In early September 2025, I returned to Perth and ended up staying in the same place where I had stayed before. Interestingly, Fred was still there. He seemed alright but didn't have a job, which was bit concerning. I noticed that he had become somewhat addicted to TV dramas, probably because he had nothing to do during the day. As we used to, we had lengthy conversations about geopolitical issues, the future of mankind, and all sorts of other topics. Anyway, he was planning to return to Brazil and spend some time with his family, which I felt was the best thing for him at that time.
This was the time when artificial intelligence was rapidly propagating and had become a buzzword in high-tech conversations among techies, and also a term people used to show off their futuristic knowledge. It reminded me of a funny conversation I had long ago with Gareth Visser, one of my clients and also a friend.
Back in days, I was reporting to Gareth, who was the project manager for a large travel company in Sydney, where I worked for the technical consulting team for their CRM implementation. That was also the time when everybody had started talking about Big Data. Even though the actual technical ecosystem was still poor, the company kept talking about Big Data and all sorts of trendy technologies.
One day, Gareth was heading to a “Big Data” meeting. I told him, “Big Data is like teenage sex!” When he asked me why, I replied, “It’s just like teenage sex because nobody wants to admit they don’t know it, since they think others do.”
We also visited Vain, who was living in a different place with his family. His health condition (cancer) wasn’t showing any signs of healing, but Vain was facing the ordeal bravely with the support of his family. I learned that Fred was giving him a great deal of moral support, particularly through his own religious practices, such as praying together.
For a change, we had a flatmate with a completely different character: a young Malaysian guy studying to become a veterinary nurse. He was a former weightlifting champion and a snake enthusiast whose pet back home in Malaysia was a king cobra!
As usual, I visited Prasanna’s place and spent a pleasant evening with drinks, dinner, and many nostalgic memories.
By that time, I received the news that two of my photographs had been selected for the final round of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition in Sri Lanka. They were exhibited at a gallery in Colombo. One of the photographs was the bait ball I captured near the Cargo Wreck off the coast of Colombo, which remains one of the best wide-angle photographs I have ever had the pleasure of capturing.
Although neither of the photographs won a title, they clearly attracted the attention of viewers. Many people contacted me through social media, and among them was Dr. Vinod, who won a prestigious BBC award the previous year. Although he wasn’t an underwater photographer, he was planning to experiment with split-level photography in shallow water and wanted to discuss it with me.
I also had the chance to meet Kuldeep at his new place, located a bit far from Joondalup, where we had a quick drink of Grant’s, our common favorite. After participating in the 20th anniversary party of my company, I flew back to Sri Lanka in early November to attend the alms-giving ceremony organized for the first death anniversary of my father-in-law.
Back in Sri Lanka - Ditwah gonna change plans
Before long, I started seeing some alarming weather predictions that were being discussed among members of the diving club, who naturally checked the weather frequently. It sounded serious, and the rest was history.
Cyclone Ditwah was extremely unkind to Sri Lanka. The impact on the mountainous regions and the areas surrounding reservoirs and other water sources was unimaginably massive and devastating. Some villages vanished from the map forever. The economic impact was said to be four times greater than that of the 2006 tsunami.
This made our plans for “good times back in Sri Lanka” seem like a distant dream. I organized some local-level assistance for the affected people. Given my history with leptospirosis, I reluctantly refrained from volunteering in the actual disaster zones. I still don’t feel good about it.
We had already planned a family visit to Dubai in December. Although Cyclone Ditwah had changed our mood for fun, we had to proceed since everything, including the flights, had already been booked.
It turned out to be a good family trip. To be honest, I wasn’t in the best health condition throughout the journey, but it wasn’t a major obstacle to the fun the girls were looking forward to having. My friend Aminda — the twin brother of Ulinda, who has been mentioned many times in my posts — lives in Dubai and spent an entire day showing us the attractions and other highlights of the city.
Dubai is very much an icon of modern development, full of modern amenities, skyscrapers, and enormous shopping malls. For some reason, though, I felt it was a bit noisy and perhaps a little too fast-moving. What I liked most was the historical district, which beautifully reflected traditional Arabic life.
On the 31st of December, we attended an interesting wedding held on Tangalle Beach. Hasith, a young diver I met in Kalpitiya, got married to his Polish girlfriend, Ewelina. It was an interesting wedding, particularly because of the Polish crowd who had come down to Sri Lanka and turned it into the king of all parties. It was truly a mix of cultures.
Most of the Polish guests didn’t even know English, and there was no common language to communicate in except alcohol and dance, which somehow minimized the gap between everyone.
Quick outing to Galgamuwa (ගල්ගමුව)
For some reason, even after Cyclone Ditwah, we were not in a good mood. I couldn’t believe we didn’t do much hiking or outdoor activities, apart from one quick trip to Galgamuwa.
Our main intention for the Galgamuwa trip was to see the large herds of elephants in that area, but it didn’t work out, as the rainy weather was not helpful. However, this gave us the opportunity to visit two lesser-known historical sites instead: Hachchikuttiya (හච්චිකුට්ටිය) and Arankale (අරං කැලේ). Both were exceptionally good sites.
This time, Ulinda also joined our group, which was great. Overall, it was a very relaxing, short outing that we used as a mood fixer.
Some more catchups
There were a couple of catch-ups at my home. Apart from my friends, we hosted a couple of dinners for Sunil Mama and Mala Punchi, who were back in Sri Lanka on vacation. Ananda Mama and Champa Punchi also joined the dinner, which made it special.
Sadly, I couldn’t take them on any serious trips, except for a day trip to Beruwala to visit my mother’s relatives. That definitely gave Punchi and Amma a nostalgic time.
I also had the privilege of participating in the starting ceremony of a movie produced by Asitha. This time, he had chosen one of the best directors in the country, Jayantha Chandrasiri. I was very happy about this selection, as the previous movie was focused mainly on younger audience, and I didn’t see much artistic value in it.
Interestingly, one of our school classmates had been selected as the lead actor, Buddhika Jayaratne. I have high hopes for this production. Aruna Shantha was also present at the ceremony, as he too had come back to Sri Lanka for a short visit.
Aruna Padmal made a quick visit to Sri Lanka, and I made it a point to catch up with him and have a lengthy chat about life in Australia and what to plan next, among other things. He was a very close friend with whom I shared many good and bad times back in Sydney.
Most of all, Aruna is like an open book and is always ready to conquer something new. Talking to him always made me feel excited and thrilled. There was no judging, and we both shared the same crazy ideas—some of which we dont even agreed upon.
Returning to Colombo Shipwrecks after two years
Same laziness spread out to my diving as well. Though I dived Unawatuna and Hikkaduwa, my usual dive spots, there wasn't anything special. Had to cancel the annual Kalpitiya diving trip since I didn't have much funds, time or mostly right mindset.
By the end of the season, I managed to explore some of the shipwrecks in Colombo, and they did not disappoint me. I even dived at the Thermopylae Sierra after a couple of years. It wasn’t actually my choice; due to a lack of fuel (by this time, the US–Iran war had started and fuel was becoming a problem), the boatmen were not keen to go far for deeper wrecks.
What thrilled me most was diving the Cargo Wreck again and diving the Salviva wreck for the first time. It was a comparatively small wreck and full of lionfish. I had never seen so many lionfish in one place before.
Back to Australia
Given that the project I had been working on for the past three years had officially ended, I faced a period of uncertainty, and I knew I needed to return to head office to engage with leadership and understand what assignments lay ahead for me.
Before heading back, I had a small catch-up with Dara, where we discussed the usual social and political matters. We also reflected on the life and tragic circumstances of our comrade Premapala Hewabatage, an activist who passed away a few years ago.
Though we talked about him and his life in great deal, this time Dara mentioned a couple of thinks that Shaked me.
One is after the death of comrade Premapala, his wife had called Dara and asked him to come and take the massive collection of books about Politics, Philosophy etc. She had claimed Dara is the only person she could think of who would value them. More than anything, she gets really angered to look at those books which costs them all.
අයියා මැරුනට පස්සෙ මේ පොත් වලින් වැඩක් නැ. මල්ලි මේවා අරං යන්න මොකද මල්ලි විතරයි මං දන්නෙ මේ පොත් කියවන කෙනෙකුට. ඇනික මට මේ පොත් දැක්කම කේන්ති යනවා.
These books were the only fortune of Premapala Aiya.
Just before the Sinhala and Tamil New Year of 2026, I was on a Malaysia Airlines flight heading to Australia via Kuala Lumpur, knowing that I would be spending most of the winter there.
