The beach at 'Uppumaal', Thondamannaru, Sri Lanka.

Dr.Vignaraja and his two Australian friends Peter and David taking a swim.

An abandoned, holed. fibre-glass boat.

The sandy beach.

' Uppumaal' got its name from the 'salterns' at this site from the 1940s. Salt was brought here from Karanavai by bullock carts and lorries. It was heaped in longish pyramidal mounds and was redistributed. Some of the salt was sent via 'vallams' (largish sail boats) to India.
This beach is notorious for its currents. The deceptively calm water has taken many lives.

Scenes of Thondamanaru, Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

The road to 'Uppumaal' beach. Rev Peto, Principal of the St.John's College, Jaffna, was carried away by the current and died while swimming here in the 1940s. Mr. Navaratnaswamy who swam across the Palk Straight to India in the 1950's, also died here of a heart-attack, while practicing to row round the Island in a 'Kattumaram'.

The new bridge spanning the Thondaiman Aru.

A view of the 'Sinna kadatykarai' from the new bridge. You can see the posts in the water, the only remaining parts of the old wooden bridge of the 1940s.

The junction of the Thondaiman Aru wiith the Palk Straight.

 These pictures bring to mind the following poem which we memorized at school.

HOME NO MORE TO ME
by: Robert Louis Stevenson

OME no more home to me, whither must I wander?

Hunger my driver, I go where I must.

Cold blows the winter wind over hill and heather;

Thick drives the rain, and my roof is in the dust.

Loved of wise men was the shade of my roof-tree.

The true word of welcome was spoken in the door--

Dear days of old, with the faces in the firelight,

Kind folks of old, you come again no more.

 

Home was home then, my dear, full of kindly faces,

Home was home then, my dear, happy for the child.

Fire and the windows bright glittered on the moorland;

Song, tuneful song, built a palace in the wild.

Now, when day dawns on the brow of the moorland,

Lone stands the house, and the chimney-stone is cold.

Lone let is stand, now the friends are all departed,

The kind hearts, the true hearts, that loved the place of old.

 

Spring shall come, come again, calling up the moor-fowl,

Spring shall bring the sun and rain, bring the bees and flowers;

Red shall the heather bloom over hill and valley,

Soft flow the stream through the even-flowing hours;

Fair the day shine as it shone on my childhood--

Fair shine the day on the house with open door;

Birds come and cry there and twitter in the chimney--

But I go for ever and come again no more.

'Home No More to Me' is reprinted from An Anthology of Modern Verse. Ed. A. Methuen. London: Methuen & Co., 1921.

Read more at http://www.poetry-archive.com/s/home_no_more_to_me.html#bU7Sd8SZJAA06Qsh.99

Environs of the Central College, Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

Scenes of Jaffna town, Sri Lanka.

Public Library.

St James' Church.

The name 'Pattinam' was used to refer to the Jaffna town by the older generation. 'Pattinam' in old Tamil usage referred to a town situated by the sea-shore ( Cf 'Kaavirippoom Pattinam' referred to in the tamil epic 'Manimekalai' written in the 2nd Century AD). The Dutch built a large Fort which served as their administrative center in the north of Sri Lanka.

House-hold items of Jaffna 60 years ago, Sri Lanka.

Wooden spatula used to stir up rice while cooking.

Various utensils of brass.

A kite.

A large bucket of iron used in the irrigation of farm land.

Scenes of Jaffna in the 1950s; Sri Lanka. Exhibit at the Gnanam's Hotel.

A water-boiler used in a tea-shop.

A farmer returning after work.

A wooden plough.

Kitchen utensils made of granite.

Everything was used, repaired and passed on from generation to generation. The throw-aways were minimal and were bio-degradable. Life centered on the villages where every need was met.

House-hold utensils used in Jaffna in the pre 1950 era, Sri Lanka.

Charcol fired irons, various brass utensils, water carriers and table lamps.

A balance and a water-carrier made from palmyra leaf.

These exhibits were found at Gnanam's Hotel, Jaffna. In the pre 1950 era most of the cooking utensils were either of clay or brass. Aluminium was unheard of.