Scenes, Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka.

Memorial for the deead, World War 1.

Entrance to the Victora Park

Pony riders on the highway

Called 'Little England' in the heyday of Brtish Empire, Nuwara Eliya with its cool climate was the refuge of the British expatriates during April and August of each year. With its hotels, Golf course, Pony racing, Fairs, Beer and Dances the tradition continues to this day.

Environs of the General Hospital, Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka.

House officers quarters

Old hospital buildings of British Colonial times

The new buildings

Buildings of the old Brewery 

A land perpetually in mist and drizzle with two sunny spells, a major one in April and a two week spell in August, the coldest time was in February when the ground was covered in frost. Extensive vegetable cultivation thrives in the black soggy soil. Roses are cultivated for export. Potatoes were one of the first popular cash crops cultivated hear.During the austerity years of 1973/75, I was posted as Surgeon on relief duty here.Dr. Krishnaraja whom I had to relieve told me, that he made ten times his monthly salary as a surgeon, on profit from a single harvest of potatoes.
It was mighty cold. There was a single electric heater for the whole ward. The surgeons changing room attached to the Operating theater had another electric heater. We gathered there to have a cup of tea at 10 am.

Ramboda waterfalls on the Gampola - Nuwara Eliya road, Sri Lanka.

Waterfalls are a recurrent sight in the central highlands of Sri Lanka. I was born in a house facing the Alupola water falls in Rathnapura. Its soothing rumble was the melody I heard throughout my childhood. For a foreigner apart from their beauty, they generate strange reactions.
While working as a Consultant Surgeon at the National Hospital, Sri Lanka (NHSL), we had a batch of trainee nurses from the Maldives, attached to the Operating theater where I did my surgery. They were quite sociable. They did a weekend trip to the Central Highlands capital, Nuwara Eliya. They were wonder struck by the scenery. One question kept nagging their minds. The query was ' Where does all that water in the water falls come from?' Coming from Maldives a country of Islands with no  hills, it was understandable.

Tea-pluckers and a mountain stream, Thalawakelle, Sri Lanka.

Mist covered hills and a roadside waterfall on the road to Nuwara Eliya from Thalawakele, Sri Lanka.

Note the bamboo pipes to carry water to a roadside water-spout.

St Claires Tea Estate, Hatton, Sri Lanka.

Tea centre, St Claires Estate. Place to watch Devon water fall.

Work going on at the Upper Kothmale Dam - photo taken 2007

'Devon falls' and environs, Pathana, Hatton, Sri Lanka.