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| Sunday, 5 January 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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The charm of childhood memories Every human being born on this earth has a record of the happenings in each one's life written in the human brain, the life's computer anatomically called the head. Some are unable to recollect happenings in life due to a disease called amnesia, which usually occurs in old age, but with a healthy constitution one can recollect incidents in life that come to mind in a chain. A person's life always happens to be undulating with ups and downs, not smooth as one always expects it to be. The mind retains happy events in life as well as those of a darker nature. Anyone of sound mind can recollect events that took place when one was five years old. After school days, the happiest period in one's life, comes the time when one enters the world of responsibility. Every person has to strive for one's living, getting married, bringing up children while leading a family life full of anxiety and responsibility. The next span is the retiring age, the time when one can live in peace and tranquillity. It is the time to look back as far as you can remember. The first memory recorded in my mind begins from the age of five years. It was the year 1920 and we were shifting house to a new location. During these days there were no lorries for transport, the only mode of carrying goods was by means of the bullock cart. Several loads of furniture and household goods were transported by a hoodless single bullock cart and I travelled in the cart on the last trip seated on a big box where our cloths were placed. My parents, brothers and sisters went on foot through a shorter route while I travelled in the cart on the high road. This was the first time I got out of home and travelled on the highway and as a child the freedom I experienced seeing Nature's sights, sounds and smells was pure joy and the ride in the cart seated on the box was a sheer thrill which I remember uptodate. I remember the large mango trees in the new garden which were laden with fruit and the branches that hung so low to be plucked by hand which we enjoyed with great relish. When I ventured into the world step by step everything appeared to me most thrilling. Of most outings with my brothers I anxiously awaited the trips to the beach at Dodanduwa, which was a stretch of golden sand most pleasing to the eye. There were stalled on the wide beach large outrigger canoes called "Maha Oru" packed with long coir nets ready for launching into the sea whenever a large shoal of fish appeared like a dark cloud on the waters far out in the sea. These large boats when not in use and stalled on the beach were covered with a number of small double-sloping coverlets thatched with cadjans. This roof was placed to prevent the boat from getting filled with rain water. These boats were manned by seven men, four of them rowing it while seated in front and one other man, the captain at the extreme rear who steered the boat. The duty of the other two men standing on the hull at the centre was to lower the net in the water to surround the fish. One end of the net was secured to a spike driven into the sandy beach while the other end was brought back to the shore once the fish shoal was surrounded by the net. Thereafter the dragging of the net begins on both sides until the pouch of the net with the trapped fish in it is brought to shore. Dodanduwa beach has been carved out by Nature to appear like a painted picture. There are three large rocks jutting out into the sea at close distance apart. This gives added beauty with three points of land leading on to each of them. They are Toppigala, Bambaragala and Polgasgala. The palm-fringed beach towards the north stretches as far as Hikkaduwa like a green tapering wall at the rear of the beach. A large number of sea-going small outrigger canoes are hauled along the beach. A Keraepe facing the popular sea bathing bay, by the side of Toppigala. As evening approaches, the fishermen, one by one, approach their canoes carrying their fishing gear and a lamp like a kettle which is lighted far out in the sea when angling is commenced. This lamp is lighted as its light attracts the fish. While venturing into the sea those people on the beach help the pushing of the boat into the water and soon after the boat floats in water the fishermen have to row the boat fast to a distance of about hundred yards in order to mount the brakers before they explode. Usually two or three men go out together in each boat for fishing. Once they skip over the waves they rest their oars and put up a sail on a mast with the help of ropes. The evening land breeze help the fishermen to reach the fishing grounds when only the rudder is required to guide the boat. This is the duty of the man at the rear while the other men idle. The greatest danger to the fishermen at Keraepe in guiding their boats at the start is a rock submerged in water just at the point where the waves break. This rock which appears like a crocodile is rightly called "Kimbulagala". The fishermen have to avoid this danger whenever they approach it. A naked beach which is only sea sand is not attractive but not so the Dodanduwa beach. The three huge rocks add colour to the scene. The sight of ferocious waves dashing against the rocks one after another in succession is unbelievable. The white umbrella of froth completely covers the rocks sprinkling sea spray right round. The Dodanduwa lake enters the sea near Bambaragala and during dry weather the mouth of the lake gets covered with a sand bar. During heavy rain when the level of the lake water rises the people living in the neighbourhood of the vast lake suffer from floods and their vegetable plots get inundated. To get out of this difficulty the farmers get together with their mammoties and cut a canal on the sand bar in order to expel the lake water into the sea. It gave great pleasure to one and all to see the water rushing into the sea like a rapid river. Polgasgala which gets its name on account of the coconut trees that grow there is like a planted garden surrounded by huge boulders on three sides. We loved to go there to throw stones at a huge rock called "Andanagala" for it sounded like a bell when struck upon with a stone. Most probably this rock was not lying on the ground but on other stone pegs where it gives out a ring when struck on it. When one sits on these huge rocks one could see large fish like sharks and jewel fish swim in the blue water below. When seated on these rocks you enjoy the aroma of the salt sea and hear the wind roughly brushing on your bodies. Waves constantly break up on the shore and recede leaving semi-circles of unbroken bubbles of froth to be trampled by the succeeding wave soon after. Squalls are more treacherous along the coast than in the open sea. A boat could hold her own further out in the sea. But in rough weather the man at the steer, the captain or "Marakkalahe" has to keep his eyes open. A journey into the past is always nostalgic, most picturesque and fascinating. Rosy memories remain of roaming along the beach when the beach was a ribbon of moonlight. More so the sight of the setting sun brightening the sky in its various hues. It was the experience of being close to nature with a long memory of the past rousing nostalgic real joy. - Godwin Witane |
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