insight to the hardships we are going to
face. This track said to be cleared and converted to a better one in some
seasons by the plantation workers in that area, so they open an avenue for
pilgrimage. Anyway, we hardly could see a track. So we had to go by the
direction in most cases.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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We left the university after an early lunch and reached <i>Mukkuwatta (මුක්කුවත්ත) </i>in
a gloomy evening, where a truck was provided to reach the entrance of the track
by the end of the plantation. Forest was so thick, and it was like entering a
total dark world. Top on that, it started to rain cats and dogs. Jungle shrubs
were so dense. Merely no room to set even a camping tent. After trying here and
there, under the covers of darkness, we decided to somehow set a camping tent on
uneven forest bed without considering any of the disciplines of camping.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Not to say it was one of the difficult camping sleeps for
everybody. After having a very simple meal we all went to sleep, though sleep
was nowhere close to any one, but for Kusum. That was the day we realized
Kusum’s great skills in sleeping under any condition. Following expeditions proved
it further. Today while I am writing this article on our sweet memories, after
20 years, I know Kusum is doing a very challenging solo hike in New
Zealand which is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milford_Sound" target="_blank">Milford Sounds</a> (53.5 km) – Such a coincidence! </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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One funny thing happened was I got shocked with a big noise
in the middle of the night just once I hardly went to sleep. Not only me, all were
awaken and looking at Sudesh who is sleeping and talking in high tone.. what
the f**k! Sudesh got up very gently and said “<i>Sorry I couldn’t tell you I talk
while sleeping sometimes</i>”.. මචං කලිං කියන්න බැරිවුනා.. මම නින්දෙන් කතාකරනව සමහර වෙලාවට.. ගනන් ගන්න එපා... and he went back to sleep in no time!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Dr. Nihal was already a seasoned field expert and ecologist
with immense experience in the subject, yet his body language showed he too is
not tackling the current situation without any challenges. Our biggest issue was
navigation using the map since direction we should have gone ended up being
impossible with undergrowth and different challenging terrains. In fact, our
biggest fear was getting lost in Adams Peak. Even to get the correct direction
with the compass, you need to see a distance. Thick cover of mist was
obstructing the view. And the rain was intense. Nowadays we use GPS units to
get the accurate location, but those days it was just a basic compose and the
map.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Second day was tough and demanded all our remaining energy. As hikers we
all have seen leeches and its not a big deal, yet I haven’t seen such a density of leeches anywhere in my life. When we consider our speed and
the distance, we should be closer to peak or at least to well-known Hatton
track by the end of second day. We all were doing our best to reach it and we
know it will make us feel good. Now it is getting darker and darker. We all
were feeling the uncertainty. We wished, we would see something in next 100
meters and we were continuing with the hope. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dr.Nihal was ready to discuss next step and
everybody wants to reach a known milestone somehow. After walking another one
kilometer or so, Dr.Nihal asked me what we do? I said we should find a place to
camp.. stretching ourselves too much without knowing the destination sounds
wrong to me. Then it became the decision. By this time we had reached a small
flat place by a stream, a better camping ground, at least better than last one.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Everybody was exhausted, hungry and thirsty. Most of all
uncertainty seemed to have hit us. Anyway, we cooked a better meal since we
didn’t have anything good for lunch. Once we were bit settled, it was time to
evaluate our situation and options. Biggest fear we had was.. are we lost? If
we should head to a different direction or do we need to start going back than
heading further in to nowhere. <o:p></o:p></div>
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One thing, we were feeling at that moment was, somehow or
other we are heading to a peak. We could see most trees hold small leaves and
trees are ball shaped with curvy branches that implied they face lot of wind. <o:p></o:p></div>
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By the meantime, one who was washing the dishes down the stream
shouted at us. come look at that.. hurry up.. then we jumped in to the stream
and looked at that direction. We all saw a tiny light at a distance. First, we
had to realize it wasn’t a star. Then we watched through the Binocular and
found it was none other than the top of the Adams Peak. It was the time of
truth and we all started to feel relaxed. So that night ended up being a good
one. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We started tracking next morning and reached the Adams Peak
by afternoon. Chief monk had already come to the Peak (මලුව) along with
maintenance staff because Sripadha Season was starting soon. Then we chat with
the Monk and said about our hike.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Chief monk was so amazed to learn the direction we came from.<o:p></o:p></div>
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"ඔය පාරෙ එන්න පුලුවන්ද? මහත්තුරු හරි ගමනක්නෙ ඇවිල්ලා තියෙන්නෙ"</div>
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Actually, we didn’t have any food left by that time, but
some instance noodles. Monk saw what we were trying to cook and was kind enough to offer a better lunch.</div>
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"ඕවා කාලා හරියන්නේ නෑ මහත්තයො ඔයවගෙ ගමන් ඇවිත්.. අපි කෑම ලෑස්ති කරන්නම්"</div>
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It was rice along with onion <i>sambal</i>
and a couple vegetables and one of the most amazing feasts I have ever
enjoyed!<o:p></o:p></div>
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After spending some time, we started to descend through
famous Hatton road. Just before leaving the peak (මලුව), chief monk said he
is calling the <i>Nallathaniya</i> (නල්ලතන්නිය) police station to inform about us since there will
be only one bus coming in the night that could take us to Hatton. So Police can keep
the bus till we reach there.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anyway, once we reached <i>Nallathanniya</i>, it was deserted as
a ghost town, not even an open boutique to have a tea. We headed to the Police
Station directly. They really welcomed us and prepared some tea while talking about our
hike and everything. Anyway, bad news was Hatton bus was not punctual and some
days it won’t come at all. Anyway, police officers on duty were so friendly and
asked us to relax there and make ourselves comfortable in their facility. <o:p></o:p></div>
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One of the most significant characters we met here was
Police Constable called <i>Wasu</i> (වාසු). This guys started explaining funny things happen
in the Adams Peak season and it was so hilarious. We were not doing anything
but laughing. He was so talkative and present things in a very unique sarcastic
manner. I don’t see his skills in many of the comedians nowadays. He is such an
amazing entertainer. He made us forget that we were waiting for a bus. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In a while, some other police officer came and said who
knows if bus would come or not, let’s have some dinner! බස් එක කොයි වෙලේ එයිද කවුද දන්නෙ.. බත් ටිකක් කාල ඉමු.</div>
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It was a quite interesting invitation to join the people in
the police station for dinner. We all are still thankful for this hospitality.
It was a delicious meal. Not to say, as university students our experience with
police wasn’t that good either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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At last bus came and we headed back to Hatton and got into
night train to Colombo. <o:p></o:p><br />
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After some time, while we were in university, we kept on
talking about the hike, unexpected hospitality of Police officers and <i>Wasu’</i>s
stories. Then someone suggested we need to thank them. Then we made another
trip back to <i>Nallathanniya</i> to see them. On our way, we bought a couple of
bottles of <i>Arrack</i> as a gift! They were surprised once learned we came
particularly to thank them for helping us at the time we needed most. They said
they help anyone as a practice, but this is the first time someone came back this far to thank them with generosity. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I don’t know where <i>Wasu </i>or other policemen today. One thing
I can be sure of is, where ever <i>Wasu</i> lives and whatever he does, he should be
making someone laughing with his stories!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Aftermath of this hike was interesting. Our passion for
outdoor life grew and we started to do many other hikes and expeditions
together. Team was enhanced with few more like-minded mates such as Devana,
Prasanna, Lelwala, Uresh, Channa and Niroshan. It was a good team with
different skills, but importantly all aligned pretty well. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This hike made me start loving Adams Peak for unexplained
reason. I think it was same for others too. We hiked in Adams Peak whenever
possible in different other directions as time permits. Since recent times
there was a very kind old man, called <i>Simiyon</i> (සිමියොන් සීයා)*, who was a keeper of Adams peak මලුව whose shift lasts for two weeks! Unless a team of hikers reach, he
doesn’t see anyone during this period. We really liked his company and listen
to his experience of his very unique job. <br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
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By today, some of our teammates are veterans in different subjects. They are actively engaging in some of the invaluable researches happen in the field and actively in the process of educating the next generation wildlife officers and university students. Some, including myself, are extending the boundaries of expeditions towards underwater ecosystems.<br />
<br />
Many rivers start from Adams Peak and flow towards Indian
ocean in different directions yet carry the same rhythm throughout the journey.
We too are moving in our lives in different directions yet carrying the same
passion… all started from Adams Peak!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGEq5ZOlZ_XHROvmeU1as_m9TPqnbZ6ousvR-v8mL3SMub3Nweo5JAJ0hEeUI-27Yv5Te8Cqq_-tUR31U8jVnuK5UhUP1ZbnXsIaIzyEER5R0Fp4P2vy10zwzGzrHByyP-nL36Hv1CJvw/s1600/A6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="326" data-original-width="490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGEq5ZOlZ_XHROvmeU1as_m9TPqnbZ6ousvR-v8mL3SMub3Nweo5JAJ0hEeUI-27Yv5Te8Cqq_-tUR31U8jVnuK5UhUP1ZbnXsIaIzyEER5R0Fp4P2vy10zwzGzrHByyP-nL36Hv1CJvw/s1600/A6.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>* Very lately we heard the sad news of Simyon seeyas' tragic death due a flash flood within the vicinity of Idal ella (i.e. ඉදල් ඇල්ල), in Erathna route. </i></span></div>sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-68676316695846932252019-09-21T16:39:00.002-07:002020-11-23T15:30:27.432-08:00Meeting a legend<br />
A friend of mine, Kumudu, told me the whereabouts of Mr.Bandusena. When I dig more, I didn’t have any doubt, he can’t be anyone but one of the pioneering commercial divers in Sri Lanka. I had read about him. According to Kumudu he was living in Sydney. Then I was really interested in seeing this legendary diver who should be now in his old age. I told Kumudu could you please introduce me. Then Mr.Bandusena has asked why he wanted to see me? is he a journalist? Anyway, after convincing him that I am no one but a diving enthusiast who have read about him, he agreed. Then it was hard to schedule a day since he had a strict time-table and I too was very busy since I was working as an IT Consultant in Sydney at that period. Once I asked him can I come this Friday? He said <i>NO!</i>, Fridays I cook for my children.<br />
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Anyway, at last I got the chance to see him in his residence at Frenches Forest, North of Sydney on March 2014. I visited him along with Kumudu. On our way we bought a bottle of <i>Barossa Valley</i> wine as a gift. We were greeted by his wife, who was a very charming English lady. It was a lovely warm home. In no time he was so thrilled and started to tell me his good old stories.<br />
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I was listening to those jaw-dropping stores while having a beer on that cold evening. As far as I knew, he has been the first Sri Lankan commercial diver commissioned in Colombo port development activities. He also showed me old diving equipments like Diving bells and classic diving manuals kept carefully. His wife assured he was happily talking about his legendary diving life in Sri Lanka to someone after a long time.<br />
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I kept on asking questions.<br />
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How did you ended up being a commercial diver?<br />
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It was a fateful thing. After finishing my school education, I applied for many jobs and I was selected by port authority to train as a diver. For some reason I picked it.<br />
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It was very hard in the beginning. All divers working there were Englishmen and they were the worst people I have ever come across. They humiliated me continuously.<br />
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<i>"You may haven’t heard such filthy words they were using."</i><br />
<i>ඒ තරම් නරක වචන ඔයා අහල නැතුව අති!</i><br />
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They were tough and quite uncivilized.<br />
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Once I was so fed-up with this craziness and decided to leave. Then famous engineer Mr.Kulasinghe came to me and told;<br />
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<i>Son, please don’t leave, if you leave today, we will not be able to get this technology to our hands. Please be patience.</i><br />
<i>පුතා යන්න එපා, ඔයා අද ගියොත් අපිට කවදාවත් මේ ශිල්පෙ මුන්ගෙන් ගන්න වෙන්නෙ නැ, තව පොඩ්ඩක් ඉවසන්න</i><br />
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By the time goes, one day those English rascals started arguing with each other and divided themselves into two groups. This situation was affecting the work as well. This made manager to assign me diving tasks. So that was the start of my journey.<br />
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Mr Bandusena in his heydays, while working (Images: taken from internet) </div>
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He also explained me of his accident. Once he was working underwater, constructing a breakwater, huge concrete block collapsed towards him, trapping one of him palms in between two structures. His palm, almost chopped, had been just hanging by a strip of flesh after the terrific hit. Visibility had vanished with debris and particles around and blood was flowing heavily from his palm. While he was in life threatening situation, he realized the danger he was in. Mr.Bandusena pulled his had tearing remaining flesh, released himself from the clutches of the structure, ascend carefully. He had been in very bad shape. Someone had already sent a message to his family telling Mr. Bandusena died in an accident! Luckily enough, he was recovered. Mr.Bandusena didn’t forget to show me his plam without fingers, only remaining physical evidence of the accident.<br />
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After listening to such great history, we left Mr.Bandusena’s home on that cold autumn day promising to visit him again.<br />
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Myself and Mr Bandusena @ his residence in 2014</div>
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Same year, in winter, my second daughter, Vipuli, was born and I ended up being very busy. I couldn’t visit Mr.Bandusena again.<br />
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It was a coincident, on 31st December 2015, while everybody in Sydney was getting ready to see the fireworks, I decided to make a dive in Cabbage Tree Aquatic Reserve. After finishing the dive, I checked my mobile phone since I am texting my wife as a habit to ensure her that I have completed diving and out of water. Then I saw a text message from Kumudu. “<i>Hey Buddy, Bandusena Uncle passed away</i>”<br />
<br />sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-27778570495979068082018-05-11T15:01:00.001-07:002018-05-12T15:16:48.491-07:00Diving in Bali – A lesson learntThough, I was so excited on diving in Bali, I didn’t believe it would be this eventful and memorable for the incident I narrowly escaped from. Anyway, I am safe, learnt the lessons and now able to document what happened that day.<br />
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I knew Bali offer both big fish as well as small macro subjects. I was particularly interested in macro subjects and got a new focus light ordered from USA, a new addition to my photography set-up, which arrived on time. Its June,2017 and all set for the next expedition.<br />
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My first diving was planned to do in Padang Bay area which got a big reputation on different macro subjects such as Sea Horses, rare Scorpion Fishes species and etc. Diving in murky waters in search of small subjects (Muck Diving) is not for everyone. So I had to charter a vehicle as well as a boat of traditional Balinese style for us to reach the dive sites. Padang Bay is a small fishing village in a Bay and not many divers seemed to have attracted to. Though day was rainy and gloomy, I managed to dive while taking photos of wonderful marine creatures I had never seen anywhere before. I managed to captured the photos of Sea Horses, Devil faced Scorpion fish, Leave fish, Frog Fish and many more.<br />
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One thing, I wanted to say about these dives are I used more Oxygen than usual percentage to increase the bottom time. This technique is called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrox" target="_blank">Nitrox diving</a>. While this gives benefits to the diver, it comes with another trade-off which is the limitation of depth. Exceeding the depth limits could result <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_toxicity" target="_blank">Oxygen toxicity</a>; a potential fatal consequence. In other terms, divers who use Nitrox should adhere to the recommended limitations.<br />
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Anyway, story was different in my next mission of photographing big fishes which was planned to do near the island called Nusa Penida. I was already advised by dive master Steve about heavy currents we could encounter and I got prepared myself. Anyway, I had a wired feeling when I saw the name of the diving boat, Halloween!<br />
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As a classical maritime expedition enthusiast, I knew one of the ships <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin%27s_lost_expedition" target="_blank">Sir John Franklin</a> sailed and end up with great tragic was called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Terror_(1813)" target="_blank">HMS Terror</a>. <br />
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I got in to the diving boat Halloween and sailed with my dive master and another team of Dutch divers lead by a very experienced diving instructor. First we dived in a site full of boulders and strong current going through them making room for a cleaning station for Manta Rays. This place was called Manta Point. Visibility wasn’t great, but I managed to capture few descent pictures of Mantas.<br />
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Once I got into the boat for surface interval I felt it was pretty cold and wind was strong, but I hadn’t brought any jacket to warm myself. Mistake number one! Second dive was planned to do in a site called Crystal Bay.<br />
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During the dive in Crystal Bay, we had to sneak through a very cold current which made me feel really cold and chilly, but I made my mind thinking it will be fine soon. When we were about to end the dive, all in a sudden a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_sunfish" target="_blank">Sun Fish (locals called Mola Mola)</a> appeared from a depth and we all were astonished to see it. Then I thought I should try to take some photos.<br />
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What happened to me next was not something I can explain alone, but with Steve’s point of view. As we suspected later on, I may have developed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothermia" target="_blank">Hypothermia</a> by then, due to exposure to the too much coldness. Trying to take photos of the Sun Fish had brought me to a deep trench alone with the fish itself. I couldn’t observe anything since background of the fish was just blue and seascape was behind me, leaving no physical reference to feel I am moving deeper. My dive computer had beeped repetitively since its fed with information including my Oxygen percentage (33%), but I may have ignored it due to the confusion state resulted by Hypothermia. Even Steve had tried to stop me without any success.<br />
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Then all in a sudden some diver reached me and signaled to ascend. This was the fateful moment for me and, for some luck, or good karma, I started to realize everything happened to me including ignoring of dive computer alerts and etc. It was like my consciousness was re-established in 11th hour. I knew I was in danger and I managed to check my air levels and do the needful steps to safely ascend.<br />
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What really has happened was, I had ignored my buddy, Steve’s signals and gone down with the fish. Suddenly, Steve had realized he can’t follow me either, since his Oxygen percentage was higher than mine. He could reach the death zone of Oxygen toxicity sooner than me. Then he had searched for Dutch diving instructor who was diving with normal air (20% Oxygen, allow dive deeper, but for a short period of time) and asked him to go and get me. For my great luck, his signal became an eye opener for me.<br />
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After all, we three had a lengthy discussion based on each other’s observation and circumstance and tried to understand what may have happened. From my side, I had to assure, I had never been an irresponsible diver; no such history of mine. We had to believe Hypothermia may have affected my consciousness. One lady diver from Dutch team also had witnessed me almost shivering during the surface interval.<br />
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When I went back to my family... My elder daughter came to me and ask how was the diving..as usual..<br />
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“It was fun!” I said.<br />
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That evening, I had a Balinese Beer in the beach looking at the fading sun in horizon…my family was sitting around me. I felt the preciousness of life. It was a kind of universal feeling that was floating above the day-to-day life and entities. I still try to contemplate the unfamiliar shape of that feeling.<br />
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sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-65794792300287919042017-11-20T02:46:00.000-08:002020-02-01T17:52:23.961-08:00Balinese experianceWithin many aspects of traveling, I enjoy the connection with people along the way. In my recent travel to Bali was of no difference when it comes to the joy of meeting new people and listening to their stories.<br />
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Bala was the Taxi driver who took us to the Airport. He was a Sri Lankan Born Australian guy: generous and talkative. He keeps his Taxi like a Temple. My biggest worry was if my kids make this brand new looking car a mess within few minutes. Even in winter, he gets up at 5am to wash the car before taking to the road. He shared his touching story with us.<br />
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“We didn’t have kids for a long time… we tried everything. After some time we were blessed with a baby boy. We named him Prasanna. We were in Colombo very happily… but everything changed like a bad dream. It was the time Sri Lanka had continuous power cuts. One of the Vaccinations administered to Prasanna had been in the refrigerator during a power cut, resulting intoxication. Prasanna left us!”<br />
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“Then we moved to Australia and started to live forgetting our fateful lost. Then we realized we badly need kids somehow. You know Sumedha.. our relatives and friends were really good at hurting us by reminding that we don’t have kids. Then in some point, we went to India spending everything we had and leaving my job, in search of a remedy for our problem. You know we are now blessed with twins.. we got two boys now!… we lost every penny.. but we found happiness.. with this Taxi business we are starting again”<br />
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“You know what.. now my relatives and friends are reminding me about other things I don’t have.. house of my own and other luxuries… ”<br />
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Bala wished us safe journey and promised to pick us on our way back.<br />
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Even before leaving the Sydney Airport, we started to make more friends. Actually, it was my daughters who exchanged their cheeky smiles with a matured couple who ended up being friends and helped us planning the coming days since it was our first time in Bali. Glen and Angi were matured couple who spend their winter in Bali, escaping the cold weather of Sydney.<br />
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The hotel we stayed was a sister hotel of the hotel, Basaki, where Glen and Angi had their own apartment. In fact, we met few times in Basaki beach where we liked their company so much. Though Glen was much older to me, he was a good company, person full of sense of humor.<br />
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“My heart valve was replaced with pig’s valve. You know pigs don’t have much life span, so then it was replaced with a Cow’s. Now the problem is different. Cow’s body is active throughout the day and night since it continues to chew the grass even in the night. As humans when we have a good sleep in the night, reactivation is a problem because this valve is not prepared for that. Doctor advised me two ways of reactivating the valve… do a good workout in a Gym.. if its running, you need to run 2kms. Second one is doing sex… You know Sumedha, very next day Angi gave me a surprising present…guess what.. a Gym Membership!”<br />
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Glen had many more stories like this. He also introduced me to many locals and Angi helped Sawanthi to find out good places for shopping. If you start shopping without your homework, experience may not be good. Some places even reminded me of World Market in Pettah, Colombo. You will definitely pushed by traders to buy unwanted stuff, twice the price. Bali of course reminds you of Colombo in many aspects.<br />
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Balineise locals are friendly and helpful people. They are Hindu’s (though different from Hindus we find in Sri Lanka/India) who are very religious. In fact, their life is devoted for a religious life. Some Balinese housewives used to visit Temple three times a day. Most houses have their own small temple within the house premises.</div>
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As I heard, people who moved to Bali from the main land with the intention of earning money in various means related to tourism are the people who try to trick you in most cases. One of the most incredible abilities they got is identifying first timers. Within hundreds of people taxi driver will spot the new travelers and try to sell his service. There are a lot of westerners live in Bali, well-adapted.<br />
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Our driver who took us to Rice terraces in mountains was a very friendly young guy called Putu. He was not only providing the chauffer service, but giving us all kinds of important cultural and historical details on attractions. If necessary he is also looking after our daughters while we are busy enjoying the new found interesting things. Putu loves kids and knew how to be friendly with them. He is newly wedded and waiting badly to have a baby of his own. Before marrying he has worked as a barman in one of the luxury cruisers enabled him visiting many parts of the world. On our day tour we had lunch in one of the exclusive local restaurants, very Balinese style. We invited Putu to join us and he was seemed quite honored and emotional. We realized it’s not the case in other occasions.<br />
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<u>Luwak coffee</u><br />
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One of the interesting drinks in the world is Luvak coffee of Indonesia which I had the opportunity of tasting. I didn't feel any difference of it to be honest, but more smoky flavor than usual. This coffee is made out of droppings of Luvak (an mongoose like animal) which select and eat finest coffee using its sense to identify the best.<br />
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Today's Luwak is a myth! because, today Luwak animal is kept in a cage, give coffee as food and then collect the droppings to produce the coffee. In this scenario, its clear Luwak is not selecting the finest coffee, because its forces to eat what is given.<br />
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<u>Ancient Sri Lanka had a similar coffee?</u><br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_Walk" target="_blank">Elephant Walk</a> is a classic movie shot in Sri Lanka in nineteen fifties. This was based on a Novel called Elephant Walk by Robert Standish. It is an interesting story around a tea planter in ancient Ceylon. To my surprise, in the book, it reveals about a fine coffee produced out of Monkey droppings, just like Luwak in Indonesia.<br />
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Below is a extract from the Sinhala Translation of the book.<br />
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<i>"ඔයා දැන් බොන්න යන්නෙ මීට පෙර කවදාවත් රස වින්දෙ නැති බීමක්. ඒ තමයි නියම වඳුරු කෝපි" භෝජන සංග්රහය අවසානයේදී රූත් ඇමතූ ජෝර්ජ් ඒ පිලිබඳව විස්තර සපයන්නට විය. කෝපි වසංගතයට හසු නොවී බේරුනු කෝපි පඳුරු කීපයක් වඳුරන්ට සමු වී තිබින. කොපි ගෙඩිවල පැහැයේ අනුසාරයෙන් ඒවා නෙලිය යුතු නියම කාලය කුමක්දැයි මිනිසුන්ටත් වඩා හොඳින් වඳුරො දැන සිටියහ. ඔවුන්ගේ උදාර අම්ලය කෝපි හානි පමුනුවන්නට තරම් බලවත් නොවේ. එබැවින් මල මාර්ගයෙන් ඉවතට එන කෝපි ඇට ගොඩවල් තැනින් තැන ගල් උඩින් එක් රැස් කරගනු ලැබේ.</i><br />
<i><br /></i><i>"ඒවා ඉතාමත් පිරිසිදුයි" ඇගේ පිලිකුල් බැල්ම දුටු ජෝජ්, සැක පහ කරවන නියායෙන් පැවසීය. </i><br />
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After enjoying all these newfound serendipity in Bali, we headed back to Sydney in Gauruda Indenesia Air Line with nothing but amazingly friendly staff. Sydney Air Port was so crowded in the early morning as usual and we had to spend hours in the queues. Girls were exhausted with lack of sleep.<br />
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Then we saw one of the great scenes someone at that situation could ever imagine… It was Bala with tray of Coffee on his hands in the arrival gate… Good morning Guys.. welcome back to Sydney!sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-39706778633165535842015-06-15T04:30:00.003-07:002015-06-15T04:43:26.845-07:00Country roads take me home..Probably, the Great Barrier Reef is the best thing I ever found in Australia. So I really wanted to explore it since day one. My first time in the reef in 2012 was amazing. In fact, it was like meeting a pen-pal because I could imagine how it look like before seeing. I had already done my research, seen videos and etc. Yet, my next tour in 2013 was a total disaster. As soon as I landed from Cairns airport and reached the hotel, I heard the news of my worst nightmare: region was expected to be hit by a hurricane and no one was allowed to jump in to sea. Only thing I could do was just snorkeling in Green Island once the weather improved, yet water was still murky. After another year I realized that I am ready for an expedition; a bit more adventurous one. So I decided to sail up to the ribbon reefs about 100 miles away from Cairns. That means I am going to live in a boat for few days.<br />
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Due to my personal reasons I didn't have much time to plan or wait for the right season... Ok, no worries…I am going to do this in winter! Then I headed to Cairns the day before I am going to start the expedition and stayed in a backpacker’s hostel. Next day, started the expedition in the boat called Spoilsport. She is a majestic looking gentle giant with purposely built diving deck and facility for underwater photographers. Anyway, when I boarded the boat, again I had to start with a bad news from Nick, who is the diving director.<br />
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<i>"Guys, we got a kind of bad news.. Forecast shows that sea is going to be choppy in the coming days"</i><br />
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Ok, you tell whatever you want.. But I am not going empty handed this time.. I came to dive and shoot the reef. I told to myself.<br />
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On board was interesting bunch of people from countries such as Australia, USA, Japan, New Zealand, Colombia and etc. Most of them were scholars while I became the only boring IT guy. My cabin mate was a quite strange looking diver from Georgia who never smiles or hardly show any emotion. He has been a marine corp. with combat experience who later on moved to a far different living; growing flowers! By the way, one thing common for us… we both were solo travelers! John spoke Spanish too, in fact he became friends with two young doctors from Colombia.<br />
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Then I was shocked to know my strobe (Underwater Camera flasher) was faulty. It was discovered in my first dive which was done in one of the most famous dive sites in GBR called Codhole. That name was given to the site because you find huge Potato Cods quite frequently. Problem with the strobe was, it worked some occasions, but failed next moment. I had to bear the bitter truth of problems I have with shooting. I am literally hundreds of miles away from the main land to shoot underwater yet my gear is mal-functioning! May be I will have to make my mind to grab what is in store for me, if not photography.<br />
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As Nick mentioned, it was the worst choppy sea Spoilsport encountered in months. Diving was actually a challenge for me though it was different for ex-marine corp., John. Always, we had to go down using the anchor line, otherwise we would end up drifted to open ocean and it will not be a nice experience. One important piece of gadgets we carried due to this condition was a powerful GPS device. Transmitter is capable of sending signals with relevant GPS coordinates to captain’s cabin or even to any other boat within 200 nautical miles. Still you have to be conscious enough to operate it wisely. Water temperature was not unbearable. Still you can get hypothermia if it happened to stay in water for extended periods of time. In person, I took this opportunity to check my stamina as a diver in inhospitable conditions.<br />
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In terms of shooting, my strobe was sometimes kind enough to allow me shooting… in fact, I made 110% from my side ending up shooting few good shots including few Clown fishes, shark, Stonefish and more wide angles with different reef formations. I am happy about it. Failure of strobe may have taught me another lesson. You have to expect failure and need to accept it. Most of all I had the rare opportunity of shooting under the guidance of world class photographer, Julia Summering. She was kind enough to share her vast knowledge yet humble enough to admire the work of armatures too. In her career, she had contributed to National Geographic and Discovery channels.<br />
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We had to sail even in the night to reach some of the remote areas of GBR. When sea was so bumpy, furniture and other stuff was tied, otherwise they would move here and there resulting even injuries. Sleeping was a far cry when the boat moved up and down like a roller-coaster. I was even scared falling down from my bunker bed, which is the smallest bunker bed I have ever slept on.<br />
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One other great dive site was called Steve’s Boomies. It is one of the most beautiful reefs I have ever seen… full of fishes in reef formation consist of a massive boulder raised high from the sea bed. We plunged in to it in early morning and sunlight was still entering the waters giving it heavenly colours. Anyway, the sea current was so strong and we had to make a big effort to stay still. I was sometimes thrown away with the force of the current. Before jumping, divers were also warned about venomous Stonefishes. Their venom is said to be one of the most painful ones. I was lucky enough to shoot one of these mysterious looking creatures.<br />
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Steve’s Boomies has got a sad story of its own. There had been a nice young diver called Steve who loved this area and dived there so often with his friends. Later, Steve has died (there are different theories, but the most believed one was a Motorbike accident) untimely, putting all his friends in to utter sorrow. Those friends created a granite plaque carving Steve’s name on it and placed down the sea bed he loved most. Anyone who dives today too can see this lonely plaque with Steve’s name on it.<br />
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After a hard day of diving, spending time on the deck looking at the vast ocean and vanishing light of the sun was an exciting experience. For some reason, it gave me some unexplained sadness. I became the smallest living object under the dark sky. It tends to make you to think over and over again about our own existence and its meaning. It’s a special feeling.<br />
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By the final day, even with many obstacles, I had managed to do some good photography which made me thrilled. By then, everybody knew each other well. That evening was a special one by all means. Main event was the announcement of winners of the photo contest. If my gear was in order, I knew I would have aimed to be admired of my work. By this time I knew I was out of the competition, yet I had the slightest hope of being at least 2nd runner-up, if luck is in my favor.<br />
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Julia started the presentation, explaining ups and downs of few photos, then announced the winners. 2nd runner-up was Christine, who was a University lecturer from New Zealand. Once I heard her name, I was sure that I am not going to have anything. That’s alright, I should be still proud of my courage to come this far alone and brave enough to participate in this exercise with many pros.<br />
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Then Dana’s name was told as the 1st runner-up. I knew she deserves it, because I was down there when she captured a beautiful shot of a Sea-snake. You should be very clever to shoot them because they move very fast, leaving you no second chance. Dana was a middle aged lady travelling with her husband who wasn’t a diver, but accompanying her and helping her work. This nice American couple had shared their life stories with me previous night. Everybody got their own stories, which are different, yet close to yours in some way.<br />
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Then suddenly I heard my name from somewhere like in a dream…<br />
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“First place…. goes to …. Sume..dh..aa…” and she was struggling to say my surname. I couldn’t believe myself. Yet, this should be true… I was witnessing the photo of Clown-fish taken by me on the wide screen. That was the moment of truth… when I got up, everybody clapped so loudly. For some reason, audience sensed my emotional state I believe. I didn’t know what to do, yet suddenly, without any intension, I took my two hands together (like saying Ayubowan in Sinhala tradition) and bowed them. I was on top of the world. When I sat again, Dana came to me and congratulated. I wished I had my family around me, yet they were thousands of miles away.<br />
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Then as I was returning from my Cabin, party had begun. Captain of the boat was an amazing guitarist. I can remember, when I entered the deck they started playing Country Roads by John Denver. I was looking at the fading sun of the horizon. No one on the deck saw my eyes being getting heavier and heavier with tears.<br />
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All in a sudden I was a small kid and walking on a road in Colombo... myself and my brother was holding hands with Mother and Father… we were excited to go to the movie theatre which comes ones in a while.. Especially in salary days... father was telling us… “But this is not a story you know” …this is a documentary about a beautiful ocean... It’s called Great Barrier Reef…<br />
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Country road… take me home…sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-51148918402046099592013-04-15T17:49:00.000-07:002014-05-19T23:23:13.890-07:00Contravention of Victorianism: Magam Soliya (මාගම් සෝලිය) (Published in<em><strong> </strong></em><a href="http://www.nation.lk/edition/fine/item/17567-contravention-of-victorianism-magam-soliya.html" target="_blank"><em><strong>The Nation</strong></em> on 05th May 2013</a>)<br />
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Almost five years back I wrote a <a href="http://www.sumedha7.blogspot.com.au/2008/09/death-of-mrquez.html" target="_blank">review on a book called “Bodilima” (බෝදිලිමා)</a> which was significantly different than what I had consumed as a Sinhala literature enthusiast. Its writer was Mohan Raj Madawala. Not only did I admire the bold decision of writing such a book, but harshly criticized the writer for joining a “popular culture” radio channel, as I learned later on. Though mass-media is a serious business, nowadays FM radio channels are based on different agenda. Soap operas (in our context “insurance operas” started by Nalan Mendis and Somaweera Senanayaka?) and their other elements have nothing to do with art. Of course, we all are sold to a market price today, I was particularly afraid that this acclaimed writer would not produce another literary piece due to the influence of the commercialization that comes bundled with popular culture. That’s my candid reason for criticism. <br />
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In my previous article, I called him “Sri Lankan Márquez” (referring to Gabriel García Márquez) which I don’t regret thus with his new novel, Magam Soliya. (මාගම් සෝලිය) However, now it’s time to come out of that frame to have a fresh look at the new book.<br />
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Magam Soliya is a novel! In fact, it’s a new experience to read a novel of Madawala’s style. I glimpsed the book and had to reassure that I am going to read a novel of a very different style. If I put it in a nutshell, it’s quite heavy to mind as soon as started reading, but being forced to dig into it with interest.<br />
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<u>As a novel</u><br />
<u><br /></u>My way of enjoying his writing is, read a section and go deep in to the avenue opened through it. This gives me so many dimensions, symbolic means and emotions to start a dialogue with my own experience. When it comes to a novel, not like a short story, so many events with so many characters give me limitless spaces to surf. Definitely, it’s not guiding from one point and takes you to the end point which should be the climax by tradition. Of course writer tells a story to enjoy, but for me climax is everywhere.<br />
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For some crazy reason, I need this book to be a painting that’s hanging in a gallery. So that I am free to revisit and see what shakes me most. I can have different dialogues in different days.<br />
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Though the story is closely related to 1818 Uva-Wellassa uprising, it doesn’t give you the expected epic story. <strong>The historic event is only the canvas used to do this creation. Of course taking such a historic event has given enough room to give birth to a beautiful imagination. This imagination is not merely a fantasy, it’s a discussion propagated from past.</strong> Static nature of history becomes live with the imagination.<br />
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<u>Natural evolution of art</u><br />
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One of the famous paintings of Picasso, Guernica, was meant to express the destruction occurred during the Spanish civil war. According to “evolution of art”, it's quite obvious, war of Afghanistan or Iraq will be expressed by a modern day artist in a different manner. Guernica can’t be presented as an expression for current warfare. Of course both are wars, but not the same. Things become complicated by the time and artists enhance their framework and style to convey the upcoming realities. They usually struggle to express the current situation, not the past. Even if you look at Graffiti, you will see how they have become complex by the time. Will see how the frameworks are being enhanced by generations;<br />
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This is original painting;<br />
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This is a modified version by an artist who experienced the Iraq war;<br />
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The strangest part of Madawala’s exercise is, he is making a well-stretched contemporary framework made of his modern days life experience and applies back to an atmosphere which is about two centuries old. This is really exciting and challenging. What could be the philosophy of Madawala in this regards? Probably, wisdom (ප්රඥාව) given to him through the aftermath of political, social and cultural changes of last two centuries might have tempted him to look in to the historical events happened around 1818 in far different angle. <br />
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<u>Contrasting</u><br />
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Style used to write this novel seems not predefined. It is justifiable to say he is using magic realism genre, yet he hasn’t become a slave of it. He is confident of what he is creating in readers mind. I have never seen a Sinhala novelist who enjoys such a freedom in expressing. Through the book, he enlightened me of the length one can go with ordinary characters. Characters themselves are pretty normal, yet the way they are being handled is simply wonderful. It reminds me of a fluent painter using different brush strokes to make different textures using same basic colours. He uses “contrast” like a modern architect. This becomes writer’s passive mechanism of controlling the degree of emphasis. Ironically, reader gets an effortless flow. This free motion of characters ultimately contributes to the context of the story which shows the underlying discipline of the writer. Please consider below section;<br />
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“ගැහැණු දරුවා සිහින් කෙසග වුවත් පිරිමි දරුවා පුෂ්ටිමත් විය. එසේම සපුමලී සිනාසෙන විට හීන් සුරඹා ඇඬුවේය. හීන් සුරඹා නිදාගන්න විට සපුමලී ඇහැරී සිටියේය. සපුමලී වම් ඇලයට හැරෙන විට හීන් සුරඹා දකුණු ඇලයට හැරුනේය. හීන් සුරඹා උඩ බලාගෙන කෑ ගහන විට සපුමලී බිම බලාගෙන නිශ්ශබ්දව සිටියාය.”<br />
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Also I realise the “contrast” in between different sexual relationships explained in the story. Sexual relationship in between Walli (වල්ලි) and Podi Nilame (පොඩි නිලමේ) is an aggressive encounter. On the other hand, relationship in between Manika (මැණිකා) and Bindu (බිංදු) is more likely an act of healing or merely a meditation.<br />
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<u>Usage of sexuality</u><br />
<u><br /></u>Also I believe, when the writer discusses about the sexuality, he flies over the boundaries of civilization and recreates it as an incomparable ultimate phenomenon of nature. It’s the lifeline of mankind. Please read the below sections that drags me to this thought;<br />
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“...තමාද තම දරුවා මෙන්ම ඇගේ කුස තුලින් ඊට පෙර දවසක ඒ තිඹිරි ගෙදරදීම උත්පත්තිය ලබන්නට ඇතැයි ඔහුට සිතුනේය. පුදුමයකට මෙන් ඒ සිතිවිල්ල ඔහුට පුදුම ආශ්වාදයක් ගෙන ආවේය.“<br />
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Writer is unifying the mankind through sex; it’s beyond our traditional view point.<br />
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“මැනිකාත් බිංදුත් අතර වූ මේ සමාගමය, ඔවුන්ගේ සිරුරු අභිබවා ඔවුන්ගේ හැඟීම් අභිබවා ඔවුන්ගේ ගැහැණු පිරිමි බවත්, වයසත් අභිබවා ඉහලට විහිදුනු ආශ්චර්යමත් නිකලෙස් සමාගමයක් වුනේය.“<br />
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Though it is controversial, see how writer is trying to link spiritual journey of a man with sexuality.<br />
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“සැබැවින්ම ඔහු මෙතෙක් භාවනානුයෝගී ධ්යානයෙන් ලඟා වූ සමාධි සුවය සහ ඒ විශ්වීය ශක්තිය, ආදරයේ දිව්යමය ප්රතික්රියාවක් හරහා සිදුවූ ලිංගික රමණය තුලින්ද ළඟා කර ගනිමින් සිටියේය.”<br />
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<u>Ideology</u><br />
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Now we will look into this piece of literature by ideological mean. Entire story is mainly lying within the space of suppression made by the political atmosphere of British administration and its consequences. Story is also emphasising the acts of human nature that transforms to a major change. We know how the Kandian kingdom was affected by controversies that created as root level acts led to major events such as tragedy of Ahalepola (ඇහැලේපොල). <br />
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Some of the abstract concepts used in the book are very powerful. Power of man is centralised within his male sexual organ and that symbolise the importance of self-confidence and personality. That asset is only gained through the breast milk of a noble woman. Isn’t it a beautiful and powerful concept?<br />
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Though Abiththa Unnanse (ඇබිත්ත උන්නාන්සේ) is the main character, I see an exceptional beauty and meaning through Podina’s (පොඩිනා) character. Though she hasn’t slept with any man throughout her life, she’s blessed with magical milk in her breast. That is due to her commitment as a self-appointed village midwife who has been the livewire for countless births. Nothing beats the need of a birth in nature. It is the decision making factor of existence. Doesn’t she deserve the magical milk in her breast? Even the biggest empire (Great Britain) of the world can’t beat the power of her milk. <br />
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<strong>If not for the Wellasse people, this book could have been respectfully forwarded to the midwives of entire country who gave birth to the nation for generations, yet been unseen and unnoticed!</strong><br />
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One of the other symbolic characters I like is Sedara (සේදරා). He becomes an ideal victim of tactical war of British administration. His assets are being tactically looted. He becomes a slave of alcohol. First he behaves like a hero, but he becomes lifeless when real war erupts. Soldiers don’t kill him; he was just left because it was obvious he is not going be a threat by any mean. Even today invaders prefer lifeless people than dead people!<br />
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“..සේදරා සිටියේ පරඩලක් ගානට කෙට්ටු වී අඳුරගන්න බැරුවය. ඉස්සර අඩුම තරමේ අරක්කු බෝතලයක්වත් බී දඩ මස් ගාත් තුන හතරකට වග කියූ කාලයේ ගෙදර උලුවස්සකින් හැරෙන්නවත් බැරි තරමට උස මහත් වී සිටි සේදරා සොල්දාදුවන් කටින් හුලං පිම්ඹ විට ඈතට විසිවී බිම ඇදගෙන වැටුණේය.”<br />
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Culture was the primary target of colonialism. These encounters are invisible yet more destructive. Today, aboriginal people in Australia could provide living proofs for typical end result of such a master plan. Once I peeped in to a public bar in Northern Queensland and saw a lot of aboriginal people, likely to have reached the fate of Sedara! Community with oldest cultural heritage of entire world has become rootless in their own land by the sake of modern civilization!!<br />
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I don’t expect to see the character of Abdul (අබ්දුල්). Though his role means a lot to the story, it is presented in a very traditional manner. Abdul’s character can be easily copied in to a book like “Sudu Sewanali” (සුදු සෙවනැලි) of Piyadasa Welikannage, without many modifications. When creating the character Abdul, writer seems to have missed his style he used to compile all other characters. It’s a raw character. As I heard, due to religious constrains, usually Muslim merchants didn’t interfere with alcohol business (රේන්ද කර්මාන්තය) that much which also should have been considered. <br />
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<u>Authenticity</u><br />
<u><br /></u>One of the other major hurdles of writing such a book focusing a historical event is building the assurance of authenticity. Though, I keep insisting that writer is recreating his imagination, I am also urging that canvas which is being used, is the real historical event. For this, writer has definitely studied the social, cultural and political facts of that era thoroughly. Words which are being used assure it. I like the dialogues that take me back to history. Check below phrases;<br />
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“තව ඩිංගිත්තක් අපට ඕන”<br />
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“මේ තමයි පුතේ උඹේ අප්පුච්චා” <br />
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“ඒයි ඉලන්දාරියා මෙහෙ වර..”<br />
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Most of all, writer utilises his influence of folk stories and history to impress the timing of the story and the culture which is surrounded. Bindu’s character reminds me of some folk stories about the propagation of King Rajasinghe II who was one of the heroic kings of the Kandiyan kingdom.<br />
Please read below section; <br />
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“..බිංදු හිටි පියවරින් අහසට පැන වටේට කැරකී අතින් සහ පයින් පහර දුන්නේය.” <br />
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If you are familiar with heroic Sinhala folk stories of 15th to 18th centuries, you may realise our kind of a martial art is explained here. This also reminds me of folk stories of dynasty of Galagoda Disawe (ගලගොඩ දිසාව) who were ruling Uwa as Mahadisawa (මහ දිසාව) for generations in Kandian kingdom. <br />
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<u>Reflection</u><br />
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In summary, Magam Soliya is a research; result yet to be revealed by readers. Madawala is taking an immense challenge by presenting such a book to Sinhala reading community considering the fact that appreciation of literature hasn’t been taken seriously by current education system. <br />
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This book is addressing a historical event through a different style which is a new experience for the reader. I feel that the <strong>writer uses magic realism like style to contravene Victorianism which has been fossilised in reader’s mindset</strong>. As most historians reveal Victorian tradition has made us slaves without chains; probably the biggest emotional barrier for our personality. Even the context focuses on character we need to have in us to face colonialism or today’s hegemony.<br />
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He is walking through the shrubs and dust of history to grasp unnoticed elements with utmost care which will be used to light the wisdom of future. He is experimenting and getting equipped with potent tools. <br />
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Within the reviews;<br />
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sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-1290989327404288472012-07-24T06:29:00.000-07:002012-07-31T21:32:55.066-07:00Journalism and being the second vultureThis is Kevin Cater’s most disturbing and award winning photo, which should be named as the photo of the century. More than the photo itself, Carters life and death come to my mind time to time. It is the ultimate tragic story of mankind… his death is a monument to the tragedy of replacing the human means with materialized objectives.<br />
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As a photo journalist he managed to capture the baby and vulture correctly in his camera. He did it, because that was his assignment there. He won the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for his work. When thousands of people who were disturbed with the photo ask what happened to the child Carter didn’t have an answer. Then only it was realized that he just concentrated on taking the photo, but not helping the dying child. Also Carter had told his colleagues that he had been waiting to see if vulture would spread the wings; which would have given chance to a better photo! Later on Carter committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.<br />
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Carter’s story just highlights the tragic of forgetting the primary responsibilities of a man. Before you become a photographer, before you become a journalist you are a man and that’s never changed. You are not paid for that… you are not honored for that, but that’s the responsibility carry on your shoulder when you are born.</div>
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One critique on Carters photo redefined photographer as the second vulture in the scene. It is not unfair at all. Vulture in the photo is an opportunistic bird, and so is the photographer in that occasion. What is the difference….?<br />
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In context of Sri Lanka, we see propagating a lot of web media that reports and analyze social issues to gossips. In spite of the debut of credibility of some such media, we also find it difficult to understand the vision behind some of the reporting. When we had the war, of course we had to hear the bitter news of human deaths in day to day basis. Now war is over and we don’t need to hear those, unless as a news. When it is a brutal killing or raping happen, some media seems to be doing a good job by giving them a massive publicity… In most cases, like Kevin Carter’s photo, there seems to have had two (probably more) vultures by the name of journalism.<br />
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<u>How many lives we actually got?</u><br />
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When discussing above post with someone, it raised us to the discussion of role of a photo journalist. Some conclusions, more or less, were as below.<br />
<br />“What else photo journalist could do than taking the photos. He is not there to do the job of a welfare worker”<br />
<br />Then my mind raised the question to me. Then why Kevin got depressed by the comments. Why people around world kept on asking whether he helped the poor girl. This is a serious question to me. This puzzle drags me to think deeper about definitions of each role we play in life.<br />
<br />Sometimes we are pleased to say that we had to do something according to my profession. As a journalist I had to report that. As a soldier I had to kill. As a politician I had to decide that way. As a scientist I had to create an effective bomb. If you believe in God, what is the life you carry in your shoulders when you meet him? Can you exclude your professional life? Can I justify a crime by explaining it in terms of my profession? Is there any limit of this?<br />
<br />After 9/11 CIA hired two psychologists (i.e. Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell) to train UA servicemen on effective torturing methods, known as SERE programme, which is even against the Geneva conventions. May be Bruce or James could think, professionally they had to do that. Most of all, society accepts them not like a killer works under labelled terrorist organization.<br />
<br />This is a big question in my mind. I think “professional” label is another myth implemented by post capitalist system to justify something unethical. I know a chemist who work for manufacturing company of Baby oils, but never use them for her babies since they are bad for health. She was kind enough to tell all the friends not to use those kinds of oils. Anyway, “Professionally” she is making them for thousands of other babies... All other professionals too are to do these kinds of justified jobs.<br />
<br />In today’s context we even say you should not mixed up professional life and day-to-day life. This sounds like, what we do as “professionals” will be not be tolerated by the values of a day-to-day life that believes in mankind and humanity. Is it?<br />
<br />From recent years I have been thinking of unified systems as an answer for these contradictions of life. Though, I am not a historian, I am pretty sure ancient civilizations didn’t work with categorised objectives as we do today. Each ones goal is to be inter-connected. In Sri Lankan context, I believe ancient farming or manufacturing didn’t raised problems of environment. Can we claim a massive structure like Sigiriya would have destroyed the adjoining surroundings or its lives? I guess this harmony should have been same for all other early civilizations.<br />
<br />Today, Banker is interested in cash circulation and farmer is interested in fertile lands. Power generating companies interested only in generating power, but not the environmental pollutions. Environmentalists too are programmed to go against each and every development plan without knowing how their houses are provided with power and how their vehicles are supplied with fuel. <br />
<br />This funny system recalls me of my wedding! Photographer just wanted to have most successful photo sessions. Dress maker wanted to make a success by producing best bride and that’s her aspect of wedding. She was not interested in anything else than that. DJ wanted to make it a big music extravaganza and decorators wanted to bring most beautiful flower arrangements under this sun and moon. Individual goals seemed to be over ruling the main objective sometimes. Ultimately, I and my wife were the only people who wanted a successful wedding.<br />
<br />Even under this situations, sometimes some people work according to the call of their hearts. I can recall two simple experiences I came across. When we head to tsunami affected areas in 2004 in Sri Lanka to help people, my friend, obsessed photographer, Roshan came without a camera which surprised me. He simply said “we are going to help people aren’t we?” Second occasion was.. my cousin, Kasun gave up aeronautical engineering after spending successful years in university, when he learnt all the leading researches are focused on advancement of fighter jets but not passenger planes. In both occasions, they could have done the opposite since they have been justified by the civilization. Anyway, their hearts might have given a different judgement.<br />
<br />If we turn back to Kevin’s story, he should have had a struggle on his stance. If he was a super product of post capitalist monetary system he shouldn’t have suffered from depression. If he was a super product of humane purity, he shouldn’t have left the toddler along with the vulture. Kevin’s tragic story can be quote close to our story also. Have to be wise when working with so called “professionalism” comes bundled with requirements of monetary system, not the requirements of mankind. <br />
<br />For me I have only one question. There are no many lives called professional life, family life and etc... I got only one life. Question is whether I live it truthfully to my heart or not.<br />sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-51867407329540081122012-03-16T03:27:00.003-07:002012-03-16T03:34:50.355-07:00Colours of Great Barrier Reef<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
All in a sudden I decided to do it. Under any circumstance, there are things you should not delay. That’s what I thought when I decided to visit Great Barrier Reef. It’s a fantasy; it’s a dream.</div>
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Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is the largest coral reef system on earth that consists of more than 2900 identified individual reefs. Obviously, it’s one of the ultimate wonders of nature. Northern Queensland of Australia is one of the best gateways to GBR. Coral reefs are the richest ecosystems on earth. Richer than tropical rain forests.<br />
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You can select basically one from Cairns or Port Douglas to stay and get in to a diving boat. I selected Cairns due to the easy access to Cairns Airport and my wife can do some shopping while I am away.<br />
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If you are flying to North Queensland, February is not the best time, but it’s the best “wallet-friendly” time. “Very hot, Very humid and most of all Very nice people” That’s the first impression about Cairns. It’s not a big city... definitely not Sydney... because people of Cairns have time to smile with someone and willing to please someone. It’s like somewhere in Sri Lanka. You can make new friends while waiting for a bus. Man made lagoon in the heart of the City is one of the remarkable icons for Cairns.<br />
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<u>Onboard community</u> </div>
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I travelled in a modern speed boat to the reef as I planned. It contains everything; diving gear, drinks, meals and very comfortable lounge type areas to rest. Most of all, boat was full of people from all around the world who had their own different reasons to do this expedition. It was a good experience to share our knowledge and inspirations. I met a nice guy from Michigan who was bit nervous, but he badly wanted to do this dive. Again I met a middle aged guy from Argentina who was travelling with his twin teenage daughters. I enjoyed his company and his humorous style of talking.<br />
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“Well, you are from Argentina... Are you a Football fan?”<br />
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“Yep, if you don’t like Football in Argentina, you will be taken to jail..., it’s illegal not to be a fan, so I am a fan!” <br />
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“I see... I am a cricket fan in Sri Lanka... the same way” <br />
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I was the only black (Asian) guy except for one Fijian diving instructor who was training snorkelling for amateurs. Next significant thing about me within that circle was I am the slimmest of all. When selecting diving gear one crew member was telling “Ladies and perhaps ..Sumedha can use these small size yellow fins...” Then he smiled at me and added... “take it as a compliment mate..” . “Ok, I will” I said to myself.<br />
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<u>Diving</u></div>
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I teamed up with few others. It was guided by experienced dive master from Queensland called Rachel. Other team members were my buddy diver Sean and a young couple from UK. Sean was an experienced diver and he wanted to get good photos of the reef, which was my idea too. So it was a good match.<br />
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When I dived first... I felt like I am entering to a dream world because my mind was telling me... that I am really in it! I have been waiting for this moment. It was the marvellous warm waters welcome you. If I recall my memory of coral reefs of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikkaduwa" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2d8930;">Hikkaduwa</span></a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trincomalee" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2d8930;">Trincomalee</span></a>, I saw more vibrant soft corals in GBR. It is also said that GBR is the healthiest coral reef on earth today. I usually don’t dive more than twice per day, but this time I was too greedy and made three consecutive dives in two different reefs, namely Hastings Reef and Jorgeys Patch. For the second dive, we got in to a small dinghy boat and left for bit far from the main boat.</div>
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<u>Inspiration</u><br />
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What Great Barrier Reef means to me? Hm... it’s a long story. When I was very small, probably 7 or 8 old, my parents brought me and my brother to see a documentary film at New Olympia (Colombo) on Great Barrier Reef. I and my brother were amazed with the beauty and were watching the film with surprise. Probably, I would have asked thousands of questions from my father. This film still comes to my mind like a fantasy seen in a distance. That’s the first inspiration of my life to see the Great Barrier Reef... probably I wanted to see that beauty for real. I kept on telling that I am going to see it one day. My father hasn’t been into many tough outdoor activities, but he encouraged us to do all; Cycling, swimming and hiking. Even he let us try climbing a coconut tree, though it was criticized by some of his own relatives. They would have thought that I might select it for living.</div>
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As soon as I came to the hotel, I dropped two short e-mails to my Mum and brother telling “I did it!” Unfortunately, my father is not there to share my joyful e-mail. So it is an emotional achievement for me. <br />
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While we were sailing back to the land, the Guy from Argentina who became friends with me was having some hot coffee with me. Coffee is the best pal after diving. While having a leisure chat, he asked what make I come this far for this diving. I told him about the documentary film and its inspiration. “This is for my Father and Mother who didn’t forget to guide us to nature, while confronting with all the day-to-day challenges!” I added. He wanted me to tell this story to his daughters. <br />
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One day, I will tell this to my daughter too.<br />
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<br /></div>sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-76905411512763671072011-10-11T04:28:00.000-07:002011-10-20T16:56:12.104-07:001000 journals<center><br />
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I always wanted to do something with Graffiti. I believe it as ultimate expressionism. Today all art media have some kind of connection with monitory system. Movies, Books or Paintings are commercial entities. So I like graffiti because it is done just to express something... no rewards.. it’s very powerful, dynamic and people-centric; No rules at all. Recently I found information about a nice self-assign project done by a person to reveal such expressions done by different people in different geographic locations of the world. This project is called 1000 journals.<br />
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Andrea Kreuzhage was fascinated about the creativity kept beneath people’s lives. As he says he has been always thinking about what people scrawl on bathroom walls and story behind them. He started a project to pass 1000 journals within people/strangers to express their story in it through a writing/ painting/ abstract or any other way and pass it to next one. This exposed an exciting result. It ultimate became a story of modern mankind; an honest expression of thousands of people who live on earth today. Above clip shows some of the art work done by those unknown people.<br />
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please find the full story <a href="http://www.1000journals.com/">here.</a>sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-51398727497526787722011-09-09T05:53:00.000-07:002011-11-27T19:03:59.464-08:00Poplar trees of HanthanaDedigama V. Rodrigo is just a name, that we used to see in the second page of most Russian books (translated to Sinhala) found in Sri Lanka. I called him “just a name” due to reasons. We have at least seen photographs of other translators and have managed to collect some information about them, but not about Dedigama Rodrigo. Dedigama Vincent Rodrigo himself seems to be an untold story.<br />
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Sri Lankan readers have been influenced by Russian literature than any other stream of literature. Specially, when we were young and youthful, we were amazed and addicted to the true beauty, romance, power and progressiveness of the contexts of books by Aithmathaw, Gorky, Austhrovski and etc. They really touch our hearts and they were helping us to identify new emotions in us. Russian books translated to Sinhala by Dedigama was like a comprehensive example for the influence, books can made to a community. <br />
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One day, when we were having some tea at Colombo public library canteen, while chatting about Russian literature, we decided to find out some information and probably to meet this legendary person. Our attempt was not successful since the first clue we could collect was about his death.<br />
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Very recently (in 2010), I could read a little bit about Dedegama’s life from an article published in Divaina Paper. Though, I knew he was a communist party member who lived in Russia, just with the objective of getting Russian literature to Sinhala, I didn’t know he was initially a doctor who left the profession for his noble task.<br />
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Though it is controversial, I too agree with the idea that Sri Lankan society was well-fed with ideology of a fair society through literature that lead to a revolution in 1971. It was a society without many developed audio/visual communication and information media we enjoy today. Luckily, Sri Lankan society was maintained with high rate of literacy than most other developing countries; in fact, it was a good background for development of literature. One should do an in-depth study on the reasons that Russian literature reached each and every layer of the society than English literature, considering the fact that we were under the administration of Queen for a long. We have adapted to most Victorian traditions, but not English literiture. In other terms, I wonder why “Tale of Two cities” didn’t reach all the layers of the society, but “The Mother” of Gorky and “The first Teacher “of Aithmathaw. One reason should be the context which is friendly for our agriculture based society. Other reason could be the clever translators like Dedigama.<br />
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The First Teacher (Guru Geethaya) was one simple example for a Russian book, which captured the hearts of young readers in Sri Lanka. It is a masterpiece for me and most of my friends who like literature. Once I visited my brother at Peradeniya University. My brother was one big fan of Guru Geethaya. There was an amazing view of Hanthane Mountains from my brother’s hostel room. From there we could see two significant trees, which they used to call “Poplar” trees, which was a well explain symbol in the book. Sri Lanka hasn’t got Poplar trees, but they live in the hearts of the youth!<br />
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Below poem is one of the nice once that shows poets passion on this book and its characters, which I saw in a <a href="http://gadflyarchives.blogspot.com/2009/10/althinai.html">Blog</a> recently.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZV4xti6yzlS3fruEDpHwkCNSRNSZCQDBiIRtJDSJYiv2hkGG59aMYm8SwVkOwSzp0yy7Pcb8zl4U-a9kKp151Xa_xj9NwM6gz4I2eLX8Ogdk6rpBEsF4EM6fOFJiiROOYEpJ2FwZEfws/s1600/guru_geethaya.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" nba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZV4xti6yzlS3fruEDpHwkCNSRNSZCQDBiIRtJDSJYiv2hkGG59aMYm8SwVkOwSzp0yy7Pcb8zl4U-a9kKp151Xa_xj9NwM6gz4I2eLX8Ogdk6rpBEsF4EM6fOFJiiROOYEpJ2FwZEfws/s320/guru_geethaya.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br />
<em>(Duishane and Althenai are the main characters of Guru Geethaya)</em><br />
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It’s not an exaggeration, if I say, we lived with Russian literature than one can imagine today. Some characters became our heroes. We tried to grab some characteristics of them. We loved the way they think.. We wanted to be brave as them.. We wanted to have the commitment of Duishane in us.. We tried to find Althenai within the girls we liked.. I was wondering whether Steps plains is far different from Horton plains.. <br />
Anyway, this is becoming the history since, reading is very much lacking in the agenda’s of the generations followed afterwards. Literature was also removed from school curriculums since J.R Jayawardena though it’s nonsense. As he wanted, new generations didn’t have “fantastic” heroes we had, but “real” heroes like cricketers and Super stars!<br />
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I recently met a Russian lady and had the chance of asking some questions about their literature. Surprisingly, she hadn’t read some of the Russian books I have read in Sinhala. So I had to explain how Russian literature influenced us and the mysterious person behind it.<br />
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This faded image is the only one, I could ever find of Dedigama;<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJR6fwbTGpV964Xtm57JwmhYpyUZ00ICbQ8-_zrBKW4UBupPLn6D_uSHRTQc2h9IPJwS1gIfhx1J0BO_Rhoz5jDGlfcvGUIpQhf8BXz-eYXjqmwXh4TlQVVBnO8qhS1G7gf0mGzCqtNCw/s1600/Dedigama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" nba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJR6fwbTGpV964Xtm57JwmhYpyUZ00ICbQ8-_zrBKW4UBupPLn6D_uSHRTQc2h9IPJwS1gIfhx1J0BO_Rhoz5jDGlfcvGUIpQhf8BXz-eYXjqmwXh4TlQVVBnO8qhS1G7gf0mGzCqtNCw/s320/Dedigama.jpg" width="296" /></a></div>sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-3519088790310291242011-07-22T19:58:00.000-07:002011-07-22T20:13:52.249-07:00e-Bird database - Beyond the field note<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg71kCNXoXrE10AQu7HnHvsbud4veU62PHzIYkSPDv3JynGbDm4DlwxXxr8UuXt-FlT3-XzDEUk-U2Yl6FMfTyEqLFivxcNMF3jubPR72s13CouqUZ2ueUWqNOL4Pu0FMByAi-yp0-PfII/s1600/bird-watcher_1759043c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg71kCNXoXrE10AQu7HnHvsbud4veU62PHzIYkSPDv3JynGbDm4DlwxXxr8UuXt-FlT3-XzDEUk-U2Yl6FMfTyEqLFivxcNMF3jubPR72s13CouqUZ2ueUWqNOL4Pu0FMByAi-yp0-PfII/s400/bird-watcher_1759043c.jpg" t$="true" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>This post is for people who do birding. Now we have a complete online system to manage the bird watching records. It caters every aspect of maintaining an online birding database. Please try <a href="http://ebird.org/content/ebird/">http://ebird.org/content/ebird/</a><br />
May be you are a recreational bird watcher, whose birding records will not go beyond your field notebook. Through this system you are sharing your valuable data with others who are more serious in the subject and need more data for their studies. For your point of view, your data is stored somewhere safe to refer from anywhere, whenever you need. What I like most is capabilities of analysing my own data and data of all other bird watchers.<br />
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Please see few ways I can analyse/summarize my data;<br />
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1) My records of Gray Hornbill with locations<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfDoAv1D8GK_XmW_yVHzAX2qTsXALslLd_VaTOpVP2Kji5jzKfj8o_NsUv8iJHM5jEmF1KFIyLJ0-qNJGh4d7fKaR8XpaEMCxb6fGVYFHHQZdJSuUcNV9Dj1TbyTu91ts2T4krBpZTNIY/s1600/list1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfDoAv1D8GK_XmW_yVHzAX2qTsXALslLd_VaTOpVP2Kji5jzKfj8o_NsUv8iJHM5jEmF1KFIyLJ0-qNJGh4d7fKaR8XpaEMCxb6fGVYFHHQZdJSuUcNV9Dj1TbyTu91ts2T4krBpZTNIY/s400/list1.jpg" t$="true" width="400" /></a></div><br />
2) Ceylon Jungle fowl observations throughout the country<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaK0QKXEtIUrnvLBnjAmF0M5lX1Jl0XHwtwJ2Al34fQ-burhM6vDrQJSRp3hoqToMsB_QPA8eCoKkNh5uZHEpV3RCVRp-uIGOo4vv562KsTeKjgiV9LhGmyJ90faQLL1wV34K2PKUlr0M/s1600/data1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaK0QKXEtIUrnvLBnjAmF0M5lX1Jl0XHwtwJ2Al34fQ-burhM6vDrQJSRp3hoqToMsB_QPA8eCoKkNh5uZHEpV3RCVRp-uIGOo4vv562KsTeKjgiV9LhGmyJ90faQLL1wV34K2PKUlr0M/s400/data1.jpg" t$="true" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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3) Bird observation list of just one birding field trip<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrQgLerlCXuqzpR5hJryRSYuORSp1kEksAPdfCqmFNp7dMQ5I5i4SboJCL3UmmkwKlOJs0jcX5rOrhiroCKhs06gEuTwWnoGFlveWRqOWyxJHrNBbWhZGmXRuSOReDOpgD0VR4F_voPm4/s1600/list2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrQgLerlCXuqzpR5hJryRSYuORSp1kEksAPdfCqmFNp7dMQ5I5i4SboJCL3UmmkwKlOJs0jcX5rOrhiroCKhs06gEuTwWnoGFlveWRqOWyxJHrNBbWhZGmXRuSOReDOpgD0VR4F_voPm4/s400/list2.jpg" t$="true" width="400" /></a></div><br />
These are a very few simple data presentations I prefer as an armature birder, but you can have your own charts and graphs of your choice. Also you can download your data to an excel sheet that enables importing your data for another application.<br />
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<u>Credibility of Data</u><br />
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If everybody can freely submit their data, what could be the guarantee we have on data? This is also being handled by e-Bird org carefully. Observations submit to the system is being monitored by a (volunteer) country reviewer who is an expert ornithologist. In simple terms, if you report you observed Blue Magpie in Maradana, you will be asked to discuss and produce your field notes.<br />
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I wrote this, especially to encourage non-professional birders to manage and share their valuable data. I know some, who has got very important data, but they wannish with their field note books without any trace.sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-65825214290010995082010-12-08T14:50:00.000-08:002019-10-16T05:20:35.194-07:00Nudes and the City<center>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkbaB1fst242BG78BwxQzijXwW6rLS4EbD4oFBdKA9skUwetux0Qd0_LaCwkFHy2OZWv8WBeFwQfLD76VKhcWJqkuKhbN0pW3IX-vwhowRvFD8tyDTdejXR1adoPxIohpVZcHwOqbWzyU/s1600/12519.600.390.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="600" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkbaB1fst242BG78BwxQzijXwW6rLS4EbD4oFBdKA9skUwetux0Qd0_LaCwkFHy2OZWv8WBeFwQfLD76VKhcWJqkuKhbN0pW3IX-vwhowRvFD8tyDTdejXR1adoPxIohpVZcHwOqbWzyU/s400/12519.600.390.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I have seen some of the photographs taken by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_Tunick" target="_blank">Spencer Tunick</a>, but I didn’t analyze or think of them much. They are simply a lot of naked people in different locations, particularly in cityscapes. Recently, I managed to go through his work very carefully with the inspiration came through a video watched about his work. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzuVbvJ-P7es3AMxsn9JnPPFYsdb7t3hhqMwUepGouBXb47MJuOg0etkS9NxC45Ddv0vNxZWnS_2xbiFpYlVRSPdmUt7z6irjy03QU8nINW4ndxjpcf1NnoA_cTYdzEz5u4kWG-hTnaR0/s1600/spencer-tunick-munich-supplied-1920x1440.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzuVbvJ-P7es3AMxsn9JnPPFYsdb7t3hhqMwUepGouBXb47MJuOg0etkS9NxC45Ddv0vNxZWnS_2xbiFpYlVRSPdmUt7z6irjy03QU8nINW4ndxjpcf1NnoA_cTYdzEz5u4kWG-hTnaR0/s400/spencer-tunick-munich-supplied-1920x1440.webp" width="400" /></a></div>
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Spencer is not a nudist. His is a photographer! His work is simple and way he works too is very simple. His expressions are to blend locations with people.. people in the sense, people is a raw manner. Not decorated with clothes or anything, people as they are. It is a superb expressionism. I guess human body is one of the most powerful icons we used since visual art is born. His photos show the contrast in between human body and man-made structures of a city. In a way, it is a representation of nature and materialized and commoditized world.<br />
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Spencer started working in his art with very simple theories. What I like most was he didn’t use models or any selected beautiful men and women. He simply used volunteers who would like to take part in his art. He did his exercise in most of the big cities in the world and all the states of US. Number of people participate in the photo shoot is not predetermined; it is the number who accept his invitation. In a way, entire photo becomes a team work and work created according to the physical and social atmosphere. That creates amazing new dimension of getting photographs of human beings in modern civilization. <br />
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Before he became popular, Spencer does a self assignment to take that kind of photos in each state in US. What he simply did was, he got all the gear in to a van and traveled to different states with a couple of companions including his girlfriend. When he reaches a town, if he felt like taking a photograph, he simply walked through the roads and invited people he met to participate for his photo shoot. Of course, you can’t even think of such thing in Asia; it was not easy in USA either! He was virtually inviting everybody he meets; Young crowd, old people, pregnant women, fat people, slim people, black people, white people and everybody in this society. He simply doesn’t know how many people would like to participate anyway. Photo shoot is done with the available people. He doesn’t usually have any hard and fast rule to direct them. His simple guides along with background cityscapes make a wonderful photograph.<br />
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As I understand, Spencer is using the nudity for his work in very weightless manner. He is not talking or promoting nudism or any sexual agenda. He is an artist; strangely, see the beauty and way of expressing his ideas using naked human body. Not glamour or fashion in it. Just like Chandraguptha Thenuwara wanted to use Barrels (Barrelism) to express his arguments about military influenced society of Sri Lanka in the war time, Spencer’s trump used to express his idea is nudity along with cityscapes. He used more realistic raw materials than a fashion photographer who uses the body of trained beautiful men and women. While fashion photographer recreates the fantastic product together with fashion designer and model, Spencer “let it happen” in front of his camera lens. Theoretically, Product is influenced by the life experiences of men and women participate in it along with the view of the city. If there are a few people in the photo that means others have rejected to be in the photo, which also reveals something, since it is defined within the location. Nude body of an ordinary person who lives in the current society becomes the most powerful proof of that society than a model whose body is professionally maintained.</div>
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Don’t you think your body is the best living proof of your life… that carries all the good and bad times of your life? ...that reflects the tears and smiles of the story of your life? ..that archives everything happened since you were born? Spencer Tunick, as a photographer, carefully collects them into his photos.<br />
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sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-46040021465526520272010-09-05T21:16:00.000-07:002019-10-16T05:40:01.094-07:00Dive in to Ship-XIn one of my past posts, I have mentioned my enthusiasm and interest on adventures of Mike and Cleark. They are closely related to Trincomalee where they found an ancient "Swayambhu Linga” with spiritual power and change the history. (i.e. <a href="http://sumedha7.blogspot.com/2008/11/legend-of-mike-wilson.html" target="_blank">Legend of Mike Wilson</a>) I always wanted to dive in to the waters of Trincomalee that revealed a past history that had been hidden down the lockers of Davy Jone! When it came in real, it was like surfing through the past legend. <br />
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Recently, I had the great time diving in the coast of Trinco (Actually Nilaweli and Irrakkakandy). As usual Menaka was leading the diving team and our team was consisted of a Russian Underwater videographer/ Padi instructor from Moscow, a teenage girl from Switzerland, Devana and me. Menaka is the most capable dive master I have ever dived with.<br />
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Our diving plan was to dive the <a href="http://www.divesrilanka.com/DSTrinPegionRock.html" target="_blank">Pigeons Rock</a> first and then to the <a href="http://www.divesrilanka.com/DsTrinWreck.html" target="_blank">Irrakkakandy ship wreck</a>. When we dive in Pigeons Rock it had perfect conditions that gave us the best opportunity of feeling the fantastic beauty. Corals were so live and perfectly coloured. Marine creatures were all over. We managed to observe number of new fish species that we have never spotted in Hikkaduwa. Perfect conditions gave our videographer to capture the beauty without any obstacles. It was not that deep, so we managed to spend 78 minutes under water!<br />
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<u>The Ship-X</u><br />
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After having some rest in the Pigeons Island we sailed to our next destination; the Irrakkakandy ship wreck. Ship wrecks: always mysterious, historical and my favourite. <br />
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Even though, visibility had vanished while we were descending, sunlight became brighter in the next moment. Wreck was lying beneath the shallow sea about 12m down.<br />
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It was a massive ship with no records at all! Indeed it is a mystery. No one has ever discovered the identity of this ship and whereabouts. While I was diving, I was imagining, what can be the tragic story of this ship and its sailors. What made this sinful mistake?<br />
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This ship should be fairly old but one can identify the remaining as parts of engine room and so on. Live corals had changed the shapes of most of the artefacts scattered on the sea bed. <br />
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One experienced diver has written about this ship in the dive Sri Lanka website and he suspects this as a ship with a British origin. I am now waiting till I meet our friend, marine archaeologist, Rasika Muthukumarana to see whether he can give us some hints on this mysterious ship. According to the local fishermen, wreck is still being watched by its captain’s soul. <br />
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While I write this report today, I am in my office, looking at the mighty Indian Ocean through my window and the ships that emerge from the horizon and sail towards Colombo port. Still my mind is full of unanswered questions about the Irrakkakandy ship and its tragedy. Can remaining of the ship help a historian to solve the hidden story? I don’t know! What I know is I really need to dive in to this mystery again.<br />
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<em>Below photos were taken during our expedition;</em><br />
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Getting ready with the gear..</center>
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New Irrakkakandy bridge</center>
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Pigeons Island<br /></center>
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Resting at Pigeons Island before the second dive..</center>
sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-34113794590910373032010-08-06T02:02:00.000-07:002010-08-06T02:36:32.491-07:00Golden RoseI am very much influenced by the books I read since my small age. Apart from my education, books play a big role in building my life. In fact, writers are my heroes!<br />
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Russian writer Konstantin Paustovsky has written, probably the best, book on the role of a writer; their responsibilities and commitments. Book is called Golden Rose. This book has been translated to Sinhala by Ariyawansha Ranaweera. It is a great book. This book is focused on preparation of a person who plans to become a writer; required generous commitment, patience and other characteristics. <br />
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<img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4045840/writters/writters1.jpg" /><br />
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Paustovsky tells a nice story to explain the commitment one should have in order to become successful in literature. A Trash collector spends two years gathering the grains of gold dust from the trash bins of a jewelry shop. When he has enough gold, he smelts it into a beautiful golden rose as a gift for the woman he loves. Writer should have such a commitment to grab the right raw materials to write a book.<br />
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Anyway, recently I started to find the faces of some of the writers I like most and created below facebook! Most of them are died by now, but they all have a very special noble place in my heart.<br />
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<img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4045840/writters/faces3.jpg" /></center><br />
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I guess some of them have a special place in your heart too. Can you identify them?sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-41188261047209269532010-05-09T22:31:00.000-07:002010-05-09T22:35:25.832-07:00Save migratory birds in crisis – every species counts!<center><br />
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I have been writing about bird migration and related experiences bit often. Even the last post was about another birding experience. Anyway, I feel I didn’t urge that much about the conservation of these birds and what threats they face. In the worldwide context, biologists and ornithologists are talking more and more about the conservation of the migrating birds. I also feel that the parameters affect the survival of migrating birds could be bit different and hard to estimate. <br />
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World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) was initiated in 2006 and is an annual awareness-raising campaign highlighting the need for the protection of migratory birds and their habitats. This day comes in every year on the second weekend May. Each WMBD focuses on a different topic and this year’s theme is “Save migratory birds in crisis – every species counts!”<br />
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Protecting the habitats will be the core of conservation, but a lot more steps are to be taken. Will start from our gardens.. will keep some space for the birds..this won’t cost much..sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4510915950281625101.post-12852079086137366312010-04-21T21:40:00.000-07:002010-04-21T21:40:40.650-07:00Today is earth day!We have number of “days” for different reasons. People criticize this because, we allocate days for objectives where we really don’t work for it. There is a women’s day for men who never treat women with the right respect. Peace day is important for people who put the seeds of war. <br />
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It is high time we need to think about our earth.. one day is not enough.. survival of life on the earth depends on this.. so we don’t have an alternative!<br />
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Please watch the video from greenpeace;<br />
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</center>sumedha Obeysekerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222551350309083799noreply@blogger.com0