Gr8 GSE 3140 Blog

7 Feb 2009

Hosts:
For Smriti & Rukmini: Rtn Lal Wijeratane, Rotary Club of Wattala
For Arun, Ashwin and Sachin: Rtn Rohan D'silva, Rotary Club of Wattala

Highlights:
Visit to the Kelaniya Raja Maha Viharaya (Buddhist temple)
Lunch at Clarion with Rotary Club of Kelaniya
Tea at Rtn PP Dehan of Rotary Club of Kelaniya
Visit to Bowling Tournament hosted by Rotary Club of Colombo Downtown

The Kelaniya Raja Maha Viharya (a Buddha relic temple) is the second largest Buddhist temple in SL after the Tooth Relic temple in Kandy. Full of intricate frescoes depicting the life of the Buddha, the temple has a magnificient statue of the Buddha lying down in Samadhi. The temple is on the banks of the Kelaniya river. Rtns Gamini, Chandra and Melroy from the Rotary Club of Kelaniya escorted us to the temple and then to lunch at the Clarion hotel in the town of Kelaniya.

After yet another wonderful meal (Lankan versions of curried prawns, chicken and mutton and sauteed vegetables with fried rice) and a spicy conversation about the Tamil guerillas, we headed to the residence of Rtn PP Dehan (wonder how everyone here manages to have palatial houses) for tea.

In the evening we headed to the annual Rotary Bowling Tournament hosted by the Rotary Club of Colombo Downtown at ExcelWorld - an entertainment hub in Colombo. We participated too, and were placed last ;) It was our first meeting with DG Rtn Nalin Fernando. For a change it was a short day and we were back home (away from home) by 10 pm - that meant a full 8 hours of sleep!!

6 Feb 2009

Hosts:
For Smriti & Rukmini: Rtn Lal Wijeratane, Rotary Club of Wattala
For Arun, Ashwin and Sachin: Rtn Rohan D'silva, Rotary Club of Wattala

Highlights:
Team huddle to work on presentations
Lunch and tea at the residence of Rtn Charles Montgomery
Club visit - meeting and dinner at the Rotary Club of Wattala

As we slept the previous night after almost 48 hours of being awake, we were a little doubtful of being able to get up early. But the dulcet twitter of birds and swish of the bamboos seduced us awake. I suppose the men in our team being hosted by another charming couple - a family of melodious singers - Rohan D'silva and Shamika, were not as lucky, being woken up by the snores of one of the members ;)

After (needless to say, heavy and tasty) breakfast, we had a team huddle at Lal's place to work on our presentations and then headed to the fabulous seaside residence of Rtn Charles Montgomery and Visaka in Wennapuwa. The house took our breath away - a beautifully done up place in a fishing village, it has a stunning view of the sea and the sunset. Drinks and conversations served as appetizers for another fabulous meal. The couple personifies world understanding - a Scotsman pilot married to a Sri Lankan lawyer, after having worked in Australia and Hong Kong, are now finally retired (their enthusiasm belies it!) in SL.

The evening was a musical and culinary treat at the Rotary Club of Wattala, a delightfully diverse group of professionals. Rtn Rohan D'silva, his wife Shamika and their beautiful daughters Roshani, Randhi and Prasadhi seem to be born with music in their genes. The highlight of the club visit was a musical extravaganza led by the D'silva family and happily joined by us and other Rotarians, that saw a medley of songs in Sinhala, Hindi (the D'silva girls speak Hindi - picked it up from movies, can you beat that?!) and English. President Lal amazed us with his energy, dancing away to glory after having driven us around through the day in his vintage World War II landrover. We enjoyed our bit of grooving, while Sachin was in full steam, matching up with Lal's energy and momentum.

5 Feb 2009

Hosts:
For Smriti & Rukmini: Rtn Lal Wijeratane, Rotary Club of Wattala
For Arun, Ashwin and Sachin: Rtn Rohan D'silva, Rotary Club of Wattala

Highlights:
Drive from Colombo airport to Lal Wijeratne's residence
Breakfast and fellowship
Cricket match - fourth one-dayer between India and SL at the Premadasa stadium (India won, of course!)
Dinner at The Pan restaurant

The experience began even before the journey did. A warm farewell from our DG Rtn Bansi Dhurandhar was a pleasant surprise. From haggling with the ground staff at the Mumbai airport to the search for an elusive "knife" in one of our baggages at security check and a series of manoeuvring our bags amongst the five of us, the journey from Mumbai to Colombo was a bagful of laughter.

As the plane descended down on a sky blushing deep red with the sunrise, our excitement mounted with the sun. Probably the first thing that strikes Indians every time we go to another country is the lesser number of people around. The lack of crowd at the airport as we checked out was a pleasant surprise.

A warm welcome and a short drive later we were at our host's residence, a charming house nestled among trees by the banks of Ja Ela (literally meaning a canal (ela) built by the Malays (ja). The garden air seemed to take away with it all the travel fatigue. Lal Wijeratne and Niranjala have been a fabulous host couple, feeding us the most sumptuous meals and going out of their way to make us comfortable.

The highlight of our first day was of course the fourth one day match between India and Sri Lanka that we had tried hard to secure tickets for way back in India. As luck would have it, a strange sequence of events led us watching the match - a cascade of runs by India - for free (!!!) from the comfortable Grand Stand at the Premadasa stadium. A fabulous dinner at The Pan restaurant and a drive back to our hosts' house summed up our first day in SL.