Portrait

posse and the bombay sapphire, coral sands, hikkaduwa.

i’m back home, for the first time since sunday morning. i’m hot, bothered and generally nostalgic for the last four days that have been nothing short of truly fun.

sunday : we manage to leave home by about 11 am. mother, grandmother, brother, uncle, uncle and i. the original family posse. we head to unawatuna, and stop at the ambalangoda rest house for lunch. this place turns out to be a complete shit hole. as shit hole-ish as it is possible to be. the food is actually alright, but the place is grotty and dirty and unkempt. not entirely inviting. anyway, we go down to unawatuna. mother and grandmother are deposited at a place called ’sea view’, and brother and i proceed to find rooms at the legendary bishu’s. this is where ‘the wedding’ happened. bishu hassan is the master of hospitality, and his place is super neat. brother’s friend parisa is with us for one night, so we make the best of it and sit awhile on the beach talking, and take a dip in the unawatuna bay sea during sunset. i display my new (and first ever) bikini. we reminisce about S and S’s wedding, two years ago, one week before the tsunami. it is wonderful to be back in good old unawatuna, a place we have been frequenting since we were tots that were flung into the sea by our desperate parents, left to fend for ourselves and each other in the reasonably calm waters while the adults sat on the beach with their beers. a lot of familiar restaurants and cafes along the beach have been resurrected over the last one and a half years. business is booming and the beach is swarming with tourists and louts. family gathers for dinner at the place in which we are staying. the food is phenomenal, and we all sleep fairly early.

monday : i am woken by my bellowing brother, who’s trying to kick my door down. we have coffee at our place, and head down to the beach. the day is spent getting in and out of the sea, taking the piss out of mother and consuming vast amounts of coke (cola) and iced water. its murderously hot, but the water is beautiful and tempting, and it makes up for the otheriwse stifling weather. we have lunch at this restaurant we have almost made our own. i end up having 3-4 showers a day. later in the evening, i take a walk down to the beach, buy myself a coffee and read my book. my brother joins me, and soon mother too. we walk till its time for dinner, talking about love, marriage and decisions. life is tough. but not when you’re on holiday.

all so picture perfect. unawatuna.

tuesday : this time, its my turn to rise and shine early and act like mary-fucking-sunshine. i kick my brother out of bed, but i don’t wait for him. i walk down to where my mother and grandmother are staying. they are downstairs having breakfast. i join them, but don’t eat. brother joins us soon, and eats. and eats. and eats. what else is new? we walk down to the beach, and soon the entire entourage is basking in the sea. mother and grandmother are out before brother and i. we remain, bobbing in the waves, recognizing the ocean floor with our feet and talking about women, men and why we never know what we want. i leave after lunch, and come to hikkaduwa, where sean, tash, pieris, guppy and nush have just arrived and are waiting for me. i engage in hearty conversation with the driver who’s taking me to hik, and every time i stall, looking for a word, i silently kick myself, shamed by how rotten my sinhala is. i meet the boys (and girl) at hotel francis, where they’re lunch-ing. afterwards, we walk ten full minutes in the sweltering heat to hotel coral sands, complaining endearingly to each other all the way. we book the suite, which is an apartment with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, one kitchenette and one living area. the view from the room isn’t great per se, but the hotel is semi-posh and has a nice pool. we are also directly across the street from a nice bathing spot in the sea, so we’re not too fussed. we settle in and go down to the beach for a dip. after that, we lie around on this deck by the pool, order coffee and talk. asvajit, who’s also holidaying in hik with his family, comes over to see me for awhile. we head to dinner, find some alright italian joint and eat. we come back to the room and try to drink. i feel nauseous upon my first (very diluted), so i resign. pieris is in full form. but soon, he falls asleep. guppy, nush and i drive to a considerably happening bar, called ‘top secret’. asvajit and his friends entertain me, till the place shuts down and we walk down the beach to this party at a place called ‘anchorage’. the music is mind-blowing and everyone is wasted. asvajit and i talk for some time, and i watch, fascinated, as guppy rolls a joint like a pro for someone who doesn’t smoke them. we go back to our room by about 4 am. the night was perfect, to say the least. for multiple reasons.

hikkaduwa beach

wednesday : you think sharing a bathroom with boys is tough? try sharing a room with 3 of them. there are clothes everywhere and they eat on the bed. they wake me up early, at about 9 am. by the time we shower and get the hell outta there, sean and tash, the happy couple, are already done having coffee on the poolside terrace. we cruise around in the car, looking for breakfast. we all have an opinion about where to stop and where not to stop, and this results in us cruising up and down the same road for a good half an hour. i finally tell everyone to shut up, and order that they will stop where i say ’stop’ and vow that i will make them eat at the shittiest place possible if they don’t comply. we finally stop when i yell stop and eat. lo and behold, the place, ‘refresh’, is nice nice nice. we come back, jump around in the sea, and eat lunch, quite in contrast to the morning, in a horrible place on the beach called ‘blue note’. we come back, jump around in the sea some more, and see guppy and pieris off at about 7 pm. they return to colombo. the happy couple, nush and i, drive down to t’top secret’ to find coffee. i sit with asvajit, his mother, brother and hiran and have one glass of red wine, while the trio go next door and drink coffee without me. after they return, the four of us go to dinner, and end up at a neat little joint that looks, and smells, divine, called ‘roger’s garage’. we stuff ourselves silly. we hang out on the beach till midnight near ‘top secret’ and drive back to our place. we go for a moon-light dip in the sea. the beach is all our’s, ominous and calm, and the moon is so full that it hurts to admire it for too long. i go to bed after having a shower at 1 am, all wrapped up in my happiness and euphoria.

thursday : we wake up, we have breakfast at our hotel, lounge in the pool, and the sea, for a good part of the morning. we shower, change, pack and settle bills. we buy the legendary cheese rotis from the legendary (and original) cheese roti shop in hik, and head back to colombo, armed with nothing but our memories and bad jokes. i’m already nostalgic for the perfection of the past 4 days. it is so refreshing to get away from the usual bump and grind, the weariness of routine and regularity. this trip was amazing and fulfilling. confessions were made, lectures were given, tales were told and talks were had. there is nothing quite like the warmth of a crazy family, the closeness of incredibly good friends and a few days away from the real world to remind you that here on earth, all heaven is borrowed.

all’s well that ends well.

more pictures here.