Colombo in 2020: A New Hope

Colombo is a reflection of its people. It is more than a growing metropolis. The city is more than a commercial capital steeped in culture and history. It is more than the streets and lanes, paths and highways. More than high-rises dominating a cityscape. The parks children play in, the restaurants people dine in and the theatres and clubs to spend time in.

Colombo is the rush of a student clad in white and running to catch the school bus. The ease of a street hawker in Pettah, beginning his day with a steaming cup of tea. The focus of the business woman, sipping her coffee at a café in Colombo 07, prepping her notes before a briefing. The whistle of a musician, changing his guitar strings before his next gig. Colombo is the hope of new lovers watching a Galle Face sunset. The playfulness of friends stopping to pet a street pooch. This city is the smile of busy people passing you by, the kindness of strangers, the generosity of those earning their daily wages and the ever-ready willingness to be of service.

 

Colombo is more than a place, it is the embodiment of its people. How you choose to experience this city depends wholly on who you choose to see this city with. This city breathes with its inhabitants, a mirroring of energy, a place for the people. To experience this city, you need to breathe it in. Look past the polished windows and witness the cracks that make it real. The graffiti on carefully bricked walls, pigeons flocking to be fed amongst traffic in Galle Road, the city’s busiest street.

As we draw close to the end of a tumultuous year, let us look to 2020 with the same energy that has brought us here. If Colombo is really a reflection of the people who live and love in it, then 2020 can only mean one thing: more life, more dreams, more love. The Colombo of the New Year will come to life under the care and hard work of its inhabitants and the hope still lingering inside our hearts.