Elephant gets ride

Motorcycles

Motorcycles have been a major obsession since my twenties. I remember being terrified of them but finally bought one and learned to ride. Been riding them since then without a major accident, I'm happy to say. It's been a happy relationship, though there have been a few foul ups (mainly spark plugs). It was economic necessity which changed me from a sedate, complacent middle class type driving a car to an often happier, occasionally frightened (close calls) and a more romantic type of road user on two wheels. All I can say is -- happy riding!

The bright smiles on the faces of this advertisement for a fast little Kawasaki two-stroke roadster of the 1970s says it all for the hopes and dreams of the young. There was an infinite variety of Japanese two-stroke motorcycles those days and it looked as if they’d never end, but they did. In Sri Lanka, it’s mostly Indian and Chinese motorcycles on the roads now, and they are four-strokes. The era of two-stroke road motorcycles has almost come to an end.

Photography

Photography was a major obsession ever since I picked up my first SLR camera -- I was only 23, and it has been an exciting and often frustrating but rewarding journey for three decades since then. I have largely taught myself (the mistakes are there for all to see) but the pictures that remain are often satisfying. I have done some press work but funny enough, never considered myself a pro (maybe because I earned very little from my work). But I set myself goals and became a documentary photographer in the 1990s, photographing family, friends, people, places, old buildings, vehicles, posters and billboards. Put together, I Hope it'll be an interesting photographic record of changing times. I do very little photography now because I have taken to studying music and hence have little free time (and also, frankly, I'm tired!) but this documentary project is lifelong and will go on.


This is one of my favourite photos – taken as usual haphazardly, without pre-planning, having spotted a picture idea while walking down the street. This is the entrance to Odel fashion store from Ward Place, from the Eye Hospital side. These billboard ads keep changing every few months, and this picture of two models was there for a while way back (around 2000?) I found the nonchalant pose struck by the cyclist in sharp contrast to the sophisticated pose assumed by the models. The contrast between lifestyles too, becomes stark – the models represent high living while cyclist is down-and-out. The stippled shadows cast by the sun provide excellent atmosphere, which is one of repose even though this was at a busy Colombo intersection during the rush hour!

Canon FTb manual SLR, Canon FD 28mm lens, Fuji neopan SS 100 ASA

Paper cuttings

This article dated Feb. 21 1988 (in colour) was published soon after actor-politician Wijeya Kumaratunge’s assassination by a JVP gunman in those dark, distant days of terror in the late 1980s. Wijeya was a left-wing presidential candidate and had a good chance of becoming the country’s next president.



Film actor Gamini Fonseka (article in black and white) voiced his disgust in this Sun newspaper article at the politicizing of Wijeya’s funeral. Gamini himself became a successful politician, though he took to centre-right UNP politics in contrast to Wijeya’s left-wing populism.
Gamini was older and the undisputed No. 1 male star of the Sinhala screen until Wijeya came along. Gamini’s leading position was challenged not just by the arrival of the younger, dashing Wijeya, who had the physique of a Western actor (Gamini worked hard on his physical appearance, but his age was beginning to show by the early 1970s.)Wijeya’s rise was made easier by the dispute between Gamini and the Sri Lankan cinema’s No. 1 female Star, Malani Fonseka, which reportedly occurred on a film set. The two vowed never to act together again (though they did so many years later) and this left a big vacuum, because the Gamini-Malani combination was a sure box office recipe. Thereafter, though, it was Wijeya-Malani and this combination proved to be equally successful.
There was never any ill will between the two men despite this. Both were bigger-than-life characters not given to pettiness.

On hobbies and collecting

I've realised over the years that few Sri Lankans have hobbies and, if they do, they are usually ignorant about the scope of their hobby. One aim of this blog is to impress upon people the value of having a hobby, and also that you don't have to be rich to have one. Collecting paper cuttings is a low-cost hobby. So is basic stamp collecting. You collect what you fish out of the dust bin.
Secondly, Sri Lankans who do have hobbies and collections are like hermits. There is no sharing of knowledge (look up and see how many SL websites or blogs are there on hobbies and collecting. Another aim of this blog is to let people see what I have collected over the years, and see show them the possibilities of collecting for pleasure and information.
Finally, for those who grumble there is never any money for hobbies, all I can say is that I have ridden a bicycle some 150,000 km over almost 30 years, and saved a lot of money that way. I still cycle, because I still want to collect. Also, the money that may have gone for alcohol and cigarettes has gone into this. I'm not setting myself as an example here. The choice of what to do with your money is yours. Sacrifices have to be made for the sake of a hobby. If you can't, then don't grumble!

Philately

I threw myself into stamp collecting in a big way around 1998, reviving a childhood hobby. I had to scale down the intensity about four years ago because inflation was running high and there was little money left to buy stamps with. But this break proved to be a blessing in disguise, because it gave me some perspective into what I was doing. While I could no longer buy mint stamps, there were plenty of cancelled ones to be had. So, the hobby and the interest goes on and on, though I have little time to realize my initial dream of being a philatelist.

During the initial stages of my rediscovery of stamp collecting, I got lucky and found this bag full of old covers and stamps for sale on the pavement. It was second hand book seller Bala who sold it to me for a thousand rupees. These were the leftovers of a big time businessman collector. After his death, the unwanted stuff ended up on the pavement. It was a treasure trove to me all the same. This old cover is one example. This man had a business somewhere on Keyzer Street, Pettah, Colombo, which was the business hub of the city till the 1970s. You can see ‘Ceylon Favourite Store’ with the address on the cover, post marked 1959 and mailed from the United States. The bag had many such covers and I feel that this man got his business associates to mail these covers to him regularly for the sake of collecting. Quite a collector, this man. If this bag had the leftovers, I wonder what the main collection was like.

The thing about collecting old stuff is, it takes you back to a very different world. I was just one year old when this letter was posted from the US. And naturally I have no memories of the year 1959 (which I’m sure sounds ancient to those born in the 1980s, 90s and thereafter). Well, the space age had just begun, we had steam trains and Morris Minors (if you have any idea what the world was like in 1959, email me and I’ll post your comment).

Also, you realise that philately is more than collecting stamps. An infinite variety of old covers, post cards, cancellation marks, air letters (or aerogrammes), old albums, post office memorabilia, photos of postal equipment and architecture -- you name it, and you'll find a lot of such things in this Philately section.