A Journey to Mannar and the ‘Dancing Islands’ – 1 – by Nimal Chandrasena  “Imagine being on one of those legendary islands of ‘Adams Bridge’ or ‘Rama Setu’ of the Ramayana fame! Many centuries ago, this 30 km stretch was a natural bridge connecting Sri Lanka to the southern tip of India; now, the ocean has reclaimed its own, leaving a only a chain of sprinkled islands. On 9 December 2011, I and a few friends were standing on the second island of the chain of limestone shoals between the Rameshwaran Island, off the south-eastern coast of India’s Tamil Nadu and Mannar Island, off the north-western coast of Sri Lanka. If the legends and folklore regarding Rama, Seetha, Ravana and Hanuman are to be believed, this ‘bridge’ is a critical part of the Sri Lanka’s past.  The Indian Ocean gently lapped my feet; and the warm sand ‘sucked’ at my ...

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