Leaving terra firma

Colombo has always danced a calculated tango (if there's such a way to dance the tango) with the new and the old. A city which has seen a lot of violence and destruction; in some ways it is still in the process of recovering from the trauma it had experienced over the last three decades.This view across the Beira lake stands testament to the face of a city attempting to gain its place in the world. One look at the skyline of the city, you know change is about. Everyday new condominium/apartment buildings spring up "mushroom fast", adding to the skyline. It seems that Colombo is facing skyward and leaving behind good old terra firma- nothing wrong in itself.

The fear is that in this rush to fill up the skyline,what's on the ground may be left behind,lagging and neglected.The Beira lake and the area surrounding it is one example.Stinking like a sewer the lake is miraculously able to sustain animal life-mainly the migrating Pelicans,Storks and a few brave Comorants...and to the credit of the municipal council there were no large piles of shameful garbage on the promenade around the lake. But, there were moments when the wind blew in from the sea in just the right direction,that the stink of this teeming city was brought right home to my nostrils. Nothing new-Colombo stinks (literally and figuratively sometimes) but there's always those moments when you can actually smell the sea-that salty,mineral smell which reminds you of that great body of water just behind the buildings on Galle road and a step behind the railway track.

The old and the new,jostle and struggle in Colombo-like the seemamalakaya on the lake with its Buddha statues and just across ( over the pelicans,the storks and the cormorants) the city rising,waking up from a slumber...