The vision I failed to see...
We drove along a drab, rather desolate road, dotted with decrepit shanty houses, passed a vast garbage land fill, it's stench assaulting
our nostrils even through the closed windows of the vehicle. A couple of bends later we parked by the side of the road. We both got off the vehicle to be assaulted afresh by a stench emanating from a nearby tanning shed and stepped into a low laying ditch filled with garbage and overlooking a waterway that was covered with a layer of waterweed and beyond that lay thick wetland as far as eye could see.
' Hemaka turned to me in excitment, ' you said you wanted to live close to water, let's build our house here'. I was dumbstruck, nose shrivelled up against the stench of garbage and the completly alien smell emanating from the tanning shed close by, eyes watered with pain from scratches of thorns and mosquito stings, trying desperately to hold on to my mental picture of a cosy home in a middle class housing scheme with our kids riding bicycles with neighbourhood kids, along manicured pavements....i am sure my dissatisfaction showed. I voiced my biggest concern. 'But what about a proper neighbourhood, a place where one day our children could grow up, have company of like minded neighbours. He said ' so we will turn this into a neighbourhood that suits us and bring the people to us.
We stood there both disappointed with each others views.... and then he said, its OK if you don't like it I will turn this into a great place and I will change this landscape. I will make this the Manhatten of Sri Lanka. Then whilst we stood ankle deep in a pit filled with garbage, me in my limited vision staring desperately at rusted tin and rotting plastic bottles, he stood a few feet away, looking over the water and beyond the wetland, dreaming. Dreaming who knows what. Maybe he dreamed of tall elegant buildings, Beautiful tree lined boulevards, Elegantly landscaped lawns dotted with art work. Swiming pools, Gymnasiums, Sport Centers, Super Markets, Salons, roads connectingro the main roads... giving life and living space to hundreds of people.
Maybe....just maybe, he also saw the many many children that now ride bicycles along the well manicured lawns and paved walking spaces.....
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