That's Life

Dilini Algama

This is my contribution to anyone who wants who wants to publish a complete guide book to Sri Lanka. To be more specific, this article should go under water sports.

I have found through careful research that there is a new sport in Sri Lanka called 'Aqua Driving'. And yes, it is as exciting as it sounds. It has been around for some time now after it was introduced following the introduction of white water rafting.

The best thing is that it's played on roads, just like any road which has been prepared according to Aqua Driving rules. Now, this is a long process. But the good news is that by the time you read this they'd have completed all this too. You see, what you require are blocked roads. Participants erect walls all around their houses and gardens, so that when it rains (think of it in the tropical monsoon senses if you please...) excess water will not drain into their gardens.

The next problem is that even if you do this water might flow out through roadside drains. Ha, but you are talking without knowing anything about the dedication of Aqua Driving fans. They come out in the dead of night armed with loads of polythene to meticulously stuff down all drains in sight.

They don't really run out of polythene, but if they ever do any sort of blocking material (read wet cement, empty tin cans and broken furniture) could be used. In the morning men and women leaving for work would be seen with polythene bags full of garbage.

If you keep on looking, you might see that they'd look around to see if anyone's watching them and with a deft move of the hand, the bag would be thrown into any nearby land (even your garden) or better still into any old drain. Puhlease, any old drain? Are you kidding? The very drains specified by the Association of Aqua Driving.

It took some time for this to be accomplished, but things moved a lot faster when they realized that they can indeed fill up little unused paddy land, sort of things normally reserved for water drainage at times of heavy rain and floods. Voila the situation you have now! Rain water will collect on all major roads (the Biyagama road being one of the major spots) and now you too can try Aqua Driving.

You have to have something with wheels and an engine (you with the bicycle at the back? Kindly move out sir...). You will drive back and forth in all this water and the ultimate goal in the game is too see how soon you can cause water to seep into the engine and make it stop running.

The nicest thing in this sport is that unlike in most other sports (football, cricket and such) almost everyone can be a winner! Isn't that just great?