Captivating Colombo

I decided to post a collection of photos I took in my hometown Colombo, Sri Lanka recently. Last
week I featured a similar blog post about Kandy, Sri Lanka. As I don’t live in Sri Lanka, being in my
hometown is a special experience. One of the things I like about Colombo is the urban atmosphere
and I am featuring that here. I am also including some nature. It is good how Colombo has a lot of
trees, which can be seen in most of these photos. We begin with a picture that has many trees. 

Inside Independence Square.

Roundabout on Independence Avenue.

Roads near Independence Square.

Buildings in Wellawatte.

Taken from the De Soysa Circus near Town Hall.

A railway line by the beach.

The top of a road.

Cafes outside the main ODEL store.

Photos of Colombo at night.

Trees alongside white buildings.

Walking path outside Viharamahadevi Park.

Highway entering Colombo.

Havelock Town suburb.

View of Beira Lake taken from Colombo City Centre.

So that was my selection of photos from Colombo, one of the leading cities of South Asia. 

Kaleidoscopic Kandy

I was in the Sri Lankan town of Kandy earlier this month. I decided to feature a collection of photos I

took there. Kandy is very different to Colombo (the largest city in Sri Lanka) most noticeably in the

amount of natural scenery to be found. Even in built-up areas, you see a lot of green. This is

something I tried to showcase in this blog post. Let’s start.

On a highway entering Kandy.

Queen’s Hotel & Shops.

Views from Dodanwala.

A Kandy road.

A view of the Kandy Lake.

Palm Trees on a Kandy evening.

Incomplete buildings alongside Kandy scenery.

Nature with buildings.

Peradeniya Road.

 

Paddy fields in Gunnepana.

Trees by a narrow road.

Two hills surrounding Kandy.

Kandy roads with natural surroundings.

Hope you enjoyed this blog post. Feel free to give your thoughts on Kandy. 

Diverse Views of Sri Lanka

This is the fourth anniversary of my blog, as I began it four years ago on this day on 16th January

2016. I like the fact that the fourth anniversary coincides with my 50th blog post. This 50th blog post

of mine deals with Sri Lanka which is the topic I feature the most on this blog. I was recently in Sri

Lanka and will be featuring photos of Sri Lanka in three sections, those being Colombo, Road Views

and Kandy.

Colombo

I’ll begin with a picture taken from the suburb of Wellawatte.

The following is a shot of a railway line by the beach, also in Wellawatte.

The Sysco LABS building.

A view of Beira Lake.

 

Independence Memorial Hall in Independence Square.

The park and walking path near Independence Square.

Taken from De Soysa Circus.

A few images of Colombo at night.

Road Views

The following three photos are taken on the Southern Expressway. The first image has an exit sign in kilometres which coincides with another blog post I’m working on, that being an article about how Sri Lanka switched to the metric system. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Sri Lanka’s decision the adopt the metric system. I thought I’d mention that as this is my 50th blog post.

A view of Bible Rock from a distance, taken near Kadugannawa.

Some Palm Trees.

A Sri Lankan petrol station on the Kandy Road.

A view from the Colombo Outer Circular Highway.

A small town close to Kandy.

A supermarket sign.

Trees and a hill.

Kandy

A view of Kandy Hills near Dodanwala.

Shops on Peradeniya Road.

Peradeniya Road at night.

A view of Kandy Lake.

Trees with a few buildings.

A road in Kandy.

Beautiful paddy fields in Gunnepana.

Kandy Hills.

So that was the photos I selected of Sri Lanka. I tried to showcase the diversity of Sri Lanka from the

places I went to on my recent trip home. Hope you enjoyed it. 

Birds by Elton John

I decided to write a post giving my thoughts on a great Elton John song. I wanted to showcase one

of his lesser known songs, that beings “Birds” from his 2001 album “Songs From The West Coast”. I

consider it to be one of Elton’s best albums and it was a comeback album for him. I have covered a

song from this album in my previous posts “Sci-Fi Elton John Songs” and “Ten Powerful Rock

Ballads by Elton John”. The music of the song is written by Elton John and the lyrics are written by

his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin. I’m embedding the official audio from YouTube below which

you can listen to as you read this post.

The song opens with soft drumming. Four seconds in it’s joined by piano and electric guitar. After the

electric guitar riff is played a few times, it goes away and we can hear a harmonium that’s also

played by Elton in the background. The soft drumming continues. The chorus is joined by dobro (a

form of acoustic guitar) and the guitar riff from the start of the song comes back. In the second verse,

Matt Chamberlain’s drums are louder and he gives a modern touch with his playing. The song is

faster in the second verse, and the second chorus rocks harder with the drumming and its electric

guitar parts. Elton then delivers a piano solo which is followed by Rusty Anderson’s country rock

sounding guitar solo. We then have the chorus again and the song is closed by Rusty’s guitar work

which Elton accompanies well with his piano playing. 

Bernie Taupin’s lyrics are smart and thought provoking dealing with a person who has personal

issues that he doesn’t talk about. I like it how the chorus compares the situation of birds with the

narrator, pointing out why birds don’t fall from the sky when they die. Listening to the song makes me

wonder that myself. Feel free to discuss this issue in the comments. 

This Elton John rock song has country, americana and to me, some alternative rock elements. While

alternative rock isn't my kind of music, I hope some of its fans will check out this song due to its

similarities with their music. It gives them an introduction to Elton John and they could become

interested in his other work. The alternative elements have been incorporated into Elton’s music in

this song without changing of taking away from his sound. They come most prominently with the

drumming, some of the lyrics and Elton’s vocal delivery. At the end of the day it is an Elton John

song coming from an album which had a back to the 70s approach. It has a great melody and is a

good example of Elton’s songwriting, piano playing and vocal skills. This is my last blog post for this

year. I’ll be back next year and month with my 50th blog post which will coincide with the fourth

anniversary of this blog.

Maime Indan by Rookantha Goonatillake

As I’m into classic rock music, I decided to write a blog post about a great rock song from my country

Sri Lanka to share it with the world. The song is “Maime Indan” by singer Rookantha Goonatillake

and it has a classic rock feel. I previously wrote a similar blog post about another Sri Lankan rock

song, that being Senaka Batagoda’s “Api Kawruda”. I’m embedding the YouTube audio of the song

below which was uploaded by Sri Lankan record label Torana Music. You can listen to it as you read

my thoughts on the song below.

It opens with intense catchy guitar riffs which is soon followed by Rookantha’s singing. The first

singing part is the chorus. The electric guitars aren’t there while Rookantha sings and the electric

guitar riffs come during the breaks. After Rookantha’s singing there is a good guitar solo. Towards

the end of the guitar solo, it’s nice to have it followed by some organ notes. Then there’s the first

verse which takes the melody to a good place. The organ while low in the mix continues to play a

good role in the song. It’s good to hear Rookantha accompanied with the backing vocalists sing

along with the melody something like “do lo lo lo lo … ” at the end of the verse. 

Then we get another guitar solo similar to the previous one which is combined with good organ

parts. The second verse is then sung. The verse concludes with Rookantha and the backing

vocalists again singing along with the melody. Then the chorus returns. The chorus seems more

intense this time with some increase in the electric guitar parts. In Rookantha’s last words he sings

along with the melody again. This time he sings with a different set of sounds, something like “tor low

low low … ”. The song concludes with intense guitar riffs accompanied by the organ which closes

the song with the hauntingly fading organ echoes. This song has an unusual and unique structure of

chorus, guitar solo, verse, guitar solo, verse and chorus. 

“Maime Indan” is a powerful song with a good melody, energy, rocking guitar parts and good

accompaniment by the organ. It is a great example of Sri Lankan creativity. I hope this song gets

discovered by people throughout the world.

Let’s Not Revert (A Poem About Sri Lanka)

I wrote a poem about the future of Sri Lanka as the country is going to face a Presidential election

very soon on the 16th of November. This is my personal take on it, and it isn’t an in-depth discussion

about what has been going on and what could happen going forward. It’s a short expression of my

views in poem form.  

I don’t wish to see

Sri Lanka revert to

Pre 2015 again

There’s now a threat

Of white vans,

Authoritarianism,

Lawlessness, 

Inability to criticise,

And more coming back  

Yes, post 2015

Didn’t bring all

That was needed

And disappointments came

Though I feel

We’re headed in

The right direction

We did get

A reduction of 

Presidential powers,

Right to information,

Open policy debate

Among others

The current negatives

Don’t make the 

Pre 2015 status

More attractive 

What we need

Is to study

What went wrong,

What went right,

And take our country

Where it needs to be

Let’s strive to

Improve on our

Current state

To make the Sri Lanka

We wish to see