An evening courtesy of the Norwegians

I wondered what I would do this evening after a day’s work. I opened my email at 5pm and had an invitation for a Norwegian musical evening at the British School by a Norwegian friend from the 60’s, Arne Fjortoft. I called him immediately at 5 and said I will come. I got the best seats!!!

I did not have a vehicle to take me home to change and shower, so I walked over to the venue from my office about a hundred meters away and met a mutual friend and sat with him. I Chatted with Mano Chanmugam, who I had not met in decades, and exchanged pleasantries before settling in to an enchanting evening of music.

I was hoping for some Norwegian folk songs from the three musicians but instead was treated more to their version of English language American country music, and then the soul sounds of Soundarie David Rodrigo really got it going with a selection of old well known soul music and sprinkling of pop music from her female choir of 20. It was the first time I had heard them and was pleasantly surprised at their talent and they also sang together with the Norwegian trio for a while.

Soon after, I went to the Norwegian Ambassador’s residence which is right opposite where I live. I was the only guest who lived so close to the cocktail party venue. I chatted with many I knew like Bhavani from CPA and Ismeth’s wife and many I introduced myself to who knew of me, like Sanjiv Gardiner and Jehan Mendis, a relative, Orania and Mohan’s son who I was introduced to by Bhavani and only then realized who he was as I had met his mom earlier when I was walked up the stairs to the show.

Talked to artists, diplomats, and avoided the political types like KJ and Dayasiri, Sumathiran, Nimal Siripala and the NGO types like Jehan Perera, Pakiasothy and the Pafferel guy and a host of likeminded. Chatted with the host’s husband who was returning to Oslo in a week and the Ambsassador herself was leaving in a few weeks, after a record 6 years as deputy and then head. Her position will be filled by another lady.

The food and wine was great, and I only sampled the cheeses at the end, before walking across the road, home about 10pm. The music was a three piece jazz type band to keep things humming along. These places sure do pack out with a motley collection, all talking nonsense. 

A break in the dry zone – a worthy place to spend some time

  

Getting the most of a 4 day break, even while taking public transport is an opportunity to savor some quiet tranquil moments, even though it was interspersed with the occasional socializing and chats with friends and neighbors which forms part of one’s circle in these desolate parts.

Ratmale, while in the wilderness is not too far away from the center of town in Colombo. I left Gregory’s Road at 4 am on the 1st, calling a cab, and which came to the gate in 10 minutes. It was a Rs300 cab ride to the Private bus stand at Pettah and then onto an intercity bus to Minneriya costing just Rs230 for a one way ticket. It is a very pleasant time to travel with little traffic on the roads, and cool to beat.

I could have got off at the Minneriya (Railway) Station Handiya to take a Rs150 three wheeler ride to my property, but I went on and got off at the town, as I needed to get supplies for the few days stay. So technically using public transport I could be at my place at 10am the latest having left Colombo house at 4am and if I had caught the earlier bus that had just left, I would have been here an hour earlier.

It is the windy season, and there is a cool breeze that blows due to the tank by the property as well as the two ponds in front of the verandah, where I am typing this. There is no requirement for a mosquito net, and at nights a covering sheet is in order to keep out the excessive blowing. I sleep in the verandah which is open on 3 sides so I maximize on the wind blowing from all sides. The windy season in these parts are generally from May to October, and I recommend this time as the best time to be here to relax and unwind from the daily pressures of city or working life.

The abundance of bird life makes it all the more eventful, especially if you are an avid birder. Today comes to an end, a visit to the temple next door decorated today as it is Poson Poya, and then onto Gal Oya Railway Station riding pillion on the back of a bike sans helmet, to take the express train at 11pm to be in Colombo fresh for work in the morning!

 

The lack of transport ensured a more relaxing time. I was also able to spend time at the property and discover all the little things that need to be attended to. There is still a lot of work to furnish, but just for my relaxation, the place is adequately equipped and that can happen in stages.

The photo above is of the lush paddy fields of the village which are fed from the stored waters of the local village tank adjoining my property, the Ratmale Tank.

The love-nest for a newly married couple – or is it just a mud hut?

I was invited to a wedding of a close associate of mine, in Hingurakgoda, whose runs a small rice mill close to my agricultural property there. The wedding photos are in the previous blog entry.

It is considered normal for a man in this area to get married before they reach 25 and the girls before they are 20. I do not know the reason, but I fear parents do not want their children to go astray and often it is they who encourage early marriage. Often the age difference between the young couple is barely a year, and some associations are made in the school itself. Here very few make it to University, a normal method, where marriages are delayed due to higher studies.

It is also worthy of note that many who get married at a young age, are not sufficiently mature, and many of the men are still in their flirtatious stage. It must be noted that as I write this, my boy who is 19 has just been thrashed (while I was writing this entry) by the father of the girl he had an affair with in the village here in Ratmale, where I am at the moment.

She is 17. It was not my place to intervene, and he took the blows, without beating up the older man in turn. It is the way parents get it off when such an incident happens, without blaming their daughter also for the association. By the way she is gated, not allowed to go to school anymore, which is a worse sin for this association from which she has no chance of bettering herself. Now tell me when the girl discovers the Dad has just beaten up her boyfriend, she will be more determined to pursue a dead beat relationship, than if the parents allowed them to associate in their presence when both would finally give it up. So who is the fool?

Anyway to get back to what I was writing, the newly married couple will be living in the main house with his parents. So in the end of the property on the other side of the paddy fields that surround it, the father has built a cosy hut, I went there yesterday to relax in an easy chair in the shade. It is quiet and with the windy season in full swing in the area, a clear breeze blows with the sound of rustling leaves a perfect spot for privacy.

It is a charming property well tended, a right little ranchette with about 3 acres of paddy to make it whole. No wonder those in Rajarata live like kings sometimes, even though in terms of assets they posses very little.

Garden party Nuptials 'at home'

I attended the Garden Party 'at home' at the home of the groom today. He is the owner of the Rice Mill where I have for many years milled my paddy, before I bring it to my customers fresh the following day. Most of that activity has had to be in abeyance since my accident and this boy Hasantha insisted I come to his wedding.

The main celebrations were at the Giritale Hotel the previous day, and there were about 250 guests at his home today for a lunch time buffet lunch at his parents home which will also be his home as a couple.

He is 22 and his bride 20, and if one looks at the photos one would realize that the Polonnaruwa District lasses unlike the puny Colombo ones, are quite nourished, living on three square meals a day throughout with the bulk of it being white rice!

The photos are of the couple during the day. They had the obligatory videographer and the live band as well for the event. Despite a power outage in the area, they were even able to get an emergency generator to ensure the proceedings went off smoothly.

Like in all weddings, there was a corner reserved for the gentlemen to indulge in their tipple, to which I was directed for much of the morning, where as the time went on, the talk grew more and more incoherrent not on my part I might add.

It was very creditable, for this boy, when I see so many young people his age or older, without any direction, to have decided to take on the rice mill at the Kotelawala junction and make a go of it. He even uses by products as fuel to par boil the paddy when he make the par boiled rice for sale in his mill.

It shows what one can do if one really puts one's mind to it. I believe the wedding was completely financed by his earnings as his bride is not of any financial means to assist in this regard.

A Sunday in the life of a working MP!

Sundays are usually the busiest days of a working MP who has both to husband an electorate and as is the case now due to the preference voting system, has to travel throughout the District to ensure that people know him in the whole area, where he can expect to garner votes at an election.


For the Gamapaha District MP, today we had allocated to the Ja Ela constituency, to go around with two local, one Pradeshiya Sabha and another a Provincial Councillor to go about distributing items.

The first stop was at a fairly large Sunday School, of over 900 students namely at the Deepaduththamarama Purana Vihare in Nivandama, where 5 steel desks for the school were given as one is shown in the first picture. 


The second was giving a water tank to a very small, you can see all the students above, of a Sunday School that is held in the open for lack of any buildings. It was one of the smallest temples around with a great need for improvements, and this was one that requested a tank for storing water both for the school and the priest.

 Then it was off to a small Catholic Church to give them some chairs for the school, and also to be shown where they were hoping to build a few rooms as the Sunday School is currently held under the trees in the garden surrounding the church.

We then proceeded to a Baptist Church which was over 170 years old, to which we also gave chairs as shown in the photo above.

After we were hosted to a scrumptious lunch by Mr Ranjit Govinna, a teacher at St Benedicts College, Colombo, we spent the afternoon giving sports equipment to sports clubs in the area.


The photo above shows some boys holding onto the equipment they had just been given and photo below shows, a carrom board at another place where the local kids can play.


Then there was the obligatory funeral house of a long standing party supporter, who had died at a ripe old age, and it was good to show solidarity with a faithful supporter even after his passing.

After a further gift of a volley ball, and cricket bats and balls at two other places, see photos below we were able to get out of the area by 5.30pm. It was there fore a long day since 9am.

 The day was not over yet as we had to get back to the constituency for a series of wedding invitations, and funerals.
The day ended when I got back today Sunday the 13th of May after 10.30pm

The Vesak that I missed, is that really Vesak or a show of entertainment?

 When I snuck off to Minneriya over the Vesak holidays, people asked me why, as I would miss all the light shows in Colombo. Living on Gregory’s Road which completely lit up with lanterns as there is a Temple just up from where I am and then right along Wijerama is also lit, to say nothing about Bauddhaloka Mawatha, which is just a flash of light along and across like you have seen nothing yet!

Then to the Town Hall, and Nelum Pokuna decorated for the first time, and then walk along to the Gangarama, and Sirasa and Beira area and it is just a carnival of lights with thousands of people from all over converging to see the lights and the Vesak lantern competitions, where the first prize is an expensive motor vehicle.

Each year these Vesak Lanterns get even more sophisticated, and the show gets more widespread with the lights around the Beira incredible with its gaudy cacophony of colors, and quantity to dazzle anyone.

If it is all part of the massaging of the minds, to forget our daily hussle to feed our families, then I suppose it achieves the objective. If it is to remind the people of the true significance of Vesak, then where I went to was more real here was surreal! We had a sow dansal in the village and a few local small events, whilst the line of Minneriya Army camps provided us with the Vesak Lantern competition which drew crowds from around, all in tractor loads bursting at the bulges with humanity. 

 It reminded me of the irony, where now Trishaws can only carry 3 people at the back, and so soon the 20 people packed in a trailer of a hand tractor to see Vesak will also be a thing of the past. So let us enjoy it while it lasts!

There is no small amount of money spent to make this show, and it is pure entertainment for the masses and I cannot think it means anything more. The time and effort for the few days of show, is a huge commitment by all those engaged on the various projects of building the pandols and lanterns.

I wonder considering the hunger, more Dansalas and less light, would probably save a few hungry bellies this Vesak season.

Even tonight, that is the 10^th of May I can still go and see some of the lights here and there, but I do not have the urge to see a display of extravagance when there are more issues to be concerned about. It is a kind of escapism of the mind to take our minds of daily events to indulge in this but when the state constantly tells us they do not have the funds and that we must tighten our belts through this period, it does not tally with the huge amounts of money being spent on this spectacle.

The overnight train from Gal Oya Junction to Fort

I stayed a few nights over Vesak (4^th- 7^th May) at Ratmale residence near Kaudulla National Park.(www.ratmale.blogspot.com) I was without transport. I was confined to my house. I am still unable to walk without feeling stiff with the elbow crutch!

On reflection the enforced stay was a great relief, as I could sit on the rocking chair on my verandah and watch a splendid show of bird life pass me by, all unexpected and a thrill. The pied hornbill was the best in show this time, as he came every day and sat on a tree eating fruit from place to place almost in front of me.

The regulars, like the Serpent Eagle, and the Fish Owl, along with the smallies, like the paradise flycatchers, four varieties of kingfisher along with barbets, woodpeckers, oriols, and numerous small finches to eat the jam fruit from the trees all added to the interest of sitting and taking all natures wonders in.

With my verandah open the birds fly right through it, and when we include the butterflies, dragon flies and other flying insects there was a constant display.

It was the first time I had stayed so long here and I must say I enjoyed every bit of it and was sorry to leave. I had to use public transport to get back the toss up was taking the faster bus, but catching it in Hingurakgoda to get a seat as the Minneriya Station junction, the closest point in the main road would mean a tight squeeze in. The second choice was taking the slow train catching it at Minneriya or the faster express catching it at the Gal Oya Junction and I opted for the latter.

After dinner at a very close farmer friend who is also a neighbor, I was taken in a trishaw by two friends who are both park rangers at the Minneriya National Park the whole distance of about 5 km to the Station about 15 minutes away.


The train was late the 11pm coming in at Midnight. They only sell the tickets once the train leaves Hingurakgoda station, I do not know why. Anyway each ticket was Rs400, though the ticket itself has Rs220 stamped on it. So I hope I was not overcharged for the second class ticket.

We got to Fort at 6am on the dot so the train made up all the lost time. I was fortunate to get a seat as the train was full, with people getting back to work after the long weekend. It was the Batticaloa Express to Fort. I nodded off to sleep from time to time so I do not know all the stations it stopped at but unlike the ‘thapal train’ which stops at over 20 stations I think this was about 7. Palugaswewa, Kekirawa, Maho, Kurunegala, Polgahawela, Gampaha, Maradana.