I took my 5 month old ridgeback Sinha Bahu to Minneriya on the 26th morning. I stood in line before 7am when the polling opened to cast my vote in Godagama at the local school close to the farm. I had everything packed and ready to leave so I was in Minneriya by noon, about 220km away, and as I drove into my property one of my neighbors stopped me to give the latest news, saying that SF, the common opposition candidate, was not on the electoral list and that he was only eligible to vote in the US!!! Such is the reach of the state news services.
My first problem in Minneriya was to deal with the fact with that the water due me for my paddy fields was being siphoned off by the those farmers ahead of me, leaving me no water, while I ironically passed an overflowing Minneriya tank which has enough stock to give me all the water I want. Such is the reality of farming in these parts.
I spent the next morning, a public holiday, digesting the presidential election results while busy working milling the various types of paddy from my harvested stock which I store on the property (see the related Perceptions blog). Remember that Minneriya gave the President the highest percentage of the vote in the whole Island. As far as my neighbors were concerned they were not surprised as it was still a thank you for winning the war (see the Serendipity blog for comment on one aspect of why the President got such a high percentage). While the day after the election was a public holiday, my neighbors were doing what they do every day. Most days in the lives of farmers here are holidays, only working when they feel it is absolutely necessary.
Sinha Bahu had his first dip in water at the river in front of my cabin. Within minutes he had learned to swim as he could not resist the water. He had the best time of his life so far as he was not on a leash and allowed to roam around the property. I then took him to the adjoining property to review the progress of the paddy, and see if a further spread of state-subsidized fertilizer was necessary [the fertilizer either comes from the United Arab Emirates or the CIS]. I took some great photos of Sinha Bahu on the sand by the river in that property and one moment it was there and the next it was gone. Well that was what happened to my digital camera. I don't know if Sinha Bahu took it and hid it or if it just got misplaced, but I have absolutely no idea what happened. So there goes the photos of a dog in the paddy fields, a puppy really having a fun running between the rice paddies like they were places to play hide and seek.
So it is now a quest for a new camera to update the reader with photos to accompany the story and all future stories.
