Tag Archives: Birthday

The weekend and other things

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The long weekend was excellent. Headed to one of the bungalows in Aranayaka which is off Mawanella at an elevation which was…. right at the top! It basically was the last house on the mountain and hence very very high. The road was bad and the approach maneuverable only to the bold and experienced of drivers, and that too not by car but by SUV, Van or Cab. Aranayaka is about an hours drive off the turn off at Mawanella. The weather cold, but not bone chilling like it is in Nuwaraeliya. You can comfortably wear a pair of shorts and get away with a shawl around your shoulders in the evenings.

The location we were at was a bungalow dating nearly a 100 years with walls made completely out of solid granite. It’s a typically old fashioned colonial mansion, re-furbished with amenities to make a holiday that much more comfortable. A precipice overlooks acres of (sadly untended) but lush tea estate and it rains sporadically.  When the rain stops, a dense fog sweeps silently and swiftly across the estate, garden and then disappears like quick silver. There’s nothing much you can do here apart from relax, enjoy the weather, read a book (which I did and finished!), trek through the estates, enjoy some good “gamey kema” courtesy of the caretaker, sleep and just enjoy having time to yourself. The location has no mobile or internet signal which means you’re completely  cutoff from technology, save for the CDMA phone that works in some parts of the bungalow.

The first day I spent reading the ‘Kite Runner’ which made me oblivious to the place and I didn’t really bother exploring. Luckily my fiance being quite the reader followed suit, though I heard him clinking glasses with my brother-in-law and uncle as dusk fell. He’s quite good at holding fort for me and I knew he did so on purpose, knowing that I hardly find time to read anymore. The next day we sat on the porch,drank our coffee/tea, watched the drop sprawling below us, saw the sun as it rose above the trees, the rain as it fell in big fat droplets and then randomly spotted a deer that bolted like lightning across the estate. There was a peella a small trek down the mountain which ends in a little rock pool that you can get into. Highlight of the trip I’d say! When I say highlight, I say so with generosity since my usually calm and collected mother promptly kicked her slippers off and waded right in for an icy cold shower! The closest I’ve seen her letting loose was at my sisters wedding where she danced with my dad to Baila! Clearly she has an impish streak in her that the years haven’t dampened 🙂 The estate is not one of those perfectly well manicured places, but part of its appeal is that the acres of tea are untended and growing all over the place, that you get wild boar stomping in the back yard at night, that the mango and durian trees are virtually inaccessible due to under growth and you have to brave leeches to get to the luscious fruit. It’s got a homely kind of beauty in the way that a massive ‘Sal’ tree grows side by side a  vine of butter beans. That you can walk to the side of the bungalow and pick your own choice of chilli, including  ‘kochchi’.

We wrapped up the last evening with a barbecue,some guitar and my brother-in-laws singing that has me surprised all the time! Ever the barbecue man, I watched my fiance do justice to the grill in all his glory… and it was not just the barbecue he did justice to. This weekend was like a solemn reminder of what a good man he is and how good a thing I have going. The good that is to come despite all the little things that vexes me about him. I watched him as he carried my wheelchair bound grandmother in and out of the vehicle,to bed and up steps in the bungalow. I saw him under an ‘ambul pera’ tree in the garden lowering the branches for my mother to reach the ripened fruit and I watched him fall asleep on my lap, that famous goofy grin plastered all over his face after his trademark “I love you darling, now let me sleep” comment.

This weekend was exactly what I needed to get a bearing of my life,to appreciate the good, ignore the petty trifles and cultivate patience. Just 3 months before the wedding and it couldn’t have come at a better time. I wish my fiance read my blog now and then though 🙂

I turn 26 in exactly an hour and it’s a year that I’m embracing with a prayer on my lips for so many things I have to be thankful for.