Pasikuda and Maalu Maalu

Too much work is not good, so me and the folks at the office packed our bags and headed for Pasikuda last weekend for a well-deserved break. The journey itself was a bit tiring because it took nearly 10 hours. This was mainly because we went in one of those big tourist coaches, comfy, but not good if you want speed. There was also a huge traffic jam along the Dambulla Habarana road due to road-works, which also added to the delay.

CJ had post last week about the pros and cons of Maalu Maalu. While I have to agree on some con points, for me, the overall experience was good. The overall response of the folks at office is also positive.

What won me over was the food. It was excellent. I’m a foodie, so for me, good food will triumph over everything else. I left my diet in Colombo and stuffed myself, consequences be damned. Their soups and salads were top notch. I think I ate more of the salads than the main courses. Event he kola kanda they had for breakfast was good. I’m not a big fan of kola kanda, but this one I gave a try. The same goes for the deserts too.

The place is built as close knit cottages, with 2 rooms on some and 4 on others. There are also two family suit cottages with four rooms (I think), with its own private pool, a Jacuzzi and a steam room. The rooms themselves were quite comfy. The bathroom was huge. I think it was about a third of the whole room. You could have easily put in another bedroom in there if you wanted. 

The land on which the hotel is built is not that large, hence the cramped feeling. They have had to bring the front of the hotel right up to the front boundary. Because of this, the area left for parking is limited, unless they have some external location. The main building which houses the reception and dining areas is small compared to somewhere like Cinnamon Lodge. But the design of the chalets gives a sense of space. I think this is what the architects might have envisioned. To accentuate the sense of space for the chalets they have built them on a V-shape, extending outwards from the entrance. The infinity pool also adds to the sense of space. As a layman, I think it is a great piece of architecture which enhances the sense of space on a relatively small land extent. Even though the main building area is small, it does have two upper floors. The top one has a Karaoke Lounge and a night club with a superb sound and lighting system. The DJ on the other hand has lot of room to improve.

Now, for the important part; the beach. Awesomeness!

The area is part of a huge bay. When you stand in the middle looking out at seas, the white sandy beaches curve out on both sides. The sea isn’t rough and stays shallow for some distance, ideal for a dip. If you walk north along the beach you come across a coral reef. The water is so shallow that you can wade in for quite a distance and see the corals and the marine life using a snorkel. There is also the option of taking a glass bottomed boat and going a bit further into the sea. This area is also shallow, so you can jump in with a lifejacket on and do some snorkeling. Unfortunately other than the beach, sightseeing option are limited in the area, unless you go to Batticaloa, which about 40Km away.

The only side effect of the place is the sun burn you get. I have a dark complexion and even I’ve gotten a tan. However, because of the constant cool breeze coming in from the sea, you don’t feel the heat, but it does burn. A hat and sunglasses are a must.

In my opinion the best way to enjoy the place is to become a night owl. Sleep during the day and party all night. Ideally start around 4pm with a dip in the ocean, a game of beach volleyball or cricket, and finish off with a long soak in the pool till the sun goes down. At night, a good barbecue on the beach accompanied by alcohol of your choice and you can have an excellent time. End the party while watching the sunrise and go to bed afterwards. The sunrise is definitely not something you want to miss. It’s a beautiful site. Both times when I went to Trinco, I missed it thanks to my laziness so I made it a special point to catch it this time.

Passikuda is not crowded at the moment and very peaceful at the moment, but there are hotels coming up all along the beach, which is good for the economy of the area. These new enterprises offer direct job opportunities and indirect tourism related income opportunities for the people in the area. If the people have enough money to satisfy not only their needs, but their wants as well, they tend to be happier. When the people are happy then it will be difficult for external factors to influence them into unrest. Once these hotels come up, it would be ideal to make Passikuda also an air taxi destination. It already goes to Arugam Bay, so it can be part of the same trip. This will drastically reduce the travel time and leave more time to enjoy the place. This is especially good option for foreign tourists.

We are all too familiar with the environmental destruction caused by ad hoc development. The challenge here is to accommodate development while preserving the environment and the beauty of the area. For this to happen, proper planning and management is a must. Hopefully, the related authorities will take this into heart and have an environmentally friendly development plan so that the natural beauty of the place is not destroyed for the sake of progress. 

International Literacy Day

On the 17^th of November 1965, UNESCO proclaimed September 8^th as International Literacy Day. The idea behind it is to highlight the importance of literacy to individuals, communities and societies.

Literacy is a very important factor when it comes to human development and economic growth. However, according to data from 2009, there are about 793 million adults around the world who lack even the basic reading and writing skills. From this, two thirds are women.

Knowledge is empowering, more so than money. Sadly, these days it feels like it’s the other way around. However, as long as you have knowledge you can make something out of yourself.

Knowledge rules!!! :)

Literacy Factsheet

List of countries by literacy rate

Skyscraper Day

Image source: http://www.burjdubaiskyscraper.com

 I heard about this in the radio this morning. Apparently the 3rd of September is the day when all those tall buildings are celebrated.

 Unfortunately, I couldn’t find much literature about its origins on the net, Except this

I’m somewhat of a fan of architecture, and do admire a good design, whether it is a house or a skyscraper. They are testaments of human ingenuity and imagination. These structures may not live and breathe like organism, but I think they do have a personality.

Skyscrapers can are the concrete equivalent of the tallest and widest trees in a jungle. They rise above the rest and provide shelter to millions of organisms. When you consider it, they provide food too, because we work inside them to make money. The houses are the shrubs and we are the lowly insects.

Facts about the Burj Khalifa, the tallest structure in the world

Wikipedia list of tallest building and structures

A celebration on the day you were born

Image from here http://funnybirthdaypoetry.blogspot.com/

Another year has come to pass
but the world at large is unaware
this is for you, your personal year
to celebrate that special day
when the world was blessed with another child
rest of the world may not rejoice
but the people to whom you matter the most
will shower you with their love
embrace it, share it
take stock of the life you have led
remember the good times
the laughter and the love
forget the bad times
the hurt and the tears
mistakes are a part of life
learn from them, and mature
what is done is done
move on soldier, move on
when one year ends another one begins
what the future holds no one knows
trials and tribulations are part of life
be strong and defeat them all
greet each day with a smile on your face
go forth and conquer the world!

Jealousy and Envy

Image from http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com

My lesson for today: these two are not the same. All this time I was under the impression that jealousy and envy very similar, and even interchangeable with each other. Turns out it’s not, and they have separate meanings. Just goes to show you that sometimes what you believe to be right is not always the case.

These are the definitions from Wikipedia:

Jealousy is a secondary emotion and typically refers to the negative thoughts and feelings of insecurity, fear, and anxiety over an anticipated loss of something that the person values, particularly in reference to a human connection. Jealousy often consists of a combination of presenting emotions such as anger, sadness, resentment and disgust. It is not to be confused with envy.

Envy (also called invidiousness) is best defined as an emotion that "occurs when a person lacks another's (perceived) superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it."


The common experience of jealousy for many people may involve:

Fear of loss
Suspicion of or anger about a perceived betrayal
Low self-esteem and sadness over perceived loss
Uncertainty and loneliness
Fear of losing an important person to another
Distrust

The experience of envy involves:

Feelings of inferiority
Longing
Resentment of circumstances
Ill will towards envied person often accompanied by guilt about these feelings
Motivation to improve
Desire to possess the attractive rival's qualities
Disapproval of feelings

Source: Wikipedia

Ok, the reason I looked up the definition was that I came across a cool article called “Jealousy Is a Wasted Emotion” on the “The Minimalist” blog.

According to them we can turn off our jealous feelings:

There is good news though. Like our televisions, we can chose to turn it off. We can choose to remove jealousy from our emotional arsenal. And like TV, it’s not always easy to turn off (it sure seems interesting sometimes, doesn’t it?) But turning off jealousy can significantly improve one’s emotional health. Because, at the end of the day, jealousy is never useful. Many negative emotions can be useful—pain tells us something is wrong, fear tells us to look before we leap, etc.—but jealousy, no matter how jealous we get, will never help.

Worth a read. If we can control these negative emotions we'll be much better people and much happier.

Cheers!

The Never Ending Battle

Every morn it begins anew
a battle for survival for our daily bread
we leave our houses like scurrying ants
heading towards our daily toil
suburban homes are standing empty
while city streets are clogged shut
cold building that stood empty at night
comes alive with returning drones
their blood and sweat oil the cogs
on which the city runs
thus the endless struggle continues
to keep us fed, clothed and, sheltered

Alone

The ticking of the old Grandfather clock
echoes throughout the old house
while shadows come alive
taking over darkened corners
droplets of water escape
one by one from a leaky kitchen faucet
ignored and forgotten
never to be fixed
from the rotting roof above the great hall
a great chandelier hangs in gloom
where once it sparkled like diamonds
radiating warmth and happiness
now spiders have spun their webs
ghosts of the past still wanders about
along dusty hallways
where sunshine rarely peeks
laughter of children
and the warmth of love
are memories of a time long lost
she spends a her days in that dying house
alone and unloved
forgotten by all
until she too is just another ghost

Some Random Pics

Sailing at sunset

An evening at the beach. Apparently everybody had the same idea.

Fighting for supremacy

Kiss

Taking the flag down

Amber alert

Signal

Bana-na-na

Famine in Africa

Image from http://antti.vilpponen.net/2011/07/29/famine-in-africa/


It seems to me that the continent of Africa has been in the receiving end of bad luck throughout history. Draught, famines and never ending conflicts, both international and internal, has plagued African countries for centuries.

The latest in these series of disasters is the ongoing famine in the Horn of Africa, which comprising of Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia. The worst hit at the moment is Somalia, but it is also affecting some parts of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda, with the potential to spread even further. The UN estimates 12 million people are in the brink of starvation in Somalia, while tens and thousand have already perished, mostly children. This is considered as the worst famine to hit in 20 years. Severe drought of the past two years and many conflicts in the area has destroyed food production, infrastructure and impeded aid, have been the major factors contributing for this situation.

To make things worse, militant groups are taking the people already suffering hostage by refusing them access to aid. This has been going on for some time, but fortunately, these militants have changed their stance and left the affected areas. This will allow the aid agencies to carry out their relief work. It fails understanding how one group of people can condemn another group of their own people, especially children, to a slow and painful death like starvation. At least a bullet to the head is quick, and merciful. Has humanity become so depraved?

The north-east part of Africa has had more than its share of misery in the past years. Between 1984 -1985, the largest famine to hit Ethiopia killed nearly 1 million people. This is what inspired Bob Geldof’s Band Aid concert, which raised over $100 million.
In 1988 nearly 6 million Ethiopians faced the risk of starvation due to famine.
In 1992 nearly 2 million people faced starvation in Somalia.
In 1994, the civil war in Sudan left 2.5 million Sudanese needing emergency food aids. In the same year, almost 7 million people face food shortage in Ethiopia.
According to the UN, about 22 million people were facing starvation in Sub Saharan Africa in 1996.
In 1997, Kenya declared a state of national disaster after severe drought threatened the livelihoods of nearly 2 million people.
Add to these the various never ending conflicts in the area and you have a lifetime of misery and suffering for the people.
Between 1998 and 2004 3.8 million people died of starvation and disease during the Second Congo War.
In 2003, famine in Sudan’s Darfur region
In 2005 food crisis in Malawi
In 2006 food crisis in the horn of Africa affecting Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya
In 2009 Kenyan food crisis affecting nearly 10 million
In 2010 food crisis in the Sahel region, a belt 1000 km wide spanning across middle of the African continent form the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea

With this amount of suffering going on in the rest of the world, our petty problems that we squabble over seem quite irrelevant, and our greed sickening. It doesn’t matter what your beliefs are, but these people deserve our prayers and blessings.


More details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Horn_of_Africa_drought

More Pics: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/07/famine-in-east-africa/100115/

7-Billion Hits and Counting

How I wish my blog would get that much hits.

We humans have been very busy procreating and ensuring that our species will continue forever. We’ve been so successful at it that our population is set to reach the 7 billion mark later this year. Quite an achievement wouldn’t you say? Well, that remains to be seen.

We hit the 6 billion mark back in 1999, and it took only 12 years for another billion people to be added. This high rate of growth is seen only in the past 5 decades or so. It was recent as 1960 that the population was 3 billion. In a narrow span of 50+ years it has jumped its way to 7 billion. According to UN projections, the populations will reach 10.1 billion by 2100.

Sadly, research by David Bloom, a professor of economics and demographics at the Harvard School of Public Health, shows that most of this growth will be seen in the developing nations, not the developed ones. A lot of challenges will be faced by these nations to sustain their people. Poverty is sure to increase along with the competition for limited resources.

The research also shows that the growth rate of developed nations are likely to remain flat, but it has the challenge that there will be less working age adults to support the retired community.

“In the next 40 years, virtually all (97%) of the world's 2.3 billion projected increase will be in the underdeveloped regions, with nearly half (49%) in Africa.”

However, according to Mr. Bloom these challenges can be overcome if we are willing to take some serious action.

"Those challenges are not insurmountable, but we cannot deal with them by sticking our heads in the sand. We have to tackle some tough issues ranging from the unmet need for contraception among hundreds of millions of women and the huge knowledge-action gaps we see in the area of child survival, to the reform of retirement policy and the development of global immigration policy. It's just plain irresponsible to sit by idly while humankind experiences full force the perils of demographic change,"

Call me a pessimist, but I believe the world is already straining its resources to sustain the current population. Almost half the population, around 3.5 billion, lives on less than $2.50 a day. I’m doubtful that it will improve anytime soon. I’ll be very happy if I’m proven wrong. Ok, if by some miracle people start to care for each other and alleviate poverty, the more important question to ask is whether our planet can continue to support us.

I believe one way to tackle things is to improve on what is categorized as sustainable technologies. These include Renewable energy, sustainable living, organic agriculture, environmental economics, and environmental technology. With these, we could probably reduce the stress we place on the planet’s resources.


“In the last 200 years the population of our planet has grown exponentially, at a rate of 1.9% per year. If it continued at this rate, with the population doubling every 40 years, by 2600 we would all be standing literally shoulder to shoulder.”
Stephen Hawking

“Short of nuclear war itself, population growth is the gravest issue the world faces. If we do not act, the problem will be solved by famine, riots, insurrection and war.”
Robert McNamara, Former World Bank President

Some interesting reads:

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-07-27/us/world.population.growth_1_global-population-perils-demographic-challenges?_s=PM:US
http://www.unfpa.org/public/cache/offonce/home/news/pid/7971;jsessionid=08F2A1B1FC64FA4CB80383C571061E42.jahia01
http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats
http://7billionactions.org/
http://www.worldometers.info/population/

RedBull X Fighters

Some pics from the RedBull XFighters show held at the Galle Face Green.

Frugal Living

Money, Money, Money
Image and Graphics by Me :)

The modern world is driven by consumerism. Every minute of every day we are bombarded with messages buy goods and services, whether we need them or not, and more importantly, whether we can afford it or not. This type of impulsive consumerism causes people to live outside of their means, which will ultimately lead to debt.

Frugality on the other hand can be considered as the opposite of consumerism. It is defined by modern behavioural scientists as the tendency of acquiring good and services in a restrained manner, and resourcefully using already owned economic goods and services to achieve a longer term goal. It isn’t about living a life of sacrifice and deprivation. It’s about living smarter, so that you can afford to live the life you want to live.
Being frugal is a personal lifestyle choice. It helps you to live within your means and to avoid impulsive spending habits. This will in the long run let your enjoy the things you have without being in debt.

Frugal living means:

• Smarter money management.


• Smarter spending


• Harnessing your creativity

Make a budget. Know what you have in the bank and how much you need to cover the monthly bill so that it will allow you make better decision about how your money is spent. It will also help you to know where you stand in you debt repayments, saving goals and investments. These are key steps to taking charge of your money and making it work for you.

Smarter spending habits go hand in hand with smarter money management. Identify the price that you can afford and try to find the best deals until your expectations are met. Likewise, know when not to shop. Try to stick to the budget you made and not make any unnecessary purchases that doesn’t fit to it.
When you are dealing with limited resources, and you will have to be more creative to make the best of it. A frugal person can increase savings by reusing, repurposing and creating.

The following tips are from an article in the Reader’s Digest, written by Julie Rains, titled “8 Tips on how to stay frugal”. Unfortunately there is no online version of it available.

Don’t Let Frugality Inhibit your Ambition
You don’t have to earn less just because you want to live a frugal lifestyle. Have worthy goals in life and strive to achieve them. The key is not to make money the key factor that drives all you decision making, be it career of life.

Take Excellent Care of Yourself
Being frugal should improve your health and mental outlook and not be hazardous to your well beign. Eating healthily and regular exercises are key to healthy living.

Take Excellent Care of the Things You Own
When you take care and have proper maintenance of the things that you do own, they will last longer.

Stay on Top of Technology
Technology isn’t a bad thing. Used properly it can actually help you. These days, the newest technology is not a luxury, and many items are functional and helpful.

Go on Adventures
Frugality is spending what you have wisely and doesn’t mean never allowing yourself to splurge on trips you can afford.

Become an Expert in Something
Finding a hobby that interest you and devoting your time to it can distract you from the bombardment of marketing messages that push you to consume impulsively.

Be Nice to the Wealthy
Make friends and don’t worry about your differences in spending habits. Frugality is more about pursuing your dreams and not letting someone else define your successes. Saving a few Rupees and being debt free is just an added bonus.

Forgive Yourself for Frugal Lapses
Don’t be hard on yourself if dare to splurge once in a while.

A frugal lifestyle is identifying what you want in life and finding ways to achieve them through limited resources. A few rupees saved and invested don’t mean a life of depravation, but of possibilities. It’s a matter of conditioning your mind. Eventually, a frugal lifestyle will let you live a simple life.

Sources: Reader’s Digest, Wikipedia, About.com

Orchids

Some more Orchids from the Orchid House at the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens.

A Simple Life

Misty Mountains

Our lives run through the world like white water rapids, fast and furious. Focused solely on the end goal, and never noticing the calm and serenity of the shores on either side. If ever you decide to step on to the shore and observe, then you will realize that this world is bat shit crazy.

There is nothing wrong with having goals and living a fast paced life. Having goals and striving to achieve them gives a purpose to life, leading to happiness. However, the path to achieving these goals should not be at the expense of others. By others, it doesn’t mean just your fellow human beings, but the entire eco system that surrounds us. If the price of your success is the destructions of your fellow man, then that is not real success at all.

Sadly the situation is such in the world that success at any cost has become a necessity. Resources available for our consumption are limited and dwindling day by day. Competition to acquire these limited resources is fierce. There are many people out there who are unable even to satisfy their basic needs of food, shelter and clothing. On the other hand, our levels of satisfaction have also increased. Now it is not just about satisfying our need, but pursuing our wants as well. Our materialistic possessions have become the standards to which our lives are measured. So it is natural that people will want to have more of these materialistic possessions, sometimes by any means necessary.

The idea of simple living covers several different voluntary practices to simplify one’s lifestyle. It is characterized by the fact that individuals are satisfied by their needs, rather than their wants. This doesn’t mean that one has to be an ascetic. An ascetic life is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from various form of worldly pleasure, often with the aim of pursuing religious and spiritual goals. This can be considered as an extreme form of simple living. It is also not forced poverty, because it’s a voluntary life style. The basic idea of simple living is to control oneself so that satisfying your needs and wants doesn’t lead to a harmful existence to yourself and others.

The following are some common reasons why people opt for a simple living lifestyle.

• Spirituality


• Health


• Increase in “quality time” with family and friends


• Reducing their personal ecological footprint


• Stress reduction


• Personal taste


• Frugality


• Socio-political goals aligned with the anti-consumerist movement


• Conservation


• De-growth


• Social justice


• Ethnic diversity


• Sustainable development

There are several ways to achieve a state of simple living. The following can be considered as the main ones.

Reducing expenditure, income and possessions
Reduce expenditure on goods and services, in doing so it is possible to live on less income, to reduce income and the time spent on earning money. This time saved can be used in other ways, like spending with family and friends.

Unfortunately the present prices of even the basic commodities are high, and to people need higher incomes to survive.

Increasing self-sufficiency
Simply put, grow your own food. Self-sufficiency will reduce dependency on money and the economy. Although a large plot of land will produce more crops, pot gardens and miniature indoor greenhouses can also provide fresh home grown fruit and vegetables for city dwellers.

Not everybody can do this. To make it successful, you have to love gardening in the first place. Otherwise you won’t have the patience or the interest to grow your own food.

Reconsidering technology
Some technology can help you to live simply. Some people see the Internet as a key component of simple living in the future, including the reduction of an individual's carbon footprint through telecommuting and less reliance on paper.

Simplifying diet
Eat food with nutrition value, and give up junk food. If you want to take it further, become a vegan.


You don’t have to do all of these, or go to extreme forms of simple living. First, take an analytical look into you lifestyle see what are the unimportant things that you can give up. Then you can start to reduce them and finally eliminate them. This will ultimately help you lead a stress free and happy life.


Peace.

Source: Wikipedia

New Food Rules

I have been neglecting the old blog lately. Life and its problems tend to throw a wrench into cogs and disrupt the normalcy. However, there is no point in wallowing in them. Dust it off and move on.

For one thing, years of bad eating habits and junk food finally caught up with me. So I’ve turned into a bit of a health nut now. Well, more of a “forcibly turned into” one. That is why I thought I’d share this article from the Reader’s Digest. It’s written by Michael Pollan, and offers a few simple rules to eating healthy without losing your appetite. I’ve put down a summary of it below, and you can read the full article here: http://www.rdasia.com/2011-the-new-food-rules

Rule #1: Eat Food
Eat real food and try to avoid processed foods.

Rule #2: Eat food that will eventually rot
Real food is alive and it should eventually rot. Rotting happens when bacteria and fungi start feed on it. In processed food, some of these nutrients are taken out to extend their shelf life. The more processed a food is, the longer the shelf life, and the less nutritious it typically is.

Rule #3: Eat your colors
The colors of fruits and vegetables reflect the different antioxidant phytochemicals they contain, which helps protect against chronic diseases, but each in a slightly different way. So the best protection comes from a diet that contains many different phytochemicals as possible. The more colorful (naturally, not with artificial coloring) the food is, the healthier it is.

Rule #4: “The whiter the bread, the sooner you’d be dead”
As far as the body is concerned, white flour is not much different from sugar. It offers non of the good things in wholegrain and is little more than a shot of glucose.

Rule #5: Eat mostly plants, especially leaves
By eating a diet that is primarily plant based, you’ll be consuming fewer calories, since plant food are usually less “energy dense” than other things you eat.

Rule #6: Stop eating before you are full
Various cultures have different sayings on this. The Japanese counsel people to stop eating when they are 80% full, and Indian Ayurvedic tradition advises eating till you are 75% full.

Rule #7: Eat sweet food as you find them in nature
In nature, sugar almost always comes packaged with fiber which slows their absorption levels.

Rule #8: Break the rules once in a while
You don’t have to be a stickler for the rule. Break them once in a while and enjoy the food. My idea is stick to the rules at home and then you can break the rules when you are out, unless you always eat from out.

Rul3 #9: Pay more, Eat less
If you spend more on better quality food, then you are more likely to eat less of it and treat it with more care. Choose quality over quantity.

Rule #10: Avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients
The higher the number of ingredients, more likely they are to be highly processed.

Today, our lifestyles have changed from that of our grandparents, even our parents, times. For lives always on the go, junk food has become the dietary norm. I remember my grandparents always had balanced diets for all their meals. Even my mother is like that. I, on the other hand, am quite the opposite. Believe me; it will eventually catch up with you. Once you are on a healthier diet, you will actually feel the difference.

Pic from here: http://dreamzs.net