I'm slightly materialistic. How about you?

End of November is when you settle all taxes and bills for the year. Same with a Government.  They’ll clear out all payments . Balance the debit and credit . Once this is done  you’ve got a clean state and a fresh start. December is all about fun and  to shop. And you will think of what to buy and what not to buy.  In preparation for the deep breath you are going to take tomorrow, begin to examine the way you approach money. That is a has- to- be done thing in Financing. That’s what   money keeping books say.

To shop and shopping isn’t anything strange.  It’s the shopping time for many SriLankans.  Some getting ready for the Aluth avurudda and some are for Christmas .Go out. Carefully look at the passersby. Even shops. Whether it’s a grocery, a cloth shop or whatever people are flocked in.  They will carry a hand full of bags. Even on rain drenched days. Shopping has no leave. Sometimes you just switch from shop to shop .And  you buy nothing. It’s the experience of shopping or the anticipation to buy things that makes us happy.

Right now my mind is a pickle.

The idea that money can’t buy happiness seems to be a myth. Richer countries are happier than poor countries. Richer people in rich countries are even happier. Evidence is undisputable. Some still think money makes you happy. You just have to know what to do with it. I think.

Stop buying too much stuff.

Try to spend more money on experiences. We think that experiences leave us with nothing to show to others. Take simple things. Experiences are often shared. First when they happen, then again and again we tell our friends. But are you ready to share what you buy with others? Or you think you enjoy what you buy over and over again?

Festive seasons are a testimony for this.  As the trend goes by, irrespective of gender politics and status everybody shops. Some shop in sophisticated super markets and some will stop at Pettah or Pamunuwa, well known for cheap stuff. Cheap or expensive doesn’t matter. You go on buying and buying. After the fun of Christmas or Aluth avurudda you are left facing a hefty bill. Some over shop and wrack up credit card bills to be backed by a parent or their partners. It can be hard to avoid credit pay in the festive season. But saving in the run up or buying what is most needed can soften the blow when all the fool is done and gone.

Things wear out, they get dirty, they perish, they get lost, and they break or get torn. When fixing isn’t possible we got to throw them. You‘ll buy a rug because it looks so pretty. You‘ll admire it the first few days. And time has a way of making it just a ‘rug’ thereafter. You aren’t happy with it anymore.

Buying is momentary happiness. And then you keep paying bills, loans and settling credit cards. Finding that paying is harder than buying. You’ll have to go through night shifts, extra working days or long hours of working. Especially for lower income earners. This makes us sad.  Think of a time you’ve bought some equipment because it looks pretty. Later you realize there is no purpose. Then it goes to the bin. How many billions would have we wasted this way? It would have been much nicer to go on a trip with all that money. Spend time with someone you love or like to have around you. They make us happy. Moments will be treasured later. Definitely. It won’t be a waste. Never.

If you  are slightly materialistic , nothing to be happy or to pat yourself on the back. Instead ask yourself  whether you can justify the materialism you engage in. If you are materialistic , you ought to think of a way to control it. Life is a collecting exercise, we know this. Some collect clothes, some vehicles , some lands , some gold , silver , furniture and what not. But we should be more decent about buying and collecting.

Have you noticed that what makes us more happier is the act of buying? and not about how we use things ? That’s experience. Especially when comes to things we merely want and not for what we want.

I realized a while ago that I’m slightly materialistic. For techie things. I feel ashamed. How about you?

Read more

It's a fleeting world , I realized

There is a girl who is fond of little things. Little things like feeding ants sugar cubes. Ladybirds thrill her. She likes to watch sundown. Even sunset. She wants to know how spores turn into fungi so soon. And how   wind can turn into a tornado in seconds. She fell asleep earlier than usual one night. Before anybody else she was woken up the next day.  Gleaming rays of the sun were playing on her eyelids and woke her up.

Staying curled, a while on bed her eyes got tucked in a cobweb, shining like gold. Sunrise has casted orange on it. There was a brisk wind sweeping outside. The cobweb rocked back and forth.

Glass panes illuminated with colors made by the sunbeams. They changed time to time. From pink to blue. Looked yellowish at times. She leaned onto the window. With toes up. Gazed outside carefully. Her nose flattened against the glass window. The sky was filled with shades of red. From palest to deep crimson. There were splashes of pink rays. And some purplish blue patches. Here and there. Like spots formed from leaked ink.  Alluring.

Pic by Akila Peiris

She withdrew herself from the window. There was a nose print of hers left on the glass. The glass was misted up. She felt moist. The girl wanted her fingers on the print. But it didn’t take a long while. The mark vanished. In seconds.  The quick disappearance puzzled her.

Walk outside on a cold day. You see your breath as you exhale. And disappears in the air. It comes and goes in every new breath you take. When you take a hot shower, the bathroom mirror fogs or steams up. How long will you think this lasts for? Not hours. Probably. The mirror will soon get back to its original state. Clean and clear. If you have ever driven on the road on a rainy day, there’s something you would notice always. You will see fogged car windows. When windows are fogged you won’t see anything outside. This is why vehicles turn on their Air conditioners. To fix it sooner. Air conditioners remove the moisture inside the vehicles. Every time it fogs, the windows are been cleared. The process happens so fast.  Calculating isn’t possible. Sometimes we just don’t notice it happening.

You can write with your finger on fogged windows. Have you noticed that it won’t last long? They get washed away with new raindrops that fall on it. And then the fog forms again. Again you draw. And again it disappears. All happens at a rate of knots.

Say it’s a hot day. And to beat the heat you grab a bottle filled with cold water. A few minutes later you see the the glass coated with ‘sweat’ like water drops. The frost layer that was formed for hours is gone now.

Here’s a little exercise for you.  Wake up a bit early the next morning. Go out. Take a look at your garden. Watch the grass, plants and tress carefully. You might see small drops of water on them. It is dew. Not rain water. Dew drops are only in the morning. When sun rises high, brighter and hotter, they go away.

We like to play with water bubbles. Or with soap bubbles. Did you know that they burst as they rise up? Bubbles have a short life. They burst so fast. So fast that it pops up even before you try to catch them. I was taught that bubbles blow up because of oxygen in air that it reacts with.

Think of footprints in sea sand. Every step you keep on wet sand makes a mark of your feet. But they die with sea water. As you walk, there is foot print made. When one gets washed, another is formed.

This is how things are in a fleeting world. Even sunrise and sunset.  You don’t see the colors that form them always. May be that’s why we are so amazed by sunset and sunrise. Things change so fast. Like the falling rain that turns in seconds to a hot, sunny moment. Or a flickering lamp, a phantom or a dream. So do us. We are happy. Then sad. Angry. We feel difficulty and fear in loss.  

‘Change’ was  more prominent a few months old. Like the endless cross -overs and cross -backs in the occurring politics. 

Nothing disobeys ata lo dahama .

Read more

Halves here and halves there

It’s already half past 10. Not much for a Sunday. Have been wasting time for nearly 2 and a half hours thinking of what to do for the rest of the day. And I have been just invited for a meet up. That was a long promised one. But didn’t want to make it now. Got it arranged  for the week after.  No much  rain like yesterday. It’s half gloomy and half sunny. I don’t understand these weather lingos. Let the weather men deal with it. Even the wind has its proportions today. Half cold and the other half feels hot.

Fractions are important concepts. Halves are equally important. When math is connected to real life there is so much to do with it. I remember early mornings and late evenings in Meerigama. During vacations spent in Meerigama at my cousin brother’s, I use to do groceries with him at the shop a few steps away. The grocery list says: 500ml fresh milk, another 500ml of coconut oil and half a dozen eggs. In this way I was taught 500 ml is half of one litre and half a dozen is always a half of a group of 12, which is 6.They are earliest of my memories about halves.

 Try making a cake. Infact most of the ingredients will be half of something. Imagine a cake with a gallon of milk, a pound of butter, a dozen eggs and an entire bag of chocolate chips. Either the cake will taste yucky or it can be as huge as high Olympus.

‘Half off’ signs thrill us a lot. You are pretty much going to scream about the deal you are going to receive. Half rated books, TV’s for   half price or a monthly rental reduced by half are things to be happy with. When phone bills, electricity bills and water bills are too much to pay at once, we tend to settle half of it and the rest to be paid later.

Half is good. Giving half of a chocolate to your friend or siblings will make them happy. A half of what you eat or drink shared with a street beggar will be always treasured. Half can be little. But it’s good to have at least half of anything than having nothing. Take simple things. Usually we tend to share half of a bed with another. Whether it’s your mistress, girlfriend, husband, wife daughter and what not, we sleep together because we are affectionate beings and not because it’s fiscally responsible. Lying side by side, we discuss situations,  talk about people  or places and plan for tomorrow in the confines of private chambers. We cuddle. We laugh. At the end of each day we remove the onerous cloaks we've

donned to face the world, and we want to do this lying next to our best friends, to know we’re not in it alone.

There are half girlfriends and half boyfriends. They could be friends you have asked out at a college fest or a friend who takes you on a movie ride .Then there are better halves. Better halves will never be forgotten. They are soul mates. The people who have been close to you in heart or partners who have served you the best in life. I am remembered of my grandmother and how she was taught to share pencils and erasers with siblings by breaking them into half. Those were days when spending money on each  family member was a difficult thing. And we still do it. We will break chalk into half, tare paper into half or cut an apple into halves when we want to share with another.

Sometimes the ‘half’ will determine or measure   directions you are heading in life. When   a person is in a bad relationship, one will say it’s half over. If newly married one might say its half started.

Half isn’t bad. Depends on how you look at it. Half –empty or half –full.



Courtesy : The Nation Newspaper  , 4th January 2015

Read more

That bittersweet longing.

Write on nostalgia. Something nice, I was advised.   Don’t know whether it should be nice or nicely written. Let me put things in the way I can. I don’t know if ‘nostalgia’ can be nice. It has this bittersweet longing for things, persons or may be some times we have cherished in the past.

There are moments when we have eyes and moments when we are blind. There are things we pass by on our way to work or school.  There are buildings we don’t notice today, but yesterday we saw them staring at us.  Things change. Time hops. All so very random. It is random that we are made to forget some things. But some things we don’t.  Even if we want to carefully forget them.

We sit and browse through Facebook and Twitter to see what we have possibly missed a few minutes or an hour ago. And then scroll through past baby pictures, college times, prom shots, graduations, trips we have been on, people we have met and those we have never met, but know. Below most of the photos there is the hashtag, #throwback.

We think of days sitting in our favorite outfit with fellow college freshmen. We talk of our school days and recollect the tours we had. We remember the day that the rambutan tree at the edge of the garden was full of fruits. We remember the day when the first leaves popped out from a mango seed. We remember well the day that the moon was so white, bright and perfectly round and the days when its light crept through windows and took away that dead blackness while we are asleep. We carefully remember moments of heart blending, a finger that touched the skin, lip to lip moments, comforting words that defied distance, days of quiver and sigh, days of discomfort and nights that were too long to even think there will be a dawn. We won’t forget that one morning when wathusuddha, jambu and the huge kos tree opposite the road were glowing under the morning sun. We won’t forget those days when it rained in our hearts and times when eyes were wet. We call back moments when heroes left us and giants fell off. Or the days when loving and the loved ones left.

There are moments you reminisce the first day of flying a kite and losing it. 

We remember fleeting emotions, feelings and moments of glee.  We put ourselves into an era or a specific frame. We even place inanimate objects, smells and places. We lock away bits of ourselves into things and beings. Being nostalgic is fine, as long as we aren’t deeply hurt.

There is a bend we can’t make. We still wish we had those once-upon-a-time carnival rides. We wish we could go on a date again with the man/woman we have once had.

Courtesy - "The Nation" , 13th December 2014 

Read more

Galle Face and other tidbits

I recollected a chat I had sometime back. It eventually remembered me of Galle Face. I was told Galle face is a beautiful place to shed tears.

Pic by David Blacker

Haven’t been to Galle Face for some time. That’s because Law College is on holidays these days. Not that the College is closed, just that I am on study leave. I take walks often as a habit. Being a usual visitor to Pettah, at times I will take the road to World Trade Center. On the other side it’s the Dutch Hospital. As you walk straight and turn to the left, you will find Galle Face. We’ve paid a heavy toll for both North and South. We still do. And in return things are getting better for Colombo too. Parks, walkways and shopping centers everywhere now.

I wish Hulftsdorp was taken to Galle Face. Right next to where the old Parliament stands. Because it looks celebrated and spectacular. Galle face is beautiful than before. The sea salt, sea spray and everything around still looks historic except for the upcoming hotels. The neat pavements, grass and tall buildings transform it into a little ‘Singapore’. When projects to beautify Colombo came up, I thought it will be some crap and what is even left will be gone. But to think of it, they have done something better. Better than I thought. Despite the making of lot of bucks and commissions by contractors.

Anyway, I’m not sure about one thing. I still think whether these so called ‘sustainable’ development projects are really going to sustain all people.

Governance and Politics is a hunger game. Hungry for every rock and stone. And so they think they can have things the way they want. This is what happens when you are in power. Satisfaction never ends. Those who are in power thinks they have a free reign to pollute encroach and steal resources as they wish.

And that is how we were going to lose Galle Face.  Somewhere in 2005 when some authorities wanted  to turn it into a mega entertainment and leisure park with food stalls in hawker – street style theme.

About half past 5’o clock, Galle face in Colombo wears an animated appearance. Having many vehicles in motion you will see Soldiers on horse backs too. Even in the mornings if you reach the Telecom Building, you will see them. Galle Face is the lung of Colombo. It’s one of the hot spots for Colombo people  to have an evening drink or to hang out with friends , relax or to fly kites. Galle Face has no holiday. The street vendors, merrymakers, lovers and everyone else is busy over there making their own time happier . Sundays are a testimony for that.

Galle Face isn’t only for Colombo people. I’ve seen families and even school children away from Colombo coming down to enjoy its vibrancy. Especially to taste the succulent ‘isso wade ‘, ‘samosa ‘and all kinds of ‘achcharu’. If you get to Galle face around 6.30 in the evening, you’ll see how the city turns into a deep shade of crimson like pastel color. Sunsets thrill us. And this is why Galle Face is loved by many, I think.

Sometimes Galle face is just a place to gaze at the strolling waves. To see the sea wave kissing the shore again and again, tirelessly. Times have changed. With the upcoming developments the vast area has reduced into 18 acres, fenced in streamline position. But still, I doubt whether there is a better place than Galle Face to cap off a busy day in Colombo.

Even Galle face has history.  There is a rock tablet and a plaque, found at the sea-ward edge and at the Galle Road end which are noteworthy. The rock tablet well preserved up to date says that Sir.Henry Ward recommends Galle Face to his successors in the interest of the Ladies and Children of Colombo.

Pic by David Black

Luckily the lease didn’t take place. If Galle Face was turned into a mega theme park, isso wade and achcharu kada would have gone by now. Small time traders won’t be there and instead there will be big businesses to eat peoples’ money. And free access would have surely been a thing of the past.

Politicians and Ministers were going to make money out of the lease and make Galle Face a place of entertainment for those who can only afford large amounts of money. Common good of the public would have been breached by then.

I am remembered of Arahat Mahinda. When Arahat Mahinda meets king Devanampiyatissa, he says the king this way;

‘O great king, the birds of the air and the beasts have as equal a right to live and move almost in any part of the island as thou. The land belongs to people and all living beings; thou art only a guardian of it. ‘

Read more

To Romesh Gunasekara

This is for you,

for you

Pic by www.gettyimages.com

who is made of delicate reef ,

poisoned ramparts ,

the noontide 

and sand glass paint,

to your politicians and men 

with handlebars and tortoise topknots,

to your noisy nights in the pearl

of frogs,

drums,

bottles,

dogs barking at moon ,

the chatter under yellow lights in streets,

and

crowded tea stalls

that were halted by a hammer blow,

to the ugly disturbance ,

bulletins

and fired palmyrah,

to that prison like wind and dead blackness 

then frightened your bay sands 6000 miles away 

and mine just few kilometers.

This is for you ,

for your Vasantha's van rides 

to the old Dutch fort ,

to your new highways

and no -roadblocks

poignant,

absorbing,

heart rending, 

languorous ,once dismal ed

and cheered many times.

*Romesh Gunesekera is a writer. He now lives in London.He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of    Literature, and has also received a National  Honour in SriLanka.His widely acclaimed first novel, Reef, was  published in 1994 and was short-listed as a finalist for the Booker Prize, as well as for  the Guardian Fiction Prize.  In the USA he was nominated for a New Voice Award.

Read more

Right choice matters

Pic by www.lifescriptdoctor.com

On a hot and sticky day, go out, may be drive up to Colpetty. Stare up at a cloud.You will see the sun peeping through the buildings. In bright orange. Sometimes red. Don’t stare for too long. You don’t want to go blind. It’s too bright that you won’t see anything clear. Eyes will close, naturally. Buildings are growing taller and taller. Wonder how tall future cities might get. But you will see short ones too.Not every building is tall. There is a reason behind having some buildings tall and some short. Where there is threat for earthquakes, buildings are short because tall buildings tend to shake longer than short ones. Tall buildings are more open to damage. Some are tall and fat because they carry so many offices. Or they could be super expensive shopping stalls. If cities are overcrowded, buildings will naturally be tall to occupy more in a little space. Factory buildings are made short purposely. Probably to avoid a lot of damage if there is a fire, or some other natural disaster. 

There is a purpose for everything built or made .You will realize it.Even maps do.

Maps are pictures of earth used for references. The information that a map carries will differ from each other. Its uses will differ from cartographers to researchers, students and a person walking on a street. Maps are designed with roles. They fulfill certain purposes.

Road maps are very common. Often used for navigation when you are exploring a new city. They will include major and minor highways. Major highways are usually shown in wide red lines. Smaller ones are less prominent with lighter colors. Airports, parks, monuments and other attractions will be depicted too. Physical maps will show you feature of a particular area, such as lakes, rivers and seas. Land features are colored depending on their elevations. In general, low lying terrain such as plains and coastal areas are green. Higher mountains range from orange to brown, depending on how high they are.

There are political maps too. It tells the reader where political boundaries are in a country. For instance, provinces and district demarcations are illustrated. They will carry names and locations of major cities and capitals. If you want to know about climatic features, you got to consult climate maps. They will teach you the average number of cloudy days, temperature ranges, average rainfall or the snowfall. These are the maps commonly used in weather reports on the evening news. Geography students will often refer resource maps which will show economic activities and natural resources of certain city or country. They will have illustrations on major industries, plantations, paddy cultivation and even farming statistics. You can learn about areas where minerals are dense, where gems are mostly found or some other crop that is largely grown.

If you take a look at an atlas book, road maps, political maps and resource maps will come first. Turn to the last few pages. You will come across something different. Those are thematic maps. The word ‘thematic’ may not be there. But they will carry information on population, birth rate, death rate, membership to political organizations and sometimes the literacy rate and language distribution. 

We look at maps everyday. There are maps at stations indicating train routes. If you look inside a jetty carefully, you will notice maps illustrating ferry routes and halts, and same with air routes. Maps are important for pilots and control towers to avoid accidents.

If you are traveling in a train, a road map will not help you to discover your destination. A road map will only indicate streets and highways. Having the wrong map can lead you somewhere else. And this is why you find different kinds of maps. Because each of them serves a different purpose.

Think for a second. You will not go to a funeral wearing a party dress. You will not attend a party wearing something that looks like pyjamas. If you want to become a doctor you cannot be setting your goals of somebody who wants to become an engineer. What an engineer should do is different from a doctor. Knowing the purpose and learning the right way to achieve the purpose is important therefore. Take simple things. When you shop for a skirt, you won’t go for anything that’s double your size or anything that is less or too tight. That’s why there are fit-on rooms, for you to go for the correct choice. Maps too need a fit-on. If you don’t choose the right map that suits your purpose or object, you’ll be lost somewhere.

(Featured in 'The Nation' newspaper on the 30th November 2014)

Read more