My Love

The love I have for the beach never seems to die. I much await to escape from the busyness of life, and spend a few hours listening to my love sing. The walks I take whenever I can spare a few hours have become events  I look forward to, the most. The best part is, when you are out there, right next to her, you forget every thing. All the assignments, the exams,  and what not? She helps you take your mind off things so effortlessly. The breeze that comes along with her mesmerizing voice refreshes your soul, your mind, your all. The beauty she presents each day in a different way can not bypass your mind! It will surely find a place in your heart. 

I have been able to hang out at the beach a little these days. Was able to get these pictures. 

This is form the pier in Wellawatta, one of my favorite places in the beach. Mount Lavinia is visible far away.

This picture was also taken in Wellawatta. I took this while I was taking a walk one Saturday.

This is also from Wellawatta, right after the train station. I was running late for a meet up that day, snapped this and soon and ran off.

This was taken in Galle Face, I went there with a few friends couple of days ago.

Look how the rays of the sun is escaping through the clouds. There was a patch of sun rays on the water and it looked so cool.

I think this looks awesome. 

The rays of the sun is just breath taking.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. All the credit goes to Kalu Kella.

Cheers!

look what i found!

It was almost a year since we got Lassie, a one of a kind German shepherd. She's one of those dogs who doesn't give a shit. No matter who comes in to the house, I've never heard her growl. She's too friendly, i would say!

One fine day I was playing fetch with Lassie, with a wretched tennis ball. Lassie gets hyper at odd times. She some times can't stop running around the house. I do this wired slow dance to make Lassie hyper. This day I did it bloody well, and God, din't she start running. I heard my mom yell from the kitchen, asking me to stop messing with the dog. I did.

The ball was missing, the one which was in Lassies mouth. I started looking for it around a bushy tree my grandma had planted. And look what I found!

I didn't go to mess with the nest, it looked so fragile.

Later that evening I was able to capture this.

Another picture from my roof top, the best one I would say!

I hope you enjoyed the post.

Cheers!

Story of the Pier

Yet another day, I was walking down the Wellawatta beach. I t was bright and sunny. I was loving it. Great day indeed. I decided to go passing the Navy post at the very end of Marine drive. It was the first time I had gone that way. There was a pier kinda thing, made of stones. Looked pretty cool, regardless of the stench coming from the "Kunu ela"(Beautiful canal) behind it. So i go along this pier and look whom I bumped in to.

Bright and sunny day, fabulous beach!

The peer at Wellawatta.

He looks really shy doesn't he?

He was the only good looking one.

I finally sang a song and made the fellow come out =)

I was completely soaked after I finished taking pictures.  I had to "Bada gaala"(crawl) and go along the rocks to get to the crabs. The rocks were really slippery and the soggy stuff on the rocks felt terrible when the squeezed in through my toes. Since the tide was low I made it to the other side. Kalu kella was faithful enough to stand by and do her job.

I hope you enjoyed it.

Cheers!

Re-united

I was really tired that day, after the very boring lectures. I supposed to meet a few friends later that evening. I was to do some discussing with them about this documentary we were doing. Any way I got there too early as usual. I tend to go very early to places. One of my wired attributes of many. I have noticed people getting really frustrated when I arrive early, I don’t care any way.

I had about two hours to kill. On my way I thought, I’ll play Sudoku till my friends come. I did end up playing Sudoku for a long time, which I’m obsessed with. Still I had almost an hour left.

I thought I’d take a walk. I usually take long walks; another weirdness of mine, which people think is stupid. I love looking at shit. That’s what makes me walk. So I start walking. Looking what Wellawatta-ians(if that is even a word)were up to that day.

 Suddenly I hear this lovely voice calling out to me. A voice that sounded so familiar, so known. It sounded as though it was calling out my name. She was singing my name in different tones and pitches. As the signals of her voice grew stronger and started mesmerizing my mind, I could feel my feet getting swifter. I start walking to the voice. And around the street corner, my oh my, didn’t I see her, in all her glamour and majesty. It was my love, my best friend, my obsession, my home away from home my better half. It was her, my love who I managed to forget so conveniently.

Little did I know that I was so close to the beach, she was right there under my nose. Since I was a little kid I have been attracted to the beach in many obscure ways. She has been such an attraction I would do anything to spend a moments hours with her. She is somehow present in most of the moments that hold a special place in my heart.

And at that moment, when i saw her, I fell in love again, so fast and so innocently, it was like we never departed.

That evening, this is what she offered me at the shore in Wellawatta.

    The sun is almost there. Waiting to go down and cool =D

If you look closely you'll be able to see the world trade center in Colombo. This is how Colombo looks like from wellawatta.

    You can see Mount-lavinia far away. It's one of the best places i love to hang out. Especially this place called Boo-Baa. It's right after the Mountlavnia Hotel, towards Moratuwa.

Thus ends the story about my lustful relationship with the beach.
 I hope you enjoyed the post.

 Cheers!

The party in the east

Last year, during the latter part of April, I was considering giving up chilling and doing some serious studies. It was then that heat of the Advance level exam, which was due in August 2009, started to get to my bottom. I hadn't done any studying, at all. I was involved in all sorts of stuff outside school, so my attendance to school was not that great. I didn't go for any extra classes because every single class I go to, I fall asleep before the lesson begins. I assume everyone will agree if I say, those naps you take during class are the best naps you would ever take.

This good friend of mine calls me up, out of the blue!, and asks me if I would like to be a part of a relief team that helped people in the east, people who were affected by the war. The obvious answer, anyone who loves to travel would give when they hear the word “EAST”, “Yes”, came outta my mouth without any hesitation what so ever.

So, this trip was organized to go visit the pals in the Far East. I was very excited regardless of m exam in August. My mom started nagging as usual, although this time she had a valid reason. I’m a pro at convincing, so "අම්මට ගුලිය බැස්සුවා"(begged my mom).

Early march, the lads and the ladies meet up, around 12 of us, at some 2 in the morning and leave to Baticaloa. I couldn’t get proper sleep due to the excitement the trip brought along with it. We left as early as possible, since we had a good load of work to do.

6 to 7 hours down the line, weather had changed, van was moving at an extremely slow speed down a terribly broken road, which seemed to lead to the cesstpit of hell. The ride was so bumpy, many of the girls in the van puked.

Before I knew it I was there, I was in Baticaloa. A very depressing place, signs of war all over, lean and ugly looking trees. Not what I expected. Anyway I made up mind, to have a good time there, regardless of what it had to offer.

The guys had planned to visit a few villages in Batticaloa and Thiru-kovil, Ampara. Everyone hoped for the best, since the war and all, was not over then.

We head down to a village between “Mahaoya” and Batticaloa name “Kithula”, at around 12 in the afternoon. I assume you would understand how hot the sun was. It can be called one of mother earth's best ovens. Many villages there are formed around Army or STF camps. This was one of them too. The STF that day had organized an “Avurudu Uthsavaya” for the kids in the village. We joined them, broke past the language barrier and all other differences there is, and and had tons of fun. Later that day, we met up with a few villagers, had some good chit chats. "Interesting personalities", I would say, and they had very wired sense of humor. They were super excited with what we had brought for them from Colombo.

(A "Kanaa-mutti" competition.)

(The climbing of the greased tree)

(Young Kilojan has to walk about 3 miles to get a decent re-fill of water)

(This is their backyard, miles and miles of vast open fields)

I took these photos on our way back to the place we spent the night. It's from a place called "Rugam" between Kithula and Mahaoya.

(Thoppigala along with a mountain range can been seen from here during the early hours of the day. "Kalu kella" refused to get a picture of it, since it's a considerable distance away.)

If you look closely you'll be able see two fisherman on a "Paaruwa"(some what like a canoe) fishing.

Early, the following morning, we arrived at a village in a remote part of Batticaloa. A village called “Karadiyanaru-kulam”.You can find it down the road to “Thoppi-gala” (which the SL army rescued not long ago).

The guys from the STF mentioned that the folk from “Karadiyanru-kulam” were considered the lowest cast among the tamils in that area, which is really sad. I thought all that jazz was forgotten long time ago.

(The junction from which the road to "Thoppigala" starts.)

Poverty ruled this village, so much so that some children in the village hadn't been to the Batticaloa town. Funny story comes in to my mind. When this team had once visited Karadiyanaarukulam before, they had seen some villagers trying to wash their wretched clothes, which they usually don't wash. They had been murmuring to them selves, as though they were scolding some one. Our lads got a little inquisitive and couldn't wait to check out what was going on. They had approached them and had seen that that they were using some wired kind of soap, stuff the guys from Colombo had never seen. Wanting to know more they asked the villagers what soap it was. They had mention some NGOs had given the soap to them, and then said that it was terrible. One of the lads had taken the soap in to his hand to check it out. He then, couldn't stop laughing. When everyone asked as to why he was laughing, he had given them the soap. It was god darn KRAFT CHEESE!!!! I guess now you would understand what kind of people we were dealing with. People who didn't know what was cos-tic soda and milk.

I met a girl. Her name, Lakshmi. She was only 20, she had five children. The eldest not more than six years. Her husband died whilst serving for the LTTE. Poor soul. Many villagers there do not have any document of Identification, not even a birth certificate. The village has it's own traditions. Everyone sleeps with every one, much like the Bold ant the Beautiful. And my oh my, don't they love to reproduce. They pop out kids in style, like god damn tennis ball shooters.

Most of the villagers live under trees during the day. The heat is unbearable, especially in the little huts they have constructed with much effort using aluminum sheets NGOs have given them.

We gave them pictures the team took the previous time they visited them. They were stunned. Never had they seen a photograph of themselves. They were very thrilled with those little bubble blowers we gave them. It was very nice to be treated like celebrities for once, damn!

(The girl in blue, far behind, who is standing with a baby in her hand is Lakshmi)

(Madi-malar loved her picture)

We now have a pre-school up and running for the little ones in Karadiyanrukulam.

The Batticaloa town is too beautiful. It's surrounded with the sea and the lagoon from either side. Awesome. It will make your heart skip a beat, when you see the sun rise from there.

(This is how the lagoon looks from inside the town)

We left for Thrikovil, Ampara, after we toured the deserted streets of the Batticaloa town.

We arrive at Thrukovil, Ampara late that night. The folk were very exhausted. After having dinner we had a small sing song, which I enjoyed very much. Just before we went to bed a cry echoed through the village. Someone had come across a “maa-pila”, a very venomous snake. Bastard!, destroyed our sleep, which we were dreaming about for hours. We had to deal with that before we could do anything. Once we got rid of the small fella, we decided to hit the sack. And sweet Lord, didn't we know to sleep!

(This was the maa-pila)

Next morning, we visited some lads in a village name"Kudi-Nilam". We met up with a lot of kids, had a good load of fun. We brought them popsicles, which they craved for, from this old fart who was very fussy. I don't know why i feel like I have hated him for years. Anyway the little rascals enjoyed it all the way.

(I love this picture)

It was now time to go home. We left thirukovil in the afternoon, right after having lunch which the villagers prepared for us in much gratitude. They say when you cook out if love, even the most abysmal food is extremely delicious. Who ever told that, I understood what she/he was trying to say, just after I had that meal. It still makes my mouth watery, every single time I think about it. Crabs and prawns and what not?

As usual, every one was with a face like Galle face, when they realized it was time to leave. The east didn't have much to offer. What ever it offered, it offered with all it's heart. I think thats what made the difference.

We took a road that ran through the lands of“Pottuvil”, to get back to Colombo.

(Some where in "Pothuvil")

("Be-e-ay-utiful", isn't it?)

I learned to appreciate life so much more after this trip. We have so much, yet we can’t stop nagging and complaining. We all ways want more. The folk in the east have absolutely nothing and still they are so happy, it's like a party over there. We should learn to appreciate life more. Appreciate what we have more. I very surely say, you will enjoy life much more, if you learn to be a little more appreciative. The smallest things in life will bring so much satisfaction.

I know the post is very long. I have minimized it as much as possible. I hope you enjoyed it. I have shrunk the quality of the images because I had quite a few images to upload. I have so many more amazing pictures from this trip. I'll post them on flicker or something some time later.

Cheers!