Snapshot of Mannar

On the Sri Lankan map, my index finger and my trailing eyes used to habitually navigate towards an island protruding from Mannar, that looked like a sliced fruit. Somehow islands fascinated me, there was that unusual charm in there. It was a fascination for an islands within a bigger island (I was living on one J). Maybe I got bitten by this island bug after I visited Delft (Jaffna). I didn’t get to visit Talaimannar – the strip of land connecting to our bigger neighbor, but being able to set foot in the main city and a stroll around the villages itself was a something to be thrilled about. Besides I had never been to Mannar and the moment I landed I was scanning for things that made Mannar unique in its own way.

Having been to many of the areas in the Northern Province, there weren’t things up for huge comparison except a couple of malt colour donkeys (I envied their fringe :-) plenty of fish markets and statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary standing at every street junction replacing Lord Shiva or the revered Elephant God. It was the strong influence of the sacred catholic pilgrimage site of Madhu and many of the community being Christian with fisheries being the main occupation. The rest of it was typical – brick red dust, Palmyrah trees, trees worn out by the scorching heat standing straight with all its strength on arid soil which in some places had turned into a checkered print.

Lorries whizzed by grim faced cyclists leaving a trail of red dust behind. Boards with signs “Mannaram maalu” back in Colombo flashed in my head, The lorries were rushing to and from to take Mannar’s prized Karawala (dried fish) back to Colombo.

I remembered Sam my dear friend with whom I used to travel a lot constantly yakking about the cashew and rambutan in his beloved home town Nanattar in Mannar. I sent him a text simply saying ‘hi buddy I am in your previous Nanattar’, that was enough to fire up Sam who called me instantly and was excited and regretful at the same time that he couldn’t be the tour guide showing off all the places that he talked about.  He seemed like he was going to appear through the cellphone signals and land any moment J I had to calm him down by saying let’s make it again when he plans to head home during a long stretch of holidays.

Only less than a day spent in Mannar getting a snapshot view of a place steeped with historical links but left me with a strong will to go back to see the stretch of smaller islands in Talaimannar and see the last bit of Sri Lanka fading off to the sea. Yeah islands will always remain fascinating …For now I keep my fingers crossed in hope that I will be able to do just that..someday…..somehow