Beethoven and High Tea in the Jungles of Sinharaja, Sri Lanka.

 It was the penultimate evening of our birding trip with Nature India to Sri Lanka. The group was engaged in a relaxed walk along a narrow mountainous road, close to our hotel, on the lookout for birds, and other lower wildlife forms like spiders and their webs, lizards, millipedes and interesting trees and orchids.

We were all, off course, constantly vigilant of leeches that abound in the rain forests of Sinharaja which was to be our last stop in our carefully curated itinerary in Sri Lanka.

On the return, as we were nearing the main road that led to our hotel, we heard a most unusual and unexpected sound in the forest, the melodious tunes of Beethoven, to wit, his famous composition Fur Elise! Adding to our surprise was the spectacle of our group leader Adesh Shivkar, running pell-mell towards the source of this mellifluous aural harmony.

It was, as we were soon to see, a 'choon paan' man. Choon-paan translates as 'musical bread' in the local Sinhala language. For many years the notes of Beethoven meant bread of various varieties in Sri Lanka.

The choon-paan men in their colorful three wheeled tuk-tuks carried bread baked in city bakeries to distant rural neighbourhoods and smaller villages where the populace awaited their arrival twice daily, early morning starting 6:30 am for breakfast goodies like fish buns (stuffed with canned fish, spiced potatoes and spiced vegetables) or sausage rolls and at tea time from 4:00 pm onwards for sweet buns: buttery round buns topped with raisins or elongated flat buns stuffed with jam or treacle and with sugar sprinkled on the surface.

Three Wheeler with glass fronted shelves loaded with breads.

This unique delivery system has an interesting history. It started in the early 2000s when the three-wheeler became popular in Sri Lanka as a convenient and cheaper form of transport both for passengers and goods. Addition of an attractive musical piece (Fur Elise) which was adopted by all the intinerant peddlers made it easy for the the locals in far-flung villages to identify these bread vans, and who would then rush out to buy their daily bread.

In 2017, the Sri Lankan Government banned loud music from these mobile bakeries leading to their gradual demise as did competition from other home delivery outfits like Uber Eats.
Without Beethoven notifying the neighbourhoods people stopped coming out for the bread.

In 2020 the Corona pandemic provided succour and a revival of Sri Lanka's musical bread-trucks.
The Government closed all restaurants  and bakeries but permitted delivery of baked goods, and the previous ban on loud music too was lifted.

The 'choon-paan' man was back on the streets of Sri Lanka and Beethoven's Fur Elise eagerly awaited, for the sugar coated Kimbula bun to go with the evening tea.

Adesh had halted our choon-paan man who in this mountainous terrain was delivering bread on a motor-cycle with a large orange metal box that had various breads packed within it.

To the notes of Fur Elise we bought two large loaves and two of the flat jam filled buns for our afternoon tea.

Liberally buttered slices with fresh Ceylon tea made for a sumptious high-tea for our last evening   in Serendib, Beethoven re-playing in our ears and appreciation of a local tradition growing in our minds.