Newfound Patriotism - තමාට පෙර රට !

When we moved to our newly built house a few years back, we got a plaque with the සීවලී මහා රහතුන්ගේ picture as one of the housewarming gifts from someone.

So we decided to hang it on the outside Wall and not inside.

Seeing it there, a few neighbors and some of our friends were surprised.

We were new to the area so the neighbors were somewhat reluctant to come directly and express their opinion on this සීවලී මහා රහතුන්ගේ plague being hung outside the house than inside.

The friends were more vociferous than them.

“ Hey, it should be hung inside the house and not outside “.

The belief was that it will bring blessing and prosperity to the dwelling.

The neighbours have thought that we were අන්‍ය ආගම්කාරයෝ and unknowingly have hung it on the outside wall.

Our rationale was that we already have enough for us to sustain decently and we want that Blessing and Prosperity for everyone alike to get as well.

I thought of writing this only after seeing that there is something brewing in some corner of the Social Media that every household should display a plaque or sticker " තමාට පෙර රට ".

I can understand like ours, their intention is very honorable too.

At the same time I could not help thinking, soon our house too would also look බස් එකක් වගේ.

Imagine with a සීවලී මහා රහතුන්ගේ picture plus so many proclamations to show off our newfound patriotism adorning our house’s front wall.

Should I change our house number too to route 138 to give the real feeling?

Terrorism and Rule of Engagement

Ever since man decided that the only way to achieve a solution to a dispute between two of them is to take up arms, the rules of engagement have changed.

They have evolved in a much slower pace that one would be able to keep abreast with it and be prepared for any eventuality.

However, the 9/11 incident has changed the whole scenario.

What are going on around in many parts of the world today are sufficient ample examples of the changes that have taken place in the rules of engagement.

The conventional wisdom and the old school rules of engagement become lead weights, especially when a country where democracy prevails tries to fight off a terrorist outfit, threatening the stability of the country as well as in the region.

The terrorists have only one objective and that is to terrorize and they would go to any extent to achieve their objective.

Unless the democratically elected governments change their tactics and approach to the issue of how to deal with the terrorists, the hope of having a Win is a total impossibility.

The best and the most recent example is the Sri Lankan Armed forces victory over the one time most dreaded and feared terrorist group.

Had they been listening to the hypocrites’ and old school pundits, as they have done for more than two decade, the terrorist menace would have gone for many more decades.

They were ready to change their rules of engagement and the success came within a few years.

The conventional wisdom and old school rules of engagement have to be abandoned, if to achieve success in a war especially between a democratically elected government and a foreign funded terrorist outfit.

The staunch old school guards and especially the hypocrites’ will try to place one obstacle after another to stop you from changing your stance but the sure recipe for success is to abandon the conventional wisdom and old rules of engagement.

(This was posted a long time ago in my old blog and reposting here after recent incidents in the West -  Old Blog Link )

Humanity is Not Totally Lost Yet !

Every time when I start doubting of the quality of humanity and start believing that it was something that we have experienced and or heard in the past, something incredible happens to restore my confidence in humanity.

Humanity Not Lost

Humanity Not Lost 2

Humanity Not Lost 3

Recent deluge proved again that the humanity is still intact among us Sri Lankans but how to harness its collective power for the development of the country is something that we all have still failed to figure out.

Sooner we figure this out, both collectively and individually, we will be on our way to the next level.

Enough being " Keyboard Warriors " on Social Media sites.

Now it is time to Walk our Talks.

ලොවේ සැමා

Thinking loud !

I wonder, the seasonal heavy rains experience in Sri Lanka is a divine endorsement of the යහපාළනය ?

" දේවෝ වස්සතු කාලේන රාජා බවතු දම්මිකෝ " ? 😖

Unsung (and conveniently forgotten too) Heroes of this country

We foot half of the protracted war bill for so long.

However, sadly when Heroes are chosen and honoured, we are very conveniently forgotten.

We have been treated shabbily always (airports / banks etc) and I wonder why?

What do we get for our contributions / sacrifices ? 

Absolutely NOTHING !

It is the time to change the mindset of all.

We are equally and none less heroes than anyone else.

We are the unsung (and conveniently forgotten too) Heroes of this country.

මනුස්සකම තවමත් ජීවමානයි !

පාරෙ යනකොට දැක්කා කව්රුහරි ලයිට් කණුවේ එල්ලපු පොඩි කඩදාසි කෑල්ලක්. ඒ කඩදාසි කෑල්ල හුලඟට ඒ මේ අතට වැනි වැනී තිබුණා. මොනවද මේකෙ ලියලා තියෙන්නෙ ? මම ඒ දෙසට පොඩ්ඩක් එබිකම් කරලා බැලුවා.

" මගෙ රු 50 /= ක් නැති වුණා.කාගෙ හරි අතට අහුවුණොත් මේ ලිපිනයට ගෙනත් දෙන්න.මට හරියට ඇස් පේන්නෑ."

මොනවද කරන්නෙ දැන්?

මේක එයාගෙ ඇඩ්රස් එකත් තියෙනවා. හ්ම්! අර ඉන්නෙ...
අංකල්! මේ ලිපිනය කොහෙද තියෙන්නෙ කියලා පොඩ්ඩක් කියනවද?

ආා... මේ ආච්චි අම්මද? පොඩ්ඩක් ඉස්සරහට ගියපුහාම පරණ ගෙයක් තියෙනවා . මේ ආච්චි අම්මා ඒ ගෙදර තමා ඉන්නෙ .හැබැයි එයාට ඇස් පේන්නෑ.

මොකද්ද කාරණේ?

නෑ මේ නිකං එයාව හම්බෙන්න කියලා .

හ්ම්...

තෑන්ක්‍ යූ අංකල්!

හ්ම්... මේක වෙන්න ඇති තැන.ගරා වැටිච්ච පරණ ගෙයක් නෙ. වැස්සකට වත් ඔරොත්තුදෙන එකක් නෑ.

බව්..! බව්.. ! බව්..!

කව්ද ඔය ? එන්න ඇතුලට. බය වෙන්නෙපා ඌව බැඳලා තියෙන්නෙ. ටොමියො කට වහපං . ගෙදරට එන අය ව බය කරන් නැතිව .

(හීන් කට හඬක් ! යාන්තමට වගේ මට ඇහුණා.)

ඇති යාන්තම් බේරුණා ටොමියගෙන් . යමු ඇතුලට...

ඇස් ඇතුලට එබිච්ච , දිරාපත් වූ මළ කඳකට වැරහැල්ලක් අන්දවා පරණ ඇඳක් උඩ වාඩි කෙරෙව්වා සේ දෑස් නොපෙනෙන ඒ ආච්චි අම්මා කාඩ්බෝඩ් කෑල්ලකින් හුළං ගහගෙන හිටියා .

ආච්චි අම්මෙ ! කව්ද පුතා ඔයා? නෑ ආච්චි මම මේ පැත්තෙ ඇවිදන් යන කොට රු 50/= ක් බිම තිබිලා ඇහිඳ ගත්තා . ඒක ඔයාට දීල යන්න කියලයි ආවේ.

(මගේ කතාව අහපු ආච්චි අම්මා අඬන්න පටන් ගත්තා.)

පුතේ ! දවස් දෙකක් තිස්සෙ දහ පහළොස් දෙනෙක් විතර ඇවිත් මගේ රුපියල් 50 බිම වැටිල තිබිලා ඇහිඳ ගත්තා කියලා දීල යනවා. ඒ ලියුම මම ලිව්වෙ නෑ පුතේ .මම ලියන්න කියවන්න දන්නෑ පුතේ.

(කියා ඇය නැවතත් කඳුළු සැලුවාය)

කමක් නෑ ආච්චි මේක ඔයා තියාගන්න .එහෙම කියලා මම නැවත හැරිලා ආපහු මගෙ ගමන යන්න සූදානම් වන කොට ...

පුතේ ! ඔයා යන කොට අර ලයිට් කණුවෙ එල්ලල තියන කඩදාසි කෑල්ල ඉරල යන්න පුතේ අමතක නොකර හොඳේ .

හ්ම්!.. හොඳයි ආච්චි කියා මම එතැනින් සමු ගත්තා.

මගේ හිතේ දහසකුත් දේ මැවෙන්න පටන් ගත්තා...

කව්ද ඒ ලියුම ලියන්න ඇත්තෙ? ඒ ලියුම ඉරල දමන්න කියලා ඇය ව බලන්න එන හැමෝටම කියනවා ඇති. 

නමුත් කවුරුත් ඒක ඉරා දමලා නෑ. කාත් කවුරුත් නැතිව අනාථ වෙලා ඉන්න මේ ආච්චිට කඩදාසි කෑල්ලකින් උපකාර කළ පුද්ගලයාට සිතින් ස්තුති වන්ත වෙමින් උදව් කිරීමට සිතක් තිබේ නම් එය ඉටුකිරීමට දහසකුත් මග තිබෙනවා නොවේද යන්නෙන් කල්පනාවෙන් ඉදිරියට ඇදුනෙමි...

" අය්යෙ මේ ඇඩ්රස් එක කොහෙද තියෙන්නෙ ? "

යන හඬින් මගේ සිතේ පෑයූ සියලු සිතුවිල්ලක් ම සුන් වී ගියේය .

නෑ මේ බිම වැටිල තිබිල රුපියල් 50 ක් ඇහින්දා. මේක ඒ අම්මට දෙන්න ඕනෙ . මට පොඩ්ඩක් පාර කියනවද එහෙට යන්න ?

මනුස්සකම තවමත් ජීවමානයි!!

From the Facebook.

වත්පොත සමාජසත්කාරය !

කව්ද මේ කොමිස් ඉල්ලපු කෙනා ?

Now everyone is trying to take credit by claiming " මම බලන්න ගියා, මම තමයි ආරාධනා කලේ " in a very sad situation in Sri Lanka. 

But no one is asking " කව්ද මේ කොමිස් ඉල්ලපු කෙනා හොයන්න කියලා ". 

Why ?

Let's hear from those so-called champions who had been try to take credit in this Saga, කව්ද මේ කොමිස් ඉල්ලපු කෙනා හොයන්න කියලා !

We Are No Better Than Them !

We are no better that the " Looters " and the " NATO " boys.

First we send " Looters " to the legislature to represent us.

Then they start plundering and ruling than representing us.

What we do is act like " NATO " boys.

When the next opportunity comes along, we follow the same ritual, like what we had been doing for the last six decades or so.

Let’s get out of this rut and take responsibility for our failures than pointing finger at another real or imaginary.

Remember, “ Improvement beginnings with I ”.

Stop depending on " Looters " to extricate us from this quagmire and act wisely than being another " NATO " boy.

Time is running out guys. ☺

Why have they been dubbed as Battles (සංග්‍රාම​) ?

We are slowly in the Big Match Fever time.

And most of those encounters are dubbed as “Battle of the Golds”, battle of many others colours, Blues, Maroons, Greens etc to name a few.

Why have they  been dubbed as Battles (සංග්‍රාම​) ?

Is it because that after all these events, it is there a very possibility of breaking out flights between two opponents and sometimes ending up in fatalities too?

I think it is time to think differently.

Getting out of this Slave mentality will be the first step towards true development.

Let’s not call them battles anymore.

Think of some other words to describe them.

Those meetings I believe should be used to renew old ties, meet new friends, breaking walls and making new bridges, but surely not for bloodletting after all.

So, what should we call them ?

Can Success be Replicated?

Often, we get to read biographies of many successful people all over the World.

Those stories sell and that is why publishers go looking for them.

But if taken percentage-wise, such successes are even less than 1%, compared to the world population.

Those who read such inspiring stories pick up a clue or two and try to apply in their own life but with very little success or none at all.

Can success be replicated?

Failures are galore and they can be seen everywhere.

Can failures be avoided?

But, if publishers are keen even finding stories which are of total failures, the trend of 1% versus 99% can be changed.

Because, some others have already made those mistakes in their own lives; so the rest do not have to, being well aware of the pitfalls on the way.

Although the odds are less on the side of being successful, the chance of success and or failure has the equal opportunity.

Let's Put Those Sleeping Giants to Work in 2018

Can’t we celebrate the New Year without indulging in setting fire to our very own and hard earned money?

Counting down and then lighting up enormous amounts of money on fire for a few seconds of euphoric fix is a foolish thing.

Partly the media are responsible for people indulge in this kind of irresponsible behaviour.

Ads make sense money-wise and so they want their coffers to be full.

This is where the religious established can play a major role in educating people and also in encouraging them to channel their money and energy for a useful purpose.

Temple and church bells were established to communicate and interact with the masses during good and bad times in yester years.

Let’s put those sleeping giants to good use now instead of letting fools setting fire to money.

Compare the pealing of thousands and more bells to sounds of firecrackers and which one sounds better and more appealing.

Let’s see who will take the lead role now.

Temple, Church, Kovil or Musjeed.

Or all of them as one in 2018.

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 ?