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.. 

Another excursion at east

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. 

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 Batticaloe to continue our excursion on land. That's gonna be my first trip that connect underwater expedition to a land excursion which sounds fascinating.

I picked the early morning bus from Fort to Trinco and reached my accommodation, a shitty place called Natraj Guest House, just after midday. 

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. 

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. 

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!

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. 

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. 

My other objective of this trip was to explore the seabed near the Koneswaram temple in Swami Rock. 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 expeditions of Mike Wilson & Arthur C. Clarke which I have written about at least a decade ago.

Day before the dive, I visited the Koneswaram temple with Tharanga Malli. Scenery was splendid. Later on I had the opportunity of listening to a talk by Angeline Ondaatje 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.

Next day I dived the ocean adjoining the base of Swami 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!

Same evening I joined our diving crew for a beer and learned more about the area and history. Koneswaram 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. 

As I finish the diving I was expecting my other collogues who were driving from Colombo to pick me and drive towards Batticaloa for the second leg of the trip, but on land this time.

As planned we headed to Batticaloa. Actually, I never been to Batticaloa 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. 

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 Thoppi Gala (තොප්පිගල) and Kusalana Malei (කුසලාන මලෙයි). 

Kusalana Malai 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.

One other objective of the visit was to make connection with Coast Veddas 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 Coast Veddas.

Coast Veddas are supposed to be lower class of different Vedda groups in the island and their roots may have diverted from interior Veddas long ago. Like Veddas in Dambana (දඹාන) has closely connected with Buddhist culture, Coastal Veddas had connected with Hinduism since their territory was surrounded by Hindu community. Channa's theory is Coast Veddas may have some ancient practices those were vanished from other communities long ago. 

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.

Following day, after having a great breakfast, we left Baticaloe, 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.

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 Yala Galge 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!

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.

Travel to east always add something special to the portfolio of experience and this was nor difference.  

life goes on amid the crisis

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 Connect, during the power cuts. I am back in my paradise with all the love, care, sunny days one can ask for. 

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.

Same day that I came to Sri Lanka, Channa's exhibition commenced at Barefoot Gallery. Visiting the Barefoot Gallery 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. 

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. 

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! 

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.

Christmas party with embarrassment

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!

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.

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! Ooh..shit, 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. 

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.

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.

Guess what, still I didn't get that call!

Catching up with good old friends

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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 Water Rugby. 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!

Not all acts ended well. Apart from narrow escapes from Police arrest, one such excursion lead me to infect leptospirosis which I barely survived due to early diagnosis by our family doctor (Dr. Pani Somarathne) who knew about my wild 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.

So reunion of this group after a couple of decades came as the cherry on the top. 

Night at Magul Maha Viharya

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. 

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. 

We also spent one night in near by Magul Maha Vihare site and it was a memorable one. Spotting a leopard on the way was a bonus.    

Taprobane East Wreck

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. 

Replica of Degaldoruwa Temple painting

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. 

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.

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 Lanka Living Gallery. 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.  

Heading back to Australia

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 cyber attacks/ data breaches 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. 

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!

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 Perth Hills 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 Didgeridoo 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 Thawalampota (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.  

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. 

Afghan doctor once asked me a serious question which I didn't know the answer. "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 " Do you know the answer?

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.

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 Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknow, 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! 

I thank Anthony Bourdain , for keeping me company in lonely winter nights. 

I am going home soon!