Some of the travel photos I posted in this blog have been captured by Kusum (aka Roshan). He was my partner in crime: we were in same path in studies to professions to outdoor activities. When I first moved to Australia he moved to New Zealand. I came back in 2018 and eventually pursued my hybrid life. Last time I met him in Sydney. That's because he (and Nilantha from Melbourne) paid a visit when I said I am going back to Sri Lanka for good. We spent few days with nostalgic memories. Now in 2024, Kusum said he is coming to SL for a holiday after seven years! I asked what you want to do.. he said everything! Hiking, wildlife photography, diving and chilling.. It wasn't easy to convince someone coming out of the country how difficult to do all you plan in Sri Lanka in limited time.
In fact, I have a absurd feeling that time would have a un-invented property that would control how many things you can do during a given period of time. If such thing exists, that number is low in Sri Lanka!
Few decades ago, myself and Kusum was outdoor addicts. We did camping, hiking and what not. In university times, once we get the Mahapola (i.e. මහපොල) scholarship money, we got into a bus to Hikkaduwa and spend days snorkeling the reef. After obtaining the PADI license we (along with Devana) extended our expeditions to much deeper waters. This outdoor craze also put foundation to much wider group.
Nilantha too came on a holiday by end of the year. What really didn't work was the timing of Asitha. Due to his business plans, he had to make his very short trip just before Kusum and Nilantha.
Asitha was investing on a Sinhala movie in Sri Lanka and was busy with that project. I too was invited for the inauguration ceremony of the movie at Waters Edge. It was an event full of Actors, Actresses and media personals. In some point I felt I am in a place that I am not belong to. Anyway, I liked the experience. I spoke to a couple of pretty girls and learned they are the most famous actresses of young generation today. As a new producer, Asitha caught the attention of everybody. A lot of media personals were trying to corner him for a short interview.
More than anything I felt bit emotional contemplating Asitha's journey and where we all started at schooling time sharing same tea at Salgao bakery. He wasn't born with silver spoon in hand, but he conquered the world to achieve what he wanted. He was always target oriented person. High achiever who obtained the degree from the University of Life!
Same evening we had the school get-to-gather which had been organized in grand scale since its the 50th birthday for our batch mates. It was an extravaganza.
It was great to see Kusum after a long time and a lot to update; personal stuff and passions we share. I arranged a dinner at my home and it was an amazing catchup. Among the usual invitees, I invited Indunil who was a batch mate from school. Though we didn't have much connections in recent past, he was in our gang and was crazy in outdoor activities as much as we did. Indunil too was so pleased to have a reunion at my place with good old friends.
Kusum brought me a very special gift which is two high quality photo prints. Those were captured by him in two different occasions in my presence.
First one was a portrait of a man who is actually a hunter called Vijey (i.e. විජේ). He was our guide when we hiked Nuwaragala in 2002. At that time, hiking Nuwara Gala wasn't a joke since no one knew if there are land-mines or area is occupied by terrorists groups. We used the window opened with the ceasefire agreement in between LTTE terrorists and SL government to make our move. Vijey was a peculiar and a strange character who reminded me Silindu (i.e. සිලිඳු) of novel Beddegama (i.e. බැද්දේගම) by Leonard Woolf. Often he spoke to himself. His instinct about the jungle was wonderful. I have never seen anyone who read the minute changes of jungle and predict things so accurately. Vijey's portrait taken by Kusum was a photo I admired always and it reminded me of the adventurous hike to Nuwara-gala.
Second one was taken in Sydney when we met last time in 2018. One of the unique pubs in Sydney was the The Botanist. Myself, Kusum and Nilantha was walking to the pub that evening. There was a pretty girl awaiting by the side with a bunch of flowers and Kusum picked it as a great subject to photograph. After getting consent, he captured few great street photographs of her with flowers. I liked that one too.
Chamila (aka KK) too was in the country. He comes on vacation every yearend. An outing to Weheragala (i.e. වෙහෙරගල) (technically Block 5 of Yala National Park) had already been organized by Devana. It was great. Mornings were spent searching for wildlife and photographing. Nights were full of fun: drinks and chilling. Kusum was thrilled since he managed to photograph a leopard.
I also brought Kusum for a couple of dives in Unawatuna. Anyway, conditions were not the best. As I observed, Kusum hasn't done much diving recently resulting air consumption underwater to be poor which is far cry from his real diving times. This made dives shorter.
Nilantha also invited us to a party he organized for his 50th Birthday. Like cherry on the cake it went very well and caught up with a lot of old friends who we went to pubs and night clubs in our youth self. Nilantha and I too have a lot of history in that department. While we both worked in WTC Colombo, in most Fridays we started boozing in Deli Market or SSC and ended in Rhythm and Blues night club. Some of the Nilantha's friends of travel trade became my friends and vice versa. So it was great to see some of them after a couple of decades. Life had changed us significantly. Some of the stupid things I did in my past usually had a connection with Nilantha somehow. One expedition nearly killed me of Leptospirosis. I narrowly escaped since my family doctor new about my outdoor lifestyle which helped early diagnosis. I owe Dr. Pani Somarathne a great deal of gratitude for saving my life. I still see him regularly and get medical advises relevant to me in this age.
Ironically, myself and Nilantha also had the taste of changing the world and thirst to go after different political groups, particularly in socialist stream. This is where I met Dara (pseudo name).
Dara is the most honest civil activist I had the pleasure of working with. I don't comment on practicality of his ideas though. I will write a different post on his story of courage and narrow escapes from government led paramilitary groups due to his voice against unjust. After I lost connections with him, his life had been real roller-coaster ride. Given he protested against drama of killing of detainees, he became a primary target. At last he fled the country with his wife for his own protection and had a unimaginable life in India and Malaysia. I heard all these stories of Dara only when I came to Sri Lanka in 2018. Now we stay in touch and talk about life, society and politics once a while. Our usual spot of meeting is the rooftop of Colombo City Hotel. Dara still believe in a fair society and working towards it in his scale.
One notable characters Dara introduced to me was Premapala Hewabatage. Prem Aiya is close comrade of Wijeweera and had been in same cell in prison after unsuccessful coupe in 1971. He was a living encyclopedia and a man with a golden heart. When we met him his ideas were different from JVP but still fighting for social justice, living in poverty. Life do bad things for good people! Connections can go on and on...
Whatever said and done.., Nilantha is the one who introduced me to Dara.
Anyway, after all those nostalgic catchups Kusum had to head back to Auckland and Nilantha to Melbourne. Before long I too was given the indication that I am required in my clients office to plan next phase of the project. With heavy heart I left the Island in early January 2025. It was the Summer in down under. In fact that summer was extra-sunny and long.
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