𝑾𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝑾𝒂𝒊𝒍 ( දුක් ගන්නා රාළ )

පාරෙ යනකොට දැක්කා කව්රුහරි ලයිට් කණුවේ එල්ලපු පොඩි කඩදාසි කෑල්ලක්. ඒ කඩදාසි කෑල්ල හුලඟට ඒ මේ අතට වැනි වැනී තිබුණා. මොනවද මේකෙ ලියලා තියෙන්නෙ ? මම ඒ දෙසට පොඩ්ඩක් එබිකම් කරලා බැලුවා. " මගෙ රු 50 /= ක් නැති වුණා.කාගෙ හරි අතට අහුවුණොත් මේ ලිපිනයට ගෙනත් දෙන්න.මට හරියට ඇස් පේන්නෑ." මොනවද කරන්නෙ දැන්? මේක එයාගෙ ඇඩ්රස් එකත් තියෙනවා. හ්ම්! අර ඉන්නෙ... අංකල්! මේ ලිපිනය කොහෙද තියෙන්නෙ කියලා පොඩ්ඩක් කියනවද? ආා... මේ ආච්චි අම්මද? පොඩ්ඩක් ඉස්සරහට ගියපුහාම පරණ ගෙයක් තියෙනවා . මේ ආච්චි අම්මා ඒ ගෙදර තමා ඉන්නෙ .හැබැයි එයාට ඇස් පේන්නෑ. මොකද්ද කාරණේ? නෑ මේ නිකං එයාව හම්බෙන්න කියලා . හ්ම්... තෑන්ක්‍ යූ අංකල්! හ්ම්... මේක වෙන්න ඇති තැන.ගරා වැටිච්ච පරණ ගෙයක් නෙ. වැස්සකට වත් ඔරොත්තුදෙන එකක් නෑ. බව්..! බව්.. ! බව්..! කව්ද ඔය ? එන්න ඇතුලට. බය වෙන්නෙපා ඌව බැඳලා තියෙන්නෙ. ටොමියො කට වහපං . ගෙදරට එන අය ව බය කරන් නැතිව . (හීන් කට හඬක් ! යාන්තමට වගේ මට ඇහුණා.) ඇති යාන්තම් බේරුණා ටොමියගෙන් . යමු ඇතුලට... ඇස් ඇතුලට එබිච්ච , දිරාපත් වූ මළ කඳකට වැරහැල්ලක් අන්දවා පරණ ඇඳක් උඩ වාඩි කෙරෙව්වා සේ දෑස් නොපෙනෙන ඒ ආච්...

Now everyone is trying to take credit by claiming " මම බලන්න ගියා, මම තමයි ආරාධනා කලේ " in a very sad situation in Sri Lanka.  But no one is asking " කව්ද මේ කොමිස් ඉල්ලපු කෙනා හොයන්න කියලා ".  Why ? Let's hear from those so-called champions who had been try to take credit in this Saga,  කව්ද මේ කොමිස් ඉල්ලපු කෙනා හොයන්න කියලා  !

We are no better that the " Looters " and the " NATO " boys. First we send " Looters " to the legislature to represent us. Then they start plundering and ruling than representing us. What we do is act like " NATO " boys. When the next opportunity comes along, we follow the same ritual, like what we had been doing for the last six decades or so. Let’s get out of this rut and take responsibility for our failures than pointing finger at another real or imaginary. Remember, “ Improvement beginnings with I ”. Stop depending on " Looters " to extricate us from this quagmire and act wisely than being another " NATO " boy. Time is running out guys. ☺

We are slowly in the Big Match Fever time. And most of those encounters are dubbed as “Battle of the Golds”, battle of many others colours, Blues, Maroons, Greens etc to name a few. Why have they  been dubbed as Battles (සංග්‍රාම​) ? Is it because that after all these events, it is there a very possibility of breaking out flights between two opponents and sometimes ending up in fatalities too? I think it is time to think differently. Getting out of this Slave mentality will be the first step towards true development. Let’s not call them battles anymore. Think of some other words to describe them. Those meetings I believe should be used to renew old ties, meet new friends, breaking walls and making new bridges, but surely not for bloodletting after all. So, what should we call them ?

Often, we get to read biographies of many successful people all over the World. Those stories sell and that is why publishers go looking for them. But if taken percentage-wise, such successes are even less than 1%, compared to the world population. Those who read such inspiring stories pick up a clue or two and try to apply in their own life but with very little success or none at all. Can success be replicated? Failures are galore and they can be seen everywhere. Can failures be avoided? But, if publishers are keen even finding stories which are of total failures, the trend of 1% versus 99% can be changed. Because, some others have already made those mistakes in their own lives; so the rest do not have to, being well aware of the pitfalls on the way. Although the odds are less on the side of being successful, the chance of success and or failure has the equal opportunity.

Can’t we celebrate the New Year without indulging in setting fire to our very own and hard earned money? Counting down and then lighting up enormous amounts of money on fire for a few seconds of euphoric fix is a foolish thing. Partly the media are responsible for people indulge in this kind of irresponsible behaviour. Ads make sense money-wise and so they want their coffers to be full. This is where the religious established can play a major role in educating people and also in encouraging them to channel their money and energy for a useful purpose. Temple and church bells were established to communicate and interact with the masses during good and bad times in yester years. Let’s put those sleeping giants to good use now instead of letting fools setting fire to money. Compare the pealing of thousands and more bells to sounds of firecrackers and which one sounds better and more appealing. Let’s see who will take the lead role now. Temple, Church, Kovil or Musjeed. Or all of them as on...

Scene No 1. We all take our kids on our marketing trips. Put them on a trolley cart and act as if we are on a race track. I hit an old lady from behind in the aisle, then whisked past, cursing her without even an apology. Stop near the "fruits and nuts" section and throw a few of them in your mouth before stuffing a few more in his or her mouth. Sure enough, the toddler can’t read the notice posted over there. "Eating is not allowed." But he/she was just happy about the freebies Papa or Mama had stuffed in his/her mouth. Scene No 2 One day, we go to see his or her choir practice session and find him or her standing inconspicuously in the very last row. What happened? We ask him/her while heading back home. The teacher says I am too tall to be in the first row. The next day, the child is sent off to practice with a few cookie jars in a nice reusable bag that we brought on our last overseas holiday. Don’t forget to give it only to the teacher’s hand. Pick up time in...