Away from the family; with a familia

Ceylon Safari Jun 23, 2022

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the dawn:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Been away from your families in the time of new year? like ever? Well…. After celebrating each and every new year with my family without missing a beat, this year I decided to take a risk…Go big or go home, right? I wasn’t even remotely close to the place my family was living, instead I was few hundred kilometers away from’em.

Well, who I was with then??? Well, can you guess? Just wing it.

Fine!!!!... If you really wanna know,

I was with the most awesome combo ever. With my fellow Rotaractors and three beautiful individuals from three far away from across the world. I can’t bring myself to explain on how unique and beautiful that experience was.

The day began with our very own Nethma akka giving me a lift to the EP house. Quarreling all the way to our destination like two lousy siblings, we finally stopped the nonstop chatter as soon as we got out of the car, where we were greeted by two iconic individuals whom you guys may know a lot about.

It was Chamod ayya and Avishka Ayya. They were preparing the hearth to lighten it for the lightning of the milk pot ritual. Then both Nethma akka and I were introduced to Laure, Michelle, and Sebastian, as it was our first time meeting them. FYI I’ll be calling our friends from abroad, “buddies” from now on. Anyhow it was as if written in the destiny, we clicked as soon as we met.

Just Imagine!!!

The time flew by and suddenly it was the time to lighten the hearth. Chamod ayya took the lead, as the oldest Sri Lankan present while Nethma akka explained all the rituals and the meanings behind them to our buddies. As we went through the rituals, we heard the firecracker sounds from all around us, our buddies wanted some firecrackers for themselves too… Luckily for us Avishka ayya volunteered to go and get us some.

……Plot Twist!!!!!!...

Instead of firecrackers we ended up with having fireworks. All the better. All we had to do was find a pole to hold the fireworks… We went on several rounds shooting fireworks and ended up scaring the begeezes out of the bats.

As the time went on, we gathered around the table as we were already fallen victim to the aroma coming swiftly from what’s on the plates. It didn’t take us long to finish what was already on the plates. You can tell how good the food tasted when I tell you that everybody had second servings of everything. If you really want to know…. The star of the dishes was katta sambol for me, and Saeedha would agree.

After eagerly finishing off the food we sat around the table to play few rounds of cards…It was called “kent” ….and… one thing led to another… Saeedha and I ended up competing against Sebastian and Michelle. And it was so much of fun. We decided stop playing since it was already lunch time. And we were supposed to go out to eat since we’ve been stuck inside the house for a few hours. Our first stop on the way to the restaurant was St. Mary’s church in Negombo, where we got to experience gorgeous sculptures, paintings, and building. After that we decided to head towards the beach side since our buddies didn’t get to enjoy Sri Lankan beaches on the first hand. And they looooooooooooved it. Sabastian did want to surf, but sadly time wasn’t a friend ours. Time flew by… everyone knew that it was the time for food cause our tummies grumbled announcing that clearly.

Lunch…. sigh!!

I can’t bring myself to explain how lunch went for us. It was an emotional rollercoaster. We got to bond over each other yet again. So many topics were discussed. We shared stories we shared memories and most importantly we made memories.

Sadness was having to bid farewell to all the people there and get ourselves back home. Even though I am saying this right now, I’m sure that I am speaking on behalf of everyone when I say, we didn’t want to be apart from each other even for a minute. Every second with them was a new and fresh experience for us. I knew we are going to meet again the following day and was over the moon excited for that.