Postcards From The Edge

Why were all these roads blocked off? Minesweepers and bullet-riddled ruins lined the street as I nonchalantly cycled past my 50th—give or take a dozen—military checkpoint that day. Once more, the awestricken soldiers were not quite sure what to make of such an outlandish sight. I’d been turned back a few times and searched twice already. The mood in this region felt tense: Street corners and bridges were strategically placed under army control; local Tamils were seen as potential threats and foreigners as potential spies. Yet the war was over, or so the official line went.