Garvin Karunaratne

On the Thirty First of Jan 2026

Bimba, Hiran and I, Siri at the wheel,

We left Anuradhapura far behind

the Anuradhapura where in the TwoSixties and ThreeSixties

We worked there,myself in Agrarian and Bimba a teacher at the Central

I laboured to implement the Paddy Lands Act,

It was three of us Assistant Commissioners, myself, Sappie & Peris ,TG

ten Divisional Officers- Nanda Godage our Ambassador to Europe one of them

Sad, Nanda had a fall a few years ago and is not with us today.

We organized the farmers to use good seed, row seed, reap

Then we worked with the farmers, organizing them

they got bumper crops

We purchased all the paddy the farmers had at a premium price

repairing anicuts and tanks, providing water

Those were the days when I presided over the irrigation meeting

over the Kagama Kattiyawa tanks-some over fifty tanks fed by the KalaWeva waters

The farmers – over a hundred were up in arms, water not flowing to the fields

I told the irrigation engineers- there were three of them

Lay a concrete base to the Yodha Ela

to bring water to every tank in time. I will provide funds”

The engineers looked puzzled, dazed and silent.

They did not talk for a while

Finally the DIE- the Divisional Irrigation Engineer spoke

We cannot lay that concrete base.”

Why”

The gradient of Yodha Ela is six inches in a mile

so precise, Our instruments cannot lay that fine gradient over forty miles.”

How do you work now” I quipped.

We take a small section of Yodha Ela, a section very small,

a section we can manage”

There ended that talk. The farmers must be fighting for water even today

Sixty years later!

In short, we do not today have that precision instrument

we then had in the fifth century.

We three worked hard, easily twelve hours a day

Working for the people we loved

We ignored all politicians. They could decide in Parliament

and that was all.  In the Field it was us to serve everyone

But One fine day Maitripala Senanayake, the Mighty Minister erupted

I was transferred overnight to Kandy.

Got a transfer for Bimba

I packed my bags, and away I went, myself. Bimba and one year old son Arjuna

From then the massive work we did, did also stop.

Life is all Very Very Strange.

We speeded past Mihintale and Horowpatana,

Siri at the wheel

I remembered my first Novel, The Vidanes Daughter

where the novel begins at that village Horowpotana.

Visited Tiriyai

the spot where the two merchants

Tapassu and Bhalluka

in the Fifth Century before Christ,

when Our Lord Sammasambudu was preaching the Dhamma

Listened and got blessed

They were two seafaring merchants

whose merchandise took them beyond Bharata

to Tambapanni, our land – as it was then called

They landed for trade at Tiriyayi

and took refuge at Tiriyayi

placing their belongings on a rock.

The tale goes that they could not take their belongings back when going

There sprang our first place of worship

That is Tiriyayi, managed by a young monk, all alone

who even cooks to feed some mendicants in the hills.

Good Luck” I plead for that monk.

Welimada Dhamma Visuddhi Thera

I donated Fifty Thousand, the prize money I got

From the Ministry of Cultural Affairs

for my book, Nuwara Kalaviya.

I had kept that money for long,

That day going to Tririyayi from sacred Anuradhapura

was also sacred to us as we went to

the sacred site where Buddhism was first brought

by the seafaring merchants Tapassu and Bhalluka

during the time when our Lord Buddha was still alive.

Tiriyayi, two miles inland, just pass Nilaveli

one can turn off from the Trinco road to Mullativu

I do hope to go there again, perhaps next year.

From Fifty Five to Seventy Three I did serve Mother Lanka

Then I did work for the people I loved

Now I visit and relive my memories

and try to pen my thoughts, for posterity.

Garvin Karunaratne

Matara Disapathy 1971-73

First of Feb2026 at Giritale Hotel