As you may know, I'm a trainer by profession and a foodie at heart. There was a time when I was a co-owner of a gym and eventually became a fitness trainer. But, that story is for a different time. At present, I go as a trainer for social development and edutainment. I was (kind of) forced to choose a niche so that people don't assume things, plus it solves a lot of questions even in my head before I take up assignments.
Before I was a full-time trainer, I was part of a youth organization, where I spent three-quarters of my adult life trying to build something for the youth of this country. There were many ongoing projects during my time at this place and one of them was an annual tour around the country, where selected youth leaders would be allowed to conduct training sessions on promoting peace and reconciliation. We would cover at least 75 schools in 25 districts within a month!
I have to tell you that this tour is not fancy as it may sound. We survived with 1 or 2 meals a day and 2-3 hours of sleep. The team would conduct 2-3 workshops per day that would last for about 6-7 hours. As a result, most of us were exhausted. But we did have the energy to have some fun times during the free time we had. We would play games like UNO, we would do truth or dare, and Kings Cup, and sometimes the game would be writing reflection notes (now that is fun only for Thevuni and me.. well, mostly for Thevuni!).
During the second phase of the tour, we headed to the north of the country. The road trip continued without a break and in addition to the logistics of the trip, I had to take care of the entire operation of the organization, and I barely had time for myself. To tell you how serious it was, I didn't even have clean underwear by the time we got into the 2nd phase of the tour.
As you may already know, Jaffna is a special place for Thevuni and me, not because of the food but also the people. And I was barely ready for Jaffna this particular time. As soon as we reached Jaffna, we did several workshops, and then once the day ended, I asked the driver to take us to Nallur, to get some ice cream at Rio.
I was still worried about the underwear, therefore, once the team settled in, I went searching for underwear around the city of Nallur. For about 45 minutes, I walked around the city and realized that there was no clothing shop in the 2km radius of Rio, so I made my way back to Rio utterly disappointed. Now I had to strategize the plan for the next day, where I had to flip the underwear inside out to survive. Well, as they say, a man got to do what a man got to do right? flipping underwear!
As I entered Rio, and to my surprise, Thushan came rushing towards me, a little animated. Now, if you get to see Thushan animated, then you know something is wrong, but he only managed a few words when a few others came towards me and started saying stuff, which I failed to understand. In my head, I'm still thinking about flipping underwear, but somehow I managed to realize that there was a serious issue, unfortunately for me I didn't know what the issue was.
Suddenly, a stranger approached me and asked whether I was in charge of this group, and I said yes. And then he started accusing me and told me that he would report 'it' to the authorities. My problem was, I had no clue what this 'it' meant. And from nowhere, a woman grabbed my collar and wanted to punch me in the face! And she was threatening to burn the bus we were touring. Now, here I am, still trying to recover from the feeling of flipping underwear inside out!
As soon as the lady grabbed the collar my teammates got a little excited and started recording the incident, she released her grip and started shouting at the team. Once she released the grip, Remo came and managed to fill me in with the story.
So, Dhisal and Ravi had gone to the toilet and wanted to imply as if they were coming out of the ladies' toilet and had recorded it on the phone. While they were admiring their recording skills down the corridor, they were thinking of how to improve them and they were cracking jokes. Somehow, during this time, a lady who was walking by overheard this conversation. She assumed that these guys recorded her taking a dump or something. She informed her parents about this situation and they were the ones who were making the issue. Now, Dhisal and Ravi are many things but they are not mentally off to take videos of women taking dumps, plus they have deleted all videos in front of this family and had made a phone reset to be sure.
Anyway, somehow we managed to settle the matter and move on. We did a lot of apologizing and Dhisal and Ravi did some worshipping to the lady's parents to prove their innocence.
Every time we go to Rio, we remember this incident and laugh about it. We always manage to add something new to the story. That is what this place is all about - Rio. It is more than the ice cream it has to offer. It is all about the experiences, the smiles, the laughs, and the family we have created around it.
Whenever I go to Rio, I order the Rio special and a Nelli Juice. I also manage to try new flavors if I see a friend has ordered any. They also offer a fantastic vegan roll if you manage to go to Rio in the evenings. There can be many ice cream parlors around it but there's nothing like Rio.
Rio has always been a place for my extended family, where we share jokes and talk about many things - including a lot of cock-shit!
This story and this place is an unforgettable combination! ❤️🍨