𝑾𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝑾𝒂𝒊𝒍 ( දුක් ගන්නා රාළ )

Reserving a parking spot in front of any trading establishment facing a public access road has to be done legally. Not just with a couple of yards of rope, a few polls and a cardboard placard written in horrible-looking handwriting. They do not even deserve to be called handwriting. This happens often, but it is more evident nowadays with vehicles forming lines in front of fuel sheds. Owners of some businesses are now hostile to motorists who have parked in front of their buildings, especially those who have obtained such locations without the required authorization. With no malicious intent, I would like to share with others my personal experience only for educational purposes. I was relieved to see the line of patiently waiting cars begin to move forward after spending the entire night in the car. At first, the line travelled quite slowly with sporadic stops. On this particular occasion, I was compelled to briefly stop in front of a parking space that had been reserved unlawfully. A ...

To get 20 litres of gasoline, I waited in line for 24 hours. Does it make sense? Rs 9000 ÷ 24 Hours = Rs 375. Is it my real worth? I do not think so. Even a worker with no skills is paid more than that for an hour of work today. Imagine the number of loss of useable man hours due to this situation. All that the population demands are to have an uninterrupted supply line and prices are at par with prevailing world market rates. I support a full revamp of the current system for just reasons like this. But I am glad that I changed my mind and decided to stand in line with everyone else for fuel. My mind and body have been trained to handle such an event over the course of four decades of working overnight shifts in a variety of locations with varied weather conditions. When they saw how long the line had already grown, some people arrived and left. Others tried various manoeuvres to fit their vehicles in spaces, clearly kept for reasons they were either not aware of or did not comprehend...

It all came to a head with a liquid petroleum gas cylinder exploding in someone’s kitchen. It was not a rare incident and a few more followed some losing their lives, others ending up with serious burn injuries and losing property as well. Later, it was revealed that the importers were trying to maximize their profits by changing the composition of the mixture. followed by a shortage of cooking gases (LP), and queues started forming in front of places where they dispense cylinders. Those queues became longer, and so did the waiting time to get one cylinder, and it was not because of the length of the queues but because we had no foreign currency to import LP gases from other countries. How many people have lost their lives queuing up for a mere LP gas cylinder?  This was forgotten with the shortage of petrol and diesel at sheds.   The same story of forming queues in front of sheds was repeated just like in the case of LP gas, and some lines were longer than 6 kilos...

A democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. Or as Abraham Lincoln put it, "government of the people, by the people, for the people". Yes, it is a real concern, when someone powerful yet does not follow the very principle tells another not so powerful to abide by the principles of it. That doesn't mean we have to abandon our principles and adopt jungle law. Be a hypocrite like many and preach to others what we do not follow.   I do not think so. What do you think? ප් ‍ රජාතන්ත් ‍ රවාදය යනු සාමාන් ‍ යයෙන් තේරී පත් වූ නියෝජිතයන් හරහා සමස්ත ජනගහනය හෝ රාජ් ‍ යයක සියලුම සුදුසුකම් ලත් සාමාජිකයන් විසින් පාලනය කරන පාලන ක් ‍ රමයකි . එසේත් නැතිනම් ඒබ් ‍ රහම් ලින්කන් පැවසූ පරිදි , " ජනතාවගේ , ජනතාව විසින් , ජනතාව වෙනුවෙන් ". ඔව් , තුසිත පෙන්වා දුන් පරිදි , බලවත් කෙනෙකු තවමත් එම ප් ‍ රතිපත්තියම අනුගමනය නොකරන විට , එතරම් බල...

  If RW claims to be an educated person, he should realize by now we have a big problem in this country and it will not go away by threatening the Aragalaya. Even his uncle thought so, and his bold claim, "They have to find an eggshell to hide in," backfired on him. Instead of making stupid threats just like his late uncle JRJ, he should listen to the people and find a solution to the issue rather than hell-bending on protecting looters and murderers only. Otherwise, history will repeat itself and he will be portrayed as a bigger fool than his late uncle JRJ in history. And in the case of SP , he was proven beyond any doubt that he was a total failure. If you have no confidence in facing a challenge, say so openly and relinquish your leadership to someone who can guide the party accordingly to the masses' wishes. I am not a JVP fan, but I like AKD ’s decision to contest, no matter the number of votes he would receive. I think it is time we collectively p...

We were getting ready at the famous J12 to watch the cricket match between India and Sri Lanka in the Cricket World Cup series in 1996 .  Primus suddenly walked in with a few papers and a very serious-looking face. He took me to one side and broke the news that my father had passed away in Sri Lanka a little while ago. The whole J12 mood changed from festive to sombre, and I got dressed up immediately and went to get my leave and travel sanctioned. That same night, Primus accompanied me to the airport for my homebound travels. Both of us knew well that the flight was fully booked and the chances of getting a seat for a rebated ticket were extremely remote, but I had no choice except to take a chance. Luckily for me, that night shift in charge was none other than Late Mr Dharshan Nissanka. Seeing us trying to approach the check-in counters, he came running towards us, stating "Is this a time for you to travel? Don’t you know the flights are overbooked during this period...

  මෙවැනි දර්ශණ ඉතා සුලබව ශ් ‍ රී ලංකාවේදී දැක ගත හැක.  මේ ප් ‍ රශ්ණයට මුල්ම වැරදි කරු දැනට පවතින රජයේ අදූර දර්ශී ක් ‍ රියා කලාපය බවට සැකයක් නැහැ.  නමුත් වැඩි මිලට විකුනන එකාටම පමණක් සමාජ මාඩ් ‍ ය ජාලා වල දොස් පැවරරීම සාධාරණද. වැඩි මිලක් දී ගන්නා අයගේ සමාජ වගකීම මොකක්ද.  සිතීමට කාලය පැමින ඇත. This is not very uncommon in Sri Lanka right now. Who is wrong here is an interesting question. Are those who sell at exorbitant prices or the ones who are willing to pay those rates? Liberalization of the market and bringing in more competition is the only way out. Nothing else. Time to think.

සම හරක් තාම හිතන් ඉන්නේ මේ රට මේ අගාදයට ඇද දැම්මේ අරගලය කරන කට්ටිය කියලා. රටේ සංචිත නැතිවුනේ රාජ පස්ස හොරු රැල හොරකම් කරපු නිසා මිසක් ඒක අපි අතින් වෙච්ච වරදක් නෙමෙයි. අපි කවදාද නිකන් තෙල් ගැහුවේ. ගෑස්, වතුර, විදුලිය ගත්තේ. ගුවන් ගමන් නිකන් ගියේ. මේ 2015 වේ ගමට ගිහින් ජනේලේ එල්ලිලා ලොකු කතා දාන්න හෙලිකොප්ටරයක් දීමේ වරද. අද අපි මේ ගෙවනවා ඒදා ගාළුමුවදොරට අරන් ඇවිත් කලයුතු දේ කලානම් මේවා වෙයිද. එදා හෙලිකොප්ටරය දුන්න එකා තමත් වලි කනවා හොරු රැල රකින්න. අද තියෙන වියවස්තාවෙන් මහජනයට ආරක්ශාවක් සහ සේවයක් නොවෙනවා නම් මොකද්ද ඒකේ ඇති ප්රයෝජනය. හොරු රකින වියවස්තා අපිට මොකටද? තරුණ පරපුරට දිසාව තිරණය කරන්න දෙමු. අපිට කිසිම අයිතියක් නැහැ අරක කරන්න මේක කරන්න මෙහෙම කරන්න කියන්න. අපි කිසිවක් නොකර ආඬි හත්දෙනා වගේ බලන් හිටපු නිසා තමයි මේ රටට මෙහෙම වුනේ. අපේ වාරය ඉවරයි.  දැන් තරුණයන්ගේ වාරයයි. මේ රට සිම්බාබවේ තැනට ගෙනාවේ අපි. තරුණ පරපුර එච්චර මෝඩයි  කියලා හිතන්නේ නැහැ මේක සෝමාලියවක් කරගන්න. මේ කතා කියන්නේ බැරි වෙච්ච අපිම තමයි.  මේවට තමයි සිංහගෙන් කියනේ දුකට කියන කවි කියලා. මේ තරුණයෝ කොන්ඩා රැවු...

Some segments, obviously very small and naturally Rajapaksa fans, are now asking on social media sites why once you were agitating "Gota Go Home" and when they are ready to leave, their attempts are scuttled and what is the meaning of the double standard? This is a very common thing among the Rajapaksa fans, who are known to have very low comprehension. The real meaning of the phrase "Gota Go Home" has many layers and therefore it should not be taken word for word to understand.  The first layer is that he should relinquish all the power vested in him now.  The second layer is to be prepared to face criminal charges in court for bringing the country to the point where it must declare bankruptcy. The third layer is to face actions to bring back the stolen public money to the country. And the call for "Gota Go Home" does not, in any sensible way, mean allowing him to flee the country without facing any of the above. The agitation can be used a...

Without further ado, the Celebrations started. ඉතිහාසේ වරද්දන්නේ නැතුව ලියමු.  ගියා නෙමෙයි එලෙව්වා කියලා. කිව්වනේ පඹයෝ නිකම් යන්නේ නැහැ ගලවල විසිකරනකම්.

 If someone thinks that what happened today was his or her loss, then it is a mistake. As long as we stay divided (race, caste, religion, region, whatever), it will be a breeding ground for religious and political parasites  Even in Islam, it is said that one should not leave a space between two who stand shoulder to shoulder or the devil will take that position. It is a very meaningful message. Do not let the devil come and stand between you and I. What we accomplished without spilling much blood is historic, and we now know what we can accomplish collectively if we channel our energy correctly. We do not need leaders anymore. We, the public, are the leaders and all we need is a representation only. Those who can represent us and deliver our needs and aspirations are only to be sent henceforth and not those who can give your son an appointment in a government office with a pension or a few roofing materials etc.  අද සිදුවූයේ ඔහුගේ හෝ ඇයගේ පාඩුව යැයි යමෙ...

සම හරක් තාම බලා ගෙන ඉන්නවා. මේ පාර රාවණාද කොහෙද එනකම්. දියසේනව ගෙනාවා. උත් නානවා. අපිවත් නාවනව. පෝලිම්වල බලන් හිටියා මදිද තව. තෙල් එනකම් කිය කිය මදුරුවෝ තල තල ලොරි ලෑල්ලක් උඩ ලොරි ටෝක් දිදි පෝලිමේ සෙට් වෙච්ච අලුත් යාලුවෝ එක්ක ඩින්ක් එකක් දානවට වඩා, හෙට පෝලිම් අතහැරලා අරගලයට සහයෝගයක් දුනොත් නරකද? ජෙප්පන්ට, සජියාට බැන්නට, දවස් ගනන් පෝලිම් වල හිටියට මේ ප්‍රශ්ණේට විසදුම ලැබෙන්නේ නැහැ. එන්න හෙට හෝ ගාන පොකුණත් සම හරක්ට බලා ගන්නත් පුලුවන්නේ. මතකනේ දිනේ.  වඳ කොත්තුත් නිකම් දෙනවා.

Subject: Urgent Attention: US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Dear Ambassador Chung, Warm Greetings. I have been a permanent resident of the US for the last 28 years and am currently residing in Virginia.  I worked at the World Bank (WB) Headquarters for 26 years as a Senior Economist and retired in December 2021.  My wife and daughter are US citizens. I would like to draw your attention to the ongoing police/armed forces’ brutality towards my compatriots who are spending most of their waking hours in lines to obtain a few litres of gas/fuel.  The vast majority of them are staying up for days with little or no food and other basic facilities.  There are many recorded instances where the police and army, stationed to bring some order, have clearly overstepped their authority to engage in egregious abuses towards these innocent, helpless crowds. The attached video clip provides one such example. Since the current Sri Lankan regime has lost its credibility, I have decided to w...

සම හරක්ගේ හිතේ හමුදාවට කරන්න බැරි දෙයක් නැහැ කියලා. ඒ හිංදම තමයි අපිට හොඳ හමුදා පාලනයක් කිය කියා මේ මී හරක් ටික සමාජ මාධ් ‍ ය ජාලාවල තවමත් තප්පුලන්නේ . ඊයේ තෙල් පෝලිමේ සිද්දියම ඇති හමුදාවට බලය නොතිබිලත් මේ විදියට හැසිරෙනවා නම් හමුදා පාලනයක් තිබුනොත් කොහොම හැසිරේවිද කියලා හිතා ගන්න . වැඩි හරියක් හමුදා සේවයට බැඳුනේ රට බේර ගන්න නෙමෙයි . දුප්පත් කමෙන් මිදෙන්න . මතකනේ හසලක වීරයාගේ අන්තිම අම්මාට ලියපු ලියුමේ තිබුන දේ .. "අම්මේ මම එන පඩියෙන් කකුස්සියක් හදා ගන්න සල්ලි එවන්නම්" කියලා. ඕක තමයි වැඩි දෙනෙකුගේ ඇත්ත තත්වය. චීවරයට සමුදීලා හමුදා සේවයට බැඳුනු හසලක ගාමිණි වගේ අතලොස්සක් නැතුව නෙමෙයි. නමුත් අද මාතෘකාව ඒක නෙමෙයි. ඇත්ත දේශප්‍රේමීන් ගැන පස්සේ දවසක කතා කරමු. හමුදා පාලනයක ආදීනව අපිට හොඳට දැන ගන්න ඕනේ තරම් පාඩම් තියෙනවා ඉතිහාසයෙන් . ප් ‍ රශ්නේ තියෙන්නේ මේ මී හරක් පතක් පොතක් කියවන එකක්යෑ . අර අංඩුවේ හොරනෑ පෙට්ටියෙන් කියන ඒවා විතරනේ දන්නේ. හිට්ලර් , මුසෝලිනි ...