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.

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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)

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These days

My 'these days' are

parched

shriveled

star - crossed and

unseeded

of landmark and anecdote,

and in volumes of  poetry

in a cloud movement.

And

Did you know

the vacancy that sat in my heart 

is a space  that you hold?

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'Buddho yo kalitho doso - Buddho kamathu tam mamam '

I was crowned with flowers

and swapped the princely garb

in yellow robe

because ,

dedication is large and countless

to win the ten precepts .

Even I wonder

Of what 'dukkha' is made

Or letting go

Or the renouncing .

And may

The Enlightened one

bear with me

if I have wronged

by word or deed, or

forgive me

if I overstep

and fracture

the ‘buddha vachanaya'

(Inspired by Tharindu Amunugama's Photography)

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Landmarks will guide you to correct places.

This is a collection of notes on ' Maps' I'm writing for the JEANS section  in 'The Nation' newspaper . Jeans is dedicated for  kids , for their  enthusiasm and curiosity.  This is the second in the series.

It’s  cool to have a stroll; especially on a Sunday morning when roads are not crowded. Torrington and Independence Avenue in Colombo look neat, calm and relaxing. There’s pin- drop silence. A few cars are on the road. If you really want to, you can even dance right on the middle of the road for a while. You’ll see the sun facing directly at you, perfectly round, in bright orange. That is a nice sight. Don’t forget to look around. Learn to appreciate what you see.  The best part of a stroll would be the things around you.  Walk up to the main road or drive up the highway. You’ll see buildings around you. Some buildings are small, tall, huge and decayed. Some buildings are discolored. Some look dirty. There are things that get covered by dust. Some are covered with time. So do the buildings, inevitably. Our world is full of structures, large or small, old and modern. There are monuments of power and prestige, supreme achievements in engineering and design, comforting landmarks, testimonials to the human spirit and public relations in the highest level. Skyscrapers are breathtaking. We are fascinated by tall buildings. I don’t know why we are thrilled so much to see tall buildings. May be they are exceptional. Tall buildings are obviously a result of great deal of effort. Man is capable of doing a lot of things.  Tall buildings would be one of them. We admire endurance.

Structures are helpful to navigate. Whether a building is old or new, dusty or dirty, tall or short, known and supreme can help finding whereabouts. Most often, we don’t remember the names of streets. It’s as if we don’t bother or make any effort to remember everything we see. And this is how colors, pictures, posters or billboards come to play in real life.  They help us identify easily. When giving directions we may mention a color of a building or a bill board if there is, so it won’t be a haywire to track down the place you want to be. Have you noticed that buildings have different colors? Colors come in handy. They reflect a difference to pick the correct one.

Naming places become essential in city planning. Every building is given a name and so are streets. Houses are given numbers. They all help us to locate places. Journeys can be troublesome when it is difficult to find the desired location. You’ll end up sweaty and exhausted by the time you get to a restaurant or some other place. Annoyed too!

Like city planning, map marking should be done carefully. If you miss a name of a street or a popular landmark, that can confuse the traveler. Remember a traveler‘s only guide will be a map, especially if he is new to a country or a city. Naming a street is not enough. A good map should always contain landmarks. For instance, indicating rivers, jungles, a popular restaurant or a well-known theater can help to discover a place without any hazel. Maps can turn out to be tourism promoters. They will be a useful guide to hotels, religious shrines and places of entertainment in a country.

If you skim through a map, they will indicate roads in different shades and patterns, main roads in a different color and sub-roads in another color. Crosses or short lines will indicate rail routes. Most importantly line weights, shadings and symbols should be defined somewhere in a corner of a map, so the reader knows what exactly a line or a picture represents.

We should dream often. Dreams are what you want in life. Chasing dreams will help you reach goals. And there is possibility that landmarks will guide you to the correct place. 

(Featured in 'The Nation' on the 23rd November 2014)

Others in the series -

You can draw your own map

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You can draw your own map

Some things are incidental. It seems I’m writing about intersections, maps, places and random encounters more frequently than usual. I had just met a map-maker several days ago.

Road encounters have made me realize that maps and directions are meaningless. Drivers ignore No-U turns, they forget roundabouts, prohibited left turns and right turns, double lines and single line. They drive as they wish. It’s a time race. It’s a matter of reaching the destination in a short time. Directions become less important. But maps and directions are important. They will teach drivers about lane discipline. Directions will let them know when to turn and not to, when to overtake and when to stop.  Directions should be followed. They will make the destination clear. Roads won’t be messy when you know the has-to-be done and has-not- to- be done things.

 There are maps once drawn. Some maps were outdated. Some were thrown away. Some were marked and erased. Some were half completed. Some were marked wrong. Some maps were chosen for studies. Some were redrawn with time.




Our bodies are mapped too. That’s why even heart has its ways to receive blood and give. The blood flow is carefully identified. They are given directions as when to pump in, when to pump blood out, the routes to carry oxygenated blood and deoxygenated blood. The moment that heart doesn’t follow these directions, you’ll find yourself struck by sicknesses.

Do you remember the ‘map’ moments you have had?  I’ve had two map moments.  The first was when I was asked to write about ‘Myself’.  I’m sure we have all written essays on myself, when we were kids. That would have been probably the easiest to write about. Myself is not just about the name, age or school.  It’s a memory wake- up. It promotes self-awareness.  It’s a life map that helps you to visualize your life journey. Whether you’re going to move to another country to study or work, whether you are going to be a writer, a full time student, a stay home dad or mom or whether you want to be a minister of music and have your own music studio. It could be even about tangible valuables like owning a Summer house at Hollywood.  And this is what a map does too. A map will display places helping us to visualize where they are located. They will help us find the route to our destination, whether we move on land, sea or air. A map will tell us how far we are from the desired location or how much we’ve got to drive. This is why they say drawing your own life map is important; to track yourself in a way of a map chart. So, you will know where your journey ends and how to weigh your efforts to achieve goals.

There are hiking and biking maps. There are maps for rapids in white water and maps to show fishing structures in lakes.  Maps identify countries. Like ‘myself’ that promotes identity, a map will also show up themselves. They will tell you the things a country has. Some countries will have deserts, but some may not. Some will be covered by sea. Their shapes will describe the position of lagoons and bays. They will tell you how a country differs from another. Like you and I, whose figures, positions, likes and dislikes will differ from each another.

The other map moment was, when I was away in Thailand for two months. In an age where technology is seemingly conquering us, google maps were handy stuff to know places in Thailand. Maps will let you know the locations, and help you drive there; pointing out buildings and streets you pass.  The good thing about maps is, there is hope you will not get lost in an unknown city. But then again how ‘well’ you know to read maps matter. That’s a skill you got to acquire.Interestingly, a map can become a legal document too. They can be altered into evidence when dealing with land fights. It is always necessary that you provide courts a sketch map of your land, showing its physical boundaries and demarcations to sell them, to lease or to divide.You can make your own map.

Uses of a map depend on what you do with it. Start with simple things. Help your friend with a map showing directions to your home. Or maybe draw a sketch describing what you want to be, what you were, what you have been doing so far and what things you ought to do. We can make things easy, if we want to. Like maps that make it easy to discover and explore.

 ( Featured in 'The Nation' newspaper on 9th November 2014)

 http://www.nation.lk/edition/jeans/item/34939-you-can-draw-your-own-map.html#sthash.Vb6WZiku.dpuf

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Kites , turtles and other things.

Turtles have their favorite spots on the beach. I don't know if they are the same turtles. But they come to the same place. To the same turtle hatchery they have had before. Maybe they have memories just like us. They are safe. Until the catchers know their spots. Humans are the worst kind I’ve known. When something comes their way, they will try to make all the possible, and the impossible out of it. Same with the turtles. When they are found, they‘ll be consumed.

And that’s why we do not want the coral reefs to be lying underneath sea. We will take them out. Re-shape them in different ways. Use them to make cement. Make ornaments. We disturb the sea bed. The lined up shore at one measure is imbalanced. Eventually the sea water will come in and then destroy the land. I have learned that humans can make and break things. We injure and then heal.  When toys break we will fix them with tape or some other adhesive. We try fixing things when they are weak or damaged. When soil erodes we will try planting more trees, and in the course we forget to protect them and so we cut them down again. The damage is fast therefore. For one thing I’m sure that we all are very complex people and we all are capable of a lot of things.

We are careless at times. Sometimes are lazy or not diligent enough. If you know what banks really do, they always try to market what they’ve got other than helping us deposit money. After all it’s a need for their existence. They will send us letters on purchases, sales, loans, discounts and all the wanted and unwanted things in the world. A word or two is enough for us to judge the content in letters. When an unwanted phrase strikes, we no longer read the rest.  We will throw it into a dustbin. There are things that get covered by dust. Some covered with time. Some inevitably returns.  We won’t lose any sleep over things we throw, until a day comes to clear out garbage to find a thrown letter. Because we’ve later found that’s important. Sometimes,  it’s too late.  We won’t find them again.

We meet a lot of people in our lives. There are people we like, and people we don’t like. We will give the best care to a person until we are happy with them. Bad things happen. And when things slip off or one fails to do of what he is expected, we throw them away. People rise and fall like kites that fly high and fall back. When kites fall, we will pick them up and fly them again. All we need is the determination. But when a person brings bad luck we don’t want them back. Those people who brought bad luck can be those who have given the best in life to you. Or they could be the ones who have loved you the most. We won’t realize until we need them back in life, like when days come to pull out garbage to find thrown away letters.  Because, you find how important they are.

 The truth is, as much as love drives us, it is also barricaded with the love of keeping our pride intact. So we don’t want ourselves to see what it is like to get damaged. Instead we hurt others and ignore them. Our ego is too much that it only counts the good part of people or the happiness another can gifts us.  We laugh together, often cry in private.

This is how giants fall. Or heroes leave us. Or the most important things or people are lost. We are selfish. We do the damage. We realize we need them back later. And then we try restoring. By then the worst would have happened.

All I know is that we need to hold things gently and carefully. Especially, those care us and things that protect us. Kites perish. But kite making lives on. Turtles will pass away. New ones will be born. But to find people we have lost, that’s impossible .Because it’s one, and only one

( Published in 'The Nation' newspaper on the 1st November 2014 , titled 'Mankind all out to change nature')

http://www.nation.lk/edition/jeans/item/34716-mankind-all-out-to-change-nature.html

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