The Bamboo Cannon

2005.04.15

Although I’m pretty much a suburban guy, thanks to my parents’ rural roots, when I was a kid, I was fortunate enough to experience Avurudu festivals the way villagers celebrated it. Among the many simple wonders of the Sinhala New Year celebrations of the unspoilt village way is the mighty Bamboo Cannon - a contraption that engaged us snotty kids like no other.

After a long time, during which those beautiful villages were raped by inevitable urbanisation, I fired the Bamboo Cannon with my brother and my little cousin yesterday. We fired for the glory days of village utopia when people of the whole neighbourhood got together to play Pancha at our grandfather’s place over coffee and avurudu sweets; we fired for the ripe mangoes and guavas along the dancing stream infront of our ancestral home, over which the rickety plank bridge we always feared to cross was laid; we fired for the chena on the Balalgala mountain, that misty beauty, where jackfruit came aplenty and streams of crystal clear water trickled down to meet the canal that fed the green paddy fields. We fired in honour of that majestic bamboo cannon our cousins at village made many years ago, bright yellow and big, with a BOOM that echoed over the mountain range and filled our ‘fortress’ behind the rice mill full of kerosene smoke.

We fired, and I thought, yeah Colombo sucks, ADSL and all.

Permanent Link | Filed under: Life, Sri Lanka, Thoughts

6 Comments

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  1. Mahangu

    April 15th, 2005 at 12:12 pm

    This is without a doubt the best avurudu post I have seen this season! Man, bamboo canons rock! I miss the maha gedara in horana. There were rubber plantations on either side, and avurudu always rocked there! You’re right, Colombo does suck.

  2. OldBoy

    April 15th, 2005 at 12:14 pm

    I envy you. Both. Seriously.

  3. Anisha

    April 16th, 2005 at 9:49 am

    One of the better written posts I’ve seen around on one of the better looking sites. Atleast to my untrained eye. Brought back a flood of memories.

    Bamboo cannon huh? Sounds like a distant cousin to the kirlla thuwakkuwa from my unfortunately less frequently rural childhood. Unfortunately due to the lack of readily available kirilla ammo once back in Colombo, the thuwakkuwas soon lost their appeal to my 7/8/9/10 year old self. The wet paper pellets were a truly poor substitute.

  4. Prabhath

    April 16th, 2005 at 9:16 pm

    O yes, the Kirilla thuwakkuwa… That was one of our favourites too. But it’s quite tame in comparison to the fire-breathing bamboo cannon - perhaps I should write a nice tutorial on how to make one, for the benefit of the adventurous folk on the blogo.

  5. Big john

    May 4th, 2005 at 9:48 am

    Being a good old white boy in the US southwest desert, I have never heard of bamboo cannons, but they must be a blast! Do tell me the details, okay Prabhath? It might be hard to get large bamboo here, but there’s no end of empty space for major experiments.

    I’m sorry about the old life being swept away, but it’s happening here too. All the old cow ranches are failing, and being sold as land for vacation homes. The newcomers don’t understand the Code of the West, which said you don’t lock gates. Now it’s hard to reach places that used to be open and free.

    Lucky for me that I use a mountain bike so I can hop over fences and keep going…

  6. dash004

    May 11th, 2005 at 4:13 pm

    bamboo canons are lotta fun! no doubt but ya should know the time and energy u have to waste on lighting it. it’s only by doing the thing u learn. now people don’t get time to have the thrill and excitement of making it.