The guardian...

He sits on a small hillock and stares at peoples feet. The well manicured in their fashionable foot wear and the tough and dirty in old rubber slippers. You can say so much about a persons background by just looking at them. Some are barefoot. No footwear not a potential customer. He hopes that they will notice him. No he wills them to see him. Feel sorry and chose him to leave their slippers or sandals under the baking sun. Instead with the young punk behind the counter in the nice big room with shelves belonging to the kovil. Surely the kovil does not need more money. They already have too much unlike him. Who needs every rupee he can earn. Just to survive. To make sure his family has at least one square meal a day. If you can call rice and two vegetables a square meal? To ensure his wife has her medicines. Sitting alone for twelve hours a day his mind wanders. Flitting from one issue to another. He sighs. So many responsibilities so little money he says to himself as he settles down more firmly into the rock he is sitting on. Deep down inside he thanks the gods for not punishing the miscreants who steal peoples shoes thereby creating a need for a guardian of shoes. A service which he is happy to fill, for a fee of course. If everyone else can make money out of religion why shouldn't he?

Sinhalese terrorists are invading Jaffna this time around!

Now that the A9 is open once again the Northern City is being assaulted once more by hoards of Sinhalese. But this time they are coming in busloads instead of armored tanks and are armed with cameras instead of guns. I drove into Jaffna yesterday. What really amazed me were the bus loads of people who were making use of the holidays to visit the north. There were literally busloads full of families taking a trip. For a moment one would think they were on the route to Kataragama during the season. What was a beautiful sight was all the security forces personnel exchanging waves with everyone. The holiday atmosphere was infectious. But sadly this was not a holiday town. In fact though everyone was moving about with gay abandon there were certain sights which would send a chill through your spine. For instance there were land mine signs all over the place along with shattered buildings and structures which made me wonder what it would have been like to live in this place when the war was going on. Of course what was funny was the busloads of people who were thronging around this place and snapping away to glory. And one of my Colleagues said this is what you call “Terror Tourism”! Which I thought was absolutely true. And of course if you combine these two words just like one would do in the travel trade what you come up with is Terrorists. Which again was quite ironic. While it’s a great thing that so many are taking this opportunity to visit Jaffna they have to be extremely aware of the fact that this is an area which is just coming out of war. And sometimes danger could be lurking beneath the surface. This point was driven home to me when I was walking on the side of the road of elephant pass and a soldier rushed to me and said be careful as there still could be landmines lying around though the area has been cleared. Because just two weeks ago one of their seniors had stepped on one in the same area and lost a leg. I just hope no such incidents will happen to these terrorists and rain on everyone’s parade.

These pics were taken from my phone the quality it not too good but more proper pics will be up soon once I get back home where I will have access to a decent broad band connection :)

Views of Landa Houses my new home away from home

Bloody Elections. Made the entire week so unproductive. Just a two day work week and the entire team on holiday mode including clients. Thursday I am sitting at my desk with one more long weekend staring at me in the face. If I were to stay at home I would have driven my family mad because I need a constant dose of stress to maintain my equilibrium. I was looking for places to go and stay and someone mentioned this place. Fortunately I was sent a link to a blog which had reviews of some great and unusual places to stay. Landa Houses was rated highly by him and the pictures were great too. But the best news of all was that they had rooms free. I had checked a couple of places and not a single place was free. It was a spur of the moment decision which I am really glad I made. The place was better than what my expectations were. The architecture and the environment made me think that I was in maybe a place like Bawa’s Lunuganga from a design perspective I could have been spending the night in the Light House or Blue water (Both designed by Bawa for those who don’t know) but of course the food was better. There is a sweet little lady called Menike who makes great food and I loved every morsel of it. Of course it was totally Truly Sri Lankan food. Nothing western! Though she did make a fried rice and a kan kun which would have put the chef at Chinese Dragon to shame. What was amazing was that the place was reasonably priced. And they charged us 6300/- for full board double and the two kids were free of charge. They did not charge anything extra for the large mugs of extremely sweet tea I had and some fresh fruit juice. However it was a wonderful experience and I can truly say that we have finally found our home away from home.

Government Job! A brilliant joke I had to share...

A guy applies for a job at a new Sri Lankan Government Department. The interviewer asks, "Are you disabled in any way." "Yes!" the guy says, "a landmine blew my testicles away!"
"O.K. you're hired!" the interviewer announces, working hours are from 8am to 5pm. Make sure you're here by 10am every morning!"
Puzzled the guy says, "You said 8am to 5pm, but why do you want me to come in only at 10am?"
"This is a government job," the interviewer says,
"the first two hours we just sit around scratching our balls........no point in you coming in for that....!"

The body politic...

No this is not about the current political situation I believe enough has been said and I really have nothing new to add. But this is about the gym I go to. And some of the goings on below the surface which I have begun to notice.
The gym I go to is now renamed "Body Bar" but I am sure you would have heard of it as its unglamorous former self which was Global Fitness. In all probability you might not have because It is one of those low profile gyms. For instance I have never ever seen it advertised even once. But it is patronised by some of colombos rich and beautiful. I might need to stress that I am the exception to the rule here.
I have been a regular at this place for over three years and one thing I really found was the haste for the instructors on duty to actually help clients out with their work out. For instance when I started I wanted someone to develop a schedule for me and you could say I was sent from pillar to post till out of frustration I decided to hire a personal trainer of my own (for an additional fee of course) to work out with mthree days a week. As time went by I realized that the main income for the instructors is through "personal training" and they subtly encourage this by purposeful inaction when they are on duty. And naturally there is a high level of competition amongst the trainers for clients. Now the guy who trains me used to work their but not any more but he was a favourite of the lady who is the owner of the gym and he was still allowed to do personal training. Also he is quite knowledgable though he too is a bit of a high strung chap and quite quick to take offence for the slightest thing. Somehow all the rest of the istructors ganged up on this boy and go out of their way to make his life difficult. These are some of the stuff I have observed with my own eyes.
Sometimes RN has to fill in as an instructor when no one is on duty the moment he is on duty the other guys who are supposed to be sharing the shift with him dissappear ensuring that he has to bare the brunt of the work. When he is training a client they would always try to grab the bench or weights which he is using. Also it seems that they have been carrying tales and complaining about him to clients because some of his new clients are prone to drop him all of a sudden. Even I was told to move from him by another member. This is kind of petty but this also lead to a dangerous situation. RN was doing a bench press with a large weight when it had slipped out of his hands and landed on his chest. And though there were at least two or three instructors who were presnt only one had half heartedly tried to help him to remove the weight while the others present had chosen to keep their eyes averted. Now I call this absolutely illresponsible behaviour specially since this boy could have got choked to death. But what I can't understand is individually all these guys are quite decent human beings. But together as a group they become quite viscious. Now could I call this a case of sport imitating art? At least the art of politics? Cos this is the kind of situation you would expect from some of our third rate parlimentarians not sportsmen who I thought was bound by a more honerable code.

An intutive insight...

I was making a presentation to some bankers the other day and afterwards we were talking about how some businessmen were making huge amounts of money. Beyond comprehension. For instance there was this true storu how one businessman bought a property in Colombo 3 and sold it for a profit of 85 million bucks the very next day... and of another who bought beach front property in the east for 10,000 a perch and sold it for 75,000 within one week. These gains are enormous. One of the bankers who were present made this interesting point. In general according to economic theory high returns means high risk. But in the current political climate this economic theory has evolved to high returns with very low risk for a lucky few. The main reason for this is Corruption! Because the laws of the land are pliant or as in certain cases do not apply to the favoured few; thereby giving them access to unlimited wealth beyond comprehension. Just think about it and you will realise how true it is.

The balls of life...

I don't know who said this but I think it is really an eye opener for some of us. If anyone knows who said this please do let me know....

"Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them - Work, Family, Health, Friends and Spirit and you're keeping all of these in the Air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four Balls - Family, Health, Friends and Spirit - are made of glass. If you drop one of these; they will be irrevocably scuffed,marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for it."

WORK EFFICIENTLY DURING OFFICE HOURS AND LEAVE ON TIME. GIVE THE REQUIRED TIME TO YOUR FAMILY, FRIENDS & HAVE PROPER REST.