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BY MANALI ROHINESH
Endless white seashores edged by groves of coconut
trees ran for miles, parallel to the road we
were driving down, from Colombo to Bentota. Sri
Lanka is the ‘Emerald Isle’ of South Asia and with
good reason. For me, as an Indian, Sri Lanka is a
two hour flight to the south and because this
country features prominently in one of our epics –
the Ramayana, as the kingdom of the demon-king
Ravana. But in Sri Lanka itself, there is no sign
of him. He is neirher feared or revered; he could
as well be declared absconding!
The real reason being, the
Sri Lankans do not consider their country to be
the abode of Ravana that the Ramayana describes
and calls ‘Lanka’. Hence, there is no
acknowledgement of Ravana having interfered in India’s
domestic policy even back then! But as we fly over
the north of Sri Lanka, the pilot urges us to look
out of the windows to our right and points out the
remains of the ancient bridge connecting the two
countries. The same bridge, over which Lord Ram
led an army into Lanka to rescue his wife, Sita,
who was abducted by subterfuge by Ravana.
Besides myths and legends,
Sri Lanka and India sport lots of similarities,
while the dissimilarities are stark and obvious. We seem to
share an abundant coastline, a rich culture, love
of scrumptious seafood and people with happy,
sunny dispositions. But there the similarities
end.
After we land in Colombo and
drive across the city, I realize this just could
not be Mumbai. The architecture differs by far.
Both cities are commercial capitals of their
respective countries, but the British influence is
felt in our Mumbai's Gothic buildings that we inherited
after Independence. In Colombo, the architecture
is Art Deco and sometimes Classical or just plain
whimsical. Dutch influences are everywhere, but so
are British names, which live to this day. I drove
through Colombo's exclusive Cinnamon Gardens enclave,
where the foreign embassies are located
and saw plaques with names like Barnes Road,
Kinsey Road and Norton Road. This was an
absolutely delightful, quiet and verdant section
of the city – more along the lines of Colaba than
Breach Candy.
The city’s skyline has not
been cluttered with skyscrapers. But the buildings
compete to outdo each other with grandiose spires, temples on
the terrace, or elevators on the outside façade of
the buildings. Only on one occasion did I see a
staircase in front of a shopping mall that
extended perpendicularly from the second floor and
dropped from there in a sinuous twist – it was
designed to look like a curvy coconut tree trunk!
Across te entire city, buildings
did not go beyond the third floor. Each section
had a very distinctive look. The Cinnamon Gardens
area was all white stone and tiled roof with
intricately carved lintel and lovely wrought iron
balconies and gates. Most shopping malls were
two-storey glass affairs that blazed a vivid
yellow, airy blue or electric red, depending on
the colour of the reflective films they were
coated with and imparted that crazy-fun
atmosphere.
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The
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A
history of the geography of Mumbai / Bombay