Idle Thoughts

Crates or Sacks?

2011-12-14T13:00:00.003+05:30

If you are living in Sri Lanka, you would definitely be aware of the major commotion related to the change in laws for transporting vegetables. Most seem to think the intention behind enforcing such a law is good, but the process of planning and implementing is poor.

On one side, the farming community (including the middle-man, or should I say middle-person?) are trying to save every cent to maximize profit. On the other side we seem to have a minister who is not willing to compromise having being frustrated by delays in enforcing the law and also smarting from a slightly bruised ego.

I quite like the article below (if you ignore the political brownie points it seems to be trying to score). Looks like this Harsha dude knows what he is talking about (at least in this instance).

http://www.lbo.lk/fullstory.php?nid=1755694470

So what is your take on this? A country like India seems to be wasting as much as 40% of veggies during transportation and storage. I believe it is much less here in Sri Lanka. Nevertheless, will crates save a considerable amount of wastage as indicated by the minister? Or is he just trying to get rid of some plastic items probably offloaded to us by our big brother China? Do the farmers have solid reasons to oppose such a law? Or are they just resisting change just for the sake of it?

Let's have your say friends....

“Internet Not Found”

2011-12-09T09:12:00.000+05:30

Your alarm goes off. It’s 6.30am on a warm Tuesday morning. You know you have an early meeting to attend and hurry into the toilet clutching your blackberry in one hand. You sit on the throne, and start checking your email on your smartphone. Wow, no emails, you are relieved to see that. But wait, your colleague in USA should have gotten back to you on that proposal last night – today is the deadline. You immediately start typing a “reminder” email – must hurry before he goes to sleep. You press “send” but after a while you see “Sending failed” message. You try again, but in vain.

Cursing the mobile provider, you bring up your browser to catch up on your favorite news site. Strange, there seem to be a connectivity issue again. What’s going on? Let me try Google, surely that cannot be down? But wait, it doesn’t connect either. It must be this damn mobile service provider. You cannot waste any more time on this for now. You get dressed, gulp down a particularly strong cup of coffee and jump in your car.

You tune into your favorite radio station while driving to work. The morning news bulletin is unusually brief, almost as if no interesting news to report. But then one item catches your attention. There seem to be widespread complaints that most internet providers having technical problems this morning. “That explain it..” you mutter to yourself – “I hope it is not that undersea cable again”. What a disaster that was.

You arrive at work right at 8.15am. You have 15 minutes to check your email and a headline or two on the internet. But alas, your office internet provider seems to be suffering from the same issue. No connectivity to internet!

Suddenly you realize that a lot of people at work are giving each other nervous looks. Someone even mentioned that this connectivity problem is not just local; it seems to have affected other countries too. What? Can that happen? Surely not?

Learning to ride a bicycle

2011-10-28T09:03:00.000+05:30

They say cycling is the most efficient mode of transport. It’s a pity that Chinese moved on to gasoline vehicles and then again to Hybrids now – they should have stayed with bicycles.

Since of late, my eldest (10 year old) have been asking us to get her a bicycle. I suspect it is more because some of her friends having bicycles than her love for the same. In any case we went shopping for one over the weekend. Ended up at a place in Galle Road which sold foldable bikes – wow, now that’s a neat trick. It only came in silver/black combination. Luckily my daughter loved it too (she is growing out of that usual ‘pink’ phase). So we got it. After also buying a helmet, the question was whether we get some training wheels or not. Although my daughter was looking forward to owning a bike, I was quite sure that she will put up a tantrum when she has to learn how to ride it (She did the same when she got on a horse the very first few times). So I am pretty certain that if I had offered her training wheels, she would not really grow out of it. So I decided not to bring it up.

Now that we brought the bike home, I am trying to figure out the best way to train her to ride it. Should I hold it from the back and run behind the bike as some parents do? Or should I ask her to ride/learn on her own. I honestly cannot remember how I learnt.

Any advice?

Colombo Election

2011-09-30T07:05:00.008+05:30

I can almost hear all the Sri Lankans out there sighing with disgust at the mention of the word “election”. But why don’t we like them? Is it because they are more frequent in Sri Lanka than the chances of garbage collecting man turning up? Or perhaps there are more candidates than the number of bees in a bee-hive? Or even maybe because none of the candidates come up with a proper election manifesto? Not to forget the likelihood of selected candidate swapping sides soon after the result,… I am sure you get my point here.

But to me, this election is slightly different. At least I see it in a different perspective - mainly because I got some insights into some of the candidates. It made it a wee bit interesting.

For one thing, most candidates seem to be online these days. They promote their campaigns on facebook, twitter and through their own websites and blogs. Perhaps the election laws prohibiting the usual “election poster” has resulted in this exodus to the internet.
Banning the election poster is one thing, but enforcing it is another. Although the posters are being taken down by police, more new ones get pasted at the same places by the next morning. I reckon what you need is the ability to financially penalize or even disqualify a candidate instead of merely tearing down their poster.
Then there are these crafty ways to get around the advertising ban. Y’see, apparently the ban is on advertising “Vote for this number”. So some candidates advertise websites that include their number and the “cross” (sign for voting). There are also candidates who organize events (like musical shows) on the day that match their number (ie. someone with number 20 would organize a musical show on the 20th of the month). And advertise in bold letter the organizer’s name (which happens to be the candidate) and the date of the event (which is their number). Too bad if your number is greater than 31.
Just got to know about a certain candidate who had come out with a poster indicating that he was rubbing shoulders with the president at a certain prestigious international event. But the truth of the matter seems to be that he was neither with the president nor at this event – it was a hoax with a bit of photoshop involved.
Out of all the people, the “mudalali” at my local grocery shop is also a candidate this time. It takes him a considerable amount of time to figure out the change when I purchase anything from that shop. So he is not the brightest I have met. But then again, level of intellect or qualifications doesn’t seem to be a prerequisite for this job.

Few days back the postman delivered my voting documents together with a large sheet of paper. The paper listed out all the candidates. There were 11 groups and 26 candidates in every group. Making it 286 candidates in total. Last time I checked, population of Colombo city was less than 650,000. That is one candidate for every 2,200. To put it in perspective, my school (which had 5,000 students) would have produced 2 election candidates.

All this may be interesting but doesn’t encourage me to get off the sofa and go to the polling booth. After all there will be two interesting world cup (rugby) matches on the 8th.

No nonsense Traffic Cop

2011-09-08T07:06:00.002+05:30

This is a brilliant capture I recently received on email. Thought you all might enjoy it.

Southern Highway – would you dare?

2011-08-30T07:31:00.009+05:30

Now that the opening up of southern highway is just around the corner, a few of us at work have been contemplating when it would be “safe” to get on it. The estimates varied. Here is a summary.

At least after the first 6 months : Reason being that the moment it opens up, there will be a flood of morons who would try to taste what it would be like to legally drive at 100kmph – assuming that it would be very different to doing the same illegally as they have done since getting behind a vehicle for the first time. The only silver lining here is that it will probably eliminate some of these brain-cell-challenged-maniacs – probably a few offspring of some ministers together with their expensive duty-free rides. I just hope they won’t take a few innocent folks with them when they go.

In the first 6 months and then from 18 months onwards : Essentially stay away from the road 12 months after the first 6 months. The argument here is that during the first 6 months, sanity will prevail and people will hopefully take it slow – what this being a new thing and all. After that they will slowly gain confidence and try to push the limits. “If 100kmph is legal, what’s the fun in driving at that?”. This will last for about 12 months until authorities wake up and start putting cops behind trees with speed guns, sniper guns and bribe collecting tins.

Never, infact take the Galle road : Two reasons for this. First is that our drivers don’t use their indicate lights for a toss and the break-lights don’t work on most vehicles that were made two years or earlier – and as my friend rightfully pointed out, at 100kmph both those mistakes can often be fatal. The second reason being that most morons out there would have started using the new highway. Galle road will become relatively moron-free.

Personally, I will adopt a wait-and-see policy on this.

Dodgy Petrol?

2011-06-30T19:30:00.003+05:30

As many of you might have already heard by now, there is a general concern among the Sri Lankan public (the ones who own/drive vehicles at least) that there is something wrong with the petrol that is available at the ol’ “petrol-sheds” out there.

I don’t read newspapers. Don’t even watch local “news” programmes on the Telly. So it is not surprising that I only heard about this issue yesterday. Only when a colleague of mine at work informed a few of us of an interesting telephone conversation he had just had with his friend who worked at a prominent car dealership in Colombo. He said that there are droves of pissed-off owners brining their sputtering vehicles to this particular dealership to figure out why their vehicle doesn’t run so smoothly anymore. The cause? Apparently, dodgy petrol.

“Oh sh*t! My tank is almost empty” I thought. I was planning to stop by a petrol-shed on my way home tonight to fill her up. During the next 30 minutes, I had called up someone I know who worked at Ceylon Petroleum Coorporation (CPC) and a couple of vehicle dealerships I knew to see if anyone can confirm this. The funny thing is that all three confirmed the story but the dealers were blaming the CPC and CPC was blaming the petrol-shed owners. Now what?

I had very little choice really,.. ignore the warning signs and pump petrol as usual or take the bus. If you had ever travelled on a bus in Colombo you would know that it is not much of a choice at all. So on my way home, just as I planned earlier, I stopped by a petrol-shed. I asked the attendant to fill ‘er up. While waiting I thought I would try my luck with the fuel attendant who looked cheerful enough. Cheerful enough for a petrol-shed attendant pumping petrol at the peak of evening traffic in Colombo that is.

“So what is this fuss about contaminated fuel then?” I asked casually.

Suddenly his cheerful demeanor vanished into thin air. He said, “I don’t know why people believe all these stories.”

Glimmer of hope,.. but I wanted confirmation. “You mean there is no problem”?

“Did I say that?”

Huh? I thought…

“There is a problem. But don’t believe what they say sir”.

He was clearly irritated by my ignorance. But at least he called me “sir”. So I pushed it…

“So what is the problem then?”

“Cars do have problems with this petrol. People come and complain to us sometimes. But how do we know it is our petrol? CPC says their petrol is pure. We take good care of petrol here. But the customer complains. Who knows what is going on?”. He picked up a pebble and threw it at a stray dog that got a little inquisitive – he missed the target but the mongrel was street-wise and didn’t hang around.

“Click” – it was the auto-cutoff of the petrol pump indicating that my tank was now full. That is my cue, I thought. So without another word, I paid for the petrol and drove away.

The way I see it, this is not something I can control even if I get to the bottom of this. So I decided to stay happily ignorant. By the way, the vehicle still works.

Treat Yourself

2011-06-13T08:59:00.000+05:30

I never thought the humble cupcake can become the most sought after treat in town. But then again, I haven’t seen Miss Cupcake’s work until now either. They look lovely and are competitively priced too. But do they taste good? Well, try them out for yourself…

Treatz facebook page

By the way, they do contribute 20% of the profit to a well deserving cause. A socially responsible business - good on you Tina!

Create your own life, it is in you!

2011-05-16T07:30:00.001+05:30

A friend of mine's email signature states "Create your own life, it is in you". It started me thinking... it is so true isn't it? It inspired me to share this following link with you all,...

"10 hard ways to make your life better"'

Go ahead, make a change today. Good luck!

Traffic cop breaking the law? Surely not!

2011-03-22T07:00:00.003+05:30

It is a sad state when people who are supposed to enforce the law, breaks it themselves. This picture was taken by my good friend 'B' the other day in Colombo. Can you spot how many laws this cop had violated?

Conspiracy Theory

2011-02-22T20:54:00.003+05:30

If you are the sort who tends to look for a conspiracy in everything, then you’d love to live in Sri Lanka these days. One recent incident in particular jumps up like a cat in heat. The ICC word cup!

Team Selection : Sana and Vaas were included in the preliminary squad. Now my 10 year old girl could have told you how stupid that was – and she does not even follow cricket! Why have them included? Well I reckon they wanted everyone to start taking about cricket – y’know, any publicity is good publicity right?

Venues : They created a whole new ground in Hamba just for the world cup instead of spending 0.0001 of that money on getting floodlights fitted in to SSC. There are two theories here. One is that MR wanted to show off – reminds me of Asterix and Cleopatra story where Cleopatra bets good ol’ Julius that she can build a great palace in 3 months… or something like that. Secondly, some big-wig(s) would have thought “What a great opportunity to get some decent commission?”. I don’t even want to discuss “Pallekele”.

Tickets Fiasco : I tried to find out how I can secure some tickets since early January. I was given a different date to call every time I called the cricket board. After three unsuccessful attempts I gave up. My previous unsavory encounter with the cricket board didn’t help me to summon up my courage to try one more time. I later heard that out of the 30,000 capacity at Premedasa stadium, only 8,000 tickets are available for sale to the general public. WTF? My theory is that MR, Ministers and Cricket Board Officials must have friends, relatives and debtors who collectively make up the rest of the 22,000.

Banned Items : I agree that one should not bring knives and even glass bottles to a cricket ground, but what about the humble Beer and Papare? Who on their right mind would spend one full day outdoor in blistering heat and 90% humidity without cold beer available like running water? And Papare? When did Sri Lanka ever play a single cricket match without the unmistakable Papare music in the background? I remember carrying a banner which in bold letters announced “Warne is a Wimp!” when we played against Aussies at the Premadasa in 1996 – how can you deprive a teenager that privilege? The theory? They wanted to create an outrage so huge that subsequently when they lift the ban, the fellow who lifted the ban can become a household name instantly. That works out well especially when there is yet another election around the corner.

Jeez, my head is spinning just by thinking about other possibilities. Time to have a cold beer and enjoy the re-runs of Lions crushing hapless Canada. Oh how I wish I had a Papare CD. Cheers!

Who came first? Chicken or Egg?

2010-12-29T20:24:00.002+05:30

The age-old question is finally answered,... with a little help from uncle Johnny.

Check it out.

So much for that!

2010-12-04T17:12:00.000+05:30

There is a popular belief (at least in these parts of the world) that clear plastic bottles filled with water will deter cats and dogs. Well, someone forgot to tell that to this fella.

Face-off with Facebook

2010-10-11T21:57:00.001+05:30

Now that I’ve touched on LinkedIn, let me state my opinion about it’s more social/informal counterpart, Facebook. Now we all know how successful and addictive it has become. I have been pleasantly surprised and amazed by the number of long lost fiends I have discovered due to Facebook. Some of them after more than 20 years.

But there is the proverbial “other side of the coin” that we must always look at. The one that give pedophiles yet another tool (a very effective one at that) to exploit unwary children, a place where Spammers can go to town, an avenue to easily and unintentionally expose your deep dark secrets to millions of strangers and an addictive tool which can become the most effective time waster since the introduction of news bulletins at national TV networks.

But more than anything what I cannot comprehend is why in the world some folks want to invite total strangers into their “friend list”. Is it because they think it might be “cool” to have a “friend list” that exceeds the 500 or even the 1000 mark? I of course reject these invites. But I know some don’t.

Any idea why?

Linked-In or Linked-Out?

2010-09-02T19:11:00.009+05:30

Lately, I have been receiving reminders fairly frequently from the socio-professional network called LinkedIn. All this time I have been treating them just as I treat any Nigerian email claiming to share a sudden multi-million dollar windfall if I reply to them; drag-and-drop in the trash – the electronic trash that is – on my computer.

But today I had some time to myself and curiosity took the better of me – isn’t it curious how curiosity does it? I clicked on the link and ended up on the sign-in (or is it the sign-on?) page (I’m sure most of my readers are conversant with the terminology – if not, too bad). I entered my personal email address and tried a few of my usual password. I got in on the 4th attempt – had it been a site designed by folks who design ATM software I guess I would have had it after the 3rd incorrect attempt. “Designing ATM software”, now why does that sounds awfully familiar?

Anyway….

WTF? There were 43 requests waiting for me. Some were requests for endorsements and others invitations to join various groups. I was no longer interested in joining any other group. That left me with 14 requests for endorsements. Suddenly I felt important. People actually want my endorsements? Wow! I started writing a few in earnest. By the end of the day, I had only managed to complete 6.

One question though,… Do potential employers really take these endorsements seriously? I mean in this internet/social networking age, deceptions and impersonations are as commonplace as fries at McDonalds aren’t they?

Sri Lankan specials!

2010-08-27T12:44:00.003+05:30

This sign-board was seen by the side of the road on the way to Trincomalee. It translates to "Freshwater fish (from the lakes) with warm rice". Mouth-watering stuff.

Fishy down-south

2010-08-13T17:02:00.000+05:30

Stilt fishing is indigenous to Sri Lanka. It pretty much requires climbing on to a precarious looking stilt often in the shape of a cross. More often than not, these stilts are located near reefs where the waves break – adding that nice “rocking” experience to it. I’ve never really had the guts to climb on to one. But as you can see on this photograph, a more adventurous tourist didn’t seem to mind trying it out at all. I watched him struggle on to the device while the onlookers (mostly Sri Lankan folk) grinned expecting his relatively bulky figure to crash onto the rocks and the water below. But alas! He not only climbed onto it, but managed to get hold of a fishing rod too.

Too bad.

Here's one for the brain

2010-07-20T17:52:00.002+05:30

You may have read this one before. It is a superbly put argument creative enough for you to wonder, just for a moment, that perhaps there is some truth in it.

A herd of buffalo is said to move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when they are hunted, it is the slowest and the weakest that are killed first. This natural "trimming" infact benefits the herd, as the slower members gets eliminated, the overall speed of the herd increase.

In much the same way, the human brain can operate only as fast as the slowest brain cells through which the electrical signals pass.

It is also known that excessive intake of alcohol kills off brain cells, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. Therefore, regular consumption of spirits helps eliminate the weaker brain cells, constantly making the brain a faster and more efficient.

I can't think of any better reason for having a cold one tonight. Let's see if my posts get smarter from tomorrow.

Cheers!

Blogging, Soccer, etc.

2010-07-06T17:47:00.005+05:30

I wish I was able to blog more frequently. Not that I have a lot to write about. But the main issue seem to be time - or lack of it. But I cannot let the world-cup, the soccer kind, pass away without adding a paragraph or two on how has changed my life - to be more precise, my evenings.

I’ve played to odd game of soccer when growing up. Not by choice, but since it required only a ball – or something that looked like a ball that can be kicked without losing a toe-nail. The goal posts were almost always a couple of stones or bricks. But as we grew up, we watched soccer players like “Klinsmann” playing on the Telly. The slightest touch of an opposing player used to send them sprawling across the paddock – they were far from the tough nuts like Springboks or All-Blacks. I was having none of that – so my days of playing soccer faded away.

Just like it had happened for many others, Africa and the Vuvuzela attracted me to the sport back again this time. Suddenly I found myself coming home from work, sitting in front of the Telly completely riveted to it. There were even times I watched back to back games till early morning hours. I started to back Argentina and Germany. Although Argentina eventually got knocked-out, Germany is well and truly in with a chance. Today a friend of mine invited me to watch the final on a 30 foot screen at a popular sports club – I am seriously thinking of going.

My wife says it is midlife crisis.

What a comeback...

2010-05-16T13:41:00.005+05:30

Us Sri Lankans love to hate Aussie sports teams, especially when it comes to cricket. Often cricketers like Warne and Ponting have got under our skin.

So it is no surprise that I was rooting for the Pakistani team as I was watching the Australia vs. Pakistan T20 world cup semi-final last Friday. With just two overs to go, Aussies looked down and out. But what a comeback it was eventually. You cannot help but admire their self belief and the determination in pulling it off. I wish the Sri Lankan team can take a page out of that.

Hats off to the Aussies.

Cable Business

2010-05-13T13:24:00.004+05:30

I've been with the same cable-TV provider for several years now. Despite others coming up (and also dying off) like mushrooms, I decided to stick with my provider through thick and thin. The reason being their superior customer support - in other words, they attended to any phone call within a couple of hours.

Unfortunately, during the last year, this has deteriorated like a new layer of asphalt on Galle Road. Now it takes a good 5 attempts to get through to their "hotline". And when you eventually do, you can guarantee that the first complaint never even get's through to their "technical staff". Infact, this is exactly what happened last week. When I didn't hear back from them 2 days into the complaint, I called back to remind them. Guess what, they could not even locate my previous complaint in their "system".

There is one silver lining though. Due to not having TV facilities, I missed out on the SL-AUS T20 on Friday. Biss!

D-Day

2010-01-26T08:44:00.007+05:30

It's 26th already and I am still not sure who to vote for.

Apart from winning the war (which was a great feat) MR really hasn't done anything extraordinary. And the fact that he called the election early shows that he wanted to secure more number of years as the president while the proverbial iron is hot.

On the other side, SF is a strange fellow - mysterious, bitter and with a shady past. To me, his intentions are purely to take revenge from the Rajapaksa's family. And I don't care much for his bedfellows (JVP) either. Although I sympathise with him for how he was treated by the government in the recent past, I can't risk the country's future on a personal vendetta between him and MR.

So I will probably end up voting for MR. I guess the known devil is better than the unknown one. Then again, there are 18 other candidates too...

MR or SF?

2009-12-22T15:53:00.002+05:30

Are there any policy statements issued by Sri Lankan presidential candidates? Or is that a stupid question to ask?

Bumper-stickers

2009-11-04T21:09:00.008+05:30

Have you seen any good bumper-stickers lately? Here are a few that caught my eye.

This was inspired by a post by Cerno and the subsequent comment thread.

How to clean fogged out Headlights

2009-10-27T23:11:00.003+05:30

Brasso!

That's it.

If your automobile's headlights are discoloured or fogged-out, wash and dry them thoroughly and polish them with Brasso. I tried this out on my car and it worked wonders. I know some car detailing joints who will charge approximately Rs. 3k per headlight for this closely guarded secret. Now you know better.

Here's the fine print; it is always prudent to try it out on a little area of the headlight - just in case for some reason your headlights react differently to this stuff. And of course, try it at your own risk :-)

Love

2009-10-20T22:01:00.000+05:30

Don’t get too excited just yet. I have not suddenly morphed into a sensitive type who can just as easily share his feelings for hours and hours over a cup of cappuccino. I am still the thick-skinned, logical, uncomplicated, black-and-white-type you knew for the past so many years.

But recently I was tagged by someone who I think has a complete opposite personality to mine – at least from what I can make out from her blog. It was all about what our own interpretation of what love is. In my opinion, love is…

My wife tolerating my devil’s-advocate attitude to just about anything.

Discovering a “hope you enjoyed” note from our eight year old when we come back from our infrequent night-outs.

My daughters giving me hugs without having to ask for them.

....I think you get the general idea. It’s been a long time since I got tagged on this subject. Therefore I will not re-tag anyone else.

Information overload

2009-07-17T07:15:00.003+05:30

I was driving home from work after a particularly hectic Monday when my mind started wondering; not very healthy especially when you are supposed to concentrate on your driving when all around you there is this complete chaos that is known as Colombo Traffic. Incidentally, driving to and back from work seems to be the only time I get to relax and set my mind free these day. You'll know what I am talking about if you too had a 16 month toddler darting around the house and trying to eat out of the garbage can the moment you take your eyes off her.

Anyway,...

My mind was wondering... What's on Telly tonight? When will I ever get hold of HG2G? What happened to that Japanese Restaurant near Koswatte Junction? Which political party is Ranil in now? When will be the next T20 match that Sri Lanka plays in?...

While mulling over all those unanswered questions, I just happened to notice the sheer number of billboards that are on either side of the road. My God, it seems like just about every property had put up signs that seem to scream out for attention. Suddenly I found myself playing the spot-the-building-without-a-signboard game. And I was losing hopelessly. Can just about anyone put up a billboard? Don't they need approval from the local council or something? Something is seriously wrong somewhere. My relaxing drive home was not so relaxing anymore. I needed a break.

Just about then I realized my wallet had a mere 150 rupees of cash left in it. Few years back it would have bought me a good 2 litres of quality ice cream, but these days I'd be lucky to get a few "wadais" in exchange for that cash. So I decided to stop at the ATM that was 200 meters further up the road. Usually I hate to stop before I get to my destination, but this time I was glad to take a break from the unsolicited information overload I was getting from all those screaming billboards.
Ah, there is the ATM - and no queue either. I got down from the car and went straight into the enclosure. I took one look at the stickers pasted on the face of the ATM and exhaled with a long sigh.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why anyone would want to paste two stickers, virtually identical information on both, next to each other. Can you?

Click!

2009-07-12T20:27:00.005+05:30

I love the fact that mobile phones these days give you pretty good ability to catch candid moments. Take this one for example...

That tagging game

2009-06-16T22:13:00.010+05:30

I think the Drummer started it all. I received the tag from Santhoshi. It's all about expressing your feelings on the recent events in Sri Lanka. Five words should describe it all. So here goes,...

Relieved
Apprehensive
Hopeful
Sad
Happy

I've been so late this time, I cannot think of many bloggers who haven't been tagged so far on this. But I will try my luck with Sujeewa, Dilan, Kokila, Charith and Seshi.

What's hot and what's not!

2009-05-29T08:24:00.002+05:30

I’ll be the first to admit that I am not into fashion. For instance, among other garments, I have 3 light blue shirts and three black trousers in my wardrobe - often cause for confusion in situations I ask my wife “can you iron my light-blue shirt for tomorrow dear?”. I am someone who likes to stick with what I know and rarely experiment or try out the “in-thing”. But I believe that even I know a fashion-disaster when I see one. Now you may or may not agree with me, but I would like to put it out there and see what others think. So here is a list of what I think are fashion “no-nos” just like what Hulk-Hogan is to WWF.

Men
Brown shoes or belt with black or blue dress pants
White shoes with dark pants (unless you are umpiring a day-night cricket match)
White socks with dark pants (unless your name happens to be Michael Jackson – even then it is not fashionable anymore)
T-shirt with dress pants
Ear-studs
White pants or white dress shoes (unless you are a pimp)
Wireless mobile headsets worn in public – especially when not on a call (So far I haven’t seen women indulging in this)
Loosened neckties (I see this often at after-office gatherings - why not remove it altogether?)

Women
Too much makeup
Ridiculously high heels
Tiger/leopard skin look-alike designs on garments
Straitened hair (still passable but might no longer be by the time I push the “post” button)

Uni-sex
Shades worn on the forehead
Shades worn indoors (unless you have a medical condition)

I am certain I have missed out some. So have a go at it….

Elephants, Trishaws and the Tropics

2009-05-20T19:08:00.004+05:30

What I love about this part of the world is that you witness something different every time you step on to the road. It is never boring. Of course you have some people who always complain about the traffic situation, indiscipline on the road and such. I too occasionally have been guilty of doing it. But those come as part and parcel of living in this part of the world.

Take yesterday morning for instance; I was driving to work as usual when I happened to see a huge elephant - a magnificent tusker at that - calmly strolling down the main road. A couple of keepers (AKA mahouts) were walking along with the huge mammal. Trishaw drivers were weaving around them like it was just another 'private bus' cruising slowly looking to pickup that extra passenger. I noticed a few school children pointing at the animal and talking to each other in a rather excited manner. And of course a couple of stray dogs barking at the top of their voices protesting this gross violation of their territory.

I pulled to the side briefly and captured the moment on my phone cam. The entourage passed me by on the other side of the road within the next few seconds. I put my car in gear and headed back into a light traffic. In the background something was being discussed about the IPL on my favorite morning show over the car radio.

Yes, a typical Monday morning on Colombo roads.

Entrepreneurship... Or is it?

2009-05-16T18:17:00.000+05:30

Much has been written about this over the years in Sri Lanka. So called ‘International’ schools that are popping up faster than you could say 'sahodaraya' at a JVP rally. Are there any standards? Can any Tom, Dick or Perera open up a tuition class and call it an International school? Surely not? You would think so wouldn’t you?

Well, the truth is they can. And that is exactly what they do. We Sri Lankans are experts in copying. If they guy next door opens a little grocery store, it is guaranteed that another moron will do the same a few houses down the street very soon.

Last Wednesday morning I was driving along the narrow back lane off Kotta road (in Borella) – I think it was called Gothami Road. By the time I travelled from the Kotta road turn-off to the P.Sara stadium (maybe a maximum of 300 meters in distance), I came across 4 fishmongers (y’know the guys who sell fish from a box on the back of their bicycles?) – do they ever have enough sales to go around? I wonder…

Why is this so?

Mobile phone

2009-05-09T14:38:00.003+05:30

I ~~need~~ want to replace my well used Sony-Ericssons P1i. I have no clue as to what make/model to go for. But I know I need following functionality...

1) Reliable (bug free) features (clear phone calls, one touch speaker phone, keypad lock, calendar/scheduling and phonebook with outlook sync, alarm, 3MP or greater camera, radio)
2) Light-weight and perhaps not too large either; need to fit into a trouser pocket fairly discretely.
3) Preferable if touch screen (but then it must reliable and accurate)
4) Long battery life.
5) Good for heavy use.
6) Not insanely expensive.

Other ideal features to have would be the ability to repel water, resistant to people sitting on it and voice recognition software where I can compose and send sms purely via voice (without having to touch the keypad).

[Learning to] Play the guitar

2009-04-23T08:05:00.000+05:30

I’ve always been a sucker for guitar music and have always wanted to learn how to play the guitar. But the problem is that I am sooooo not ambidextrous. I once read somewhere that you can ‘train’ your left hand (or your right hand if you are left handed) to do things better by using it to write a paragraph a day. Must try that one out.

I tried to self-learn how to play the guitar once but that didn’t go very far. I guess self-learning (unless held at gunpoint) is not really my thing. Now I am looking to go for some classes – if I don’t do it now I never will.

When I was young...

2009-04-17T13:13:00.000+05:30

Back in the day, I used to say to myself 'Here we go again' whenever my father started a sentence with 'When I was young...'. Having said that, I'm going to do just that.

In my younger days, fireworks were really fun. And above all, dependable. When we pulled out a sky-rocket from its bundle, we knew it was going to threaten low-flying aircrafts. They had strong tails and took off as straight as an arrow high into the night sky. And anything that was supposed to go 'Bang', did. The sound would have caused the neighbors to call the ol' bomb squad if we were to light one up during off-season. The 'Chakra' burnt and rotated in all it's glory for at least two minutes.

I am quite disappointed with the sorry state of the fireworks on sale these days. Every time I light one up, I feel like a participant who is just about the spin the wheel-of-fortune. It is quite common to find sky-rockets that won't fly or out of the ones that do, they wouldn't explode with a thunderous bang that would give your grandma a heart attack. The 'Charkras' and 'Nilas' often won't last longer than it would take you to say "what next".

But it still pleases me to see the sparkles in my kids eyes every time I light fireworks. I just hope they will somehow become better as time passes by.

Bowled out!

2009-04-15T22:19:00.002+05:30

I had a horrible time at ten-pin bowling the other night. Ended up with a miserable score of 89. Six months ago I was consistently scoring 180s and even touching on 200 on some occasions. What happened? Yes, I've not been visiting the bowling alley as frequently as I used to, but 89? I even scored more than that the very first time I picked up a bowling ball.

Kennel Hunt

2009-04-13T12:04:00.002+05:30

We were thinking of going away for a few days, what with the long weekend and all. We wanted to get away from it all and live a minimalistic life (at least for a few days). What better place than visiting our relatives living in a village off Kandy. They’ve always been telling us to come stay for a while – we thought it just might be the right time to take them up on the offer.

We had six days of holidays coming thanks to Poya, the weekend, Avrudu and also a complimentary day off from my employer. We were feeling all happy inside until we remembered Matisse (my 4 year old Golden Retriever). Usually when we take a vacation, my immediate relatives help out in looking after Matisse – but this time they were all away too. Now what?

Although I hated the idea, I knew there’s not much else I could to except for putting up Matisse at Kennel. We were all too aware of the perils of using kennel services. We have once used such a service; that was a different time and a different place – and that was when we had a cat called Ginger. Yes, we had a cat once. I hated that pompous SoB. Anyway, somewhat reluctantly, our kennel hunt began in earnest.

I got some leads from some friends. That evening I did the rounds, checking out these places. First place I went to had the kennels on the 3rd floor of their building – that was a no no! Next place had cages which were far too small for any large breed – did I mention Matisse was a 4 year old Golden Retriever? Well, two down two to go! The third place had a service picking up the dog and dropping it off too – wonderful, but I didn’t like the look of the guy who was looking after the kennels – he resembled a shady alleyway drug dealer you’d see on movies. I was quite dejected by the time I was looking for the last address on my notepad. To make matters worse it was drizzling and getting quite late.

I pulled up to a fairly large house with a extra large garden. Was I mistaken? Surely this cannot be a kennel? Just then the barking started. It was easily the sounds of more than three dogs. Either I was at the right place or I was in trouble. A middle aged lady answered the door and soon she, her husband and I were sharing stories that dog-people tend to share. We hit it off straight away; I knew this was the right place. After half an hour, I left there feeling happy and somewhat relieved too.

I hoped Matisse wouldn’t be too unhappy with this temporary arrangement.

Caramel Popcorn

2009-04-06T21:41:00.002+05:30

For a few weeks now my missus was looking for this Julius Caesar DVD; She wanted it for a teaching assignment. She had been looking for it in all kinds of DVD stores (and there are many kind too) but in vain. Finally she had heard it might be available at Majestic City.

Like many typical Sri Lankan blokes, I am not the kind who likes shopping – or even be seen at any shopping centre. But then again I wanted to check out a webcam, so I finally agreed to accompany her to MC. My 8 year old who happened to acquire superhuman hearing at that very moment jumped in joy. “Wow, caramel popcorn!”. Y’see, the last time I was at MC (which was a good 7 months back), I bought her a bag of caramel popcorn from that basement outlet near the food court. They were fresh from the popping pan – hot and crispy.

We reached the underground car park around 5pm on Sunday – mercifully there were hardly any traffic. There were plenty of parking spaces too... hmmm… odd! By this time my 8 year old was getting very impatient – so I got her the popcorn immediately – 30 bucks a bag, not a bad deal – it was quite tasty. Then we all went upstairs and into this DVD corner-shop. The very mention of old Julius brought a blank expression to the poor shop-girl’s face. So we moved on. I spotted a fancy DVD shop to my right and swiftly moved in – Julius Caesar? Sure miss, we have the one with Charlton Heston. After a quick play on their in-shop player, we purchased it. By this time, shops were closing all around us. My webcam hunt would have to wait for another day.

As we were descending the stairs down to the car park, I experienced a tug at my t-shirt, “Can I have another Thaththi?”. Gosh, she had already gone through the whole bag. So I spent another 30 bucks – one for the road I guess!

Are we related?

2009-04-01T21:30:00.001+05:30

What would you do if you find out that you are related to Obama? Especially if you are Bin Laden? Think about it. Kinda funny isn't it?

I'm sure most people on facebook would have received this message by now (at least I hope they did). It seems that I am related to Obama. How nice!

“King of swing falls for the girls”

2009-03-25T23:03:00.002+05:30

That was the headline of an article on cricinfo.com the other day. The article was covering how Wasim Akram (former Pakistani fast bowler) was impressed by the standard at the women's cricket World Cup this year. I thought it was a brilliant headline. So there!

Java Embargo?

2009-03-21T09:49:00.006+05:30

It has been a while since I last had to do anything with Java (no, not the coffee nor the island, it's the computer programming language). Recently something on my computer required the latest Java runtime to be downloaded. It even automatically directed me to the Sun website for the required download.

But then to my surprise I saw this flashing on my screen.

Is Sri Lanka an embargoed country for Java?

Cold blooded murder

2009-03-09T22:21:00.002+05:30

I was woken up to a jolt from my missus. I glanced at the alarm clock and it was close to midnight. I went to sleep a little earlier than usual that night.. what with being Sunday night and all,.. I had to wake up before dawn to get my eldest ready for school. Anyway,…

“Uh? What’s going on?” I asked. She said “I was putting Matisse out and saw a mean looking snake”. I must tell you here that “Matisse” is our 4 year old Golden Retriever. And of course all snakes look mean! As a typical bloke (woken up at midnight) I replied “So?”. “We need to do something”. And by “We” I knew she meant me. And by “something” I suspected she meant “kill it or whatever”.

“Oh just leave it alone and it will go away”. I turned to the other side. “But the kids…” she said. And I knew there was no point arguing,.. the sooner I do something about it, the sooner I can go back to sleep. But the mention of kids did make me take it seriously too. I got into my flip-flops, took the emergency light in one hand and went downstairs.

Sure enough, it was a mean looking thing,… small and spotted it was moving slowly on our back lawn – which I remember someone once told me was a sign of a venomous snake. It sure didn’t look like any rat snake I’ve seen before. By this time, I had made up my mind that it ain’t a rat snake, and that I was going to kill it. Incidentally, rat snakes (a.k.a. Garandiyas) can grow fairly large but completely harmless. It was trying to climb the boundary wall. Closest weapon around was a shovel we normally use to remove doggy poo whenever Matisse wanted to show us who the real boss was.

We were ready, two grown adults, one holding an emergency lamp, the other pointing a shovel with a bit of doggy poo at the end. I felt like a pigmy holding a blow gun with a poisoned dart. Our enemy? A one and a half feet long brown snake with white spots. We weren’t even sure if it was poisonous or not. I took careful aim and let ‘em have it. The attack was savage but swift. The poor thing didn’t know what hit ‘em. We couldn’t take a chance and burnt the body then and there.

I distinctly saw one of my neighbors peering into her window curious of us lighting a fire in the middle of the night. I’m sure she will have a few imaginative stories to tell the other neighbors next day. I kinda like to fuel these things too.

By the time the whole episode was over, I was covered in sweat. I had a quick wash and jumped in the bed. That’s enough killing for one night I thought. I fought back guilt as I tried my best to sleep. I think I eventually dozed off around 2.30 in the morning.

That was my evil deed for 2009.

The Flying Grasshopper

2009-02-26T21:26:00.000+05:30

It was a particularly humid night at the Mt Lavinia beach resturant. It was a private gathering with a lavish buffet and cocktails. A characteristic 3 person calypso band was playing in the background. The mood was set.

Then came the cocktails. There were several options but the “flying grasshopper” caught my attention. Perhaps it was the curious name, but then again most cocktails do have ‘em. Perhaps it was the fact that I have never tried it before, or maybe just that I was told there was ice-cream in it.

I gladly selected the martini glass filled to the brim with light-bluish liquid called the flying grasshopper. Took once sip and wished to God that I hadn’t. It tasted like the blue coloured listerine mouthwash. I ain’t kidding. For the next hour I was cursing the person who invented this cocktail and the guy or girl who selected it for the event – what were they thinking?

Next time I will stick to Margeritas.

Grade four Independence

2009-02-17T22:44:00.004+05:30

Picture this.

My seven year old is almost falling asleep on the toilet seat. The time is barely 5.45am. Still pitch dark outside. It was my turn to get her ready for school this morning. She is supposed to leave home by 6.30am.

“Thaththi..” she says,..”I don’t feel so good this morning…”
I know this routine,.. “Ok darling, what did you forget this time?”
She sobs quietly and says,…”Teacher asked us to read up on the National Day,.. but I completely forgot thaaaaththiiii……”.

Did she say “read”? Not “write”?… no problem,.. I can handle this on my own,.. no need to wake the general I thought.

“Ok darling,.. no need to be upset, this is what you do,.. while you are brushing your teeth, try memorising a few sentences”. Sure, I can handle this, no sweat! But in my peripheral vision, I could see her giving me a puzzeled look.

“We celebrate independence day on the 4th of February”
“Independence day marks the end of British rule over Sri Lanka and handing over the control of the country to it’s people” (let’s not go there)
“This year we celebrated the 61st independence day”
“We watched the military parade on the TV on our independence day”
“Our president gave a speech on the independence day”

“Thaththi,.. why does the president have to talk? Band music is much better”.

“That’ll do darling, let’s memorise the first four sentences only”. It was already 6.05am. Chop Chop!!!

Busy, are we?

2009-02-07T18:49:00.000+05:30

I had some visitors over the other day. They are here in Sri Lanka on a holiday (Remember holidays? We used to go on them when we could take some time off from work?). They once lived here in Sri Lanka but now call Austraaaalia (did I get the accent right?) home.

We were catching up and reminiscing over dinner when one of the visitors said, “Hey guys, why don’t we go on a trip to Udawalawe?”. For those who are wondering “WTF?”, Udawalawe is a national wild life sanctuary in the southern region of Sri Lanka and is known for its abundance of wildlife, especially Elephants. Back in the day, a trip to Udawalawe to watch the Elephants and very often get chased by one or two, was a regular event on our annual calendar,.. sometimes even bi-annual.

I thought it was a great idea and immediately started thinking of possible date – especially a weekend. I was thinking “Hmm,.. lets see,.. next Saturday I will have to take R for her fit-on at the dressmaker, Sunday I have to attend P’s wedding,.. how about the following weekend?.. I guess that Saturday too is out as I promised….”

I guess I must have been thinking out loud, as my friend from OZ said, “What’s with you guys (I guess he mean us Sri Lankans, now that he is not one of “us”) these days? So many appointments and shit? Can’t you make a snap decision and take time off from work anymore? I was thinking of going on this trip tomorrow or day after,.. not next weekend”.

He was genuinely puzzled. But here’s the thing,… it never occurred to me that I was being too organized. I always thought of myself to be a spur-of-the-moment kinda guy. Maybe living in Sri Lanka, especially in Colombo, have made me something else?

An afternoon at the game

2009-02-04T20:06:00.005+05:30

There were good points and bad.

Papare’ bands were out on force. And they were playing continuously too. Not like at school big-matches where they play for 10 minutes and break for 30. The hot-dogs were excellent and they were being cooked then and there. None of these finger-thin sausages, they were proper mega ones. There was plenty of chilled beer too. Both food and drinks were being brought right to your seats – brilliant.

On the bad side, there was only one brand of beer. And they came only in cans – the men with beer-backpacks were nowhere to be seen. And you were right Dilan, no dancing girls at all. Well, let me rephrase that – no organized dancing girls.

Oh, I almost forgot. As far as the cricket went, we got a real ~~arse whipping~~ hiding from the Indians. We looked like school boys - they were just playing with us.

As they say, a picture can paint a thousand words. So let this one taken from my phone cam sum-up the afternoon for you.

...and of course, the Cricket!

2009-01-26T21:24:00.002+05:30

Now that Indian cricket team is touring Sri Lanka, few of us at work thought it might be great to enjoy going to the game as opposed to sitting in front of the Telly. Mind you our intentions are to go to the game; not necessarily watch the game. Of course the first two games were ruled out due to the fact that they will be in Dambulla. Distance has nothing to do with it. Y’see Dhambulla stadium is built on land belonging to a temple (at least that’s the story according to my friend). Hence, no beer, no dancing girls, etc… so “where the fun in that?” we thought.

There is no point going to the last two games as by then there is a chance the series could be already decided (best of three and all). So that leaves us with the 3rd match which is to be played at Premadasa stadium (formerly Keththarama stadium) – isn’t it wonderful how politicians get to put their names on such landmarks? Sooner or later, even lamp posts might be known as somebody’s-lamp-post, etc.

I digress,…

Somehow, I ended up agreeing to keep an eye on when the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL – thank God for Acronyms!) will be putting ticket out for sale. The other day I telephoned their office in Colombo to find out details about the 3rd match and about the tickets. It turned out to be quite an experience.

(although these days the telephones don’t sound like that,.. but I think you all get my meaning)

BCCSL 1 : Hello! (An annoyed female voice)
Me : I’m calling to find out details of Indian tourna…
BCCSL 1 : (the sound of me getting abruptly transferred to an unknown party without a single word from the lady who answered earlier)
BCCSL 2 : Yes?
Me : (Taken back a bit by that “Yes?”),.. err… I was just transferred,… just wanted to find out about ticket sales for the Indian,…
BCCSL 2 : Which match?
Me : (Starting to get a bit annoyed for being abruptly interrupted for the second time) As I was about to explain,.. I’d like to go to the 3rd match…
BCCSL 2 : On 3rd!
Me : No, no,.. to the 3rd Match of the Indian series that will be played at Kethatharama.
BCCSL 2 : (Annoyed voice) 3rd Match is on the 3rd!
Me : Oh I’m sorry, so it’s on the 3rd … 3rd February I assume? Can I buy tickets to that?
BCCSL 2 : No they are not on sale yet.
Me : (after a long pause).. err, can I know when they will be on sale?
BCCSL 2 : We don’t know yet. Why don’t you call back on Monday? We should know then.
Me : Okay,..Can I know the ticket prices?
BCCSL 2 : Which area?
Me : I’m sorry I haven’t been to the stadium in a long time. Can you tell me what’s available?
BCCSL 2 : ,.. (and goes onto explain 5 different ticket rates and very vague description of the seating areas, for example, “Rs. 2000 for A and B Upper”).
Me : Thank you. Finally can you tell me where I can buy these tickets from?
BCCSL 2 : Our office. Come during office time.
Me : Can I know where your office is?
BCCSL 2 : ,.. near SSC.
Me : Is there any other way I can buy them? Perhaps online,.. I mean, on the internet? Y’see I don’t work in Colombo and it is very difficult for me to come to Colombo during office hours.
BCCSL 2 : I think they might be available through Bank of Ceylon but can’t say for sure.
Me : (Getting tired of trying to pry out information from this bloke),..Urrr.. hm,..okay, let me call you back on Monday.

I really don’t want to go through such a conversation again on Monday,.. even if it means not being able to enjoy beer and watch the dancing girls,.. oh yes, and the cricket too!

VGA? You’ve got to be kidding me!

2009-01-22T20:03:00.004+05:30

While we are on the subject of photographs, let me share my most recent and brilliant stroke of stupidity – I’m sure it would have come pretty high on the scale of the ol’ Darwin awards.

I have a mobile phone with a 3.2 Megapixel camera. Infact, I’ve had this phone for more than a year now. But all this time I have been cursing it on how grainy and low res it’s photographs turn out. Just the other day I walked in on my 7 year old meddling around with my phone. When I grabbed it from her, I noticed it was in a “settings” menu, and the options read…

3MP
2MP
1MP
VGA

Guess what was selected by default? Of course, like a true techie, I cursed the phone manufacturer under my breath for not setting the default correctly. Maybe I should ask my 7 year old to play around with my brand new DSLR.

Click

2009-01-20T20:55:00.002+05:30

This time my Christmas present came in the form of a Digital camera – and a Canon DSLR at that too. Quite obviously, I was overjoyed as this was something I always wanted to get but never could allow myself to spend my money on. Now that I own it, I have been clicking away at anything and everything. No dog or bird is safe from the Image Stabilized lenses of this beauty.

I even managed to resurrect an old Flickr account that had been dormant for almost a year. Of course my friends have been quite supportive in saying my photographs looked really professional. I’m just happy I don’t have to spend time and money trying to “develop” pictures anymore. It’s just as easy as saying Click!

Barbies and things

2009-01-18T22:27:00.001+05:30

Did I mention that I live with 3 beautiful girls? My wife (brownie points, yeah I know), and the two little girls. And I love them all very much. But every weekend I wake up to some sort of a surprise. Take this morning for example,.. After a late night on Saturday, I slept in a little longer than usual this morning. After waking up to the noise of my youngest, I managed to waddle my way into the bathroom, barely managing to open my eyes. As I was reaching for the faucet with the intention of splashing some water on my face, I saw strange creatures before my eyes,.. a butterfly, a barbie and a mermaid. I shook my head and blinked my eyes hard thinking I was still daydreaming,.. but no, they were real alright.

It took me a moment to realize what had happened – it was just that my 7 year old have been using the bathroom before me. Y’see, she has this habit of taking her whole entourage wherever she goes – even to the bathroom. Not very different to Sri Lankan politicians I guess. Anyway, very often such things get left behind.

I sighed and went about my business.

Towels Galore

2008-12-14T20:17:00.007+05:30

One of my earlier posts, “Colours of India, included a photo of colourful Sarees in India. Well, here is the Sri Lankan answer to it – towels!

Do you Chrome?

2008-10-24T21:55:00.001+05:30

I have been hooked on this latest browser by Google. As usual they have come up with a catchy name – Chrome. I’ve see so many wonderful things written about it on the internet. They have covered it’s latest features so comprehensively and I don’t intend to describe them here.

But the nice thing about it is that once in a while I discover another not-quite-obvious nevertheless useful functionality. It is like finding pieces of cashew in your wattalappam – makes the experience that much richer.

For example, You can press Control-F and bring up a search box to search for contents on the current webpage you are on – ok, so no big deal; but then as you type your search text on that search box, the browser dynamically highlights matching words on the current webpage – good, but give me more you say? Now look at your scroll bar on the right hand side of your browser… see those orange colour small horizontal lines? They show you matches on the other areas of the webpage you cannot currently see on your browser – neat eh?

I’ll give you another. Have you noticed a small animation (a spinning circle) next to the text “New Tab” when you type in a URL and press ‘Enter’? Well, that gives you an indication that the page is being displayed… if you look at it closely, you will find that initially it will start spinning on an anti-clockwise direction, and the moment it finds the website and starts to download contents, it starts spinning on a clockwise direction. Talk about attention to detail!

I hardly use any other browser now. Cheers Google!

Boys will be boys.

2008-10-10T23:00:00.001+05:30

89 batch AGM for year 2008 was held at school in September. We were all thrilled at the turnout. Some say it was the magic of digital age, namely SMS and Email that raked them all in. Whatever it was, it certainly helped in the selection of the new committee. Once the formalities were over, we all headed towards the nearest ‘waterhole’ which happened to belong to one of our batchmates – in front of a Castle of a hospital.

It started well, with plenty of food and drinks around and smokers and non-smokers ending up in the same air conditioned hall. We couldn’t ask for more. The biggest mistake was trying to get a democratic vote from a very diverse set of individuals who by now had so much alcohol in their blood, that if any of them started bleeding from any open wound – the blood would have evaporated. All the more reason to avoid confrontation.

But it was exactly where we were heading. The subject was the batch trip – the contention was whether it was boys-only or family-friendly. There were harsh words spoken as well as stand up speeches from each participant going around… and again around the table, but no agreement in sight. Some of us sat back and enjoyed the spectacle. It was nostalgic in the sense that this is exactly what we used to do in our school days (minus the alcohol of course).

The trip is on. But to this day, I don’t think we were able to find a resolution to the argument. Should be an interesting trip – wouldn’t miss it for the world!

Choice is yours

2008-09-26T21:07:00.003+05:30

Ever heard of that "song" called "Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen"? I'm sure most of you have - it was a tremendous hit in the 90s. The message is simple, we are free to live our lives the way we choose - even when it comes to wearing sunscreen. The lyrics were written by "Mary Schmich" and I thought was brilliantly put. It sure made me stop and think for a while. I came across those lyrics very recently and thought I should share it will you. It goes like this...

Wear sunscreen

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

Censorship gone mad.

2008-09-17T22:19:00.002+05:30

National TV channels - wonderful entities, aren’t they? For some time now they have been censoring out certain scenes. Nudity, I can understand – but cigarette smoking and liquor consumption? Isn’t that going a wee bit too far? Just the other day they were showing an old black-and-white movie starring Paul Newman (I forget the title of the movie). Can’t even remember how I ended up deciding to watch it. Come to think of it, I do seem to have a very short memory these days. At least I remembered that I have been having memory lapses – thank God for that.

Moving along...

Let’s face it – those days smoking cigarettes was in fashion. They smoked like chimneys and drank like fish. The fellow in charge of censorship on that TV channel that day had had a field-day! After the first 20 minutes I just couldn’t take it anymore – out of the first 20 minutes I would have seen maybe about 5 minutes of the movie… the screen was “squared-out” the rest of the time. Of course I tried that watch-thru-the-t-shirt trick, but alas! No joy!

I just hope the same rule will not find its way to the PayTV channels – our last resort.

Bag it!

2008-08-28T21:34:00.000+05:30

It is pandemonium at the local supermarket. Eggs, Crisps, Fresh meat and Baby dipers all in the same bag. Customers cursing all the way from checkouts to their vehicles. They have stopped issuing free bags at the checkout. Either you are supposed to buy those plastic bags, or bring your own bags. The reason? – Another step towards protecting the environment. A good initiative I must admit, but they don’t seem to have planned the implementation that well. They could have issued quality paper bags instead of the plastic ones and avoided all the fuss.

Any comments?

Are you a 'Java Graduate'?

2008-08-25T21:13:00.003+05:30

Let me be serious for a change.

I recently had the opportunity to work with a highly talented bunch of individuals from a leading University in Sri Lanka. From what I have seen so far, them lot seem to be die-hard Java fans. Being as old as I am, I was brought up as a C/C++ programmer. But I had the opportunity to work with many other programming languages since then; one of which was Java. I thought it might be useful if I share some of my views in trying to answer the age old question that software engineering students seem to be having when coming out to the industry.

“What language should I specialize in?”

Naturally, we tend to side with the programming language which we are most familiar and good with. At the start of your career this is good as it gives you a jump-start at your job placement. You have enough things to worry about than having to learn a whole new programming language.. right?... well, the answer might not be that simple.

Yes, it is good to do the thing you know. But generally speaking, you will know a particular language well mainly as most of your course work would have been based on that language. Maybe a particular lecturer was better in teaching you one language as opposed to another. Maybe the course syllabus was setup a few years ago and at the time a particular base programming language was selected as the most popular in the industry. Maybe you had friends out there who were experts in one language and your judgment was biased based on that.

Maybe you shouldn’t be worried about a specific programming language after all. Wouldn’t you like to shock the interview panel of your first job by saying “I can program in any object oriented language out there”? Can you really do that? What if I tell you that most software developers with more than 7 years of work experience generally think like that? Given the opportunity they really can. True, they might have to get a quick refresher course on the latest technologies associated with the new language, but the language syntax is fast becoming a non issue. Online and compiler help is so good these days that I was able to learn Java on the job within 2 weeks.

But can you do that as a fresh graduate coming out of the University? Perhaps not on your first job – as most of the time, it is the hardest to secure. But from day one, in my opinion, you should think as a software engineer.

After all, your degree is in software engineering – not in java programming (or in any other language for that matter).

Brain Freeze

2008-06-19T20:24:00.009+05:30

When Kelso did the Brain-Freeze thing on “That 70s Show”, it brought back memories of me trying to gulp down a cone of Allerics ice cream before the “Ice cream Van” left. Yes, those were the days, when any half decent ice cream was delivered to your doorstep on those famous Ice cream vans. And Allerics was the preferred brand those days. Of course the impending arrival of such a van can be heard miles away by its instantly recognizable tune – before you could say “where is the change”, all the neighborhood children flocked alongside the road with a few rupee coins clinched in their little palms.

Just the other day, I saw a familiar sight, a white and green coloured van, with a catchy tune playing and of course those unmistakable “tube-lights” on it’s roof… I started walking up to it almost as if I was in a trance. My heart was racing – could it be an Allerics comeback? Alas, No, it was “Elephant House”; the next best thing to Allerics I suppose. I captured the moment with my camera-phone. But strangely I was not in a mood for an ice-cream cone this time.

Divine intervention required - Parking available.

2008-06-04T19:20:00.008+05:30

I was able to snap this on Castle Street, Colombo recently. Funny eh?

It got me thinking. As Joan Osborne puts it, what if God was one of us? Some might cry out “blasphemy!” even at the thought of God being compared to mere mortals. I mean no disrespect by this. But think about it; what if????

For one thing, I’d certainly like to know what he (by he, I mean he or she) drives. Would God drive a fancy fast car, a classic limousine-type, a common man’s Japanese car or maybe an environment-friendly hybrid? I’d bet on a hybrid... y’know him inventing the world an all... I’m sure he’d like to keep it clean.

Whatever it is, he will have no problem finding a parking space … at least on Castle Street.

My perfect 10

2008-05-18T20:18:00.002+05:30

I must admit, when Santhoshi said I was “tagged” my initial reaction was “huh?”. Then I checked out her blog and figured out what it all meant. So here goes…

1) Innocent smiles that my two girls give in their sleep
2) Chocolate biscuit-pudding (with extra dark chocolate)
3) Smell of freshly cut grass (don’t get excited, I meant grass as in what makes up your lawn)
4) A good Paulo Coelho or a Arthur C. Clarke novel
5) A close F1 race with Raikkonen, Lewis and Alonso battling it out in front.
6) Beach
7) A good night out in Colombo with Live music, Dancing and my closest friends
8) Italian food
9) Access to internet from anywhere
10) The thought that someday I will learn to play the guitar

It’s my turn to do the tagging now. I wish to tag…

Charith
Seshi
Mithila
Sujeewa
Dilan
Chathu

Mayday Mayday Mayday!

2008-05-02T08:05:00.000+05:30

It was the 1st of May or May-day! Simple interpretation – yet another holiday. The fact that there was a high probability of lesser traffic on the roads made me decide to visit Kandy and do some long outstanding social calls.

But what I didn’t bargain for is my car throwing up Air-Conditioning problems halfway on my way to Kandy. Yes, it did just that.

Over the years, Air-Conditioning (or AC) has become a vital component of some of our lives… especially with people living and working in the city. We’ve got accustomed to it so much that we find it difficult to cope in a non-AC house even for the weekend. So I had two options, either to turn back and head home or wind down my shutters and go for it. Being a member of the Male gene-pool, I chose the latter.

With hindsight, it was one of the worst decisions I’ve ever made… it is right up there with me trying to conquer my fear of heights by climbing onto the cashew tree way back when I was 12 years old. My elder brother had to climb after me to get me down in that instant. I was never able to face my friends who were there that day for quite some time afterwards. But then that is another story.

The problem with holidays is just that. Just like you and me, everyone else like AC repairmen are also on holiday. So by about 2pm I was really feeling the heat. The winded down shutters blew in all sorts of smells and smoke right into and thru my car. By the end of the trip I smelled like a garbologist at a smoker’s convention.

It was an incident worthy of a Mayday call right on the 1st of May or May-day! Is that weird or what?

Sree, Bhajji and the White man.

2008-04-29T22:41:00.003+05:30

What an absolute disgrace! Men slapping other men. Men slapping? Men don’t slap. They punch. That is the manly thing to do. And grown men sobbing in public like a 5 year old girl who just dropped her lolly? What is going on?

These Indians are crazy. Either they are in-your-face-agro like what they did in Australia a few months ago or crying their hearts out like they’d been hit by a canister of tear-gas at a JHU may-day rally. Anyone who can see through a Klinsmann fake dive at a soccer match can surely see through the sorry site of Sreesanth sobbing after the cricket match the other day. Surely he was trying to milk it for all it’s worth. I’m sure he didn’t bargain for Bhajji to be handed out a 10 match ban for all his trouble.

As for Bhajji, he had it coming… sooner or later it had to happen. He really deserved to be punished.

And what do the Aussies think of all this? I bet Symmo and Pointing must be having a good laugh over a pint. The problem with these sub-continent types is their “white-man-complex”. Either they go all out and lick the white man’s boots, or they call everything a racial conspiracy and try to get the upper-hand that way. The latter worked somewhat in the nineties, but it is not fooling anyone anymore.

So maybe they must invent something new. Forking out some serious cash and getting the white man into the IPL might just be the tip of a grand “iceburg” of a plan.

Only time will tell.

Simple things in life

2008-04-25T08:31:00.006+05:30

Food, especially the Sri Lankan kind, is amazingly addictive. Sri Lankans living in foreign countries will vouch for the truth in that statement. But where there’s a void – there’s an opportunity. The more enterprising individuals among us can and do make a killing out of importing exotic Sri Lankan goodies into countries like USA, Australia and UK where large Sri Lankan expatriate communities exist. But there’s nothing like getting some poor sod to bring you a parcel from your mother. Why, just the other day I learnt that someone I know had even sent a couple of Lumpri (fresh from the oven, with the Banana leaf and all) on a Sri Lankan flight from Colombo to Birmingham – what will they think of next?

This all reminds me of some favorite local food-brands combinations. These are flavors you’d never quite experience the moment you step out of the island.

* ~~Elephant House~~ Fountain Cafe hot dog
* Carnival ice cream
* Pilawoos chicken and cheese kottu (Did you know that the good ol’ Pila was featured on the Time mag? Strewth!)
* Kist tomato sauce (mind you not Ketchup)
* Harischandra coffee
* Fab Lumpri (with extra coconut oil… hmmmm Yum!)
* MD woodapple jam

Then there are the all time favorites – the generic kind.

* Isso vadai
* Chinese roll
* Roast paan
* Pol sambol
* Lime soda

Of course this is by no means an exhaustive list. Infact, I’d love to know what type of Sri Lankan delicacies tickle your taste-buds. So spill the beans by all means.

Colombo goes Bananas

2008-04-15T21:00:00.006+05:30

Suba Aluth Avruddak Wewa! It was a great time to be in Colombo last week. The days leading up to the Sinhala and Tamil New Year weekend was very exciting even to the people who didn't celebrate the occasion. City sidewalks were packed with vendors with all sorts of goodies including various exotic food items and clothing.

Here I have captured a busy Banana vendor in Battamulla. His produce covered a good 25 meters length of the sidewalk.

Google SPAM?

2008-04-07T22:12:00.003+05:30

I heard so much about "Google Ads" thought I'd check it out. I registered myself using my Gmail account (being the obvious thing to do since they are both in the Google arena) a few days ago. I was informed that I would get a confirmation email within several days.

Several days came and went but no response... I thought maybe my humble blog just wasn't worthy of receiving the honor of hosting Google Ads and was quite seriously worried about losing out on millions of dollars of potential income through them. Quite accidentally I noticed there was an interesting email on my default Gmail SPAM folder.

Surely Gmail cannot be so pedantic as to prevent it's own Google Ads email (well, they are in the same Google family after all) from reaching my inbox?

Some mothers do have ‘em! – Part 2

2008-04-03T21:44:00.001+05:30

For those who read my last post, I am about the reveal our findings. For those who haven’t the foggiest what I’m on about, following is somewhat of a dramatized (and mostly cynical) version of personalities we (my drunken school buddies and I) believe exists in some Technical Organizations in Sri Lanka. All readers please keep in mind that I have not tried to portray any organization in particular. I’m attempting to paint a picture of a rather fictitious office. Any resemblance if exists is purely coincidental and not intended.

Big Wig

Is the Boss, the Don, the General, the El Supremo. Forget the board of directors - this person has absolute power – no matter what the constitution or company articles say. Anyone with half a brain will quickly wise-up to this fact. “Arse lickers” will waste no time – they will start working on him as if there is no tomorrow. The Big Wig will get the best spot in the car park, the best room in the office, the best laptop, the best furniture… I think you get the picture. But what is less apparent is that the Big Wig almost always listens to the Director’s recommendations.

Director

Although the Big Wig can ultimately overrule any action of a Director, it rarely happens. The relationship between these two is similar to a typical hierarchy in a Sri Lankan household. As the famous saying so eloquently put it, “Pa is boss as everyone knows, but what Ma says always goes”. And in most organizations the Big Wig is wise enough to allow the directors to make recommendations. Unlike the Big Wig, a Director’s absence is not highlighted very much. As a result some directors tend to take time off willy-nilly and can be seen at trendy coffee shops or the local golf course during the day. They also tend to travel a lot… and on business class too. Such liberties are mostly seen as wasting company money while contributing Jack (which sometimes is not very far from the truth).

Senior Manager

Way past his/her best. This person is very unlikely to move higher in the corporate ladder. The company doesn’t have the heart or in some instances, the courage to let him/her go. So instead, gives a corner room and assigns some unimportant piece of assignment and a couple of subordinates to keep him/her occupied. Most of the time it will be administrative work that is impossible to complete.

Manager

Supposed to report to the Senior Manager in theory. But is convinced the most effective way to perform is only if he/she bypasses two notches and reports directly to the Big Wig. And in most cases this is exactly what happens. As a result, most things the manager does (including stupid mistakes) get exposed at the highest levels of the organization and outside. By the time the mistakes are identified, it is too late to do anything. The cunning kind will always (and skillfully) put the blame on their subordinates in such cases, but is quick to claim any positive criticisms if any.

Junior Manager

Is the real worker. Most of the time, he/she will be called in to cover the Manager’s arse when the shit hits the fan. They work best when he/she has an un-dying appreciation for the Manager. Mostly a thankless job where he/she is not high enough on the corporate ladder to be able to claim fringe benefits like expense accounts, entertainment claims and worthwhile medicals nor he/she is low enough to be able to qualify for overtime double pay. Ends up working around the clock and develops alcohol addiction, heart conditions, gastritis and broken marriages as a result.

Techie

On par with junior Manager on the ol’ ladder. But has superior technical knowledge and the only kind who knows what exactly is inside the box that is being sold. Due to this reason, everybody (including the Big Wig) will tolerate their antics and occasional tantrums. A typical spoilt brat. Doesn’t give a damn about job security and what anyone else in the company thinks of them. Someday will be promoted to the Manager post and then his/her world starts crashing down like dominos.

Engineer

Has no idea of the company’s goals. Does exactly what the Techie tells them to do. Best describes as a worker ant or a production-line robot. Only goal in life is someday to end up in middle management as a Techie or a Junior Manager.

Trainee

This person sees the company best for what it really is. Will know exactly who pinched whose bottom at the Christmas party. But they don’t dare spill-the-beans or rock-the-boat during their “trainee” period. Secretly develops an infatuation for the most attractive person of the opposite sex at office. Most of the time this is the office Bimbo or the Chippendale in office admin.

Office Bimbo/Chippendale

Can be found in office admin mostly. Hired for their friendliness and attractiveness than anything else. Adds colour to the office. Also serves as the sole motivation for some employees to turn up at office in the morning. Usually ends up providing a rather entertaining story after the office Christmas party. Usually the Big Wig, a Director or a Senior Manager is also somehow entangled.

Consultant

The biggest fraud since fried ice-cream. All-fart and no-shit type of person. Manages to convince the Director or the Senior Manager to extend his/her contract for another year by claiming credit for someone else’s work. Or in some cases simply by using fear tactics. Appears to be busy most of the time in order to put off anyone trying to figure out exactly what this person does in the organization. While middle management and beyond falls for his/her charade, the actual worker ants and below will ridicule this personality behind his/her back everytime they get the chance.

Well,.. did I leave anyone out?

Some mothers do have ‘em! – Part 1

2008-04-01T21:42:00.001+05:30

Big-match weekend! What a great excuse for getting back together with my old classmates and swig a few beers on a searing Saturday in Colombo.

Although I promised to be at the “grounds” at 11 am, I got held up at the dentist. I had to take my seven year old to the dentist y’see. It’s amazing how her teeth needs attention just as she is about to lose them for more permanent ones. I have been delaying it hoping for the toothfairy’s visit. Maybe I forgot to tip the toothfairly when I was young – for she never arrived in time. I digress...

Anyway,.. it was way past noon when I managed to haul myself up to the grounds. As I was reaching the entrance… “tweet, “tweet”... oh great! An SMS on a Saturday can only mean one thing… emergency at work! Cursing, I checked out the SMS. To my relief it was from one of the guys I was supposed to meet.. telling me they took off to lunch. They want me to come to FD for lunch. I knew better than to complain… after all I was at fault for being late.

As I was reaching FD, I could hear them blokes a mile away. Even from outside the door it was apparent that large volumes of alcohol are already in their bellies and in their bloodstreams. I pity the waiters who have to put up with such boisterous sorts in such instances.

I entered the private dining area to the obvious delight of the guys already under influence. Once the handshakes and high-fives (yes, we are still sixteen) were over, I settled down and promptly orders some drinks (soft ones… yes, they did “boo” at me for that). For some reason, seeing these guys already “blowing in the wind” and the prospects of “catching up” with a few tequilas wasn’t really attractive to me at the time. At Zanziba’s on a Friday night would have been a different case altogether.

Before long, the food came. And it was disappointingly ordinary for FD. Maybe the waiters wanted to teach us a lesson. After all it was Chinese and Confucius did say “He who is drunk will get no tasty food”. Or was it my mother-in-law who said that? Nevertheless, we were all famished and started to gobble up the grub. As the food hit our stomachs and the digestive enzymes did their thing, the conversation turned more civil and actually enjoyable (mum, if you are reading this, we didn’t speak with our mouths full). At this stage I must inform you that three out of the seven guys there were in IT industry, one in telecom, another in apparel (or in “garment” as we Sri Lankans like to put it) and the remaining two managing their own businesses. Quite predictably we started sharing stories from work (yes, we do not have a “life”... none of us are in entertainment or hospitality or fashion or advertising.. okeeeyyy??)

When we started comparing our workplaces, their personalities and their management styles (don’t you just love such talk?... they give me goosebumps), it dawned on us that there were definitely clear and identifiable groups of personalities across our workplaces. So we started to explore that over the traditional lychees. Of course being the sensible and leaner member of the group, I went for the caramel-de-cholesterol pudding.

I wanted to let them know that I might just be able to blog it... but then that would have been too geeky and would have surely received an even louder “booo”.

...to be continued!

A brief tribute to Sir Arthur C. Clarke

2008-03-19T10:16:00.003+05:30

Anyone who played table-tennis with Sir Arthur C. Clarke at the Otters sports club will remember him to be a bit grumpy whenever he lost. But as far as I know that was the only flaw in this genius of a man. His contribution to futuristic theories and science fiction has been phenomenal. While “2001: A Space Odyssey” has been one of his most popular works, I especially enjoyed “Childhood's End", "The Fountains of Paradise", “Richter 10”, “The Hammer of God”, and the Rama series. He somehow manages to inject humanity and consciousness as well as technology into his stories. As a Sri Lankan, I have been honored that he adopted my country to settle down in.

In one of his famous quotes he said "The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion". But I don’t believe he would have minded me saying “May he attain Nibbana”!

Sorry Machan

2008-03-18T08:08:00.012+05:30

They say every individual is different and cannot (or should not) be stereotyped. But I disagree and think as Sri Lankans, we clearly show certain “qualities” that give us that unique signature style. Now… I’m not taking about these new age, culturally merged, fast-food bellied, coffee shop loving, lets-do-lunch type Lankans. They have a totally separate set of habits – which I don’t intend to go into on this article. I’m talking about the original, full-blooded Sri Lankan you find at the Sunday Pola^*1 or on a typical “Private Bus”^*2.

We smile at everything; when we are happy, when we make a mistake, when we are stressed out, even when we are constipated (that comes from my friend who admitted that smiling helps very much… go figure!). Heck, we see some lunatic driving straight at you the wrong way on a one-way street. He will stop right in front of your vehicle and give you the best smile he can muster - somewhere in that smile are an apology and a request for you to make way for him. Of course being a Sri Lankan you would know that.

We overuse words like sorry, aunty (or uncle)^*3, sir, and machan^*4. Very frequently using them more than once in the same sentence. For example, it is not uncommon for us to say “Machan, sorry machan”.

We have an opinion on just about everything. From running the country to the selection of the national cricket team, we believe we can do better than whoever is in control.

The concept of doing something on time is mostly limited to a few auspicious events during traditional New Year’s celebrations. Being late for something is no big deal for us. It is common for someone to not turn up for an appointment and not even apologize for it when they finally do meet. The strange thing is that the other party will be fine with this –they won’t even expect an explanation.

Sri Lankans are touchy-feely type of people. When friends meet they tend to hold each other’s hands throughout the entire conversation (especially if you bump into a friend of the same sex on the road). Most non-Sri Lankans will put a homosexual connotation to this behavior – but we know better.

Just try paying the bill after you’ve just had a meal in a nice restaurant with several of your Sri Lankan friends. Every single person at the table will want to pay that bill, regardless of who is hosting the meal or the amount of the bill. They won’t even hear of sharing! In such instances, I just give up – after all, it is nice to go back home with some money still left in my wallet for a change.

I’m sure the list goes on and on. Some of these habits can certainly be annoying,.. but then again that is who we are. Remember, we could do a lot worse.

^*1 - Pola is a traditional Sunday roadside market where prices are negotiable and bargains are plentiful.
^*2 - Buses in Sri Lanka are clearly categorized into Government (or Public) owned and Private owned. These privately owned buses (known as "Private Buses") are everywhere and easily outnumbers Government owned buses by at least a ratio of 3 to 1.
^*3 - Sri Lankans use the word Aunty and Uncle to address or refer to almost anyone who is older than themselves in appearance. This includes total strangers they happen to meet on the road.
^*4 - Machan is a very versatile word. Although the true meaning of it is "brother-in-law" most Sri Lankan males use this word as an Australian would use the word "mate"; to convey camaraderie. Occasionally females also use the word to convey the same meaning.

What's in a name?

2008-03-10T08:46:00.005+05:30

We are trying to name our newborn baby girl. It appears that the most appropriate letter to start with is "J"; Ideally "Ja". I prefer a name that is not very common and with some nice meaning to it. Anyone got any ideas?

It's a Girl!

2008-03-07T05:28:00.001+05:30

On 5th early morning we were blessed with a little angel of a baby girl. Keeping with tradition we will be naming her according to her time of birth. I hope people out there, especially Sri Lankans, will be able to help me choose some names. Watch this space for details.

KITT

2008-03-03T10:55:00.005+05:30

If you were a kid like me growing up in 1980’s you would undoubtedly recall the TV series “Knight Rider” and “KITT”. Back then we thought it was the best TV program and of course the coolest car ever! I even recall people fixing the signature “moving red light” onto the hood of their vehicles to give it that KITT look. It didn’t matter what their vehicles were; cars, vans, lorries, trishaws, and even the good ‘ol push-bikes.

Well, guess what? Knight Rider is back, but without David Hasselhoff (thank God for that). It is supposed to be a new made-for-TV movie. The best part is it has got even a cooler KITT – a still-to-be-released Black Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. The word is, it has got a supercomputer that can hack into almost any system, an even better weapons system than it’s predecessor (guess the flamethrower is still in then), AI,… and get this – it has nanotechnology giving it the ability to shape-shift. WOW! It is the best car ever!

I’m sure I got you all interested in it now. So check it out.

Doggone!

2008-02-28T11:13:00.007+05:30

This blog has gone to the dogs – quite literally! I managed to snap this one on my camera-phone while idling in traffic this morning. Anybody care to comment on this photograph? A creative caption perhaps?

At the blocks.

2008-02-09T18:31:00.001+05:30

Six and a half years at the "blocks" came to an end on 31st January 2008. And what a tenure it was. Through the years I have seen ups and downs and some talented individuals too. Upto date it has been my longest stint and it in itself speaks volumes. Many a times I have almost been tempted by what appeared to be greener pastures. But on each of those occasions I have decided to stick with "blocks" which allowed me to contribute more effectively. So no regrets.

It is now time to open another chapter - nothing against "bankers", but I feel it is no longer a challange. Therefore I'm off to take the bull by the horns... so to speak. Hoping for a bull run anyway. So much for the "exchange" lingo... I guess I'll need to catch-up a bit.

Adios IB!

Who dares Facebook?

2007-11-25T13:15:00.001+05:30

The latest craze in online social utilities seems to be Facebook. I'm not the sort of fellow who spends hours on end online. But after several of my friends raved about it, I finally decided to try it out.

Although I use less than 10% of facebook's various tools and functionality, I have already hooked up with several of my long lost friends thanks to it's vast reach and great search engines. I find it to be a great "friend locator" than anything else.

There are some who registers but avoids putting their profile details including photographs due to privacy concerns. Maybe they have a point,.. but I guess without such profile details, it defeats the whole purpose.

Three-wheels will do.

2007-11-18T20:21:00.001+05:30

What has got three tiny wheels, has a two stroke petrol engine with barely enough horsepower to run a toy aeroplane, a handlebar from a 1970s Italian scooter and a flimsy metal cage covered with cheap vinyl? A pile of junk you say? No,.. it is what we South Asians call a trishaw (aka “poor-man’s wheels”, “tuk-tuk” or “three-wheeler”). It is one of the best things to come out of India since Sunil Gavaskar.

When used properly, the “trishaw” can be an excellent and the most efficient mode of transport on busy and congested roads of metropolitan Sri Lanka. And I emphasize the words “when used properly”! ‘Cause most often than not, they are the worst traffic offenders ever.

Ever seen a trishaw trying to overtake a vehicle which is fifteen times more powerful than itself? It ain’t a pretty sight. You can’t help feel for the poor trishaw driver… even a staunch roadhog will stop or slow down his or her car and let the trishaw move ahead before the trishaw’s engine burns out. But once in a while, one would indulge in a little game called “whatever-you-can-do, I-can-do-better”. Let’s admit it; all of us have done this at least once, right?

If there is one thing that trishaw drivers can’t seem to tolerate more than anything, it would have to be idling in traffic. The dude or dudette (come to think of it, I’ve never seen a female trishaw driver) will try to inch away into any available space, not really thinking of a way to come out of it. For some reason it always reminds me of running WinZip on my harddrive.

If you have ever traveled in one of these mobile play-houses you would have come across a whole set of new experiences. Let’s just say it would rival the scariest theme park ride you’ve ever been to, sometime complete with sounds and neon lights too. Still, it will give you a unique experience that would leave a lasting impression. Must be the reason why a certain South African cricketer nearly ended up with more than he bargained for after his trishaw ride through Colombo. Even with all the brickbats we throw at them, on a rainy and dark night, especially when you are late and don’t have your wheels with you, I’m sure you would be glad the step into a trishaw. And don’t forget, not so long ago a trishaw driver did manage to get elected as the mayor of Colombo City. So they must be doing something right.

One little piece of parting advice though; make sure you agree on a fee with the driver before you step into the trishaw.

7th Year bash!

2007-10-06T23:00:00.002+05:30

In August, Interblocks turned 7. How best to celebrate than organizing a party… food, drinks and music,.. ahhhh Good stuff!

We all headed down to the Mt. Lavinia beach last Friday night. Invitations were extended to our customers as well. And they turned up in numbers. A four-piece calypso band was in full swing when I arrived. Drinks were flowing and all sorts of mouth watering smells were emanating from the Barbecue grill.

We were mingling with the customers and also a few former members of our staff when the music changed from live Calypso to a more night-clubby DJ type (complete with disco lights and a make-do plywood dance floor). Soon a few brave souls, doubtlessly with slightly higher levels of alcohol in their systems, started showing their moves on the plywood. As the night went on, the drinks kept coming, the food became more and more non vegetarian, and the music turned from Dance/Funk to Reggae to Baila and even to good ol’ big-match Papare.

We wound up earlier than usual – Thanks to an impatient DJ (I say, bring back “Curzon DJ”). Apart from a minor injury to our graphic designer’s left Shin, which he insists was caused by a misjudged step on the stairs onto the sandy beach, the worst damage were a few tired feet. We had a good time. Kudos to the organizing party. My only regret is me failing to capture that prized photograph of 17 empty Smirnoff bottles on the ledge behind the bar tables.

Cheers to all the participants!

Do you know him?

2007-09-21T17:48:00.001+05:30

He is big..ahem.. well..er..hefty! Athletic at times - especially when playing badminton. Drives a mean Honda City. Has a special connection with Africa, to be more precise, with Nigeria. Yes, you all know who I am referring to… The Nigerian white-boy of course!

Sad to see you go Suresh. It was a pleasure working with you. Have a good one!

Food for Thought.

2007-06-15T17:33:00.003+05:30

Yesterday was one of those bad days where nothing seemed to go my way. So right after work, we decided what better way to drown your sorrows than some good grub at one of our favorite restaurants.

We ended up at the German Restaurant (Bavarian Barn). Located at "Galle Face Courts, Colombo 03", it is a nice and cozy little space with plenty of atmosphere and authentic German food. We haven't been there for years and pleasantly surprised to see nothing has changed all this time. Service was excellent, food was never too late and the portions were just the right size. Oh,... and the food was smashingly tasty too!

It was a bit pricy I must admit. But then again, you’ve got to spoil yourself once in a while at least.

Recommendation: Beef Stroganoff with buttered noodles and tossed salad. A glass of good full bodied Spanish Red to wash it off with.

Bring it on!

2007-04-25T07:43:00.001+05:30

Cricket; it's a funny game. The only sport I can think of which involves at least a full day to complete one game. To most people that is way too long to be a spectator sport. But if you ask any Sri Lankan out there, they will tell you otherwise.

Being a full blooded Sri Lankan, I am no different. I stayed up till 3 am this morning, despite it being a weekday to witness the Sri Lankan team crush New Zealand to book a place in the final. Having won all their games so far in this tournament, the Aussies look favorites to take the other final spot over South Africa.

Although Sri Lankan team’s chances of wining the world cup will be a lot more if they get to play South Africa in the final, every Sri Lankan’s dream would be their team triumphing over the mighty Australians. For we are a sentimental lot – we love to reminisce our famous 1996 world cup win over Australia. And what a treat it would be to do it all over again.

Come Saturday, drums will beat, trumpets will sound. And under the hot Caribbean Sun Sri Lankans will go head to head with a formidable opponent. We will have the local crowd behind us and I can almost hear them saying….

"Bring on the Aussies maan!"

Spruce up your ride

2007-02-26T17:25:00.001+05:30

I’m pretty much a chocolate-ice-cream guy. I like my biscuit-pudding made with a lot of dark chocolate. I don’t much fancy those orange rinds and cashew nuts which according to my wife, “completes” the pudding. Likewise, I like my car to be unmodified and still be in it’s original condition even after a decade.

I used to make fun of people who “pimped up” their rides. I used to laugh at those ridiculous “spoilers” that so often resembled a clothes-line used to dry your undies than a performance enhancing accessory of an automobile. And those neon lights underneath the vehicle body? Were they expecting the car to breakdown anytime and the neons able to help the mechanic sliding underneath it? How about those things called body-kits? Surely the additional baggage must not be good for the poor engine.

Then came NFS. No Viranjan, not Network File Systems, NFS as in “Need for Speed”. Yes, I’m referring to those awesome series of computer games. In no time, I was an avid player. Sleepless nights hunched over the keyboard modifying my ride. Adding 18 inch alloys, new exhaust systems and complete Nitrous systems to give me that extra boost on the stretch. I was addicted. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any crazier, they started releasing movies like “The Fast and the Furious”… most recent being “The Fast and the Furious – The Tokyo Drift”.

It was like a virus. I’ve got it now. I was pretty much pulled in by the sheer power and adrenaline in the experience. Suddenly I found myself chatting about such modification with people 10 years younger to me driving modified Subarus and Hondas. And I was enjoying it too. Can you believe at one stage I even seriously contemplated getting rid of my faithful Nissan for a two litre twin turbo Subaru Legacy? Not that the thought has completely vacated my mind either. Aren’t humans supposed mature as they aged? Maybe I am not human - I’d like to think I am not as old as some might think.

Colours of India

2007-02-16T18:59:00.001+05:30

It may be an overpopulated and a dusty city. But Chennai is full of colour and culture. Check out the vibrant colours of the photo - it was taken at a shop which dedicated itself to Sarees. For any readers who might not be from the subcontinent, it is a common garment worn by women of India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other countries in that vicinity.

Thanks Roman!

2007-02-13T08:37:00.003+05:30

Some call him Roman. I never knew why he was called that and never felt the need to ask either. For the people out there who knows why, now is the time to state your comments to this post. We know him to be a professional graphic designer cum web developer. He is equally skilled in playing the guitar and a great singer too. All in all, a very pleasant and fun loving guy.

We shall miss him, for he will be bidding farewell to his friends and colleagues on his journey in sharpening is graphics skills. I am sure he will make a lasting impression on his new friends down-under.

Although hastily organized, we all met at a popular cricketing venue in the heart of Colombo on a Monday night. Usually the place attracts blokes who love to get sloshed after work. But this time members of the fairer sex were gracing the occasion and were willing to tolerate the barbaric drinking session on account of Roman - that itself speaks volumes of his likeability at the workplace.

There are always one or two who get one too many inside of them on such occasions - don't we all know that! Usually "flat-trick" takes this honor and he didn't disappoint this time either. We eventually managed to calm his nerves down. Hope he managed to ride his motor-bike back to his crib without much drama. Avoiding an earful from his missis, well that's another story.

Anyways, Roman - if you are reading this, hope this somewhat disastrous get-together didn't disappoint you too much. Although if it did, we will understand. As you rightfully said... "Let's keep in touch with Blogging". Thank you for the marvelous contribution at work and the endless tunes you played for us on numerous occasions. Next time you have a Foster's or a VB, keep in mind that we will be toasting to you too.

Have a great one mate!

Sunday afternoon Jazz

2007-02-12T08:10:00.002+05:30

I have been meaning to check-out "Jazz Unlimited" held at a popular Rugby club every 1st Sunday of the month. But my Sundays have been pretty hectic for some time.

It was a warm Sunday afternoon in Colombo; time was around 3.30pm when I arrived at the venue. Jazz was already in full swing. The crowd pleasant and colourful. Foreign expats easily outnumbered locals. Beer was flowing and mouth watering Bar-B-Q aroma filled the air. I recognized a few prominent faces. Also a few nods from people whom I've met in passing before. There was even a bouncy-castle and pony rides for the kids.

I settled down at a table with some company I new well. Started tasting refreshing chilled Carlsberg beer. Ahhh, what a way to spend your Sunday afternoon. I was already regretting not making it before.

Jazz was getting better with every performance. Either that or I was getting drunk on Carlsberg. I even got to witness the thinnest smoke I have ever seen. Towards dusk, the music was transforming from Jazz to Blues with a stunning performance of Gary Moore's "Still got the Blues" by Shafee, the ex-WildFire member.

Live music wound down around 8.00pm. There was still a relatively large crowd hanging around when I left. It was indeed a pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I will certainly be there next month... maybe with my family too.

Following Your Dream

2007-02-07T19:25:00.001+05:30

Have you read a good book lately? If not, try Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist"; a wonderful tale of dreams, adventure and discovery which can be an inspiration to people of all ages.

The incredible simplicity adopted in writing this story takes your breath away. It is highly captivating and makes you all warm inside. I will certainly be checking out more works of Coelho soon.