A dreary day

By the time he reached home night had fallen, a dark deep feeling had descended upon him. Codwin wondered dully what he could do. He wanted to stay up till late but he couldn't because he had to wake up very early and make the long journey back to work. It went on like this the whole week, like clockwork, the whole thing depressed him, so this is what the pursuit of money had lead to, it had turned everyone into some kind of trained, tired, animal. When the weekend comes he would sleep the whole day through exhaustion. Through the window he looked out at the sky, the stars had come out. The night was infinitely dark and strange, but the stars made the whole thing worthwhile. It was then that it occurred to him,  what he needed in his life were stars, something to dream about. He would travel to different parts of the island, and write about it, it would be part travelogue, part history lesson, part novel, part autobiography, he would even write about the stories people tell. Then weekdays and work would not be so depressing after all.

Sadly his knowledge about history or anything else about the island was very poor. He vaguely remembered from school that Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948. He did not know the exact dates but the Portuguese, Dutch and the English each ruled for roughly 150 years, although the last Sri Lankan Kingdom in the Hill Country fell only in 1815. Before that Sri Lanka was one of the great kingdoms of the ancient world, with Engineering feats which could match any in it’s time. A king named Parakrama Bhahu the Great once proclaimed  that he would not let a single drop of water flow to the sea without making use of it, and built an artificial lake which was so big it looked like the ocean, and he was but one of the many great  kings who ruled the Island. Another good example was a king named Dhatusena, who was famous for building tanks (which were really enormous reservoirs used to irrigate the land, especially in the dry zone and are still being used today). His son kasyappa who was a strong headed lad once demanded to see the treasure his father was always talking about, so Dhatusena took him to the lakes he built and said “this is the treasure I have built all my life”. This infuriated Kasyappa so much that he built a wall and sealed his old father behind it, and fearing the wrath of his half brother who was the rightful heir to the throne he built a fortress on a gigantic rock in the middle of the jungle. This fortress which really was also his palace is called the Sigiriya Rock Fortress and is said to be the eighth wonder of the world. And that was about all he knew about the history.

Written by: RJX