SRI LANKA - A PARADISE

My visit to Sri Lanka as a part of Mission attachment of our IFS training left an indelible mark on my memory. 

We reached Colombo at around 7pm in the night. By that time it was already dark, so could not see much out from the window of the bus that took us from Colombo airport to our Hotel - Taj Samudra. The only observation made during the bus journey was that the roads were very smooth and well built!  On reaching the hotel, we had a quick dinner as I was to eager to go outside and explore the place. But the too humid weather as soon as I stepped out, dampened my spirits. Still, I walked on along the beachside, with my colleague. Saw exuberant variety of seafood, people in jubilant mood enjoying, eating.

We went further down the road and saw gigantic buildings, some under construction. Out of curiosity, for knowing about those which did not have any label or board, I went to ask the guards. There we saw the old Parliament of SL, which was now being used as Presidential Secretariat. Then we figured out huge building with the label of BoC, thinking what this could be, we joked what Bank Of China would do in SL! Then again, went straight to a local standing nearby asking about it - no prize for the guesses - BANK OF CEYLON it was!

SL has a profound banking sector. No other industry was so commonly visible- except the ports and the omnipresent banks. Even Sbi had it's presence in Colombo. Gems and jewellery industry, Tea, rubber, coconut are some other industries present. In terms of demographics, SL has a population comprising of about 70% Sinhalese , 20% Tamils and 10% Muslims.

Then few other friends joined over the walk, we sat near the beach for sometime and the day ended with Holi festival flavour of Delhi at IGI airport diminishing into Kerala like weather and scenary of Colombo.

COLORS OF HOLI AT IGI

(which we could not celebrate in SL as the HC was in Delhi)

Next we had a visit to SL ports authority and the Colombo port. Colombo port city project, financed and being built by China, was in its final stages. Then we had a call on Deputy Foreign Minister of SL. Had an interactive meeting with him.  The Minister said that SL is more an Indian Ocean country rather than South Asian country. He told about the popularity of Srilankan crab in Singapore and heavily priced Srilankan Tuna in Tokyo and how SL itself imported large amount of fish from Latin American country of Chile!

COLOMBO PORT

Then we visited the so called 'Floating Parliament' of SL. Surrounded by water from all the sides, this Japanese designed Parliament functions every month, with two weeks per month as the working duration. Beautiful architecture with many women working in Parliamentary secretariat.

Then we visited Indian Peace Keeping Force memorial in Colombo followed by Dinner at Deputy High Commissioner's residence. This first formal dinner gave the real feel of our service. It felt like an IFS FAMILY for the first time after selection into the service. It was such a warm and cordial environment where we interacted with the Mission officials over the dinner and got some detail into what SL is!

The hectic first official day ended and the next day, we visited Indian Chancery where we had a briefing from DHC about the nitty gritties of how the Commission works. This was followed by a cultural program by local Srilankan artists at India Cultural Centre in Colombo. 

SL has a rich culture, highly influenced by Indian culture. Modern art of SL bears the influence of Rabindranath Tagore. At the ICC, we were welcomed by the Srilankan ceremonial drum dance. We saw the videos of masked dances - Kandyan dance, Low country dance.

Then began the long and arduous journey from Colombo to Kandy. In Kandy, we visited Dalada Maligawa Buddhist temple where we all had to wear white clothes according to their customs. This was followed by call on the Governor of Central Province, who spoke only Sinhalese. She was busy in her Janta darshan that day. Yet she took out time for a brief interaction. Though we had to wait for a long duration to see her!

As per our itinerary, we had meeting with IOT leaders. The previous day, our entire group was thinking what this IOT is- with weird guesses like INTERNET OF THINGS ! Finally, got to know that it was Indian Origin Tamils. They acquainted us with the issues they were facing and the progress and contribution made by India for their well being.

Due to paucity of time, we missed our visit to world heritage site of Dambulla golden temple. Then we reached our hotel in Dambulla. So the plan for next day was to visit the Dambulla temple in addition to the pre-planned schedule for the day. So the day began at 5am with a visit to another World Heritage site of SIGIRIYA ROCK FORT. It was a splendid architecture, where we had to trek 1200 steps! But it was worth it!

Then we departed for Trincomalee, saw the SriLankan Naval base, visited Lanka IOC facility. Our hotel in Trincomalee was one of the best. The rooms were sea facing and the view when we got up the next morning - mesmerising! It was beach sunrise. The darkest hour of dawn is often the most beautiful; when the indigo world lies hushed and still, as you stir sleepily.

The high point of the tour was Blue whale sighting. The largest mammal, which I had only seen in discovery channel till now. It was larger than the size of our boat. When the boatman first saw the whale, I realized there was a mad rush, with a competition of sorts between the driver of the boat and the whale. All boats speedily drove in the direction of whale and some were lucky to witness it while for others, the whale was already underwater! We were lucky enough to have seen some 10-12 gigantic whales.

Then on our return to Colombo, we had a dinner hosted by Indian High Commissioner to SriLanka,who had justreturned from Delhi. It was indeed a memorable visit where I got the first dollars of my life but couldn't do any shopping due to want of time :(

On our way back to Colombo, we did visit the dambulla Golden temple that we had missed but again could not go inside, evergreen reason being TIME SHORTAGE!

Almost entire Srilanka used to close by the time we got free - by 6-6:30pm. But my perceptions about SL as a small and poor neighbour of India got shattered on witnessing the Euro styled high rises, marvellous roads, such cleanliness and civic sense, in which even South Indian cities would fall short. SL is truly a PARADISE:)