Sri Lanka: Prologue

The original plan was to travel Sri Lanka for 9 days, covering half the country, moving from place to place using only public transport, preferably trains. I had always been a fan of trains. Ever since I read Paul Theroux's "The Ghost Train to the Eastern Star" I'd been dreaming of taking the coastal train from Galle to Colombo, just as Paul Theroux did. So my plan was to spend a couple of days in Colombo, move on to Kandy by the Inter City Express train, stay there and visit places around it like Polonnaruwa, Dambulla, etc, then go to Nuwara Eliya - a pleasant hill station, proceed further to Galle or Hambantota. Finally, I would fulfill my dream by catching the coastal train to Colombo from Galle. 

I had informed my vacation plan to my manager nearly 6 weeks in advance, booked my return flights and guest houses to stay. I reminded my manager a week in advance about my planned vacation the week after. But things started turning against me that week. Work was increasing and my bosses wouldn't let me go even for a day. Some tough negotiations and angry stares and frustrated arguments later I was "permitted" to take 2 days leave and the 3rd day as uninformed sick  leave. I bit my teeth and altered my plan. It cost me my dream. Shrinking the trip from 9 to 5 days would mean I would lose money I spent for my return flight and some guest houses. But the biggest loss would be Galle. I would not be able to take the Galle-Colombo coastal train at all. Probably I would not even be able to hop on to the Colombo - Kandy ICE as well. 

Despite such upsets it turned out to be a fantastic trip with a lot of learning about a culture which is so close yet so far from that of mine. Learning was not just in terms of culture, but political, ethnic, lingual and religious. Buddhism is the magnet that drew me towards Sri Lanka, the center of Theravada Buddhism. I always imagined Buddhist monks will be meditating all the time, thinking only of Buddha and nothing else. I discovered how wrong I was when couple of years ago I accidentally came across a Tibetan movie called "Phorpa" (directed by a Tibetan Lama by name Khyentse Norbu) and later on visited the Namdroling Monastery in Coorg recently. I saw hundreds of little monks playing cricket and football behind the monastery. It was a lovely sight. In the 5 days I will spend in Sri Lanka I will probably learn a lot more about this peace-loving religion. 

Let the journey begin...

--S--