King Sasanka – Sri Lankan Writer & Retired Aviation Professional.

Just before the Indian independence, the Colonial masters held Gandhiji behind bars for his non-violent freedom seeking activities. So were many other Indians found guilty of defecating along the railway lines. When he was finally released from the captivity along the others who were also held there, because of defecating charges (due to over-crowding situation), they were the first people to rush out from their cells, shouting Freedom slogans. There was a time in Sri Lanka not so long ago that the Armed forces were having a very tough time recruiting new carders to supplement their drive and the government was mulling the idea of conscription to solve the issue. The forces have to go to far flung villages in abject poverty to get young boys and girls to join them.  They joined not because for their love for the country but to feed their families as no other vocation was available to them in those villages which are blighted with No schools, hospitals, roads, electrici...

There are two kinds of Patriots in Sri Lanka. One is the silent kind who really understands the real meaning of patriotism and does everything that is possible in their own small ways to ensure that no harm is done to their beloved country. The other kind is the most vocal and most loud kind. They show their patriotism only in public but do not thing to keep their country away from harm’s way. The loud and vocal kind is seasonal, like flu. They appear like mushrooms after a rain, when something perceived to be harmful to the country only. Let me explain this a little more. Take the recent Geneva meet and the subsequent voting. The social networks and blogs were awash with them publically bullshitting patriotism. The vote is over now and none of them are anywhere to be seen again until the next rain. The reputation, integrity etc of any country can be harmed in two ways. First is an external threat and the second is internal threat. External threats can be negated with diplomacy and e...

විස රසායන උරාගන්නා හොද්දේ කරපිංචා කෑම හොඳ නෑ. වර්තමානයේදී ලාංකීය සමාජය තුළ පිළිකා, වකුගඩු ආදි රෝගාබාධවලට ගොදුරු වූවන් බහුල වී ඇත. බොහෝ දෙනෙකුගේ මතය වන්නේ අප ගන්නා ආහාරවල තිබෙන වස විස ඉහත රෝග බහුල වීමට හේතු වී ඇති බවය. එය බොහෝ දුරට සැබෑවක් විය හැකිය. අද අපට වෙළෙඳ පොළෙන් මිලදී ගැනීමට සිදුවී ඇත්තේ අධික ලෙස කාමිනාශක, වල් නාශක යෙදු එළවළු සහ පලතුරුය. වස විස නොයෙදූ ආහාර ලෙස කෑමට තිබෙන්නේ කොස් දෙල් වැනි දේ පමණි. වස විස නැතැයි පැවසෙන කාබනික පොහොර යොදා සැකසූ එළවළු වර්ග වෙළෙඳ පොළෙහි නැතිවා නොවේ. එහෙත් ඒවායේ මිල අධිකය. කෙසේ හෝ අද අප සමාජයේ බහුතරයකට කෑමට සිදු වී තිබෙන්නේ වස විස යෙදූ ආහාරය. වස විසෙන් තොරව ආහාර ද්‍රව්‍ය වගා කරන්නේ කෙසේ ද? එසේම වස විස පහව යන පරිදි ආහාර ද්‍රව්‍ය පිළියෙල කරගන්නේ කෙසේ ද කියා අපේ මුතුන් මිත්තෝ ඉතා හොඳින් දැන සිටියහ. එසේම දේශීය වෛද්‍ය ක්‍රමයේ ද වස විසෙන් තොරව ආහාර පිළියෙල කරගන්නේ කෙසේදැයි සඳහන් වේ. ස්වභාවික ද්‍රව්‍ය වන කුළුබඩු යොදා පෝෂ්‍යදායි විස රහිත ආහාර පිළියෙල කිරීමේ සංස්කෘතියක් අප සතුය. සිංහල වෛද්‍ය ක්‍රමයේ ද ආහාර පිළියෙල කිරීම සඳහා යොදා ගන්නා කුළුබඩුවල තිබෙන ව...

Recently, I was involved in some heated discussions on one of the internet forums and some of the irritant topics to many that I brought to surface where the level of corruptions, lack of transparency, foreign debts and the efforts to smother the freedom of speech. None of the participants were able to give any convincing answers, instead restored to whipping some other political parties, some other religious establishments and those who represent minorities’ interests up. One personal experience I quoted was one of my friends was trying to bribe his daughter in to a super grade school in Colombo, when the same person openly says that the corruption is a thing in the past and the new man in the driving seat has already seen to it. When confronted, why he then needed such an intervention, when everything is fixed already, he meekly said, otherwise she would be left behind (not the very same words). His house is like a shrine dedicated to his man now on the driving seat, yet privately he...

Most of us know how we should manage our household garbage. But when it comes to put them in to action, all what we do is to put everything in a one big plastic bag and throw it out of the car window in a secluded stretch of a road. Later we bark at authorities for failing to clean up the mess. Why can't we segregate plastic, tins, bottles, and cardboards, biodegradable stuffs etc at home itself? It will take extra few minutes of our time in segregation but the benefits are far better at the end. Better disposal of garbage will ultimately bring immense social benefits. Plastics, tins, bottles etc have reusable value and by giving them to scavengers making house call from time to time can generate a small income too. Same goes with; when it comes to selecting people to represent us. Social media today is awash with so many suggestions. Many are to bar anyone from entering politics and seeking representation; unless one has a minimum level of educational qualification. Some su...

A text message I received from my daughter at a recent Father's Day celebration made me rethink my father. How I described him was the main dilemma. He was a man of a few words. I have more of his physical appearance than my other siblings, but this quality of few words I was not endowed with. My younger brother has received it from him (the universe has very mysterious ways of working and assembling things around it). He showed us the world literally by taking us to various places during school holidays and breaks in between, but his world was just confined to within our shores. By introducing and encouraging us to read early in our lives, he managed to take us far beyond his physically confined shores. Every week, he used to bring at least two books from the library, and we were on them like the vultures on a carcass. He wanted us to think freely and never be afraid of asking questions. Though he was a man of few words, his political allegiance was no secret, with Das Capital pro...

When we moved to our newly built house a few years back, we got a plaque with the සීවලී මහා රහතුන්ගේ picture as one of the housewarming gifts from someone. So we decided to hang it on the outside Wall and not inside. Seeing it there, a few neighbors and some of our friends were surprised. We were new to the area so the neighbors were somewhat reluctant to come directly and express their opinion on this සීවලී මහා රහතුන්ගේ plague being hung outside the house than inside. The friends were more vociferous than them. “ Hey, it should be hung inside the house and not outside “. The belief was that it will bring blessing and prosperity to the dwelling. The neighbours have thought that we were අන්‍ය ආගම්කාරයෝ and unknowingly have hung it on the outside wall. Our rationale was that we already have enough for us to sustain decently and we want that Blessing and Prosperity for everyone alike to get as well. I thought of writing this only after seeing that there is something brewing in some c...