The Stuff of Love

If you are from Sri Lanka or South India, perhaps you recognise the food stuff to the left: Poppadom or Papad, Cucumber Sambol, Spring Onion Mallung, and meat curry. This is the staff of life! From freezer to oven to table, in two hours, amidst exam marking! Now, that's the stuff of love! We are celebrating our anniversary.

My North American husband loves our food. (I claim Rice & Curry though a Dutch Burgher!) He's visited my wonderful Island home, but sadly during seasons of war. My family had a fit at the thought of his helicoptering to Sigiriya for the sake of those lovely maidens. The Maidens are 'to die for' but the family wanted no RPG explosion on their conscious. Understandable. He opted for a trip to the Dehiwela Zoo--not really comparable, but a compromise. Lanka's changed since my last visit. After visiting almost yearly in the 80s/90s, it's been hard to stay away so long. May peace come to our Emerald Isle someday soon.

Maybe we were all better off when we were 'Ceylonese'. At least we shared our island home, or so it seemed. Maybe that's easy for me to say as my family and I were the last of a dying, colonial class. We did have it good for awhile--a long while. But I pine for Lanka, still. A Lanka I left as a wee one, but came to know again in my adolescence and adulthood. She is the same warm, loving place, full of light, sunshine and beauty, with wonderful people, if only we could find the way back to one another. I am at heart an idealist.

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