Black Out

Last night was a rare night of no rain during monsoon season. A perfect night to launch the coffee table book we recently published, guests mingling outside with wine and nibbles. The book contains 200 pages of photos, and related text, depicting the long history of the conflict in Sri Lanka.

After a really successful night with over 150 happy guests heading home from the wonderful location of the Barefoot cafe, Jeevan, Mumtaz and I headed back to my place in Wellawatte for some much needed food.

Whilst star gazing at the beautiful clear night, munching away and chatting on my balcony the whole city suddenly went into black out. All electricity gone, except the bright blue neon of the local Global Towers Hotel (generator powered).

Then the sky lit up with 5 or 6 batman-esque light beams searching the darkness of the night. These cones of light were shifting above our heads clearly panicking - they were searching for LTTE planes, like looking for a needle in a haystack! Confidently safe due to my living in the Tamil part of town we watched to see what would happen.

Suddenly the black sky was filled with the red dots of anti-aircraft fire. It was like fireworks on 5th November. These red flares were launched from strategic points across the city and from military boats in the sea. A few bright flashes in the distance also indicated that a possible bomb had been dropped - confirmed a few minutes later by the efficient text service from work telling us a power plant had been targeted.

The balcony last night became circle seats to the live theatre of war. I went to bed feeling so desperately sad that the citizens of the same country are doing this to each other.

Perhaps tonight we will all be hoping for those cloudy skies again with the monsoon rains and no more raids.