Four months ago, my brother Sai and I randomly decided to visit Sri Lanka. Our initial plan was to attend Ganga aarti but then pivoted to getting his passport stamped. For the record, I’d been to Sri Lanka nine years ago on a media junket to the movie sets of Bombay Velvet (2015). At that time, it was the largest Bollywood set outside of India (I reckon it still is). That was a short trip though, of about four days in total. I said hello to Ranbir Kapoor and Karan Johar, and sat with Anurag Kashyap for a 20-min interview. On our return flight back to Mumbai, we had Virat Kohli onboard, fuelling romantic rumours with Anushka Sharma. So entertaining were my days for the sake of entertainment journalism.
Anyhow, I was actually looking forward to the Sri Lanka trip with Sai: it was going to be a 11-day tour consisting mainly of cheap Airbnbs and local hotels with a quick hop—two days max in any given place—from one city to another. Most of the planning happened ad hoc, with little research to be honest. But it worked out very well, mainly because, despite being in the sun 11 days straight, I didn’t catch migraine. Insofar, my best trip of all time. If you need tips, do drop me a message or an email; I’ll gladly share our itinerary with you. If you wish to see all the pictures from our journey, do check out the highlights on my Instagram handle titled Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka2. I’ve tried to capture most of the better moments from our travels down south.
This particular blogpost, although delayed, is just a pic dump of some of the ‘organic’ instances that I wanted to highlight in detail. Instagram isn’t exactly the ideal space for paragraphs.
So here we –
Before we start, let’s pay tribute to the most badass cat I’ve ever met. According to the neighbours of the homestay we took, this dreadful-looking fellow was apparently 12 and is always involved in fights with members of his own species as well as with street dogs. One look at him and you know that he is not to be messed around with. He clearly doesn’t believe in 9 lives. A perfect chimera of Tommy Lee Jones serenity and Clint Eastwood badassery.
In case you didn’t know this, Maldives is perhaps the only country in the world where dogs are officially banned. Fortunately, Sri Lanka is a safe harbour for street dogs. They are found everywhere and the local don’t even bother them (pretty much like in Mangalore here). You will see them lazing around, on the streets, outside the ATMs, near the canals, under the parked cars, beside temple stairs, etc.
Being a connoisseur (I have a feeling this is incorrect spelling but Substack is an ass and won’t notify mistakes, making the writers feel that they know all the pretentious spellings of pretentious French-origin words) of all things natural and amazing, I found this flower under a tree ominously named sea poison tree in Hikkaduwa. I picked it up and placed it inside the book I was reading back then. Miraculously enough, it went missing that day itself. I like to believe it went back to the sea.
This massive methuselah of a tree in Galle is apparently 150+ years old. It was so wide and flourishing that the spot felt like hill station. And soon as we stepped out of its shadow, the sun started beating us. One of the main reasons why there is no real peace in urban areas is because of the lack of such historic trees. Such creatures absorb the noise and make a place more habitable. But then, we can’t handle both peace as well as development. We choose one.
Please don’t ask me how but I somehow convinced this pigeon not to commit suicide. I talked it out of its dire straits and made it believe that there is more to life than dancing around in circles. By the end of our chat, we became best friends. He brings me letters now.
Sai may not realize it right away but someday, he will look back at this moment and accept that his greatest ever photograph was clicked by me. Ironically enough, it doesn’t feature his enlightened face. This happened at around 5 in the evening when the clouds assumed horror and the waves got violent enough to throw foams of fury at him, while I stood back at a safe distance clicking a picture best reserved for the likes of Olympic gold medallists in water sports. Thank me later.
If you’ve followed my words for a while, you’d know for certain that I love birds. I am always looking for them, running after their calls, trying to guess their names by their plumage. Unfortunately, I spotted only five new birds in Sri Lanka and managed to click only one of them. Couldn’t identify this royalty with orange-ish shade but it stayed perched with its beak up in the air. Beautiful little thing.
These are the Sri Lankan wild mangoes and they make the tallest mango trees. Their taste is pretty much the same as its Indian counterparts but much cheaper.
Nothing to see here, except two cows who are maintaining traffic rules. We spotted cattles sporadically. The roads were damn clean for the most part, and people didn’t seem to be in a hurry. Irrespective of the age bracket, everybody respected traffic signals and cops.
Sai is a textbook cat guy but this girl trapped him on Negombo beach. She stayed with him for an hour or so. Dogs who live by the beach there seem to be having the best of lives. They appear healthy and super-friendly. During sunset, they play with the waves and fool around with visitors like us. They’ve figured it out.
This looks like a failed attempt at clicking a dick pic but I found this jaral flower interesting because it missed a petal. This time around, I wisened up a bit and didn’t put it in my book.
I noticed several spellings where the R-sound was deliberately missing. Seedevi instead of Sridevi. Seelanka instead of Srilanka. Dhamma instead of Dharma. And so on. The flag you see in this picture belongs to Buddhism and each colour signifies something deep like compassion, liberation, respect, wisdom, timelessness and dignity.
We traveled in local buses and trains and avoided luxury as much as possible. As you can see, Sai is not into clicking pictures much, let alone, a selfie. So I used to guerilla-photograph moments for posterity. For instance, Sai’s expression in this photograph is a nod to all those music videos we once wished to be a part of just because we related to their lyrics.
No offence but this was misinformation. There were no crocodiles in those ponds. I kept looking for them but there was no movement whatsoever. I later read that they can hold their breath underwater for approximately 15 minutes. Moreover, I probed further to learn that they can hold their breath for over 8 hours if the water is very cold and still. In all probability, the water in this pond wasn’t very cold although it was still.
There is no touristy place on earth where Indian food isn’t a thing. But if you are traveling, better eat like the locals. Try not to be one of those spoilt tourists who miss home as soon as their stomach grumbles. If not, you’re going to miss out on limited but new experiences. That’s my two paise on this subject. Thank you for attending my sed talk.
Speaking of food, I thoroughly enjoyed the local fare. Simple nutritous cuisine, with a good mix of vegetables, meat and fish. And at most places, rice is served unlimited but you are expected not to waste. Locals were visibly nice to Indians and quite familiar with us.
Of all the things I consumed in Sri Lanka, this jaggery-filled rice preparation has to be my favourite. I had three of them at once (and I rarely overeat) but they were two good. Actually, three good.
I have many more snaps to share but I will stop here lest you get bored. At the national museum, we were amazed to see lots and lots of material inspired by Vedic philosophy. A case in point is this 2nd century sculpture on an interpretation of a dream. Incredible artwork.
The simplicity of the place makes me want to visit sometime soon. :) Good idea to travel and eat like locals when you travel. 👍