On Serendip Time

An unforeseen calamity delayed our departure out of Colombo by eight hours, but our gentle Burgher guide was emphatic. There was no way we could skip the first stop of the hectic three-day dash around the island. Like history itself in Sri Lanka, our journey had to commence at Anuradhapura. The guardians at the ancient capital8217;s most sacred sites confirmed that most unambiguously by promising to keep the gates open even if we got there a little after 9 pm.

Night-time played tricks with time that even Salvador Dali could not have captured. Making a barefoot rush for the heart of Anuradhapura, the sacred Bodhi tree8212;grown from a sapling of the tree under which Buddha achieved enlightenment, brought here by Sanghamitra, daughter of Em-peror Ashok8212;exhaustion drained away and the centuries vanished.

Tonight the tree, the oldest histori-cally documented tree in the world, sheltered us from its platformed perch in a calm affirmed by the soft chants of pilgrims wrapping up closing cere-monies. But it did not take much to imagine the bonfires that were kept lit through the years around the sacred tree to keep away elephants. Times have changed, and it is humans who must be guarded against. The Tigers once tried to attack the site, and now one must go through layers of security checks. So leave your bags and mobile phones outside.

Thence, it8217;s a dash to a midnight dinner in Dambulla, with sharp re-minders that at 7 am we must be off to its cave temples. Already the heart is heavy. Anuradhapura is a moonlit memory to be reclaimed in future vis-its by careful rounds of its dagobas magnificent stupas holding relics of Buddha and palaces. Sigiriya, Aukana and Polonnaruwa are promises made to our smitten selves. Tip: Write off the first visit to the island as a recce.

But, all changes with one step into the first cave in the hills around Dambulla, which by the way has pio-neering architect Geoffrey Bawa8217;s fa-mous Kandalama Hotel, with its hill-side structure becoming part of nature itself. The first cave, the Temple of the King of the Gods, is an enchantment. A minute spent looking into the reclin- ing Buddha8217;s eyes seems akin to a meditative glimpse into devotion of its artists. Tip: Carry Michael Ondaatje8217;s Anil8217;s Ghost, or you8217;ll spend an hour in Kandy later in the day searching for a copy. Dambulla does that to you.

Then, off we hurtle off on the road to Kandy, catching just a glimpse of the Temple of the Tooth from afar that8217;s saved for the morrow. Sundown brings us to Nuwara Eliya, which at 2000 m elicits thanks to the mad in-stinct that made us pack in thermals. A reviving herbal tea sipped through a soft chunk of jaggery, and we are out in the chilly rain, for what is Sri Lanka8217;s most pleasurable activity, striking up conversations with strangers. And magic: In the night time a bookstore beckons, and it8217;s a mad rush to beat closing time to grab Woolf in Ceylon, Christopher Ondaatje8217;s journey in the imperial footsteps of Leonard. Serendipitously, the spine opens on page 186 to tell of Samuel Baker,in the 1840s convalescing from malaria and chancing upon what even then, with-out the plantation architecture and hill clubs, must have appeared to be a patch of Scotland. Baker went on to discover reservoirs of the Nile, but he forever marked Nuwara Eliya to be the holiday destination of choice and Sri Lanka8217;s kitchen garden for fresh veg-etables. Tip: Keep a day extra, or rue forever like we did the lost chance for a nature walk in the cloud forest.

Daybreak must take us to Kandy, for the last experience of time standing still, first at the botanic gardens and then at the splendourous Temple of the Tooth. Thereafter, it8217;s back to counting the hours before we hit Colombo.