“ ඔසු උයන ” ( Herbal Garden ) at Kahathuduwa, Piliyandala Sri Lanka.

A few days back I was fortunate enough to visit a “ ඔසු උයන ” (Herbal Garden) at Kahathuduwa, Piliyandala Sri Lanka.

The garden is full of rare and very useful herbs, plants and trees needed in Ayurvedic treatments.

Everything is given away free of charge.

The place is well known in and around the area and if anyone is interested in visiting the place, one has to take the Kahathuduwa ( කහතුඩුව ) exit on the E01 expressway and ask direction, which is another 05 minutes’ drive away from the exit point.

Snuffing the Life Out of Another.

Show a gentle and

Humane way of

Snuffing the life out of

Another.


Convince me that,

It will be

Easy and painless as

Breathing fresh air into

One’s lungs.


Open pens’ gates

Would they stay or

Would they run?

See what they would opt for

In one’s own eye first.


Convince me and

Show me the humane way

Of snuffing the life out of

Another.


Till then I rather

Prefer to stay

A Veggie forever.

Where are the Innovative Local Chefs?

It is a shame that being a tropical island with some much green around that being a vegetarian is a very difficult thing to follow when one venture out for an occasional Eat out adventure.

The choices available are extremely limited compared to non-vegetarian items on restaurant menus.

The invariably the waiter would suggest “How about a Chopsie Sir?".

See the grimace on the face he would change the tack “Then devilled Mushrooms Sir” or he will blurt out some “Kankun” something or finally cap up the blurting out by suggesting “Bean curd” something.

Where are the innovative local chefs?

I am sure they have not run out of choice vegetables available in the market.

Forget Alu Kehel (Ash plantains), Karawila (Bitter gout), Pathola (Snake gout), Nelum Ala (Louts roots), Kos (Jackfruits), Del (Breadfruit), Maiyokka (Cassava) or Bathala (Sweet potatoes), but what is wrong with Bandakka (Ladies fingers) or Wambutu (Brinjal) as substitutes, if the former ones are too difficult to cook.

The Chefs need to be innovative or we will remain just what we are as backward as we are now in the culinary world where most local recipes are no local anymore to have the local taste, aroma or the looks.

The World is changing fast nowadays.

People are now very much concerned about the Environment, Carbon emissions, healthy food etc and sooner our chefs have to learn to adapt to the changes happening around is better than have a slow natural death.

What is our share in this mess?

Trustworthy and farsightedness should be the prerequisites for anyone taking up a public office.

Not flamboyant educational qualifications and or lack of them.

Are we really seeking them when casting our votes?

I do not think so.

If that was the case, then Sri Lanka would have been a First World Country many decades ago.

The problem here is that we do not want to change the status quo.

Because then we will lose all our own networks and contacts, ( where we can get almost anything done by using them ), and eventually to lose our higher place in the hierarchy of the society's pecking order.

First, we send scoundrels to the legislature and then start lambasting them on social media platforms.

What is our share in this mess?

Dialog Tv Surreptitiously Fleecing its Customers

My family was away from the country for two months in the latter part of the 2017 and has realized on the return that the Dialog Tv connection has been disconnected due to non-payment.

The due amount was immediately paid and an official request was made to get the connection activated back.

After waiting a few more days without getting any positive results from their end, it was decided to call their helpline to get the matter resolved.

Again an official complaint was lodged but like in the past, no help came through.

After two failed attempts to get the connection activated again, it was finally decided to inform them that we were no longer interested in retaining their connection.

The Helpline was given all required details to enable them to finally disconnect us from their listing.

We thought that we have put the matter to rest finally but to our utter dismay, we have received another invoice recently billing us over Rs 5000/= of unpaid bills.

The Dialog had been known to fleece customers in this fashion.

http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items08/291108-4.html

And now it is the time that we put an end to this unscrupulous practice.

What a World We Are Living In Today ?

A murderer who was serving 25 years behind bars was released on medical grounds because he was the former president of the country.
A boy hugged a girl on the stage to show his appreciation in one of the school performances, now both facing suspension for their immoral act on stage.
A singer facing death threats now because she said not to drink water from one of the longest rivers in the world because it is highly polluted and full of parasites.
A religious leader is going places preaching peace and equal rights, when he rules over one of the most corrupt nations in the world full of money launderers and child rapists, hiding behind walls and cloaks.

Ode to the One Eyed Monster

Beauty has no universally accepted standard and or definition.
And sometimes one can’t help but fall in love with something seemingly has not a single beauty bone in its body.
It was monstrous and fierce looking but I could not help falling in love with the moment I saw it for the first time.
My feeling towards it was not an isolated one and all my siblings had the same feeling towards it.
We had our very special name for it too.
During school holiday times, we often visit up the country.
Father was in civil service, so he had plenty of Rail passes to go with his position.
On most occasions, we take a connecting train to the Fort Railway station to catch the upcountry bound Night mail train.
By the time when we get there, the rain is already there and being loaded with stuffs for the departure.
First thing first and we go locating the reserved compartment to dump our stuff and then run to the front of the train to see, what would be hauling us tonight through the wet and cold nights to top of the hill country.
As always, the big red colour one eyed monster was there to greet us.
We come back happy knowing that we would be safe and sound with it in front.
Later, as we grew much bigger and inquisitive, we got to know that this monster was given a bit of a push to help it negotiate to winding climb up peaceful by and another oldie a steam engine after the Rambukkana railway station.
But our love for the monster never diminished.
Sadly, I read somewhere recently, that only one of these monsters is still standing and all others have been replaced by the Blue colour Canadian ones.

Photo credit to Mr Akila Ariyapperuma