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TUESDAY 20 DECEMBER 2016 COMMUNITYCOMM | 6 HEALTH | 10 BOLLYWOOD | 11 TAMUQTAMUQ & RasGasR hold Ditch pills, opt for All stars I approachedached IInternationalnternat Ethics healthy food for said no to ‘Manto’:to’: Summit essential nutrients Nandita Das Email: [email protected] The less-travelled Sri Lanka’s east coast, running LANKA from Trincomalee in the north to the grasslands of Yala in the south, offers a LURES beguiling alternative. P | 4-5 03 TUESDAY 20 DECEMBER 2016 CAMPUS Batteel supports ISL Qatar for model UN meet he student-led Model UN of the International School of London (ISL) was honoured to partner with the esteemed Bat- Tteel company, member of Saleh Al Hamad Al Mana Co for support of the recent ISL Qatar Model UN con- ference. This third annual event was attended by over 150 students from six international schools over a two day period. The delegates were treated to the ultimate Batteel catering expe- rience, often reserved for true conference attendees of profes- sional or work-related events. As one of Qatar’s oldest bakeries, Bat- teel is well known for superb service and an outstanding variety of local and international food. This inaugural partnership with Batteel provided full catering and decora- tions for the conference. The amazing variety of food was highly is delicious,” said Nicola Calvert, History”, a fitting topic given the successful student-led delegate complimented throughout the MUN Director of Doha College. current global climate and sense of training. Lekh Bhatia, an ISL Qatar conference. The theme for the Model UN political unrest. student representing Russia, was “This is beautiful and everything conference was “The Crossroads of Through the auspices of the awarded Best Delegate of General Model UN structure, students were Assembly 1. Other ISLMUN dele- encouraged to discuss topical issues, gates also received develop resolutions and propose acknowledgements for their active solutions as diplomats would do as involvement in each committee. part of the United Nations Attending schools included the procedures. American School of Doha, Doha The students were honoured College, Birla Public School, Paki- by an address by Bahia Tahzib-Lie, stan International School and former special envoy to the United Middle East International School, Nations and current ambassador in addition to students from ISL to Qatar from the Netherlands, at Qatar. the closing ceremony. In Bahia ISL Qatar has an outstanding Tahzib-Lie’s address, she spoke of reputation for high academic her experiences in the UN and the standards, prestigious Interna- importance of engaging with glo- tional Baccalaureate (IB) bal affairs. programmes and an impressive Along with the successful plan- record of admission to the best uni- ning of the conference, came the versities worldwide. 04 COVER STORY TUESDAY 20 DECEMBER 2016 Sri Lanka’s next incarnation Henry Wismayer improved road access have grown that surrounded it. Wading birds sentences with a head-waggle and The Washington Post to offer a beguiling alternative. And swooped down to the poolside a hail of words. Like many young so Lucy had come back, this time ponds to lance tiny fish from among Tamils, Roobens was forced to leave ri Lanka’s east coast, run- with me and our two young kids, the lotus flowers, spiny lizards this area in the 1990s to avoid run- ning from Trincomalee in following a growing number who sunned themselves on the trees and ins with a vengeful Sri Lankan army the north to the grasslands are drawn toward the island’s less- mouse deer roamed the grounds. — “I would have been arrested,” he of Yala in the south, has travelled coasts in pursuit of Such wild diversions were nothing said matter-of-factly — but came good reason to feel opti- sanctuary. compared with the beasts that fre- back to Nilaveli in 2007, after the Smistic about the future. Twelve quented the neighbouring sea. Tigers were pushed north. Like years ago, when my partner Lucy A beachfront indulgence Though the waters were too rough many here, Roobens now sees tour- visited the region on a teaching Keen to see how much has during our visit, this is one of many ism as part of the region’s exchange, her minibus had to pass changed since those more turbu- spots on the Sri Lankan coast where rehabilitation. through dozens of army check- lent days, and no less keen to a boat trip promises sightings of As we headed further south, his points to get anywhere near this recover from a hot seven-hour blue whales. hopes found affirmation in scenes region. The Tamil insurgency, drive across the interior from the It was all too easy, lapping up of human joy. It was Tamil New which blighted Sri Lanka for nearly capital, Colombo, we started with the delights of Jungle Beach, to for- Year, holiday season, and every- 30 years, made travel hazardous. A something indulgent. Jungle Beach, get the backdrop of damage, both where we went we met Sri Lankan few months later, the east was dev- in Kuchaveli, was the only hotel on natural and man-made, during a holidaymakers, many of them astated along with much of the its untamed stretch of coastline, but trip to eastern Sri Lanka. But you exploring the east coast of their south coast by the Boxing Day tsu- as limited choices go this presented didn’t have to stray far for remind- country for the first time. nami. The natural disaster claimed little hardship. ers. When I visited Nilaveli, the next The hot springs of Kanniya, 40,000 lives on the island alone. A 20-yard walk from our airy, bay south, the testaments were where crowds thronged to anoint Today, however, with the civil teak-filled cabana, the beach felt there — in the bullet-pocked wall each other with bucketfuls of geo- war ended and the tsunami a fad- remote and wild, its shallow curve of an abandoned house or a dole- thermal water from brick-lined ing — still traumatic — memory, the backed by driftwood and scrubland. ful concrete husk of what was once wells, resembled nothing so much east is finally opening up to tour- A cashew-shaped pool was shel- a beachside hotel, chafed to its as a giant water-fight, and later, ism. While Sri Lanka’s southwest tered from the sun by rambling foundations by the wave. when we arrived in Trincomalee, coast starts to strain under the pres- trees; a fine restaurant served up With me on these excursions eastern Sri Lanka’s principal city, sure of doubling tourist numbers wonders under whirring fans. was driver Roobens, a local-born the whole population seemed to and rapacious development, the At times, it felt like a place Tamil, an ethnicity he betrayed with have decamped to Swami Rock, a east’s smattering of new resorts and barely reclaimed from the nature his habit of swallowing the end of giant headland just south of town. 05 TUESDAY 20 DECEMBER 2016 COVER STORY The rock’s lower reaches are those same waves now lure surfers still dominated by Fort Frederick, from all over the world. a vast bastion built by Dutch colo- With our kids too young to surf, nists in the 1670s. But its ramparts, and the waves yet to rise in earnest, now home to an army barracks, we spent the mornings seeking also guarded one of the region’s shade and the afternoons seeking most holy Hindu temples. At the adventure. Each day after lunch, we base of the fortress, an arched por- squeezed the whole family into the tico buzzed with tuktuks, and up on double back seat of a tuktuk and the point we found thousands of asked the mild-mannered drivers celebrants walking barefoot past to take us out onto the rutted roads gaudy puja stalls. south of the village. From the pinnacle, looking past We explored the coast, then the worshipers milling about the delved inland, where wild ele- temple, you could see northwest phants bathed in shimmering toward the town and the bay lagoons and crocodiles lurked beyond, where a single tanker sat among the lily pads in tanks, the low in the water, hinting at the hid- huge reservoirs built as part of the den depths that made it a key great irrigation projects of Sinhalese strategic harbour for British forces of the beach filled with Sri Lankan an air-conditioned taxi. While the kings. At the forest hermitage of during World War II. But the view families, the water so stippled with family slept, I watched the east’s Kudimbigala, we walked up steps might have been very different splashing silhouettes as to resem- central coast whiz by in a haze cut into great boulders. At the sum- were it not for Swami Rock. In 2004, ble a holy river at puja time. When behind the car’s tinted window. We mit, views over the forest, when the tsunami thundered up the we went down with the kids to pad- passed griddles of salt pans, small- uninterrupted by modernity, coast on its murderous rampage, dle, locals bombarded us with holdings of tobacco, and somnolent stretched to the horizon. the rock’s sacred flanks blocked its contagious smiles. And clucking lagoons stained white and pink with Change was always in the air, path, saving Trincomalee from women in saturated saris held out flowering waterlilies. Even Batti- though, here in the east. A few years destruction and heeding a million their arms to take the children in caloa, the east’s second city, seemed back, I learned from conversations prayers. warm embraces, cradling them like stunned into inertia by the sun, with locals, one of the most idyllic holy objects for cellphone photos while on the outskirts the rice farm- beaches we visited, called Peanut In transition as the sun grew huge and red ers plodded resolutely on, throwing Farm, had been annexed by the A certain spell broke as we behind them.

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