I got to know Dilip in Delhi. When he came home from work one day, there I was. And there I would stay for five weeks as their house guest – sweating bullets (literally and figuratively) trying to become a certified instructor of English as a Second Language. He and his wife Ayo just looked at each other and shrugged.
Dilip is the fastest video producer I’ve ever known – or have even heard of. My first TV commercial was for McDonald’s in 1975. We were given three weeks in Los Angeles to shoot and finish one Ronald McDonald spot.
Dilip has produced 88 You Tube videos in seven days. Actors, locations, sets, wardrobe, sound and lighting, camera crew, direction,…everything.
He is my hero.
So when he suggested that I join him while he conducted a little business in Sri Lanka I said, “Sure!” One extra body was nothing for Dilip. He just plugged me into his production schedule and for one week, my life was very, very easy.
Dilip took care of air tickets, ground transportation, hotel, restaurants,…we even found time to see a movie, “Doctor Doolittle”. (Poor Robert Downey Jr.)
We took a ten-hour bus ride up the coast to Jaffna. Lots of wetlands and jungle but smooth pavement all the way. Our driver kept his foot glued to the floor and we shot past every car on the road. After a couple of hours, he’d pull over to relax and have a cigarette while every car on the road caught up. Then suddenly, his eyes would narrow, he’d throw his cigarette down, leap back in the driver’s seat and floor it until, once again, we were in the lead. He did this three or four times all the way to Jaffna. Only once did he slow down. I happened to be up to get something from my bag at the time and almost fell over at the sudden speed reduction. In that one instant, I was able to see through the windshield and just ahead was large crocodile, scrabbling across the road lickity-split. I asked the driver how often that happened. “First time.” he said and sounded a little put out by it.
We arrived at the tip of the island. Once Dilip was finished with his high-powered meetings, we explored a bit.
Jaffna was ground zero in a civil war between the government and the Liberation Tigers. Over a quarter-century of hostilities (make that brutalities) finally ended in 2009 when the hard-nosed government pummelled the hard-nosed rebels into submission. It’s peaceful now but a few elegant homes have been left in shell-shocked condition to remind everyone just how nasty things can get.
We wandered into 400-year-old Jaffna Fort.
It was occupied off and on by both sides during the war. It seemed to be occupied by us now and a couple other tourists – nobody else around. Little evidence of the war is left but how much do you need?
For me, Sri Lanka’s main attraction is jewels. For Dilip, it’s EGB.
Elephant Ginger Beer. It’s good. Different. Tangy. Says 100% natural ginger. You might think 100% doesn’t leave much room for beer or elephant but Dilip doesn’t care what you think.
We watched with professional interest as a photographer’s assistant kept trying to make a diaphanous scarf float magically down over the head of a young bride.
We returned to Colombo by train. You may recall the Toy Train to Darjeeling. The rails are two feet wide. US train tracks are over four-and-a-half feet wide. But my ugly American sneer faded when I saw Sri Lanka’s train tracks – they beat ours by almost a foot.
Seemed to make for a smoother ride to me. You can argue that bigger isn’t always better but usually, it is.
