Beruwela - Travel Memoir

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 on 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 last message “A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.”

James Fenimore Cooper

 

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851), was a United States author. He is Chiefly remembered for his Leatherstocking series of novels about Indians and frontiersmen, but he also wrote tales of the sea and other books. Cooper was the first American author to win wide popularity in Europe. He did more than any other writer to create the theme of the crafty but noble Redskin pitted against the equally resourceful woodsman.

Mark Twain and others ridiculed Cooper for his impossibly wooden heroines, his unreal dialogue and plots involving miraculous escapes from dangerous situations. Much of the criticism is justified, but Coopers skill in weaving an exciting tale and picturing a romantic woodland background has helped his books remain popular.

Cooper was born in Burlington, New Jersey, the second youngest in a Quaker family of 12. When he was one year old, the family moved to the shore of the Otsego Lake in western New York. There his father founded the village of Cooperstown. Young Cooper soon became acquainted with the Indians and the forests of the region. He entered Yale College at 13, but was dismissed in his third year for playing a prank. He went to sea as a common sailor in 1806, and in 1808 he received a commission as midshipman in the navy.

His dissatisfaction with an English novel provoked him to say he could write a better one. Precaution (1820), an imitative society novel, was the result of his wife’s demand for proof. It was unsuccessful. In 1821 Cooper published The Spy at his own expense. This romance of the American Revolution made him famous on both sides of the Atlantic and caused him to be called the equal of Sir Walter Scott as a historical novelist.

Edgar Allan Poe

 

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), was an American short-story writer, poet, critic, and editor. There has always been disagreement as to the quality of his work, and some of the events of his life. However, even those critics who do not consider him a great writer acknowledge his importance in the development of modern literature.

Poe's most popular stories are those of horror, such as "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Black Cat," and of detection, such as "The Gold Bug" and "The Murders in Rue Morgue." Among his well-known lyrical poems are the haunting "Ulalume," "The Raven," and "Annabel Lee," and the classically restrained "To Helen." Poe was one of the most brilliant and independent 19th-century literary critics. His emphasis on artistic rather than moral values in literature greatly influenced modern literary theory and practice. His stressing of poetry's musical elements, and his use of evocative and symbolic language and imagery, contributed to the rise of the French Symbolist movement in poetry and, through it, to various 20th-century trends in poetry.

Poe was the first to formulate rules for the short story, and the principles of brevity and unity that he advocated have influenced short-story writing in the present time. He is credited with inventing the modern detective story and bringing the Gothic horror tale to a high level of development. He enriched both types of stories with psychological insight. Poe's preoccupation with madness, death, and the supernatural, and his denial of the importance of moral values in literature, were bitterly criticized during his lifetime and for some years afterward. More valid from a literary standpoint was the objection - still made by many critics - that some of his works are too contrived.

Edgar Poe was born in Boston, the second of the three children of Davis and Elizabeth Poe, traveling actors. When Edgar was two years old his mother died in Richmond, Virginia; their father had previously deserted the family. Egar was taken into the home of John Allan, a merchant, from whom the boy took his middle name. The Allan's lived in England from 1815 to 1820, where Edgar attended private schools. He later attended a Richmond academy. Poe entered the University of Virginia in1826, but at the end of the year, Allan withdrew him because Poe had run up large gambling debts. After a quarrel with his foster father, Poe went to Boston in 1827. There he published anonymously his first volume of poetry, Tamerlane and Other Poems. He enlisted in the army and served for two years. In 1829 he published his second book of poems. The same year his foster mother died and Poe became briefly reconciled with his foster father, who got him an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy in 1830. Poe cut classes and drills and was expelled from the Academy early in 1831. His break with Allan was final.

In 1831 Poe lived in New York City for a short while and published Poems. It contained many of his best poems, including "To Helen," "The City and the Sea," and "Israfel." Poe then went to live with his aunt Mrs. Maria Clemm in Baltimore. He turned to the writing of fiction and did not publish another book of poetry for 14 years. In 1833 he won a prize for the story "Manuscript Found in a Bottle." Poe went back to Richmond in 1835 and joined the staff of the Sothern Literary Messenger, soon becoming its editor. Poe won wide attention for his critical reviews in the Messenger.

In 1837 Poe moved to New York, but unable to find work there, moved again to Philadelphia, where he became editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine (1839-40). Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque were published in 1840 and favorably reviewed. Poe was the literary editor of Graham's Magazine for a few months in 1841 and in it began to publish detective stories. Poe won another prize with "The Gold Bug" (1843), which became his most popular story during his lifetime. He returned to New York and became assistant editor of the Mirror. The publication of The Raven and Other Poems in 1845 brought him increased fame. For a few months, he was the owner of the Broadway Journal, but the periodical failed.

Poe's wife died of tuberculosis in 1847, and he became depressed and ill. He became emotionally involved with two women and attempted suicide. During his last years, however, he wrote some of his best poems and critical essays. He also published Eureka (1848), a philosophical work. Poe became engaged to a childhood sweetheart in Richmond in 1849. He then went to Baltimore to bring his aunt back for the wedding. A few days later he was found fatally ill in a tavern in Baltimore. The legend that Poe was an opium addict and wastrel is contradicted by the facts of his predominantly quiet and hard-working life. He was an alcoholic, but his claim that he drank to alleviate periods of intense depression was partly upheld by physicians who examined him and said he had a brain lesion. In 1910 Poe was elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans.

Sri Lanka - Oil Pastel and Water Colour

 

The Sea - Poem

 

The sea has its secrets
It never told me what
But when the waves broke ashore
I guessed what it was

For in the gleaming water
Swim creatures great and small
Life's deep blue ocean
The secret is out

RJX

Pen on paper

 

The Robot - Short Story

 

Toko built the Yamomoto 2000 (a robot that did household chores) and sold it to a major manufacturer. The Yamamoto 2000 was a top-selling robot which made Toko rich. But unfortunately Toko was a careless spendthrift and after two years was left in abject poverty. So he built the Yamomoto 2012, which used Artificial Intelligence. Unfortunately during this period technology had moved so fast that Toko, who was a free lance designer, could no longer compete. There was a time when science was the purview of individuals who were usually not educated but were creative, From Galileo Galilee to Edison and almost all scientists in between fell into this category, but as science moved towards the infinitely small and infinitely big individuals were left behind. Now the only people who could come up with a major discovery were well-trained scientist, often working together for a large organisation, using the most advanced tools, and with a profit motive. Toko tried to sell his invention but he could not compete, so the Robot stood idle in the container that he lived, and was used only to take the dog for a walk. But one day Toko decided to connect Yamamoto 2012 to the internet. He put a special circuit so the robot could make sense of the words and pictures in the internet. The robot used Artificial intelligence, where it interacts with the environment and learns and improves, sometimes from its own mistakes. But however sophisticated it is a robot does not have a consciousness or will so it is not dangerous. Yamomoto 2012 surfed the internet from morning to night, and tried to make sense of what is essentially an endless array of both useful and useless information. But one day a strange thing happened. The trillions of Bites or information or knowledge it processed somehow came close to number of neurons in a human brain, and roughly matched the way the human brain worked. In millions of computers across Japan strange messages started to appear. Many people thought it was a harmless virus sent by a hack.

I am the Prime Minister of Japan and as I transmit this message the building shook as if an enormous hammer hit the ground nearby, but let me continue with this message.

What happened after that is what belies logic, phones started to ring all across Japan in the middle of the night, but when answered there was only a strange beeping noise. Computers switched themselves on and could not be switched off. All electronic and electrical items started behaving in the most erratic and strange manner. Traffic lights malfunctioned in such a meaningless way that Tokyo was clogged in traffic jams. Then the lights went out all over Japan, but the electronic items continued to function. There were several air crashes as radar and other equipment failed.

Wait there goes that thud again only this time it is louder, now it sounds like an earthquake, but let me continue,

There have been rumors that car plants are used to make robots that look like Yamomoto 2012, but who operates them is still not clear. Chaos has rained in every part of Japan, but it is not clear what exactly is happening. The security forces have reported that strange robots charge towards them in the most annoying manner, but of course this is no major threat since these robots are only three feet tall, but still it only deepens the mystery. I wonder why General Takahiro didn't contact me, he should report every hour but we lost contact with him for the past 8 hours. We are in an underground facility which is safe, but of course there is no major threat.

Communication with the outside world has come to an end, so I am transmitting in this emergency frequency, hoping that someone outside will receive it. I wonder whether this problem is encountered in other countries, for we are all connected by the communication network.

That noise, terrible, louder than ever, it shook the whole building, something heavy fell nearby. I am going up to see what it is.

My god what the hell is this, there are more than forty metal structures each at least two miles high, and they all look a lot like Yamomoto 2012, and are able to walk briskly in a terrifying way, they seem to have spotted us, I wonder what their intentions aaaarrrrrrrrr............

RJX

It is better to have drawn and lost than never to have drawn at all - Pen Drawing