Tour of duty in Jaffna

Last week I got the opportunity to go to Jaffna alone; due to unavoidable circumstances Samadhi could not make it. A tour which I always dreamt of once again became a reality, thanks to my profession - journalism.

We were escorted by army personnel to the Officers Mess soon after I and a team of journalists reached the Palali airport. Our itinerary was filled with a lot of interesting places to visit, and I will be sharing some of the interesting experiences I had in the Memory Lane.

The most exciting and unforgettable one out of it is the visit to Muhamalai area, where we all got a very rare chance of paying a visit to the Forward Defence Line (FDL) to interview the troops. The team of journalists was divided into four groups. We went in an armed vehicle, a one hour journey.

Some of the senior journalists were pulling our legs with the intension of making us scared. One guy who is a friend of mine, was scared to death and was saying all kinds of funny stuff though, at that time I took it seriously as well. “Anuki, after I die can you please make a movie under my name,” my friend asked.

“Yes”, I said. Next time he asked me whether I could text his girl friend who is living abroad? For that as well I agreed, even without knowing what his girl friend’s number is, because I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. But then the next moment I was saying all kinds of crazy stuff to take out my nervousness of this trip.

There was another guy who made us take courage and by the time we reached Muhamalai, I was fit and excited enough to meet our troops. After wearing the body armour - which weighs about 8 kilos - and helmet, had a doubt whether I would be able to reach the FDL.

Though Samadhi and I have written about the FDL, this was the only chance that I would get to witness with my own eyes, so leaving all doubts and negative feelings behind started walking towards the FDL, in the A9.

There were many narrow foot bridges and my legs were shaking while crossing them. As usual one of the army officers and a journalist offered to help, and I was able to reach my destination.

On our way, we went inside a bunker which was made of corrugated sheets, logs, sand bags and cadjans and was able to see the LTTE First Line of Defences and an army reccee team returning after a 72-hour mission.

I remember after returning to Rathmalana Air Force Base that I was teasing my friend about his last wishes and we had a good laugh thinking of the good old memories.

There is one more important thing that I thought of mentioning, as you all know when we went to Trincomalee I had this terrible problem of dropping things like my sun glasses, pen, mobile, book etc.

And every time it happened Samadhi was there to pick it up for me. In this whole tour I only dropped my mobile phone once and made sure not to drop anything else. I wonder whether it was a trick of fate that Samadhi couldn’t join this tour, just so I could learn a lesson as she and my ammi always teased me saying that I have butter fingers.

The next incident which I can recall is about a drink I had at the canteen of Palali airport, before returning home sweet home. I will name it as ‘mectar’. I and another journalist was dying of thirst and decided to grab a drink before we left.

My friend was the first to have it and as per his recommendation I too decided to have the same. It was a red coloured drink and as they gave me the bottle without a straw I poured a huge amount of liquid into my mouth.

Believe it or not it tasted atrocious, I didn’t have a place to throw it out and did not want to keep it inside my mouth for a second either.

I was left with one option to gulp it, which I did without having any second thoughts. And the worse part of it all was that - wearing a huge smile on his face, my friend asked - “It tastes good doesn’t it?” All I was able to ask him was whether his so-called ‘Rassa diva’ was working properly.

A similar incident happened while I was dying of thirst, same place, same day. None of us were left with even a drop of water, but suddenly a guy from our team came and offered half a bottle of water, while he was giving it he said this is Jaffna water.

Without any hesitation I took the bottle and poured some into my mouth, gosh... it tasted so yucky and I threw it out. I knew it was not Jaffna or Kandy or Colombo water. I stared at him wearing a huge question mark on my face. It was ‘Jeewani’, he said. I wonder whether he thought I was dehydrated? But later I found out that he had a stomach problem on that day and the Navy doctor had advised him to drink ‘Jeewani’.

Another episode of the tour is the visit that we made to ‘Keramalay’ kovil in Kankasanthuray. This kovil is famous among the married couples who are expecting a new member into their family.

There were two separate ponds, one reserved for females and the other for males. According to the story I heard this pond is filled with a mixture of sea and fountain water, which flows down from Matale. The couples visit this kovil during the month of February. After having a bath from these ponds they drink some and then the couple sit together for the ‘pooja’.

As a tradition they spend one night lodging separately in the land area just outside the Kovil. People believe, that the blessings ease the labour pains and increases the chances of getting conceived. While we were there the first friend I mentioned went and drank some water from the male pond and another female journalist accidentally drank water from the male pond and everyone teased her for doing so.