DIARY OF A VAGABOND
Colombo, 28th October 2008: Today I had a day long meeting at Hotel Cinnamon Grand. Had taken all three meals at the hote,l the food was quiet good there. Except pork, all of the food was halal and quiet tasty. I reached home at 9:30 PM.
I was quiet tired so went to bed early around 10:30 PM or so. We just went into the bed and the light was gone. Oh God, do we have load-shedding problem in Colombo as well? I asked Faiza to open the windows and see whether the whole area is out of light or not. She told me that there is a complete black-out. Suddenly, there is a huge blast nearby and we heard lots of gun shots. There were too many red flares and search lights on the sky. It looked like that there is an air strike on Colombo as I have seen the similar videos of US air strikes on Baghdad. The vehicles that were on the road were stopped and were asked to turn-off their lights. It was a great lightening show but at the same time it was terrifying experience for us as well. I asked Faiza to remain calm and recite whatever she had remembered. I tried calling few people but the phone line was jammed. At last, Yousuf bhai answered the call and he asked us to remain calm and not to leave the apartment. He told us that he is near the Colombo airport and the Sri Lankan fighter jets are now up in the air.
Later on, in the morning we came to know that the Tamil Tigers attacked on some oil depo with light air-crafts. These air-crafts are able to fly at very low height and therefore, they cannot be traced in the radar. Anyways, there wasn’t any serious casualty but the planes were able to escape as well.
On yesterday’s event, I just thought that sometimes, bad decisions made by the leaders made nations suffer for a long time. This beautiful island is suffering with the same as both groups are now burning in the fire of revenge and no one is ready to cool it off.
2 comments:
Umair I must say your writings are worth reading, the way you have picturise the situation it surely clarifies Pakistan is not the only country with law and order problem, infact it is a place full of talented people with less opportunities. Thats the reason people look some other places in just the sake of survival.
Well keep writing, the readers will be ineterested in seeing some more facets of Colombo, and your observations.
Thankyou yaar. Tumharey comments say mera dheron khoon barh gaya. Waisay bhi yahan par farigh time bhot hay. 9 to 5 job hay. Office 5 mins. drive par hay. To kuch aur to karna nahi hota. Na light jati hay, na pani check karna parta hay? Na roti lani hoti hay na doodh :).... So faraghat hi faraghat hay :)... BTW i need Asim's email address if you know...
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