Portrait

its ironic that i, having lived in sri lanka all my life, amidst bombs and terrorists and a time of a civil war that went on for decades, had to come all the way to london to be faced with some more acts of terrorism. life is funny that way, isn’t it? anyway, things are just about calming down here after yesterday morning’s tragic happenings. everything is still kind of ambigious, but having started from 2 fatalities yesterday morning, this morning we heard of 37. isn’t that crazy? the way the numbers just rise like that over night? i hate it. every single number is a person, an actual person with a family and a history and a home. like it went from 250 to 30,000. last morning we just happened to turn on the news and there it was, all this chaos and pandemonium. around mid day, after lots of rumours about there having been 6 explosions and 12 fatalities, the polica issued an official statement saying there were 4 explosions, and only 4 bodies so far…but there were also about 200 serious injuries and many other casualties. they also said they strongly suspect its the al qaeda. no shit. there have reportedly been more deaths because of all the chaos on the underground, some of the trains had gone into each other because they were unable to stop them once the explosions happened inside etc.

thankfully, we were on our way to oxford anyway, we didnt think we needed to hang around and stay in, so we went ahead with plans, and jayan avoided central london as much as possible. we did get caught in some hardcore traffic, but once we were out of the city, it was relatively smooth and easy. i met my cousin varunika after 10 years, this was the first time since the last time, when she was 17 and holidaying in her parent’s homeland before going off to college. she’s lived in perth all her life, and is totally australian, but what i like about her is that she doesnt try to be anything else. she doesnt pretend she’s sri lankan. now she’s 28, a very serious academic, and on a prestigious scholarship doing her PhD in lady margaret hall, oxford. she’s great. i remember the last time we met, i was a brat, and i loved her. i worshipped the ground she walked on. we did everything together, and we had a great time. she’s fantasitc now. she’s beautiful, intelligent, hyperactive, opinionated, and totally weird. she lives with some flat mates who call her veronica. we had a great day, she, jayan, ammi and i. we walked around, she showed us all the different buildings and towers, and the famous bodlien library, ashmolean museum, and the radcliffe camera (not camera, you idiots. its the latin word for ‘room’, sounds like the sinhala word for it). the buildings were so breathtaking. most of them are so old, and so victorian. the colleges are so beautiful, they have these great gardens and lucious grass quadrangles. the buildings are made of these lovely caramel shaded sandstone, and the texture is so smooth and grand. the towers, the stained glass in the chapels, the carvings on the huge doors, it was so surreal. its so wonderful, the whole town is full of students (and some tourists), and everything is existent for the students. we also passed by this pub called lamb and flag, which is apparently where c.s lewis and tolkien sat and discussed philosophy and god and things. but oxford is really where all the best loved classics were produced, its where c.s lewis wrote all the narnia novels, and where lewis carol wrote alice’s adventures in wonderland. we had lunch and then we walked around some more, then we went to this pub around 6.30 and had a drink, and then we went punting on the river. of course, there was some handome young man doing the actual punting, and the four of us sat back in the boat and sipped the free champagne and relished the feeling of being on the lake. it was so serene and quiet, a moment in which you feel ‘ah, this is the life’. its that time when you can be romantic and idealistic, where you can dream and fantasize. because about then was when i though ‘fuck it, i’m coming to oxford’.

then we went to LMH (varunika’s college), and walked around in their extensive gardens. their so beautifully well maintained, and the flowers in bloom were so unreal. after that, we went off to dinner at this indian restaurant, the food was divine. we ate and ate. and ate. then we drove back to brixton, in much less time than we took to get there. all in all, it was a great day. today i went to this store called primark, where nothing is more than about 10 quid. it was so great. i bought so many really nice clothes, for such an absurdly cheap price. well, my mother bought more. this is once shopping trip she cannot blame me for. then, i went to this small salon and got this lady to braid my hair! it looks great! it feels great too, like this one big massage! she braided tiny little braids all the way down my scalp and it looks so cool…this is really the neighbourhood to get this done, almost everyone is so super cool, and black.

anyway, the news is still pouring in the about the bombings. not to sound like a complete bitch, but wasn’t this a long time coming? tony blair looked devastated though. i can really sympathize with the man. just this once. he’s generally ok, i quite like him, i just wish he wasn’t smitten and in love with bush. who i detest.

i just wanted to say thanks to everyone who mailed me, concerned about my whereabouts and if i and mine were ok. it was so stunning, to see all these mails by people i don’t even know the first name of. there’s nothing quite like it.