Through the eyes of our member Ms. M. Roy, we glimpse the splendour of Sri Lanka’s colonial past and modern-day elegance. Her recent visit to the island nation made her reconsider her long-held assumptions and fall in love with the ‘Emerald Isle’.

I often accompany my son when he travels abroad to attend conferences. Thanks to him, I’ve had the good fortune of travelling far and wide. I recently visited Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka.
We stayed in Mount Lavinia. It was a massive accommodation with over 2,000 rooms. I had never been to such a luxurious hotel before—it was an extraordinary location, right on the beach. Every morning, I woke up feeling as though I was floating on the sea. The meals were elaborate and fancy; there were ballrooms, fountains, and winding staircases that seemed straight out of a film.
We visited Galle, once a Dutch colony. I enjoyed walking in the downtown area—its cafés and plush restaurants were full of smart office-goers—and the Galle Face Green, a long stretch of coastal park. Historically, it was a much larger area built by the Dutch, who placed their cannons along the Face to defend against Portuguese attacks by sea. The residential areas of the city were dotted with houses that were 150–200 years old, built in the Dutch colonial style. It is amazing how well-maintained these houses still are.
We travelled extensively, visiting Sigiriya, the rock fortress atop a table-top mountain, and Kandy, a city surrounded by hills. Kandy has a palace complex belonging to a royal family that ruled the area before the British invasion.
The trip changed my perception of Sri Lanka. Given the recent unrests in the island nation, I had assumed it was a poor country with limited means and high unemployment. I was proved wrong. The roads were spotlessly clean—not littered like ours. We travelled long hours by road and, believe me, it felt like we were flying, so well-maintained were the roads! Not a pothole in sight. My son, who frequently visits Sri Lanka for seminars and meetings, also enlightened me about the local people and their culture, praising their professionalism, work ethic, and dedication.
After I came back home, I felt we are truly rich in friends to have neighbours like Sri Lanka. It was one of my most memorable trips, and I hope to visit the “Emerald Isle” and its wonderful people once again.

(As narrated to Support Elders by our member)

Away from the bustle of the city, on a trip to rural Joyrambati, our member Ms S. De was kept up one night by a mysterious light and sounds coming from her bathroom. Was it a miscreant? Was it a ghost? Read on to know more…

Last year, I made a trip to Kamarpukur and Joyrambati with Support Elders. The greenery, the trees, and the village life were a welcome change, and I felt refreshed to see the unpaved, kutcha roads of rural Bengal.
At Joyrambati, we were put up at a nice hotel. I was assigned a room to myself. After dinner, I went up to my room. I locked both the main door and the bathroom door, and since it was an unfamiliar place, I shut all the windows before going to bed.
In the middle of the night, I woke up to a soft light flooding in my room. The light in the bathroom was shining faintly through the frosted glass on the bathroom door. I stared at it—a million thoughts ran through my head. I was certain I had switched the light off before going to bed. I’m not in the habit of sleeping with any sort of light on. I concluded that it must have slipped my mind—nowadays, I forget things easily—so perhaps I had indeed left it on. I was too tired, so I turned around and fell asleep with my back to the door.
Sometime later, I woke up to the light turning on and off rapidly. A fear took hold of me. The flashes stopped after a while, but I stayed awake for a long time afterwards. I didn’t have the courage to get up and investigate. I could have called the Support Elders team, but given that it was midnight, I decided against it and tried to go back to sleep instead.
I drifted off soon. Later in the night, I woke up a third time—this time to the sound of running water. It became clear to me that there was someone else in the bathroom, some miscreant who must have been hiding under the bed. He must have waited for me to fall asleep and then entered the bathroom to do who knows what. It was either that—or, worse, a ghost!
I harboured no further hope of sleep that night. I stayed in bed, quiet as a mouse, and waited for dawn. With the first light of day, I came to life. I crept up to the bathroom and opened the door a crack. I checked the corners but saw no one. I was baffled. Surely the scoundrel could not have vanished into thin air! As my gaze went up one of the bathroom walls, I noticed a gap at the top, near the ceiling.
Slowly, everything made sense. My bathroom wall was shared with the bathroom of the guest in the next room—two bathrooms, side by side, were sandwiched between two rooms. There was a ventilation gap, and if the light was switched on in one bathroom, it would spill over into the other. My neighbour must have woken up at night to use her bathroom and forgotten to turn the light off. It was the same light I had seen through my bathroom door.
My relief knew no bounds! I found it funny that I had lost a night’s sleep worrying about nothing. I knew a member of the Support Elders staff, Md Moniruddin, would be stepping out for his morning walk. As I stepped out of my room, I saw him walking down the corridor. I shared the story with him, and we had a good laugh about it!

(As narrated to Support Elders by our member)