The sun had already set in the western sky, engaging with clouds, creating these amazing paintings that lay upon the sight of Kasun, who was sailing on a canoe, headed to a small islet in the middle of an enormous tank. In this tiny wooden canoe, another man sitting in front of him was piloting the canoe, without much talk in the direction of their destination. The sounds being made for every moment, the oar touched the tank water, made Kasun get lost in his lane of thoughts full of acknowledgment towards nature.
“පුතා බහිමු නේද?” A voice asked, waking Kasun up from his quite wonderful dreamy thoughts. The man who was riding the canoe was now on the island, tying the boat into a stem of a ‘කුඹුක්’ tree. He was tall and had well-developed muscles giving signs that he was someone occupied in manual hard work. As his physique stood for what he did, he was a fisherman and had been helping Kasun out during the whole day to collect data on inland fisheries from the members of the Fisheries Society. On the other hand, Kasun, an undergraduate conducting his last year’s research on inland fisheries. How enthusiastic was Kasun to collect much more practical data for his research, barely did his exhausted and famished body want to synchronize with the idea of laying fishing nets right away. This might have probably been sensed by the fisherman already as he offered Kasun a cup of hot tea from his flask and asked to sit with him on the wood bench in his shallow hut that was in the middle of the islet. After about 15 minutes of talk, they got back onto the canoe, having loaded all the fishing gear, they took off, so that they could go around the islet and lay several layers of nets encircling the small piece of land. Kasun, who had only known about these techniques of fishermen by books, lectures, and videos, was taking the fullest advantage of the opportunity to take photos, note things down and understand everything possible. Meanwhile never did he forget to give the fisherman a hand whenever it was needed. The fisherman who was so cautious when laying nets always paid attention and checked whether or not they were laid in the right place in the right way; to ensure that he would get the best catch.
Without any notice the sun had gone, time had flown, leading the lake to make friends with deep darkness and sullen silence. Kasun and the fisherman had now arrived back to the islet and in that small hut they rested; Kasun was lying awake on a mat on the ground while the fisherman was mending some of his broken nets. Hardly did Kasun let his tiredness get in the way of his curiosity, so still he was enthusiastically looking at how the nets were being mended. The fisherman went from one place to another of the net quite attentively, tying the Nylon threads of the patches using a needle shuttle. Due to the practice that he had obtained over the past years in net mending, it looked like that net mending is an inheritable character because sometimes he even looked at the night sky while continuing mending so well. The night sky, on the other hand, looked like a black print hung in a house while the stars were like the fireflies who had sneaked through the windows and come to furnish that print like lanterns to make it bright. As did the tank surface, since the reflected tiny beams of moonlight from the buoys made the whole blackish-blue surface a bit lighten up creating an amazing scenery collaborating with the serenity around. This was the only sign that a fishing net had been laid in the tank, and the reason might be why fish would unknowingly get trapped inside it. Meanwhile, hours had passed and Kasun woke up to find that the sun was slightly getting aggressive so he and the fisherman had to launch the canoe into the tank and move ahead to collect the day’s fish catch!
After his journey to the islet, the day that unfolded for Kasun would be exhausting if he did not fall into a tight sleep. So Kasun took his breakfast and a shower and went straight to bed to wake up in the evening so he could write his report on his field study sitting at the table in the veranda facing a coconut grove with towering trees reaching the blue sky. Between two trunks of the nearest coconut trees to him, Kasun could not help but notice the crystal-like images created by the sunrays that got filtered through a large cobweb. At first, he did not recognize what it was or a spider on a corner of the web. When it was given a closer look, it could be observed that the spider was adding another part to the web; weaving it from one part to another using the spinnerets. It was quite a scene to observe. Kasun who had some knowledge on spiders knew it was instinctive for spiders to weave webs, however was surprised at the fact how fast the web was woven and how nice it came out.
When his report had kept Kasun busy through the past hours, the night had fallen and everything would be dark around him unless the light that was hanging from the veranda ceiling was on. Then again he looked whether he could see the cobweb, which apparently he could not, so he stood up and got closer to it. That was when he suddenly noticed that an insect, flying fast in the direction of the light of the ceiling lamp, got stuck on the web. More the insect tried to escape, tighter those tiny Silk threads of the stunning creation of the spider got it even more entangled on the web. The spider that had left its favorite spot during the daytime now had come to the base of the web and metaphorically it was seen that the spider was waiting for the right time until the insect became a captive of him. Not even one single minute had passed, the movements of the insect paused, the spider approached it, and might be it was his dinner tonight.
Kasun, who always loved analyzing daily incidents, sat on the chair next to him. It looked like he was diving into the deep ocean of creativity. After a few minutes “ Whether it be Nylon or Silk, all of us share the same cycle of life” he spoke out loud.
Rtr. Omethya Illeperuma
Image Credits:
Jithaka says
Nicely written Omethya 🙃❤️
Omethya Illeperuma says
Thank you Jithaka
Well written ❤🤗
Thank you ☺️☺️