𝑾𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝑾𝒂𝒊𝒍 ( දුක් ගන්නා රාළ )

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...

ඇ මිස්ටර් සිල්වා, ඔය ඇමරිකාව පැත්තෙත් සමුපකාර එහෙම තියෙනවද? මොකද නැත්තේ මිස්ටර් පෙරේරා, මෙහේ තියන ඔය හැම එකක්ම එහෙත් තියෙනවා මීට වඩා ජයට, අනේ එහෙනම් කමක් නැහැ මිස්ටර් සිල්වා, මොකද මිස්ටර් පෙරේරා එහෙම කිව්වේ? නැහැ මම හිතුවේ ඔය ඉල්ලන ඉල්ලන එක පරදින හිලරී නොනාටත් ඉතින් එහෙම එකකින්වත් ට්‍රයි එකක් දාල බලන්න පුලුවන්නේ මිස්ටර් සිල්වා.

After years of neglect, it is a welcoming sight to see the efforts are taken to relay the Katubedda – Piliyandala road. Traffic has come to snail pace and lots of inconveniences to commuters and many have to re-adjust their schedules due to the unpredictable nature of the traffic density and the speed it flows during peaks. One thing baffles me, every time when I travel on this stretch of road it this. The work site has a big board proclaiming  “Safety is First”. To go alone with the slogan perhaps, most of the workers who are involved in relaying the surface have been given a glow-vest and a hardhat. But sadly, they all work either barefoot and or with an old pair of rubber slippers. The workers would have been better off, if they have been given a pair of gloves, safety shoes and a proper face mask, instead of hardhats or glove vests. Many Overseers and even Engineers there are playing Blind eye to this blatant violation. Over to you, if any RDA guys are reading...

Pada Yathra (the protest march) and the costs associated with it. Social media are reporting different numbers and some are obviously exaggerated. Assuming that 100,000 people have attended the march, here are the costs and you do the math later. If every person’s Man-hour worth is LKR 100 per hour, they have spent nearly six hours daily and for almost a good week walking. I leave it to you to do the math and that was what the country lost in terms of GDP. The creation of traffic jams led to vehicles burning more gas than usual. The public who commuted on those have lost valuable time as well. We again lost in terms of GDP and our Forex will be strained because we need to import more gas from aboard. The members of OPEC are the beneficiary. Vehicles will have excessive wear and tear and we are a country that does not produce any car parts. Again the hard earned currency will flow away to another country, thanks to this stupid march. The only local product that was...