They did the usual tours and went around the sought-after sites, from Pinnawela to Sigiriya, from Kandy to Trincomalee, from Dambulla to Galle and many more. While the sites were spell-binding, the “most memorable” for them was veering off the beaten track, into a humble wattle-and-daub village home.
For this 10-member group, living in Nairobi, Kenya, and London, England, the Sri Lankan experience had never been a consideration. Having visited India on numerous occasions, most of them were under the impression that Sri Lanka may be like an extension of India.
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| From left: Hasmukh, Meera, Anay, Kamal, Aarav, Sushila, Baiju, Preeti, Lily and Sandhya (inset) |
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When planning this 17-day family reunion in celebration of three wedding anniversaries this year, however, they wanted an “exotic” destination. It was then that they remembered how a Sri Lankan friend had waxed eloquent about the beauty of this island which hangs just below India.
The verdict of the family was unanimous – so to Sri Lanka headed this extended family – three sisters, two husbands, the parents of the three sisters, the mother of one of the husbands and two sons of one couple. The sisters’ grandparents originally from Gujarat, India, had ventured to Kenya in Africa in search of greener pastures. Now some family members live in Kenya and others in London.
When the Sunday Times caught up with them at the Galle Face Hotel, the youngest sister, Sandhya Dhulashia, working in England as a dentist had already left.
The others were about to depart on a final spree of shopping before boarding flights that night to Nairobi and London. While the middle sister, Meera, husband Kamal Shah, sons Anay and Aarav and also Meera’s parents Hasmukh and Lily Dhulashia and her mother-in-law Sushila would go back to their routine in Nairobi, the eldest sister Preeti and husband Baiju Shah would get back to their jobs in London.
While Baiju has his own jewellery business and Preeti is a pharmacist, Kamal the golfer and entrepreneur runs the family business of auto-spares and is heavily into the hospitality trade and Meera a radiographer turned home-maker. After seeing the sites here, Kamal is hoping to promote tourism both ways between Kenya and Sri Lanka.
The reunion was for the 40th wedding anniversary of Hasmukh and Lily which is on June 2 and the 10th wedding anniversaries of Preeti and Baiju on March 1 and Kamal and Meera on July 27.
As they left the shores of what they feel is this “untouched” island, with heaps of photos and each and every moment documented in Preeti’s travelogue, the memories are rich and vivid. For different members from the different age-groups, 60s, 40s, 30s, 20s and under 10s, what was enjoyable varied…….Sigiriya was “slightly scary” for the older people but the climb was exercise enough for the whole tour; the cold of Nuwara Eliya pleasing for those from hot Kenya; the picture-postcard views of the hill country thrilling to all; and the sun-kissed beaches “amazing”.
Travelling in a mini-coach with the itinerary carefully planned by Worldlink Tours Pvt. Ltd., the paintings in Dambulla enthralled them while for the two little brothers, Anay and Aarav, the rare sighting of the spotted beauty, the sleek and elusive leopard, and the regal sambhur with its spreading antlers framed against the majesty of Horton Plains while they were trekking will remain engraved in their minds.
The list flows on – from experiences at the Cultural Triangle; naughty baby-elephants at Pinnawela clamouring for milk; World’s End in all its mist-shrouded beauty; smooth, not-bumpy roads; delicious fruit, sips of king coconut (thambili) and curd and treacle from wayside boutiques; oh so clean Sri Lanka as opposed to India; and trishaws being pushed not driven through knee-deep water after a shower of rain in Colombo.
While a jarring note had been seeing an elephant heavily chained at Pinnawela, the memory this group will cherish most, however, is the warmth of the humble Sri Lankan.
Baiju recalls the scare of the tsunami they experienced just before the New Year while on the way to Hikkaduwa. With warnings to leave the coast when they did reach Hikkaduwa on the highway, the quick-thinking driver had taken them to higher ground.
“It was a tiny, disused guest-house close to the Sinharaja rainforest,” explains Baiju. The welcome, though, had been warm, with the caretaker throwing open the two rooms and toilets and making them feel at home in his own way until the tsunami warning was called off and they headed to their destination.
Coming from avid travellers, for Baiju and Preeti have been backpacking in the last few years in North, South and Central America, Australia and New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Europe, Southern Africa including all the countries south of Kenya and obviously the Indian subcontinent, it is indeed a compliment for Sri Lanka when he says that it is “definitely one of our top favourites and we’ll be visiting it again”. He points out that Worldlink Travels kept their word in “ensuring that we’ll love Sri Lanka”.
Of the Sri Lanka experience, the most enduring memory, the Sunday Times understands, is the village woman from that “small dwelling” who attempted to teach them the art of using the pestle and mortar and packed a generous portion of sambol she had made with her own hands in the old fashioned way on a grinding stone, into a coconut shell for them to enjoy on their journey. “It tasted wonderful,” says Baiju, with everyone else vigorously nodding in agreement. |
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