Galle the place of my childhood and adolescence...

I watch the images of death and destruction in Galle the town I lived the first 18 years of my life. I think to myself...the Gods have forsaken Sri Lanka? .....everytime the country begins to lift it's head up disaster strikes. Tourism the very lifeblood of the costal people has been set back perhaps a 100 years!

I have many school mates, teachers, acquaintances living in Galle. People and places that enriched my childhood and teenage years.....I wonder what has happend to them. I know for sure this disaster has affected them but don't know how to begin to find out to what extent. Names pop into my head...Sunil Jayaweera, Percy Weraduwage, Leslie Weraduwage, Sunil Kapuge.......I just heard the house we lived in "Villa Lucilla" where the ocean was our backyard is no more....the images of swirling water inundating the bus stand, the esplanade where we played and watched sporting events....brings goose bumps.....i have spent many a happy hours at these locations. I wonder if "City Hotel" where I smoked many a "forbidden" cigarette drinking tea with my buddies before trudging off to school each morning is still standing? I am sure the "Asoka Hotel" where in a back room we shared a bottle of "forbidden" arrack is no more as it backed onto the ocean...... i am not sure why i am writing this but there is a sudden compulsion to express my thoughts...i feel a part of me is lost forever.....the world is mobilising to help the people who are in the middle of this catastrophe......and this is a must. who will help those like me to mourn the loss of a lifetime of memories.....am i feeling sorry for myself? am i being a cry baby? perhaps i should stop bellyaching.......are others out their feeling this kind of pain? am i the only one?