Back to School

Returning to school after nine years comes with a fair share of challenges. You find that your brain isn't as sharp as it used to be in high school. Then you realise you have become an expert procrastinator, which isn't a good thing when pursuing a postgraduate level course. You also realise your hands don't cooperate anymore when writing down notes at a fast pace and your handwriting is now worse than a third grader's.

In addition to the above, I've also jumped into a science course after nearly a decade of not working in a related field (okay, maybe volunteering occasionally at the zoo counted for a little). The consequence of this is that I found myself in a class of mostly younger people who are more qualified, focused and academically sharper.

I've had to adapt to some new behaviours too. No one eats with cutlery here unless they have some kind of hand injury. Some restaurants look unhygienic and makes stomachs cringe. Students here also are used to eating together and sharing lunches. This is an effective arrangement to minimise food wastage and save money. It was a little awkward at first and years of being psychologically put down as a left-hander made me wonder if my lunch mates feel uncomfortable sharing food with me. But my two lunchmates seem to take no notice and they even voluntarily eat vegetarian food with me just so one half of a packed lunch does not go to waste.

On a related note and coming from Singapore where good hygiene is overly emphasized to reduce the spread of diseases, I find it appalling that a vast majority of public toilets in Sri Lanka do not have soap to wash hands. Even my institute that calls itself a leader in postgraduate Science education does not provide soap in the student toilets. I once voluntarily left a piece of soap for public use. Now it's over and needs replacing. I guess I'm going to be the unsung toilet hero that helped reduce the spread of gastrointestinal and respiratory infections in female students till the end of 2017. I now also carry a small bottle of hand wash wherever I travel.

Singing on class (field) trips in my native language is also something I am not used to. I have not actively paid attention to pop culture in my country for about twelve years so I've missed a lot. I also grew up in a multicultural setting in all educational institutions I've been to so it was hard to find songs for which everyone knew the lyrics to. And even for the English ones which everyone knew (mostly from singing class), we had no capable musical conductors to take the lead or musicians who could play a guitar or the conga drums. Anyhow, for this trip, I had to settle to mostly clapping and joining only when classics and songs older than twelve years were sung. I must admit, these students are very experienced at musical entertainment and even carry tiny song books with them!

"Conga" drums are a must-have on all long distance group trips in Sri Lanka. 
(Image source: Tremuloumusic)

After a couple of months here, I've started to fit in, find ways to promote harmony and feel humbled observing those around me. In most ways, I have an easy life. I live closer to the university than most (about 15 km away). I don't have a full time job or dependents to tend to, which is highly advantageous when pursuing studies. Though lacking in core subject knowledge and work experience, my English standard is above the class average which also helps. There are students who work full time jobs and travel hundreds of kilometers from various corners of the country, enduring a lot of hardships every weekend just to come for lectures. Some stay alone in hostels for the weekend and not see their families for many months on end. Some, I also learnt, do serious hands-on work in their respective environmental fields and are working hard with the goal to move onto better opportunities outside this country.

Lack of privilege is a cruel thing. If some of these driven, hardworking and capable students had the same privileges and opportunities I was fortunate enough to have while growing up, I'm sure they would have put it to better use and be in much better places by now.

According to an interesting interactive tool from the BBC called "How equal are you?", Sri Lanka ranks 84 in terms of gender equality.

 That's a positive sign too. Although, the same tool also states that only 39% of women are currently in a job or looking for work. This could imply that a vast proportion of female university graduates eventually take up stay-at-home roles (temporarily or otherwise).

In our class of 24 students, the female to male ratio is about 50:50. About 30% make up minority ethnicities. In a country that was war-torn for two and a half decades and where racial tensions with other minorities still bubble beneath the surface, one's race is a sensitive issue. When I first joined the course, I could feel the walls that the students erected around themselves and their comfort groups. There was hardly any mixing around.

Two months later, as we get to know each other better, core personalities are becoming apparent. Some are clearly leaders who like to take charge. They like to be the voice of the class and take the trouble to gather everyone on social media or worry about refreshments for everyone on class trips. Some are the suspicious and distant types who are not yet ready to be vulnerable with others. Some are the responsible types who assist the leaders and are given jobs that require accountability like being class monitors or photocopying precious notes for the whole class. Some are the leech-y types who like to take shortcuts and form alliances to receive advantages. Some are the helpful types who help other students with information, lecture notes or teach them how to do complex calculations. Some are comedians who maintain an air of lightness and joy. Some are good musicians who entertain everyone during class trips. Some are like neutrons. They keep a good balance by doing nothing good or nothing bad (this also helps reduce too much negativity).

Then there's me. I see myself as a neutral party that closely observes this fascinating ecosystem and occasionally anticipates and springs to action if someone needs help or something needs to be done to bridge gaps or maintain harmony.

It won't be long before we are more united as a class. After two field trips and some group projects, the walls between different races are very slowly coming down, trust is building up and people are connecting on a human level. Like for example, we were in groups of six in each safari vehicle during our last trip to Kaudulla National Park. At first, they laughed at me for putting on sunscreen lotion. Then they changed their minds and borrowed my lotion. Later the idiots thanked me for helping them minimise exposure to harmful UV radiation. Soon after, everyone was asking each other's life histories, work places, ages, showing photos of their partners, joking about being bald, exchanging phone numbers to keep in touch, congratulating some who just became new parents or newly engaged, etc.

Most of these migratory elephant herds spotted at Minneriya National Park last month have moved through the Elephant Corridor at Kaudulla-Minneriya to Kaudulla National Park. 

We went on a field trip to Kaudulla National Park see elephants, other mammals and loads of birds. Thanks to the sharp eyes of our lecturer and the collective group, we spotted a Ruddy mongoose, Golden jackals, Toque macaques, Grey langurs and the Sri Lankan axis deer for mammals (that's 6 out of a reported 24 mammals in this park). The lecturer is a huge fan of birds so he was clearly biased towards them and had to help us out in identifying nearly 35 species of birds (out of a reported 160 species of birds). Honestly, some types of birds looked the same to me so I have a lot to catching up to do to become familiar with identifying birds. And just to make my day complete with reptiles, we spotted a Water monitor lizard, Common garden lizard and a freshwater testudine that looked like an Indian black turtle (that's 3 out of 25 reported reptiles).

Overall, it was a fun trip and perhaps a sign of good things to come.

The piece of tofu

The festival in my city is over! My mother and I are so relieved. We can finally take a break from running a “hotel”. From now onwards, we'll be back to a slower pace of hosting people. And perhaps I can catch up on more important things and hobbies.

The past ten days were an interesting first-time experience for us managing a peak tourist season. We met people from United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Norway, Belgium and China. Some became closer to us than others. Some had interesting stories to tell us. Some were more curious than others to learn about Sri Lankan culture and our way of life.

It fascinates me how we choose to open up to complete strangers sometimes, with a level of trust that we don't even show to non-strangers and how sometimes interesting friendships develop. For example, although I am a very suspicious introvert, I find myself more open to talking to strangers while I travel. It's not the case when I am in familiar surroundings with not-so-strangers.  It's also interesting how different people get more or less out of the same situation by the level of openness and curiosity they choose to display.

The highlight of our ten days and a good example of guests making the most of a situation is perhaps the story that follows.

We had a documentary photographer and his wife who were on a "pilgrimage" across several Asian countries capturing various Buddhist traditions and festivals. I think it was a fortunate coincidence that they decided to stay with us. Communication was a bit of a challenge since we didn't speak Chinese and their English wasn't too fluent. However, by the end of ten days, they considered us as an adopted family and we considered them the same. 

They relaxed in the mornings doing a bit of cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping for food, playing the guitar (extremely well) and getting in touch with their families on Skype. By evening time, they left to the city with their camera equipment to cover the festival. For a couple of days, we observed them with interest and they did the same with us. We tried to anticipate their needs and made them as comfortable as we could. The turning point of our relationship was a piece of tofu. Yes, a piece of cold, white, raw tofu. One afternoon, my mother offered them a small piece of home-made tofu. To our surprise, their faces lit up and the wife hugged my mother and exclaimed “Thank you, Mom!”. I suppose they never expected to receive tofu from a Sri Lankan family or they probably missed tofu dearly since they had been traveling for 4 months. Shortly afterwards, they invited us to a grand home-made Chinese vegetarian dinner. It was the best Chinese vegetarian meal I had eaten in a long time. The tofu was cooked in an authentic Szechuan style (called Mapo Tofu).

The hosts were invited for a dinner by the guests

One night they called us at 1:00 am for an emergency. My brother and I went to investigate and found that they have not been able to go to the toilet for nearly an hour because there was a big (harmless) spider on the shower curtain. My brother relocated the spider to the woods and everyone was happy. My mother was able to answer them on questions related to Buddhist traditions, she let them borrow books from her library, took them to a temple nearby and taught the wife how to wear a sari. My father showed them around our garden and helped them to carry their photography equipment to the river for a photo shoot. My brother took them around in his tuk tuk and gave them new local fruits to sample. We had more meals together. Talked about travels, cultures and family backgrounds - even if they weren't in perfect English.

The photo shoot at "Ritigala" - said to be the last Kandyan King's bathing spot

After what seemed like more than ten days, we parted. There were some tears and promises to improve on English speaking skills, keep in touch and to meet again. We also gave them a parting gift that included a book and a rubber spider. 

Not every guest encounter turns out like this, but this one was certainly interesting.

Esela Perahera

The city I live in is gearing up for a huge festival starting tomorrow. This annual festival called the Esela Perahera is held in July/ August and some refer to it as "the most colourful pageant of Asia". For 10 days, a huge procession of Kandyan dancers, drummers, jugglers, fire-breathers, whip-crackers, adorned elephants and more will parade through various narrow streets of Kandy town as a mark of respect to the sacred tooth relic of the Buddha. The relic is housed in the Temple of the Tooth (aka Sri Dalada Maligawa).

A short clip of the Esela Perahera

Hordes of devotees, tourists and locals will be pouring into Kandy in the next few days, making the town very congested! Thankfully, this time of the year also happens to be cool, windy and without much rain. Most locals who have lived their entire lives in this city still try to catch the spectacle at least on one of the days, knowing very well that it will involve brushing with hundreds of strangers on the streets, sometimes struggling to hold on to a few inches of ground to stand, because it is indeed an impressive sight.

Our family was invited by some friends to watch the procession from the comfort of one of their friends' shop balconies. We also talked about taking a load of snacks and drinks to share and kill time till the procession passes us. Our snack menu includes things like fried peanuts, biscuits, boiled chick peas, pickled fruit, fresh fruit, cake, etc. As a child I remember we (all the younger ones) try to count the number of elephants in the procession and compare notes later. My last count was forty-two although the procession is said to have up to a hundred elephants! I'm guessing many elephants got away while I reached out for snacks or got carried away eating.

I also remember a time when elephants that were brought to Kandy from various parts of Sri Lanka for the Esela Perahera would come to bathe in the river beside my house. We enjoyed watching them play and bathe in the river from a distance. It seems like they have found a different location for bathing in the recent years.

This time though, I have mixed feelings about participating as a spectator of this grand procession that has cultural, religious, traditional and nostalgic significance to me.

In the past, Asian elephants were used in warfare and labour that required strength. As these roles are now redundant, elephants (in captivity) in Sri Lanka have become a symbol of wealth and power. It is not uncommon for temples, powerful figures and some Buddhist monks to own at least one elephant. They are also used in numerous religious processions, celebratory events like weddings and animal shows for human entertainment.

Almost all elephants that seem tame to humans are captured in the wild. A more fitting word would be "snatched" from the herd. Most are caught very young as they need to be "tamed" from a young age. It is said that they undergo a training period consisting of torture, starvation, abuse and solitary confinement to "break their wild spirit" and fear a human keeper enough to obey their orders. Unlike their African counterparts, Asian elephants more suitable for training. They can't be domesticated (as in the case of selectively bred animals) so although "tame", captive elephants are pretty much the same as wild elephants. Therefore, they are kept chained and mahouts (elephant keepers) always carry a sharp hook to remind the elephants of obedience.

During the Esela Perahera, captive elephants are made to participate in a procession with thousands of bystanders, heat and noise. Some of the bigger elephants carry chieftans on their back. During the procession, they sometimes step on smoldering pieces of charcoal that fall off the torches and are regularly prodded by the mahouts with hooks. Sick elephants are probably not spared because participation means a day's wage for a mahout. One elephant on a rampage in a congested town could easily end up in a catastrophe. So underneath beautifully adorned garments, adult elephants walk in chains that are often too short for the animal to take a natural step. This is perhaps a fitting analogy for the Esela Perahera itself. Beneath all the extravagance, there lies commercialism (yes, even our family benefits from incoming tourists to Kandy) and worse, untold suffering for the hundred elephants.

A chained temple elephant in Sri Lanka. Source: The Dodo

While the elephant-mahout bond is said to be a a special one, usually for life, not every mahout is kind or an expert in the needs of elephants. Mahouts work hard to look after an elephant and depend solely on the elephant for their livelihood. So the only means he can feed his family and a 2-5 tonne animal (that eats about 150 kg of food a day) is to take his elephant to as many events, religious processions he can, or simply show them off to tourists in return for a fee. In a way, religious events like the Esela Perahera support the livelihood and sustenance of many mahouts and captive elephants respectively. However, it is a vicious cycle.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species has categorised Elephas maximus as "endangered" and the population count is on a downward trend. In Sri Lanka, there are threats like elephant-human territorial conflicts, capture of juveniles in the wild and an ivory demand (which is smaller in extent compared to Africa).

A herd of wild (female) elephants and their offspring spotted at Minneriya National Park (Sri Lanka) during my last visit in July 2016. Scores of them gather annually in this very spot while on a migratory route. 

It is indeed a sad case that in the 21st century, with so much accumulated knowledge in Science and collective conscience, we continue to uphold and glorify traditions with a darker side. It is even sadder that we humans exploit animals in the name of religions that preach kindness and non-violence towards them.

Elephants are special. Like pandas, they elicit a feeling of fondness in many people (if you disagree, you haven't seen a baby elephant up close). They are the largest land animals on Earth. They are highly intelligent and social herbivores with complex emotions. They have the longest gestation period of 18-22 months for a mammal and elephant calves depend on the mother's milk for 3-4 years. Even if those facts don't impress anyone, few would argue that a hundred shackled elephants covered in magnificent costumes are better than a hundred elephants roaming free in the wild.

Setting up a business

Right about the time I stopped blogging in 2014, my family started a major construction project. It is no wonder that my mental faculties were far too occupied to enjoy leisurely pursuits like writing.

It started out as an idea to build a tiny affordable annex which could be rented out to a local family. The main drive for this was so my parents would have a supplementary income while I was unemployed during postgraduate study. Or so I initially thought.

When the idea went through all members of my family, it didn't take long for the idea to grow and evolve into something quite different from the original plan. Our family is divided between high-risk and low-risk takers in the ratio of 2 : 2. My sister being the ambitious one gently nudged us to take a bigger risk by tapping into the tourism industry. My mother was excited about the prospect from the start. The two low-risk takers were hesitant at first, but considering the facts at hand, they slowly warmed up to the idea and tweaked it to a more sensible one.

Many telephone, Whatsapp and Skype conversations later, it was decided that we were going to have a small bed & breakfast inn for budget-conscious travelers. Since we happen to be located in a popular city of historic/ cultural importance in Sri Lanka, it seemed worth a shot. Worst case scenarios included a failed business or being summoned to court for missing on housing loan repayments. Best case scenarios included a successful business or even simply ending up with an additional comfortable house.

This was the first time our family worked together on a project of this scale. It was no easy task to coordinate things when we were all in three different countries. Jobs were divided according each one's abilities and personalities.

My mother was the "Construction Manager/ Buyer" supervising and coordinating things on site with the contractors, vendors and other authorities. Despite our regular input from overseas, she is the real hero for completing the construction phase. My sister was the "Advisor/ Master Decorator" who gave an artistic touch worthy of a small business. I was more of a laid back "Project Manager/ Financial Controller" giving the yes/no to anything that involved costs, taking care of a multitude of details that the others missed and constantly pointing out things that needed improvement. My foster brother worked alongside the contractors so the building probably has more of his sweat and blood than any one else in the family. My father didn't play a very active role in the construction phase except perhaps keeping us grounded when our imaginations stretched far beyond our budget. Also I presume, he'll be the one to bail us out of jail some day when we fall back on housing loan repayments and the authorities come to seize the property!

Clearing the land in preparation for construction. Unfortunately, many trees and plants which were dearly looked after by my father were uprooted to make space for this house

From the ground

Slowly taking shape

Ta daa! The nearly-finished product

The major part of the construction project was completed in about 12 months' time. Looking back now, it feels like a dream. In December 2015, after much effort, stress and sacrifices from all family members, we were ready to welcome our first guests. The house was complete with 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, a dining hall and a laundry room. There is more to be done, but we had to stop when we ran out of financial resources about the same time that I quit my job.

Every adversity in life comes with valuable lessons and experiences. For us, the project brought our family members closer than we had ever been before. This was the perfect team building activity to work together, enjoy the successes and failures, mend strained ties as a result of prolonged periods of separation and appreciate each other more - while this "baby" of ours grew from a small idea to a tangible structure.

Not only that, it was a huge learning experience. We all learnt about things we never knew about before the project commenced. My brother for example, being extraordinarily skilled, picked up the basic skills of masonry, carpentry, welding, wiring and tiling while working as an apprentice. Someday, he should be able to easily build his own little house. As for myself, I didn't know that careful planning of building layouts and obsessing over minor details would greatly appeal to my over-thinking nature (IKEA was my new best friend for inspiration).

The end of the construction phase signaled the beginning of the operations phase, which was another new subject in itself. My sister's knowledge and experience in the hospitality sector proved helpful in setting up things and shaping our mindset to a service-oriented one. Again, we had to learn a lot - about catering to various types of guests, housekeeping, managing reservations, finances, getting various licences, networking with tour operators, upgrading facilities, marketing, etc - from scratch. My mother who's very extroverted and my father who's genuinely helpful and informed have been assigned front office roles while I support them when I'm around. My mother is also the Head Chef since she is a great cook. My brother continues to support us in minor construction work. 

I happily settled to doing the back-end job of managing the online presence of the business. Also, since I don't have a lot of other practical skills and we can't afford to employ anyone yet, I have been left with the not-so-fun role of Head Housekeeper. And for someone who spent many years being a "happy bachelor" away from family, devoid of any household responsibilities, and sometimes even sneering at householders for having to clean houses regularly, it looks like I've been served by the Cosmic Joker.

Life does throw you curveballs. Helping to set up a family business was nowhere in my list of personal goals or priorities, but here we are. On the down side, this project set me back financially, forced me to take the difficult decision of returning to Sri Lanka to pursue a no-so-ideal local degree and miss my highly independent life in Singapore. On the up side, the time with family has been invaluable, just like peaceful natural surroundings I wake up to every day (and which I have dearly missed for many years), the food and the abundance of pets. And it is dawning on me that Sri Lanka (though far from being a perfect country) is perhaps one of the best places on Earth to study nature and wildlife.

Whether the recent decisions I took were good ones remains to be seen. Till then, I am going to make the most of my stay here. As I typed some parts of this post sitting on the floor outside my front door, my dog stood guard by my feet, I heard birds chirp and noticed that the soothing winds which brushed over my skin also caused the leaves in the garden to rustle.

Hello, my new life in Sri Lanka.