Web of Life

M. David has performed a remarkable feat at the age of 64 - he has walked from Karatagama to Jaffna, and this is the third time he's done so.

The first time was in 2002. Starting from Colombo, he reached Jaffna in 10 and a half days. He repeated the feat the following year, and the amazing thing is that he'd never been to Jaffna in those distant, pre-war days, when many Sinhalese used to make the traditional pilgrimage to the island of Nagadeepa in the north.

Mirissage David is a small-scale trader from Thimbirigasyaya, Colombo. He has six children - three boys and three girls - and his wife encouraged him as he got ready to make his initial journey. He regrets immensely her subsequent passing away during last year.

But nothing seems to discourage this nondescript-looking man in a sarong and faded shirt from doing what he wants to do. He is a walker. Even though he had no regular habit of such extremely long journeys in his youth, putting in 30 km or more in a day is nothing new or extraordinary to him. David says much of his travelling in and about Colombo is done by foot.

His good health is undoubtedly due to this habit. David recalls his first long journey by foot, when he walked from Kuruwita in the Ratnapura district to the top of Sri Pada mountain (Adam's Peak), a distance of 14 miles. He remembers the exact date as well - April 10 1954 - mainly because Queen Elizabeth II began her visit to this country on that date.

David says that, in this ambitious enterprise to reach Jaffna on foot, he received a lot of help and advice from a blind engineer called Akbar Alibhoy. After reaching the 300 km post during that initial journey, he hugged the mile post in appreciation.

The fact that David speaks Tamil was very helpful during all three journeys. He was not only able to make himself clear to the LTTE in their areas. He was able to speak to Tamil civilians in the north and get a clear idea about the hardships they had undergone during the war years.

"In many Tamil villages," says David, "I saw animals crippled by land mines being tenderly looked after. I wonder if our people would do the same in our villages."

David says he was taken to an LTTE hideout near a place called Priyanthinagar in the Kilinochchi area, where LTTE leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran spoke to him.

"I was taken to a darkened room," says David, "in which there was a man sitting in the shadows. I couldn't see his face. He asked me in detail about my trip, and wished me luck. Later, three LTTE leaders from the Kilinochchi area asked me if I knew who that was.

"When I shook my head, they told me that it's their supreme leader, Prabhakaran."

When he was being taken to the hideout, LTTE members offered him a pillion ride on a motorcycle. He refused.

"I told them, even if they killed me here, I wouldn't compromise my goal of going the entire length on foot."

After covering more than 700 km on foot in three weeks (after spending two days in the Jaffna peninsula, he walked back to Colombo along the same road), David suffered from no blisters or fatigue afterwards.

On the contrary, he found the experience to be so inspirational that he has repeated the epic journey on each subsequent year.

David had no sponsors for any of these journeys. He found people willing enough to give him free accommodation along the route. Sometimes, restaurants did not charge him for food once they learnt about his goal. He often slept in police stations, and recalls especially the officer in charge and staff of Narahenpita police station, who helped him substantially before he set out.

But David recalls with great bitterness the way he was treated after requesting accommodation at the Buddhist temples of Vavuniya and Mihintale.

"I was told brusquely to go away at Vavuniya," David recalls. "Feeling terrible, I was walking about in Vavuniya town when some Tamil residents spoke to me. When I told them about what had happened to me, they took me to a Hindu Kovil along Station Road, where I was given a comfortable room for the night."

In Mihintale, says David, a monk asked him where he'd slept the previous night; when he replied that he'd slept at a police station, the monk told him to go to the Mihintale police station and sleep there!

Undeterred by such acts of inhumanity, David is determined to repeat his epic travels on behalf of peace the next year.