The windscreen wiper of the taxi moved relentlessly with the sound – tuck, tuck and tuck – and that seemed to rhyme well with the sound of raindrops – pitter, patter. The beautiful sound of humming raindrops was one of the reasons to stay awake while travelling from Colombo Airport to Kandy.
But it wasn’t just the playful raindrops that acted as magic right through the journey. The ever-smiling faces and the warmth of the Sri Lankans – right from the taxi agents at the airport, to the taxi driver and the hotel manager – that lifted the mood after a rather long journey, which included a delayed flight and four hours of waiting time in Bengaluru.
As an introvert, this writer is not known for picking up a conversation outside of his chosen field. So, there was just a nod of the head when the taxi agent asked with a smile, “Have you come for cricket?” Just before I could say a word, the agent continued, “Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, everyone is coming line-after-line to watch Asia Cup.”
Just a few minutes later, the journey from Colombo to Kandy commenced. And here, it was the taxi driver who began another of those friendly confabs in fluent English. From mistakenly assuming that the writer was from Chennai, to discussions on paddy fields, rains, cricket and the Buddha festival – he had opinions on a range of topics.
And it didn’t just end there. As the taxi moved quickly moved out of Colombo, he had to stop to refuel the car. At the petrol station, the eyes fell upon the petrol price of 375 Sri Lankan Rupees. Sri Lanka has been going through an economic crisis for a while, although it seems to have gotten slightly better. As the taxi driver said, “We perhaps saved a Test with just one wicket in hand, but we are still in trouble with petrol, diesel and gas prices.”
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Those words prompted me to ask the driver a volley of questions on cricket. “Who is your favourite cricketer?” Quick came the reply, “Sanath Jayasuria.” “When did you start watching cricket? Maybe from the time of Roy Dias and Duleep Mendis?” There was a bit of a quizzical look on the face of the driver. So, I had to turn a few pages of Sri Lankan cricket to the time of Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda de Silva. And instantly, he replied, “The great days of the 1996 World Cup. Ranatunga was the captain, de Silva, the vice-captain.”
For the next 30 minutes, barring the sound of the wipers, there was pin-drop silence inside the four-wheeler. The traffic was quite heavy on a rainy day, and the driver had to show some unremitting concentration to veer through the twists and turns in the hills. It was time to look through the window and admire the panoramic mountains, alongside trees dancing in a blustery wind.
As the traffic reduced a bit, just like that the driver restarted yet another discussion. “Do you know of Esala Perahera in Kandy?” This time, it was the writer who had to scratch his head with a quizzical look. Before I could reply, the driver noted that it is celebrated for 10 days to commemorate the first teaching of Buddha after attaining enlightenment.
By then, the rain had stopped, and we had entered the outskirts of Kandy. The cricket romantic in me wondered whether one would end up seeing a young cricketer bowling with a unique action in some maidan. After all, it is the land of Muralitharan and Pathirana.
It wasn’t to be. Instead, Muralitharan appeared, albeit on an advertising billboard. And that signalled that we had entered the beautiful city of Kandy. After a while, at the hotel, it was time for the sound of typing to do a jugalbandhi with another spell of raindrops. A few hours later, the rain had stopped, and it was time for some cricket action: Sri Lanka taking on Bangladesh in the Asia Cup.
Wow! Very well written