New Delhi, Sept. 23 -- Kanthi moves unhurriedly around the kitchen, carrying with her a motherly presence we all recognise, of someone who silently nourishes a household. She tends to clay pots set over a crackling wood fire, where aromatic Sinhalese curries simmer away. Middle-aged and steady-eyed, she cooks the way her mother once did, by instinct and not by a timer. She seems to belong to a generation when cooking was deservingly given hours, and not minutes.

We are in Sigiriya (also known as the 'Lion Fortress'), the cultural heartland of Sri Lanka, amidst the paddies, lakes, and forests of Jetwing Vil Uyana. Once degraded land, the property has been restored into a thriving wetland sanctuary where slender lorises, fishing cats, and ...