Woman's Own

A Boxing Day I’ll never forget

Jostling with my sister Dhanusha, 24, at the hotel bathroom mirror, I tried to apply a final slick of eyeliner before a day’s sightseeing.

‘Come on, girls!’ my mum Bhavani shouted impatiently.

It was Boxing Day 2004, and we were staying in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, where our parents are originally from. They’d moved to Ipswich when Dhanusha was one, and I’d been born three years later. Now, at 21, I was finally getting to experience the culture and see the place where my parents spent so much of their lives.

‘We’re coming!’ Dhanusha and I chimed.

We’d booked

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