A flood can do something like this.

If someone had told me before, I wouldn’t have believed it either.

But it did.

The pearl of the Indian Ocean almost drowned in its own waters, leaving countless families with empty hands.

There is a saying: ‘how hard you work for yourself ; cannot truly be measured until it turns into something material’. A house built towards the sky. Schools which produced responsible citizens; Pets raised like one’s own children. Lands heavy with crops. Almirahs filled withfavourite dresses. Books cherished for years. Humans loved by one another.

All of it – gone in a single day.

Just a flood.

The once-glorious Kandy now holds countless people beneath its soil. Memories were buried in seconds. Dearest animals stayed behind, guarding their owners from above, like a cruel game of hide and seek. Some people hid inside their houses, trusting walls that failed them.Two brothers, who never met each other after that hide and seek game.

Younger brother – “Time’s over, brother. You should come out.”

He never did.

“I can always find you,” younger brother said, “because you used to breathe so heavily.”

What frightened he now was not hearing that breath at all.

Countless framed family pictures were left in the mud-faces still smiling, still searching for each other in places we can no longer reach.

South, north, middle-no difference. All humans with beating hearts. Water washed away the nests they cherished and the loved ones they held close.

Yet the reply came simply: You still have us. You have us in your back.

People helped people. Sri Lanka has always been rebuilt not with tall buildings, but with humanity. We build it again and again. A helping hand? The answer was always yes, especially from the south.

We witnessed a humanity; we thought we had lost.

See… Mother Sri Lanka, we are children of the same mother! We are used to the storms which used to come one after another… Which proved no matter what happens as a nation; we hold each other tightly.

People donated; every little they had, to the strangers they had never met. Homes were cleaned without knowing who lived there. Schools affected by the flood began to rise again-not through systems, but through people helping people. From one child to another unknown child, still hoping for that child’s smile… A letter of hope!

This generation can be called humble souls; caring from the heart. A warm smile offered to a soaked stranger. A hand stretched toward a dog that survived without a single bite of rice.

We heal together.

We survive together.

We are SRI LANKANS, who stands up after each fall. We are learning and growing while holding each other’s back tightly. We won’t fall easily. Even we fall; we will rise together after every storms becoming much stronger.

Respect to all the heroes who carried the weight of thousands of prayers!