Water, blood, tears and victory

Siripathy Jayamaha

Thousands of tourists visit the cradles of civilization and other so called wonders of the world. These wonders ranged from the pyramids of Egypt-tombs to bury the pharaohs, the Taj Mahal a memorial to a beloved queen, the Great Wall of China - an edifice of defence and the Colosseum of Rome for the entertainment of blood thirsty Emperors and citizens.

Our kings left us an immortal civilization - a living civilization belonging to the past, the present and the future.

It was Water, for their subjects to irrigate the land and live in contentment and peace.

In 2006 history repeated itself, when the same life giving water, flowed through the sluices at Mavilaru into the embrace of a portion of our parched mother-earth and once again into beautiful history.

This glistening sheet of water was to be the precursor of an 'operation' that made blood, sweat and tears to drench our motherland, and also for many brave combatants and civilians - young and old to sacrifice their lives in order to end a three decade era of death and destruction and finally be the cascading droplets of never ending peace.

The path of peace is never strewn with roses. On the 18th May 2009, under the command of a determined, fearless and patriotic leader, the entire country came under our proud Lion Flag. Of him we can surely - politics apart - say, "This is indeed a man. A man for all seasons."

We salute you. They say, that blood is thicker than water.

But this day, they mingled divinely and we witnessed dependable, affectionate, fraternal blood surrounding the leader as advisors, together with our indomitable fighting forces and our most understanding and wonderful citizens of our love land who bore the many economic turmoil they had to face all of whom made this day a golden day in our history.

As said earlier, water was the foundation of our ancient civilization. It was water once again in 2006 that was to be the 'spring' of hope for a vibrant, happy and peaceful civilization.

We became a Republic in May, our President took his oaths as President in May.

The Buddha was born, attained Enlightenment and passed away in May. May is dedicated the mother of Jesus Christ by Roman Catholics.

Her intercession has been sought in prayer for peace in our land, after daily mass.

This prayer has been recited for more than 3 years by nearly 300,000 persons every day.

And it was on yet another wonderful month of May in 2009, that our Isle of Delight made a triumphant entry into the history of a resplendent island nation and the world. The Pearl of the East will never ever lost its lustre-ad-infinitum.