Sri Lanka It's Happening

May 25, 2004

Twenty years ago, when I was a nine year old Galle was such a wonderfull place to grow up in. Our house was located by a small stream and on sunny days me and my sister seemed to spend most of our time in it. Just a few hundred yards further down the river met the sea, right at the foot of the 'rummassala hill', a place of many legends. The view from this hill was and still is breathtaking, no wonder it's also known as Beuna Vista.

On rainy days the atmosphere inside our old house was just wonderfully cosy. It's what an Englishman might have called a cottage because of it's outer appearence. Such old houses are remarkably cool even on the hottest day. Long spells of hot weather were uncommon at the time, but they caused our steam to dry up. We could then cross it on foot to catch the bus into the town. Many people including my father prefered to travel by bicycle.

When the stream dried up we would take to the beach. Because my mother was nearly washed away by the sea when she was a child, we were never allowed to visit the beach with out adult supervision. Somedays fortune smiled on us in the form of visiting uncles and aunts. We would spend the whole day on the beach in their company along with a multitude of cousins and have the whole place to ourselves since there were very few houses around.

While our own garden was separeted from the river by a live fence, my grand mother's back yard was separated from the beach by a parapet wall. (woe betide anyone who dared to climb over it). Her house is just walking distance from the schools me and my sister went to. After classes we would walk to grandma's place and play until my mother came to pick us up.

A married aunt lived with grandma and my, my sister and the aunt's two daughters made a noisy quartet, always getting underfoot. The aunt still lives in the same house along with one of my cousins. Sadly my grandmother is no more.

The parapet wall has been raised because Galle is not the safe small town it used to be. Kingfishers who used to perch on it have all but disappered. The front yard is now treatened by a road widening project. My aunt considers herself lucky, she only loses her garden, dozens of other people on this street will lose their living room. Such road widening projects to accomodate more bad drivers have seen the destructionon of many a wonderfull old building. Many more houses will vanish along with Galle's uniqueness before long.

Posted by raditha at May 25, 2004 9:53 AM