A quick trip to Tangalle

Irfan HUSAIN

I was in Sri Lanka last week in endless meetings with our architect, sundry engineers and the new contractor. Those of you who have been following our slow and painful progress on our dream house in Tangalle will recall that our original contractor was a certain Mr Gamarachi. It turned out that he had been systematically ripping us off, and alas, Amila, our talented architect, did not crack the whip hard enough.

So here we are, with the completion now about five months away. The expensive lesson I have learned from all this is that one should never even think about building a house unless one is prepared to have boots on the ground, and up the contractor’s backside.

Now Mr G has been sacked, and replaced with Mr Liyanarachi, a local builder who is much more on the ball. And to rectify the mess Mr G made, we have had to add an engineering consultant to the team.

Plus, just to make sure there is constant supervision on the site, we have pulled in a local project manager to put quality control measures in place. After all this, I will have a very good idea of everything that can go wrong with a building project.

Although I was focused on the Tangalle house, I was very aware of the distant sounds of warfare. Sri Lanka’s war has been going on for the last quarter century, and the Tigers have built up a lethal killing machine in this time.

In the middle of October, they launched two attacks on an army encampment in the Yala Nature Reserve, killing seven soldiers. And when a relief force was sent, it hit a landmine, thus taking more casualties.

But what really shocked even the battle-hardened Sri Lankans was the air and ground attack on the air force base at Anuradhapura last week. A score or so of Tiger fighters infiltrated the perimeter by cutting through two fences, and proceeded to destroy helicopters, training and surveillance aircraft, and support facilities.

During the attack, two lumbering piston-driven planes of the ‘LTTE air force’ appeared over the base and dropped three bombs. Although they didn’t hit anything, they did cause a Bell helicopter to be scrambled in pursuit. This alone should give us some idea of the speed of the intruders.

But before anybody in Pakistan gets smug and superior, just remember that recently, a suicide bomber walked into an SSG mess in Tarbela and killed over a dozen commandos. And for months now, our paramilitary, police and army have been under attack from jihadis across much of Pakistan.

The incident where over 200 soldiers of the elite Baloch Regiment laid down their weapons without firing a shot has not exactly filled us with pride in our armed forces.

I was too busy to check out the food scene, although the cook at Manuela’s cabanas did produce a memorable kalamari curry for lunch one day. And one evening, she made some home-made pasta with a delicious, fresh-tasting tomato-based sauce with basil from the garden. Our kitchen, once the house is ready, should be a reliable source of good food.

It contains a large, traditional stove with a chimney that uses coconut husk as fuel. I have also spotted a well-designed barbecue that I plan to install. Friends reading this should see this as an open invitation.

Although there is a fishery harbour at Tangalle, I am a bit concerned that the town does not have a fishmonger.

Apparently, the catch is all sent off to Colombo. Obviously, I will have to make friends with some fishermen from the local village. As Azhar Karim says sarcastically whenever I complain about such things: “Hai! Tumharay dukh nahin dekhay jatay!” (“I can’t stand to see your pain!”)

Irfan Husain is an eminent Pakistani writer based in London: Daily Times, Pakistan