Vesak celebrations 2021!!!

First of all, I’d like to wish all my fellow friends, all Buddhists, and everyone a Happy Vesak Poya Day! Also with this, I’d like to wish that, this global pandemic situation recovers soon so that every one of us will be able to live happily and stress-free lifestyles together again. The importance of Vesak Poya day is that it’s the day that all Buddhists commemorate our Lord Buddha’s Birth, enlightenment, and passing away.

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So, after a disappointing night, where the Sri Lankan cricket team lost to the Bangladesh cricket team in the 2nd ODI, I went on to an early sleep last night. Though it was the Vesak Poya day, I had to wake up early, as I had to go for duty to the site, especially to attend some pre-planned Vesak celebrations.

After having my breakfast and saying goodbye to my little prince and my lovely wife, I went to my office. As it was a day where there was an ongoing travel restriction due to the pandemic situation, there wasn’t much traffic, but I was checked by the police at several places. Luckily I was given a vehicle pass by the site office as the government also had labeled construction as an essential service. So I came to the site on time.

As it was a holiday, there were no inspections to follow, I went on a quick site visit, as there were only a very few people working on it. Then as I told you earlier, site staff had planned a Vesak celebration for the laborers who were working at our site. The main reason for this was after the third COVID-19 wave started at the end of April this year; 80% of the laborers were stuck at the site for more than one month because the government raised travel restrictions.
Yes, they are under huge pressure without seeing beloved their loving ones. So the site staff had planned a Vesak celebration for the laborers. So these arrangements were shared between the four zones. So we had been given to organize the manioc Dansala and Belimal "dansala". Other zones prepared digital lanterns and a small temple.

Anyway, as planned 110kgs of manioc and 1kg of belimal were used and finally the "dansal" was succeeded according to the health guidelines. Our staff did a wonderful job to succeed in this stuff. We distributed manioc to the labor accommodations as well.

The temple preparation was done by our zone 2 staff members and it was like a real one.

The digital lantern was done with the brainchild of our zone 1 staff. Before this, I didn’t experience such a thing & at the end, it was really good work

Anyway, I went a little bit early as my wife and little baby were waiting till I come to celebrate Vesak at home.