28.Developments In My Motherland 1

As a Sri Lankan, I am proud about the vast development achieved in my country, when compared with the past.

In my days of schooling, we had only kerosene lamps made at home simply using a small bottle with kerosene, to light in night. We did our all studies with the help of this weak light. Nowadays, the most of the community is enjoying power supply, except few in remote areas.

Anuradhapura – one of the ancient kingdoms of Sri Lanka, rich of historic ruins which have become invaluable heritage of the country is only 205 km from Colombo – the Capitol. In my childhood, it was a very long and tedious journey. It was not so felt, because we were only children and not matured enough and our enthusiasm and pleasure were always more when the trips were long, more time consuming and difficult.


Our elders also talked about this tiresome journey which took about 12 hrs. because of the narrow roads full of potholes and wavy surface. Apart of that, the condition of vehicles was also not so good, which prevented fast, continuous driving due to boiling of water in the radiator. Therefore time to time driving had to be discontinued during which we had tea, lunch and relief from long sitting, packed in the vehicle.

Now it takes only 5 hrs. to reach Anuradhapura through widened, carpeted roads, straight at most stretches. The vehicles are also now excellent and can be driven at furious speed, provided there are no Policemen to arrest you for past driving.

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