Mud Ghecko

Introducing you to the modest Wanapetha "Resort" which is actually a restaurant, affording  tasty hygienic local fare, complete with the fried lake fish from the nearby reservoir . You can find this cute eatery on the Tanamalwila Road, next to the Udawalawe Police Station.( Colombo Monaragala Route, and there is a bus halt right nearby where the No 98 halts from Colombo)  Adorable simplicity in eco-design more than makes up for the lack of luxury and the simple but delicious local fare, served out of clay pots, includes brown country rice, with favourites such as bitter gourd curry, winged beans and Murunga when its in season,and is absolutely welcome for a tired traveler. Enjoy a breezy respite from the heat, within the eatery before you head back to elephant-land.

The University  is such a beautiful place, sprawling acres of lawn and the most incredible trees and flowering plants, this looks like a little bit of some other country, maybe England…except of course you see the demurely dressed local girls, who are made to wear long skirts and till some time back were not allowed to wear jeans, for fear of being ragged. And there are occasional tropical plants too. I don't know whose idea it was to come up with an exhibition of dead bodies, but some bright boy did and let me tell you it was a roaring, jam packed success. People, it seems, love to look at dead bodies. What else would make it that popular? I don't understand us people, its just like when there used to be a bomb blast and we would email around the photographs, or more recently, the mobile phone movies. I have to conclude that we are actually ghouls ourselves, admit it ? In 2009  there was this 'dead body' exhibit and I remember joining a group of cousins and tra...

There is a beautiful stretch of country road, from Hanwalla to Seethawaka, in Sri Lanka as you head for cool Avisawella from Colombo . Apart from the impossibly green paddy fields and divine river bathing spots, Seethawaka is also a land of rather gory Sinhala legend. The town Hanwalla itself has its name from "place of drying skins" and its probably not animal skins we are referring to here, as some of the old Sinhala conquerors were quite cruel. You can let your imagination take over! Another beautiful town, Labugama, was actually named when a prince once said something like " Oooh would you look at that, it looks like a pile of Labu fruits…" in reference to a large pile of the heads of enemy soldiers…and Seethawaka itself was the place of a famous battle of yore. Among the reeds, on the side of the Kelani river you can also find the neglected, modest tomb of an ancient  Sinhala king of Seetawaka . Not only was he guilty of boiling a few holy monks in oil ...

Theres a charming Sinhala saying that no matter how crowded a place is, when the King comes everyone has to give him space…you'll be tickled  to know that this is said in reference to that very Sri Lankan delicacy called buffaloe curd or "Mee Kiri" because no matter how sumptuously you may have feasted at a local festivity, and how full your tummy is, there is always room for a bit of curd & treacle! Its also called Dahi in India and it's a bit like Greek Yogurt they say, although I could not judge that ! Some do say that like the strongest addictions, it's an acquired taste, and personally Im such a fan that writing this blog is becoming difficult, without me wanting to run out and get some… but as a tip, the stuff sold in supermarkets is the sterile "official" version, whearas for the real smoky FLAVOUR of genuine Buffalo , nothing beats the "original" from villages in the  regions of Matara or Tissamaharama, in the South whe...

Love your mother tongue & respect the other ones!   Last month I visited Jaffna for the first time in my life, and wow what a lovely adventure!  I loved the different colours, the different clothes and the sights and fantastic vegetarian cooking, Ive hardly any words to describe how thrilled I was by this land that was so different and yet, our country. Sri Lanka is made beautiful by its diversity,  that is the very differences that make us who we are. Many of you who are reading this article will remember pretty much all your life there was this ethnic conflict/ civil war or whatever,  going on. There were bombs blowing up, Army checkpoints, and sad news on television, people dying and suffering and a general sense of worry. You didn't know if your parents would come back home at the end of the day, after going to work!! For our Tamil friends the situation was worse, they were treated with suspicion, and harassed every where they went in this country, of which they too are equ...

there are ―thousands...of suns, thousands of moons, thousands of continents...Anguttara Nikaya 1.227 In a tropical rain forest in Sri Lanka, a rare endangered yellow frog is discovered which unknown to anyone, may have the key to life in a parallel universe, and the saving of lives in this one.A Cosmic council of intelligent elders decides it may be necessary to commit murder to save its habitat. An unwilling, and unlikely assassin is selected, and activated.

You hear from the news each day terrible crimes are committed, people like monsters killing other people,  sometimes for money or anger or jelously or to simply snatch a gold chain, and sometimes you cant even begin understand why. It seems like demons are possesing them and making them do things which cause tragedy and pain to even themselves too, because often they are caught and made to pay for their crimes, sooner or later .  Recently prision staff in Anuradhapura reported a strange case of murder –suicide from inside the prision itself – two men who were caught for a terrible crime, of having abducted and killed a woman, had been arrested but on the third night one of them had strangled the other and then hung himself . What was amazing was that the one who had done this was the smaller and younger of the two and prision officials could never begin to understand how he had got the strenght and the ability to do this, but perhaps after you read the rest of the story you may u...

Life in this modern day and age has become such a relentless rat race that moms in particular, single and or working moms are likely to feel incredible levels of stress, in particular if you are trying to bring up small ones, manage a competitive stance on the career front and hold an important relationship together and sometimes do all of this without extended family support or a partners contribution. We all agree that mothers have so many responsibilities and so little time, so how do they cope? Remember stress will inevitably have its costs in the long run, where later you could get high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol and so on, and end up being a long term burden to the kids you love. In any case don't we all owe it to ourselves to be happy in our lives, not just slaves to the system in our own homes? Having heard   popular complaints such as I don't remember the last time there was "me" time , why is it always me that has to do...

Serendipity has always been one of my favourite words For a long time I didnt know what it meant but associated it with eating Marie Biscuits and Ambul Kesel, on a quiet Balmy afternoon in my grandpas antique house in Unawatuna( those old houses with the fancy trelis work and wooden windows with bars across...and the doors are double doors with glazed windows in them...the cupboards are full of thick cotton sheets which smell of sunshine), with the rustling of coconut trees outside, and the distant sound of a fisherman on a bicycle saying maaalmaalohhh...and of course some friendly cat squeaking nearby... His house had a dusty old attic full of olden novels, including a 1952 Famous Five book and one of the first editions of CS Lewis "The Magicians Uncle" which itself is about kids who discover a wardrobe which leads into a different world... for a loner  kid who loves to read, that attic was simply enchanting. When I looked it up in the dictionary...

…one of the sweetest wierdest funniest saddest most REALISTIC little tales Ive read to date, totally blew my mind– I can hardly begin to describe it. It has a farm, hideous memories of child abuse, fantasy, horror , love, hate and pancreatic cancer and yet….it manages to be funny too ! –not an easy combination at all but perhaps it's the real dialogue that does that "but you wanted a chicken didn't you?' "I didn't want its head to be cut off!!" "would you rather cook it with its head still on?" "Oh for Heavens Sake!" "Do you want to put the chicken in the wine alive with its feathers and all?" "No I want a proper chicken from the super market , or even a freezer , a frozen chicken wrapped in plastic" "so how do you think the chickens get into the supermarket and freezer? Suicide?" Emma is a wonderfully practical strong and kind character , putting Eat Pr...

There is a superstition, I hear,   in west Africa that if a elder/married woman bares her backside at you, you will practically turn to stone or be so cursed that you are as good as dead.- men who are exposed are considered dead. No one will cook for them, marry them, enter into any kind of contract with them or buy anything from them according to Wikepedia.   Well, today I learned how this and a threatened sex strike allowed a lady named Leymah Gbowee to strengthen a women's peace movement that successfully quelled the Second Liberian civil war leading to the end of the cruel dictatorship of Charles Taylor ... and brought to power Africas first democratically elected female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf . A stirring documentary   film,   Pray the Devil Back to Hell released in 2010, highlights this saga, and its one film I intend to get my hands on this week.   Along with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Tawakkol Karman,   Madam Gbowee went on to win the Nobel ...

Tovil for Soma (part 2) By Nadeesha Paulis.   Dusk merged into intense darkness as the bright lights and the rhythmic beating of the drums soon drowned out the horrified gasps of on lookers. The Kattadiya and the broken white clad figure on top of the roof continued their arguments. Under the control of the evil entity, the eyes reddened, mouth foaming and sweat drenched figure was now home to not one but two souls, one of the daughter and one of the father who was evil beyond belief. All his life he had been a cowardly low life thug, but now death had released him from any inhibitions about the law.   The exorcist   in turn was not ready to back down. He began to mock the demon. He provoked the entity by poking fun at his choice of victims. "Have you no shame to possess this little girl? You think this is something great? Any other man would possess someone far more difficult to control." For which the rasping voice replied "This belon...

Another wierd link I stumbled on when researching that story... http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2010/08/soldiers-view-part-two.html And here is the text of the clip which I wanted to find Police in Anuradhapura have arrested two suspects in connection with the rape and murder of a pregnant woman.The victim's body was found hanging from a tree near Kandy Lake on July 27.The 40-year-old, who was mentally unstable, had left her Hanwella home following a dispute with her husband three days earlier. -- Well, Journalists do mess up more often than not.  this story is sad on so many counts, since the woman was not necessarily mad as it not so subtly implies here, and there certainly was no dispute with her husband, who I know for fact is as grief stricken as a man can be- and also because she was pregnant with a son they had dreamed of all their lives, and in might actually have been this unborn son which caused her death. Wait, you say, murder, rape,and  youre blaming a   fetus ....

This book of mine, which begs to be written, begins with a Dastardly Murder and Rape (not mine and not in that exact order) but I admit it shook me up. Remember the land I told you I bought, in Hanwella. It made me so happy...according to the UN or something, only 1 per cent of the worlds land is owned by women, astounding as it sounds. well thats food for thought since you will agree it is land that sustains life....anyway, about the land I bought in Hanwella near a large stream and rubber tree estates, so picturesque with water buffaloes furrowing about nearby , endangered and migratory birds crooning from the trees and a rumored family of small esturine crocodiles in the stream? well for the price of about 1500 Dollar, I owned a small patch of Gods Earth, where I could finally lay my bones some day in the hope that they would not be disturbed. Thats what I thought and still think...but now to the murder. Its quite a sad story with hints of occult, and crimes of passion and it ma...

Tovil for Soma.By Chandrika Gadiewasam One evening a few weeks after their father’s death, Soma was lighting a lamp to a God in their garden, when she felt her wrist twist, like in a cramp. It was six thirty, that moment between dusk and night and the pain made her almost faint, and then both her wrists began to twist backwards, as well as the fingers on her hands, as though some invisible bully was trying to make her cry. And cry out she did since the pain was so intense, in the next fifteen minutes as she fell writing to the ground in front of the lamp, helpless in the grip of her own body which was spasming against her control, the extremities stretching unnaturally in impossible directions. The pain was intolerable. This was the beginning of Soma’s possession, and it did not cease though she was taken by her mother to a neurosurgeon , since they thought it was some kind of nerve disease. The free government clinic of course gave a date for a next appointment three months later, b...