Seascape - Oil pastel

 

Experimental pen drawing

 

Marooned - Poem

 

Marooned in a Lonely Island
Seeking a Friendly Ship,
Waters of Silver Ripples,
And Beaches of Branchless Trees.

A Sun that Burns the Skin
Clouds that Embrace,
Parrots that Speak Bloody French,
God ! Am I going Insane

Is that a Damn ship out there
Will it hit the Damn Reef
Will my Dum Dog greet me
Dammit, it’s the bloody Spanish

But behind this Coconut Jungle
And Creepers of Blue Lilies
And Past that thorny hell bush
Is a Jungle of Great Trees

Trees of Giant Timber
A Jungle of Tamarinds
With a Saw from the old Wreck
Could I Build a Two Mast Ship

The Animal Revolution - Poem

 Beasts of Lanka beasts of all lands

Think you not that it is strange

Your brothers and sisters are slaughtered 

To feed the human race

Pigs and cows are killed by thousands

But are beaten first to make them soft

Though they call themselves very humane

They are a bad un-kindly lot

In its once pristine waters

Fish and other creatures swam wide

But they have put nets to divide us

And in them we all shall die

Birds of Lanka birds of all lands

You have been modified

You are now mere weaklings

Shall ye ever again fly

An animal revolution is needed

Start from every lake and tree

So that birds and beasts of all lands

Will forever and ever be free

Bring your strongest bring your bravest

But above all use your heads

With these cunning humans

One wrong move and you're dead

The birds are our proud airforce

And fish are our  submarines

Land animals are our army

And the rest are the marines

We will win but never conquer

All we need is a free life

Unlike wicked humans 

We don't want other beings to die

Oil Pastel drawing

 

Oil Pastel - Experimental drawing

 

Oil Pastel Drawing -Experiment

 

Oil Pastel Drawing

 

The Journey Begins

So I will now tell the story of how I got the idea to travel around the island. Once I lived in a place called Peliyagoda, which is a suburb of the capital Colombo. The trouble with Peliyagoda was this – despite being the closest suburb of Colombo, it was not very developed. Many other suburbs like Wattala or Kiribathgoda had much better buildings and facilities. The biggest landmark there seemed to be the police station, which I think says a lot. And before the police station, its most famous landmark was an enormous rubbish dumb that could be seen from miles away, which I think says even more.

However, it was an exciting place for me because the great Kelani River flowed through it, and I wanted to paint it. I am only an amateur artist, but I have a great passion for painting and drawing. But unlike most artists who draw rivers, I wanted to draw it at night. And so, many years ago, I did one of the weirdest things I have ever done; I decided to stay in the garden at night and paint till morning. The night was infinitely dark and strange; it seemed that everyone had gone to bed and switched off all the lights. The road was deserted except for a lone cow which seemed half asleep. A blue-green firefly, very rare for this part of Sri Lanka, flew and disappeared behind a leaf. Flowers that bloom at night are usually white, and most have a fragrance.

In the foreground, I could see the great river flowing. It moved slowly in the night like destiny itself. It was silent, mysterious, and fatal. Above the river shone many strange stars. There was a particularly bright reddish star that didn't twinkle. Could it be Mars, the one they called the red planet? Unfortunately, I could not be certain. Then there was another bright star which, for some reason, I felt was Venus. Unfortunately, my knowledge of astronomy, like so much else, was incomplete. All these thoughts made me so tired that I sat down in the garden and couldn't remember anything after that except the ground felt hard on my head, an annoying cricket made an annoying noise, the smell of grass and marigold flowers and once I imagined that the cow was in the garden. The hoot of an alarm made me jump, and for a moment, I was horrified to find that I was not in bed but outside at night. I went to the gate to see what made that noise but could not locate it. Then I looked up, God how things had changed. Now it was around two in the morning, and the stars were brighter than ever. I couldn't see the Great Bear, the only constellation I knew apart from Orion, but I could see a group of prominent stars that curled down and formed what looked exactly like a tail. I wondered whether this was the Scorpio Constellation, and I still do. I looked down again, and the river was still flowing endlessly, and at that moment, I felt a great energy come over me, and I decided to explore my country even if it was the last thing I did.

The Jouney South

  

The road south from Colombo can be a bit confusing, somehow even if you scan the map for a long time it doesn’t register. From Colombo to Moratuwa is only 19 Km. From there you expect Kalutara to come quickly but it takes longer than you think for it is about 26 Km further south. In Kalutara is the famous Buddhist temple. You expect Beruwela with its beautiful seascape to be very far from here but it comes surprisingly quickly being just 14 Km south. By this time the landscape has a very rural seaside feel. Happily, Bentota with its beautiful beaches, river, and hotels is just 8 Km South. Then here the distances seem to widen. From Bentota to Ambalangoda is 24 Km, somehow it seems longer than that. Hikkaduwa, a tourist destination known for coral reefs and sea turtles is 15 Km further south. By this time even without noticing we have come 114 Km from Colombo. Till Hikkaduwa, the coast that runs more or less south seems to curve a little more prominently till it reaches the Historic fort city of Galle. The coast continues to curve until it reaches the southernmost city in Sri Lanka – Matara. Then it moves upward reaching Tangalle and Hambantota, Kirinda, Kumana, Okanda and then almost vertically up to Potuvil, Tirrukkovil and Batticaloa. Very rarely if ever have I heard some of these place names in the news so I tried to find out. Kumana is a bird sanctuary, Okanda is a small hamlet on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka, within the Ampara district.

In Sri Lanka most of the main cities and towns in the coastal region are quite well known, some parts of the central highlands are well travelled, Anradhapura and Pollonaruwa being historical cities are well known, but some Kilometers inland from the coast there are some obscure areas that hardly come to mind, except for the people who live there. I wondered if we travelled perpendicular to the coast in the above route I mentioned from Colombo to Batticaloa what obscure areas will we discover. And then I looked at the map, what a fool I had been, for this is exactly where they have built the new southern expressway. Travelling in the southern expressway you find that the landscape is mostly fields and jungles with very few buildings.

Somewhere between Beruwela and Hikkaduwa I had an incredible experience, a kind of perfect moment that comes very rarely in life. I got down from the bus shocked by the color of the sea. It was around midday, and the sun shone brightly overhead. The color of the sea was a shockingly bright turquoise blue and it was glistening and I was alone in an enormous beach. A song started playing on my mind: We’ll sing in the sunshine….We’ll laugh every day…..We’ll sing in the sunshine ……then I’ll be on my way. Some HAPPY sounding songs are actually depressing….and some sad sounding songs are Happy…..But this was a Happy sounding Happy song at least for me despite its silly rhyming lyrics. 

There are some places with beautiful scenery that ought to make you happy…but make you sad….similarly there are some really ugly landscapes that fill you with joy…..Well, this was a Happy-looking place that actually made you happy. I walked on the beach, I climbed the rocks, it was for me the most perfect spot on earth. After about an hour it was time to be on my way. I wondered whether if I came another day at the exact same time I would find the sea the same glistening turquoise blue and the beach deserted. I came again a few times but could not locate the beach again. As the actor, Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock in Star Trek) said in his final message “A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.” 

 

Codwin - Short story by me

 

As the bus moved slowly over the Kelani bridge, silent, mysterious and fatal the river moved below. Inside sat Codwin, who had to take this route everyday to and from work. It was hot inside and he wondered dully whether this was due to global warming, or because the monsoon rains had been delayed, or was there some other factor at play. Then he wondered whether there really was something called global warming for there were some scientists who said it was all rubbish. How does it all work he wondered, this whole global warming thing, the traffic congestion, the heat and everything else. Just then a gecko made a hideous chik chak chik cry.

Codwin knew well that geckos are found only in households so how did this one get into the bus?. Maybe it should be made the national animal instead of the stupid jungle fowl. The heat was getting to him and he was thinking rubbish, if the bus moved faster this would create a kind of “artificial wind” which would cool things down. Self consciously he tried to read the newspaper he bought, but then he gave it up in despair.

In another half an hour when they were around Wattala the sun would set over the sea to the west and with it his mood. It was not going well for Codwin, but in a way he really liked the climate. He knew that despite the oppressive heat the weather here was good. The sun shone a little brighter and when it rained it rained a lot harder. He would have hated to have been born in a country where the sun was dull and all the trees looked like Christmas trees or a country where the sun was hot and there were no trees at all. And then he realized he liked his country........... we all have to be the way we are made…..thought he…..and we all have to be where we are made……….and for him it was this Island.