Being cut off by heavy fighting is nothing new for residents of Sri Lanka's besieged northern Jaffna peninsula. Two weeks into a new siege, they are returning to habits learned over two decades of civil war.
Fifteen days ago, fighting between the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) erupted south of Jaffna, blocking off the road south through rebel territory. Sea and air routes also became impassable. Shops sold out fast.
But for an area that has changed hands several times and been held by the Tigers, government and even ill-fated Indian peacekeepers, little seems new to a war-weary population who had hoped the fighting was over after a 2002 cease-fire.
Once again, Red Cross ships unload aid. Once again, co-operative shops hand out free to the poorest while charging a fixed rate to the better off. Once again, local traders are preparing to charter private ships to bring in goods.
"We have been open a long time," said one shopkeeper, although he would not give his name. "In 1996, we brought in goods by ship. So it is business as usual."
Once again, some suspect that some shopkeepers are deliberately profiteering from the shortages, or even are planning to do black market trade in food aid.
"I hope the co-operative shops won't engage in illegal trade with private shopkeepers," said government official Ranjan Emanuel, 36. "But if ships come regularly, the private shops too would have to reduce their prices."
POOREST For the poorest of the poor - often daily casual labourers whose basic income has dried up with the fighting and who would never have been able to afford the newly inflated prices anyway - life without handouts would once again be impossible.
"We have been living on free rations for almost seven years," said 32-year-old Ramani Velayatham, a mother of three. "We don't have the money to go to the shop and buy provisions. We are so poor."
Thousands have fled their homes, many sheltering at night in schools and religious buildings before returning to their houses during the day, when a curfew is often lifted for five hours at a time. But it is nothing on the great exodus of 1995, when almost the entire population fled on foot as the Tigers withdrew.
As dozens of people mobbed a truck carrying food to a Hindu temple near a military base, a nearby artillery gun line began its now familiar thunder, hurling projectiles towards the battered front line. No one even seemed to notice.
"Our first requirement is food," said retired school principal S. Thunchalingam. "Both sides are fighting. You cannot blame just one side. During the cease-fire we enjoyed our life. But now war has started again."
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