All good things come to an end

There was a kawadi dance team, a team of extremely talented team of Kandian dancers and drummers. After the cultural items were over the stadium went dim and we could see the army of newly graduating soldiers making their formations.

They were wearing a belt on each of their wrists, with lights on them. And they could be seen blinking in the semi-darkness. after much fire-works and an enactment of a combat scene, the evening finally came to an end with the soldiers walking out row upon row in white and black uniforms.

Anuki was in high spirits from the beginning of the evening and she wanted to start clapping ever since the show started. But this time when she wanted to clap, I didn't stop her in fact I joined her this time, to pay respect to 'our boys'. Anuki wasn't the only one who was being emotional, any one would have been emotional at a time like that.

The post parade party was all fun but extremely tiring. We had a late dinner and slept at about three a.m. Because they had a cocktail arranged just for us, media. We ended up listening to music and learning from the very experienced journalists what real journalism is all about.

We were looking forward to next morning because we were told that we would be granted the rare chance of catching a ride in a Dvora. Although it's a fast attack craft, the pilot was a bit reluctant to speed because we were standing too close to the railing. But we were by no means scared, but as usual our Navy officers were very protective.

Fast attack crafts have the senses to detect and attack the LTTE during the confrontations. The one we went in was a Colombo dockyard built fast attack craft. This is equipped with a lethal weapon out fit.

We inquired and learnt from the pilot, the speed the craft we went in was some where around 35 to 40 knots but could reach a maximum speed 50 knots. What we learnt was that it can accommodate crew of a 25 with a inclusive of two or three officers, but depends with the mission.

Well we also found out that Sri Lanka Navy has many other fast crafts that fall in various categorise, some of them are from U.S.A., Israel, Korea (old version) and rest built in Sri Lanka itself. Like everything else the pleasure of the Dvora ride was short lived. And on top of all we had to return to Colombo on the same day. We said goodbye to all the officers at the Galle base and got on to our respective buses.

The return we felt was too quick. Unfortunately as always all good things have to come to an end. Though on our way back the mood was blue we were able to wash the blues and decided to enjoy the moment.

Only option was we to get of it by singing and later on got tired of it and decided to start a debate on 'women rights' as we were the only two ladies in a whole team of journalists and the pressure was unendurable. Samadhi was very active in this subject and I think owing to the pressure we got my mobile fell and broke. (Wonder why men are so strong headed, gosh they never admit that without women they will be totally lost).

It's strange how things change in a matter of days. We were total strangers when we got on the bus the first day. But by the time we were returning we were friends. We might lose contacts with each other after a while but that brief but insightful trip to Galle will forever be etched in our minds.