The Power of Personal Branding: Piyumi Hansamali's Success Story

In the world of luxury, the revelation that a Dior handbag, retailing for $2,800, costs just $57 to manufacture, sparked widespread discussions about the power of branding. This story, which emerged in July last year, highlighted how a brand's allure can significantly inflate the perceived value of its products.

Around the same time, Piyumi Hansamali, a rising star in the beauty industry, gained attention for her impressive success and wealth from her skincare range. Despite her achievements, the media coverage was often lukewarm, and at times, even dismissive.

Fast forward to late March 2025, and Piyumi's story has resurfaced. An inquiry revealed that she sells her products for ten times the cost of manufacture, with claims that items costing 5,000 to produce were sold for 35,000. However, this isn't entirely accurate. While she does sell a particular pack of cosmetics for 35,000, it contains six items, averaging around 6,000 each. A closer look at her page shows that the individual prices are slightly less than those at Spa Ceylon.

While the quality and manufacturing approval process of her products are beyond my expertise, it's clear that Piyumi's success is a testament to the power of personal branding. Much like Otara Gunewardene with Odel and Merrill J. Fernando with Dilmah in the pre-digital era, Piyumi and others have harnessed the digital attention economy to achieve remarkable success and wealth.

This trend is also evident in Sri Lankan entertainment, where acts like Wasthi and singers such as Shehan Meeranga command higher fees (800k and 1.5 million respectively) than more established artists. A recent example is the charismatic figure behind Wild Cookbook, who not only launched a restaurant but also celebrated 10 million followers on YouTube.

Instead of criticizing Piyumi, we should celebrate her achievements and learn from her journey. Her story exemplifies the transformative power of personal branding and the opportunities within the digital attention economy. By leveraging social media and digital platforms, individuals can achieve remarkable success and redefine traditional business models.

Piyumi's journey is a reminder that innovation and adaptability are key to thriving in today's fast-paced world. As we witness similar success stories in various industries, from fashion to entertainment, it's clear that the ability to capture and maintain digital attention is a valuable skill. Let's embrace these lessons and support those who are pioneering new paths to success.

Nelum Kuluna the Movie: A review

 Politics is no laughing matter.

With a title like Nelun Kuluna and an A-grade cast of talented actors playing serious roles, I walked into the theater expecting a very serious docu-drama. about politics, corruption, and power struggles.

I never expected to be laughing so much till my sides hurt.

It was only a couple of minutes after the movie started that I realized I was witnessing Sri Lanka’s first Dark Comedy.

It's very difficult to review a movie without giving away the plot.

But it could be described as a cock and bull story. Pun intended.

Something to do with a big erection. Just like the Nelum Kuluna

Let me say that finally, I realized the meaning of tentigo which is the English title of the movie.

I know Illango as a commercial director.

Generally, Illango’s style is lovely, beautiful very artistic shots. But this was completely the opposite.

Which is a good thing in my eyes. No one should be tied down to a single style.

Yet his creativity shone through.

From the title itself, to a single shot of a hand crank that is used to start old cars. To the arrack bottle placed on atop of a freshly filled grave.

In my opinion, the original Nelun Kuluna is a waste of time and money.

Definitely not this one.

Breaking up with a Bank

 

“Thank you for calling HSBC, we are recording this call to serve you better.”

“Serve you better? He ha what a blatant lie!” I laugh crazily and say to myself.

In the past few years I have heard this way too many times for my sanity.

Serving one better is the last thing they have on their mind.

In fact these guys would not know the meaning of the word service.

They have mastered the fine art of making it more and more impossible for their customer to access them. All in the name of efficiency.

The biggest culprit of course is their phone system. Called the IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system.

Dialing into it means you’re entering a maze that takes you from pillar to post without being able to connect to a human.

You can always request a call back. I received the callback I requested one month later. At 11 pm!

Once, I had to put up a public post on Facebook to be able to get through to their customer care. Because calls were getting dropped as there weren’t sufficient staff to man their call center.

I have realized that this is done on purpose to ensure that the low value clients drop off in frustration.

Yet, I have been holding on tenaciously.

Mainly for emotional reasons.

This was my first bank account.

I still remember walking into their large branch nervously. As a teenager, this was unfamiliar territory to me.

The pretty lady behind the counter giving me a questionable look when I said I wanted to open an account.

Her look transforming into surprise when I pulled out the required cash from my pocket.

It has been at least 40 years since.

Over the years, I have also been a corporate client as well.

It was when they refused to grant us a 5 Million facility even though we had over a billion rupees going through our account over many years, that we realized that these banks are not meant for medium-scale local businesses like ours. Their primary purpose is to cater to their international clients.

Recently they upped the ante of making life difficult for their non-prime customers.

Now you have to maintain a minimum balance of 100k in your account. If not, you need to pay 2500 a month for the privilege.

Why would anyone want to keep 100k idle earning the lowest interest possible?

What added insult to injury was that they did not even provide a phone number to find out more information. Instead, directed you to their online chatbot.

When asked how I should close my account? All that the chatbot could tell me was to go to my banking app and send a secure message.

Which I did. I was sent an acknowledgement saying that they would respond within two days.

Guess what? As I write this more than two days have passed. They are yet to contact me.

I am definitely getting served better.

The Grave Digger's Son.

Out of all the people who may have walked into my office room on that busy Monday the last person I expected to see was him.

He was the grave digger from the cemetery.

His discomfort showed this was unfamiliar territory from his usual lush green workspace.

He hesitated to talk to me and refused a seat even though I offered him one.

“I need an advertisement” were the first words that escaped his lips.

What kind of advertisement would this man want?

Is he trying to sell a land? Maybe he wants to look for a house by placing an ad in the classified sections.

These were the thoughts that were going through my mind.

But then I realized this request had a desperate undertone.

Slowly but surely the story came out.

The cemetery is in the heart of the city.

According to the City regulations, his son is automatically accepted to what is considered the best and most popular school in the country. Royal College of Colombo.

A college that has given birth to prime ministers, top academics, and billionaires.

Many parents go to extreme lengths to get their sons into this school.

From using the influence of powerful politicians to offering large amounts of money as bribes disguised in the form of donations.

Whilst everyone would believe this young boy is extremely lucky to study here, in a way it’s kind of a curse.

A large majority of his classmates would be from families of extremely wealthy businessmen, top government officials and politicians, or those belonging to the high society of Sri Lanka.

As a child from a less privileged background, the gap between his desk and that of the other students was miles apart.

In most schools, donations are sought for various school projects.

There was no difference in this class as well.

The class teacher was forcing each child to get at least one souvenir advertisement for such a project.

Enormous pressure is exerted on the children by the teachers as they too are competing with one another. Those who do not comply are shamed in front of the entire class. In the end, the pressure exerted on the children finally lands on the shoulders of the parents.

For some parents getting an advertisement was an easy task. But not for a humble grave digger.

The guilt of his inability to protect the image of his child was crushing him.

He gets a small monthly stipend from me to maintain the grave.

“Sir can you give me an advertisement and you can deduct it from the money you give me” he asked me in a desperate voice.

A full page would be one year's worth of income he would have to forego.

But he was proud and did not want to beg.

As a father, I understood his pain and frustration.

I too had faced similar requests from the school my daughters attend which was a stone's throw away from where his son studies.

I knew the teachers could be mercenary in their mission to extract every last possible penny from their students.

Fortunately, I was sufficiently blessed financially to be able to handle these requests.

So yes we gave him an advertisement.

No, the cost was not deducted from the money paid to him.

It was a different man who walked out of my office.

A proud father with his held eye knowing that he can be a hero in his son’s eyes.

The Fake Death of Poonam Pandey - Did they go too far.

 What a shame! Another young life taken away by cancer. This was what went through my mind when I saw the news about the death of Poonam Pandey on Daily Mirror. In fact, I was a bit confused, because the Daily Mirror had said Poonam was an actor in the headline itself. But the article had a picture of what seemed like a female. “Well, these are modern times, where one cannot say if a person is a he, a she, or an it” was my response, and shrugged off any future thoughts about this situation away.

But then my Twitter feed began to fill with various posts about how all this was a scam. An online campaign done by a digital agency to create awareness of “Cervical Cancer”.

Wow! That was my first response.

It was not a wow of admiration though.

Faking a person's death is generally associated with Insurance Fraud or Major Criminals and Gangsters who want to disappear from the face of the earth.

But now it is used for communication purposes.

Suddenly a quote from the book Shanthram came to mind. “Sometimes it is necessary to do the wrong thing for the right reasons. The important thing is to be sure that our reasons are right, and that we admit the wrong — that we do not lie to ourselves, and convince ourselves that what we do is right.”

Yes, most definitely people have now heard about cervical cancer which can be easily cured.

But this truth has been based on a lie.

We have played with people’s emotions. We have also diluted the trust people place on sources they gather information from online.

There is a thin line between a good campaign and an absolute disaster. To me sadly this is a disaster.

Suck You Evernote

Relationships are extremely important to me. I consider them the building blocks of success, and take pride in the relationships have built over the years.

Sadly this is something that those who own Bending Spoons a European app manufacturer with Ryan Reynolds as an investor, have no idea about.

This all started when they (Bending Spoons) bought an app called Evernote.

Now I have been an Evernote user since 2016.

It has served me well.

At certain times in my life, I have been a paid user for a couple of years.

Then all of a sudden these guys increased their annual plan by nearly double to 140 dollars a year.

This made me reconsider my options.

I realized the main reason why I was paying for Evernote was because it gave me the privilege of using it on three different devices instead of two.

I also realized that I do not use it very much on the third device. It was mainly on my laptop and my phone.

So I downgraded from the paid plan to the free tier.

And that was when the trouble started.

Suddenly I realised that I was facing a stranglehold on what I could do on the app. And as time went by the stranglehold became tighter and tighter.

Right now you cannot open more than one notebook per month and have more than fifty notes.

This price increase reminds me of Martin Shkreli who raised the price of a tablet of a vital Aids medicine from 13 Dollars to 750. After purchasing the license to manufacture it.

Bending Spoons, also known as BS — I cannot help but notice that BS is more popularly known as the acronym for Bull Shit — was trying to profit maximize on one side.

While loading EN with features that might have increased the operating cost as well as made the app more clunky. This also meant that the software had to be upgraded constantly. Virtually every other day. Trust me, that’s extremely frustrating.

I still believe they could have offered a more economical model for people such as me who use Evernote for just note-taking, restricting some of the bells and whistles.

Anyway by this time I was extremely frustrated. And decided to switch.

So right now I am typing this on Apple Notes. Which is excellent and comes FOC with my devices.

Additionally, apple just launched a journaling app that is highly intuitive which I am testing out at the moment. Not sure I might use it long-term. And of course, there is One Note which gives me the freedom of handwriting as well as typing.

Yes, I have 8 years' worth of notes in Evernote which I shall migrate slowly but surely.

But I wish this relationship could have ended better.

“But its price and very limited free version make it hard to recommend to anyone who isn’t already using it. As such, Evernote is no longer an Editors’ Choice winner. Most people should look to OneNote instead because it works just as well and is considerably more affordable.” — PC Mag November 29th, 2023

A new invasive species threatens Yala!

A new alien species is invading Yala and threatening to ruin the park. They behave like animals but move about in four-wheel drive vehicles with names such as Land Rover Mahindra and Toyota.
“Why are you bringing this party down this track?”
That was the question posed to our tracker as we were doing our evening round in our own vehicle.
The underlying tone of this accusation was “What right do you have to bring these guys who are traveling inside Yala in their own vehicle without hiring a Safari Jeep from one of us?”
It's as if we were encroachers into their territory.
These jeep drivers believe that they are the authority when it comes to the park. Way above the pecking order than the employees of the Wild Life Department.
In fact, they are a law unto themselves.
They drive around at high speeds.
They block the roads.
They do not follow the simple etiquette of moving your vehicle after five minutes of a sighting. Giving another person an opportunity to see the animal as well.
All this was something I have experienced for quite some time. Without making a fuss.
What got my ire and motivated me to pen this article was when I saw them blocking the path of animals.
Elephants to be precise.
It was a herd of elephants with a baby wanting to cross the road and go back into the jungle after drinking water from the tank.
When one of these Safari Jeeps drove in and purposely blocked the very path they were going to cross.
Then more jeeps came and quite literally piled up one on top of the other.
Giving the herd no room to move at all.
This disturbed the elephants. So much so that two elephants stood guard blocking the vehicles till the others crossed.
One jeep even tried to push against the elephant and was head-butted as a result.
Which serves him right.
But this driver was putting his passengers' lives in danger as well. The vehicle could have easily toppled over. Or a passenger attacked. Since they were tourists it would have created a negative image about visiting the park. Which would ultimately affect not only the park but the Jeep Drivers as well, financially.
This situation has come about due to two facts.
One being not enough trackers to accompany every vehicle.
The second being the enormous political power that the Jeep drivers wield. The Wildlife Department officials are powerless in the face of it.
I do not trust the government to step in and correct this situation. After all it's the two-legged mammals that vote not the four-legged variety.
My hope is an organisation such as WNPS will come forward to provide training for these drivers along with an endorsement system that has to be renewed yearly. Those drivers who qualify can display a sticker similar to a license on their vehicles assuring the passengers of a civilised experience within the park.
Finally, people will be able to choose safety and decency towards animals over danger and cheap thrills.

The Peak End Rule and Private Hospitals

People remember past events through intense positive or negative experiences (the Peak) and the final moment of an experience (the end).

If the final moment is negative then his memory of that experience would be negative.

This is the Peak End Rule developed by Daniel Kahneman the only psychologist to win a Nobel Prize for economics.

Now let me share my experience about discharging a close colleague from a reputed private hospital post-surgery.

Frustrating, Horrible, and Nightmarish would be some of the words which come to mind.

The doctor discharges the patient at 5.30

It takes more than 2.5 hours for the bill to get ready. The main reason being that the consultant has not given his fees.

He is in surgery. He will give his fees only after he knows what the total hospital charges are. 

Once this is done the insurance takes another two-three hours to process the payment.

In the meantime the nursing station has quite literally forgotten about the patient who is still suffering from post-surgical pain. 

It's understandable. Technically the patient is discharged.

We had to go and ask to remove the Cannula. 

The night medicines were given only after we asked for it.

The patient had asked for a banana to eat to take the medicine.

Asked one nurse there was no response. Called the F&B Section, and they say to call the nursing station. Tells the nursing station once more. The Banana comes after nearly 1.5 hours. Sadly everyone scolds the waiters though it is not their fault.

The final nail in the coffin was that the accounts department told me to come to the first floor to settle the bill. But did not have the foresight to tell me that I need to take a different lift. As the usual lift takes you to a car park. You are left scratching your head wondering where to go.

Once everything is done and finalized. The patient left the hospital only at 10 p.m

4.5 hours after the discharge.

No one really wants to be stuck in a hospital for 4.5 hours. 

It seems that no hospital is looking at this from a client experience point of view. I have heard similar complaints from patients across most private hospitals in Sri Lanka.

The biggest problem is the lack of communication and the passing down of information.

No one bothers to keep the patient appraised of the situation. So they are in their room, wondering what is happening. Anxiety levels rising as each moment passes.

If you look at it, all that is required is a simple step to make the discharge process less frustrating.

Having a Guest Relations Officer (GRO) take over the patient from the moment of discharge. Keeping the patient informed and making sure she/he is cared for. Along with an accounts department that would bring the bill to the client's room along with a wireless credit card machine.

But no one has thought of it.

Thereby ensuring most of their clients leave with negative memories of an unpleasant experience even though they are healed of life-threatening disease.

Warning: We Humans can be easily manipulated.

They say seeing is believing.

I guess for hundreds and thousands of years this was true.

But our eyes can be easily tricked.

Hence the reason why magicians have been making money since time immemorial.

But in today's modern world of ai, deep fake and being able to splice together a video on your handphone, this is no longer true.

This is what I saw happening when a video started going viral about the Dalai Lama asking a boy to eat his tongue.

I saw the outrage turning into a giant inferno.

I held back from commenting on it. Mainly because I did not want to add fuel to a burning issue. And something kept holding me back.

A deep gut feeling saying all that you see may not be true.

I know for a fact that it is a custom in Tibet to greet someone by putting their tongue out at them. Also if you go to Europe, virtually everyone kisses on the lips.

Fortunately for me, I came across this video which outlines the context of this entire situation whilst showing the complete unedited footage.

The fact that the boy's mom is also present, sitting on the stage, just a couple of feet away from Dalai Lama, and her expressions right throughout also helped me to understand that this would not have been a threatening situation for the child.

It was only then I realised how easily we can be manipulated. Even I am guilty of jumping into conclusions hastily. Without realising that there are three sides to a story. The actual truth, what one person says and what the other person says.

Because we have been conditioned through many thousands of years that seeing is believing.

Its all about Perspective

 

They say the grass is always greener on the other side.

Recently I experienced a situation that brought out the truth of that statement in the most amazing manner.

The story begins many decades ago.

I was not a very rich kid. Which meant that I did not have that much money to spend on the school canteen.

The food in that school canteen seemed as attractive as gold to me.

Seriously.

The rolls and the patties and the egg buns were something that I could see but could not touch. It was unattainable in my eyes.

I used to envy the boys that had money and used to eat constantly from the canteen.

Sometimes they would share a morsel with me. 

I would feel extremely sorry for myself.

And feel ashamed of the sandwiches which I brought from home that my poor mom made every morning.

Two slices of bread. With Jam or pol sambol or seeni sambol and boiled egg.

It was spicy. It was homemade. It was fresh.

And most importantly made with love.

Attributes that I was blind to.

Till I met some classmates many years later.

They were the kids who used to eat from the canteen all the time.

We were chatting and reminiscing about our school days. 

When one of them said. “You know we were so envious of the food you used to bring from home. Whilst we had to eat from the canteen”.

“Your food looked so good”.

I resented the fact that I had to bring my food from home.

They resented the fact they could not bring food from home.

The grass is definitely greener on the other side.

Protests, Strategy and Pablo Escobar

 

I loved Narcos, the story about the life of Pablo Escobar on Netflix.

Escobar unleashed a lot of violence wanting the Colombian government to bend to his will.

But they did not budge.

Till one day someone told him that you need to hit them (The government MP’s) where it hurts.

And that is exactly what he did.

He started kidnapping and harming the children and the grandchildren of those who were in power.

Suddenly the entire government was putty in his hands.

They were so afraid that they let him build his own luxury prison, in a location chosen by him, guarded by his own thugs.

The government forces could not come within a couple of kilometers of this so-called prison.

It was more like a party palace surrounded by high-security fencing and guard posts.

That is the power of hitting someone where it hurts.

And I see similar thinking in play in the current Go Home Gota protests we see in Sri Lanka.

For instance, people protesting outside GR’s son's house. Even though it was short-lived. There is a fine of 10,000 Dollars for doing this kind of thing in Los Angeles.

Then there was the letter to NRs wife. A letter that made my blood curdle as it was written with so much venom and anger.

I also saw a call for all the black magicians to come together to create the mother of all spell casting ceremonies. A virtual wood stock of spells, curses, and all things evil. I am not sure if it was real or a joke.

If it was real, then they would have definitely taken note of it.

Because we have all seen the red threads adorning the wrists of politicians on all sides.

Plus all the little paraphernalia of charms and gadgets which they carry for good luck and protection.

However, the best piece of strategy I saw had nothing to do with Escobar.

It was to do with Rory Sutherland who said that the complete opposite of a good idea is not necessarily a bad idea, and can turn out to be a great one. This was with reference to the fact that the only beverage which successfully competed with coke during the past decade, was not another cola but Red Bull.

Anyway, this happened during a protest at the Peradeniya campus. The police had set up barricades. They were expecting the students to push against the barricades. Instead of pushing, they pulled. Running away with the barricades. Much to the surprise and the anguish of the police.

I for one am delighted to see so much instinctual strategy in play at ground level. Even though this is just the beginning and there is much more to come.

At first I laughed and then I was impressed.

I saw a lot of people ridiculing this poster encouraging people to take selfies whilst getting the vaccine.

In fact, I too thought it was quite silly and funny at first.
It was only later on, that it struck me that this was a masterpiece of behavioral psychology in action.
In fact, I think it is quite a bold and forward-thinking step by the ministry of health or whoever thought of it, to come up with such a novel idea.
I am quite sure by encouraging selfies whilst being vaccinated will contribute immensely to reduce vaccine hesitancy and scare amongst a lot of people. Kudos to whoever that came up with this brilliant piece of communication and had the balls to execute it knowing that most people might misunderstand the intention.

Easier Done than Said

The purpose of an army is to fight the enemy and protect their country. They are trained to fight and be tough in any circumstances.

However, the Sri Lankan Army had to do an about-face when it came to the battle against covid 19. They were at the forefront of our vaccination drive. 

And I was lucky enough to get my vaccine from a vaccination center managed and operated by the Sri Lankan army.

I was expecting to be treated with a certain degree of gruffness. To have commands shouted at me. Like they do to young trainees in the movies. But all I saw was absolute kindness, gentleness, and caring by everyone. 

From the soldier standing guard outside, carrying a menacing machine gun, to the persons who were directing and registering the people coming in, and the medical staff on duty. Never have I seen such clockwork-like precision, efficiency, and dedication.

It took me less than thirty minutes to go in and come out. It would have been even shorter if not for me taking the time to fill out the consent form. I was impressed that they even had a box full of pens that we could use if we had forgotten to bring our own pen, which I had.

I have not been a big fan of most of the things which this government has been doing even though I voted for them. Best out of the bad lot as I say. But I must say in this instance they are doing something right. And we need to applaud the good with equal intensity as we criticize the bad.

Post Hoc Ergo Procter Hoc

If you have studied logic then this phrase would be familiar to you.

If not, it means, after this, therefore, because of this in Latin.

It is also a term used to describe when people connect two unrelated articles to arrive at a conclusion.
For instance, a black cat crossed the road in the morning and therefore I had an accident later on.
I scored less in the exam because I forgot to wear my lucky shirt.
I am sure you can think of many such incidents in your life.
I witnessed one such incident on a global scale recently.

When it came to the news of Ronaldo bringing down the share price of Coca-Cola.
I really do not need to elaborate more as you are bound to have heard about this unless you are living under a rock.
Social Media was ablaze with people quoting, tweeting, and doing TikTok's about this.
In fact, some friends called me just to share the news.
From board rooms to Newsrooms people were discussing intently the might of the influencer. 

The power of social media. And of course David Vs Goliath and similar tales of such ilk.
Even I joined the bandwagon.
Then something odd caught my eye. Even though the graphs that were being shown and the figure of 4 BILLION DOLLARS made it look like a large amount of money; if you take a closer look, the price reduction was just 90 cents or 1.6%.
Which is not much, when it comes to a day's trading.
And then I came across this article in the Forbes Magazine which explained things in detail. Let me quote from the article.
"It is true that Ronaldo, in front of the press, declined to drink the strategically-placed Coca-Colas on offer. It is also true that, by the time the press conference was over, Coca-Cola’s value was down $4 billion. However, there were other factors affecting the beverage giant’s stock price."
Coca-Cola has 4.3 billion shares, and closed on Friday, June 11, with a share price of $56.16 for a market value of $242 billion.
On Monday, June 14, Coca-Cola opened lower, at 9:30 a.m. EST.
At 9:40 a.m. EST, its stock price was $55.26 (down 1.6%) and the market value had dipped to $238 billion, $4 billion lower than the prior day.
Cristiano Ronaldo moves the Coca-Cola bottles at 9.43 a.m. EST, and says “Água”.
In other words, Ronaldo's action did not have any effect on the stock price.
In fact, it was a natural price movement as Coca-Cola had just finished paying dividends to its shareholders thus making the share less attractive.
But some of us are prone to believe what we would like to believe.
So much so there is a phrase for it. Confirmation Bias.
But in the end, all it was is a classic case of "Post Hoc Ergo Procter Hoc".

Can you actually prevent people from drinking by banning liquor sales?

So everyone was agog with excitement when it was announced that the Ministry of Finance has given the go-ahead for online liquor sales.

However, within the next couple of hours, their hopes were dashed when our not-so-loved Army commander stated that the Covid Prevention task force has not given permission to do so.

There were several other groups who were vociferously against this as well. For various reasons of their own.

But the important question to ask is are they actually preventing people from drinking?

The answer is a resounding No.

Those who drink will still drink. By hook or by crook. If it's not booze bought at black market prices then it will be moonshine.

I was watching an interview online with the Commissioner-General of Excise. He stated that the banning of liquor sales was a double-edged sword.

On one side the government is losing much-needed revenue. On the other side, there will be an additional strain on our already stretched medical services due to Alcohol poisoning as more and more people turn to Moonshine.

Anyway, I have always been puzzled by our society's and thereby our government's attitude towards alcohol.

Why are we trying to control it so much? What is our problem with it?

Of course, I don't mean that alcohol should be given freely to youngsters. I believe that a more moderate stance should be taken where we promote responsible drinking instead of these fanatical arbitrary measures. Even in India who I thought was far more fanatical than we are, one can order and have liquor delivered to your home.

If an adult wants to purchase a bottle of alcohol why should so many obstacles be placed on his way.

I said he and not she intentionally.

Because even in these modern times it is illegal for a female to purchase alcohol. Yes, the law was removed but then it was reintroduced 4 days later.

Fortunately, the law is not enforced. Other than bringing us international shame it looms over us like a sword of Damocles to be used by some unscrupulous law enforcement authority to violate human rights.

Some are against the sale of liquor saying it deteriorates our social fabric. That alcohol leads to violence and abuse.

I do not deny that. Of course, there are more than a few instances where we have seen inebriated people resort to violence.

But does that mean ALL those who drink behave in such an irresponsible manner? No!

Then why punish the whole for the mistakes of a few?

My personal point of view is Alcohol does not CAUSE social issues. But people are lead to drink BECAUSE of the social issues they face.

Others say it is because of our Buddhist Heritage.

Again, if we followed the principles of Lord Buddha, then we should stop drinking on our own accord. Instead of being forced to do so.

In non-lockdown times during Poson liquor sales would be banned for 5 days.

Does it stop anyone from drinking? No, people just stock up, as you can see from the lines outside the liquor stores during pre-poya days.

And the worst is those who enact these laws do not practice what they preach. As we saw recently when the Sathosa outlet in Anuradhapura was forced open, apparently by the army and 8000 bottles of liquor were "Bought".

In the end, all this is nothing but pious posturing. To impress who? I am yet to figure it out.

Why aren't the so-called representatives of the people making some noise about the downside of the liquor ban?

Well, one main reason is that when liquor is sold through the official channels, it is the government coffers that get filled. However, when it is sold illegally it is the pockets of the black marketers and Kassippu Mudalali's that are getting filled. They are the same people who will fund the political campaigns of our representatives when it comes to election time.

Frustrating much? It sure is for me. I need a drink to make it all go away. 

Want to stop people shitting all over you?

Then the first thing is to stop them climbing over your head.
This was the train of thought in a conversation I had recently on how to deal with bullies.
Bullies come in many forms. Not necessarily the type who push you around or say bad things at you when you were young. They could be in the form of friends colleagues or even relations. One thing about bullies is that they will keep exerting pressure till you snap. The more you yield the more pressure they will exert.
Sadly many of us don't realize this. We allow the bully to exert more and more pressure on us hoping they will stop at a certain point. But they never do and they never will. Then when finally the damn bursts the collateral damage is quite bad. Relationships are shattered as egos are hurt and sometimes the pieces will never be able to be put back together once more.
However their is an alternative to avoiding extensive collateral damage. That is to resist right at the beginning when you realize someone is bullying you. By nipping things in the bud you can turn your bullies into faithful allies. It has happened to me.
The more I think about it the analogy of not allowing people to climb on top of your head makes sense in this kind of situation.
Because when they are on top of your head and you push them off then the fall to the ground and the consequences are far more damaging. It is far more easier and far less damaging to brush them off when they are clamoring around your ankles.

Have you heard of the Insulin Index?

If you are like me it is highly likely that you have not.
And like me if you have been trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle and reduce weight I am quite sure you might be quite familiar with the Glycemic Index or "GI" as we all know it.
I used to follow the GI quite religiously and eat a lot of proteins and egg whites thinking I was being healthy.
Then I came across this video by Dr. Eric Berg on Youtube which quite literally turned my world upside down.
What I realized was that certain low GI foods can be as bad as high GI foods. Because they too can trigger insulin.
For instance weigh protein, Beef and Egg whites all trigger insulin in your system. Which means it is really not helping you to loose weight. The only way to reduce its Insulin creating capability is to mix it with good fat such as butter or coconut oil or the yolk when it comes to eggs.
Now I know some of you who have been throwing away the nice, juicy pieces of fat in your meats must be banging your heads in absolute frustration. Do not despair.
Because if you are like me and love all things "bacon" then you will be delighted to know that that is one of the few foods which is really low on the Insulin Index. Yeah!

Do you know what a wake lock is?

I did not think so. Neither did I to be honest.

Until quite recently when my trusty Samsung note 4 started acting up. It suddenly started lagging or going into standby mode and not waking up. It also used to restart automatically at the most crucial moments. Leaving me helpless in the middle of a client call or whilst wanting to order a cab in a hurry.
I wiped the cache. Did a factory reset. Not once but maybe a dozen of times to no avail. After much suffering I realized that it was not necessarily something wrong with my phone; it could be something wrong with the software. And I was right. After going through some of the android forums I found that there were many Note 4 users who were experiencing the same thing as I was thanks to the the marshmallow 6 update.
Fortunately one particular post I was reading talked about a wake lock. Which turned out to be a simple piece of software which prevents the phone from going into standby mode. I must confess that the description of the google play page and the screen captures of GUI really did not give me any confidence. Mainly because it is described as a power manager (which reads as battery saver in my non tech eyes) However I took a leap of faith and installed the software. And it did the trick.
What relief! I must admit that my phone was not 100% back to normal. Maybe it was back to 80% of what it was. But that was good enough for me. It gave me the freedom to bide my time in getting a new phone instead of having to rush into it in emergency mode.
I am so grateful for that single article about the wake lock. I am sure there must be thousands of others who are experiencing the same problem I did and I sincerely hope that you come across this article and it helps you to come up with a decent solution.

Sunsets, Cocktails and Solitude

It is 5.30 in the evening. You are seated by the sea.

The wind blows through your hair. The sound of waves gently slapping against the rocks gives you a strange sense of comfort.

You take a sip of a delicious cocktail and heave a sigh of relief as you feel the days stress evaporate off your body whilst your eyes feast on a magnificent sunset. 

You smile contentedly to yourself knowing that this is a luxury only you will enjoy and that there is no one else around to disturb your peace.

Sounds quite amazing doesn't it?
Somehow I thought to enjoy this kind of experience one would have to go out of town. Maybe deep down south on a non mercantile holiday. But to my delight I discovered that one could immerse ones self in such an experience in the heart of the city.
At the Sea Spray sea food restaurant of the Galle Face Hotel.
Their is a high probability you might not have heard of it. 

The Sea Spray restaurant is a poor imitation of  Kingsbury's Ocean and Cinnamon Grands Lagoon. They might fall short on quality but one thing they have over the others is an amazing sea view slap bang by its side.
Those few who have heard of it know it as a some what popular dining destination.
Only a tiny minority know that the restaurant opens their bar at 5 in the evening so that you can sit on the terrace and sip  a cocktail enjoying a picture post card view of a stunning sun set.
Sadly their kitchen opens only at 7 so you really don't have anything substantial to munch on, other than the few bread fruit chips which they place on your table. Sadly they were not in a position to deliver food from the coffee shop or main kitchen when I asked them if they would do so.
It is indeed a shame. 

But this is just a tiny irritant when compared to the total wow of the experience you are getting.  For the price of a single drink at that.
Now that you have heard about it I am sure you are wanting to go and check it out. Please do. But do me a favour? Don't tell anyone else about it. Lets keep it our little secret.

Zilch

What do you give a woman?

A woman who has everything?

Everything... except

Love, care and tenderness

You can't buy it off the shelf

You cannot order it off ebay, Amazon or takas dot lk

You can't wrap it up....

Or have it presented in a wicker basket...

With babies breath, assorted greenery and a quaint little card made of recycled paper...

No you can't pour it into a bottle...

Not even the fancy ones with divine shapes and vibrant colors

With spray nozzlez on top which they call atomizers...

Winnie the poo said it is a feeling...

I am sure you consider that thought is appealing

But I am gallantly searching

How to catch;

bottle or wrap?

The tenderness of a gentle kiss on ones forhead

The warmth of a long hug which goes beyond minutes

the soft texture of lips on skin

But so far

All I have come up with....

is zilch.