Beauty and ugliness

With a peak that rises more than 2010m[1] above sea level, Namunukula mountain range is one of the well-known mountain ranges in Sri Lanka. It is the one you can make out in the above picture as the farthest layer of mountains.

Around four years back, I was able to capture this view of the landscape, which poses itself the prettiest during the last few minutes of the setting sun. Those were the days that I was first trying my hands on artistic photography. If you are wondering what made me post this old picture up here all of a sudden, well, there is a special reason. Sadly, that reason is not as pretty as the focal point of this picture. Thus, I will leave that story to the end.

I had always been far keener on travelling than on studying, and I was not alone. Few of my good friends also had the same interests as I did. They say, “Encounter of similar minds is a bliss”, and rightly so. While reading for my bachelor’s degree, we had a requisite to engage in several field visits to industrial locations. Those visits were much better than studying inside class rooms. This particular industrial visit was organized to a sugar factory in Pelwatte.

My own and three other similar minds had nothing to do with this visit, as we were not taking that subject in that semester. But our enthusiasm for the subject was so great that we signed up for the ‘tour’ anyway. Once our coach arrived at the factory during the early hours of the afternoon after a five to six hours drive, four of us started our next journey. The others however, had to prepare for the energy audit due on the next day. Poor souls! I still remember their faces after their tedious preparations, when we got back the resting place that evening.

Our destination for that afternoon was Yudaganawa Lake (man made). That is the reservoir you see in the foreground of both pictures. By the time we reached the lake the sun was setting. The quartet enjoyed the nature and the aquatic games of a few local boys while taking a stroll along the lake bund. The retiring sun was creating some breathtaking views of the mountain ranges surpassing the lake and my mates wanted me to take their photos against the setting sun. After their wishes were granted, I still had few minutes left to be myself alone with the nature and extract some of its beauty to take home. And here I am sharing some of that with you now…

I am sorry; I am compelled to put this big copyright sign over my pictures hereafter as I found out today that the picture of the Namunukula range on the top has been downloaded from my Flickr photostream and used on a website by a company for profit in Sri Lanka with out my consent or permission. I have provided my photos for free to be used by not for profit organizations in USA, France and Sri Lanka on five or six previous occasions and they had all been nice enough to ask for my permission beforehand to use them. Personally for me the former was bit of a sad turn of events.

Reference;
[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namunukula

P.S. The designers of the website who used my photograph without permission complied with my request and took down the photograph after I emailed them. I appreciate their prompt action.