Lanterns and Lights

This post was in the pipeline for a long time. Actually the pictures are almost a month old. On the 27th of May the Sri Lankan community celebrated Vesak in great grandeur. It was the first Vesak celebration since the 30 decade long civil war was over and that it self, added extra flavor and color to the festival. Sri Lankans from allover the island joined together hand in hand to make this Vesak season one of the best any Sri Lankan had seen.


Vesak is celebrated by all most all Buddhists to  commemorate the birth, enlightenment (Nirvana), and passing away (Parinirvana) of Gautama Buddha. It's a time of celebration which is much anticipated by not only the Buddhist but by the whole community itself. Streets, houses, buildings, basically anything deco-ratable is colorfully dressed up with lights and lanterns and flags and what not? 


I too had a blast this Vesak, well I did something that I wanted to do for so long and I finally did it. I do not have the licence to ride motorcycles. On the 27th I had a grand tour of the "Vesak Themagula". I rode with no licence at all on a big ass motorcycle, to one of three locations the "Themagula" was held, "Bauddaaloka Mawatha". The others being "Gangaraamya" and "Lake House" were also splendid. The street was filled with so many people, I could barely choose my direction, I was pulled all over the place the crowd went. Here are a few pictures I managed to capture in all that rush.

All credit goes to the Sri Lankan army for putting up this excellent piece of art.

One of the best I saw this year.

This is the traditional "Atta Pattama", diamond shaped lantern.

Sri Lankans proudly celebrated Vesak in style, unitedly as one nation this year and I'm glad I was alive to see it. I hope this same spirit will linger on till the end of age.

Hope you enjoyed the post.

Cheers!

Palliya Watta

With so much time in my hands I have not posted in a while and I though I'd scribble some thing today. I find it really weird that I love it when I'm busy and not so much when I'm not. I manage to do a lot more when I have lectures and meetings and church and all that going on. Somehow I squeeze in at least 5 to 6 posts a month when things are all over the place.  

Any way, not Long ago Chavie came over for a while and we decided to head out to sea, wait wait, that sounded wrong. No sailors here!, we wanted to head out to the beach, you know?, just to chill. We were fully hacked up after exams and all, so decided to take it easy for a while.

The sky was a little dark that day, since it had been raining and all.The Hendala beach also called the "Palliya Watta Beach" is quite popular these days. It gets packed on weekends and poya days. So there we are walking down a jungly lane to get to the beach and I'll say with out a doubt, we saw The beach at it's best that day.

The sunset was much more clearer that day. And the sea was a bit rough. And it was white.

Zoom in and see the ship moving towards the sun. Pretty cool :D

The sun set was amazing. Chavie and I watched in silence, till the sea gulped the big ball up.

Look how the waves are clashing against the rocks, "In all it's fury", I must say!

Colombo, late afternoon.

Colombo, late evening.

I guess I'm a sucker for sunsets, It took me so long to realize it, hmmm :D Bliss!

Hope you enjoyed the post.

Cheers!

Two months? Ghaaa

These days are extremely boring and a utter waste of time. After working quite hard for so long this two month vacation is really getting to me. Wonder why they have to give a two month vacation? I don't think they have any justification for that. I was reminded by a friend not too long ago, that every vacation we get during the three year course adds up to one year. Why do we have to waste one whole year when we can finish what we do in two years? I don't like wasting time. I like chilling but not all day long for two whole months.

Having unraveled my sudden realization of truth, I thought I'd share a few pictures. Here goes,

This dragonfly was taken in the Passi Kudah, beach. Baticaloa has a insane population of dragon flies. Not that it was mentioned anywhere, I just realized. every where you look there are plenty.

One more of the little fella who was so caught up in nibbling some thing that he let me get really close to him. Take a closer look and you actually can see the lad's wings.

Now thats how they transport fire wood in the North and east parts of Sri Lanka. Zoom in and take a closer look. The guy is transporting a lorry load of fire wood.

This paaruwa(boat used for fishing) is waiting to head out to sea.

Fisherman mending his nets, after fishing all night.

I love this picture for some reason. The guy looks extremely cool and he is chill-axing :P

Probably the craziest thing I have done. I was that close to the elephant, and he had attacked a villager minutes ago. I feel stupid now for doing it. This was some where in Habarana.

Some thing I have learnt during the past week is you have to

forGIVE to forGET.

It has been working for me, why don't ya'll give it a shot?

Hope you enjoyed the post. 

Cheers!

Passi in all her Glory

My mom didn’t have to put up a fight this time, I agreed with no issues at all. I usually don’t like to attend weddings and parties where my greater family is also a part of the chaos, my guys are a little problematic. This time I agreed with no hassle at all to go for a Home coming ceremony in Passikudah, Baticaloa.  You might have already realized why I agreed without any hesitation. Well if you didn’t, one of the best frigging beaches found on this paradise island is right there, in Passikudah.

I was a little afraid the ride would be really tiring since the host of the trip and the party had hired a not so comfy bus. It was one of those Ashok Leyland buses, not the nasty, ugly, angry looking ones that play shitty “octa pad” music, but the decent ones with a good head rest seat and all. The plan was to leave by 5 in the morning but you know as usual it was 7 when we left, the codda(coordinator) had fallen asleep.

It was raining heavily, the night before and the roads were all muddy and ugly. The bus speeded through the winding roads splitting puddles in half, up until Kerunegala. The road from there on is quite straight. So as usual I was shouting out loud, to stop in the “Kurunegala Kaley” to have poll roti and bim maal,and no one heard me, Jesus Christ!

Being the “kiri panu gaaya” fellow, I couldn’t sit for long in the seat. So I decided to go sit in the foot board step, the place I usually end up on any trip I take in a bus. I managed to hit a few good shots here and there.

We arrived at Passikudah at around 4 in the afternoon. Everyone was full “hunter”, so they quietly walked into their rooms to get ready for the party. The party was horrid, the food was, *I’m going to puke face*, but it didn’t matter. The only thing playing in my head was the Sun rise over the eastern sea of Sri Lanka! I told amma I had to go see it. I asked them to join me; they said okay, I went to sleep with the alarm set to 5.15.

So I wake up from my not so comfortable bed, the ground, to the sound of my “Kalu Kella” calling me to go see the beach :D Everyone was fast asleep. I woke them up and all they said was, uuhhhh, and they went back to bed, even Nunga! I put on my red mal mal Shorts and headed down to the beach, which as I was informed was not so far away. I had no clue how to get to it. So now I’m down the pathway leading to the main gate. I was hoping the gate won’t be closed, and as usual, the exact opposite to what I hoped happened, the gate was locked with a inch thick Ibba(padlock). I was a little reluctant to jump over it because this one had major spikes on it. But what the hell I was late, so I did it, *proud*.

So I was expecting to hear at least the waves crashing but, nothing coming*crazy Indian hand motion*! And for my luck I met a fisherman on his way to his boat and I got directions. As I headed down the bend and turned, there she was in all her glory, calm as ever, blue in color, sexy, wiggly, waiting for me! I was so turned on :P And this is what the rest of my story looked like.

So when I walked into the beach, it was really blue. I was just struck in awe. No one was on the beach. Not even a dog, not even a crow, pin drop silence.

Waiting for the sun to come.

Result of boredom, trying to be artistic :P

Waiting........, if you didn't know, it's the hardest part :D

There she came, with a great smile.

The army post on the beach, how lucky :) *sigh*

It's the center of the bay. It's quite dangerous dipping here. Two boys, ## , not too long ago

I hung out at the beach for as long as I could. When will I get another chance? It was amazing. I can't explain, the beauty she was showing off that day. So far the best I have seen. It was worth all the hassle.

Check out my Flickr photo stream for the whole set of pictures. The sunrise looks really cool, really :D

I hope you enjoyed the post.

Cheers!