Not-From-Here

There is distant thunder over the horizon, in the direction I am heading.

I leave behind the blue landscape of high mountains and valleys entering the more densely packed jungle with shorter ranges; I drive by elephant droppings and branches stripped and thrown about in a number of places. 

Yesterday night's shenanigans.

KayCee tells me, if I am chased by an elephant in these mountains, to always run downhill as they can climb way more swiftly. I think of the knuckles range and its trapped herd.

As I take a bend, the road to the Right takes you to one of the villages shifted to make way for the KaluGanga water project now taken over by elephants. This is also a route through the old village to remote Duvili Ella (Duvili waterfall) now most avoid.

 

The road is pretty choppy and I drive slow enjoying the views. I am the only one about for the last 20 minutes. No vehicle nor person has passed me and I have hardly seen any houses.

The quietness is exhilarating. The aloneness makes you realize how insignificant you in this world, against such force and splendor.

I approach The Kalu Ganga complex area with its freshly tarred wide roads, network of red muddy side tracks and huge silos. There are work yards, Tipper trucks, container housing and buildings methodically built. Still no people about, except the occasional Tipper truck whizzing past the opposite direction, with a surprised driver. 

Surprised at a woman alone on these roads.

 

Beautiful expanses of deep water of the reservoir against the scarred red ochre soil flash through lush green forest. There are plumes of dust from the bruised earth, stirred up by the wind that rise.  It is a surreal painting of sorts.

 

Kaluganga reservoir that has waters from Knuckles Conservation Zone feeding it, will in turn provide water to Moragaskanda Dam project. The water from Moragaskanda in the Central province is already been taken to Polonnaruwa which lies in the Lowlands of the North Central Province.

Meanwhile some villages who have farmed all their lives with the Knuckles water, shifted to new areas such as New Laggala Town, receives rationed water for the past years through a Bouser that arrives door to door.

I had a cheap and delicious late lunch with KayCee, after our Lakegala climb the day before, at Helabojun in New Laggala Town. 

The new town is Super-Sized, with almost all the trees razed to the ground with borders and rows of sorry looking ornamental plants among concreted earth. Everything is larger than life with very few people about. As if someone tried to compensate the villagers with size.

There is a huge bus stand complex with no bus.

There is a big board welcoming you to New Laggala, which states, “You Are Entering a Green City”.

 

**********************

The Day Before:

I plan to spend the day exploring.

I drive through the lush forest, kicking myself that I have not asked the manager at my place of stay, the right questions the day before at our brief meeting.

Like the Name of the person I am about to pick up from “A little over a Kilometer past the Attannuwara Mile Post”. There is no phone number either.

There is no one around to ask in this desolate area and no phone signal.

 

I park by a massive tree with hanging vines and wait. In a little while I can see a man approaching from the rear, and with a shy smile he indicates to me from the passenger window.

KayCee.

KayCee is from a humble family, an outsider to this area and of a different religion. He is also the Lifestyle Coach of The Knuckles.

Unhappy and unsatisfied with his job in accounting in Colombo, he volunteered to cook at a friend’s guesthouse as a favour in some desperate situation and never left.

KayCee’s thinking is very different to the people of this sleepy area. Like The manager of the Lodge I am at, these outsiders have fallen in love with this piece of heaven and they will do everything possible to help the people and preserve the surroundings.

 

And helping people is not easy. It is riddled with suspicion to start with.

A rigid mindset and debt burdened lives are no help either. They feel they have no way out and continue to wallow in deep slumber.

But there is nothing too much for KayCee.

He talks to everybody who cares to listen. These include Forest Department employees, University students, religious elders, farmers, teachers, fathers, mothers and children.

He speaks to guides and hoteliers.

He trains young aimless men to cook with love and passion.

He demands to know from young adults the reason for the high number of data cards purchased, and whether they have used the information they were privy to in a meaningful manner to further themselves. He shows me Data Stations- points of the terrain with signal, where the young folk gather, each staring at their phone. There is no conversation among them.

He wants recycling projects and waste management for the Knuckles. He makes cards to sell from recycled material as an example to the young.

He does financial planning for individuals whose mail consists of almost all from Finance Companies they have borrowed from.

He does workshops for Trekking Guides on etiquette and rules.

He motivates people to supplement themselves with a second income and not to waste time just watching the paddy grow.

He takes children on Nature Walks to teach them of the land they call home.

He wants the main Bar in the area to support the cause, after all they rip off a significant portion of the village earnings, through alcohol sales.

He wants to be able to support sports men and women of the area from the little club he has initiated. He wants them to pay it forward to the village they came from, when they reach the stars.

He wants to change the system.

 

The villagers were very skeptical and scared of this stranger among them. Even now, a few try to sabotage his efforts, periodically.

But KayCee “Ayya” (brother) is young, energetic and idealistic. The eternal optimist.

He is a man Not-From-Here, who loves these mountains and see potential in its people