In early 2020, I was in Sri Lanka with family enjoying all the comforts I can ask for. Not to say, while it was the west coast season, I also explored few shipwreck in the coast of Colombo and Galle. One of the dive buddies I dived with in Colombo was Simon Lawrance; I only realized later that he is a renowned Underwater photographer. He was kind enough to give me some valuable advises during dives.

While I was in Sri Lanka, one of my friends back in Australia, Kin, called and asked me to bring some groceries like rice etc. on my way back. This was a complete joke for me. Who is going to bring such rations from Sri Lanka to Australia! Then I left to Perth in mid-March and realized how true the advice given. Australia was in complete jeopardy and super market aisles were just deserted. Nothing to buy! It was the time I realized the seriousness of Corona outbreak. Within a couple of days all the airports of Australia were shut, followed by Sri Lanka. Now I am stranded in Perth, most isolated city in the world!

Before leave Sri Lanka I promised my family that I would see them every other month and stop this nomadic life for good by end of the year. Fulfilling that promise was impossible with the Covid-19 restrictions around international flying throughout the globe. Especially, Australia enforced a law, restricting international travels, which was the only democratic country to impose such a law. My mind started to go a rollercoaster ride. One day I am good and next day I am so down, even the best coffee or beer couldn’t fix. 

Western Australia is not a good place for me to get stranded in many ways. I didn’t have many friends or family. It’s not a big city like Sydney (or even Melbourne), where you have many things to do, but beaches and outdoors. There is a sunny side of the story. Since it’s an isolated place, managing of virus spreading was quite successful (as this writing). This gave me enough freedom to go out. Most importantly, my client wanted my consulting service to continue. Therefore, income source was there, which is a great relief. 

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I also thought of using the time wisely, even in tough circumstance. Therefore, I started learning everything I was curious about, from forex trading to Yoga and what not. Started reading all the books from the best seller list, those I could find from library. Visited museums again and again. 

I was tired of my own cooking some days and used to visit a Pasta place, ironically, ran by an Indian couple. They used to make especial one for me with many spices, a lot of them! Pasta – a south Asian style!

I became a frequent visitor in few coffee shops. In my local coffee shop I used to spend a lot of time, I met a mother and a son who became friends with me. Mothers’ name is Anna and son is Antonio. Antonio was my elder daughter’s age and he plays soccer. They usually visited the coffee shop on their way back from practices. He used to show me some pictures of his soccer moments and I showed my family photos back in Sri Lanka. Both mum and son was having an empathy on my situation. 

Beach became my other place of refuge in summer. Whether I plunge into water or just spend time onshore, salty air and easy going beach dwellers made me feel better. As I mentioned in my previous article in diving in cold waters, you cant just jump into the Indian ocean around Western Australia. Dangerous shark encounters were so frequent. Unfortunately, some were fatal. So its a matter of learning the shark sightings before heading to the beach if you wish to get wet.

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One other person I use to spend time with is Kuldeep. He is an Indian-Australian who is one of my flat mates. He is a good companion and got many stories to share with me. His biggest issue in the pandemic times too was the travel ban since he used to travel to Thailand a couple of times a year. That is his way of rejuvenation in life. He is passionate about perfumes! He knows a lot about it and maintain a massive collection of expensive perfumes. If he says about any interesting incident of his life, say dating a girl, he relates it with the perfume he was wearing. Quite unorthodox, isn’t it? Kuldeep’s passion actually infected to me too! Guess what, I ended up having few expensive perfumes from Giorgio Armani, Dolce and Gabbana etc. Perhaps, his passion flooded into me, but no other way around. He never join me in plunging into ocean!

I call my shared accommodation, a crazy place. People in this place belong to many different time zones. When I get up in the morning, I can see a guy just finishing his dinner after spending entire night playing computer games. There is another lady who wakes up at noon and start preparing the breakfast. I am actually thinking why I am not moving out of this mess.

Probably, part of me enjoyed the freedom came bundled with craziness. Rule of thumb in this house is, you don’t need to worry about others. No laws! Mates come at any time – go at any time – make noise even in the middle of the night – you hear others response saying f*ck off. Good thing about this place is I could wear my sarong and do whatever I want. Fry dry fish and make entire premises smelly. Thanks god – no law!

Anyway, this craziness wasn’t without any heaty situation in-between mates. One South American guy started to steal the stuff, actually beer, to be exact. First I ignored missing a beer or two occasionally. I learned this has been happening to others as well. One day, I came after something and really wanted to have a beer and found all in my shelf was gone. I was bloody angry and screamed at everybody in my best Mariyakade language (මරියකඩේ බාසාවෙන්), in English of course. Following day, as a revenge, Kuldeep had thrown some drinks from that South American bastard. Obviously, he thought its me. Then he got angry and openly threatened all. Anyway, it was evident, he was targeting me. What I learned later on was, he is highly addicted to alcohol and unpredictable once boozed. Then came the times I sleep, keeping my diving knife under my pillow. 

Now I am stranded in a faraway country; plus.. Got an in-house enemy to survive from!

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 As I mentioned in my previous post, Western Australia wasn’t hit badly by Covid. Though we were not allowed to go out of the state, travel within the state was possible during the period of jeopardy. In fact, I planned a couple of solo travels away from Perth. 

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In October 2020, I jumped into a Qantas flight and headed to Exmouth, a small coastal town located 1300 km North of Perth. Actually, there is no airport at Exmouth, so flights are landing in nearby military base at Learmouth. Jewel of Exmouth is the Ningaloo reef, which is one of the famous places for Whale Sharks. Just like Udawalawe or Minneriya is all about Elephants, Exmouth is boasting about Whale Sharks.

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This town has been established in 1967 to support nearby US naval communications station, though this area itself is having big history around World War II. Specially, Exmouth area was used as the base for iconic Operation Jaywick, which was deployed to destroy Japanese ships in Singapore harbor in 1943. 

Interestingly, Exmouth still holds the remnants of US occupation. I heard Exmouth retailers accepted both US and AUS dollars during that period.

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People met at Exmouth; Rheel, Renuka and Ema

I liked the township of Exmouth and its inhabitants who are stress free and sun loving. I just wandered around the city and ended-up in the Pub called Froth. There I met a matured person, called Rheel, who was spending half of the year in Exmouth with his wife after the retirement. He was spending his dream life fishing and enjoying the slow country life.

One day he was coming to the pub later than usual. Therefore, I said, “You are late Rheel”. He replied “Its Broom time!” That day I learned the meaning of Broom time. Broom is located further up, probably the last town up north, before starting the vast uninhabited land mass until Darwin. They say, in Broom, there is no value for time. People would do anything in their own phase. I like it! Pretty Sri Lankan too!

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One morning, I got up from the hotel room, went to the shared kitchen in my batik sarong on. I noticed one lady was looking at me with interest. When I got my morning tea prepared, this lady had already come closer to me and said;

“This looks a nice Sri Lankan sarong”

“Thanks, In deed. I am a Sri Lankan” I replied.

“කොහොමද? ආයුබෝවන්..” She said and made me surprised. 

Meeting Two Sri Lankans means a chat, a lot of it! Then we introduced ourselves. She, Dr.Renuka Ranasinghe, had come to Exmouth in search of opportunity to swim with whale sharks as many others. In addition, I learned, she had left Sri Lanka during the dark age of 88-89 to pursue higher studies in UK, eventually ended up in Perth. She had been in Sri Lankan National Swimming squad, prior to famous Julian Bowling’s era. Anyway, it was her last day in the lodge and we greeted each other and move on with our own plans.

One of the attendants at the hotel, Ema showed some interest when I was preparing my camera in the lobby and asked, are you hear for diving. I said that’s right. Then we started chatting about diving and etc. I was told she is an experienced dive master yet working in the hotel since she was advised to stay away from diving for a while after a surgery. It was good to have someone to talk about what you like most. She gave me some tips before heading for diving. When she got some free time, we played a game of pool. 

The day I left Exmouth she said, I wish you get a chance to fly back to Sri Lanka and see your family soon. I said, I wish you recover soon and start diving again. She also promise me to take diving in world famous Navy Pier, if I return.

I am sure; Ema should be diving within the cold waters of Ningaloo Reef by now. 

Whale calling at Ningaloo Reef

Well, I loved diving in the Ningaloo Reef. Actually, most of the diving crew were back packers who were learning to be dive masters and they were so friendly. One assignment given to me was to dive with a trainee and make her life hard by doing all the nonsense, to evaluate how she handle the situation. I was thinking, I am your client and now I am giving your crew a training! :-) Anyway, they were some of the generous and friendly crew I ever came across Australia. (Sorry, Sydney you are way behind!)

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I was expecting a small version of Great Barrier Reef in the Nigaloo Reef, which proved to be wrong soon. Ningaloo Reef is not tropical as I expected, but sub-tropical with much colder waters. It got its own unique style. Anyway, I was having a love-hate relationship with cold waters. So I managed to dive after wearing an extra layer to cover my head and ears. I was wondering how Indian Ocean is taking different forms in different ends. It was like meeting a friend in faraway place, yet behaves strangely. 

I don’t say my photography in Ningaloo reef was great in quantity, yet I managed to shoot a couple of great photos admired by viewers, including Resting Turtle which is my favorite. Most interestingly, I heard whale calling during my dives and that was an outstanding experience. (I should be trying this in Mirissa one day).

Diving under the historic Busselton Jetty 

When 2020 December was around the corner, it was evident that I am not going back to Sri Lanka soon and going to be alone during Xmas shutdown. One day, I read about the Busselton jetty and its marine life, which sparked my photography gene. During the Xmas time, I rented a car and drew about 200km south to reach Busselton. It is a touristic place. 

The famous Jetty of Busselton was built in 1865 and it is still the longest timber jetty in southern hemisphere. It is 1,841m long.  In fact, it is being preserved and attracts many tourists.  One of the iconic things in the Jetty is submerged observatory where people can look at the marine life through the glasses of its chamber. 

Well, I don’t see marine life without getting wet, so I contacted nearest diving center and hired diving gear. Water was very cold and I actually wore three layers of wetsuits to keep me warm. Actually, it was one of the most different dives I have ever done. Since structure of jetty obstruct the sunlight, you feel like you are going through a tunnel. Good thing is, they got abundance of marine life. Especially, the pillars of the jetty were heavily populated with soft corals so they look like X’mas trees. 

Once we saw a Port Jackson shark resting on the seabed. Sadly, it had a fishing hook and a thread still attached to its mouth. We tried to remove it but it wasn’t easy with the available tools. My buddy, Jordan said he would return with needed tools. I know, a good hunter don’t leave injured animals. Not sure how that can be applied for fishing. 

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I stayed two days in nearest coastal caravan park at Capel. While there were many campers, I stayed in a room made of converted container. There I enjoyed a wonderful sunset. Actually, I didn’t enjoy sunsets when I was young, but now Sunsets are healers. Sunsets makes me sad and emotional. Is it because Sunset remind us of our ending?

Eventually, some of my photos were used by Busselton dive center to promote themselves. 

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In 1942, Japanese captured Singapore and cut off the air link in between Australia and England. By 1943, Royal Australian Air force started one of the historically important flights in between Perth and Koggala (south of Sri Lanka), Consolidated PBY Catalina under the banner of Qantas , which was a distance of 6,480km, took record breaking time airborne, around 28hours. It was to be flying for more than 24 hours allowing seeing sunrise twice. Especially, it was timed to pass Japanese held territory in dark. One of these flights still considered longest airborne commercial flights in history that took 32 hours and 9 minutes. Interesting part is navigation technology was not that developed at the time and pilots were to navigate using basic compass and stars. For the passengers who completed this flight were awarded a certificate called Secret order of Double Sunrise. One remarkable fact is this flight never crashed, in spite of its extreme measure. 

Certificate awarded to passengers of double sunrise flight;

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This flight was later changed to a Consolidated Liberator that flew from Learmonth (near Exmouth) to Colombo, reducing flying time to 17 hours with better fuel consumption allowing more cargo. This was the first time; Qantas flew with its new famous logo we see today. *

Other story is rather amusing.

Gerd von Dincklage-Schulenburg was one of the pioneered diver and a spearfisherman, with German origin, lived in Sri Lanka. In 1955, he moved to Australia hoping to carry on with his passionate lifestyle with ocean.

Once Dincklage was drinking beer in Quokka Arms Hotel in Rottnest Island with his friend, Hugh Schmitt who was a journalist. When Dincklage was spending freely, Schmitt reminded that he needs to keep money for return trip to main land which is 19.7 km away. “Beer-influenced” Dincklage boasted that “in that case, I would swim back”. Rest was history! He didn’t limit his boasting to boozing time. He really made a solo swim from Fremantle to Rottnest in shark infested rough seas making the first ever-recorded swim through Rottnest channel. 

Gerd, enjoying after completing the swim;

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That gave the birth to one of the highly regarded annual ocean swims in Australia, Rottnest Channel Swim organized by Rottnest Channel Swim Association. Not to say, Gerd von Dincklage-Schulenburg embraced thousands of swimmers to follow his spirit of challenging the endurance. 

Dincklage lived in Perth, got married and had three children. Later on, he moved back to Germany. In 2014, he returned to Perth as a guest of the Rottnest swim organizers.

In some point, he mentioned, “The Rottnest swim was probably the longest I ever did, But I have probably been in the water for longer, particularly when I was spearfishing in Sri Lanka” **

* Details of this historic flight was first learned from a talk given by underwater explorer Dharshana Jayawardena at Sub Aqua Club of Sri Lanka.

** I first learned about Gerd von Dincklage-Schulenburg through an article authored by Rex I de Silva on Diving history of Sri Lanka.

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.

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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. 

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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."

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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.  

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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. 

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!

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.

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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.

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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. 

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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. 

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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.  

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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!

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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.

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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!

I had all the intensions of diving when east coast season started in 2023. I couldn't do much in west coast season this time since Sawanthi went through a surgery and needed a lot of rest, leaving me to play the typical family man role, for a change. By June, I was more than ready. While we are based in Colombo, east course diving always comes with logistics issues. 

When I prepare for the trip, both Devana and Niro volunteered to drop me and the gear to Trincomalee  which I denied since its sounded too much of a ask to me. Then plan turned out to be a different one which is I am to take a bus from Colombo to Trinco but they will join me at the last day of diving so we all driving towards Batticaloe to continue our excursion on land. That's gonna be my first trip that connect underwater expedition to a land excursion which sounds fascinating.

I picked the early morning bus from Fort to Trinco and reached my accommodation, a shitty place called Natraj Guest House, just after midday. 

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Ocean had been pretty calm for weeks and had changed a couple of days before. I wasn't aware of the real ordeal until I plunged into the water. Surface swell was intense, but I managed to descend holding the floating mooring line laid by Sri Lankan Navy to reach underwater museum. Though it was a sunny day, beneath the water was dark since surface movement of the ocean obstruct the light. 

After doing some shooting, in below average conditions, we entered a shipwreck where we felt sudden change of water temperature. I felt cold currents going through, but we were safely encapsulated inside the wreck. When we left the chamber and come out of narrow opening, we started to encounter the gale force of the current. I wasn't ready for that. I managed to hold a rustic metal railing still fitted to the wreck. My hand got cut and could see my blood flowing in curvy pattern. Blood was more maroon than red. Anyway, now I am stationed against the current. I had at least 90 bars of air in the tank. Then I saw our diving leader, Tharanga Malli as well as the Dutch diver who was the other member of the team were also hanging by the railing. 

Then I saw Tharanga wanted to start swimming. I was sure that current was not something we can easily deal with. Then I signaled him to go ahead and evaluate it. I didn't want to drain my energy. While getting old, I always think of saving the energy since that is crucial, not like when I was in my twenties. After a couple of failed attempts, Tharanga too gave up the idea of swimming away. After awhile, we knew we were loosing air fast. Then we three hold by hands and let go of the wreck railing, resulted taken us very fast with the current. Though terrified, it was such a strange feeling. I felt like an astronaut on free fall towards the endless Milky Way!

After current is subsided, we made a surface marker and ascend to the surface. Since surface was choppy getting to the boat too was quite a challenge. I saw a couple of other dive boats in a distance and watching at the struggle we were going through. Later on, our skipper said they left the site saying conditions are too dangerous. 

That was my first day of diving which tried my endurance. Came ashore exhausted yet feeling accomplished by the tough experience. Had a good lunch prepared by Kalu's team and done some resting which was essential. 

My other objective of this trip was to explore the seabed near the Koneswaram temple in Swami Rock. This seabed should be hiding all the past secrets of the events took place around the sacred area. As per the legend, Portuguese destroyed the temple and threw the sacred objects and etc. to the ocean in seventeenth century. This part of the story is connected with early expeditions of Mike Wilson & Arthur C. Clarke which I have written about at least a decade ago.

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Day before the dive, I visited the Koneswaram temple with Tharanga Malli. Scenery was splendid. Later on I had the opportunity of listening to a talk by Angeline Ondaatje who has explored this place extensively since her childhood and also done quite a research on history. One important fact she mentioned was this view had been a splendid one before recent constructions obstructed it. So beauty we see today is just the remaining of a big breathtaking picture.

Next day I dived the ocean adjoining the base of Swami Rock. Conditions were not the best, but much more manageable. Apart from fauna and boulders, we also saw some statues. What we saw weren't the historically important ones, which I am told by marine archeologist, Rasika Muthucumarana later on. Anyway, I was happy that I could explore a place I always wanted to. A couple of good underwater photographs I took were the bonus!

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Same evening I joined our diving crew for a beer and learned more about the area and history. Koneswaram temple we see today is a very recent establishment. History we should be concerned about is something different. There are politics around this. Some Tamil leaders were behind the new establishments and some had opposed the idea. Nevertheless, importance of studying the history of this site is of paramount importance. 

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As I finish the diving I was expecting my other collogues who were driving from Colombo to pick me and drive towards Batticaloa for the second leg of the trip, but on land this time.

As planned we headed to Batticaloa. Actually, I never been to Batticaloa before. Even the township itself had a character of its own. Jewellery shops and whatnot are open till late and the town was alive like a big city. Tharaka, a friend of Niro who is a high ranker in Petroleum corporation in the region, kindly allowed us accommodate in his bungalow. Not only that he also arranged a nice evening by the lagoon with drinks, so we all were indulged and had a great conversation. One other guy who met there was Dasun, who is a Army officer. While we were spending time by the lagoon, we saw small boats passing by those involve in catching crabs and fish with traditional methods. They only carry a small kerosine lamp. Boats were spotted from the far like scattered bunch of fireflies in the dark. 

Our guys are interested in history as a fact. So they decided to explore a couple of historically important places. Given we didn't have much time, we could only explore Thoppi Gala (තොප්පිගල) and Kusalana Malei (කුසලාන මලෙයි). 

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Kusalana Malai was a interesting site with ruins of ancient monuments mostly made of granite. It seems to have converted to a Hindu shrine in recent times. It sounds like some people wanted to reflect different picture. So this is directly connected to ethnic tension still irrupts time to time in eastern province of Sri Lanka. Anyway, we were warned to visit the place without getting attention of nearby communities. As we heard, they didn't like archeologists and journalists to visit these places because it can have adverse effect at their attempt of deformation of history.

One other objective of the visit was to make connection with Coast Veddasto find out more about this. Especially, Channa had read and explored quite a lot about history of indigenous people of Sri Lanka and he was very keen on meeting Coast Veddas.

Coast Veddas are supposed to be lower class of different Vedda groups in the island and their roots may have diverted from interior Veddas long ago. Like Veddas in Dambana (දඹාන) has closely connected with Buddhist culture, Coastal Veddas had connected with Hinduism since their territory was surrounded by Hindu community. Channa's theory is Coast Veddas may have some ancient practices those were vanished from other communities long ago. 

After knowing our enthusiasm, Tharaka introduced us to a professor in Eastern University who has been gathering information about whereabouts of this community and he gave some valuable clues where we should be searching for. Anyway, we realized its not a simple task that could do without spending a significant amount of time at it. We had to give up the idea, though reluctantly.

Following day, after having a great breakfast, we left Baticaloe, saying bye to Tharaka and Dasun for the great hospitality. We were actually thinking of returning in some point because its a different region that needs a lot of time to explore.

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Our team, except for me, are friends with officers of Department of Wildlife since they have consulted the officers during their diploma program conducted at University of Colombo. They thought it could be a good idea if they can pay a visit to Yala Galge wildlife range office on our way back and to see their "Students". Whatever said and done it was a very long route. That return journey was eventful!

Niro wasn't well and by the time we noticed he wasn't in good shape at all. Then came a tire puncture. Not to say we all were exhausted. After a while, Channa was vomiting by the side of the road. To add more bitterness, our van was stopped by Police and fined for speeding. Anyway, we made back to Colombo safely, but exhausted as could be.

Travel to east always add something special to the portfolio of experience and this was nor difference.  

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.

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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!).

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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 PollebeddaVedda 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.

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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.  

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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 of 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 who is a great poet from new generation.

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!

පරවුනුමල්නැවතනැතේපිපෙන්නෙ..

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"

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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.. 

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. 

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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

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.

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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"

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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. 

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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! 

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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.

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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. 

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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!

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