Sri Lankan Records...............

None of Sri Lankan so far did not receive Nobel award of course India won twice both Literature and Economics. But we have notable Sri Lankans who won the Magsaysay award  Pro.Ediriweera Sarathchandra,musician W.D Amaradewaa, Rev.Father Marcelline Jayakody, Savodaya Founder A.T. Ariyaratne. The Agha Khan award Winning most influential architect of the region Deshmanya Jeffry Bawa  also we have Olympic Medal holders in athletics as well world champions in Cricket. They are all Sri Lankans.

(Savodaya Founder  Mr. A.T. Ariyaratne)Yesterday In Nuwara Eliya, Our Tea Capital served 35000 cups of Tea to people and its Guinness world record. The previous Record was belonging to India where they serve only 32000 people. This is not first world record that Sri Lanka holds. The world first Women prime minister is from our country. Somewhere in Past Sri Lanka actually it was Ceylon the number one tea exporter to the world. Due to various reason now China has become the number one and my little Pearl still maintaining the fourth place. Not too bad……..

 (there is no considerable growth of production since 1970.)

It was Late Singapore Prime  minister Lee Kuan U in book “The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew” there is a chapter about Sri Lanka he has pointed several facts where Sri Lankan Tea Industry fails at the time the Government taking over the privately owned tea estates during 

Mrs.  Bandaranayake .
But again it was Fidel Castro who really admired taking over private tea estates in the Non-Aligned Summit which happened in 1976.He did make caparison where they took over sugar industry and tobacco industry by a revolution. But Cuban Sugar Industry did not become number one in the world at any point. Brazil supplies ½ of the world sugar requirement still. Any way both Cuba and Sri Lanka Still independent Islands. At least we have something common……

(TheLotus tower  still at construction stage)

This all about Sri Lankan records. Well even our tea industry had some sort of decline there are certain things made Sri Lanka again to put in the number 1 place, but most of things are not in people friendly way. We are about to have the south Asia’s tallest tower the Chinese Gift,  the Lotus tower very soon. Well it now almost piercing s Blue sky of Colombo. Skyline of a city is an indication of the development of a country…that may be true to Qatar ,Hongkong,Dubai but In Sri Lanka it seems to be little exceptional we have still GDP per capita of 3800$,so this South Asia’s tallest  tower most probably won’t be a reason to bring this amount in a higher elevation.

(Prospective image of Sri Lanka with the Lotus tower.)

Then also we had the world record of Jumbo cabinet during former president’s time which exceeded over 60 cabinet ministers for population of 20 million people. We have 225 seats in the parliament. Not bad. Also we had a cabinet minister for Sugar. May be inspired form Cuba. Only one sugar factory is functioning in Sri Lanka.

Again we had four cabinet ministers only for education this was not to improve either education or sugar industry in Sri Lanka, only to please his friends. This is not including the deputy ministers, with all cabinet ministers and deputy minister total number of ministers exceeded over 100.

(http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-cabinet-ministers-appointed-by-a-government/)

I’m not sure is this a reason to cry or laugh but who was bearing the total cost of this minister.

In Sri Lanka both cabinet minister and deputy minister entitled with   so many facilities.750 liters of fuel for three vehicles. Per one minster only the fuel allowance is over 2000 liters per month.

Then 15 numbers of his personal staff. Most cases the minister appointed his family members to his personal staff. After five years they all entitled for government pension, here not to mention official residents and telephone bills and other utility facilities which another part of the whole package.

 Also they are entitled fir all the privileges as parliament members.monthly the whole family on foreign official tours .From previous government there were some cabinet minister they never had any official duties, but government budget allocated their maintenance cost only.

Apart from that they have their invisible hand on each and every  government projects.one of the previous government there was a cabinet minister who was known as the Mr.10%,but end of that era he became Mr. 100%.So no wonder why  our GDP won’ t reached higher level  even though there are buildings reaching to the sky.

These were well known facts during the past election all the political meeting widely accusing over this white elephant. As Sri Lanka over 6 million people thought about this and vote against the previous government. From January 2015 we got a new president.one of his political promises were limited the state cabinet for 25 numbers. But he it was a broken promise, it exceeded over 30.yet again we had some positive thinking over minimizing the numbers of the cabinet ministers. So again at the parliament election majority had hopes on the new government. Well happy to say at the moment we are holding another world record for over two weeks.that is the smallest  cabinet of the world.at the moment we have five members in the cabinet including president and prime minister

(the prime minister is not included actually there are five members.)

Sadly this in not keeping another political promise, these days newly elected parliament members are bargaining over for cabinet ministry post from new government. There are unofficial information says this time the cabinet is little less than 50.At least we can be happy it is not growing. In Sri Lanka  the reason why we do smile than  other nations in the world is we are always very optimistic.

But there is another reason as per the 19^th amendment the situation such over 30 member of cabinet has to take parliamentary approval. Nothing to worry they will get it tomorrow early morning.

Actual now it has proven this is a complete white elephant and the administration body of Sri Lanka can take care of even without a large number of cabinet ministers. But we don’t have far sighted leaders; we have only politicians who think of wining the next election which will be in another 5 years.

The Donkey Life.

Puttlam is a coastal town In Sri Lanka well it  has two main productions salt and cement .well it does not seems both has any relationship, but so far there are  no any conflicts either. I have a friend who worked in Puttlam Hospital he is a doctor, As per his statistics Puttlam hospital has the highest number of child birth in Sri Lanka.Also he said often there are situations where the   same man got two wives and both of them are admitted to the hospital same time for the delivery, I think it’s because there are large number of Muslim Population living in Puttlam and in Islam if you can afford you can marry four wives.No wonder Puttlam has heights number of child births.

Puttlam was the city which accepted large number of Muslim refugees when LTTE chased them from North within 24 hours. Even After the war most of them did not return back to their villagers.

(School children near Puttlam Cement factory on a field trip)

Well this is not about Muslim community  in Puttlam and  Salt or cement. There are another uniqueness has Puttlam that is freely loitering donkeys in Puttlam town.

 Donkeys are not native to Sri Lanka and it is believed that Arab traders brought them to Sri Lanka. They were useful to transport of salt. Now Salt transportation has been motorized so donkeys were neglected. Poor donkeys now been chased away by the people because it was believed that the smell of their dung kept away harmful insects from coconut plantations.

 However these animals adapted to local conditions and they still exist as feral populations in Mannar and Puttalam.My Friend while he is working in the Puttlam Hospital invited me to spend the weekend with him in Puttlam.Actually he is a nice guy and keeping a Donkey as a pet. General believe is that Donkeys are not good as pets, but over two days I got to observe the donkey very closely.

The First day donkey did not do anything.it did not move an inch. When we looking at distance it seems that donkey is in a deep thought. There is a funny story about what Puttlam donkeys are thinking. Well this goes to the time of where the salt caravan did transporting salt across the Puttlam Lagoon. A one of donkey was fall in to water with its luggage while it was crossing the lagoon. With the sea water some of the salt got diluted and donkey felt little relief because of the less of the weight. Then donkey thought this is a good way of losing its weights as a habit the donkey started falling on water. The trader got lost his profit and identified the donkey is doing this purposely. Next they the trader thought teaching a lesson and instead of salt he gave dry soil as the luggage.as usual the donkey got felt in the water, but soil got heavy with the water and donkey felt more weight .So people of Puttlam say still that donkey thinking the reason of increasing the weight .Generally Donkey consider as very dumb animals.

The other observation of mine was the way of mating. Well my understanding donkeys have not understanding of being kind or love for each other. The male donkey just chasing over a female one when the female one tired of running they started mating each other. Both of them were making horrible sound very unpleasant to hear. The other thing is donkeys have no any feel of being territorial. They just walk through houses or mosques and everywhere till someone chased them. Again then next day same donkey going to the same place. They have no any sense of learning something from the previous experience.  From the ancients times donkeys have been famous for their stubbornness. Whipped, mocked and without food. But my feel is they are not stubborn. Donkeys have very limited memory but they are very harmless creatures.

Well in that case donkeys may have very low memory. But can you believe there are over 40 million of donkeys living in around the world. Out of that 40 million most of donkeys are living in underdeveloped countries. Sometimes   donkeys are mating with female horses and produce mules.

Donkeys were being subjected for many stories. I’m sure most of you have heard stories of Aesop and Nazirudeen If not, probably have watched at least one movie of Sharke movie  series. But out of all I very much like the poem by G. K. Chesterton. As it appears to me this is a reasonable poem  for all donkeys.

When fishes flew and forests walked  

 And figs grew upon thorn,  

Some moment when the moon was blood  

   Then surely I was born.

With monstrous head and sickening cry

   And ears like errant wings,  

The devil’s walking parody  

   On all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,

   Of ancient crooked will;

Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,  

   I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had my hour;

   One far fierce hour and sweet:  

There was a shout about my ears,

   And palms before my feet.

THE poem could be interpreted in different ways “The tattered outlaw of the earth” well that is something about donkeys.

But we all know the donkey’s hour of glory  came when it carried Jesus Christ into Jerusalem,  also still many donkeys think people praised to the donkey not to the Jesus Christ…..

Reading Makes Full Man................................?

Reading makes full man, well I’m not  really agree on that, if it is meaning  that reading makes  perfect man ,it will never make us perfect, we can be gain knowledge by reading, but we can’t  be perfect by reading. After all nobody is perfect. By reading what we can do is we can justify what we are doing we can also find very valid reasons to justify what we do whether it s right or wrong.

 It was Egyptians who started keeping document as an archive, and later this converted into the place which is more than just an archive. But it was not written in papers those were burnt clay tiles with writing, but the concert of modern library started in Greece. Greeks adopted the Chinese invention of printing in papers. Then library was common practice most of religious institutes, Now of course we have E libraries, we don’t have to get the hard copy, if we have a tab or smart phone then we can read whatever we want. But reading a book is different from reading   it from our tab.

(Jaffna Library  form Fort)

In Sri Lanka we had the largest library in South Asia. It was Jaffna library. Of course I never got any chance to go there. Last time when I was in Jaffna I went there but it was closed because of a holiday. Even if I get any chance to go in I don’t think that I will be able to see any of books. Because the entire library was completely burnt by the Sinhalese.

(http://www.infolanka.com/news/IL/1299.htm)

"History’s footprints

are ash. 

There are ash people,

ash places,

ash memories,

and ash eyes. 

 This library,

the one you see,

is ash too. 

 There were ashen people here,             

wearing ash spectacles,

sitting on ash chairs

and reading ash books.

Those ash books

contained ashen lessons;

the lessons of 1981,

1983,

1987-88-89,

and on wards,

ash years;

 and the ash walls here

still recall

the ash words 

heard on the ash day. 

 Where would all this ash go,                                                        (   Burnt library )

one day?

maybe there is an ocean,

somewhere,

an ocean of time,

made of ash

and ashes.  

The ash ocean,

will kiss

the ashen shore of 

Jaffna,

the city of ashes,

and caress

the ash heartbeat of my nation,"

“Sri Lanka maatha…” 

( Rasika Jayakody 26-05-2012 )

This has happened before that in India. Old universities of “Nalanda” and “Wikramasheela” was burnt completely .Also same thing happened In Germany before the World War II.There was a particular politician who was responsible for burning Jaffna Library and later he also assassinated .ironically  under the good governments in Sri Lanka both his  sons were elected to the  parliament this time. I wish the history won’t repeat again.

The other library which I like most is Colombo public library, I t is not big as the congress library in USA, but still it has reasonable collection, then the other my unforgettable library it is  Ingiriya public library, well it was a very small place. Now of course we have new building, but so far I never been to the new library building. But I was a very regular to the old library during my school days. We had a very helpful librarian as well.

However if we are going to library the whole idea is reading something. There may be some of us have occasions that we go to library to meet someone but I don’t think any of us frequently visiting to library to see the building.

We generally go to library to read, there is a lesser tendency to go to library to enjoy the building.

(Padeniya Temple Ancient Library)

 But in Sri Lanka there is a one library which I very much like to visit only to see the building. Well it is not large modern building; it is a small wattle and daub construction belongs to Padeniay rajamaha Wiharaya in Kurunagala.

Sri Lanka we had a traditional education system based on Buddhist temples. Most of Buddhist temple has large amount of religious books. Those books are hand written on Palmyra leaves. 

These kind of books were  known as  “Puskolapotha”.the Place where these books were kept known as “ Pothgula”.It is very much similar to a reference section of a modern library. You can’t borrow the book but of course you can read at temple premises.

 Sadly this is not allowed for women, due to various reasons. Traditional Sri Lankan education was not a women right. It’s during the British period of Sri Lanka that women were allowed for formal education.

Padeniya Rajamaha Wihara is one of the very old Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka. If you are taking Anuradhapura   road through Kurunagala this is actually on the main road.

In Sri Lanka history the ancient kingdom started fromAnuradhpura,But eventually  it started moving towards south western part of Sri Lanka.At one Point Kurunagala became the capital city of Sri Lanka. 

The kings of that time did not think of building high rises or highways. What they built was Buddhist temples.temples. Padeniya belongs to that time period but there are some stories which related to King Dutu Gemunu’s period.

The ancient library, “Pothgula” which is over three hundred years old but its wattle and daub construction. Most of wattle and daub construction does not existing such a long period. With time the moisture will cause to damage the strength of the walls and also termite attacks to the sub structure.

This particular building rests on large rock subsurface of that the water of moisture absorbent by the walls is very little. Since this is an archaeological conserved building they won’t let us to see the inside, I have been to this place several times but so far never got any opportunity of seeing it inside. But the external plastering has very smooth texture. Actually the Padeniya temple is something worth watching. 

Breaking Eggs....

My mother has a cousin sister who is  a nun, some school holidays, I used to spent whole month  with her .She was in Bandarawela, the good shepherd convent. Later  as an architecture student I came to know the chapel was designed by Arch.Ulrik Plesner, but as a ten years old I did not spent much time there.

( When I was at good Sheppard chapel  last time ,it was 2009 It is a nice place....I dont know who is sitting there...but I love this photo....)
As a kid I was kind of a  tomboy, so my mother hoped staying at  this convent environment will make some different,that was the idea of sending me there,  not to enjoy the vacation .There were certain improvements,of course I learn to work on time table, I learn to house cleaning, feeding hens etc…

The sister  Carmelia was the most kind lady out of all nuns, even she thought me  play piano, and she did not try to change  me.Other nuns were ok specially my aunt, but  I prefer sister Carmelia, Within the convent itself we also had a bakery.
We did make local breads, fish buns,Kibula buns, all that. If I had first time BBQ chicken it was at this place, I learnt it from Sister Carmelia, She thought me how to season the chicken properly. Actually I had a very good vacation time. Not only the bakery there was a farm shop as well,where they sold  eggs,chicken etc..

It was Sister Carmelia who explained how to candle the eggs, candling eggs mean, before we sell eggs in the farm shop we look for imperfections. We hold the eggs against to a light bulb or a fairly large candle and searching cracked  or flawed ones among eggs. Then we send to the bakery, they use it for cakes or making breads, the first time when I did candling eggs I found a flaw or crack in every single one of them the thin hair line ones. 

So that the  bucket which goes to the farm shop was pretty much empty.
It was the  sister Carmelia who told me that day if we look very carefully everything has a crack, if you identify it  you can break it from that crack, well as a ten years old one I did not understand what she meant that day. Actually I took over another ten years to understand what she  told.
If we look closely enough we will find very weak spot in everything, so we can beak it from that point. If we are smart enough we also find our weak spot as well, so we can take precaution before someone break our lives. That was the lesson I learnt from Sister Carmelia.

Every time when I do break an egg this coming to my mind…Now Sister Carmelia in her early seventies, of course I don’t get much time to spend with her. But still if I spend an hour with her I am learning something new....
Eggs are very versatile food.to day it was a Sunday and I got some nieces and nephews visiting our home. So I thought now it is time to teach something I know about eggs. Of course today there were about eight of my nieces and nephews so I did some eggs buffet for lunch. I made different egg dishes, kids enjoyed it.
Well I started with my favorite poached eggs. Of course it is fun to make it and the taste of creamy softness

 It’s very simple, but make sure you have fresh eggs very simple first add a small dash of vinegar to a pan of steadily simmering water. Crack eggs individually into a ramekin or cup. Look for the weak point just kidding. Then creates a gentle whirlpool in the water to help the egg white wrap around the yolk. Next step is slowly tip the egg into the water, white first. Then leave to cook for three minutes. Then it is done. Drain onto kitchen paper or straight away to a plate. Sprinkle some salt and chopped parsley if you looking for some dressing.

I don t think it is necessary to explain making egg omelet, even you can do Bulls’ eye…just break the egg into heated pan with little oil.
The other thing is boiling eggs, we may all think boiling eggs is very and anybody can do…of course it’s easy…but there are essential tips to follow. We can do hard boiling, half boiling or medium. I prefer medium boiled eggs. For medium boiled eggs it only takes seven minutes sharp. Don’t keep over seven minutes and immediately drain to cold water. Otherwise there will be ash color membrane between white yolk and yellow yolk. I don’t like being ash at all………

Then what I did was egg BBQ, well it’s also simple, just keep the eggs above the heat…But it takes time….well minimum 45 minutes.

 But if you want to make fast you can place it with burning charcoal. Also I did not do but we can bake eggs in the oven, but t you have to use heat resistance   Vessel and covered with sand. Leave about ten minutes in 245 centigrade.Or else you van use BBQ stick and place it ever the flame...But this is very messy job...I had really unsuccessful story today...Final product was very unattractive...Even I could not eat....
thing is it's a mixed of both white and yellow parts...Not nice...

Well actually I did not make today but my mother helped with this.
This is Sri Lankan special with eggs, actually only in Sri Lanka you can find this. It’s the egg hoppers…We have very popular food called Hoppers. It’s kind of pancake but with very crispy edge.

Everybody can’t make this including me…so when you add and eggs on the hopper it’s an egg hopper. Making hopper I’ll explain some other time.time.
 Mhhh egg hoppers….I just love it…

The Best Actor of Our Time...............................................

In Sri Lanka we got very notable actors,Mr.Gamini Fonseka, Known as the “Sinama Sakvithi  “   which means the greatest king  or king of the kings.

 Eventhough we don t have large film industry such as India we do produce 10 -25 per year. But Mr Gamini Fonseka throughout his life able to perfume over 100.Mr Gamini Fonseka not only did classical movies but also appeared in many of commercial movies. “Nidhanaya,Wali Kathara”, known to be the best performance of Mr. Gamini Fonseka. He also directed few movies as well,”Parasathu mal” which I like most.

A scene from" Nidhanaya"-it s story about looking for a treasure. 

Mr Joe Abhayawikrama also famous with his notable role in” Wali Kathara”.Mr Joe Abhayawikrama started his acting carrier as a comic actor, but he did many remarkable films won the best actor award many times. The role in “Purahada Kaluwara “as a blind father who lost his son in the war made him to win internationally best actor award.

A blind father waiting his son return home.Very sensitive performance ,Mr Abeywickrama won best actor award in Singapore international Film festival.But this move did not allow showing in Sri Lanka saying this movie may cause de motivation of forces.  

Mr Tony Ranasinghe,of course I can spend the whole day just looking at this photo.

If I did not mention Mr.Tony Ranasinghe that will very unfair thing to Mr .Tony Ranasingeha, He did not appear in many movies. He did carefully selected characters .Also did not contribute much into commercial movies. But Mr Tony Ranasingeha is the most handsome actor I have seen in Sinhalese movies.

 He is like Dorian Grey in Sri Lankan films. For me is best performance is “Delowak Athara” (between two worlds),  the movie is upper middle class boy who  accidently killed a passenger he did not want to hide the incident but he did not want to go to the police either.it is very much similar to Chappaquiddick incident which U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy faced.

 The whole movie warped with Mr Ranasinghe performance. He explained the complexity of the situation lot of facial expression, there is no other actor who could do that kind of role except Mr.Tony Ranasinghe.

But Mr.Tony Ranasinghe gained lot of weight so he did not be the same person in his middle age.But still he was the best good looking actor  so far.

Well, all above actors are passed away presently we have lot of talented actors but many of them popular in television tele dramas. They do their performance either on stage or silver screen.

The villege headman-Mr Rajapaksha acting in a tele drama.

But nobody is good as our ex –president Mr.Rajapaksha.Actually he did some tele drams as well. He acted as village head man .Not only that he personally met Sharukh Khan in India at mid night, because only available time was after 12 o clock night.

Mr .Rajapaksha first appeared as the commanding office to the war. He personally did this action movie well there may be lot of directors but his performance were incredible.

The action movie-MR the terminator
 He did not go to front line during the war even for a second. But there were very attractive photos were taken and widely published where he surrounded by army soldiers.

After the war he started playing “The father”. He was the father of the nation most of political rallies started after he did babysitting.
MR, The babysitter.

 There were small babies hugged by Mr Rajapaksha. People actually started believing that Mr. Rajapaksha is their BELOVED FATHER.

His best performance actually came after losing the election. He has several luxury houses, but he appeared to public jumping out of the half done house, 

did not stop that became a devotee of Lord Buddha and started going to each and  every temple ,meditating at Sri Maha bodhi tree...

Somehow he lost the parliamentarian election as well. Today I saw Mr Rajapaksha’s honorary performance. During past seven months he was completely against with both president and the prime minister, but today he behaves just like he was reborn.

Today holding hands with MY3
This is fine if Mr. Rajapaksha really wanted to help to the newly elected government, but sadly this is another act. It’s well known secret after the parliamentarian election that Mr. Rajapaksha made a call and requested from president MY3 to postpone or stop all the investigation against his family.
 After trying so many hardships now MR is planning to make good will and be innocence. Still Mr. Rajapaksha has not stopped his carrier as an actor. But the audience has some sort of awareness then he expects.

The real face of MR,confused frustrated and uncertain.......