Sunday 29 April 2007

One country...one people

I've never been through anything more surreal.

I was at the CH & FC watching Sri Lanka bat when suddenly we heard what sounded like a couple of explosions. The electricity was shut off. 1500 people were stranded in the dark. No one was let out. No one was let in to the grounds. Then there was gun fire which was followed by a burst of flares from all directions of Colombo's night sky. Surprisingly everyone didn't panic. We got news that Colombo was under attack. No one knew exactly what was going on though.

Then everything quietened down.

About an hour after the lights went out, they were turned back on again. The screens were still turned off so no one knew what was happening to the match. At that point i'm not sure many people cared. People were too busy finding out whether their loved ones were ok, if they could get on the already congested mobile networks. But a little while after the lights were turned on, there was another burst of a million flares that lit up the night sky. It would've looked gorgeous if not for the emergency of the situation. There was more gun fire. And then we saw a plane in the sky. Everyone panicked. The main ground lights were turned off. People were breaking the bulbs of the lights in the food stalls in order to get the whole place dark again. Then the electricity was turned off again. People started running everywhere. Some were crying. Some were just sitting there.

I'm proud to be from where I am. We, as a people, have been through a lot. Alot more than what others have been through. We've grown up through war and strife. We've gone to school amongst bombs going off and people being killed. I'm proud of what our people have become. I'm proud of the fact that everyone at the CH, whatever their religion, race, caste or creed were worried about each others families.

What happened to the world cup? I don't really care. I'm proud of the way our team played right throughout. We're an island nation at war, but we still conquered the world in my heart. I'm proud to be Sri Lankan.

1 musings:

Scourge (Skûrj) said...

well said mate. Kudos to all sri lankans and the way they behaved at ch, except for that stupid fight...