Sunset in Madakalpuwa

Tsunami Village, Batticaloa
3rd December 2009
                                                       

A fire stirring in the sky 

Right above the calm cool waters
What in the world does it signify?
Only nature will tell us the answer

Patience. 

Listen to this music
Voices in the Dark- Enigma


While glancing through this album-
 The Sun Goes Down over Batticaloa 

It will make you feel exactly what I felt, holding a 12.1 Mega-pixels Cybershot Camera trying to get every shot I'm seen through it.
 Breath caught in my throat.

AKON- To let or not to let- that is the question

So Akon made this video, where like this bunch of half naked girls in bikinis danced beside a statue of the Lord Budhha. Wrong! because you don't do that. If we pranced around a cross, you know, internationally, we are doomed. Beside ,known as a country of War and natural disasters like the Tsunami, we will also be best known for offending other religions, or disrespecting them or, for rejecting an Internationally  known singers' visa because he had girls shaking their booty next a statue of Lord Buddha.


A budhha that didnt look like the Sri Lankan ones', the ones' that looked ching chong, maybe Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese- well they all look the same to me. Akon is said to tour in some of these Buddhist countries such as Thailand,- oh did they make a scene? because I sure didn't hear about it!


Thats because they know better. Its an opportunity, Akon coming to Sri Lanka is a mutual deal, its brings light to Sri Lanka and puts us on the map through a different route and Maharaja of course (Oh stupid move Mervyn. Why does MTV/MBC needs to be trashed because Akon made a video like that, think from your brain dude and hell I don't wanna know where you are thinking from)


Link-  AKONs' Visa Rejected- What people thought about it?


I don't want to be known as " Oh the girl from Sri Lanka, where they just got off 30 years of terrorism or "where they had a Tsunami"?- Not that they will say  "Hey you know she is from Sri Lanka, you know where Akon went to perform?", but it feels better for at least this to happen smooth after the Sharukh Khan disaster.


Still what he did, Akon I mean, was wrong. So instead of rejecting him, bring him down here and make an example of it. If Akon wants to disrespect Buddhism, thats his problem. It seems he doesn't stick to his religion, Islam, well either. But we ensure we tell people, "you sure will be found dead- with a video like this".Tell people this is what he did and it was wrong. You don't make videos like this because it goes against international social norms? yeah you know that don't you?


Bring him down, before having the concert, make a him a case study to show what we don't need in this country beside all that is happening here. Unless we will have a population of youth in the country who are mad at the Government for rejecting the visa and will say "So what?So what if he had girls dancing like that" Guilty as charged, I think like that a bit too.


If we bring him down, people can enjoy a concert and they will be willing to listen to what the Government or the priests have to say. But in a country plagued with politicized violence, I'm sure a bomb will go off on this one too and internationally we will be blamed if something happens to Akon. Because even though he has been a prick, people like his music. I like his music. So in a way its good he is not coming down.


We can give him a second chance though and give some new flavour to our public, different to the sour they have been tasting all this time. But, our country, has come to a level where we cant handle our own citizens with decency, so how the hell can we guarantee we can manage an International singer who had a music video of girls dancing around a statue of the Lord Budhha? We don't.


So instead,- we reject his visa.


P.S- The loser sending an e-mail against Akon, well I pity him because he clearly lost his sense in saying, at least SRK had a decent family and that Akon has three women and has videos with a 15 year old girl, so all  the more reason he should not come down? I guess then half the Parliament should be kicked out of the country huh? and Bhuddhist monks too because they so totally don't have many women and don't molest girls. Oh and Loser he, Akon, is a Muslim, and even though he is not strict on half the things a Muslims should do, if he is having three women, well he actually could? Didn't think that no? Are you telling all the Muslims should leave the country too? Who are you?

STARS IN POLITICS!

Stars are entering politics, Susanthika, Sanath Jayasuriya and Geetha Kumarasingheas I call them, to name a few. And with them contesting in the upcoming General Elections,

Do the public like it or do they not?

Fonsekas' arrest ???

The day after the arrest of General Fonseka, we went around Colombo to get peoples view.

Who wants a hero in jail?  Hindi movie much? Wonder what the ending be?

What ending do people want?

What do people expect of the new Government? Even though this VOP was conducted prior to the Presidential Elections, this applies to after General Elections.

What changes do the public seek?

Presidential or General?

By now the General has entered politics and the President was yet to announce if he is to have a Presidential or General Elections.


What do people want?

Presidential or General Elections?

Should General Sarath Fonseka Enter politics?

This was my first Voice of the People video I did for Daily Mirror Online.

Voice of the people- should the General Enter Politics?

It was before the Presidential Elections, actually long before, when General Sarath Fonseka was a pleasant topic  in households and people were wondering whether he will enter politics. This is what they thought.

Simile the Sky

You fall on me like the night sky falling over the earth.
You are intriguing to me as every little star in the sky is to a little girl.
I can watch you like a scientist does at the sky through a telescope,
But for hours, days, months, years.
I pray for you like the peasants in Calcutta,
Searching the sky for answers against the policies on peasants.
I blame the giants for stealing Thors’ hammer,
In the hope that he will get his hammer back to make your love rain on me again.
I envy the star that fell from the sky, in Stardust,
and lived “happily ever after” with a King.
I wish that one day I could glow like the moon, with you around me,
Like in those pictures my friends take of it and tag in Facebook.
Yes in all those similes and verbs, I do.

I can't.

I have decided. I can’t live without you.
I can’t.
I can’t bear not been able to be near you, with you.
I can’t.
I can’t. I can’t. No. I can’t. I’m mad.
My heart is bleeding, and it’s bad.
I live through you, for you.
You know that.
But I guess that’s not enough to be with you.
And I can’t.

The sexy brownie

This brownie I'm having is wet, spongy, oozing with chocolate and crispy with cashew nuts.
Each bite melts in my mouth and the taste lingers......
The top bit is little hard and right below its soft and mushy
The combination is completely harrrr!
The chocolate crumbs just cascade my lips in every bite I take...

The chocolate is sooo melted that every time I take a bite I have to lick the melted sauce of my fingers and lips.

and the taste lingers......
-------------------------- ---------
That passage was my attempt to make a friend jealous on MSN chat, about the brownie I was having. Well I guess it took a turn. Though the friend didn't really react to anything I was writing. I should write more of these.......

The Fire.

Sun may dawn on my life,
The day I know that you are mine.

With no borders and no boundaries
To keep the fire in my heart alive.

Only you and your love for me
May from that day lead the fire.

The fire that you sparked in me
Like you owned me forever.

Just Like Your Father

She had fever. Her skin felt like it was made of pins that pricked her veins.


In an attempt to shake this pain off, she stumbled in to the bathroom and opened the shower. Drops of water fell on her body and scorched her skin and she felt the water sizzling like oil on a frying pan.


The cold water engulfed the electric feeling in her skin and she winced as the pins started to come alive. God! Why!? Why me?! It’s like they were trying to tell all the secrets in her skin.


She was falling ill these days. So vulnerable. She hated it. The sick kid, who always took pills and never did sports. The sun was her enemy and the moon was her friend.


Now as a woman grown up, her mother wasn't always around to molly-coddle her when she whines. Back then, whenever she had fever, her mother used to dip a strip of cloth in eau de cologne and place it on her forehead. It’s used to cool her forehead and calm her mind, the body yet ablaze.


Her skin always felt warm her mothers says. Whenever she takes hold of her mothers’ hands to aid her steps she would shake her hand off. It’s so warm! Just like your fathers she says.


Just like your fathers.


That’s not the first time she said that. Once, she saw her mother engrossed in cooking, chopping carrots with all that love, patience, care and self-control. She felt the warmth spread as she realized how much she loves her mother and how much she meant to her.


In one spontaneous move she places her left arm around her mothers’ waist, who was still deeply concentrating on cutting neat pieces of carrot. She jerked in surprise at her touch and turned her face right, wide-eyed in surprise as if she didn't recognized who it was.


God! You hand felt just like your fathers. As she pulls her hand out of that semi-embrace. In another spontaneous move she put her hand yet again around her mothers waist and slowly swayed to some old tune playing on TV.


In few minutes she was done chopping carrots and piled it on to an empty saucer.
In a haste to transfer the saucer from the kitchen top to the cooker, she drops it. Few pieces of carrots scatters around the kitchen floor and the dog scurry around eating them.


It was a signal. And she got it. It’s as if to say I want the kitchen for myself, so please leave. She turns around and grabs a Choco Pie from the top shelf and leaves the kitchen as the ambiance inside it changed.


She went into the living room and took her favorite seat beside the lampshade and propped her legs up on the chair. She took out one of her fathers books "End to Suffering" by Pankaj Mishra. She started reading while taking occasional bites off the Choco Pie and taking occasional peeks outside the window and around the house just to see if everything was alright.


Just like her father.

Even the dog knows..

The wall marking our house has a lettuce through which the little kids from the neighbouring houses call and pet my dog, Diego. He is very popular among the streets' inhabitants and also among the ever present stray dog population. He is most famous for his penetratingly loud barks. So much so it is often considered a nuisance. Unless in a scenario like this when I actually think that a dogs' bark may mean something.



I woke up yet again to find Diego barking at something through the lettuce. He was halted at the doorstep, as he dared not get closer to the wall. I steeped to his level and squinted trying spot anything peculiar outside.When I couldn't find anything remotely exciting, my mother said "He is been barking at the Poster of Kuruwitage pasted on the gate across". And yes he was! point blank barking at Mahinda Kuruwitage!




The most direct explanation for this, as told to me by a friend, is that dogs expect faces to move all the time. A poster is a non-moving picture of a face, a concept a dog cannot grasp. He expects the face in the poster to move as he has seen mine, my parents and pretty much every other human faces move.


But there is always a double meaning (isn't there always?). The irony is that my dog is barking at a politician. He is been influenced by the human race(guilty as charged) or he seem to understand that all these politicians are just talk and no work. Genuineness of politicians cannot be judged by the reaction of a dog, but I couldn't ignore the reality of it.


As I watched Diego barking I thought 'What if dog ruled the country?'. Then again MP's bark like dogs at the parliament, it would hardly be different. I recently told male friend of mine that men are like dogs and I remember him going completely berserk on that remark. Let me enhance that remark to you. Its insulting for a dog to be compared with men, because I think its easier to work with a dog than it is with a guy. And dogs seem to understand your requirements and feeling than most humans we've met.


So tell Diego barks again...Woof

Jambori and Jaffna

A disturbing fact, as always calls our attention. This was one such scenario. Between the insistence by my dad and a reluctance from my part, I was tagged along to the annual Jumbory (all schools get together and camp on the same grounds), held at Nalanda College(for you information I have never being there and I never wantedto either). As I walked through the school grounds I still was reluctant, for I was sure it was bound to get boring.

But just like on thousand other previous occasions parents prove you wrong. Once I got my camera out everything else started to look brighter (I know it sounds like a line from a cheesy love scene). My GRUDGE against the human race, for bringing me here, dissolved. The hustle and the bustle of camp preparations (350 scouts to be exact), the echoing chatter of the outpour of eager parents, scout uniforms, all seemed appealing.

As my mother dragged me to the far corners of the ground where camps are built, I saw the detail in to which they have gone to create their domain. Unfortunately everyone stank (as boys usually do, scout boys especially now), so I had a slim chance getting close to them enough to have a civilized conversation. Despite that, I wondered around tent to tent, to see my mother dearest deep in conversation with some senior scouts from Kalmune and Jaffna.

The interesting fact though wasn't them, but the inquisitive boys who came following us thereafter, asking "what did you ask them?" We were bit taken aback like "who the hell are you to ask us that? Nevertheless mother replied calmly. Soon we were having a full blown conversation. Funny though I should call it so, considering the fact that the boys had limited knowledge of English and we, having a below limited knowledge of Tamil.

The beautiful fact was the energy that reflected in their eyes, the eagerness was overwhelming.
They were using all three languages to communicate with us. Something’s they said though was thoroughly disappointing. Three boys, Dushyan than, Darshan and Creedy (Cool name huh?), painted a picture about the conditions in Jaffna better than all the local newspapers put together. The SL Army considers all Tamils as LTTE, thus treating them brutally so. These boys, Creedy especially seen people being shot at for no credible reason. I, being 19, am yet to witness that. Dushyanthan said "No offense, but most Sinhalese thinks that all Tamils are LTTE, the SLA abuses us with that mind set".

He recalled a scenario once, when he and his friend going home late after Festival, they were stopped by a army soldier. He asked for the NIC, Dushyanthan showed, but when asked for the school ID, he didn’t have. Slap! The friend didn’t have the NIC so -SLAP!
Do they deserve this? But there's more, anyone seen out on the road past six o' clock, is pointed the gun and threatened to go home. This only boils the anger within people even more.

I wonder if our privileged citizens residing in Colombo have dealt with such situations, if they have, well then it’s definitely a handful. I remember at a recent gathering someone said she felt that her privacy is violated when the police pry through her belongings at check points. They open her lipstick. Fine lipstick! These guys have guns pointed at them. It left her drained and disappointed to even feel the Independence Day spirit, they don’t have independence. More than to her, she feels for other people who have to endure this treatment.
What are we complaining about?!!

Up north their actions are stifled and controlled, we complain that we feel caged, suppressed. To them our life is sweet sweet freedom. Dushyanthan wishes to live in Colombo no matter what. The drive he has to get out of his rut was sounded from his expressions. Between the broken English and broken Tamil, I found out that despite the atrocities of war, their parents wish to live in Jaffna, and that Diaspora wish to return to their homeland. They wish that north will be reinstated and people could live there like we do in Colombo.

The parting with them was marked with the words they chorused "Hope we meet again". I hope so because I want to see how their life has changed for the better.