What is the best thing about Life in Sri Lanka……………..

Is it our culture, our heritage of 2500 years? or what?

For me the best thing is the diversity in weather climate zones, imagine the Caribbean like weather in sandy beaches of south and cool English like weather in Nuwar Eliya. We have everything except snow and desserts. In a huge country like China one would have to travel hundreds of miles to experience a change in climate. So why roam around the world when our own backyard has some much to offer!
And our food, we may try Chinese and Italian but who could survive without rice and curry

My trip to Jaffana………


Recent wave of violence in north is really painful to me because the fond memories of my visit to Jaffna are still fresh. We witnessed the destruction of war first hand, while enjoying the hospitality of sober, simple and honest people of Jaffna.
I together with Eranga, Rajitha and Lalin (all my batch mates), set out on Saturday evening, around 10.00 pm from Colombo, the 13 hour journey in a luxury bus was a unique experience in many ways, for the first time we felt, being an ethnic minority, we were the only Sinhalese in the bus. We reached Thandikulam in Vivunaya district around 3.30 am, but the A9 road is opened only at 6.45 am.
Checking at both army and LTTE check points were rather uneventful, except for the giggling of female civilian staff at LTTE check points, they were amazed at our inability to speak tamil and kept on giggling saying “Sinhalam, Sinhalam”. And it was clear that LTTE was charging taxes on imported items and goods in commercial quantities.
While passing Killininochchi we saw the “Tamil Eelam” police head quarters, its city traffic unit office, few LTTE political offices and a branch of “Bank of Tamil Eelam”, yes they seems to run de facto state there.
While in Jaffna, we were able to visit the Nallur Kovil,(photo shown above) Kinimale Sivan shrine, Jaffna library, Point Pedro, the northern most tip of Sri Lanka and the Buddhist shrine in Nagadeedpa. The Sri Lankan army does a highly commendable job in providing security (they provide personal escorts) to devotees visiting Kinimale Sivan shrine (which is located inside a high security zone).
The scenery along the road to Nagadeepa was breathtaking and Lalin couldn’t help but think the potential for tourism. We weren’t allowed take a dip in some sandy beaches because the area is land mined!
We devoured the delicacies of Jaffna cuisine with delight, sea food was plentiful and cheap, and sweets are rich in milk and fresh than what we get here.
Even with all these delightful experiences, we were profoundly shocked by the devastation caused by war. It is hard to imagine how civilized humans could commit a barbaric crime like burning down the Jaffna library. Destroyed armed personnel carriers can be seen along the elephant pass area of A9 road, almost all buildings in and around Jaffna carry marks of bullets or shelling. Faces of the people speak for the suffering they had gone through during the war, malnutrition and poverty is very evident (especially in tiger held areas).
I felt that most of the people in north have a sympathetic attitude towards the tigers, but this is not absolute and are very critical of tigers in some issues, like excessive ruthlessness and driving away Muslims from Jaffna peninsular. They cherish peace but would not compromise on their just rights. So the need of the hour is a solution which ensures the rights of minorities without impinging the rights of majority.

Deep fry the opportunistic politicians!

Today our beautiful motherland Sri Lanka is faced with many socio-political and economic troubles, which as affected the lives of our fellow citizens who definitely deserver higher standard of living.
I often wander who should be blame for this mess, though many have to share the blame including ourselves, for me it’s crystal clear that certain breed of people has to take the bulk of it, the opportunistic politicians.
The current peace process is a classic example of how undignified and opportunistic they can be. A certain sect of politicians systematically destroyed the public confidence in the peace process and the image of proponents of a peaceful solution. So people have become unenthusiastic and even resentful towards a peaceful solution. All this harm was to gain cheap political mileage.
And look at plantation sector, people working in plantations have worst standards of living in Sri Lanka, but plantation sector is highly unionized and have many MPs in parliament.
Life here in Sri Lanka would have be much better if we could replace this neck cutting, opportunistic and power hungry politicians with men of learning and principle.

Do you hear war drums beating?

In Christmas we celebrate peace, but last Christmas season was far from peace for us Sri Lankans. On the 23rd a claymore mine killed 13 sailors of SLN, followed by the Christmas day murder of veteran Tamil politician Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham and on 27th of Dec. another claymore attack killed 11 troopers of SL army in point pedore. This wave of violence has since continued and by all accounts the cease fire agreement is at brink of collapse.
While we all mourn the death of our soldiers my heart goes out to the innocent people of north and east, I witnessed their suffering with my own eyes when I visited Jaffna few months back.
There is some talk about peace talks, but nothing seems to happen, though increase in war preparation by both sides is very evident. Forcible conscription of children and arms smuggling by the LTTE is an open secret, Tamilnet reported that LTTE celebrated the dawn of New Year by organizing a sharp shooting competition for their combat carders, according to the same source Sri Lankan forces has doubled its artillery power, fire power of the navy and acquired 10 Mi 35(photo shown above) attack helicopters during last 3 years.
Posters has appeared in Colombo urging people to unite to teach the tigers a “lesson” and to annihilate the murderous terrorists, whilst a fear psychosis is build thought the country, any enthusiasm for peace is hard to find
It’s an awful pity that our leaders and some fellow citizen have not realized the benefits and beauty of peace even after 22 years of civil war!

A Martyr or a Traitor?

A dead man lay exactly on the line of control in a battle field where fierce battles are fought .As the day breaks his comrades are on the offensive and drives the enemy away, thus he becomes a Martyr who has made the supreme sacrifice for the cause.
But the enemy, not to be out done gets its act together and counter attack, the comrades of our Martyr flees in disarray, and at sunset he’s back in the enemy territory, a bastard!, a Coward ! And a Traitor! Yet again.
But if the line has stood still, he’s just a rotting body of a forgotten soul, dead and gone!

Strange isn't it.........................

A New Year Gift for Sri LanKa………

As the New Year dawned people around the world were busy celebrating, But celebrations down here in Colombo and suburbs doesn’t seem to be grand as it used to be ,reason may be the anniversary of tsunami disaster or with a stagnant economy and war drums beating, from where would the common man get money for any extravagance?

While many folks around me were busy having a good time in this season of joy, I couldn’t help but wonder what would we Sri Lankans deserve most as a New Year gift?
Wealth? Courage? Some Snow? So the atmosphere would be more cool and festive, Peace? Or a win against the Kiwis?
Any of these could be eliminated other than Peace isn’t it? All other things seem trivial to a nation ruined by war, but peace has been around us, blowing in the wind for good four years. What we lack is the discipline to catch it and make it permanent. Lack of discipline is so profound in the sphere of political leadership, our leaders lack discipline to stay devoted to the cause, and to stay true to the cause.
Of cause no one could gift us discipline, but if our leaders fail build a disciplined nation, the glorious concept of democracy would mean nothing to us, no development possible and would never achieve peace and without discipline any other “gift” would be worthless!

Who is this Heen Banda Udurawana?

I hope every one of you have heard about the famous Sri Lankan, Udurawana, who never gets anything right, There are many Udurawana jokes in the net, Where his full name is given as Heen Banda Udurawana and it is implied that he is an Kandiyan aristocrat.

While searching the net for some new Udurawana jokes I was shocked to learn that a person named Mr.Heen Banda Udurawana(photograph shown above) has held reign as the Diyawadana Nilame of the Daladamaligawa. (Lay custodian of the Temple of the tooth relic) the holiest Buddhist shrine in Sri Lanka. He was the 16th Diyawadana Nilame and held the highest religious post among lay Buddhist from 1964 to 1974. Mr. Heen Banda Udurawana (born 16th May 1900) was also a member of Kandy Municipal Council and functioned as the deputy mayor and acting mayor of Kandy. He has made a yeoman service to the people of Kandy.
I'm sure that the members of Udurawana clan are hurt by these wild udurawana jokes, readily available in the net, So anyone sending more of these jokes please change the name to some thing imaginary like Mr. I.I.L. Lanka , Bagalawathie hamine or Elluson (all one time favorite Lankan comic characters)

It Has Been a Year Since The Tsunami...........
It has been a year since the giant tidal waves, triggered by the largest earthquake in livening memory destroyed the Northern, Eastern and Southern and South western coastlin of Sri Lanka. Around 40,000 Sri Lankans or 0.2% of the entire population of the country lost their lives while thousands became homeless. The destruction of tsunami was so catastrophic and profound that in some areas in eastern and north eastern parts the damage exceeded the destruction caused by 20 years of civil war.
On 26th of December Sri Lankans solemnly and emotionally commemorated their fellow citizen who lost their lives, President Mahinda Rajapakse launched the Jaya Lanka
(Victory for Sri Lanka) programme rebuild the affected areas.
But wait! It has taken us one full year to start rebuilding seriously, and none knows what this programme really is. Oh but lets never ever doubt the success of this programme, though none is sure about.
We are surely a considerate nation, but why doest take one full year for us to start a fully pledged rebuilding process? Even when the disaster has affected the lives of many fellow citizens? Other affected countries like India, Thailand and Maldives has made giants strides in rebuilding process.
P-TOMS are gone for good, but nobody misses it, though some foreign aide must have gone with it too.
Anyway being an eternal optimist I hope that the lives of all affected Sri Lankans would be greatly improved.

CHRISTMAS IN COLOMBO
Many would say that Christmas is now too commercialized and have lost its original meaning and spirit. This really didn't me bother me much ,but this time the talk about real meaning of Christmas was very vociferous and compelling so I made it point think a bit and look further deep.

What does Christmas really mean? In Christian religious point of view it is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Messiah from god and in a historical context the only person to sacrifice his life for the sake of "Sinners". So Christmas has to be an affair of love, sharing, sacrifice and spiritual reawakening.

The first remainder that one would get in Colombo about upcoming Christmas is the increase in traffic. Folks who normally leave their vehicles at home and use public transport to travel around bring there vehicles to town,( believe me this segment of vehicle owners is very large) so it seems that a baby could crawl faster to Colombo."(especially if you drive along the kandy road like me).
Then all the businesses, shopping malls and even groceries would launch their "Christmas sale", everyone would go on a shopping spree, less affluent would have to settle with window shoving wrong isn't it? But some would entirely forget the spirit of Christmas, I would be indebted for rest of my life if one could explain the theme of the seasonal promotions carried out by ODEL a leading clothes store, one of their billboards depicts a girl trying to kiss a lady dummy,For me it seems like a Gay rights campaing .
Mood in business organizations were frantic, everyone is under pressure to meet their annual targets. So who got time for a spiritual reawakening? Christmas season seem to make people more greedy and materlistic. Santas were every where from liquor stores to spare parts shops,poor St.Nicholas might be weeping in heaven. (don't ask me who's St.Nicholas). Some santas were like clowns and my baby cousin sister was terrified and freaked out. Some reliable church goers reassured me that priests were busy emphasizing that real Christmas is different from all this.
Anyway these deviations are common every where around the globe, but the spirit of Christmas with sharing,prayer,and spiritual enhancement is not very rare.
let us hope that Lord would guide us towards the true meaning of Christmas!