Two days ago a friend disclosed his thoughts this way.
“There’s nothing like tripping, especially to travel in air. You get all the comforts. Airhosts and hostesses are there to help you with adjusting seats to sleep. When they see you with a coat, they’ll help you removing them. I like that. Juice after juice coming to you. Even the food and water. Friendly welcomes and byes. What more do you need! There is no apple juice or a single damn thing where I work. I’m sometimes offered a plain tea. That is not enough for the day. You’ll see rodents running around the canteen. Sadly, I prefer airplanes.”
May be for the same reason we like airplanes a lot.
When I was on an internship in Thailand (that was somewhat recent), I had a fine, long conversation with the President of AIESEC in Bangkok University. Vipcream Thanapinachchi, in short he is called Vip, was the President there. He exclaimed that he needs to visit Sri Lanka. He had just seen the country on TV and books. Vip is a rich traveler. Not because he has enough money to travel. But AIESEC has given him the chance to see the world.
There’s a lot to see and learn outside one’s comfort zone, he says.
 |
| Pic by Dharana Korale Arachchi |
Travelling doesn’t really mean the time you spend inside a flight. Or the things you see once you get down. It’s a way of having new eyes. Sometimes these new eyes just could be a camera. Why do you go away? So that you come back with a camera. You can see the same place with new eyes and maybe with some extra colors. Sometimes you just don’t need a ticket and a flight to cross another country. A photo will do that. And you’ll see people differently. Different from you. This is why a camera can be mighty. They will even help you bring down memories long gone.
People seldom value things that are at their hand’s reach. I’ve heard many say ‘langa thiyena deta agayak na’ (what is closer to you has no value). And maybe this is why those who come down to other countries passing miles don’t want to miss anything. They’ll have the things they’ve seen and the people they’ve met collected and saved in cameras. Or photo framed.
Recently, a few interns who came to Sri Lanka to work with the AIESEC in University of Kelaniya went back home with memories of one month, carefully captured and photo framed. Every year the Colombo North AIESEC team of University of Kelaniya facilitates a project titled “Explore Sri Lanka” to promote tourism in Sri Lanka in various aspects. This country is a paradise to many a globe trotter and thus fell upon it. There is a great deal of culture and traditional beauty to explore. Even 30 years of war has not taken its beauty away. Its salubrious hills stand the same. This is why I was told that nine interns came all the way to Sri Lanka, to explore its vibrant beauty this time.
AIESEC in University of Kelaniya puts a lot of effort throughout the year to bring down foreign interns to Sri Lanka and work along with them in different platforms. Starting from English education to the grass root level in Sri Lanka, they are committed to health awareness, tobacco and drug reduction, women empowerment, to improve social media and communication, develop technical and digital skills like photography and filming and even environmental and energy conservation. Of all, they create opportunities to undergraduates and recent graduates in Sri Lanka to engage in paid jobs and volunteer programs overseas.
‘Zephyr’ that goes in line with the project ‘Explore Sri Lanka’ is an opportunity created by them for the foreign undergraduates visiting Sri Lanka.‘Zephyr’ targets capturing unpopular yet attractive locations of the country to promote among foreign tourists. A selection of best photos that illustrates the rural life and richness seen in local resources based productivity is exhibited afterwards. This program initiates several trips around the country enabling the interns to do their own photography.
‘Zephyr 2014’ was successfully organized by AIESEC Colombo North committee bringing diverse cultures together under one roof. The event was held on September 7 at Arcade Independence Square from 4.00pm onwards. The exhibition showcased photos captured by a few foreign university undergraduates from Russia, Germany, Poland, Taiwan, Czech Republic, Australia and Switzerland. This was held as the concluding phase of the project “Explore Sri Lanka’ run by the iGCDP function (International Global Community Development Program) of Colombo North AIESEC. The project in whole was led by Hishan Jeewantha, an undergraduate of University of Kelaniya with seven others in his team.
Colonel Rohan Weththasinghe, the Chairperson to Urban Development Authority was the chief guest of the day.Nikon (Bongo) was the event sustainable partner while Canon was the official printing partner for the day. Sirasa TV joined Zephyr 2014 as the official electronic media partner. The event went on until 11 in night bringing huge crowds to witness the inconspicuous charm and beauty of this country captured by lens whilst celebrating the fingertip work of young interns.
Because to see more you got to remember more. And to remember more you got to see more. Zephyr 2014 just proved it.
(Featured in"The Nation" newspaper on 21st September 2014)
0 comments:
Post a Comment