Chairman of Selectors

When I first heard Sanath Jayasuriya was appointed as the chairman of selectors of Sri Lankan cricket, I shook my head partly in disbelief and partly in disappointment. Sanath was a great cricketer (in his day). But he seems to have now turned into this horrible politician who is intend on meddling in the one sport we are good at. What if he selects himself into the team?

But then I read this wonderful blog by Andrew Hughes on cricinfo.

http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/thelonghandle/archives/2013/01/dont_give_up_the_day_job_sanat.php

Andrew is right. Perhaps it is a blessing in disguise. Better to screw-up cricket than the country's economy.

At the movies

I wanted to go see “Skyfall” despite the bad reviews I have seen. There is nothing like a Saturday afternoon spent watching a bit of ‘007’ action. Come to think of it, I have never heard of a bond movie spy with a number greater than ‘009’. Why is the prefix ‘00’ then I wonder?

Anyway, I called up the dialog movie ticketing line for some hassle free ticket purchase. Alas, they only cover ‘EAP cinemas’ I was told by the slightly irritated female voice on the other side. What was I thinking? Surely I should have known that? My bad.

I don’t have 3G on my outdated mobile phone and going to the internet on that is a nightmare. Didn’t feel like booting up my computer – I would have to get up from this comfy position on the couch to do that – why am I even considering that?

I’ll take the plunge and go to the cinema. Even if the movie is in 3 hours that will give me some time to browse through at the bookstore or at the computer/tech crazy joints next door to the cinema. Yes, as you can tell, I am a pretty brave sorta’ guy.

I reached the ‘city that is majestic’, and took the elevator to the top floor. I was pleasantly surprised, large brand-new white tiled air conditioned space just for the ticketing counters and snack-bars on the opposite side. I blinked hard as I stepped out of the elevator in disbelief. This is indeed a far cry from the cinema I came to a few months back to watch Spidy in 3D. Where was the BO? Where were the snaking queues engulfing every pillar going down the staircase? This is certainly a refreshing change.

I walked up to the ticket counter. There were 3 guys behind the 3 counters but none of them were even remotely interested in me. After much hand waving (y’see the glass between us seem to muffle my voice as none of my repeated ‘excuse-me’s reached their ears), finally I got one of them asking me ‘Yes? Can I help?’. You certainly can my boy, “What time is the next screening of sky-fall?” I asked. “It’s at 1.30 and 1.45” he said. Wow, I only have to wait another 30 minutes – what timing! The show must have been playing for a while, no one else is here.

But then the guy tells me “But sir, you have to stay in the queue till we issue tickets at 1.15”. Hello? What queue? The place is empty! “What do you mean queue?” I asked. Then I was directed at a door which led to a staircase going downstairs. When I opened the door, it hit me like the heat that hits you when you step out of an airplane at Katunayake Tarmac. There is a freaking queue after all – complete with BO!

Beautifying Colombo

There is a massive effort put on cleaning up and beautifying Colombo city and it’s suburbs. I think it is great. Certain areas have transformed and looks pretty slick now. People have also taken to it like ducks to water and have come out in droves to enjoy newly built parks, waterfronts and walkways. We see more people engaging in morning and evening walks and generally having a good time.

This is all great. But there is room for improvement. Firstly, I cringe at wasted effort and money I see being put into the area near parliament roundabout/waters edge. For some reason the landscape designer involved can’t seem to make up his/her mind – the area is being built/cleared up/rebuilt at least five times in the last 12 months. I hope this is an isolated case. Anyway, they really should plan properly before they bring in the builders.

Lack of maintenance?

Secondly, maintenance. I worry about this. I really do. Already I have seen broken down structures, signboards and marking that are left un-replaced. Neatly manicured lawns and grass fields left unattended growing weeds and going bald in patches. I wish the authorities would consider maintenance not just as an afterthought but right at the time of initial planning.

However, full points to the authorities for trying and succeeding to a great extent in making Colombo more livable. I hope this trend will continue and will become sustainable too.

Trishaw wisdom

Earth Hour 2012

Image from www.earthhour.lk

Let's switch off as many electrical appliences as possible on Saturday 31st March from 8.30pm to 9.30pm.

Visit http://www.earthhour.lk/

(C)orporate (S)ocial (R)esponsibility

CSR has been a buzz-word (or a buzz-acronym) in the last few years in such that it had become almost fashionable to be able to belong to one. Despite it being unceremoniously brandished about, it is serious business – or at least it should be. Anyone who has gotten involved with a proper CSR effort would know how effective it can be as a tool in contributing to the society in a multitude of ways.

While the company I work for has done quite a bit of CSR projects in the past few years, my first hands-on involvement was in February. We travelled to Oddusunde (in Wanni region) and helped build 51 houses in a village that was decimated by war few years back. While most of it was hard and backbreaking labour, it was nothing compared to troubles those villagers have gone through during the war, and the hardship they are going through now trying to rebuild their shattered lives with nothing but a few pieces of meager belongings.

Picture by Subhash Edirisinghe

Despite losing so much, it is heartening to see the resilience of the villagers. It was easily the most satisfying effort put in by me in the recent past. It is so addictive, that I will probably volunteer next time the opportunity arises as well.

Crates or Sacks?

If you are living in Sri Lanka, you would definitely be aware of the major commotion related to the change in laws for transporting vegetables. Most seem to think the intention behind enforcing such a law is good, but the process of planning and implementing is poor.

On one side, the farming community (including the middle-man, or should I say middle-person?) are trying to save every cent to maximize profit. On the other side we seem to have a minister who is not willing to compromise having being frustrated by delays in enforcing the law and also smarting from a slightly bruised ego.

I quite like the article below (if you ignore the political brownie points it seems to be trying to score). Looks like this Harsha dude knows what he is talking about (at least in this instance).

http://www.lbo.lk/fullstory.php?nid=1755694470

So what is your take on this? A country like India seems to be wasting as much as 40% of veggies during transportation and storage. I believe it is much less here in Sri Lanka. Nevertheless, will crates save a considerable amount of wastage as indicated by the minister? Or is he just trying to get rid of some plastic items probably offloaded to us by our big brother China? Do the farmers have solid reasons to oppose such a law? Or are they just resisting change just for the sake of it?

Let's have your say friends....

Colombo Election

I can almost hear all the Sri Lankans out there sighing with disgust at the mention of the word “election”. But why don’t we like them? Is it because they are more frequent in Sri Lanka than the chances of garbage collecting man turning up? Or perhaps there are more candidates than the number of bees in a bee-hive? Or even maybe because none of the candidates come up with a proper election manifesto? Not to forget the likelihood of selected candidate swapping sides soon after the result,… I am sure you get my point here.

But to me, this election is slightly different. At least I see it in a different perspective - mainly because I got some insights into some of the candidates. It made it a wee bit interesting.

• For one thing, most candidates seem to be online these days. They promote their campaigns on facebook, twitter and through their own websites and blogs. Perhaps the election laws prohibiting the usual “election poster” has resulted in this exodus to the internet.
• Banning the election poster is one thing, but enforcing it is another. Although the posters are being taken down by police, more new ones get pasted at the same places by the next morning. I reckon what you need is the ability to financially penalize or even disqualify a candidate instead of merely tearing down their poster.
• Then there are these crafty ways to get around the advertising ban. Y’see, apparently the ban is on advertising “Vote for this number”. So some candidates advertise websites that include their number and the “cross” (sign for voting). There are also candidates who organize events (like musical shows) on the day that match their number (ie. someone with number 20 would organize a musical show on the 20th of the month). And advertise in bold letter the organizer’s name (which happens to be the candidate) and the date of the event (which is their number). Too bad if your number is greater than 31.
• Just got to know about a certain candidate who had come out with a poster indicating that he was rubbing shoulders with the president at a certain prestigious international event. But the truth of the matter seems to be that he was neither with the president nor at this event – it was a hoax with a bit of photoshop involved.
• Out of all the people, the “mudalali” at my local grocery shop is also a candidate this time. It takes him a considerable amount of time to figure out the change when I purchase anything from that shop. So he is not the brightest I have met. But then again, level of intellect or qualifications doesn’t seem to be a prerequisite for this job.

Few days back the postman delivered my voting documents together with a large sheet of paper. The paper listed out all the candidates. There were 11 groups and 26 candidates in every group. Making it 286 candidates in total. Last time I checked, population of Colombo city was less than 650,000. That is one candidate for every 2,200. To put it in perspective, my school (which had 5,000 students) would have produced 2 election candidates.

All this may be interesting but doesn’t encourage me to get off the sofa and go to the polling booth. After all there will be two interesting world cup (rugby) matches on the 8th.

No nonsense Traffic Cop

This is a brilliant capture I recently received on email. Thought you all might enjoy it.

Southern Highway – would you dare?

Now that the opening up of southern highway is just around the corner, a few of us at work have been contemplating when it would be “safe” to get on it. The estimates varied. Here is a summary.

At least after the first 6 months : Reason being that the moment it opens up, there will be a flood of morons who would try to taste what it would be like to legally drive at 100kmph – assuming that it would be very different to doing the same illegally as they have done since getting behind a vehicle for the first time. The only silver lining here is that it will probably eliminate some of these brain-cell-challenged-maniacs – probably a few offspring of some ministers together with their expensive duty-free rides. I just hope they won’t take a few innocent folks with them when they go.

In the first 6 months and then from 18 months onwards : Essentially stay away from the road 12 months after the first 6 months. The argument here is that during the first 6 months, sanity will prevail and people will hopefully take it slow – what this being a new thing and all. After that they will slowly gain confidence and try to push the limits. “If 100kmph is legal, what’s the fun in driving at that?”. This will last for about 12 months until authorities wake up and start putting cops behind trees with speed guns, sniper guns and bribe collecting tins.

Never, infact take the Galle road : Two reasons for this. First is that our drivers don’t use their indicate lights for a toss and the break-lights don’t work on most vehicles that were made two years or earlier – and as my friend rightfully pointed out, at 100kmph both those mistakes can often be fatal. The second reason being that most morons out there would have started using the new highway. Galle road will become relatively moron-free.

Personally, I will adopt a wait-and-see policy on this.

Sri Lankan specials!

This sign-board was seen by the side of the road on the way to Trincomalee. It translates to "Freshwater fish (from the lakes) with warm rice". Mouth-watering stuff.