Sri Lanka, the island of Ravana

If you have grown up in Chennai or Tamil nadu, in the 80’s, chances are you would have heard quite a bit about Sri Lanka. Mostly stuff that are horrific and tumultuous. 

My earliest hearsay about this place is when my fathers family discussed about two of my dad’s brothers who worked there in Colombo, in the 50’s and 60’s. Only one of them returned and the other married a Lankan lady and decided to settle there with no contacts with family back in Kerala. Have heard dad lament about his long lost brother, Jacob.

There is yet another memory of Sri Lanka. Much more vivid and clear. 1985, when the Sri Lankan Civil war caused by the LTTE, and its atrocities were at its peak, as an adolescent, had watched another young girl few years older than me, come over to my neighbors house in Chennai. She must have stayed for around 3 months or so with them, or longer, using Chennai as a safe transit before moving to one of the European countries, which I now fail to recall. Could be France. 

This girl was a catholic, though the family hosting her were protestants and they used to send her with me to church every Sunday, which was a good 2 km walk. I have listened with fear and heartache, the turmoil that her family had to go through in Colombo and how her house was razed to the ground in one night. She had 9 siblings and each of them had to struggle to get out of Colombo and get parked in safe havens across Tamil nadu, before they moved to one of the wealthier countries. Their family could afford it and they were many others in Colombo, who couldn’t and were struggling with the devastation around. She spoke in length about how war can tear families apart and create unimaginable loss of lives and resources. It stuck in my young mind and has never left me. 

As the flight took off from Chennai and moved towards Ceylon, that’s another name I am used to, the map that I had looked at all these years in hard copy and soft copies, came alive and the excitement of the holiday set in. Although we are going to spend only a few hours in Sri Lanka, I was looking forward to it.

From up above in the skies, Point Calimere, Vedharanyam, Dhanushkodi and Rameshwaram, just like how they were in the maps ( how else did I expect it to be?). J was also relating to the road trip he made to these places few months ago on his own and I could relate to all the photographs taken from the land and here I was getting a bird’s eye view of the Island. Sri Lanka as a country is so close, just like Bangalore may be. 

Sri Lankan Greeting 

We get off from the aircraft to the greetings of Ayubowan, and it makes as much sense as Vanakkam. Reminiscent of a time when my uncle would tune into Rupavahini, Srilankan TV channel and get to see a grainy screen to watch movies, and have heard anchors using this term to greet 😊 

Welcomed by a huge Buddha statue at the airport, we quickly moved onto our waiting cab and guide Chamika. I liked that name, traditionally Sri Lankan. isn’t it? Young boy who took us around. Colombo looked much like Kochi and its difficult to believe we were in a different country. 

The large Buddha Statue, Serene,  that welcomes guests at the Airport

Being a Sunday, though we couldn’t attend a holy mass, J insisted that we go to a church and we had finalized on St.Antony’s church, Kochchikade. A mass in Sinhalese was in progress and it was quite interesting to listen to the sing song tune of the language. It’s a small shrine and recently renovated by the Srilankan navy after the mass killings that happened in the church last Easter on 21st of April 2019. We witnessed the bullet marks on the church floor and apparently around 90+ people died in that terrorist attack. 

Dutch Hospital, Sri Lanka, Colombo

Granite tiled floors of Dutch Hospital

The areas around the Dutch hospital was fascinating, as here is where the old and the new co-exist. The World Trade centre of Sri Lanka is just opposite this old building. WTC is a twin tower with 40 floors in each, and has the most modern amenities and houses national and international businesses. And right there in front of it is a heritage building in old colonial style, so endearing with its pillars, granite tiled floors, red clay tiled roofs and a central courtyard, built by the Dutch ( and hence the name ) as a hospital for the soldiers of Dutch East India Company. Its no more a hospital now, and is transformed into an high end, expensive shopping and dining arcade. 

The thick walls, the door, windows and rafters made of teak reeks of history. I spent some quiet time here with J, on the granite seating area thinking about this place as a hospital and looking at the flight of pigeons. Dutch hospital was a soothing place, in spite of the hot sun. Must have been designed that way.

Inner Courtyard of Dutch Hospital now an expensive Dining and shopping arcade

Chamika slowed the car along Galle beach and showed us the latest skyscraper, the lotus tower and since we did not have much time during the layover to our destination, and since we wanted to spend more time at Gangaramaya temple, we just had to view them from the car. By now, we had finalized SL as one of our must see tourist destinations.

One of the Buddha Statues at Gangarmaya temple, Colombo

Jade Buddha

Few Giant sized Buddha at the sanctum sanctorium of Gangaramaya Temple

Buddha always reminds me of our girls trips and I must have bored J to death with our gals stories. Right in the middle of a busy city, stands Gangaramaya temple in all its majesty. Thankfully, like in all Buddhist temples, its calm and serene. Situated near Beira Lake, this temple was originally built many years ago, the temple gradually grew into the vast place with a monastery, pagoda, a building which is full of colorful Buddha statues, a Bodhi Tree and a Relic Chamber, as well as a library and a museum. At the far end of the courtyard are rows of elevating steps on which huge Buddha statues of the Thai style have been sequentially placed. Another of the many unique features about the temple is its museum. The collection ranges from small relics to large thrones and elephant tusks. Buddhist monks chanting is a common sight in all temples and I sat next to two huge burly dogs, who seemed comfortable with all the visitors here. I sat with them for a while, and had to leave as our time for peeking into Ceylon, was limited. 

Rows of Buddha statues in front of the temple

Left Ceylon with some mixed feelings primarily because it kindled a lot of thoughts about war, unrest, terrorist attacks and killings that this place was synonymous with in my head, since I was young. a single visit may not erase years of accumulated memories. It would take another long trip to Srilanka to erase those parallels and feed my head with pleasant and calming ones, but for now this one picture should keep me calm.

Some good company