𝑾𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝑾𝒂𝒊𝒍 ( දුක් ගන්නා රාළ )

When we went shopping yesterday, the mall was busier than normal with families taking their children out and soaking up the holiday cheer. As we waited for our order to come, we spotted a father, a mature son, and a young girl, maybe around ten years old, at the counter next to us. She was pleading with her brother to accompany her as she wanted to show him something in another aisle, but because he was engaged in a conversation with the father, she left him alone and returned alone running a short while later, slamming into my wife and knocking her cell phone flying. She halted in her steps, and the father gave us a quick glance before turning to face the other direction as if nothing had happened. There were no noticeable indicators of damage from the fall when we answered the phone. Although accidents can be avoided, they still occur for a variety of reasons. However, I believe it was a squandered opportunity if you did not take the chance to learn something worthwhile from the inci...

So many accidents have resulted in people losing their lives, limbs, and property, but the authorities are still in a deep slumber. During COVID times, they only had statistics to show how many people died every day but no statistics to show how many lives are lost in road accidents. Impose traffic rules, and there will be a drastic reduction in such incidents of this nature. Accidents are preventable. එවිට මෙවැනි මෙතරම් අනතුරුවලින් මිනිසුන්ගේ ජීවිත, අතපය, දේපළ අහිමි වී ඇතත් බලධාරීන් තවමත් සිටින්නේ තද නින්දකය. COVID කාලවලදී, දිනකට මිනිසුන් කී දෙනෙක් මිය යනවාද යන්න පෙන්වීමට සංඛ්‍යාලේඛන පමණක් තිබූ නමුත් මාර්ග අනතුරු වලින් කොපමණ ජීවිත සංඛ්‍යාවක් අහිමි වේද යන්න පෙන්වීමට සංඛ්‍යාලේඛන නොමැත. මාර්ග නීති ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන්න. එවිට මෙවැනි සිදුවීම් විශාල ලෙස අඩු වනු ඇත. අනතුරු යනු  වළක්වා ගත හැකි  සිද්දියකි. எத்தனையோ விபத்துகளால் மக்கள் உயிரையும், அங்கங்களையும், உடமைகளையும் இழந்தாலும் அதிகாரிகள் இன்னும் ஆழ்ந்த உறக்கத்தில் உள்ளனர். கோவிட் காலங்களில், ஒவ்வொரு நாளும் எத்தனை பேர் இறக்...

ජෛව උපයෝගීතාව යන වචනය බොහෝ දෙනෙකුට අලුත් දෙයක් විය හැකිය . සෞඛ්‍ය හා වෛද්‍ය ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ සිටින අයට මෙම වචනය හුරුපුරුදුය . එයින් අදහස් වන්නේ ඖෂධයක් හෝ වෙනත් ද්රව්යයක් ශරීරයට අවශෝෂණය කර භාවිතා කිරීමට ඇති හැකියාවයි . ඉහළ ජෛව උපයෝගීතාව යනු වැඩි අවශෝෂණයක හැකියාවයි . මානව ඉංජිනේරු නිෂ්පාදනවලට වඩා ස්වාභාවික නිෂ්පාදන ඉහළ ජෛව උපයෝගීතාවයක් ඇති බව වෛද්‍ය ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ වසර ගණනාවක් තිස්සේ දන්නා කරුණකි . ඒකට හේතුව අපි ස්වභාවධර්මයේම කොටසක් වීමයි. මානව ඉංජිනේරුවන් කෙතරම් නවෝත්පාදනයන් ගෙන ඒමට උත්සාහ කළද ස්වභාවධර්මය සමඟ ඔවුන්ගේ උත්සාහයන් සංසන්දනය කිරීමේදී ඔවුන් සිටින්නේ බොහෝ පසුපසිනි . ස්වාභාවික නිෂ්පාදනයක් මිනිසා විසින් සාදන ලද නිෂ්පාදනයකින් වෙන්කර හඳුනා ගැනීමට ශරීරයට හැකියාව ඇත. නිෂ්පාදනයක් ස්වභාවධර්මයට සමීප වන තරමට ශරීරය එය ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කිරීමේ සම්භාවිතාව අඩු වේ . නිෂ්පාදනයක් ස්වභාවධර්මයට සමීප වන තරමට ශරීරය එය පිළිගැනීමේ සම්භාවිතාව ද වැඩි වේ . මිනිසා විසින් සාදන ලද විශිෂ්ට නිෂ්පාදන රාශියක් ඇති බවට සැකයක් ...

ගෘහ සේවිකාවක් හැටියට මැදපෙරදිග ගිහින් දියුණු වෙන්න පුලුවන්ද? සමහර විට ඔබට මේ සිද්දිය අමතක්ත් ඇති. ඒක ඔබේ හෝ මගේ වරදක් නිසා නෙමෙයි. මේ වගේ සිද්දි අපිට දිනපතා ඇහෙන්න සිද්ද වෙන නිසා, සමහර සිද්දි අමතක වීම ස්වබාවික දෙයක්. අලුත්ම ආරංචිය තමයි ඕමාන් රටෙදී අපේ අම්මලා, නංගිලා, දුවලා ගණිකා සේවය සඳහා විකිණීම පිළිබඳ ආරංචිය. ඔය ආරංචිය අස්සේ සමාජමාධ් ‍ ය හරහා තවත් විඩියෝවක් ප් ‍ රචාරනය වෙනවා, එහෙම දේවල් ඒ රටේ වෙන්නේ නැහැ කියලා. පුදුමේ කියන්නේ එහෙම කියන්නෙත් දැනට ඒ රටේම ජීවත් වන අපේම ශ් ‍ රී ලංකිකයන් කොටසක් වීමයි. දැන් තත්වය දියුණු වෙලා නම් ඒක සංතෝසයට කාරනයක් නම් තමයි. මමත් තිස් අවුරුද්දකට කිට්ටු වෙන්න ඒ රටේ වැඩ කරපු කෙනෙක්. හැබයි එතෙකොට නම් තත්වය මීට වඩා හාත්පසින්ම වෙනස්. මේ රටවල මිනිස්සුන්ට (මිනිස්සු කියන එකත් මනුශ්ෂත්වයට නිග් ‍ රහයක්) ගෑණු කියන්නේ සෙල්ලම් භාණ්ඩයක් පමණයි. ඒක තමන්ගේ ගෑණිටයි කියලා වැඩි වෙනසක් නැහැ. ජාතී ආගම්, කුළ බේද මේ ක් ‍ රියා වලියේදි වැදගත් නැහැ. හොඳ සහ නරක් මිනිස්සු කොයි රටේත් ඉන්නවා. වෙනස මේ රටවල හොඳ කියන අය අත්ලොස්සක් පමණයි වීමයි. ගෘහ සේවිකාවක් හැටියට මැදපෙරදිග ගිහින් දියුණු...

This morning in Colombo, an old person was discovered sleeping under a public bus stop in front of the Regal Cinema. He claimed to have been a welder before ending up on the street, but because he is nearly deaf, he cannot hold a decent discussion to reveal further information about himself. He claimed he could only consume liquids and asked me to send him to a hospital or nursing home so he could receive the necessary care and rest. I was only able to buy him some beverages and ask a nearby, on-duty city traffic police to see if there was anything that could be done to accommodate his request. The policeman said he would notify and phone 911, but I'm not sure if he actually did. Please check to see if this old person's request can be granted if anyone has the power to do so. Thanks. අද උදෑසන කොළඹ රීගල් සිනමාහල ඉදිරිපිට පොදු බස් නැවතුම්පොළක් යට මහලු පුද්ගලයකු නිදා සිටියදී සොයා ගැනිණි. ඔහු පාරට බැසීමට පෙර පෑස්සුම්කරුවෙකු බව ප් ‍ රකාශ කළ නමුත් ඔහු බිහිරි බැවින් ඔහු ගැන වැඩිදුර ත...

Making it mandatory for children to come to school in a uniform to get an education is a very outdated concept. Allowing them to attend school in any attire is the way forward. Some argue that the prescription is to make all children look equal, and class disparities will not matter then, but the interesting question is for how long? Only for 8 hours, after which the rich go their separate ways and the less fortunate go their separate ways.  To maintain balance in society, it is necessary for there to be good and bad, wealthy, and poor, but I am not here to discuss or advocate how that balance should be allocated. Many kids will drop out of school if they don't have a uniform to go to school, is one thing I am sure about but whether it be labelled because of prior karma, God's will, or whatever label one chooses based on their own views and convictions, is up to each individual. In a city setting, this condition might not be as obvious, but because most of the child...

Due to the current situation in the country, most hotels are trying to bring in local guests with attractive family weekend packages that include the use of the pool without additional cost. Recently, I attended a wedding at one of these hotels, and their pool was full of young and small kids, but nowhere to be seen as any lifeguard on duty. A couple of days ago, a 24-year-old young man drowned in the pool of one of the hotels in Mount Lavinia. What really led to the drowning, I am not aware, but it was confirmed that the pool was left unattended. It took a long time to locate the lifeguard who was supposed to be on duty, and due to the lifeguard's lack of lifesaving training, and availability of necessary equipment at hand, very few attempts were made to resuscitate him after being taken out of the water. If there had been a trained person on duty that day, the fate of the young man would have been different. Therefore, the purpose of this is not to blame anyone but rather to offe...

Loading and unloading passengers in wheelchairs on flights was part and parcel of the ground handlers' daily work, and once the process was handled successfully, it was forgotten. A gentleman arriving from Pakistan would have fallen into the same category if not for the incident that happened on his departing flight. The afternoon rush was at its peak when I got a radio call from one of our colleagues to come to his flight. He said it in a very calm voice, but knowing him well and his capacity and versatility, I sensed that it must be something important, or he would have managed alone to solve or rectify the matter. As I entered the aircraft cabin, I immediately got a waft of a bad odour, and I could see some passengers were showing signs that they were not so pleased about the whole situation, especially with the odour wafting. My colleague came to me and explained the issue: the gentleman who arrived from a point in Pakistan had lost his bowel control, soiled himself, and was no...

A long-term habit of mistrust and suspicion of people without good cause is a sign of paranoid personality disorder ( PPD ), a mental health disease (paranoia). People with PPD frequently think that others are threatening, demeaning, or harming them. The idea that isolated societies think of themselves as exceptional or superior to the rest of the world is known as the " Island mentality ." This phrase describes the superiority of a group of people or an isolated individual on a cultural, moral, or ideological level rather than an island or other geographically isolated society. Narrow-mindedness, ignorance, or outright animosity against any artefact (idea, ideology, lifestyle choice, an art form, etc.) originating from beyond the geographical area inhabited by the society can be used to describe island mentality. Many people in Sri Lanka are infected with a lethal cocktail made up of the two ideas. They always have these baseless conspiracy theories and useless ...

Why some segments of society are good at doing business? Interesting question, and in an ethnically divided society like ours, it is better to find answers and how some, if not all, of their methods, can be adopted by others as well. One of the most successful business communities in the world for centuries has been the Jews. What are the secrets of their success? They are no longer secrets, and a few methods that they practice can be adopted and practised by others as well. The first and foremost one is honesty in all dealings. Many would disagree with me when I say this. I do not want to deal with dissenters, but if honesty was missing in their dealing, they would not have been in business for this long. Most of the practices are commandments and they follow them diligently. One is that a father should teach his son how to make an honest living and, further, it goes to say, to teach him how to swim. It should not be taken literally and what it means is to teach ho...

 A ccording to official data, Sri Lanka's public sector now employs more than 1.5 million people, doubling in size over the previous 15 years. Despite having one public servant for every 14 inhabitants, efficiency in the public sector is lower than that of Sri Lanka's Asian counterparts. The need for staff reductions in public services has been going on for some time now and there are many suggestions from various corners already percolating in the media. A reduction drive should have to have a multi-prong approach to be successful. The first one is to cut down on the cost of maintaining excessive staff. The second one is to determine the optimum numbers needed to be efficient and accountable.  The third is to create a safety net to avoid retrenchment staff not becoming a burden to the system a few years down the line.  The fourth goal is to encourage and provide incentives for individuals to advance in a new and useful vocation by obtaining additional educa...