Cooling off at Galle Face

Watching the sun set at the Galle Face green in Colombo is probably something that needs to be seen and felt to be truly appreciated. It is not the romanticized version of a sunset where you are alone with a significant other; it is far from that the crowd that it draws is quite big and diverse. Of course there are many couples on the benches but there is so much more to the atmosphere. At first sight it looks like a huge crowd of people that one would see at a sporting event but look closer and you see that this ‘crowd’ is made of tiny pockets of people spending time in solitude. I can’t think of another place that I have been to where there has been a bigger crowd and yet I was alone in my own bubble free to experience the sun set as if I were on an empty beach in some far corner of the world. 

I am sitting on a concrete step in a relatively sparsely occupied area and typing this (I don’t know what this is) on my phone. An onlooker would probably think that I am texting away or browsing the web or one of the many things that my 'smartphone' lets me do. To most of the passing folk (if they were to notice) it may seem a crime that i distract myself in this manner while one of the most majestic sights God has put before the eyes of man is right in front of me.

There are tourists enjoying the sights everywhere you look. Right in the middle where the Sri Lankan flag flies high sits a group of jolly local travelers huddled together singing some popular songs. It won’t be long now before they turn Galle Face into a makeshift Premadasa and bring out the papare tunes as it seems that the baila has run its course.

What then am I doing here? After a hard day at the office would it not make sense to get home and relax, cleanse both mind and soul? Maybe that’s exactly why I am here, maybe i need the cleansing of mind and soul and maybe this place and time where the fire of the day is soaked up by the mighty waters and extinguished is exactly what I need to be ready for another day when the Sun appears from the other side. After a day of staring at a laptop screen it is ironic though that i am spending the rest of the evening looking at an even smaller screen.

Half way through that last sentence my phones memory ran out and I do not remember the thoughts that followed. I also do not have the time nor the energy required to edit the hastily typed out paragraphs so please pardon my grammatical transgressions.