Back to the cold waters

I wasn't pleased with the fact, Nipuna didn't return my precious books even after few reminders. I was about to explode. One of the books was actually a copy signed by its author, none other than Dr. Craig Challen whom I met at Maritime Museum of Western Australia. 

Then one fine day Nipuna's truck, usually go for his commercial diving jobs, parked in front of my home. He not just returned my books, but lent me two more books, which were on the favorite subject we both shared: Tham Luang cave rescue. They were the books written by two British Cave divers, John Volanthen and Rick Stanton, those who played the most crucial role in rescue operation. I was angry with Nipuna, but now I am more than thankful!

I packed both books in my hand luggage so that I can read them back in Australia during my next stay. It was great to land in Perth in mid of the Summer 2025. Sunny days means I am happy. It was exceptionally hot, but that's what I really enjoy than cold gloomy days. 

By the meantime Dharshana Jayawardena sent a message offering me to become an Administrator of the Facebook group: Sri Lankan Underwater Photographers and Videographers, which I accepted willingly. Who else would do that job better than me! 

Back to the cold waters

Given it was the middle of the summer, diving Rottnest Island seems to be the right choice for weekends though I didn't have any plans. Reason for not planning any diving was the bad experience I had last time. Anyway, giving up things is not in my vocabulary! I was careful enough not to hire gear from Perth Ocean Diving who gave me malfunctioning BCD that put me into a danger. I know its not Ian's fault but I didn't like the fact he took the incident very lightly. We still connect in social media and comment on each others photos.

Eventually I contacted a new dive team called Bucket List Diver. They were a small business, smaller team and equipment seemed reliable. I enjoyed diving in much relaxed atmosphere, than in massive boat Blue Destiny: Mcdonald's in diving world!

Australians usually do sports and hobbies by heart. When I first join the crew at Fremantle, boat was in the marina, divers reversing trucks full of diving gear closer, so unloading them directly to the boat is possible. Given diving wasn't in my plan initially, I didn't take any gear to Australia this time hence I was just going with my office bag! All were looking at me like What the heck this skinny Indian think he is doing in this diving boat! In no time we started chatting and realized most of them were just beginners and was interested in knowing more about my work. 

Diving in these conditions are nothing but an exercise that tested my endurance in cold water. As I get old, cold water became much more challenging. I explored few sites around Rottnest which had caves and a lot of life. Visibility wasn't bad and I was disappointed that I didn't carry my camera.  In one dive I was almost getting hypothermia due to unbearably cold water. Still, I was pleased to be in cold water again. Cold water diving is like a girlfriend I love and hate at the sometime! 

In March, Perth diving community was shaken with the news of two divers those were left behind in ocean during a recreational dive. For our surprise it was revealed Perth Diving Academy as the irresponsible operator. Few of my friends called me to check if I am one of the two! A news article revealed the names of the victims and one was called Ian which rang bells. So I was wondering, if this was good old Ian Jones my previous diving buddy. Later revealed its not him and he is just fine. He had been frustrated by number of phone calls he got from friends and relatives asking if he is ok. In fact, he ended up posting a public message in Facebook saying "I am OK. Diver got stranded in water is a different Ian" 

My flat mates

I was pleased to join my old flat mate Fred this time too.  We both wanted to visit Renee who was living about 200km south of Perth by then, but couldn't do due to our busy schedules. 

Apart from Fred's company, full of late night chats about life and new world trends, my flat was a reflection of dark side of human life. That's due to the sad plights of other two mates living with us. 

One of them was a Australian guy called Jo. He was going through a painful divorce. Listening to his story was an agony. Given Australian law is crazy around these kind of things, he is loosing most of his lifelong earning, leaving him to live in a flat. He wasn't allowed to live in house he built for the family. His favorite daughter wasn't talking to him anymore and sons too are getting away from his life. He often go to Footy ground to see from a distance how his younger son playing. Jo had three tattoos to symbolize his three children. 

By the way, Jo liked eating my Sri Lankan flavoured food. As I write today, I don't know where he is and how he is doing.

Other one is Vince, guy from Myanmar, who lived with wife, baby and his mother. Vince was suffering from a rare cancer. I feel very sorry for him about his unfortunate situation. He has been doing pretty well before the sickness. He often stayed days in hospital. Sometime come home and stay in agony for days. Fred and I always tried to cheer him up yet we all knew his situation was bad.

When I cook Sri Lankan food, especially curries, he used to come, see and say that looks delicious. I always offer some. Somedays he says No thanks and leave... sometimes, he come back and says hey I would like some for my Mum who cannot resist that amazing aroma. 

As I write, I know Vince is fighting back with his cancer bravely and Fred is helping him by all means, particularly with the most needed moral support. I wish him recovery!

With all his misfortune, he was further upset by the news about the earthquake that hit Myanmar in April. He was busy checking if his relatives and friends are safe.

I was humbled when my poor flat mates organized a small party with a birthday cake on my birthday. It was so special. I ordered Pizza for dinner. In spite of usual gloominess, we all spent the evening with laugher and good vibes.

Back in pearl for Sinhala New Year

After completing the work I promised, I hurried back home for Sinhala New Year of 2025. Just to mention, world was going to a chaos with Ukraine war and Trump imposing jaw dropping tariffs for everybody they deal with, giving world economy a shake!

Catching up with Dara was special, obviously due to his character and our history that cross paths in pretty unorthodox manner, as activists. As usual, we met at rooftop of City Hotel at Colombo. He actually came with another comrade who was a young Muslim guy with quite progressive ideas. So we started talking about our good old days and also politics in the country. 

සහෝදරයා දන්නවනෙ මගේ ආර්තිකය එතරම් හොඳ නොවන බව... හරි බන් බිල මම බලාගන්නම්..

Dhara started his activism as a hard core leftist but by now he is changed a lot in terms of ideology. From the bar we were having drinks we could see hundred and eighty degree view of Colombo. When it gets darker, we saw the glittering lights of hotels and other sky high buildings of Colombo. In other side we could see lights of ships approaching Colombo harbor. Night sky of Colombo is like an untold story for many of us. Its like an mysterious old man who knew everything about you!

He told how much he enjoy that scenery in his raw words. 

මං සහෝදරයා ආසාවෙන් රස විඳිනවා ධනවාදී සමාජයන් විසින් ගොඩනඟලා තියෙන මේ ආශ්චර්ය.. 

He also presented me a book about Richard De Soyza. Also we three discussed in detail about extra ordinary life of Richard de soyza and particularly about his tragic assassination. 

Though Dara and I worked in the same group long ago, we rarely agreed on one thing. He also showed me his diary entry, about 25 - 30 years old, he mentioned about an argument he had with me. It was a detail account with exact words we used that day. Though we didn't have any digital devices those days some memory can stay in physical books.. hmm!

Without much planning I joined Devana and Niro to visit Buddhika's pepper plantation in Badalkumbura (බඩල්කුඹුර). This is one special area that produced some of the best pepper in entire world. It was a good experience on understanding challenges of running a plantation. Monkeys had become the number one pest. To tell the scale of the problem, some people had given up the planting anything in some areas of the country just because there is no way harvest can be protected from monkeys. In Buddhika's case, his main crop is pepper and its comparatively safe from monkeys. For his other crops like Banana and papaya its an unending battle. Interestingly, there is a kind locally made guns to chase monkeys away.

While walking in the village, we noticed an abandoned house. Buddhika explained its story. Someone from Colombo, who had found guilty for a foul play, had come to this area and lived hidden in the forest adjoining river Manik. By the time goes, he had built this small house of clay and started living with his wife, while his grown up children lived in Colombo. Later on, no one cared about his past and he was doing pretty good with farming etc. and then he built a proper modern looking house in near by land. After moving to new home, for some fateful reason, this man died. His wife couldn't survive in this harsh conditions, she moved to Colombo, to one of her children's place. Now this house becoming a relic day by day.. this reminds me of Beddegama (බැද්දේගම) of famous Village by the jungle book (by Leonard wolf), a village reclaimed by jungle.

By the night, we spent hours and hours talking about history of that area etc. while enjoying some dry gin. It was a good session. Devana also exposed us some of the interesting stories and his experiences during his stay at UN office of Sri Lanka.

Anyway, I didn't forget to return the cave diving books back to Nipuna. For that I visited him with Indhi at his workshop where all the commercial diving operations are handled. So we had the opportunity of seeing the Sri Lanka's only privately owned hyperbaric chamber. Anyway, I wish to complete my diving journey without seeing a hyperbaric/ decompression chamber from inside!

Made a couple of family trips too: one to Tissa and other one to Kuruvita. Tissamaharamaya one was much more relaxing. We also done a quick day safari to Yala which was fun. We enjoyed watching some birds, spotted deer, Jackal etc. Our safari driver was trying to show us a leopard and it was such a disaster, not because we couldn't see one but because of the aggressive way jeep drivers tried to be in best placed to see a leopard. It was very strenuous, both Indhi and Vipuli suggested go somewhere else and watch some birds than chasing damn leopard, in such an unethical pursuit. 

Kuruvita trip would have been a great one of spending time in total tranquility, but party with loud speakers in a near by villa made it a total nightmare. 

While I was busy packing my stuff to next leg of my work in Australia, Shanjeewan sent me the happy message saying he climbed the Mount Elbrus of Russia successfully.. So this guy is really on his way to climb the seven summits!

Walk into history of Veddhas in Rathugala

If we plan too much with too many options, chances are that hike or excursion would never happen. For some reason, plan of going to Rathugala (රතුගල) surfaced pretty quickly and all were set. All were more than enthusiastic on the opportunity of walking in the ancient Vedda's trials. Like cherry on the cake, Devana has arranged present Vedda chief of Rathugala, Suda Wannila Aththo (සුදා වන්නිල ඇත්තො) to guide us. 

We all were in thirst of gaining more and more knowledge on Vedda's culture. We all had read fair bit of literature on the subject. I personally have had the opportunity of meeting former Pollebedda Vedda chief, Gombha (ගොඹා). When we were in Batticaloa two years back, we made all our attempt to make contacts with Coastal Veddas (මුහුදු වැද්දො). Rathugala tribe is one of the remaining real Vadda populations which I didn't have the opportunity of meeting so far. So this is not an opportunity to miss by any mean.

After all the preparations, we head to Rathugala department of wildlife office where we had connections with. Though it was only Niro, Channa, Devana and myself were planning to go, Ramani joined in the last minute. Though I had met her a couple of times before, I was bit uneasy of having a lady at first but soon it was proved she is a great company and share the same passion on nature. Ramani had extended knowledge and experience in hiking in Sri Lanka, Borneo and many other countries. She was strong and a good hiker. 

Officers in wildlife department were friendly and helpful. They not only provided all the essential information about the hike, they had prepared us a delicious dinner. After having it we all slept on the verandah of their bungalow, listening to various calls of nocturnal birds.    

We rushed to the Rathugala Vedda's heritage center where we were planning to meet Suda Wannila Aththo. Until chief comes, we explored the historical artifacts and ornaments displayed in the center. One of them also performed a unique music instrument used by Vedda people in old days. That sound was bit close to a violine. It was beautiful, yet for some reason extremely sad to listen. May be its not just the music it produce but our thoughts on questionable future of Vedda community made us sad!

After leaving our van at Wannila Aththos' home we started walking on the main road and later entered the bush that took us to one of the most beautiful natural beauties we have ever witnessed. 

Though Niro is our official navigator, he was pretty much released from usual duties since Wannila Aththo was guiding us. He was navigating through pathless jungle like someone walking in his own backyard. Anyway, Niro always got the coordinates and mapped the path for future use. Perhaps it can be important for department for their work one day. 

All the caves we saw were very primitive looking caves those closely associated with the history of Veddas in Rathugala. Balumgala (බැලුම්ගල) was one of the ridges we passed and it was outstanding with scenic beauty. After walking about 6kms, we reached Heenwala Wadigala (හීන්වල වාඩිගල) to spend the night. This is actually a peak with surrealistic beautiful scenery of Senanayake Smudraya from far. Sunset was out of this world! 

Suda Wannila Aththo is a friendly person with wealth of knowledge ready to be shared. It was much more encouraged after he learning that we had some knowledge and a lot of questions for him. He shared folk storied, songs and details about Vedda's culture with us. When it comes to the dialog on current situation we understood there are disagreements in between Veddas and Department of Wildlife on current forest conservation activities. It is very complex. Protecting the forests, dealing with indigenous people and adhering to law are a hell of a challenge authorities face nowadays. I wonder who can find the right mix to make everybody happy.  

We started walking early on the following day since we were planning to cover more caves. Our enthusiasm made us going out of the way to reach some of the remote ones too. In one point we met a couple of Vedda's who had come to collect some leaves (බීඩි කොල) they could sell. They were surprised to see their chief. They also warned us of an aggressive elephant on the way.

Second day was tough since terrain was difficult and stretch was too long. To add more challenge, we confronted a wild fire on our way. This is the first time I experienced a wildfire that closer. Anyway, we had to change our direction for own safety. 

After walking about 10 kms, we reached the Kaballe Bokke (කැබැල්ල බොක්ක), a place by a stream surrounded by thick forest. If was very appealing due to the easy access to water, yet we all felt its not the safest to spend a night. Place was surrounded by thick forest around. If not the difference of atmospheric characters we felt like in a rain forest. So having a bonfire seemed a must. 

We collected enough firewood to have two bonfires from both sides. One sandy area was cleaned for sleeping. As usual Devana directed us for what is needed for preparation of dinner and superb dinner was ready in no time. Having a bath in that waters was a heavenly relief. As soon as we had the dinner sky got cleared and moon started to appear like a dream. Spending a night in the jungle under the full moon is always a best feeling any nature lover would ask for. Here we are enjoying the very moment!

Though I was tired after a tough day, night was too beautiful for me to leave behind and close the eyes.. I remember I was humming one of my favorite songs while looking at sky.. I also heard Niro and then Devana joined the same.. සඳ හොරෙන් හොරෙන් හොරෙන් බලා.. වලා රොදක සැඟවිලා..

In the morning, Wannila Aththo said that he had heard a noise made by a bear from a distance and he managed to strengthen the bonfire. After having some good breakfast, we started the last leg of the hike. Luckily we didn't encounter the elephant we were warned of. On the way we didn't forget to dip into Rammbukkam Oya (රඹුක්කම් ඔය) and got refreshed before entering the village again.        

After spending little time talking to Wannila Aththo's family, we started our return journey back to Colombo. It was one of the most enjoyable hikes for all of us. 

The forest areas we covered actually belongs to dry zone, but with a difference. This particular area got quite a lot of rich streams full water throughout the year. This made jungle full of lush green vegetation. Some areas were thick and rich: hard to say its dry zone. It was quite clear why ancient Vedda people selected this area as home. In some point, Dr. Spittle has mentioned this area as one of the most beautiful jungles in Sri Lanka. We are not surprised. 

Today I am writing this post while in Australia: memorizing and fantasizing the memorable time spent in jungles of Rathugala of Sri Lanka....In television, I see full report of cyclone Alfred soon to be hit Northern New South Wales and Queensland...   

PS

Suda Wannila Aththo passed away in May 2026 while taking treatments at National Hospital For Respiratory Diseases at Welisara.

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?

Partying at Kalpitiya

When we first came to dive at Kalpitiya, a couple of years ago, it was like love at first sight. Its not all about diving, but people, culture and slow life what we started to admire. Day to day life of most are closely connected to church in a good way. Life was slow.

Then I knew this is going to be an annual ritualistic visit. Since we wanted to connect more with the people, I suggested Niro and Devana about my plans to host a party after diving. They accepted my plan but none of us knew the scale or the format.

First thing first! I packed all my gear and headed to Kalpitiya in a bus which was a very hectic one. Especially with all my gear, it wasn't a good choice. When I reached my beach hut I was hungry and exhausted.

Without further wasting of time, I wanted to start diving next day. Shanaka who is the owner of our diving station welcomed me as always and made all the necessary arrangements. This time I was introduced to two young guys Ashen and Hasitha who are trainee dive masters to help with my plan. They had seen my underwater photos but never seen me in person. Actually Hasitha too was an underwater photographer with some history of working for media companies.

As I faced bad luck in east in last expedition, this time too sea conditions were not in my favor. Though I had a lot of plans to shoot underwater, it ended up being a challenge that tried my endurance. Once we were drifted with the current about 1.2 km. Luckily we had deployed a surface marker so the experienced boatman could track our path. Each dive we conducted in challenging conditions add more confidence to our portfolio of experiences. 

Though murky and rough water doesn't give much chance to do wide angel photography, it leaves little chance to capitalize if you are creative in macro. Against all odds I managed to shoot one long awaited abstract shot of a soft coral.

One night, Shanaka invited me to his home for dinner. This was unexpected. It was very joyful catchup with his crew. Shanaka's wife was a great cook and great host. Party was full of seafood delicacies which will cost you a fortune in Colombo. What I enjoyed most was the connection they have with crew members. Shanaka and his wife were treating crew just like their own siblings. There were few young Muslim boys from same neighborhood who operates dolphin watching boats. (some of them wanted to keep our mobile phones camera's away while they have a drink!) As I learned, party in Kalpitiya was never complete without a session of Karaoke after drinks. In fact, before finishing the party we all started to sing a blend of Jothipala to Clarance and few Tamil songs. I thanked for everything and invited them all for our beach party planned to host in couple days.

Last day of diving, as we were back on shore and cleaned the gear, Niro's van appeared with full stack of sound equipment those he use in DJ parities and clubs in Colombo. I was sure, none of our invitees would have expected professions music of this level. Following day we drew to nearest town which is Kalpitiya to buy the needful: Some liquor and food for the party. Also bought more fish from a local fisherman and arranged them to be prepared through Ramesh who is the manager of the beach hut. He actually arranged a very motherly local lady to cook them in the evening.

By the evening, we felt bit nervous since we didn't know how we arrange and proceed. Most of all, we didn't know how this neighborhood would react. Anyway, Ramesh seems to be waiting to see how we go with this. After waiting a while we decided to start whatever the consequences could be. Then came the fun; people around us were in jaw dropping state when see state-of-art music equipment we unload and connect. It was like, OMG, this bestarred seems to have meant a real party!

Then we started the music and it was "The Party" we could ever imagined! Ramesh asked if we mind if some guests join us and we said No Problem. Then it was going in full swing. Apart from us, diving team there were some locals and also a team of kite surfers from Spain on the beach dancing to one and only Niro's DJ music. We realized Shanaka was not only a diving instructor but a great singer while he sang a couple of songs. In fact, he has been in a band when he was young. Everything was going in great rhythm. I danced like no one is looking! I imagined of this party, the very first time I came to Kalpitiya. 

Following day we left Kalpitiya just like a group of celebrities leaving a town after a successful show!

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.. 

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!

Wandering through the time of Covid

In a previous post I mentioned how I was stranded in Australia since federal government imposed  a law stopping Australians from going out of the country during the Covid-19 pandemic. At last I was able to get a special permission to leave the country mainly through a letter provided by the management of the project I was working. It was a happy moment and my team mates were equally excited. So I had quite a number of farewells.

Western Australia was managing pandemic comparatively well at that time. Travel to Sri Lanka required a number of documents such as Negative Covid test, permission letter from Australia, landing approval from Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka etc. When I prepare the documents, it reminded me of my first job interview which I carried all I could, starting from birth certificate.

Murali and Karen drew me to the Air port and we had coffee on the way. There were only few international flights out of the country and I had to first go to Sydney to board into international flight. It was quite surreal to see deserted Sydney airport. There wasn't any shop or restaurant open. I had to fetch a water bottle and a chocolate bar from a vending machine as my lunch.

Back in Sri Lanka

I landed in Sri Lanka in March 2021 in the midst of pandemic. From the airport I was taken to a hotel located at Anuradhapura for ten days of quarantine. I had the most extra ordinary birthday encapsulated within a hotel room. 

I started working remotely to my client in WA and had all the flexibility of the world for my disposal. While staying with the warmth of the family, I had the chance to enjoying all I wanted: hiking, diving and of course partying!

Like cherry on the cake, one of my photos taken in Busselton, won a merit award in State festival of photography held in BMICH. That was the first time underwater photography was considered as a separate genre in a competition in Sri Lanka.

When talking of partying, one party ended up unforgettable for a wrong reason. It was held in a nice beach villa called Villa 69 at Ahungalla, owned by one of my friends. Party was on and everything went well. ..until alcohol influenced me jumping into the pool but to the shallow end! If you see my face carefully, you can see the scar even today in upper nose, just below the forehead.

My last dive in Australia was eventful. That day I was in my usual diving boat, called Blue Destiny, planned to explore a site called Opera House close to Rottnest Island. Highlight of the dive was cave of sharks. Ocean currents was extreme at that day. I was so eager to photograph Sharks so I was determined to dive any way. Once I enter the water, I simply felt like I am drowning. I quickly inflated the jacket which was the obvious thing to do, still I am being dragged towards the bottom. It was scary! While ocean currents were so strong, I couldn't reach the boat either. Others couldn't realize what's going on. Somehow I got into the boat. Though I was in panic state, I tried to contemplate what's going on. I wanted to try again. I left my camera gear, plunged again and same thing happened. I scrolled up onboard again. Boat captain noticed my puzzled situation, inspected my gear and found hose used to inflate air to the BCD jacket is not sealed. I was terrified. 

Can someone be that irresponsible? Ian was the Dive Master sent by dive operator I hired the gear. He was just taking it very lightly.. honestly, this kind of equipment failures are unheard of these modern days. I still cant understand, how I controlled myself without giving him a punch! Diving was not for me that day. In addition, it gave me sort of PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) which I had to do many shallow dives back in Sri Lanka to get over. Anyway, that day was eventful for others too. Most of the divers were drifted away by the current. Tender (small powered boat usually attached the main boat as a backup) had to be dispatched to recover them. Anyway, it was a day I will not forget. 

WOMBAT shipwreck

Back in Sri Lanka I had a great diving season. Apart from usual south western destinations, I dived in Tangalle and Kalpitiya for the first time and both offered some outstanding experiences. Most importantly, I started liking everything about Kalpitiya. It is no-rush place. More than anything, people of Kalpitiya were so friendly and helpful. This is a far cry from South where money is everything. I had a quick mental note this is going to be a place I am coming again and again.

Tangalle too offered great diving. I managed to shoot few good images of a nice shipwreck. Later on I posted one of those images in social media which attracted quite an audience. Interestingly, within the audience was the first person to dive the wreck, none other than Rex I de Silva. I knew Rex for a while and he is like an living encyclopedia on history of diving and wildlife. Actually, I wasn't able to answer some of the questions asked by Rex. Anyway, Dharshana Jayawardena (Shipwreck Explorer) who joined the conversation helped positively identify the wreck as WOMBAT ship wreck. 

Here is the story as said by Rex I de Silva;

"This is the story of the WOMBAT. The “Wombat was under tow from Singapore with a load of mining equipment. In early 1975 it was off the south coast of Sri Lanka when, at night in heavy rain and rough weather, it was boarded by local fishermen who stole the waterproof canvas hatch covers. The barge slowly took on water and sank off Nilwella. The captain of the towing tug, a Korean, was armed and fired a few shots in the air, but the thieves got away. In early 1975 diver Maxwell Parsons and I were hired by the insurers to locate the wreck, which we did in a couple of days. In late March 1975 a Singapore salvage company arrived in their salvage tug to recover the cargo. Diver Howard Dias and I were hired to assist in the diving operations. However, salvage operations were abandoned in early April with the onset of bad weather. Only a part of the cargo was recovered. It was on the WOMBAT that I honed my skills in the use of an oxy-arc cutting torch. It is indeed thrilling to see the old “Wombat” after the lapse of almost a half-century."

All my photos of the wreck were willingly handed over to be achieved in National Shipwreck Database prepared by Maritime Archeology unit of Sri Lanka for further references and studies. Rasika Muthukuimarana (Marine Archeologist) mentioned, he was about to conclude this wreck as "unidentified" and the conversation triggered with my photo had connected the dots in identifying.

After a couple of months, I met Rex at Sub Aqua Club talk. Actually, we had communicated with each other for many years yet hadn't met. I could also remember I contacted him from Sydney long ago just to identify a shark which I photographed in north of Great Barrier Reef. Later on I managed to secure a signed copy of Sharks of Sri Lanka book authored by Rex without meeting him in person.

Economic crisis and fuel shortage

By early 2022 Sri Lanka was badly hit by an Economic crisis lead by lack of foreign exchange and a set of usual stupid decisions by government. This pushed ordinary life to an edge. Twin brother of this crisis is energy crisis: A lengthy power cuts and shortage of fuel. This changed my life a lot. I had to go to different places searching for uninterrupted power supply, to complete my official assignments. Once I was supposed to support an important system deployment during a power cut which forced me to complete at a medical center as only place with generated power at the time! I started leaving home early to the co-worker space at Shangri-la hotel to perform my office duties which was a hectic travel. My comfortable life in Sri Lanka was derailing. 

Fuel shortage was one of the biggest headaches. This forced an average person to stay up to 24 hours in a queue to get fuel for the car. Fun part is you may also come empty handed after staying 10 - 20 hours! These queues started to have its own character to sustain the lives of people who stay in the queue. People started to share a tea. One will have to trust the "Stranger" next to you and keep your valuable vehicle with him if need a break. 

Most interestingly, people get to gather and started talking in groups. Main subjects are essentially, "What happened to Sri Lanka..", "Will IMF help.." and "How to migrate to a developed country to secure the future". Last topic was paramount. It was a time irrespective of young or old, men or women, everybody tried their best to leave the country. Once in a while, during those lengthy conversations in fuel queues, I mentioned that I do have the citizenship of Australia in a very casual manner. Then people were staring at me like they saw a crazy beast. Not to say what kind of comments were thrown at me.. :-)

Such a fool.. we are stuck here without a way to jump out of this country

තෝ වගේ පිස්සෙක්..අපි මේ රටින් පැනගන්න බැරුව ඉන්නවා..

So I just laughed saying some people are different and I am that some people! 

My gypsy life continued! 

My job was shaken when the semi-government agency of Western Australia, where I worked, sold its IP of the project to a big auditing firm. Auditing firms are full of shit, so called Processes. They reached out to me and sent an offer letter to continue the job, but didn't allow me working from Sri Lanka. Hence, I had to leave that engagement. Then I joined another consultancy firm who provide technical consultancy to WA government, who agreed to give me some flexibility, yet travel was inevitable. Given the situation in Sri Lanka, giving up a chance of earning $$ was not I would give-up. so I ended up in Perth again by August 2022! Anyway, landing into winter after spending great sunny time under the equatorial sun was a nightmare.

Now I am in Australia and its winter! When I left last time, WA was keeping its community safe from COVID, yet story was far different this time. Covid was spreading everywhere and my office was no difference. So I knew its matter of time. On 16th July I found my RAT test positive for Covid-19! I was living in a place belong a young Australian musician called Nethan. He was helpful and provided me a self-contained section of a house with my own attached bathroom and a kitchen. Thankfully, I recovered pretty fast and in two weeks time I was back with my routine jogging as well. I didn't forget to complement Nethan's help by sending a hamper of beer in my next pay day. 

While I didn't plan any adventures or diving this time, decided to spend  more time reading. I ended up spending most weekends in Perth City library and its coffee shop. I was bit worried thinking, perhaps, my adventure gene is dying since its not my character to spend time this lazy. I realized that I had two pains that distracted me from the peace of mind which is essential to capitalize ones ideas. One is, I knew most of my friends and collogues living in Sri Lanka are going through a tough life. Secondly, my job demanded a lot of new learning.  

I visited my beloved places like Rottnest Island, Fremantle and Hillarys boat harbor once weather improved. Whenever I go to Perth I usually visit Shipwreck Museum and contemplate the tragic of Batavia wreck where replica is made of real remnants. 

Other usual place I visit without fail is Prasanna's (i.e. Gonsa) home. Prasanna is my university batch mate and to be honest, we were not close as friends at that time because he got a bad mouth which I wasn't that pleased with. Anyway, Prasanna's home became one of the few places I visit since started to come to Perth. His wife Anoma and kids too always warmly welcomed me. We usually spent time in patio, drinking and talking about good old days.

As I write this, I am looking forward to go back to Sri Lanka.. by now, more changes may have taken place due to difficult economic situation.. Whatever said and done I am pretty sure, Sri Lankans are capable of making a joke out of any damn life or death situation!