How Time Flies…

Is it just me or does anyone else think that time is going a bit too fast? Man it feels like a coupla week ago that I was getting wasted on the New Years Eve celebrations, but in reality 5 months have gone by. Where the hell did it all go? No wonder people are complaining they don’t have enough time to do their work.

The problem is that we have too much of things to do in our lives. So it seems to us that there is never enough time left to do them all. We are always busy busy busy, we don’t even realize that time is passing us by. The question is do we rally need to do all these things we do? I guess it’s the price you pay for living in a global, money driven world. You have to either keep up with the rat race or be left behind, which eventually means that you’re broke and homeless. It’s a dog eat dog world and either we join em or be left out. No wonder people are having nervous breakdowns, committing suicide or dying of stress related illnesses.

How did it all come to this?
I have no idea...Hopefully I'll get wasted tonight and the answers will mysteriously come to me in my drunken stupor.

Oh well enough of this tomfoolery, time to get back to work and join the rat race...

Cheers!

15th May 2007

Been very busy the past few weeks, so didn’t have time for any other thoughts except work. Didn’t even notice what the heck was going on in the world either. Now that most of the difficult parts are over can relax a bit (and the client is out of the country, so he’s off my back ).

Is it just me or is the weather acting a bit funny. I mean just a couple of weeks ago it was raining nonstop day and night, and now it’s scorching hot. It’s like the guy can make up his mind. Wouldn’t it be great if the weather worked according to a schedule? Daytime – Sunny but cool and night time 3 hours of rain. Then we’d know what to expect. Ah… but then again where is the fun in that?
Dear old Mother Nature works according to her own schedule and if you don’t like, then too bad for you.

Well there’s nothing much for me to say so I’ll just put some Interesting facts about the day courtesy of Wikipedia

15th May

1. Independence Day in Paraguay
2. Teachers Day Mexico and South Korea
3. Nakba Day in Palestine Communities
4. In 1602 Bartholomew Gosnold became the first European to discover Cape Cod.
5. in 1928 Cartoon characters Mickey and Minnie Mouse made their movie debut in Plane Crazy.
6. In 1934 Prime Minister Kārlis Ulmanis dissolved the Saeima and established an authoritarian rule in Latvia.
7. In 1990 Vincent van Gogh's Portrait of Dr. Gachet was sold for US$82.5 million, at the time the world's most-expensive painting.

Van Gogh’s picture was the most expensive at the time but today it has slipped down to Number 4. The painting by Jackson Pollock is the unconfirmed winner with a price tag of USD 140million.

No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock ($140,000,000?)


1. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Gustav Klimt ($135,000,000)
2. Garçon à la Pipe by Pablo Picasso ($104,100,000)
3. Dora Maar with Cat by Pablo Picasso ($95,200,000)
4. Portrait of Dr. Gachet by Vincent van Gogh ($82,500,000)
5. Bal Au Moulin de la Galette by Pierre-Auguste Renoir ($78,000,000)
6. Massacre of the Innocents by Peter Paul Rubens ($76,700,000)
7. Portrait de l'Artiste sans Barbe by Vincent van Gogh ($71,500,000)
8. Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier by Paul Cézanne ($60,500,000)
9. Femme aux Bras Croisés by Pablo Picasso ($55,000,000)
10. Irises by Vincent Van Gogh ($53,900,000)



Want to buy a painting?


First of all I’m shocked by the fact that there are people willing to pay 140million Dollars for a painting. The absurdity of it is ghastly. It’s an abstract with lines of paint and looks like shit. Frankly I think a five year old can do a better job. A masterpiece by Leonardo Da Vinci or Michealangelo, I can understand, but this???

Secondly, I’m dropping everything and starting to paint. Damn, I wish I had paid more in art class during school…

Earth Day

This is the day when we all should celebrate this wonderful planet which we call home. Traditionally the UN celebrates Earth day on the vernal equinox which is around the 21st of March. It marks the precise moment when spring begins in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. In the South-pole the sun sets, ending the six-month long day and in the North the sun rises, ending a six month long night. In 1970 an Earth Day was declared on the 22nd of April to make people notice the damage done to the environment by man and to do something to protect it. It is now celebrated all over the world.

Learn More

The sad but undeniable truth is that our planet is in trouble. Who is to blame for it? No one but us humans. As man evolved into the industrial age he began to disregard the natural world. In the early civilizations, which were based on agriculture, the people respected nature because they worked with it to sustain themselves. They relied on the earth for their daily existence. They understood that without nature they would also perish. As time progressed people discovered technology and brought on the industrial revolution. After that everything became about money and how to make more money. People moved from the farms into factories and their lifestyles changed. They lost the close relationship that their ancestors had with nature.
We all know what problems there are: pollution, global warming, rampant destruction and excessive use of natural resources are some of the major ones and which causes the most damage. These are real threats that can have drastic impact on our world. Still there are some people who insist on denying these truths. These are the people who are in the payrolls of the same organizations that are guilty of environmental damage. These spin doctors are trying to paint a picture that the planet is A-okay and the environmentalists are the one who are wrong. According to them, the so called environmental damage is just a figment of the environmentalist’s imagination. Why this blatant attempt to discredit the people who are trying to protect this planet? GREED pure greed.

I am not suggesting that we stop technological developments. Far from it coz I’m a big fan of technology. But they should be done in a manner which doesn’t harm the environment. Now more than ever technology should help to protect the world and save it from destruction. We could say that during the times of the industrial revolution, the people didn’t know better. They were unaware of what they were doing to the environment. But now we can’t make the same excuses because we know better. We now have the knowledge and the means to do something about it; the only thing necessary is the commitment to it.

Fortunately there are many people around the world committed to making this a better world. A few months back Sir Richard Branson offered a $25 million price money for the first scientists to come up with a way to extract green house gases from the atmosphere. Some pundits are criticizing him saying that his companies contribute to the problem and now he’s trying be the good guy. That is exactly what he is doing. He has realized this and that is why he is trying to come up with a solution. This is what is needed, for companies to realize the damage they are doing and to start to rectify them. In the meantime let us start in our homes.

Earth is a unique planet. It is the only planet that we know of that can sustain life. But if we don’t protect it now, more than likely it will become just another rock floating in space.

Hypocrisy and Double Standards

The biggest news during the last couple of days was the shooting incident at Virginia Tech University in the good Ole US of A. A crazed gunman, a student himself, had killer 32 fellow students and had committed suicide afterwards. If you don’t know about it, then you are definitely not living in this planet. If it had happened anywhere else in the world I would be shocked, but this is America. These kinds of incidents happen on a regular basis. High school students going on a rampage in their schools and killing students, employees shooting down the office and coworkers, these seems to be normal things in America.

Why these things happen I can’t say. There seems to a lot of nutcases loose over there and coupled with easy access to guns… well what else is there to say? A recipe for disaster. America is not the land of dreams everybody thinks it is. I recently saw on the Tyra Banks show that over 70% of Americans live from one paycheck to another. They have no savings at all, and if they loose the job they are out on the streets. They showed undercover cameras in places where homeless people live and it was not a pretty sight. I frankly think that our beggars in SL live a better life. At least our people care enough to give them some money. No wonder people are depressed and going on killing sprees. They must feel like that is the only way out. They have no hope and once hope is lost, it is the beginning of the end.

What I am cheesed off about is the way that the international media is behaving. It’s like that there is nothing else happening in the world but this. Tragedies don’t happen anywhere else but in America. Everyday people are not dying in Iraq from bombs and gunmen, people are not dying of violence in Palestine, Iran, Afghanistan etc. No mention about those people. Oh of course I forgot, they are not in America. The British PM has given a special new conference saying how shocked he is, but he’s never shocked by the violence in Iraq since him and his pal started it all. It’s confirmed that the gunman was of South Korean decent, so now what? Is it attack South Korea next?

Everybody has bees in their bonnets about the situation in SL. When the armed forces are defending against attacks, its violation of human rights, but when the terrorist attack, they are just playing around and having fun. The world is full of hypocrites who work on double standards. All these NGO’s who rise up and shout against supposed human rights violations in SL are keeping silent about Iraq and Afghanistan. Why? Because in those situations the human rights violations are done by the civilized world, i.e the same countries that hand out their paychecks. So of course they won’t go against the hand that feeds them now would they?

Things are unlikely to change in the near future. The powers that are will keep on dictating to those who are powerless. These hypocrites will apply their double standards to oppress those who can not stand against them and keep on helping their allies. Sadly this is how the world runs. The funny part is that they don’t even seem to notice their hypocrisy and are shocked to learn that the rest of the world hates them. It’s no wonder that terrorist organizations like Al Quida and Hamas are thriving.

The situation is similar to a story I heard at a sermon some time back: A hospital is cleaned by two cleaning ladies and is kept spot less. They work diligently at their jobs to keep the hospital as clean as possible. But their home however is the opposite. Full of garbage and unclean. My suggestion for the powers that are, try to clean your own houses first before you try to clean up other peoples houses. Sometimes you might find out that the other peoples houses are much more cleaner than yours in the first place

All of that said about the world, my sincere sympathies goes out to the families of the people killed in this incident and all the people who die everyday all around the world due to acts of violence. It is what their fate has in store for them. You can not cheat death; the only hope is to believe that death is not an end, but a beginning of a new journey.

23-01-2007

P.S.

Barely a week goes by and another shooting incident in America, this time out of all places, at NASA, by one of their engineers. The gunman goes into a building at the Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas and takes about three people hostage and later shoots one of them and then ends it all by killing himself. Police say that there was some dispute between the gunman and his victim. Since he only shot one person and himself, he didn’t get as much air time in the media unlike the Virginia Tech incident. I guess you should take out a minimum number of victims before you get prime time coverage in the media.

The undeniable truth is that human beings are violent by nature; it’s a throw back to our animal instincts. As the world became civilized, people began to suppress their violent behaviors and to use diplomacy to resolve issues. Sadly it seems as time progresses we are reverting once again back to our animal nature. The greed for money and power, coupled with poverty, stress and depression makes for an excellent recipe for disaster.

Suba Aluth Avuruddhak Wewa

Its great to wake up these days with the sweet melody of the "koha" singing by your window for he is the messenger who tells us all that the traditional Sinhalese and Tamil New Year is nigh.

According to the Sri Lankan culture the traditional Sinhala and Tamil New Year is celebrated during the month of April. Unlike the western New Year which is celebrated at the end of the calendar year on 31st of December, the Sinhala and Tamil New year is governed by astrology. This is the time according to astrology, when the sun moves from the House of Pisces (Meena Rashiya) to the house of Aries (Mesha Rashiya). It is also the season when harvesting ends, and for agricultural communities it’s a double celebration. It is basically a time for families to get together, say goodbye to the old year and greet the dawn of a new one in hopes that it will be more prosperous and joyous than the last one.

Check out Wikipedia for more details

Unfortunately in our family, we don’t follow strict traditions and rituals associated with the New Year. Main reason is that we are Christians and our ancestors were brought up and educated in the beliefs and values of the invaders. They have forgotten the traditional ways. On the other hand I don’t even follow Christian rituals either, either way I’m lost forever. Even if you don’t follow the astrological traditions, rituals and auspicious times, it’s a time we can all celebrate. It is a new beginning, a fresh start of the new and saying good bye to the old. For Buddhists it’s similar to Christmas or Thanksgiving. It’s a time for family.

The way I see it the New Year on 31st December has become a worldwide celebrations due to globalization. It’s a one big happy family and we have to stick to standard timekeeping. You can’t have one part of the world saying its 2007 while another one is saying its 1800 or something. Can you just imagine the havoc it would cause for global trading? Even though everyone celebrates the December New Year, people still celebrate their traditional New Years in grand style. These celebrations are necessary to keep the traditional cultures going, otherwise we’ll all be like clones.

More on Chinese New Year

with the season comes the shopping sprees. These days it's a menace to go on the streets, for they are chocker blocked with people. All are going on shopping sprees, buying new stuff, gifts for family and friends or just something to make your day, it's just plain mad shopping. The shops are like mad houses and sometimes you have to wait in queues to get into them. Once inside it’s another battle to actually see the merchandise and get what you want. That is why I never go shopping during the holiday season, no matter how much discounts I get. The situation is worsened by the fact that there is no space in our cities. Narrow pavements are taken over by hawkers, who build their temporary shop to the whole width of the pavement. There is no more space to walk and pedestrians are forced to walk on the road, with the threat of being run over by a vehicle. An all around pain in the neck.

In one hand we can’t put the blame wholly on these people either, because this is their livelihood and they are also trying to feed their families. The best solution is to build some kind of shopping mall, not a fancy one, but something low cost and give these people shop space for free. Then they’ll have a permanent place to sell their ware without being a nuisance to pedestrians. It’ll be convenient for the shoppers also, without having to walk on the roads, facing such hazards as dust, rain, mud splashes from vehicles and so on. They can also do their shopping in absolute comfort. I know it’s a totally utopian city that’ll never come about, but it’s nice to dream.

Well anyway, wish you all a

Happy and Prosperous New Year

Rain Oh Glorious Rain

Rain oh glorious rain
Bring down thy showers
Quench the thirst of this parched land
Revive it and return it to life!

After a long and extremely hot, dry spell, we are blessed with rain. The sun gods have been defeated and the Rain gods have won the day. It’s so refreshing to have rain drops falling on your head. I feel like dancing in the rain. Don’t worry I’m not losing it. It’s just that it feels great to be cooled down after that hot spell. Looking out through the window I see gloomy overcast skies, all ready to unleash its power. Cleanse away the dirt and sins of the people and bring in new life. By now you would’ve guessed that I’m not a big fan of the sun. The only downside is the lightning, which means electrical appliances have to be shut down at home. There is a high tendency that lightning will strike burn out something.

Saturday afternoon went for a sea bath with some friends and guess what? It started to rain. Man it was great. The sea was a bit rough and if you weren’t prepared, the waves would lift you off your feet and knock you to the ground. Got a few scrapes as a result of close encounters with the beach. I you haven’t done it, I suggest to try it out, unless of course your prone to catch a cold even by standing near the ice box. If so I suggest you stick to hot showers. I also had my fingers crossed and so far no sign of the sniffles. Lucky me.

Happy to say that there are some improvements on the Mount beach. Some good work has been done since the last time I went there. A row of trees has been planted near the fence line of the restaurants. Between the trees, concrete benches have been placed with litter bins next to them. Hat’s off to the people who came up with the idea. You’ve done a great job. The problem however is, how long will they last. How long till the litter bins are stolen and the trees uprooted. It happens because some people just don’t know how to respect public property. Let’s hope these improvements will stand the test of time. I think the restaurateurs along the beach should take up responsibility for them. If each look after the trees, benches and litter bins in front of their property, there’s no need for special maintenance or security. After all it’s in their best interest. If the beaches are clean then more people are likely to visit and the more business they will have. So buck up guys and make it your duty to maintain the beach.

On a sad note I must say the water is not that clean. Trash keeps coming in with the waves. As long as thoughtless morons keep emptying their garbage cans to the sea, it will be full of trash. They should be shot and hung. Change your ways people, change your ways.

Here’s to a few more days of gloomy weather. All hail the rain gods

The Man with a Brick

I see a man walking down the road
With a brick on his head,
Bowed down under its weight
He struggles to walk straight

Weary eyes looks up the street
A glimmer of hope can still be seen
Searching hard for a sign of relief
That will aid to ease his load,
But alas, how unlucky he is
The road ahead gives no such hope
A desolate wasteland stares in his face
Barren as the Arctic fields

There is nothing he can do to save himself
He cannot go back, only forward
With every labored step he takes
The brick grows bigger and bigger
Till the moment comes
When he can stand no more
In the end it will bring him down
Crushed like a swatted fly

Pity him not
For this is the life we lead
A difficult journey
Yet one we all must make
Trials, tribulations, suffering and pain
These are all part of a ruthless game

Do not get discouraged
By the burden of life
Through all the misery
Hope must still survive
Once hope is no more in your life
So ends life that you live

The Wiz

Once upon a time there lived in Kansas a little girl named Dorothy, who liked nothing better than to play around with her little doggy Toto. One day a great big Tornado came and whisked her away into the magical world of Oz, where she met a bunch of misfit friends and had some adventures together. On their way to Oz they decided to drop in on good old SL and have some fun with the locals. I’m talking about the newest play to go on board @ the Wendt. “The Wiz” put together by the talented people of the Wendy Whatmore Academy. They had done an excellent job with a cast full of kids and youngsters. It was also the first time that I saw a canine actor taking the stage on a SL production. It was a small roll but it managed to do it very well. A star is born, two thumbs up. Not to say the least of the human cast also who did a wonderful job of brining alive an old classic.

The only thing I’m pissed off is some of the audience members. Some guys in the balcony were shouting and making remarks while the play was going on and made it difficult for the others to hear the dialogues. Some people just don’t know how to behave in a place. I mean being boisterous is one thing, but being obnoxious in a public place and making a nuisance out of yourself is just plain rude. These idiots should be hung by their ears. Some people just don’t understand that there is a proper place and time for everything. Who is to blame for it? The parents? The teachers? The government? Hmmm… blame the government it’s easier. Unfortunately this is something you can blame the government for. I say absentee parents are at fault. We should put up notices saying “People with improper behavior prosecuted or shot”; that should get their heads working.

Other than that the play was great. Congrats to all the people @ the Wendy Whatmore Academy for putting on an excellent show.

Back in Business

After getting used to routine of going to work five days of the week, it’s really difficult to stay at home doing nothing. Boring as hell!!! The idiot box shows a lot of crap (I have to stick with the local channels since I don’t have cable.) Of course the cricket world cup is going on, but that’s at night so during the day there’s not much to do. Kept watching talk shows made for housewives and learned things that I have no need for. The other problem is the weather. It’s so damn hot that you feel like being inside an oven when you step outside. Curse the sun god!!! Bugger must be having dry spell or something.

Just when I thought my head was about to explode from extreme boredom, lo and behold I got a new job. Yippeee… someone upstairs must like me. Well It’s not a new job exactly, it’s the same one I had before I joined the company that went bust. So now I’m back in business.

As I mentioned before, it’s pretty hot in good old SL these days: 31C at the time of writing this and 66% humidity. On the other hand it’s ideal for the sun worshipers. I’ve said this before and say it again; SL is a very beautiful country. True that there are a lot of problems here, but if the people can change their attitudes a bit, I’m sure that we can solve these problems and make this country into what it should be like. Make it realize it’s true potential.

So in hopes of promoting tourism in SL and getting more people to, I’m proud to announce the launch of a new web site. Adez Tours. These guys are travel agents and will organize tours in Sri Lanka and help you discover. I’m extending and open invitation to all to visit our little paradise isle and enjoy to the fullest. Visit once and you’ll come back again and again. It is truly an Enchanted Island.

Plea of the Unborn...

Please let me live!
Is that too much to ask
Do I not have the same rights as you?
To see the world as you have seen

Why am I to be blamed?
For the mistakes you make
All because you are too weak
To defy the demons of lust

You never consider of things to come
Or care not of whom you hurt
All life is a game that you play
Extreme pleasure, the only way

Life is a gift I want to embrace
And feel its warmth caress my face
Why must you deny me this gift?
When you yourself enjoy it the most

Jobless and Out on the Road

Well it’s a crappy…I mean really crappy time for me coz I am out of a job these days. ‘The Company’ I was working for (is still working for, since we’re not officially kicked out yet) is in trouble and they’ve decided to close down the LK production office, which means your’s truly and 65 other people are out on the road. Crappy is not the correct word for it…

Funny how things work out isn’t it? I mean here I was a week ago happily doing me job, dreaming about the future and planning things to do, and then suddenly BA-BOOM, shit falls on your head. Next thing you know you don’t have a job. The feeling is something similar to that of a man stuck in a deserted island with only one coconut tree and one morning he finds out that there are no more coconuts in that tree…terribly frustrating.

Well you can take the situation in two ways. Either think of it as a great opportunity to explore new horizons or as a hard luck case where nothings seems to go right. I like to take it in the first option. True that all can’t think like this. After all I’m young, single, free of any encumbrance, and luckily got some shillings saved over for a rainy day (to think that a few more days delay and I’d spent it on a bike…should be thankful I didn’t). But the worst affected are the people who are married and have kids and other responsibilities. They have to rely on their salaries to get through the month. For some it might be No salary No Food situation.

The employers should take responsibility for taking care of their employees. If the top management knows that the company is in trouble, then they should keep the employees duly informed. If the employees know the real situation of the company they can base their decision upon it. Who knows, maybe the employees might have brilliant ideas which can be helpful. To keep things to themselves and suddenly say that the company is in trouble and we’re kicking you next week is not the correct way. That’s the shitiest way to treat the people who worked their butt’s off to make them rich. Some of these guys were working 3 days straight to meet a project deadline. For what? Thanks for everything, we cant pay you, see ya’? Well that’s what happened.

So what am I up to these days? NOTHING. The office is till open (till lord knows when) so coming here to take the maximum use of the facilities till they last. Surfing the net for vacancies mostly, sent out some CV’s while at it, and hoping for a positive outcome. Updating the bloggie and just mindless surfing of all those site you never had time to visit. So far my situation is not desperate, but two months down the road it will be hell. Let’s keep the fingers crossed shall we.

As a great sage once said ‘Shit happens, all you can do is wipe it off and keep on walking’

So wish my self a happy job hunting…

Cheers and good luck to the other guys and gals @ office…

An Enchanted Land

Some breathtaking scenery of SL...
It is a truly an enchanted land like no other. We count ourselves lucky for living here. The only problem is the people running it...

These pics were taken by a very good friend of mine, DW.

Story Baton Part 04

This is the 4th part of the story baton started by Yo of LaneTop. You can find parts 1 to 3 on the following blogs.

Part 01
Part 02
Part 03

Here is the continuation of that...
=================

Nothing but darkness surrounded her as she walked towards the dim light at the end of the hallway, her bare feet pricked by the icy floor. The crying of the child, faint at first, was getting louder with each step. The door was open, it was always open and she dreaded the thought of looking into that room. The crying was much louder now. The room was bare except for the cradle in the middle of it, and she could see the moving form inside. As she walked towards it she knew she had no choice but to look at it. Her head began to ache as thoughts of pain, guilt and fear raced through her brain while the child looked at her with red eyes and bloody tears running down its cheeks…

Keshini woke up in a sweat. The alarm clock on the side table flashed three o’clock in red digits which reminded her of the child’s eyes. She quickly turned it around. There had been many sleepless nights for the past six months, always the same dream, no the same nightmare, every night. Sometimes it wasn’t that bad and she doesn’t wake up, but more than not she always woke up with a dreadful feeling inside her. She looked out the window and saw it was snowing. A blanket of white smothering the earth. What she couldn’t bear most was the deathly silence. A wave of loneliness swept over her and she longed for somebody to hold, caress her and tell her that everything is going to be alright. America maybe the land of opportunity and dreams but it was also a land of loneliness. People here just didn’t care enough about others.

Fate is a funny thing, she wondered. How happy she had been at the beginning, when Shan was with her. All the good times they had and how much in love they were. They were inseparable. She didn’t know loneliness back then. However fate decided to play games with them. It has a perverted sense of humor and humans are its little puppets, dancing for its entertainment. Unfortunate circumstances forced Shan to go back to Sri Lanka. Before he left they promised to be true to each other and continue the relationship long distance. He gave his word that he’ll come back for her, marry her and build a happy life together. No matter how carefully you plan things, sometimes things just happen to change those plans. Separation made her depressed and lonely and she wanted someone to talk to. That was where Damien came in. Although Shan and Damien were best of friends, they were the exact opposites of each other. Where Shan was caring and thoughtful, Damien was selfish and arrogant, who only cared about himself. Of course Keshini didn’t know this at the time. The other thing Damien was good at was not showing his true self. He was a charmer alright and Keshini fell deep into it like an Ant in a honey pot. At first he was just there to listen to her ramblings, but things got serious pretty soon. It was very hard to say no to Damien. He’d charmed you in a way that you will agree to murder your family without knowing that you had. How she wished she had known better. It had all been a farce. He never cared about her.

She remembered how scared she had been when she found out that she was pregnant and how she thought that Damien would be there for her. His reaction was nothing what she had ever expected. He had actually laughed at her and said that he wanted nothing to do with her. Those cruel words still ring in her ears. She felt like her whole world was crashing all around her and she couldn’t do anything to stop it. She couldn’t even remember how or when she got back to her apartment again after that. All she could remember was Damien laughing at her. For days she was holed up in her tiny apartment crying for hours, contemplating what to do next. No matter how long she thought only one answer came to her mind, suicide. The bottle of sleeping pills she had bought earlier stared at her from the side table, daring her to take that step. The radio was playing in the background tuned onto some crappy station. Finally she took the bottle and started to unscrew the cap…

It was the song that saved her. The crappy radio station decided that very moment to play that song. Maybe fate wasn’t that cruel after all. “Dreams” by the Cranberries. It was their song, hers and Shan’s. Both of them loved that song and used to listen to cuddled up in front of the fire. All those fond memories came rushing back to her and she knew that killing herself is not going to solve anything. She thought about her parents, how much they loved her and the pain they’d feel if they lost her. No she is not going to put them through it. This is all her mess and she will deal with it her way. That moment she decided that she will not let this get her down and to rise above all adversity and make her dreams come true. She is not going to let all that she worked so hard for go to waste. But before all that she had to make one more painful decision. It was the hardest decision she’d ever make and took a lot of soul searching. Having the baby was not an option.

Are you still a hypocrite even if the situation is out of your control? She wondered. After all wasn’t she a pro-life advocate? even though she wasn’t deeply involved in politics or movements. Going through with it was going against all what she believed in, but the alternative was also equally terrifying. She knew she’d never be able to raise a child by herself. She was still a student without a proper job, relying on her parent’s hard earned money for it. And her parents…It would break their hearts if they found out. They were people of traditional values and something like this would have devastating effects. They won’t kick her and the baby out or anything dramatic like that, but she knew that she won’t ever be able to face them again. She still can’t get over the guilt of her decision and the dreams were a constant reminder of that. It is something that she’ll have to carry on to her grave, a price she must pay.

Only now does she realize the pain that Shan must have felt when he found out about her and Damien. He is a wonderful man who did not deserve what she had done to him. A part of her believes that all of what happened to her is god’s way of punishing her for the heartbreak she caused Shan. Keshini does not expect Shan to take her back, but she wants more than anything else to look into his eyes and say that she is sorry. Sorry for all the things she did; sorry for breaking his trust and most of all sorry for all the hurt she caused him. More than anything she needs him to forgive her, maybe then she will be able to move on. Her hands were shaking when she picked up the phone to make that call. She must have started to dial his number a hundred times before she finally finished it. To her surprise he didn’t slam the phone down as she had expected he would…

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Part 05

Ritmico Con Spirito

‘Rhythm with Spirit’ was exactly what it was at the indoor brass band display organized by the brass band of St Peters College, to mark their Golden Jubilee. The halls of the BMICH vibrated to the sounds of the drums and the horns.

It was an excellent show with more than 20 invited schools participating. All them were equally talented ( but of course Peterites are always better) and resulted in a series of great performances, to keep the audience enthralled and their feet tapping to the beat. Although the show was a bit long, nearly six hours, it certainly didn’t feel that long. There was some trouble with the overhead projectors they were using to show a presentation. But that can be dismissed because you never know what devilry these electronic gizmos can do. They seem to know exactly when you need them and decides to break down. Other than that everything was great.

Music is the medicine for the soul. I don’t know everybody else, but it is for me. Nothing than some good music to relax after a hard days work and make your worries disappear. I wish that I had understood these things when I was little. I should have listened to my mum when she nagged me to practice the piano. When other kids were practicing two – three hours a day, I barely touched the thing maybe and hour a week. Yeah like that’ll make you the next Billy Joel…


All the very best wishes to the guys and gals who took part in ‘Ritmico Con Spirito’ and may they have great futures ahead.

Keep on Rockin!!!

Cheers

Love is in the air...

Hmmm… 14th of February… supposed to be an important date…
Let me see now…is it somebody’s birthday? …Nope
Some anniversary?...Not that either

oooohh yes it Valentines Day. The day of Loooove, Lovers and romance, celebrated all over the world with Chocolates, Red Roses and shiny pieces of jewllery. It’s another excuse of a day created by the corporate world to sell more stuff to gullible people and make more money. Ok…OK… By now you’ve probably guessed that I don’t have a single romantic bone in my body. Don’t blame me…blame genetics. Somewhere along the way some pieces of DNA have decided to go AWOL.

This is the day when Cupid has his work cut out for him. I wont be surprised if he take a vacation after today. The day when all the lovers make love…They exchange gifts, have romantic dinners and strive to make that special someone feel extra special. All this in the name of an obscure saint who’s life, death and connection to ‘Valentine’s’ day is shrouded in mystery. So who exactly was this guy who made an everlasting contribution to the world of romance? Without him Aphrodite, Venus and all the other goddesses and gods of love would have an off day. I suggest you read a bit more about the history of Valentine before you send your special someone a bunch of roses.

I personally don’t get the whole ‘Day of Love’ thing. It has become an overly commercialized event with corporate greed manipulating our little brain cells. As soon as the euphoria of the New Year ends the corporate world along with the media start saturating the atmosphere with thoughts of love, romance and Valentine’s day. They urge us to buy chocolates, roses, jewellery, take romantic dinners and what nots to show our girlfriend / boyfriend , spouse or significant other how much we love them. Of course the other person is also filled with certain ideas about how they should be treated on Valentines days and are expecting thee things to happen. If it doesn’t then, God help you. You’ll be on their bad books and will take a lot of work to get out of it 

However if you truly love someone, material things should not matter. It’s a matter of showing them how much they mean to you and how happy you are that they are a part of your life. Appreciating them for who they are and what they have done for you and what they will do for you. Showing your love should not be limited to one day, it should be shown everyday. It doesn’t matter if you get them a big bouquet of Roses, or expensive jewellery on Valentine’s Day if you treat them like shit the rest of the year. Don’t think that everything can be washed over by gifts on Valentine’s days.

So to all you lovers out there have a Very Happy Valentine’s Day and show that special someone how much you love them…

Love, Peace!

Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real.
Iris Murdoch (1919 - 1999)

The Government Inspector

The mere mention of the name should send shivers down the spines of cheating, stealing and good for nothing government officials. Well don’t worry yourselves; nobody is coming on an inspection. I’m talking about the play recently put on by the Old Royalist Dramatist Club at the Lionel Wendt. It is their version of the play written by Russian playwright Nikolai Gogol, which makes fun of the bureaucracy and corruption within the Russian government during the reign of Tsar Nicholas I. You can learn more about it here.

This version is one of the many done throughout the years by various theatre companies, and it was pretty good. Unfortunately not many people came for the opening night. The result of course the people who bought balcony tickets got pushed down to the lower floor. Lucky me! Acting was pretty ok, although I thought there was bit of overacting sometimes. Further more some improvements can be made on sound. But overall it was good.

The story is a pretty funny story, but an appropriate one for the times. It may be set in the 1800s but it can be taken as a parody for the situation these days. I guess nothing much changes over time. Corruption and misuse of public property is nothing new. You can probably find examples even in the times of the Pharos. Greed is a part of man since time began and nothing can change that. Corruption will have a long and healthy life.

If you’re looking for example today, you don’t have to look any further than good old SL. Take for instance, admitting your child to a school. It doesn’t matter if it’s a popular one or not, you have to grease the Principle first before doing anything. Otherwise the poor kid won’t have a school to go to, or you’ll have to enroll him in an International school. Most of the government department’s have a knack of moving very slowly, and comes across many red tape. It’s like trying to row a boat through a pool of mud. I personally know several people who had problems getting their house plans passed from the relevant authorities. They drag the whole thing unnecessarily, either by creating new conditions and finding some fault with the plans, or some small problem somewhere which they turn into a big thing. They drag it on until they get their little bonuses. The people ultimately get frustrated and give payola to these officials to get the thing passed. Otherwise building their dream home may take for ever. So the secret to getting things moving and cutting out the red tape is to introduce some additives into the system, something to inspire the people in charge. Think of it like putting NOS in your car to make it fly off the road. This doesn’t always have to be cold hard cash; maybe a bottle of Scotch (or Gal depending on taste), a nice trip or two, some nice jewelry etc. These have been known to miraculously speed up lethargic government officials. Believe me, after a few bribes they’ll be your best mates ready to do anything for you. That is how the system works.

Recently however, I’m happy to say that there’s been a crack down in bribery and corruption. Citizens are not taking it lying down. They are making complaints, and the government is taking notice. A large number of arrests and prosecution have taken place over the past few years of bribe takers and corrupt officials. Let’s hope that this course of action is carried on to the future and people will think twice about accepting or giving bribes. Hopefully we can get rid of this virus and work towards developing the country.

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.
Unknown

Public Holidays

These are the days all working people in SL very eagerly wait for to get a break from their busy schedules. We probably hold the record for the highest amount of public holidays in any country. 25…yep that’s number of extra days we get to laze around and get paid for. Great isn’t it, nowhere but in good old SL.

My question is do we need all these holidays? I know some people might have drawn their daggers and ready to kill me for saying something so sacrilegious. Hold on to your horses for a minute and think about it. Well there’s a good side and a bad side to it. For one thing it does cause a bit of a headache when dealing with the international community. Even though you’re on holiday it doesn’t mean that they are. It maybe your clients, customers, suppliers or even your bosses, and they keep on working on these days. When you come back the next day your inbox is filled up with messages that it takes the whole day to go through them. There’s another day wasted. Even if we make our schedules and timelines to incorporate these holidays, it does have some kind of impact on productivity. And sometimes people do have to work on these days to accommodate other people involved. After all we are all ‘interconnected’ these days.

It’s true that most of the holidays are for religious reasons, but truthfully how many really spend the whole day doing religious observances. Couple of hour’s maybe, but some doesn’t even do that. I know there are some people who are religious and make use of these holidays in a religious manner and I offer my apologies to them. But most are quiet the opposite. The best we can expect is going out with friends or eat and sleep the whole day. A couch potatoes’ heaven. Some people have of course have found a loophole to get some more money out of their employers. They put off working during the normal days and come to work on holidays to catch up with it. Dedicated employees you might think, but far from it. They only come because they can claim overtime for it which means the companies are paying them twice. And they are not even doing extra work; it is work that could have been completed during the normal work days. But who has time for work when you have two hour lunch breaks, one hour tea breaks and hallway gossip sessions going on. So many things to do and so little time.

My idea is that these holidays be made optional except for the most important of the holidays. The others should be added to the holiday allowance given to employees. This way if someone wants to take a holiday on that day they can, otherwise they can take it some other day that’s convenient for them. This way they have more holidays to take when they really want it. Eventually they’ll be more productive instead of wasting their time on a holiday which they don’t need. For the truly religious they are more than welcome to take the holidays on these days. Otherwise you can accumulate all your holidays and take an extended vacation for about a month or so. Take a good long break and go somewhere far away. Does you a world of good.

Things maybe not like that in the real world but we can still enjoy the holiday. But let’s make it a point to do something useful and not waste it.

Woes of Public Transport

I was riding the bus the other day (like I’ve been doing everyday the whole of my life) and was wondering what utter chaos it is.

If you are among the unlucky masses, like yours truly, who doesn’t have their own private transportation devices such as a car, motorcycle or even a moped, the only means of getting around is to use the instruments of public transportation. In my case these are mostly buses and three-wheelers. After relying on these for all my life, it’s a sin not to write a few words about them.

First of all there are the busses. They provide as much comfort as riding an earthmover. Most of them are basically lorries with seats and railings stuck in. Well at least they have cushioned seats. Some use this neat little trick to load more passengers by setting the seats closer together. The idea being that they can put in more seats in the limited length of the bus. The more seats, the more passengers you can load up. The result of this is that nobody above four feet can sit on them without getting pains afterwards. If you have long legs you have to be a contortionist to get a ride sitting down. Your upper body looks straight on while you lower body is twisted and hanging out in the aisle. If you’re not lucky to get a seat then you’ll have to hang on to something and do a balancing act at the same time. All bus drivers have this wonderful talent of getting a bus stop without slowing down. 60 to 0 in 0 seconds. Unless your holding on tight you’ll be still going forward when the buses stops or have an intimate moment with the floor. It all becomes much more fun during rush hour. You get to ride cramped up with a whole bunch of strangers packed up like sardines in a tin. Errant elbows sticking you in sensitive places, stampedes on your foot, BO and other assorted smells…oh yes what fun it is. And the conductors are true magicians themselves. No matter how packed the bus is they still manage to load more passengers inside. They prefer to think of the bus as having an infinite amount of space. The four walls of the bus is just a trick of the mind you see, it’s all in the head of the passenger and the conductors know the truth. Of course people who are blind to this fact get the life squashed out of them. Oh well life goes on…

So until the day I get my own device of transportation (don’t see that happening anytime soon the way they are raising prices. Just when you think enough saved up the prices go up…oh well that’s entirely another story) I plan to get myself an armour suite and keep on riding the busses…

Cheers!!!

The Eagle

In the clear blue skies above
A gliding shadow can be seen
Unfurled wings touching the clouds
In a salute to the heavens above
Like a monarch who savours his kingdom
The proud and mighty Eagle soars

Mountains and Valleys
Rivers and Streams
Villages, cities and humans too
All pass below like Lilliputian scenes
Ever so small and quite insignificant
To him they mean nothing,
Yet they are everything
Nothing bounds him,
Nothing holds him back
For the sky is his realm
And he is free to do his will…

Five Minutes to Midnight

Five minutes to Midnight

It’s official, the world is two minutes closer to doomsday. We only have five more minutes till everything goes KABOOM.

For those people who have no clue what’s going on in this world, the Doomsday clock is a symbolic clock face maintained by a group of scientists known as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago. It represents the human race as being as minutes away from midnight, where midnight represents the destruction of the world by nuclear war. So on 17th of January 2007 these scientists decided to advance the clock by two minutes signaling the dire situations we are facing now.

For more interesting information on the clock check this link.

Considering the sensitive and dangerous nature we are in today a lot of countries must feel the need for having nuclear weapons. It’s natural to have good defence mechanism when some powerful nations carry on making bigger and better nuclear weapons, without any sort of policing going on. Then in turn these nations themselves will place restrictions on other countries and act like the policeman and curb the development of these fabled ‘WMDs’. So ultimately the big boys and their friends will have the biggest toys, while the little boys will have to satisfy themselves with scraps, or have nothing at all. We all know what happens when there’s an imbalance of power, the big boys start to bully the smaller ones. So naturally the smaller ones want to defend themselves. Then they start to develop secret weapons of their own and then the big boys get worried and cry unfair and try to stop the little boys from developing their bad toys. Then the little boys get worked up saying that the big boys are stepping on the freedom and rights and so on, and they resolve to build bigger toys. You can guess where I’m going with this. It’s a never ending cycle. Unless someone gives we will face doomsday in the near future. Personally I think it’s the big boys who should make the first move and get rid of their bad toys. Then the smaller ones will not feel threatened and will cede making their toys. Unfortunately the whole problem is ego. The big boys will never give in and always try to suppress the little ones. But beware the little ones have patience and they will ultimately kick ass.

With no solution in sight I’m sure that the four horsemen of the apocalypse are getting ready to ride out. It’s a scary thought when you come to think of it. I mean its’ like you know the time you are going to die. But on the plus side we can change the situation and turn back the doomsday clock unlike our time of death.

Lets keep our fingers crossed and hope everything turns out ok.