Will it ever come back?

It was the first time I travelled through the eastern part of the island or at least I don’t remember if I have. Oh but Trincomalee, Muthur and Kinniya - yes on a familty tour soon after the ceasefire. My earliest imagination of what may have been the east of the country was war, blood shed, tears, refugees, soldiers, forests and fear. I wasn’t very far.

The sea wasn’t at it’s best behaviour at “Mareena Beach” – commonly referred to by the village folks. It was the only place they had had, to visit for some entertainment. The place doesn’t look very much worth it. The picture of what may have been before the tsunami struck is unimaginable. It has left us nothing to work back on.

Rows of graves, pieces of equipment, a picture frame here, an armchair there, clothes thrown about, weeping widows, very bad roads, flooded areas and a few children loitering around. Hmm… Every next thing you see seems to be worse than what you saw last and it makes you wonder… is it ever gonna come back?

Need drugs for depression

Went down there exactly three weeks ago to Galle. There is no need for description. The dead are dead and the alive are dying to live. My cousin says that if you visit for no reason at all it’s an insult. But I think that one may get the actual feel of the situation by seeing it through one’s own eyes. Besides there’s a lot you can do just by talking to the kids and being with the lost and lonely. The sea was calm. As if it had done nothing at all. Children were playing on what was once a railway line and the mothers had stories to tell that moved the toughest of hearts. The media doesn’t always paint the right picture. The destruction is worse, much worse… but there is no point mourning about the past when we need to rise for the future.

Now it’s about rebuilding lives and railways. Plan and design. Funds and a future. What remains may be little; but the strength of our minds and hearts have increased. The children are ours now. And we have come together as a truly united nation as we never have done in the past. Everyone is trying to look at it positively. From the songs and matches on tv till the homes designed for the survivors… everyone’s spirit is as high as the mountains and as deep as the oceans. A memory that will stay with us forever is slowly taking shape. People have slowly begun their normal lives and now I can read the papers and the sites without really having to blur my sight. This week, it’s gonna be Eid at Ampara with those who could or would have had a normal day.

Now…

As the street light take control in the night and as the shadows are slowly wiped away and as the sun takes over for each new day we as a nation become stronger and closer. Life is the most beautiful gift ever and to us all – whether Buddhist, Christian, Muslim or Hindu – the preciousness of life is equal. We have lived through bomb blasts and riots and war and calamity but we never stood together like we have this time. There is always hope and there is always the brightness of the day that follows the gloom of the night.

With my deepest sympathy and love to all of humanity…