Beach
German Memories in Asia: The Beach-Side Celebration
Walker was very friendly.
His long and curly hair resembled that of a Hindu priest.
He was strange looking among the other Germans, especially the German Praktikum (Internship) students.
He was a good conversationalist, and though he was not fluent in English, he managed to express himself excellently.
He always asked me after every word whether his pronunciation was correct, because the same word in English and German have different sounds.
He told me in the middle of our conversation that the Germans in the northern part of the Germany are very intelligent because the northern land is a so flat everywhere and you could see the horizon everywhere, which induces the people to imagine more and become naturally more intelligent.
But he quipped receding from his earlier stand that the people surrounded by the Alps and the surrounding valley regions in Bavaria too could go to the mountaintops and get a wider vision and they too could become more intelligent.
He had ready answers for both of his original statements.
I didn't know whether it's true or not, but in my own experience and by my observations, the people in the northern part of the Indian Ocean's Island - Paradise too were usually considered as intelligent people.
I wondered because of these factors, whether others too considered them as intelligent.
The flat land everywhere with Palmyra trees in the vicinity might have promoted the intelligence of the people in the Northern flat land too if the Walker was right in his argument.
Walker and his friend who came with the table tennis team from Germany invited me to the beach where the team was playing volleyball.
We were seated near the playing field and watching the marvelous finesse of these players.
The team has come to celebrate the 2006 New Year celebration in Sri Lanka from Germany and a happy team of many who are in their late sixties to the teens, with a mixture of men and women.
There is a girl in her late teens, who attracted me a lot as she was directing her staring eyes to everything in the vicinity around her, and making a deep study of everyone and everything.
Two other young ladies and a young girl with an elderly person in his late sixties were playing so marvelously and enthusiastically in the playing ground adjoining the beach near the Indian Ocean.
The twilight has started to turn into complete darkness everywhere. All who played volleyball went towards the sea for a dip after having the long hours of hectic play.
The sea was a little calm and quiet and they went a few meters away from the beach and now we couldn't see them as the beech has a steep end towards the sea - level from our sandy beach location.
If we wanted to have a look at them we would have to standup, for they may go further towards the deep-sea area.
They were there in the sea for nearly half an hour and returned back to the beach.
The young girl was coming towards us as her towel was placed near us.
Her slim body silhouetted against the background of deep reddish dark sky, evoked the image more or less of an Angel coming towards us.
Her smiling face while she was bending to take her towel was charming adding more to her beauty.
She gazed at me with a smile, as I was the only Asian among the Germans in the area.
It would have aroused her curiosity as to why I was so attached to the Germans.
She became familiar to me when we were having our dinner at the beach-end restaurant of the Aquarius Sports Resort Hotel as we were sitting at adjoining tables.
After the dinner, at her table, those who came from Germany with her started to celebrate the New Year fun - game.
They started to play some innovative game, which I haven't come across before or heard about.
They were rolling a dice and then the winner in the rotation could select what he wanted from a covered pool of things.
They had collected those valuables in Germany and brought them all the way from Germany to hold a celebration in Sri Lanka.
While there were shouting and clapping in the course of the game, she used to look at me often to see whether I was watching the game and enjoying it or drawing my attention towards them.
I gazed with fascination at the stars in the dark sky over the Indian Ocean through the wide window-less side - wall of the restaurant and then turned my attention towards the happy Germans' fun and fantasy in Asia.
The fascination of being at one with two worlds was an unforgettable experience in my life.
Time passed quickly with other fascinating and exciting German and local songs in the discotheque.
Rajkumar Kanagasingam is author of a fascinating book on German memories in Asia and you can explore more about the book and the author at AGSEP |
Rajkumar Kanagasingam
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