And Then We Want The World To Be A Better Place

We all take our kids on our marketing trips.

Put them on a trolley cart and act as we are on a race track.

Hit an old lady from behind in the aisle, then whisk pass cursing her and without even an apology.

Stop near the “ Fruits and Nuts “ section and throw a few of them in your mouth before stuffing a few more in his / her mouth.

Sure enough the toddler can’t read the notice posted there.

“ Eating is not allowed ”

But he / she was just happy for the freebies, Papa / Mama has stuffed in his / her mouth.



One day we go to see his / her choir practice session and find him / her standing inconspicuous in the very last row.

What happened?

We ask him / her while heading home.

Teacher says I am too tall to be in the first row.

Next day the child is send off to practice with a few cookie jars in a nice reusable bag that we have brought in on our last overseas holiday.

“ Don’t forget to give it only to the teacher’s hand ”.

Pick up time in the evening and when you reached there, the training session is still on.

Amazingly, our tall kid has now found place in the front row suddenly.

Heading home, he / she was jabbering happily.

Teacher asked from where we got those.

USA.

Wow !

Now the kid got a reserved place in the front from there on.

Oh ! what a few foreign cookies can do someone's self esteem  ?



Then comes the time for proper schooling.

We prepare our kids for the most dreaded school admission interview.

So a mock interview was set up at home.

Pretending you are the Principle of the school we ask “Where do you stay” ?

The kid is happy to say the only and truthful answer he / she ever know.

But we are happy to interrupt and say “Oh no ! don’t say that”

“ Say you are from Thimbirigasyaya ”

The kid protests with a pleading eyes “ But I don’t know where is that place ”, " We are from Moratuwa ".

We say “ Don’t worry about it, it is all taken care already and just say Thimbirigasyaya only ".

He nods but utterly confused.



He / she goes to play sports and one day we find him / her sitting on the bench watching others practice.

Now we know the answer to that dilemma.

Next practice session he / she goes with a much heavier bag.

And on the matches’ day you will see someone else’s kid is on the bench, watching haplessly.

The we go home and cerebrate.

හිලරි සමග නැගිටිමු !

ඇ මිස්ටර් සිල්වා, ඔය ඇමරිකාව පැත්තෙත් සමුපකාර එහෙම තියෙනවද?

මොකද නැත්තේ මිස්ටර් පෙරේරා, මෙහේ තියන ඔය හැම එකක්ම එහෙත් තියෙනවා මීට වඩා ජයට,

අනේ එහෙනම් කමක් නැහැ මිස්ටර් සිල්වා,

මොකද මිස්ටර් පෙරේරා එහෙම කිව්වේ?

නැහැ මම හිතුවේ ඔය ඉල්ලන ඉල්ලන එක පරදින හිලරී නොනාටත් ඉතින් එහෙම එකකින්වත් ට්‍රයි එකක් දාල බලන්න පුලුවන්නේ මිස්ටර් සිල්වා.

Safety First - Whom Are You Fooling ?

After years of neglect, it is a welcoming sight to see the efforts are taken to relay the Katubedda – Piliyandala road.

Traffic has come to snail pace and lots of inconveniences to commuters and many have to re-adjust their schedules due to the unpredictable nature of the traffic density and the speed it flows during peaks.

One thing baffles me, every time when I travel on this stretch of road it this.

The work site has a big board proclaiming  “Safety is First”.

To go alone with the slogan perhaps, most of the workers who are involved in relaying the surface have been given a glow-vest and a hardhat.

But sadly, they all work either barefoot and or with an old pair of rubber slippers.

The workers would have been better off, if they have been given a pair of gloves, safety shoes and a proper face mask, instead of hardhats or glove vests.

Many Overseers and even Engineers there are playing Blind eye to this blatant violation.

Over to you, if any RDA guys are reading.

Pada Yathra & You Do the Maths

Pada Yathra (the protest march) and the costs associated with it.

Social media are reporting different numbers and some are obviously exaggerated.

Assuming that 100,000 people have attended the march, here are the costs and you do the math later.

If every person’s Man-hour worth is LKR 100 per hour, they have spent nearly six hours daily and for almost a good week walking.

I leave it to you to do the math and that was what the country lost in terms of GDP.

The creation of traffic jams led to vehicles burning more gas than usual.

The public who commuted on those have lost valuable time as well.

We again lost in terms of GDP and our Forex will be strained because we need to import more gas from aboard.

The members of OPEC are the beneficiary.

Vehicles will have excessive wear and tear and we are a country that does not produce any car parts.

Again the hard earned currency will flow away to another country, thanks to this stupid march.

The only local product that was benefited on this foolish march was the locally produced Hooch industry.

This will invariably add more costs to the health sector a few years down the line.

I leave it to you to do the maths.

Then you can understand who won and who lost in this march.

What a World we are living in today?

The man who took a banned terrorist organisation's flag to a highly venerated religious place in another part of the world yesterday is now claiming that he would not allow outsider to create religious disharmony in the country.

Those who have helped terrorists and their supporters to slip through the border posts and claim political asylums in another country by taking brides have now become patriots and pledging to protect the country by all means.

Man who has done so much to the Sri Lankan Cricket is now being branded a traitor by some who have not done anything to uplift the game in anyway, because he has agreed teach a few foreign guys a few tricks with the Cherry.

Men who sold the country’s World Cup dream for money and favours are being branded as Heroes; where the whistle-blower is being branded a traitor because he refused to play a few matches for the country due to a well know injury.

Those who have looted billions of wealth from the country are being treated as heroes and another who stole something worth 100 rupees is beaten Black and Blue in public.

People who cry a lot about the agony of elephants here are conveniently forgetting the agonies of other animals that they devour as their comfort food and some others being kept as slaves, but calling them PETs.

The list is long and goes on ...........

ආච්චිගේ මළ ගෙදරදාවගේ !

අපි ඉස්කෝලේ යනකාලේ අපිට කිව්වේ, " ආච්චිගේ මළ ගෙදරදාවගේ " කියන්නේ පොඩි ලමයින්ට ඉතා සන්තෝස දවසක් කියලා.

දැන් බලාගෙන ගියාම මේක වැරදිනේ.

ආච්චි දැන් හිටියනම් අපිටත් ඔය කොහෙන් කොහෙන් හරි ඉඩම් ටිකක් අරන් දාන්න තිබුනා.

වෙලාවට උන්දැ මලානේ ඔක්කොටම කලින්.

Disguised in Animal Lovers Clothing

Nowadays Social Media is galore with thousands of Animal Lovers in different forms. 

That is fine with me because I love all living beings.

However, when one steps out on to the real world, one would see more and more Meat shops being opened in every nook and cranny in the country.

The problem is that most of these so-called Animal Lovers attention is always one directional.

Once when I posed this to some of them to explain, what was their standing on the Horse driven carriages being used by some royalties, I found they were dumb silent.

There are many police forces around the world have mounted police unit in their amour.

What is their standing on that?

What do these So-called Animal Lovers really want?

Sooner we find out, better for all.

What a disappointment Colombo Hippie Market Today !

Colombo Hippie Market.

I will not mince my words, but it was a total disappointment today.

First the venue was changed, a few hours ahead of the event and that too was in the middle of the night, putting those who have reserved stalls in a very uncomfortable situation.

Secondly, the chosen venue was a rugby football ground and stalls were allocated on top of the terraces.

All those who have come there were not only young and hippies.

There were families, ladies and elderly among them.

Most refused to climb up those huge terrace steps (mean for sitting to watch matches being played) to reach up to upper level of the stalls installed, thus depriving some of a chance even to recover the hefty admission fees paid to get a place in the market.

Lastly, there was only one lady from the organising committee and she was too busy (with her own works) to even to listen to anyone’s difficulties.

P.s.

Even the refreshments facilities organised were very poor and people who were visiting had not much choice to select from and the products were priced too high as well.

Neck-ties off from school uniforms

We are situated in the tropics and with it, hot and humid weather is an integral part, thanks to the location. 

Recently I have been driving around the country and to some pretty remote locations too. 

During those drives around the country, I have seen school children ambling to schools, mostly in white uniforms. 

Another significant thing was that the necktie was part of the uniform of most of the girls' schools even located at those very remote locations. 

What purpose does it serve; I could not help asking myself ? 

One time we were under the British rule and I am sure this necktie being a part of the school uniform must have been picked up from their boarding school uniforms then. 

But I do not think that the British schools have such strict uniform decorum in the present day. 

So then, why do we blindly still follow ? 

Taking neck ties off from school uniforms (mostly girls) is something overdue. 

Further, it is time to think about changing the colour of uniforms as well. 

Should we go for a darker colour ?

Where were the so-called Animal Lovers today?

The United Kingdom celebrated the Queen's 90th Birthday with pomp and pageantry today.

She was driven around in a horse driven carriage and hundreds more were seen on horse back during the ceremony.

It was something nice to watch.

But I could not help wondering where were the so-called Animal Lovers today, who are very active in some of the social media about elephants being mistreated in Buddhist Temple festivals.

If using elephants for festivities is bad, then how come it is good for horses?

Can someone enlighten me please?