Borella never change!

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

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

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

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

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

Shanjeewan from top of Kilimanjaro!

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

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

Diving at Trincomalee

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Guru Geethaya film with Bada

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

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

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

Matters at home.. & tough times to face

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

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

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

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

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

Dolphin watching at Kalpitiya

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

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

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

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

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

Need a home to be homesick

Australia changes to holiday mode from the beginning of December. In 2023 I was still in Perth. This is usually not in my plans. Given the opportunity, this time I made it a point to attend the office Xmas party. Though I work for a company located in Perth at the time, I wannish back to my tropical heaven as soon as I find a chance. In fact, so many office colleagues have worked with me, but virtually. This Xmas party gave me the opportunity to see them in person.

After a lengthy silence, I visited Kuldeep, old buddy from Warwick residence. We were like partners in crime as we both got stuck in the time of Covid. He was delighted to see me and recalled good old memories such as the stupid fight irrupted with a guy from Peru who stole our beer! Covid restrictions made us spending relaxed time, share our stories and help each other maintain their good modes.

When I go for a sea swims, I text him saying which beach I head to and time to expect me back, So he can raise alarm in case I don't come. Beaches in Western Australia had a notorious reputation of shark attacks. Swimmers, spearfishermen, surfers and divers were the victims. 

I have written about him in early posts, but one thing I couldn't mentioned was his amazing way of expressing things. Below are a couple of his statements, not only I remember still, but they have become most used idioms within my family conversations.  

"Avocadoes are expensive for a reason"

"In Australia you can afford to buy exclusive brands. Then you feel like George Clooney, still you have to clean your own dishes"

Also I had to visit Adelaide a couple of times where I had the opportunity to meet my good friend Asitha, a well to do businessman, and family of my cousin Ruwan. Well, it was a luxury stay. I was picked up by a latest Range Rover and I was offered a sport car to use during my stay. I liked Ruwan aiya and Disna Akka's home since it was located in a very quite mountain area. 

When I got back in December 2023, Sri Lanka was still experiencing rain. It was an indicator for crazy weather pattern we gonna experience. As soon as weather settles I did a couple of casual dives in down south just to indulge myself. Moments are precious. When I get old I started to realize it more and more. Each dive is special and I don't know how long I could experience it. I felt this may be the last time I see this beauty of the ocean. In fact, I always drew back on southern highway with heavy heart. It added extra high with a coffee I grab from Barista at the rest area.

I  arranged a couple of family trips too. Time we spent in Sir John's Bungalow in Knuckles was a special one. It was organized to take my Aunt, Mala punchi, who also had come down from England. Some of the best trips I ever gone around Sri Lanka were with Punchi's family, long ago. I can remember my 21st birthday was celebrated at Belihuloya rest house during one such trips. In fact, I have all the reasons to take her with us a trip. 

We all enjoyed the time spent under the mysterious cloudy skies of Knuckles mountain range. Playing Scrabble with girls in the evenings, in the colonial style settee, while having wine. It was a great atmosphere. We tried to imagine the old glory of the place while Sri John was still visiting. Given most of us had read the book Ecstasy of the Deep by Tony Buxton, we knew about the lavish life they had. Especially the playboy life! 

As always, night spent in Galle Forte was so amazing as always. Apart from snorkeling at Hikkaduwa, we had the opportunity of feeding wild turtles who come to the shore. Girls were thrilled with that experience. 

While I was doing many other things among diving, what missed this time was hiking and camping. For a change, I invited my University friends for drinks and dinner at home. It was well-timed one since most of them wanted to go back in memory lane to fun times we had as students. Most of them had already reached the pinnacles of their professions, but lacking the fun times due to busy life. It went very well with joking, singing and going back in time with good old memories. This was in to-do list for a quite a long time. Not a bad way to celebrate my 50th birthday!

Underwater Photography - my two cents

Our excursion to Kalpitiya was fun but shooting wasn't good due to bad conditions. I always plan few dives by end of the season since south western sea becomes really friendly for photography by increased visibility. This time I tried diving off Marawila for the first time. Mostly one of my friends, Supun, was always inviting me to join him for diving. Actually, it was a very good experience. Supun used a land master tractor to get the boat engine and gear to Marawila beach. Though there are no much coral, sea bed with different levels of boulders attract quite a lot of fish. Here I saw the biggest Sting Ray I have ever seen.   

To end the season, I also dived the Cargo Wreck and Madufaru wreck off the coast of Colombo and that was the cherry on the cake! Visibility was wonderful and it was like having the luck in my side after many choppy seas that kept on testing my nerve. Here I managed to capture a photo of a big bate ball of fish.

Few days before I leave for Australia, I got a call from Department of Wildlife of Sri Lanka. Then informed one of my photographs had been selected for final round and those photos will be exhibited in Cinnamon Grand hotel in early May. They also invited me for the award festival. Hm..I knew I am not going to be at country for that.. I was happy and sad!                                 

Though its not a big deal, I felt particularly thrilled since I had never seen underwater photos being recognized in general wildlife photography competitions so far. More than the high competition, I guess most judges in these competitions are still encapsulated within leopards and tuskers mind set. They at least must consider leopard population has increased in last couple of decades.

Once I attended to a program that organized to promote wildlife photography by conducting monthly competitions followed by comments by experts, where I learned their lack of knowledge on marine subjects. They were expecting facial expressions from fish just like land mammals. One well-known leopard photographer said he give very less marks for an underwater landscape since he doubts it may have been taken in an aquarium. Ironically, I took it in lotus barge few kilometers off the coast of Colombo. Same guy once said he would be happier to see some exciting action from a Frog fish I took in Bali. Frog fish is one of the rare fishes found within caverns and they seldom move.

Due to those disappointing comments, I had been very discouraged to participate in such competitions. Anyway, one thing I urge is I don’t want anyone to give credits for the hardships underwater photographer would go through, but I want fair judgment by someone know little bit about marine subjects. 

I follow work by world-famous photographers like Alex Mustard, Amos Nachoum, Michael Aw and Simon Lorenz. It always teaches me how little I know and how poor my work is. In fact, it shows me the avenue of improvement. 

Anyway, if you are after recognition, you wouldn't have come this far. In contrary, every dive and every click or even just attempt would make me feel better, challenged, and accomplished. Most importantly, underwater photography is a team exercise. There are boatmen who take you safely to unknown waters and dive masters and buddies who dive with you to make sure everything goes as planned. I may have explained how I narrowly escaped from oxygen toxicity with help of the team I dived with at Indonesia. 

I have been reached by few young guys in last few years to get some mentoring and advise on shooting underwater. Some even said I am the only guy positively responded to their queries. Anyway, none of them continued in-spite of guarantee I gave saying I would do my best. Perhaps, new generations need quick results which unfortunately is a far cry in my field which I had to expose. May be it’s the unbearable cost of underwater gear and diving equipment. 

Nightmare ride to Airport and heading to Australia for winter!

Going to Airport ended up being an eventful one. Chauffer who worked for many years was called and I didn't have any doubt about his punctuality. For some unknown reason this guys didn't turn up in time. I gave more and more time. Each time I called him, he assured he is on the way. In some point I fell bit odd. Perhaps he went somewhere and over drunken or something. I feel like I need to find an alternative. By the same time I saw a taxi stopped by the road. Without further delays I spoke to the guy and hire it for my trip to Airport. I also informed I am already late, you have to drive very fast.

I thought problems are over by now which is far from the reality yet to come. As soon as we entered the highway via Athurugiriya entrance, indicator for engine malfunctioning started to blink. Then I asked the driver to take the nearest exit, which was the Kaduwela one. Now I am in Kaduwela and only two hours to the flight. Then came to my mind that my brother lives nearby.

Then I called him and told.. dont ask questions, just jump in to the car and come to Kaduwela town to pick me. DO IT NOW! Then my brothers car appeared and he was just wearing a sarong and a T-shirt, also had a towel in his hand. Later I was told he was having a bath while I called him. Luckily, flight from Malaysia had been delayed hence I managed to jump onboard, probably as the last passenger! Thinking of what happened I really felt miserable during the flight!

Winter is not a good friend of mine. Spending gloomy short days without much social activities makes me feel homesick. So I was ready to taste the bitterness in this stay. Gloomy and lonely evening, coffee and memories of past.. perfect recipe for homesickness! 

I was to share my flat with two others. One was Fred who is a matured Brazilian guy and other one was Reena, a young girl, student from Taiwan. Than many other occasions we gel together very well. We had movie nights and did some shared cooking to experience different authentic food. Once we realized all three have their birthdays in March. So we made it a point to have a party.

One thing I enjoy in my nomadic life style is having opportunity to meet people from different countries and backgrounds. When Fred says his childhood and life in Brazil, I was pondering how close their life to ours in Sri Lanka. Especially, the crazy things we did when young. Fred also had not-so -Brasilian nature which is his knowledge and passion about spirituality. Some times he explained me of Chakras of human body etc. explained in eastern religions and philosophies. It was like talking to Deepak Chopra. 

In other hand, Reena was a typical example from young generation who is actually very honest, and very confused. No much friends or a boy friend or even crazy things in life like we do. Typical tragic outcome of an era highly influenced by social media. One dangerous thing is she has witnessed the aging, getting sick and death of her loving grandfather and started to disappoint about the life. It had shaken her so badly and had started to think of going to Switzerland or any other country at age of 40 to legally take her own life!

Somewhere in this post I mentioned about homesickness. Well, just recently I started to take it in a different perspective. That idea was in a movie I watched in a winter night. It says "you need a home to be homesick". Movie is famous Australian movie called Red Dog. This realization gave me some comfort.

I am homesick!...and I am privileged !! 

After many years I also visited Melbourne and it was mid of winter. Winter is one thing, winter in Melbourne is another thing.. It was so nice to spend time with Charith and Aruna's families. Also it was more than thankful for the dinner invite from Ashanth where we enjoyed cocktails and chatting like good old days. Anyway, as always I had to visit Melbourne in stealth mode since I am not able to visit everybody those definitely would invite me, both relations and friends.

By mid June, in near freezing cold I jumped into a flight back from Melbourne airport to head back home! It was a lengthy itinerary where I had to spend few hours in a lounge at Kuala Lumpur Airport. It was so glad to be back in Sri Lanka as always. Anyway Sri Lanka was still experiencing heavy rain.

Within my messages was a message from Kanchana: Buddy, hope you are coming for the party..

ලොක්කා පැදුරු පාටියට උඹ එනව නේද?

Busy in good way

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

Gallery wall come alive!

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

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

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

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

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

Dambana (දඹාන) & memories of Gomba (ගොඹා)

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

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

Catchups that took me back in time

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

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

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

..සිනා මල් ඔය මුවේ පලඳින්න

මේ කඳුලු මගේ තනියට දෙන්න

අරුනැල්ල ඔබ යලිත් අරගන්න

සීතල රැත්‍රිය මට දෙන්න!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A couple of camping nights 

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

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

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

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

Going back to hibernation in southern hemisphere

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

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

When I was in transit at Kuala Lumpur Air port, I felt very board. I jumped into a coffee shop. While having a "Dilmah" Tea I was reading a Sinhala poetry book by Ilasksha Jayawardena (i.e. ඉලක්ශ ජයවර්ධන) who is a great poet from new generation. By the way, below is one of my favourites;

අහසකට ලස්සන ගෑවමයි දම් පාට

හඳත් අයිනෙන් අඳිමු එය නැතුව බැහැ රෑට

දුවේ නුඹ දන්නවද දුරයි හඳ හාවාට

අඳින්නට ඕන නැහැ ඒ නිසා ආවාට

 

චිත්‍රයට නගද්දි එක ලඟින් ඇන්දාට

අහස සයුරට දුරයි බර වැඩියි මගෙ දූට

ගගනතේ මායිමේ නුඹ ඇඳපු වවුලාට

ලඟින් තවකෙක් අඳිමු තනිය හොඳ නෑ ඌට

 

ටීචරුත් ලකුනු දෙයි නොවන් බිය සංකාව

දැන් හරිම ලස්සනයි වෙරළ ළඟ හැන්දෑව

චිත්‍රෙ අපි නොඇඳ ඉමු දුවේ අපි දෙන්නාව

එහෙම උනොතින් ළමයි සොයයි නුඹෙ අම්මාව

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

පරවුනු මල් නැවත නැතේ පිපෙන්නෙ..

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

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

Going out of the city

 As I mentioned in my previous post, 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. 

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.

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 Operation Jaywick, which was deployed to destroy Japanese ships in Singapore harbor in 1943. 

Interestingly, Exmouth still holds the remnants of US occupation. I heard Exmouth retailers accepted both US and AUS dollars during that period.

People met at Exmouth; Rheel, Renuka and Ema

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.

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!

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;

“This looks a nice Sri Lankan sarong”

“Thanks, In deed. I am a Sri Lankan” I replied.

“කොහොමද? ආයුබෝවන්..” She said and made me surprised. 

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.

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. 

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.

I am sure; Ema should be diving within the cold waters of Ningaloo Reef by now. 

Whale calling at Ningaloo Reef

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!)

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. 

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 Resting Turtle 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).

Diving under the historic Busselton Jetty 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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?

Eventually, some of my photos were used by Busselton dive center to promote themselves. 

Life at Harbone Street

In 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.

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.

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 "Don't even say Hi till I get a sip of wine.. I had a crazy day. Trying to recover from it." 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.

Emily is Thermal Imaging specialist, Guitarist and Remedial therapist who works in both Sydney and Perth. She also said You know Sumedha, most people who come here as guests end-up being friends of Kim and David, just like what happened to me. Also she advised me of one thing. Please don't ask about Miranda from David. Yep, you are living in her room.. please don't move ornaments and stuff in it. Room you live in is like the living temple of David that reminds of Miranda.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Some pictures I captured from nearby suburbs;

Country 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.

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.

"Guys, we got a kind of bad news.. Forecast shows that sea is going to be choppy in  the coming days"

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Then suddenly I heard my name from somewhere like in a dream…

“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.

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.

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…

Country road… take me home…

Sunil Madhawa & my 89

Most of the people who called themselves as journalists today are not journalists! But Sunil Madhawa Premathilake is a journalist. He is a sensitive person and he had a limitless love for the country and man-kind. He was brave enough to fight against powerful capitalist governments on behalf of liberty of the community. Most of all, he knew the responsibility of a journalist. His thirst for literature, passion of revealing the reality and committing any personal possessions for the betterment of others raised him to an honorable platform.

My memories on Sunil Aiya (most common way of calling him) go back to the dark age of 1989. It was the time that young generation took violent steps to challenge the government while unrest of the civil community was so high. In return, counter violence from the government was so terrible and that trend was targeting thousands of civilian lives also. This cyclic effect was making things worse.

None of the remarkable interferences were come through so called “international community”, but some of the artists and writers were doing their duty even without thinking of their lives. Sunil was one of the key writers who wanted to write against the dictatorship which was rising.. Sunil Madhawa became a giant in this manner.. He couldn’t exist in his position in most of the traditional newspapers because of the contexts of his writings. He left one by one.. there wasn’t any media to publish his bold ideas.. Sunil with few other brave writers gave birth to the trend of “Tabloid papers”.. they were actually not much focusing at profit, but it made some room for writing the reality.. people gathered around them while government kept on threatening the journalists who wrote the reality. Sunil became the target of few brutal attacks but survived with injuries.

In this time, I was just a student at Ananda College and was so inspired by literature and youthful radical ideas. As a group of amateur writers, we too were writing in our scales. Sunil Madhawa was a big hero in our arena. We were operating a writing circle in the college and we had some frequent activities, where Sunil Madhawa became a useful resource person. Sunil Madhawa’s passion of writing against suppression came to a climax by translating the book “Cry Freedom” (story of Steve Biko) to Sinhala (as Handanu Mana Nidahasa). Sinhala readers accept it with a great gravity since Sri Lanka itself had been showing the mirror images of the dictatorship and killing revealed in the book. Anyway, this book dragged his life to a great risk.

I used to visit the office of Lakdiva tabloid paper at Borella. Lakdiva editorial team was fabulous. Some of the famous people were blooming in it. Famous Wini Hettigoda was the cartoonist. Dalas Alahapperuma (minister in current parliament) was one of the writers. There was another special person called “Vimalasiri Gamlath”, that was Wimal Weerawansa who is playing a big role in today’s politics. His literature skills were tremendous. I wonder why he is not writing much today.. I call it a crime! Sunil Aiya was not much interested in anything else than literature and writing, but hanging around public bars. People were claiming that Sunil was addicted to alcohol. Sunil told that Bars are the best place to meet people; common people like factory workers, government servants, thieves, thugs, prostitutes and people of all calibers. Once, I wanted to ask about this and he honestly told that he is not addicted to alcohols, but to Pub societies. Dialog we had could be well-explained in Sinhala as it was;

I started an Open Wallpaper in school where I too started to reveal my radical feelings about what is happening in the country. I too understood it was time to go beyond Gamperaliya/Sinhabahu; our paper was bit aggressive. Aggressive enough to question the school whether it is justifiable to have a big-match fun while our motherland was on crisis! There is something else I need to tell, a lot of people around me was not approving this aggression. I guess they simply couldn’t accept this harsh criticism or they might have judged it as more political. I was “political” since I was schooling. I invited Sunil Aiya to visit my wallpaper and he came with Professor Somarathne Balasuriya (he is the translator of Albert Camus’ “The Stranger”). He went through the pages and gave some comments. By the time he didn’t forget to convey a warning message too; “You are so young, be careful.. this is not a good time”.

In the meantime, one of the students invited me to write to a weekly magazine and he didn’t mention what it was. (Later, I found out that he was lead by a JVP activist)

I didn’t know the scale of trouble I was heading to, but one incident clearly gave me a red light. I was hanging around Kotte where I had a lot of friends. Actually, I was sitting on a half wall talking to the friends.. We saw a couple of people were at a distance with a broken down motor bike as it was shown.. One of my other friends was coming passing those two strangers and he asked me whether you know those fellows.. I said “no, seems their bike is giving trouble” He replied with an amazement “But they were telling your name in a whispering voice and pointing at you!”

Everything came in to my mind with a flash. What Sunil Aiya told and etc. I understood that we were playing with fire. I simply stopped writing much radical type things and updating the Wall Paper was not done.

It was a dark age in deed. Youths were killed and burnt with tires here and there. Apart from the rebels, a lot of people died without any reason. Both rebels and government bodies sometimes diverted their guns to stop all kinds of rivals.. Sometimes to stop journalists, artists and for personal reasons too! In one such incident, a dozen of school children was labeled as rebels and killed for a personal reason lead by a minister (namely Nanda Mathew!) Not only him, most of the powerful people got their personal things done and accounted to the revolution. Some of the civil activists and intellectuals left the country for their own survival. Still I feel pathetic to see some of the ministers who approved brutal killing, being the members of that cabinet in that era, are now behaving like very honorable politicians. (this included our current speaker in the parliament Mr. V.J.Mu Lokubandara!)

Now it is 2009! No one talks much about the lost revolution and the crisis we faced 20 years ago, but I have my emotions with the tragic incidents happened in front of my eyes.

When I recall those past incidents I see Sunil Madhawa Premathilake as a great giant who fight against authorities on behalf of people.. he is a role model of a great journalist!

Recently, I saw Sunil Aiya at Borella bus stand. I knew he is with his noble dreams of a better world..!