Your relating of the “boat crossing” reminded me of a family that rested in Mankulam in 1997 April, with my brother’s family (who were displaced from Jaffna in 1995) before they went to take the boat near Nachchikuda. I tried to discourage them as there were boats that were attacked by the SL Navy or sank because of overloading. My brother said they were in the boat that sank due to overloading. Many were rescued by the LTTE Navy, but one of their children drowned. Still they are to to take the risk to go to India. I never knew what happened to them. My brother and family (His wife died from injuries from shelling from Palali before they left in October 1995). moved to Vannivilankulam, as the Jeya Sikuru operation through A9 was to start and people North of Vavuniya were moving out of harms way, on the advice of the LTTE. I went to Colombo through the Detention Camp in Parakumaha Vidyalaya school. The US Committee for Refugees wrote a report of SL Refugee Detention Camps during that period.

In 1998, when I was visiting the IDP’s on the Western coast past Thunukkai, My son went to take a picture of the coconut that was being buffeted by the waves. It was a skull. He took the picture. I wondered whose skull it was and what that person has endured. The IDP’s ( what a lifeless term it has become.) said that it was a common occurrence and buried the skull in the temporary cemetry off the coast.

The person to whom the skull belonged is now at “peace beyond all fears” and suffering. I am reminded of Hamlet holding and reflecting on the skull. I am reminded of Bob Dylan’s song ” How many miles….” I am also reminded of “Freedom is Never Free.” But none of them comfort me. John Donne’s Meditation that ends in, “Never ask for whom the Bells Toll. It tolls for thee” rings true. Whenever that refrain surfacers in my mind, I am reminded, as a child, the St John’s church bell tolling in my village, Periyavillan where the SL Army still occupies, including my ancestral home.